Peace On Earth

I made several alcohol inked backgrounds yesterday and decided to turn one into a Christmas card. The tones on this one turned out beautiful! Not your typical Christmas colours, but so rich and elegant looking! I am also linking this card to Anything Goes Challenge over at the bastel-traum blog. 

Juste Pour Toi - Alcohol Inks

I had a bit of a play today with my alcohol inks and alcohol lift ink and just kind of went spur of the moment. Have you ventured into the world of alcohol inks and seen how amazing and magical they can be?

I only used 2 colours for this...black and stream...stream is a gorgeous blue! You can get some beautiful colour variations from just 2 inks...heck, even with just 1 ink you'll be amazed! I also got out some 96% rubbing alcohol, a bit of blender solution and my alcohol lift ink pad. Once I was happy with how the alcohol inks were, I inked up my Hypnotize stamp from Create A Smile stamps. Fun fact....I've never used this stamp before. Not sure why, as it's pretty cool, but it will definitely see the daylight again very soon. I inked up my stamp 2x using the Alcohol Lift Ink from Ranger. This is a special clear ink that like its name suggests, will lift off the alcohol ink from your inked panel and leave the impression of the stamp. This ink is a bit finicky I think and I will need to play around with it a bit more. I stamped it twice, as the first time it didn't lift all that much. I used my Misti stamp positioner for this just in case, so I could get it perfectly stamped both times. 

 

I wasn't sure what else to add to it, as I didn't want to take away from the background. So I stamped out a simple sentiment from Altenew. I really like the imperfect look of it...goes well with my background. I trimmed down the panel a bit, popped it up using foam tape and added foam adhesive to the sentiment as well. That's it.....super simple but super cool!

This is not my usual style, but I really like the grungy kind of cool look to it! It's kind of like you're looking into a well or even the ripples of water after you throw a coin or some rocks into the water. I'm sure there are many other things you could take from it as well. I do think that alcohol inks are a must have and will be for the most part, my go to for masculine cards.

I'd love to hear what you think down below in the comments! Have you used alcohol inks before? As always, thank you very much for taking the time to stop by and spend a few crafty minutes with me. Have yourself a wonderfully crafty day and until next time. Michelle :)

Supplies used:

• Ranger /Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks - Pitch Black and Stream
• Ranger /Tim Holtz Alcohol Blending Solution
• Ranger/Tim Holtz Alcohol Lift-Ink
• 96% alcohol
• Yupo paper
• Create A Smile Hypnotize stamp
• Altenew label Love French stamp
• black cardstock
• white card base
• 3M foam tape

Reverse Stencilling

I recently saw a new technique on YouTube that looked pretty fab and I just had to try it! It's called reverse stencilling and I saw it on Rina K Designs You Tube.

It's really quite simple this technique is, doesn't require too many supplies nor does it require perfection. You start out first by ink blending your cardstock and then you do the stencilling, which is kind of the opposite of how you'd normally use your stencil. And no worries if your ink blending isn't perfect either, as the black layer on top will cover up any imperfections from your ink blending. You can actually use any colour for the darker layer on top, although a dark colour like black is best as it will black out the colours underneath....if that makes sense.

I really like the effect that this gives...it makes it appear as if you started with a black base but was still able to achieve the vibrant colours that are peeking through. There are sooo many stencil and colour combinations to explore with this technique...I can't wait to try some more!

I hope you enjoyed my card for today and that it has inspired you to try this fabulous technique or even to just get creative. Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderfully crafty day!

Supplies used:

• Altenew Sunburst stencil
• Ranger Distress Inks - Mermaid Lagoon, Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon and Black Soot
• lil' inker Shiny Happy Sentiments stamp set
• Stampendous Detail White embossing powder
• black cardstock
• Stampin' Up! stampin' dimensionals
• misc. double sided adhesive
• white card base

CAS -Clean and Simple

Sometimes a clean and simple card is just what you need. And this is exactly what I had in mind when I saw this stencil from Altenew. This card also has no stamping on it AT ALL and uses very little supplies!

Irresistible Inking Techniques - AECP Journey

I'm back with my next assignment for my AECP course. This is my 10th and final class for level 1. This class was all about irresistible inking techniques and was taught by Sara Naumann. She is a great and very thorough instructor and we learned some new ways to use your inks, in addition to just inking up your stamps.

ETA....I've lost of my photos when I changed blog host providers, so some posts will have very few photos.

For today's cards I combined 2 of the techniques, that quite frankly, I'm not sure why I've never tried them before, even though I have seen them done...stamp block inking and direct to paper inking. All you need for them are an ink pad, a clear acrylic block and a water spritzer. I grabbed 4 different inks, as I wanted to make a set of 4. For the ink block stamping I grabbed a square acrylic block that is about 2.75"x2.75" and covered it with ink by tapping the ink pad on it till it was covered. I then spritzed it with water twice and pressed it directly on my trimmed piece of cardstock. I learned that for this technique, paper choice is very important. I had originally used my usual white cardstock, but because I was using water, it completely absorbed it and went all splotchy. I would recommend a paper meant for watercolouring. For this I used a mixed media paper that was perfect and gave me the results I was looking for.

I then picked 2 different flowers from the Botanical Garden stamp set and stamped each one on 2 of the different colours. Next I picked a perfect happy birthday from the Birthday Builder stamp set. This set has happy birthday in the most perfect fonts that you will ever need!

 

 

Next I took each ink pad and ran them around the edges of each panel, for the direct to paper inking. This gave them a subtle pop of colour on the edges and also helps them to stand out a bit from the white cardbase. To complete each one, I smooshed each ink pad on my craft mat and spritzed the ink with water. I then grabbed a paint brush, picked up some of each colour of ink and started flicking it on the panels. I didn't want to go overboard with this, so I kept it a bit light.

All that was left was to add some foam to the back of them to give them a bit of definition and pop them up on the card base. That's it! I wanted to keep them nice and simple, to let the inking techniques take centre stage. I know the perfect person that I'm going to gift them to!

I hope you've enjoyed my cards for today. I certainly enjoyed making them. It's always fun to try new techniques! This is definitely a technique that I'll be revisiting again! There are so many other colours to try and I think it would be fabulous in an ombré effect! Again I thank you for taking the time to stop by and don't forget to take some time out for yourself to get crafty!

Supplies Used:

• Altenew Botanical Garden stamp set
• Altenew Birthday Builder stamp set
• Altenew Aqualicious, Warm Sunshine, Coral Berry and lavender Fields mini ink pads
• Canson Mix Media 120lb paper
• clear acrylic block
• Lawn Fawn Black Licorice dye ink pad
• paint brush
• white fun foam
• misc white card base
• water spritzer

Easy Die Cutting Techniques - AECP Journey

Hello and welcome back! Today's card or rather cards I should say, is all about easy die cutting techniques. This is class #9 out of 10 for this level and then I get to my final assignment for level 1. I have really enjoyed them all thus far and am learning so much! If you're a card maker then you really should check out the classes that Altenew has to offer. You can take as many or as few as you'd like and they have so many different ones to offer. 

ETA...I have lost some of my photos when I changed blog providers, so there aren't as many as before.

For this class I decided to get out my alcohol inks and do some inlaid diecutting. What is inlaid die cutting you may ask? It's pretty much when you die cut an image from one piece of paper and then cut the same image from another piece. You then remove the image cut from one piece and place it in the other...I hope that makes sense. Alcohol inks are a pretty amazing medium to use and you get a different result each and every time. For these inks however, you don't want to use a regular cardstock or paper, as it is too porous and the inks will absorb right away into the paper and not give you the desired effect you are trying to achieve. For these inks I use Yupo paper. It's a mixed media paper that has a plastic coating to it and for that reason the inks do not absorb into, but rather they sit on top of the paper. This allows the inks to move around and do their magic. A quick tip when using alcohol inks....if you happen to to get them on your hands, which you are bound to do, just rub some hand sanitizer on your hands and the alcohol will remove it no problem. Oh and also make sure you are using the inks in a well ventilated area, as the fumes from the alcohol can be a bit strong after awhile.

 

For my first card, once I had the inks as I wanted, I grabbed my gold deco foil and while the ink was still a bit tacky in some areas, I put the foil over top of the piece colour(gold) side up and pressed it over the whole piece, making sure to put some good pressure and really rub it in. Gold foil looks pretty amazing with the alcohol inks and what I was left with was a gorgeous blue, brown and gold foiled piece of art. I then die cut the hello out of this piece. If you try this inlaid die cutting technique, make sure to keep all the little pieces that are part of the image or word, so you can place them back in. I cut this twice, once from the inked panel and a second time from white card stock. 

 

Once all cut, I removed the hello from each piece and adhered the inked background piece to my card base and then placed my white hello die cut piece as well as the little inked pieces for the e, l and the o in their proper spots. And that's it for this one...simple but it still delivers that punch!

So for the second card as I didn't want the pieces to go to waste, I reversed what I did on the previous card and put the inked hello die cut into the white background. All it needed was a secondary sentiment and a few mixed gold sequins and there you have it...easy peasy!

For the 3rd card I had a piece of alcohol inked paper that I had made at first that I wasn't that crazy about, set aside. It was still in the same colours, but it just wasn't sitting right with me when I made it. So I grabbed my cube cover die that I am a bit obsessed with right now (there are so many possibilities with it) and die cut the inked panel and also a piece of white cardstock. I adhered the white die cut to a piece of fun foam and added the little pieces in their proper spots on the white...a bit of paper piecing, if you will.

I then heat embossed the happy birthday in gold on a piece of vellum, so as not to distract from the design as the vellum is more delicate than cardstock, wrapped that around the back of the card and then added some gold sequins and that's it. Oh and don't throw out any pieces at all, as you can always use them for future cards. Here is the cover die cut out that will be put to good use another time. This is what I took the small pieces from.

I really love how they all turned out! I feel they have a bit of a sophisticated feel to them...perfect for anyone! This was a wonderfully informative class, as I learned some new techniques and 1 in particular that I've been wondering how to do for awhile now, so I'm definitely going to attempt it soon, as I know now...thanks to Yana (the instructor) and her amazing skills!

Thank you again for taking the time to stop by. I would love to hear what you think of my cards down below in the comments. I hope you have a wonderful day and take some time out for yourself. Until next time :)

Supplies used:

• Altenew Mega Hello die
• Altenew Cube Cover die
• Altenew Birthday Builder stamp set
• Altenew Mega Greetings stamp set
• Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb cardstock
• Ranger Fine Detail Gold embossing powder
• Pinata Havana Brown, Burro Brown and Blanco alcohol inks
• Ranger Stream, Turquoise and Pitch Black alcohol inks
• Ranger Alcohol Blending Solution
• 92% alcohol
• heat embossing gun
• vellum
• mixed gold sequins
• white fun foam
• Lawn Fawn Black Licorice dye ink

Seasonal Scene Building - AECP Journey

Today's card is my next assignment on my AECP journey and it's all about scene building. This is definitely one of the areas that I struggle and have a hard time with. I absolutely love seeing all the gorgeous and absolutely adorable scene cards made by all the talented cardmakers out there on Instagram and I envy them so...I just can never seem to pull them off. But then this class came along and it is taught by the very talented Nichol Spohr. She is one of the many amazing cardmakers out there that I am always in complete awe of! She always makes the most incredible scene cards, so I was pretty excited to learn from her!

ETA...I have lost some photos when I changed blog providers, so I don't have many of some posts.

Celebration: Stencil Techniques - AECP Journey

Today I have 2 new cards made for my latest class on my AECP journey and it's all about stencil techniques. This class was taught by the lovely Laurel Beard. I do really enjoy watching her videos...she is always so creative and very down to earth. This class she taught us several different ways to use our stencils...there are so many techniques you can do with these very unassuming but incredibly verstatile tools. Every crafter/card maker needs at least 1 or 5 of these in their craft toolbox and there are so many different ones out there as well!  Both of my cards use the same main stencil, Altenew's Mega Bloom, but have very different looks.

ETA...I have lost some photos, so some posts don;t have as many. 

This first one I cut down a piece of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock to 4.25"x5.5" and adhered the stencil to it, using some post it tape. The Post It tape is a low tack tape, that is great for adhering stencils to your paper or for masking off areas when watercolouring and/or ink blending, as when you remove the tape it comes off cleanly nor does it tear your paper. I then took 3 different colours of ink - Dew Drops, Aqualicious and Teal Cave and started blending using my blending brushes. I started with the lightest colour of the 3 at the top of the flower and blended down from there, to give it a soft ombre look. Once I was happy with my ink blending, I left the stencil in place as I was then going to add some Transparent Gloss Texture Paste over top, to give it some added dimension. Once that was all applied and I was happy with it, I removed the stencil and cleaned it off promptly. I was going to leave it as is, because once dried it has a lovely glossy sheen to it, however I felt that it needed a little bit more to it and this is where I made a bit of a oopsy, but noone will know but me...and you as well since I'm telling you.

So while it was still wet I wanted to take give it that little bit extra, so I sprinkled on some iridescent glitter...or at least what I thought was glitter lol. Well it turns out that Rangers Distress Stickles Clear Rock Candy glitter and WOW's Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Powder look EXACTLY the same. So I proceeded to sprinkle on the embossing powder (thinking it was glitter) and set it aside to dry. At least I've found another use for embossing powder if you don't want to get out your heat gun lol. The transparent gloss texture paste allows you to see through to the ink blending perfectly, even with the glitter/embossing powder. I left it to dry for 24 hours, so I knew for sure that it was completely dry. I trimmed a bit off both sides and top and bottom and added a strip of black and white diagonal paper from My Favorite Things. I then added the front panel to a white card base using foam tape and picked a sentiment from Altenew's Painted Butterflies stamp set. I added a thin strip of black cardstock to the sentiment strip, to tie in the black and white diagonal strip down the side.

All that was left was to pop up the sentiment on the card front using a piece of black foam tape and add a bit more sparkle to it, using my fave sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. I used a few of the sparkling clear and a few of which I cannot remember the name of (I really need to label them when I get them). And that's it! I wish you could see how pretty the sparkle is! You can see it a bit in the photo..it's a bit more subtle of a shimmer and perfect!

Card #2

My second card uses a few of the same supplies but delivers a different end result. I started again by adhering the stencil to my cardstock, but started off ink blending using only 1 colour to start with and for this I went with Rose Quartz ink. Once I was done with the first layer of ink blending I left the stencil in place and got out a second stencil, Elegant Swirls, to layer over top. I adhered that in place with tape and started ink blending with Puffy Heart.

 

I was pleasantly surprised when I removed the 2 stencils, as I wasn't too sure how it was going to look. It's definitely a bit different but a lovely look to the flower. I then adhered a small strip of the same black and white diagonal paper to the side and adhered the inked panel to the card base, I decided not to pop this one up using foam tape and kept it flush to the card base. I choose a sentiment from The Ton. I felt this sentiment was perfect for this flower, as it's definitely a bit different with its elegant swirls.

I  added the same little black strip to the sentiment to help it stand out and popped that up using foam tape. I added a few different sized sequins from the Ballerina mix from Lucys Little Things...they are the perfect soft pink and matched perfectly. I love the look with the stencil over top of the over one! Gives it a new and fresh look and makes the flower different in its own special and unique way. So many possibilities now to explore!

I love how although they are using the same stencil, they give you 2 different looks. There are so many more wonderful techniques that Laurel taught that I still need to try out! I'm definitely walking away from this class with more knowledge and arsenal in my stencil crafting book. I have many more things to try and make using them! It's all about trial and error too and the second card with the stenciling over top of the first was one of those cases. But it gave me an end result I was pretty happy with! So just go for it an dgive it a try! I learned some new techniques and also a new use for heat embossing powder without needing to heat it...who knew!

Thank you so much for stopping by today and spending a little bit of your day with me! I'd love to hear what you think of good or bad down below in the comments. Once again, thank you and until next time...take some time out to get crafty and have a great day!

Supplies Used:

• Altenew Mega Bloom stencil
• Altenew Elegant Swirls stencil
• Altenew Painted Butterflies stamp set
• Altenew Jet Black, Dew Drops, Aqualicious, Teal Cave, Rose Quartz and Puffy Heart inks
• The Ton Timeless Icons Sentiment stamp set
• Ranger Texture Paste Transparent Gloss
• WOW Embossing Powder Neutral Ultra Shimmer
• My Favorite Things Black & White Striped 6x6 paper pad
• Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb cardstock
• random white card base
• Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear and misc sequins
• Lucys Little Things Ballerina Mix sequins
• Taylored Expressions Blending Brushes
• 3M foam tape
• Misc. black foam tape
• Ranger Multi Medium Matte

You're my favourite person

You are definitely one of my favourite people if you get this card! I'm back with another card similar to yesterdays, but different. And I'm also linking this up to the card challenge over at Papercraft Challenges.

Pastel Hello

Hello and welcome back! Today I have a pretty pastel rainbow card to share! I've decided to play along with a few challenges today. Just Us Girls, Melissa's Fab Friday Feature, bastel-traum , Country View Challenges and Papercraft Challenges. 

Christmas in July

 I've decided to start joining in on more card challenges and what better one than Christmas in July! I'm joining in 2 challenges for this one....AAA Cards and ABC Christmas Challenge. Over at https://aaacards.blogspot.com/ the challenge for this week is made in a minute with the optional twist of Christmas in July and over at http://abcchristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/ it's all about no fuss or over the top Christmas cards.