Altered Flowers

When I saw Lydia's video on stamp etching, I filed it away in the back of my grey matter for the next time I touched a flower stamp. I so rarely use flower stamps.

But today I used a flower stamp, because prompt #4 of the ICAD/DPP is Flowers, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to test out Lydia's technique. I did, and I liked it, so I took the next step and stamped my flower image on real card stock with the intent of making a card. I see how these prompts are pushing me to play, and I like it! :)

Here's my card, then I'll explain:

Obviously I'm still playing, and I didn't add the lines to both sides of the petals, but I like how the lines I did add changed the look of these flowers. 

I also colored, with three colors of red, even, and I blended them. I can work in small areas; it's the larger areas that give me grief.

Here's a close-up of the flowers:

You can also see where I colored outside the lines. Sigh. I added yellow in the flower centers and put some dots of black glaze pen.

About those pearls. I don't like them, but as I mounted the white panel to the blue card, I smudged a tiny spot of ink onto the white area. I scratched, I erased, but ... nothing. So I added a pearl, and you can't add just one pearl, so ... I have pearls. I may move them around some more - I'm not feeling the love.

Oh, look, it's stopped raining, and the sun is trying to come out. I think I'll go cut the grass so I'm not "that" neighbor.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuff I used: Memory Box pearls, and the following:

InLinkz.com

Tic-Tac-Toe x2

Hi there! I'm working on a few challenges this weekend, and the current Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe challenge jumped to the top of the pile:

Here's my card, then I'll explain:

 

I have The Heaplet to thank for this one.You see, as I was putting away things from my last card, I walked past The Heaplet (well, one of them, this one is next to the paper cutter) and I spied this piece of pretty textured purple card stock. When I looked at the challenge grid, I saw the diagonal of Purple-Embossing-Birthday, but I also looked at the bottom row of Patterned Paper-Ribbon-Purple. What you see here is Purple Patterned Paper with an Embossed Birthday sentiment, held to the card with Ribbon. Two, two, two rows in one card! Whoot! *ahem*

I pulled a piece of black patterned paper from the same Heaplet and put it under the purple layer for some contrast before I stuck it to the white card base.

That ribbon is some of the oldest ribbon in my collection, and yes, I'm quite proud I used a bit of it.

Once I got the idea in my head, this took about 15 minutes to execute. I think the most time I spent on any one part was warming up the heat tool for the embossing. Seriously.

Okay, I'm going back in for more. Thanks for stopping by!

Stuff I used: vat/pint of clear embossing powder purchased many, many years ago from Viva Las Vegas Stamps, misc ribbon, misc purple card stock, mist black patterned paper, hole punch, and the following:

InLinkz.com

Wow, That's Fantastic!

I love a good pun, especially if it's not a moaner. When I first saw the WTF stamp set from CAS-ual Fridays, I knew it needed to come live with me.  I pulled it out yesterday to make this card:

I know, it looks crooked, but I somehow managed to stamp my inked acrylic block so the entire  upper right corner didn't hit the paper. Sigh.

I used the same technique here as in the post where I think I invented something. I followed the technique we learned in the Online Card Class: Water Color for Card Makers. You first ink an acrylic block with Versamark, then you ink over that with Distress inks. Spritz the ink on the block, then stamp it onto water color card stock. You can let that air dry or use your heat tool to dry it.

My change was I left the acrylic block on the water color card stock and let it mostly dry before I picked it up. I figured if I liked the look of the ink through the acrylic block when I first stamp it, why not leave it like that? If you pick the block up while it's still drippy wet, you'll get a different look, which is also fine, but not want I wanted.

ANYway, I used Distress mini ink pads in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Picked Raspberry. Once the ink had dried on the paper, I stamped the sentiments in Archival black ink. Then I went a little nuts.

I masked off the sides of the water color paper where there was no ink, then I spritzed the inked area with homemade pearlized water*. Once that dried I put the panel onto a Hero Arts card base, then went to work with sequins. I probably added waaaaay too many, but this is a celebration card, and it's okay if it's over-the-top a bit.

You can kindof see the shimmer here:

All those splotches are shiny in real life. I also added a drop of Distress Clear Rock Candy Stickles to the center of each of the sequins, mostly to cover the holes, but also because I was in over-do-it mode, so why not?

And yes, I added the comma to the second part of the sentiment. I know you're not too surprised by that. :)

I hope to be back later with something else to share. Thanks for stopping by!

* Pearlized water, learned from Jennifer McGuire either online or from a class I took from her. Take a mister and fill it about 3/4 of the way with water. Using either a scrap of paper or a straw or the end of a paint brush (you get the idea), scoop up some of the Perfect Pearl powder and put it into the mister. You can add a lot or a little, so I'd suggest starting with one scoop, then playing around with it. Drop in a pearl or a bead or something to use to mix it. Cap it and shake shake shake, then it's ready to spritz. Make sure to shake it each time you use it, as the powder settles and needs to be redistributed (thus, the pearl/bead inside). Tip #1: You can add the powder to any color mist you've made. Tip #2: Glue a pearl to the top of your misters to which you've added the powder so you know it's pearlized. Trust me, a month from now you won't remember. :)

Stuff I used: misc sequins, and the following:

InLinkz.com