#781 – Experimenting with Alcohol Inks

Hello! In my last post, I mentioned a new base for using Alcohol Inks. Well, frankly speaking, it isn’t exactly a replacement to Yupo paper, but it can definitely be used for simple background using alcohol inks.

It is a translucent plastic sheet that could be used for book wrappers. Since it is non-porous, it can be well used. It is also not glossy (I have another one, which is totally transparent and glossy, but I haven’t used it here) Some beautiful effects can still be created, if not all that can be made using Yupo. Here are some examples (sorry about the grainy images, the weather isn’t so greta!)

I use adhesive spray to stick the plastic to a normal cardbase. For some instances, I adhered the sheet before applying the alcohol inks; for others, I first applied the ink on the sheet, then adhered it on paper. Doesn’t made much of a difference either way.

Here are some that I haven’t yet adhered to cardstock –

For these, I also used a stencil to pick up some of the already laid ink – one is adhered on to cardstock, and I had used a bit too much of ink – so much that the blue looks like black! The other is still not adhered –

I think these kind of sheets must be available at normal stationary shops. I am planning to use it when I don’t need a spectacular background with alcohol inks, and only need it to generate effects – like I had on my last post. I’ll choose the Yupo only when I need some more effects..and I think such times will be fewer in comparison! 🙂

Hope this gets you to try some other media yourself! Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#780 – Alcohol Ink Background

PE: CAS-ual Fridays Contender!! Yay!!

Hello and welcome! Tried something new after a long time, and that got me a bit excited. The alcohol fumes might have been another reason too….

This is something that I had been experimenting on. I wanted to have some other surface to use alcohol inks on – not yupo paper, not glossy paper, not those glossy acetate sheets. Here’s the experiment that I had mentioned in one of my previous posts…though I had only tried blues then, and this particular piece is something I made later, I have used the same base. (More on the base in another post!!)

So anyway, I used red-orange-yellow colors on this one, then used Archival Inks to lift off the color by stamping. I used leaf images from Simon Says Stamp More Spring Flowers and Even More Spring Flowers. I used a similar alcohol ink panel to die cut the Wishes, which is from Pink & Main. I adhered this on a white panel and trimmed a shadow around the die cut. The rest of the stamped sentiment is from Winnie & Walter Sending You stamp set.

Finally added Nuvo Glitter Drops in Honey Gold – I dunno what happened here – did they suck the alcohol ink?? They look almost transparent! I do wish there was a little more golden shine to it, but too late now, since it has dried! (Maybe I need to experiment on that too??!!)

Well, what I used as the base is a small secret as of now – I’ll post a separate post on it shortly. Until then, any guesses?

Meantime, I shall join the following challenges –

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Make Your Own Background

CAS-ual Fridays challenge #205: Stamp a Pattern

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#767 – A Handbag Experience

Hello and welcome! I have something other than a card today – a handbag! This is the second handbag I’ve made – stitching them is still an ongoing experiment.

I didn’t use any pattern or tutorial on this one – it is completely self taught and self thought! That’s the only thing I am happy about. That being said, I must admit it became crazy difficult in the end. I wanted the bag to look as professional as possible, taking my amateur talent into consideration. I did try stitching straight, but the results are so apparent – in fact, the only place where the stitching is straight is where the machine did the job without me leading the cloth!! 😀 😉

Though I had more or less planned the entire thing, I still ended up lost in the end – I had to spend a lot of time thinking of how to finish it. And because of my lack of experience, the width of the base and sides, which I thought would be enough, turned out not to be so, and the bag ended up thinner than I would have liked – almost half the size, in fact! I even ended up breaking the needle, since I was trying to stitch through 4 layers of thick cloth…not a good idea, I knew, but I didn’t have any other way..

Anyway, the bag isn’t exactly as bad as I thought. And I think I’ve learned a few things from the whole experience too. Hopefully, the next one will turn out better! 🙂

Thank you very much for stopping by! 🙂

Trials on Layers and CASE

Hello!

Back with another set of cards! I had been attempting to make cards for submissions for the latest challenge at Winnie & Walters – The Gossip Column with Taheerah. The challenge this time was the make a card CASEing the amazingly talented Jocelyn Olson.

I have recently started following her blog – love the way she uses pattern papers, watercolor and simple textures to make such gorgeous CAS cards! I can’t believe she uses little to no embellishments – so many of her cards don’t even have sequins – I find that so difficult to believe looking at all the cards she has made! Amazing!

Anyway, I’ll stop there or this post will turn out to be an essay on Jocelyn’s cards! 😉 Either way, when I tried to CASE her, I turned out with naught! Not that I couldn’t come up with any cards, but that whatever I turned up with wasn’t satisfying at all – not in the least. You’ll know what I mean when you see the cards –

Now, don’t get me wrong, its not like I like nothing about these cards! I love the little elements in each of them! But when I look at the overall card, either there are too many elements all screaming for attention, or all of them are so bland, that nothing calls for attention! Sigh…! Never thought CASEing someone would be so difficult! I feel jealous of all those submissions now.. 😦

But, not to be disheartened, I need to remember that I still love the individual elements in the card. I love the background and the striped pattern paper I made using crayons (! :D) and the stamped rose and leaves. I love the arrangement of the black and gold frames too. On the second, I love the choice of pattern papers.

And on the third, I love the layout and the ombre butterfly – not to mention the butterfly I cut by hand! 😀 Thinking about these make me a happy girl! 😉

Well, I guess I still have a long way to go learning the ways of layering and using pattern papers! 😀

Experimenting With Flower Die-cuts

Hello! I am back with another card. This time I am experimenting with flower (and leaf) die-cuts.

I have been adding more and more of cards with flower die-cuts to my boards in Pinterest – but of course, I ended up wanting to make some too! 🙂 The elegance and beauty of these cards is really something else. 🙂

…and difficult to create too! It’s not like I’ve never used flower die-cuts before. I have! But, I haven’t felt that I have mastered it yet – strike that – I don’t have a clue as to how to make different elements come together – the flowers, the background, the sentiment piece…I just don’t know how to fit all these pieces together! 😦 This experiment is just for that. I wanted to try something out and see how I can fix it.

So, I first cut out a few flowers and leaves from various dies I own (yup, the stash has grown a lot, with my skills getting none the better! :() out of some colored cardstock. The central piece where the flowers are mounted is colored with Peacock Feathers distress ink and then stamped with Stitched Circles from JustRite using Hero Arts Tide Pool ink. I then die cut a place for the sentiment using Hero Arts/ Sizzix Hello/Thank you die cuts, I stamped the sentiment from a stamp from the same set using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

I think I might have spent more than a couple of hours coming together with the flowers, adding some coloring using Copic markers, placing and adhering the pieces….but still ended up unsatisfied. I knew something was not right, but couldn’t pinpoint it.

What I did then – I compared my piece with all those fabulous works of art I had in my Pinterest boards. One thing I could think of was that the sentiment and the flower sizes had to be comparable – either the sizes had to be vastly different, and as close as possible. I think that would have worked out in my card too..if I had changed the flower sizes. Can you see any other improvements? Do tell me!

I am still continuing my war with those flowers…

Penny Black Divine

Hello! I made this card a couple of days ago, and was too lazy then to blog about it 😛 I just wanted to make something out of a new stash I got just recently – and the Penny Black Divine stamp was one of them. I just rushed this card –

I first colored some scrap cardstock with red acrylic paint and left it to dry. I then started with making the background – I picked Texture Mesh stencil from Memory Box, laid it flat on a cardstock panel and watercolored it in blue, grey and black colors. Some of the color seeped in, but that was the exact effect I was looking for. 🙂 I then set it aside to dry.

As the acrylic paint piece was dry, I stamped the flowers on it using Hero Arts Black ink. I then fuzzy cut the flowers and outlined it again using Uniball Signo black gel pen.

I then adhered some black script washi tape around the border of another card panel. I then rubbed the (now dry) watercolor panel using a scrap piece of paper – this helped in spreading the excess pigments on top of the paper. I then trimmed this panel and the washi panel to size. I then adhered the two pieces.

I stamped the card base using Dahlias from Penny Black on the card base using Hero Arts Black ink. I then adhered the earlier panel on the card base. I then foam mounted the flowers in their place. I also added a few white dots on the flowers using Uniball Signo white gel pen.

And that finished my card! Thanks for looking! 🙂

An experiment with Watercolors and Gold

Hello!

Sometimes, before making a card, when I don’t have a concrete idea, or if i can’t imagine how my idea might look, I try it out first. This one here is an experiment of one such idea. But, since I never got around to making the actual card out of this, and this, in itself came out pretty good, I thought I would log it in my blog, for everyone to see! 🙂

I started by apply some half dried gesso using my fingers. The results By using half dried gesso, are different – the dried gesso doesn’t spread as well as a wet one, we get a slightly uneven coverage and thickness. And that’s the effect I was going for! 🙂 Also, I covered only the center, leaving the sides free.

I then added in some watercolors – blue, pink and grey, applying some of the colors outside the gesso too. This gave a brighter and a duller color of the watercolors. I wanted the edges to be still better defined, but couldn’t – I should probably have spread the gesso a little lesser.

I then added some gold acrylic paint using the Memory Box Garden Fronds stencil. I then pencilled in the sentiment and drew over it using Unibal Signo Gold gel pen. Thankfully for me, the gold of the two matched! 😀

Well, that concludes my experiment – I should make a card out of this experience soon..do wait for the real product! 😉

Thanks for looking! 😀