Inspired By All The Little Things #48

I am a little slow this week getting things finished for all of the challenges I want to participate in but I need to get this particular show on the road as I only have a matter of hours left to participate over at the Inspired By All The Little Things Challenge Blog.

The image on the left reminds me of a setting sun in an evening sky with all the different colors. For my card, I used Distress Oxide Inks in Faded Jeans, Broken China, Wilted Violet, Fossilized Amber and Peeled Paint to create my evening sky background. The colors aren't as deep as in the picture, but I really like how it turned out. Truthfully, it is hard to get Distress Oxide to be as dark as one would want because there are only 12 colors so far and once you mist it with water or whatever solution, the oxidation starts which is what makes these inks blend so well.

Once I had the background panel finished, I used Hero Arts Unicorn White Spray to spritz on top of an acrylic block and then spattered it on to my card base for the starry sky using a Silver Black Velvet Brush in size 4. Since I was putting a Vellum panel over the top, I didn't get too excited about placement of the spatter and it was easy to do.



I stamped the vellum panel with a sentiment and the shooting star from WPLUS9's Lucky Stars Stamp Set. The sentiment is heat embossed in Hero Arts White Embossing Powder and the shooting star is done in Metallic Platinum Sparkle Embossing Powder from WOW!.  I cut a few stars from Silver Glitter Paper to accent and placed them around in a visual triangle, which also gave me a place to hide a bit of adhesive behind the vellum panel. I attached everything to a top folding card base made from Papertrey Ink's Aqua Mist Cardstock.  This was really quick to pull together and is a perfect card to send to one of your friends.

I hope you have a fantastic Friday everyone.  Thanks so much for stopping by to visit today.

AAA Cards Challenge - Ink Blending

Recently I made a card during Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire 2016 that was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night".  I've made a couple of night sky cards before but I've mailed both of them which means I don't have any more to send out until I make some.  Night skies are a fantastic way to practice and play with ink blending techniques to find out what you like and what works best for you. It is also a really good way to find out how the inks you are using behave when they come in contact with water. Distress Inks are formulated specifically to react whenever they come in contact with water.  Most inks are designed not to react once you've let them dry or you heat set them.

While I have done a bit of playing previously, I really wanted to sit and play with different types of watercolor paper, different types of ink and lots of water vs. very little water and everything in between.  The challenge this week over at AAA Cards was just the thing I needed to entice me to take extra time out to do this today.  I actually made four of these cards but the two I feature first are my favorites although I'm happy with all of them.

For the background panels I made, I used a combination of Distress Inks, Simon Says Stamp Inks, and Papertrey Inks and for the silhouette of the trees and hills I used Hero Arts Black Ink.  I was realizing today how intense their black ink is but when I went to get a refill, I couldn't find one.  The Hero Hues Black Ink provided superior coverage on my watercolor paper.  I was using the Direct to Paper (DTP) method with a corner of the ink pad for the hills, and I stamped the trees in the same ink with the Altenew Pine Trees Stamp.  I got it specifically to use on this type of card.  I also have the small Winter Cottage Stamp Set which I think was a gift with purchase last year around Christmas & New Year's and I plan to try that on this same type of card in the future.

This first card used Simon Says Stamp Island Blue Ink which is the closest color I've found to SU!'s Pacific Point. I combined it with Ocean Tides, Hibiscus Burst, Seedless Preserves, and Chipped Sapphire around the perimeter. The card base is made from Bazzill Whirlypop Cardstock.

The second card uses Wilted Violet, Seedless Preserves, Ocean Tides, Hibiscus Burst, and Royal Velvet.  I have a friend who is a photographer in North Pole, Alaska and she has hundreds of images of the Northern Lights.  This is so like what she captures that I am going to send this card to her.  All of these cards feature the Inspired: Faith Stamps and Dies from Papertrey Ink.  The card bases are made from Papertrey Ink's Royal Velvet Cardstock.

The last two cards used the same color combinations as the first two with one difference; I used Pine Feather instead of Ocean Tides.

I used Canson Bristol, Fabriano, Arches Hot Pressed and Arches Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper, applying ink with a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool.  I used both circular motions and back and forth "scrubbing" type of motions.  The paper is not as heavy or as thick as the other 3 but also doesn't hold as much water. The Canson Bristol paper would pill much easier than the others but since I knew this going in, I didn't over work it.  And really, since you are going to spray water on the whole thing to let the colors move and blend, it doesn't really matter how smoothly the ink is blended initially.  Especially in the case of Distress Inks, the inks blend effortlessly.  The hard part is waiting for that to dry once you've misted it.

That said, I really liked how much easier it was to get this depth of color on the Canson Bristol which is a 96# paper. In other words, it took less ink to get the same results as the 140# papers. I could spray the 140# papers with more water, but it also took more time to dry. I liked the Hot Pressed and Bristol papers the most but this was not a surprise to me. I most often use the Canson Bristol in the other things I make and if I need a paper to hold more water, my preference is for the Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper.  It is incredibly smooth for watercolor paper. This is totally personal preference.  Don't let any one opinion decide what is the right thing for you.  You really just need to experiment to find what works for you and what you like.

Once I had all of my background panels made, I spritzed the paper with Tsukineko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Spritz and set it aside to dry one last time before assembling my cards.  I attached the background using my ATG Adhesive.  The "Faith" words were die cut from Stamper's Select White Cardstock and the sentiments were all heat embossed using Versamark Ink and WOW! Opaque Bright White Super Fine Embossing Powder.  I adhered a few Darice Tiny Silver Star Sequins with Multi Medium Matte to finish off my cards.

I'll also be entering the second card at Stampin' Royalty for their "Anything Goes" challenge.

Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my blog.  I really appreciate it when you take the time to leave such nice and encouraging comments.  I hope you'll be inspired to sit and experiment with your own inks and some watercolor paper.

Birthday Wishes Among the Stars

This week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Challenge Blog the theme is to "Add Some Texture". The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog is "Anything Goes".  I'll be entering this card in both challenges.

We learned a night sky technique during last weekend's Stamp-A-Faire event at Papertrey Ink but I've been doing mine a bit differently so here's the details on how I do one.

To start you need a panel of good quality watercolor paper. My panels have been cut down to 4.5 x 6 inches.  I normally use Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper, but this technique uses much more water and needs to be able to hold the water a bit longer so I used Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper for this technique.  The Hot Pressed Paper is much smoother than cold pressed. Lots of folks like the texture of the cold pressed.  I just don't happen to be one of them.  I have some cold pressed paper as well, but it is my last choice rather than 1st or 2nd choice.

Select some inks in night sky colors such as a deep Blue, Green, and Purple and with a touch of a medium toned pink. Using a Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool apply liberal amounts of the Deep Blue color all the way around the edge.  The one I used here is Enchanted Evening from Papertrey Ink.  You can get pretty heavy handed for this part. Once I started working on the inside of the panel, I used Pine Needles (Distress Ink), Amethyst Allure and a touch of Hibiscus Burst both from Papertrey Ink.  I could have used Papertrey's Pine Feather rather than Pine Needles Distress Ink.  I applied those colors really randomly on the inside areas using a back and forth motion rather than blending in circles. I switch back and forth adding a couple of areas for each of those three colors and adding a bit more of the Enchanted Evening here and there as well. It's all going to be misted with water and I'm doing heavy coverage so I don't need to be as careful about marks showing up on the panel. Once I have all the color on there in a way that I like, I mist the whole panel with a liberal amount of water and set it aside to dry. You want it to be wet, but not dripping wet. Because I used better quality watercolor paper, it will hold the water in there a bit longer and do a great job of blending the different inks seamlessly for me.  You just have to leave it alone and let the water do the work for you.

I drew in the silhouette of some hills at the bottom of my panel and since my little set of Altenew's Pine Trees had arrived, I used it to stamp the tree silhouettes which did work a bit better than my hand drawn ones on the previous version.  I did okay with the Zig Pen that one time since it was only a silhouette, but stamping them in Versafine Black Onyx Ink was faster and easier.  This is a little mini stamp set available from Altenew in their store or over at Simon Says Stamp.

Next I went in with some Finetec Mica Watercolor Paint in Sterling Silver and added splatters for added texture and interest to the background. I did forget to cover my trees and hills, but it's just not that noticeable. While that was still damp, I took a pinch of WOW! Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Powder and sprinkled it over my night sky then heat set it.  Then I spritzed the whole panel with Tsukineko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Spritz and let it dry once more.  At this point, the panel was very damp all the way through so I left it alone until the next morning.  I knew I was going to be doing heat embossing for my greeting, so I needed to be sure the paper was good and dry.

Normally for a card that I am making only one of, I wouldn't bother getting the MISTI out, but because of the added texture on the background panel from the embossing powder, I didn't know if I could get a good impression from the Mama Elephant Birthday Wishes Greeting on the first try so I did use my MISTI so I could Double Stamp in Versamark.  I am so glad I did this because it did not stamp cleanly the first time and needed that second layer of Versamark to get a clean image.  I used WOW! Metallic Platinum Sparkle Embossing Powder to heat set my greeting and the front panel was finished.  I cut it using the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Die and then adhered that to an A2 Top Folding Card made from Enchanted Evening Cardstock.  I also cut a panel of Stamper's Select White from the same Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Die for the inside of my card. I used the new Background Basics: Galaxy to heat emboss the stars across the inside panel.  I love that the stamp is large enough to go across the panel on the diagonal.  I used the same WOW! Metallic Platinum Sparkle Embossing Powder as I did for the outside sentiment.  I adhered both panels to my card base with my ATG adhesive.  My Simon Says Stamp Stiched Rectangles Dies are my absolute MOST used dies.  They never get put away and in fact are always on my table right next to my die cutting machine.  They make an appearance on 95% of my cards and have been a very good investment for me.

For the finishing touch, I took several Darice Silver Star Sequins and placed them randomly on the front panel and a few on the inside panel using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

My husband's birthday is tomorrow and this card is for him.  He loved the card I did for Stamp-A-Faire last weekend and I was having trouble before then figuring out what to do for his birthday card.  He made it easy for me at least this time.

Happy Sunday everyone!  We have a beautiful day here in Oklahoma.  Today is the anniversary of my first blog post 1 year ago.  Since then I have done 209 posts, counting this one.  I'll have a new project up soon, so be sure to check back.  I treasure every comment you take the time to leave for me.