Susan's Technique Birthday Tag #2

Each month a group of my stamping friends get together to celebrate birthdays & September is Susan's birthday month. She was not able to attend our Technique Tags Tim Holtz Style get together at The Craft Shack in September so instead of a traditional birthday card I decided to make her technique cards in the form of a birthday tag. I'm so glad she was thrilled to be able to add them to her idea-ology worn binder notebook!

In September we revisited Tim's 12 tags of 2016 from February when he had done the monoprint technique from June 2014 & the embossed texture paste technique from March 2015.

The embossed texture paste technique is just a little more involved & I have to say this is one of my favorites! I'll tell you what I did but I suggest you follow the link above to Tim's instructions.

I randomly placed a few small pieces of symphony tissue tape on a #8 manilla tag to create a little more interest. To create the background, I put abandoned coral, seedless preserves & twisted citron paint on a craft sheet, spritzed it with water then swiped & tapped the tag into the paint. I spritzed the tag again before drying between layers & dabbed off any excess ink until I achieved the look I wanted. The tissue tape will resist the paint & show through the paint. Remember once the paint is dry its pernment so clean it up right away.

Once the paint was completely dry, I stamped "happy birthday" from Handwritten Sentiments then masked it before stamping images from Classics 1, Classics 3, & Classics 4 in jet black archival ink.

The images were stamped again on masking paper & cut out to cover anything I didn't want to be covered with embossing texture paste.

I sprayed the back of the Gradient Dot Stencil with Pixie Spray to hold the stencil in place & placed if over the masked tag. This has a very light tack & clean off nicely.

The embossing paste was spread evenly over the stencil & then the stencil was carefully lifted off. The stencil & palette knife need to be cleaned right way.

The embossing paste was immediately covered with gold embossing powder with the excess removed & put back in the jar. The project was set aside while the embossing paste dried. Once it was dry, it was heated to melt the embossing powder. If the embossing paste isn't dry it will crack & the white embossing paste will show through the gold.

That's pretty must it.

Check out her other "birthday card"!

Susan's Technique Birthday Tag #1

Each month a group of my stamping friends get together to celebrate birthdays & September is Susan's birthday month.  She was not able to attend our Technique Tags Tim Holtz Style get together at The Craft Shack in September so instead of a traditional birthday card I decided to make her technique cards in the form of a birthday tag.  I'm so glad she was thrilled to be able to add them to her idea-ology worn binder notebook!

In September we revisited Tim's 12 tags of 2016 from February when he had done the monoprint technique from June 2014 & the embossed texture paste technique from March 2015.

The monoprint technique is a very easy technique using distress inks, water & a stencil on watercolor paper.  I'll tell you what I did but I suggest you follow the link above to Tim's instructions.

The mini ink cubes work best for this technique.  I used peacock feathers, squeezed lemonade & ripe persimmon to ink the back of gradient square stencil.  Tim suggests inking the back of the stencil in the event words, etc. are used that need to face a certain way.

Generously mist the inked stencil with water then lay it on the smooth side of the distress watercolor-paper.  Cover with a paper towel & press down on the surface so the ink absorbs into the watercolor paper.  Lift the stencil & dry with a heat tool.

To finish it off, I stamped "happy birthday" from Handwritten Sentiments then masked it before I stamped an images from Classics 1, Classics 3, & Classics 4  in jet black archival ink.  It was then added to a #8 kraft tag.

That's it!!  Easy peasy!

Check out her other "birthday card"!

Christmas Thoughts

This card was a project for my SU party & was really easy to make!  I try to do a technique I haven't done before & I found the crimped diamond technique by Lee Conrey on SCS.  I used Cherry Cobbler & Crumb Cake cardstock which are 2 of my favorite colors.  The sentiment is from White Christmas stamp set & stamped in Basic Black.  The pine bow is from Wonderland stamp set & I used Garden Green & Early Espresso markers to ink the stamps.  The red twine is retired & the sentiment panel is popped up using dimensionals.  I almost forgot the most important tool...the crimper!!  All the supplies are from Stampin' Up except the crimper & the bling.

Hope you give this one a try & TFL!

Celebrate with Flowers

For the August technique class at The Craft Shack I wanted to do something different & found a tutorial on SCS by Mary Dimercurio Prasad called Faux Glass Flowers.  I was a little nervous at first (or afraid I'd burn my fingers) but thought I'd give it a try.  I made flowers but I also saw a few samples with butterflies in the SCS gallery & I think dragonflies would be pretty too.

I followed Mary's tutorial by using Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals Die but instead of plastic packaging I used a sheet of Clear Scraps Acrylic  which is a little heavier.  I made several flowers using cranberry & sunshine yellow alcohol ink on two of them and purple twilight & sunshine yellow (sparingly) on the other two.  I also used a small  amount of pearl mixative & a little blending solution to move the colors around.  To get the effect I wanted I went over it a few times adding a few more drops of ink each time.  Once dried I stamped half of them with a dot background & the other half with a script background in StazOn black ink.  I used a sponge dauber to add a little StazOn to the edges.  Once dry, I held the flowers with tweezers & doing 1 or 2 petals at a time, held them in front of my heat tool until I could see the petal start to move.  I pulled it away & gently curled it until it was where I wanted it.  CAUTION - do not get your fingers in front of the heat gun or you will burn them!  If you don't like how they look you can re-heat & shape again.  To finish the flowers off, I placed a drop or 2 of sunshine yellow ink directly on the pearl brad & clear gem then placed them in the center of the flowers.  I layered the larger flowers by adding the brad using a hole reamer & added the gems using a couple of glue dots on the smaller flowers.

To finish the card, I used my Misti to stamp "celebrate" from Tim Holtz's Handwritten Sentiments in black Memento.  Then I masked the word with a piece of torn copy paper & again using my Misti stamped SU Brushstrokes in peeled paint & lightly sponged the edges in the same ink.  The leaves are die cut from Tim Holtz's Garden Greens in SU Old Olive & sponged with peeled paint.  I then placed the leaves & small flower on the SU Elegant Eggplant base.

Fun technique but definitely a card that you would hand deliver.  It would also be neat in a shadow box, a jewelry project or even a little girl's headband!

TFL!!

Sending You...

I just love Jennifer McGuire's Faux Dimension with Stamps & Stencils Technique!  I did this for a birthday card in June but this time I taught it in a technique class at The Craft Shack.  Each month TCS offers classes using different techniques which includes making a 6X6 technique card with written instructions & a sample plus a finished project.  I won't give you detailed instructions here only what I used but you can click on the link above to watch Jennifer's video.

First I stamped the SU Whisper White card front with a sentiment from WPlus9 Sending, Hoping, Wishing (it has matching dies too!) in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink & VersaMark using a Mini Misti.  The Misti is perfect for this technique.  No need to move the stamps, just the card stock.  Then I lightly applied Stormy Sky Distress Ink.  This photo doesn't do the color justice...it's much more vibrant.  I used Tim Holtz's Flourish Stencil with more Stormy Sky Ink for tone on tone & topped it off with ColorBox Frost White Pigment Ink.  The Flourish Stencil is  really neat because it's repeats so even though it isn't wide enough to cover a card front you can move it to line it up!  I added small hearts from the SU 3 Heart Punch.  The card base is SU Pacific Point cardstock. The middle layer is SU Whisper White cut using 2 dies from Spellbinders Pierced Rectangles which is a set of 6.  The outer die will cut 5 1/4 X 4 & the inner die makes a pierced border.  Oh & I even ironed the embossing off!!

This really is not as hard as it looks (or sounds!).  I would recommend giving it a try & maybe use 2 ink colors.  

TFL!

Flowers & Butterflies

What could be better this time of year than flowers & butterflies?  This month The Craft Shack offered a technique class for partial die cutting.  This is something I have always wanted to learn & saw a couple of videos by Jennifer McGuire so the class was planned around them.  In class, everyone receives written instructions & makes a sample to put on a 6X6 technique card plus they make a card following the technique. Although the concept is the same for both techniques there are slight differences.

This card has one layer so I used a heavy white card stock cut 8 1/4 X 4 1/4 with a finished size of approx. 5 X 4 1/4.  Following Jennifer McGuire's technique On-the-Edge Die Cutting, the flowers are stamped from Sweet 'n Sassy's Flowers in Bloom Stamp Set in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink using a Misti.  I then partially cut the top flower using the coordinating die set.   The stems were short so I used a marker to draw lines to the bottom of the card then colored everything using Tombow Markers.  I accented the brown flower centers with Gold Wink of Stella. The jar & sentiment are from a Papertrey Ink stamp set called Friendship Jar.  I added 1/4" strips of paper from Sizzix Little Sizzles Watercolors paper pack on each side & put Glossy Accents on the jar.  After the glossy accents dries I would recommend lining the inside with another piece of card stock if it warps. 

The second card is also one layer of heavy white card stock cut 8 1/2 X 5 1/2 then scored at 4 1/4. Following Jennifer McGuire's Off-the-Edge Die Cutting & Zig Zag Fold technique, the butterflies are stamped from Sweet 'n Sassy's New Beginnings Stamp Set in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink using a Misti. I then partially die cut the right side of the butterflies using the coordinating die set.  The butterflies were colored using Tombow Markers & I added a little shimmer with clear Wink of Stella. The thin washi tape on teach side is from LittleB & sequin was added using multi-medium matte & a pick-up tool.  The sentiments are from Everyday Miracles by Sweet 'n Sassy.

The only tip I have is once you position the card stock in your die cutting machine, use a little repositionable tape to hold the card stock in place.

Fun cards to make...hope you give it a try.  TFL!!

Two-tone & Rainbow Stamping Techniques

Hi everyone!  As the proud owner of a Mini Misti by My Sweet Petunia from The Craft Shack & a Jennifer McGuire fan (no relation) we decided to combine the 2 for the monthly technique classes at TCS.  Jennifer has several videos out using her Misti with different techniques so we decided to do Two-tone stamping & rainbow stamping.

This card was done to showcase two-tone stamping using the Party Balloons stamp set by My Favorite Things. Very simple technique using 2 colors.  Stamp the 1st color, & clean the stamp but DO NOT move it.  Select a 2nd color, ink the stamp, before stamping blot off some of the color using a tissue then stamp over top of the same image. This will create a shadow effect.  You can use the same shades of color or mix color families!  So many possibilities!

The best part of using this technique with the Misti (or really any stamping) is if you didn't get a solid image you can re-ink & stamp again!

"happy birthday" is cut from LittleB Handwritten Die Set which has 18 pieces!  I used various colors of Altenew Ink Cubes.  Love the cubes!

This card was done using the rainbow stamping technique (the balloon is two-tone stamping) with "happy" & "birthday" from the same MFT stamp set.  I used 3 colors but you could use 2 or as many as you want.  Start by placing the mask on the stamp at a diagonal, apply ink, remove the mask & stamp. Clean the stamp between each ink. Then mask the stamped area on the CS (leave a little exposed for blending), leave a white space for the 2nd color & mask the area where the 3rd color will go at a diagonal. Ink stamp with 2nd color, stamp, clean stamp. Mask 1st & 2nd stamped areas (again leaving a little exposed for blending), ink 3rd color & stamp!  Voila!!  There are so many possibilities with this technique.

The class had a chance to practice then make 6 X 6 technique cards with a sample & written instructions for future reference.  Then they made 2 cards using the techniques.






Both cards were done on white card stock & the cardbase is SU Pacific Point.

Hope you enjoyed my cards & TFL!!

Autumn Birthday

I decided to share some of my past projects on my blog as I have time.  2014 was the year of tags for the Gigglers so I did one for Susan's birthday because I know she loves tags.

The tag was dyed with coffee, vanilla & cinnamon then baked in the oven. I saw the technique by QueenBe Mixed Media Art  on Pinterest.

After adding the scent, I randomly stamped leaves from SU Faith in Nature with embossing ink then heat embossed with WOW Clear Embossing Powder.

Then I used a blending tool to apply small amount of Tim Holtz Dried Marigold Ink randomly over the tag.  I wiped the ink off of the embossed area with a tissue.

The leaves are silk & some were trimmed to match the embossed leaves then adhered to the tag.  To make the tag, I stamped a sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes (in 2 of 2), punched it out & placed it in a rim from the We R Memory Keepers Tag Maker. The twine is wrapped around the tag & holds the sentiment tag.

This tag smelled ssooo good!!

TFL!!

 

6X6 Technique Card - Watercolor Lifting & Heat Embossing

I made this 6X6 technique card for a local swap.  For the swap, we choose a technique, write up the instructions & put it on a pretty card.  This is a small swap & I only need to make 6 cards.  I'm not sure how many really use them or just collect them but they are cute!  I watched Jennifer McGuire's video (no relation...LOL) on this technique & thought it would make a great technique card.  Jennifer's video is wonderful but I'll show you what I did & didn't to right.

 

On this card, I used Tim Holtz Distressed Markers.  Jennifer used Tombow which I did try on another piece of CS.  I think both are pretty but each have a different effect.  Pictured are 2 shades of 2 colors but I think 1 color would be very pretty too.  I cut my watercolor paper a little bigger than what I needed. Using the brush end of your marker, color back & forth putting a lot of color on the watercolor paper.  I would recommend overlapping the color more than I did in this photo.


Once all the color was on, I wet my brush & went over the ink.  I keep wetting my brush & did use a lot of water.  I also flicked the water but should have mixed my colors a little more.  On this card I didn't overlap my ink as much so it didn't blend as much as I would have liked.  I didn't use this card because I didn't like the blocks of color.  Let the water air dry or hit it with a heat tool but it needs to be completely dry.

Before embossing you MUST use an anti-static tool over the entire card.  I used a patterned background stamp to stamp Versamark on the card then covered it with clear embossing powder & heat embossed it.  It's hard to see the pattern but you will after the next step.

The last step is brushing water over the card again & blotting it off with a paper towel.  This will remove more of the ink.  The embossed area is a resist & the ink trapped under the embossed area will be more vibrant.  If the colors on the unembossed area look washed out you can add more.



The "recipe" was printed on white card stock then trimmed to 5 3/4 X 5 3/4 & adhered to the 6X6 cardstock.  The sample of the technique is matted & adhered to the white cardstock.  I finished my technique card off with ribbon, flowers & a butterfly.

Hope you enjoyed the design of my technique card!



Supplies:  Cardstock-SU Pacific Point & Whisper White; Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Watercolor Paper; Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Markers-Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron, Broken China, Mermaid Lagoon; Misc-SU Pacific Point Grosgrain Ribbon, Floral Doodles Flowers, Oriental Traders Butterflies, WOW Clear Embossing Powder.