BIG CARDS – 2 of Clubs

The penultimate BIG CARD.

I had an idea for the Distress Stains, so gave it a go. First I tamped on some of the white DS over the black card.  All over.  Alone, if give it an almost starry-night-sky look. I used this funny little brush – no idea where I got it, but the brush part is a bit like a scrubber – actually, it is very like the scrubbing square from the Indigo Blu foiling kit.

My thought was that once the DS dried then colours of stain over the top would not colour the black card, but WOULD colour the white stain. It is very subtle in the photo, more vibrant IRL.

I did the Tumbled Glass first then Worn Lipstick over that.

I also daubbed the white stain thru some sequin waste and let it dry.

Re-positioning the waste to match, I coloured the white dots with Distress INK, Peacock Feather and Picked Raspberry.

I added the words by printing two copies – the main box I coloured with the Peacock Feather then did the other on with Picked Raspberry. I cut them out and layered them.

I think this could make a nifty card or ATC background.  Worth playing around with a bit more, as the dried Distress Stain really grabs the colour, as you can see best in the close up of the dots.

Just the Ace left to do.  I already did the Doodled one for the Spades so I really need to think on that – and plan what weekly project I need to begin for 2013!

BIG CARDS – 6 of Spades

Back to having the card I need so a completed one today.

I have been looking at stuff  I bought and never used.  Well before the advent of Perfect Pearls, I had acquired many, many pots of Pearl-Ex.  The big difference is PPs have the binders already added so you can mix them with water and create a “paint” – Pearl-Ex is not permanent when mixed with water.  It is if you, for example, stamp with Versamark and then dust it on.  The ink will trap the Pearl-Ex and bind it so it won’t rub off (well, not much) and you can mix it in to just about anything – I’ve tried it mixed in to Liquid Pearls, for example, and that works a treat, as does gloss or matte medium.  You can mix it into Fimo too.  But you can’t make mist with it as it won’t stick once the water dries.

Eons ago, I bought Gum Arabic, after reading on the Jacquard site that you could mix it up with Pearl-Ex to, essentially, make Perfect Pearls.  Of course at the time I only saw LIQUID Gum Arabic and have since found you can buy it in powdered form.  That seems like it would be easier.  Anyway, I wasn’t going to go out and buy powdered when I had a huge bottle of liquid. So I had a play.  I mixed up a drop of gum arabic, about 4 x as much Pearl-Ex, and mixed it up with a spritz of water.  It made a lovely creamy paint.  But then, I had the idea of mixing in some dye ink to intensify the colour.

Look at this – all three dots started from the lightest colour pink.

The HOT PINK was achieved by adding a drop or two of bright pink dye ink to the mix.  The more red colour, had red dye ink added.  Then I thought of what else I had and grabbed the Fired Brick Distress stain.  That got the less-red dot in the middle of the lightest pink.

First let me share the card, then I’ll carry on with my Mad Scientist impression.

The very dark silver/grey SIX was a mix of pewter Pearl-Ex with a drop of permanent black ink – it was the only liquid black ink I had on hand.  It worked, but dye ink would perhaps have been better.

Now, thinking on the properties of Distress, that it is reactive with water, I tried a little experiment.

I made two mixtures for comparison – one, Gum Arabic, water, and Pearl-Ex, the other GS, PE and Distress stain (I did add a few drops of water to that as well.)

I don’t think you will see the difference, due to the shine of the mica but the right is def. darker, deeper purple in real life.  Not as much as the DYE ink ones – that is startling in its intensity, which I hope you can see in the pink dots above. OK, so all well and good.  But it was the reactive-with-water bit I was interested in.

So I inked a stamp with Versamark and then tapped it in a spritz of water.  I stamped on the non-Distress blob and then inked (Versamark and water) again and did it on the side with the Distress added.

Can you see how much more the with-Distress side reacted with the water?

Cool humm? to be fair this was quite a detailed little stamp, with text on the wings.  It just happened to be the right size and on my desk, so it ended up a pretty indistinct image.  But I think there is the potential here for some interesting effects. The mixture will dry out, but you can then simply drag your water brush through and…re-activate it, I guess.  Just like Tim shows in his book when making paint palettes with PPs.

I also think if you already have Perfect Pearls, you might try mixing up the powder with Distress stain rather than water and see what happens.  I am imagining painting squares with the mix then stamping in with the Versamark and water, for something like inchies, IYKWIM. Might make a pretty tiled card or addition to a configurations box.

And I wonder if you were to ink with BLACK ink, then water then stamp would you get an interesting effect?  Maybe on white cardstock instead?  So much to try, so little time LOL!

Have a bash.  Comment with a link to your projects (or add it as your site in the form if you can’t add a link in the actual comment)   LMK how it turns out in any case.

I just wanted to add this one – a better stamp choice and it looks very cool IRL! This was with a thinner brushing on of the mixture so when stamped the black cardstock was revealed more fully.  I also hit it with the heat gun briefly.

The humble roll of waxed paper

You know me by now – if I see something I am ALWAYS going to cast my eye across my craft room and see if I have something that I can make do with cause I really HATE shopping.  I was looking at glassine paper, and the examples of Kraft glassine in Tim’s new book and I thought What do I have that has those same properties? Well DUH! Waxed paper.

Check it out:

I assembled my supplies – waxed paper, Distress inks and stains, Staz-on (or Archival ink, I expect) and a stamp I have had forever and never used.

I started by crumpling the waxed paper. You can do it a lot or a little – the creases are what will give you the effect.

Open it out and smear on Distress Stains in any colour or in a few colours. Give it a moment to sink in – you can blot with a paper towel and go over it again for deeper colour. It will bead up on the waxy parts – feel free to work it into the creases with the paper towel.

My waxed paper is waxier on one side.  You can work the ink in to one side, then flip it over and do the same on the other.  Frankly I find it hard to tell which side is best so I usually wind up doing both! Now iron it between a couple of pages of a notebook – I keep one on my ironing board for this (cause you KNOW I don’t iron clothes!)

Ironing the waxed paper gives it a sort of flexible vellum-like quality.  It is pretty floppy after the ink but it firms up well after you iron it. Stamp your image and colour in the bits yo want with Distress ink and a water pen.  Iron it again cause it’ll be wet now.

I also tinted the edges and pressed the back into some droplets of watery ink left on my craft mat. I like that effect.

Here is the final card:

I think the next bit will surprise you!  How DID I get the waxed paper to stick to the card?  So simple – unlike vellum you really can’t see the adhesive thru the waxed paper.  The ATG gun worked a treat!  I’ll get to that in a moment.

Next I did the same thing with Vintage Photo.Not sure how well you can see, but the left is JUST the stain, as above.  The RIGHT has Vintage Photo DI smudged over the surface, after the ironing removed the wax.

I doubt you will be able to see this super clearly but I’ll give it a go.  It’s best to apply the adhesive to the tag, rather than the waxed paper.  It could rip if you are not careful.  Try to get right to the edges – I did better on the right then on the left.

Stick on the waxed paper and trim. I defy you to see any obvious adhesive thru the waxed paper!

I’ve turned this into a simple tag by stamping over it with black Staz-on

Then I thought back to the tissue tape ruffle I’ve seen and again thought Wonder if….? Yep, it sure does.

Crumple and ink a strip of waxed paper, as before. Iron. Stick it to a sheet of plain paper and trim with scalloped scissors (the plain paper supports the thinner waxed paper, making the cutting easier.  Frankly You could just leave the edge straight – one you ruffle it you don’t really see the scallops much.

I lay a strip of double-sided tape down, sticky side up, backing still on.  Pleating and sticking the waxed paper strip gives me this!

I stuck that to the bottom edge of the tag and added a few little bits and this is it:

The bee was stamped then the wings painted with Liquid Pearls and the body stripes with yellow Stickles.  I stuck it popped at the head end, but with its body stuck flat.  and the little one was stuck just in the center, with the wings folded up:

I know that was a pretty massive post, but I really wanted you to see how well this works.

Get some waxed paper. Have a play.  I think you’ll be surprised what you can do with it.

Have a crafty weekend!