WOYWW 142 – playing with batik

22/02/2012 by UKMA 58 Comments

Hello WOYWWers.  If you are thinking what’s that all about? then you need to pop to Julia’s Stamping Ground and see what the fuss is all about.  Worldwide inspiration is the name of the game every Wednesday.

I have been computer-playing too long – it’s time to  STEP AWAY from the keyboard for a bit.  If you read my blog regularly, especially on a Monday, you know I have started a year long project using mahoosive playing cards.  I’m using them as a way to try out a variety of techniques, some I’ve seen while meandering across t’internet, others that I thought wonder if THAT would work? and gave a go. The problem with the cards is they are red and black.  And to remain true to the suits, they sort of have to stay red and black.  So far I am on my way through the Diamonds (King to 6 so far) and sticking to red on a white background, sometimes with additional colours added to the mix.  Here is a quick overview:

The last one, the 6 of Diamonds, I did on Monday and I loved the batik effect – but it make me think about other things I could play with to get the same sort of effect.  So, today, what is on my desk is a variety of things, some of which I have played with already, and some which are in the queue, so to speak.

The basic idea is to stamp a nice all-over pattern with Versamark or some other clear embossing ink. I’ve not yet worked out if one with some negative space is better or just different.  Then emboss it with clear embossing powder. Then cover the piece with….something.  Then iron off the embossing, revealing the cardstock underneath.

Probably hard to visualize.  Monday, I did this one (a variety of red-ish Distress inks on the base, then the clear embossing, then the lightest colour of DI, dusted with mica powders, then ironed off the embossing)

Yesterday I played with three additional things – chalk mists, Cosmic Shimmer mist, and Pearl-ex again, but with a more open stamp.

Chalk ink first.  I need to figure out how to carry on doing the Hearts, Spades and Clubs for my cards.  I thought as I had done white backgrounds for the Diamonds I would do black backgrounds for the Hearts, but black cardstock doesn’t REALLY lend itself to inking, so resist techniques seem the way to go.  And the whitewashed effect of the chalk ink seemed like it might work well with a black base.

Same as before, stamped with Versamark, embossed with clear, then misted (heavily) with chalk mist.

I did lett it puddle and pool so some areas were more covered.  Dried it (or let it dry, as you prefer) then ironed off the embossing – I do that between the pages of an old notebook.

How cool is that? Not perfect, but then I aim for more distressed then pristine so that’s lucky!

Then I thought what about Cosmic Shimmer? I had to decant some of the CS mist into a mini-mister (OK so I love CS a lot better than the paler Glimmer Mist, but seriously, how can you not spray more than once or twice without them getting clogged?) but managedtoo spray in the end.

That is before I ironed off the embossing.  I like that too – the embossing resists the mist and stays quite shiny. But then when you iron it off….

Again, more distressed and less perfect, but then I wasn’t using really high quality cardstock either, so who knows what came in to play?

I did another Pearl-ex one, this time with a stamp that had more open space.  I rubbed Black Soot over the embossing, rather than a lighter colour, as black ink over black card made sense to me.  Again, liked it before I ironed off the embossing, and liked it after.  This one had the least difference between them.

I have more ideas on other things to try, and THAT is what is on my scrappy, sticky, inky,  messy desk this Wednesday! Sorry if that was all a bit TMI but I am really excited about the whole thing and looking forward to playing some more.  Let’s just hope Blogger cooperates at least as well as last week – although if you have word verification on I’ll look but I’m not even going to try to comment. Well, maybe on the first one I come to but I’ve not managed to comment on a single blog with WV in three weeks so I’ll save my typing fingers!

Have a Happy Wednesday.  I’m scheduling this but I think my clock is wrong (or WordPress doesn’t realize we are not in British Summer Time now) so you may be seeing it late Tuesday night.