Decorating a style stone

I have had a set of style stones for quite a while, and I recently had a brainstorm about what to finally do with them. I love it when I find a use for something that I've had in my stash for a long time. First, I need to decorate them.

This is a blank style stone with a natural finish. It has an etched shell on it, but you can also buy stones that are smooth. This particular stone was from a Club Scrap kit. It's no longer available, but there are similar ones available from Clearsnap.

First, I rubbed a gold metallic ink into the surface. I used the dropper to add ink to the etched areas, and used a q-tip and cloth to rub the ink around and off. My goal was to completely coat the etched areas, but not necessarily get any ink on the surface of the stone. I used Club Scrap's metallic reinkers for this. After this step, I used my heat gun to dry the ink.

Next, I used a small pigment ink pad from Stampin' Up to tap and rub ink on the surface. I also heat embossed after this step. As long as you don't pound the ink pad into the surface, you won't disturb the gold in the etched portion. I really like these cube pads that Stampin' Up sells. It's an affordable way to get a nice wide range of pigment inks.

I inked the top with a green ink, and the sides with a burgundy. I liked the colors, but thought it needed a little more texture. I took a script stamp from Club Scrap and a brown ink to stamp on top. Here is the finished stone!
I'll continue this story as I work on the next steps in the project. Thanks for taking a look!