Category Archives: ICAD2

Index Card A Day – #17

18 Monday Jun 2012

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This card was a very late at night one, so M didn’t play along, though she did make an awesome heart for her daddy covered in, of course, Twinkling H2O’s!

And naturally, she needed to write on the back:

For my card, I broke open my new Golden Heavy Body Acrylics and smeared them across my card, blending the colours so they weren’t so bright. Once that dried, I mixed the green into my light molding paste and spread it across the Pomegranate stencil, covering most of the card. The small spaces I had left, I covered with Coarse Pumice Gel which mixed with some of the green paint. Finally, I traced the letters from a Dylusions stencil and added touches to the card with my Stardust Pen.

So fun and shimmery, and I love that stencil! The dimension from the bits of Coarse Pumice Gel is awesome!

See you again tomorrow for another Tuesday Technique!

S.

Index Card A Day – #16

17 Sunday Jun 2012

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This card actually started at crop night Friday night and was finished yesterday morning. At the crop, one friend had The Crafter’s Workshop Layered Stars Stencil (I may need to own that one!) and another friend got a brand new quote set from Dyan Reaveley, The Right Words, which I *needed* to use!

So I spread a layer of matte multimedium over the card and layered a couple of scraps of book paper I had left over from another (unfinished) project, which I sealed with more medium. Then I used the star stencil and light molding paste, which I heated so it would bubble and get that awesome velvety look and feel. I coloured the top star with Distress Markers and smeared them around to blend a little, then stamped some script over pieces of the card. Finally, I stamped the quote, added a few mists of Dylusions Ink Spray and called it a night.

Yesterday morning, M wanted to paint with “the shiny pots,” aka my Creative Imaginations Twinkling H2O’s so I added layers of those to the, so far, boring card. And now it’s all good!

I wish I could photograph the shimmer of these paints, they’re really incredible! And I love the quote, that whole set has amazing sayings – I may *need* that as well! 🙂

I love how dimensional the stencilling turned out:

Look at those dots! But the best is the top star:

Look at all the rays shooting out! And the blended markers! Awesome…

I did buy a couple of new stencils at crop night and I’m itching to make use of them. Plus, I bought some Golden heavy body acrylic paints to mix with my molding paste so I think I’ll have some fun with that combo tonight!

Come back tomorrow and see how it all turns out!

S.

Index Card A Day – #15

16 Saturday Jun 2012

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Two cards again today – you are lucky people!

I used one of the prompts today, sort of! There was one that said to use coloured pencils on black gesso or paint. I’ve been meaning to break out my new colourful embossing powders form Stampin’ Up and use them on a dark background, and I’ve been meaning to try out a technique with stencils that Ali Edwards uses sometimes. This was day!

I painted my index card with black watercolour paints – it would have been acrylic but I don’t own black acrylic! Then I paid down my 12×12 Punchinella stencil and pressed my Versamark pad over it. Once I removed the stencil, I sprinkled three different coloured embossing powders over it, and finished off the few open spots with silver. I love how it turned out, though in the future, I would use a lot less and be more careful of the silver since it went everywhere! The card has a lot more shine than I anticipated!

My only problem now was how to add my sentiment… More embossing, I guess! And then, since I was on an embossing roll, I embossed my wood veneer bird, I didn’t want it to feel left out, after all!

See all that shine? In certain lights all you can see is silver!

M decided to use the same technique as she watched the whole process with very big eyes! She chose the stars from Punchinella and wanted all silver, I guess she likes shimmer as much as her Mama does! I held the stencil while she stamped the Versamark, then she sprinkled on the silver powder. After that there was a litle fight about who would heat up the powder.

I won. 🙂 But she watched very closely.

So this is the front:

And then she saw a brown napkin we had used yesterday to blot the water out of her paints and she wanted to add that too. Once it was on and dry, she didn’t want to add anything else over that either! So here’s the back:

I love it, though it did take me an hour or more to convince her to let me photograph it. She decided that she didn’t like people looking at her things, hahaha! As you can tell, she caved eventually – I think hearing from Nana that she loves to look at M’s cards on the computer did it!

See you tomorrow!

S.

Index Card A Day – #14

15 Friday Jun 2012

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M and I both made cards for yesterday but she was a little more specific about how she wanted hers to be than I was!

I stamped script in Hero Arts Mid-Tone Shadow ink, then added some Tissue Tape. Over that I layered paper towel (of course!). This one happened to be covered in bright Dylusons Ink Sprays so I tore it up and just added the pieces I wanted, since there was a lot of open white space I didn’t need.

I really liked the look of the vibrant colours and didn’t want to mess with it too much so I simply smeared some white gesso over a patch, stamped my sentiment, and added some extra texture and dimension with a stencil and Coarse Pumice Gel.

I love that Gel, it feels like sand and the kids can’t stop touching my card! 🙂

M did another beautiful watercolour but then wanted to mist over it. Since she has a hard time trying to push down on the mister (and I didn’t feel like D would appreciate hot pink and lime green on the ceiling) I helped her with that part. She picked the mists, put her finger on the nozzle, and pointed out the exact spot she wanted it to go (telling her mist doesn’t work that way fell on deaf ears), while I helped her push down and aimed the nozzle the right way.

It was a combo of Dylusions, Colour Wash, and Perfect Pearls and I think it looks pretty cool – it has some awesome shimmer IRL!

Back tomorrow with cards from both of us again!

In the meantime, who’s going to crop night? I can’t wait – see you there!

S.

Index Card a Day – #13

14 Thursday Jun 2012

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I taught a class on Distress Markers last night so when I got home and started to make my card, it only seemed natural to pull out the Distress Markers!

First, I scribbled a few reds and pinks on my craft mat and misted with water to make little puddles of colour. Then I dragged my card through the ink. I did a couple of layers like that but it was still pretty light due to the colours I was using so I misted the whole thing with Interference Red Perfect Pearls Mist..

I stamped some leaves in VersaMark and heat embossed in white. I then quickly and messily coloured in the leaves with two colours of green. I stamped the sentiment in Archival, knowing I would be misting again, and stamped a few hearts, then added some tissue tape.

It still needed something so I used my VersaMarker to colour the hearts and then dusted them with Plum Perfect Pearls and added a few details with my Stardust pen and Uniball White Signo Gel Pen. Finally, I misted the whole thing with Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mist and added Coarse Texture Gel over a script stencil.

It’s OK, not my fave but it’s another card under my belt! I do like how the stencil work turned out – I was impressed to get the detail with a coarse gel, and I like how the white pen highlighted the words. The Stardust pen adds a good sparkle too, though you can’t see that in the pics.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another card – and one from M too!

S.

Index Card a Day – #11 (part 2) & #12

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

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Because I was the hostess for Day 11 of Index Card A Day at Daisy Yellow, I made my card for that day early. So then I wanted to make another one…..and I did!

This one was all about playing with my paints. I blobbed on red, teal, and green, then used my palette knife to smear them around and scratch them up – you know, making texture! Once it dried I added a handwritten quote from Winnie the Pooh, who I guess would really be A.A. Milne! 🙂

M and G got new Lego minifigures and M cut up the paper that comes with them so I took one of the pieces to add. I wish I had seen the Lego Red Riding Hood in the cut up pile – she would have been perfect here!

Finally, I added some Pearl Metallic Paint to the edges and around the collage piece. Of course, my favourite part is the fun texture in the paint!

Yesterday was super busy and I didn’t get a chance to make a card until late at night but M got started early, wanting to make one with a Lego figure herself. She did her favourite trick of painted around the edges of the card, all the way to the middle, then she used Matte Glue n’ Seal to adhere the Lego man – one on front, one on back (I forgot to get a pic of the back – sorry!)

When I finally got a chance to do mine, I started with a layer of Distress Ink which I then flicked with water to get light splotches – love that trick! I layered a piece of paper towel, then covered the whole thing with Gloss Multimedium, making the ink waterproof. I tried a stencil technique with metallic paint but it was a bust so most of that came off but still left a shimmer behind. I also heat set everything at that point, since the card was pretty waterlogged, and overheat the paper towel so it would bubble a little.

Over all of that I stamped my Mixed Media stamps, a clock, and some Ali Edwards sentiments. A misted wood veneer camera to finish it off and I was done… or not! I had bright pink overspray on my craft sheet (criminal for that to go to waste!) so I wiped it up on the edges of the card – definitely done now!

I’m hoping to get my 12 on Twelve post up today but it will either be late, or tomorrow!

Remember, Distress Marker class at The Paperie tonight – it’s not to late to sign up and come for the fun!

S.

Index Card A Day – #9 & #10

11 Monday Jun 2012

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So, I’m going a little backwards here but I was so busy last night getting the post done for this morning that I didn’t have a chance to do day 9 and, since I’m here, I may as well do both days together!

Day #9

My mojo, as I mentioned, left me this past weekend and I had some major trouble doing anything that didn’t resemble sludge on a card. This one was sludge on a card. Really. I did some misting and stencilling and it was a disaster. I’m learning though, that nasty base layers make for good dimension and interest when buried beneath good layers! And in this case the good layer was some used paper towels that came to my rescue, like the napkins did a few days ago!

You can see some of the stencilling peeking through above the car… Anyway, I slapped on one ply of paper towel, randomly added some stamping, and then, because I was trying to get past my alphabet stamp block, I stamped all my letters and cut them out for the quote. I love Dr. Seuss! The blue stamp on the bottom was done with acrylic paint and the car is a wood veneer shape from Studio Calico. All stamps are Stamper’s Anonymous for Ranger, except the cheap alpha stamps.

The final step was a mist of Perfect Pearls in Perfect Pearl colour.

I love how it turned out – bright, fun, textural, and Dr.Seuss – you can’t go wrong!

Day #10

This card stated with the same base as Day #11 did and again, you can see the letters poking through, I love that!

I used a mask and mist, some Dylusions Stamps (the house was borrowed from a friend but I may have to have the set!) and of course, an Ali Edwards sentiment – she really is the best! Coloured in with Distress Markers and smudged with my finger – love the soft look that gave! – and added tissue tape to the edges which I painted with Gold Adirondack Metallic Paint Dabber.

I really played with the gesso and I love the texture and dimensional aspect it gave the card! This is one of my favourites so far, and it started out as one I almost threw away – yikes!

Still loving this challenge and the inspiration from Instagram and Flickr – people are doing amazing work our there!

See you tomorrow for more stencil fun!

S.

Index Card A Day – #11

11 Monday Jun 2012

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Good morning everyone! Are you all shocked at my early morning post? 🙂 There’s a good reason for it – I’m today’s hostess for the Index Card A Day challenge at Daisy Yellow!

For those of you who frequent here to read my ramblings – welcome back, I love to have you here everyday! For those of you who are hopping over from Tammy’s blog – welcome! I hope you find this crazy insight into my process entertaining if nothing else, and that you find something here that inspires you a little!

Onto the card…

My prompt was alphabet stamps, can you tell? Yeah, me neither – it was a journey to get here, let me tell you!

When Tammy asked me to host a day and I chose alphabet stamps as my prompt, I was super excited! I love my alpha stamps, easy peasy…. or not. Pressure people, I felt pressure, and my mojo ran away, tail between its legs. Seriously, it was a bad scene – I won’t subject you to the initial reject cards, you might never come back and that would make me sad. 😦

Finally yesterday I said, “Enough! Pull up your big girl panties, Sara, and just do it already!” Ok, then.

And here’s how it started:

See, a great base of letters – awesome! And then a thin layer of gesso, smooshed around and scraped a bit for texture:

So far, so good! A bit of dimension, letters happening, I have a great quote in mind to stamp out, on a roll people, I was on a roll! I misted:

And tried a ghosting technique:

Hmmmmm….

Let’s do away with that! Mist and wipe:

OK, I’ll make it work. Add some more mist:

And blot:

Ok, I like the colours, you can still see the letters; better. Now, to add the quote:

My teeny, tiny alphas, then my favourite Lawn Fawn alphas:

Finish with my well-used $1.50 set:

Now the fun stuff – Twinkling H2O’s!

Paint the edges:

Still not working for me. Argh.

Tissue paper and multimedium to the rescue!

As you can tell, at this point I was determined to make this thing work, even if it ended up with 37 layers of stuff!

More twinkling H2O’s – lots of it! I love that shimmer!

Add some shimmery painted hearts:

We’re getting somewhere, and I can still see the alpha stamps under all those layers! This is good, my friends!

And then, I got “help”:

AKA: no more pictures!

I simply added the last line of the quote to my card, adhered the hearts and called it done! I love the texture:

…and in real life, you can see all the layers peeking through, including all those alpha stamps!

The moral of this story, the alphabet stamps were a prompt – and they prompted me to layer. Without them, I wouldn’t have the depth or texture I have on the finished card and so, I’m happy. The shimmer is a.maz.ing. And the colours are incredible – I couldn’t take a picture that did them justice. They are so vibrant it’s ridiculous!

And that quote? It’s Audrey Hepburn:

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m Possible!'”

Meet me here tomorrow (at a more reasonable hour of the day!)  for the next instalment of the Tuesday Techniques – Stencil series. We’re playing with paint – yay!

S.

Index Card A Day – #8

09 Saturday Jun 2012

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I’m going to show you M’s index card first today. It’s beautiful, colourful striped lines, so pretty.

Then she broke out the scissors:

Hmmmm.

“Why did you cut it apart?” I asked.

“Because I wanted to.”

To which I replied, “But for me to take a picture and post it, you need a full card.”

“Why?” says she, “It’s my card, I can do what I want.”

Oh, so true! So that was her card for June 8. I kept all the pieces and put them in our little box where we stash our cards.

Then, my friend Lori stopped by with some new Studio Calico masks – you know I had to try them out!

I mixed some Chipped Sapphire Distress Stain with Light Modeling Paste and smeared it over one of the masks. While it was drying I painted the word Friday, left over from some class prep.

I wanted a little more colour so I painted around some of the circles of modeling paste. Blerg.

Sprayed it a lot to dilute the orange circles, then I heavily sprayed the whole thing with Mandarin Perfect Pearls Mist. Better. But it still needed something….

M’s strips! I layered one under the word and called it done!

Not my most exciting card ever, but it’s a day done and it’s got pieces of me and M. 🙂 Plus, it’s super shimmery IRL!

And I do like the texture, it almost looks and feels like velvet… sweet!

S.

Index Card A Day – #7

08 Friday Jun 2012

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So, those of you who have been reading my blog know that lately I’ve been loving my my mom’s sewing machine. Earlier this week she came and took it away – to make curtains! Really, Mom, curtains? My paper crafting is soooooo much more important! 😉

Anyway, the day she came to make me cry borrow take back her sewing machine, I ran downstairs and did a quick stitch around an index card so I’d have one to play with – yesterday was the day!

I misted the card with water, rubbed Distress Stains over it, then misted with water again to make them blend even more. It’s a small miracle the card didn’t simply disintegrate under that much abuse. And I’m wasn’t finished with it yet!

I took mercy and dried the card after all that, then laid down a stencil and misted with Bronze Perfect Pearls Mist. Heat set again. I stamped the butterflies and words in Cobalt Archival Ink and the swirls (an old, old Fancy Pants set) in Coffee Archival Ink and called it done.

I love how the misting turned out – in some lights you see a small shimmer, in other lights you really see the bronze pattern. And Archival Ink is becoming a new love – I have an order placed for a bunch of new colours – yay!

I also like how the stitching turned out to be a textural component rather than a frame, as I initially intended – love when things turn out different but better than planned!

M spent most of yesterday with Nana (the sewing machine thief) baking brownies, playing with her new toys, and watching TV so an index card was pretty low on her list of priorities, we’ll see what today brings!

S.