Shibori Technique Challenge

Julie posted a great tutorial on a technique to make shibori-style prints from tissue paper.  This technique is inspired by Club Scrap's April kit - Shibori.  I tried it out today and made these lovely cards.

The blue and purple were some spray mists that I love.  I wasn't completely happy with the color coverage on these, but by stamping in colors and black ink, I made some great backgrounds for cards.  I used my xyron to cover a piece of white card stock with adhesive and laid that on top of the tissue paper to give the tissue paper some stability for stamping.

I had a lot of fun with this technique, and made several more tissue paper strips after this.  I altered Julie's technique by spraying my tissue paper with water first before applying the sprays.  I hope to share more cards soon!

Suminagashi and Dahlia - marbled paper with stencils

Last weekend, I took a fabulous art class at the Copper Country Community Arts Center with visiting artist Pamela Olson.  She taught us the art of suminagashi - a japanese form of paper marbling.  At the end of the weekend, we were left with some fabulous pieces of marbled paper, and I decided to make cards!

This first card shows off the marbling. In suminagashi, the marbling is typically only black; here I've used two to create stripes of blue and black.

Because you are working on water with this marbling technique, the colors are very subtle, and you don't get the defined lines and shapes you might be familiar with in traditional marbled papers.  Here, I've used some papers in a grid pattern.

 Finally, I decided to see if I could colorize the paper.  I used my color bursts (I love the new Caribbean Brights set!) and saturated the paper with color.  Probably a little too much color...  Then, I used the Club Scrap Dahlia stencil with gesso died pink to create a bright flower.  I tried this technique with a molding paste, but was disappointed to learn it dried translucent.  I used some classic papers from Stratosphere and punches to finish off the card.

If you're interested in trying suminagashi, it's fun, and easy to clean up since it's water based! This kit has some colors to get you started, and sumi brushes are a great tool to use for applying the color.  If you remember back to the Pure and Simple kit, we received one then, or you can find them on Amazon.  Below is a video illustrating their basic use.

Color Burst Powders - quick and easy cards

When I at the Club Scrap retreat this year (registration for next year's is open now!), one of my favorite classes was with the delightful Tricia Morris.  She introduced us to color burst powders.

One technique we learned in class was to emboss a panel using an embossing folder, rub some oil pastels over the top, and then sprinkle with powders and spritz with water.

I love these classes because I learn a technique in Wisconsin, and then I bring the panels home to finish making the cards with my own stamps and embellishments.  Doesn't the white pigment ink look fabulous on the black paper?

In order to use the card design I wanted, I needed to trim a little off to make them "fit."  So, I had lots of strips left over.  I combined them into one panel to make yet another card. This card also uses the wonderful gold pigment ink Club Scrap introduced this year.

You can also combine the color burst powders with stencils and masks for some really great effects.

And, of course, you can just play with swiping up color from a craft mat, or sprinking to make fabulous backgrounds.  This was embellished with some classic stamps from Club Scrap.

As you go along, you create quite a mess.  It's great to have a piece of cardstock ready to swipe up all of that gorgeous color.  Then, you can make even more fabulous backgrounds for more cards. This text stamp is embossed in white on top of the color burst background, and this makes it just pop.

Come back on Saturday to see how these powders inspired me to play with the Watercolor Christmas stamps from Club Scrap!

Cantina Blog Hop - notebook for a fountain pen and cards

Thanks for joining me today on the Cantina blog hop which celebrates the July 2015 Club Scrap kit - Cantina!  I hope you enjoyed hopping over to my blog from Hetty - if you want to start at the beginning, check out the full list of bloggers over at Club Scrap.

The sunny orange in this kit is remarkably complementary to my new orange pen and notebook, so I decided to make this sweet little case to protect it and carry my pen with me.  It's hard to find a pre-made folio to hold these larger pens, so this is why I love that I can make my own!

When it's open, you can see the pen loop on the left hand side (since I'm a righty).  This is a very easy construction - just two pieces of book board separated by a 1/2 inch gutter. I decorated with a cutout from the Lite kit.

The notebook slides out of a pocket (my pocket tutorial is here - this pocket is 1/4 inch wider than the book height), and I glued a piece of ribbon behind the pocket first, so I would have a handy little place marker.

I've recently decided to dip into fountain pens (pun intended!), and the Lamy Al Star or Safari ones are my pen of choice for now, since they come in so many bright colors (orange, purple, blue/green, neon coral, and more!) and they are affordable.  Many also have matching ink colors, too.  The Clairefontaine notebooks are also reasonably priced, and work well with fountain pen inks.

At the end of the book project, I had some odd scraps left over, and decided to play with making some cards.  The Watercolor Blossoms stamp set from the 2013 retreat seemed perfect to try out Kay's watercolor technique with my gelatos.  I got out a big sheet of paper, and just started playing.  This image is under 4 inches tall, so you could cut your paper into strips to make it easier to work with.

As you can see, some turned out fabulous, and some did not.  There is a bit of a trick to making sure you have just enough water to activate the watercolors, but not so much that things get splotchy.  Some images are fixable - I used a brush after the fact to put some more color on the left hand blossom in this shot.

When all was said and done, I have a lot of floral panels to make sweet cards like this one for my neighbor.

Our next stop along the way is Dishing with Janet.  Hope you enjoyed my post and the entire hop!  Hope to see you next month.

London Calling - cards with british techniques

I really had a great time being a guest artist for Club Scrap with the London Calling Greeting to Go set.  You can see all of my finished cards on the Club Scrap blog.  I'm going to feature a few here with some extra details on the techniques.

I'm not actually part of the hop this month, so if you got lost along the way, check out Kay, who follows me when I participate!

My first technique features some cards made using a Lace' template:

I found these Lace' templates in a craft store somewhere in England.  For the first card, I taped the template to the light green cardstock, and cut around the outside and one side (a different template - not shown - was used for the second card).  I'm working on the backside of the card, and I've used the neon blue ink to stamp the text stamp to add some interest.

After trimming both sides, it looks like this.

Using a bone folder, I folded back the outer triangle and tucked it into the inner triangle.  It works best to have a nice contrast between the back and front, so I did darken up the back by using some darker ink and stamping more text.

I thought it needed a bit more embellishment, so I punched out some hearts, and added those in the empty spaces.

I traced around the template, and used a craft knife to cut a mat for the piece.  These particular templates are no longer being made, but the Cut, Fold, and Tuck dies from Spellbinders will do all of the cutting for you, making this a much easier project!

Many of the stamps in this kit have a great vintage feel to them, so I had a great time using some distress stains to make backgrounds for two of the card panels.  I just dabbed some distress stain in vintage photo, peeled paint, and broken china on a non-stick craft mat, sprayed with water, and swabbed up the color to make two panels.  I dropped water on the backgrounds and sprayed them a bit after drying to create a little more blending and texture.

I used a variety of images from the London Calling stamps to create the background, making sure to use different colors of distress ink (vintage photo and walnut stain) and to spray some of the images to create a bit of random fading and blurring.  I did use an ink blending tool and distress ink around the edges after this to create a nice ink frame around the panels.

I used the frame image from the kit to frame the sentiment.  I embossed the sentiment so I didn't need to worry about whether my image was dark enough to cover up the frame image.

I finished these up with embellishments from the kit for two gorgeous cards.  I love how they started out with the same techniques and colors, but still have a different feel to them.

My last British technique to share is decoupage.  You can find sheets of these in nearly every crafting store.  In America, the Paper Wishes company sells these as Paper Tole.  In England, the technique means to layer progressively smaller images on top of each other to create stunning depth in your cards.  Some stamps, like the one from the main collection sheet, also lend themselves to this technique.

Start by stamping your image on multiple pieces of paper.  My base image will be the blue image since the sky and water are blue (no coloring!).

I added a bit of gloss and shine to "London" by using a clear glue (like Glossy Accents) that was already died red.

For the second layer, I colored the postmark and the bridge.  I don't need to worry about staying in the lines, since I'll be cutting portions of the images out.  I wanted my big ben to be nice and bright in the front, so I didn't color the third image.

Next, trim your images out.  I didn't worry about trimming around the spikes on Big Ben.

Layer all of the images together using foam tape.  You can see the depth of the images here, with Big Ben two layer above the base of the card, but the bridge is only one layer up.

It doesn't take much to finish this card when you have such a fabulous focal image.

If you're not into the work of doing a scene, cutting out a single image and mounting it on foam tape can also be stunning.

The red coloring on the telephone booth and scattered dots in the background comes from a British product - Derwent's inktense blocks.  They are a permanent ink in a block form - you work with them like watercolors.  While wet, you can blend them, but once dry, they have a super intense color and are permanent.  This makes layering colors really interesting.  They also make them in pencil form. We toured the Derwent factory on our honeymoon (isn't my husband perfect to take me to crafty places on our vacations?), so their products hold a special place in my heart.

I hope you enjoyed my tour through some of the details on these cards, and that you have fun creating cards and works of art with the London Calling kit!

Misted Collaged Backgrounds | Club Scrap April 2013 Blog Hop

Welcome to the April Club Scrap blog hop, featuring the Spring Chorus kit.  I hope you enjoyed Roni's project and are looking forward to more inspiration for card making!

The blues and greens of this kit really inspired me to create some misted backgrounds with lots of water and stamps featuring natural images.

These cards are always unique. No two are ever quite the same.  I was also inspired by Tricia's art orphans, and Christine experimenting with mix'd media ink to play with my inks and stamps.

It's easier to show you how I made these, so I made a little video sharing my techniques and thoughts with you.
I hope this inspires you to "think spring" and use your mists to create some ephemeral backgrounds.  I still have three feet of snow on the ground in my yard, so I need all the help I can get with getting into the spring spirit!

Who can resist a card with a saying like this?

I hope you're enjoying the Club Scrap Blog Hop.  Next in our hop is the talented Deb at DebDuzScrappin.  If you missed anyone, or got lost along the way, please visit Club Scrap for the whole list of bloggers.

Supply list:

• White panels for misting from the Steppin' Out! kit - no longer available, but substitute any thick white paper of your choice.
• All other paper from the Spring Chorus collection
• Memories Mist by Stewart Superior - Blueberry Shake and Wheatgrass
• Hybrid ink from Club Scrap
• Just Dandy stamps from Club Scrap, along with assorted sentiments

All Things Paper - the book

I've got a big secret to tell today!  Ann Martin, the lovely lady who runs the All Things Paper blog, is publishing a book to be released on May 28, 2013.  Here is a sneak peek at the cover:

Even better - I'm one of the amazing artists who contributed one of the 20 projects!

How can you support the book and the fabulous artists in it?  I'm glad you asked!

1. Pre-order the book on Amazon.com - my preferred way to buy almost anything. It's only $10, and you'll get instructions and all the details on 20 amazing projects (including mine).  Your pre-orders will help more people see the book!
2. Like the All Things Paper page on facebook to follow the newest updates on the book direct from Ann.
3. Check out the All Things Paper blog - Ann features some amazing artwork, including me on occasion.

I had a lot of fun making my project. I can't share it with you now, but it features some new techniques in stamping and collage combined with my love of bookmaking.  You won't find the details for this project anywhere else.

I hope you'll check it out, and as we get closer to release date, I'll be sharing more details about all of the artists and projects in the book.

Kissing my stamps

Well, not really....

Kissing is a technique I don't do a lot with my stamps, but I thought it would be perfect with this striped stamp from the Club Scrap Bon Appetit kit.  Start by inking a stamp - I inked the striped stamp that is mounted on my grid ruler.

Kiss the inked striped stamp to the second stamp - a brocade pattern.

Stamp on your paper.

You now have a lovely stripe, but with a subtle pattern.  I liked this better than the bold stripes on their own.

Repeat until you have covered the entire panel - using the grid ruler helps you to line up all of the stripes nicely.

On the front of the card, I used the brocade pattern in a contrasting color to bring that out more boldly, and finished it off with a sentiment and a few little embellishments.  An easy way to make your stamps go further!

All stamps and paper from Club Scrap's Bon Appetit collection - and I used their lovely hybrid inks too (great for any surface).

Since this is the height of summer and we're knee deep in a remodeling project, my posts will be a little infrequent from here on out.  I should be back on a regular schedule in September after classes start again.

One technique - three cards

Club Scrap invited me to be the guest blogger this week, and I thought it would be fun to show you more of the techniques I used to create the Greeting to Go cards this month.  Over on their blog, you'll see one technique two ways, and here I'll show you how I made three cards with one technique.

I started by putting some distress ink (Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, and Weathered Wood) on my Ranger non-stick craft sheet.

Spritz with water to get the colors to blend - wow do they pop after a bit of water!  I put my stamp on a grid ruler so lining it up would be easy while stamping.

Press your stamp in the "ink pad" on your craft sheet, and ink away!

I kept rotating the stamp and cleaning it so the pattern wouldn't be uniform.

I added a little more ink, but less water to create a second panel.  Adjusting the water can really change the stamped image.  I like both of these, but they definitely look different.

For my first card, I cut a lot of circles with a punch.

The edges were inked with vintage photo distress ink to give a bit more depth.  My handy grid ruler helped me find the center of the panel:

And to align the rest of the circles.  This part was inspired by another blog post using circles on a card.

To make the edges a bit glitzy, I rubbed versamark ink onto the edges, and then sprinkled gold embossing powder over the edges.

Add a bow, and you're done!

To create the other two cards, I die cut pieces from the paper to fit stamps.

These images were embossed with copper embossing powder.

A little distress ink on the edges helps to add depth.

Add some embellishments and a greeting, and you've got two more great cards.

I love how this kit can be used for vintage-y feeling cards, as well as for bright and cheerful cards.  Check out the Club Scrap blog on Wednesday to see a totally different vibe for the stamps and paper from the Bon Appetit collection.