Index Card A Day – #38

11 Wednesday Jul 2012

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I made this background a while back while showing my mom the Dylusions Ink Sprays and a stencil. I misted turquoise, blue, lime green, and orange and let them blend then dry.

Once dry, I sprayed hot pink through the stencil which made purple on the blue part of the card. I also used water for a ghosting technique and then covered the whole thing with Perfect Pearls Mist.

I stamped the house and sentiment on another misted background I had done and cut out all the pieces. With the house, I cut each layer of the roof apart and cut open the door on one side. When I pieced it all back together again, I only glued the tops of each roof piece and then bent them out for dimension. I also let the door swing open.

The stars were simply painted with gold Twinkling H2O’s and adhered.

I love these painty, blendy looking backgrounds and Dylusions mix to make the most amazing colours! I love the “shingles” on the roof too – fun, fun!

See you tomorrow for a few more!

S.

Index Card A Day – #37

11 Wednesday Jul 2012

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A while back I saw a tutorial using Ranger Foil Tape and alcohol inks. I loved the concept and kept meaning to try it but….. You know how it goes!

However, my friend Cathie gave it a spin and then did a couple of other things with tin foil and I knew I had to just go do it!

I used Matte multi medium to adhere tin foil to a cad (basically, I was too lazy to go downstairs and look for my Foil Tape!) and let it dry. I then used my Twinkling H2O’s to paint the surface. Although you can’t see the shimmer, the colours are fabulous!

I used a couple of stencils and Dylusions Ink sprays to add some additional interest and finished it by adding a Cosmo Cricket sticker.

It was super hard to get a pic of the texture, shine, and colour – crossing my fingers that you can see it well enough!

Easy and fun and I have a couple of other ideas for foil tape. Hopefully it won’t take so long to get around to doing them this time!

S.

Index Card A Day – #36

11 Wednesday Jul 2012

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I’m a bit behind on posting my index cards so there will be a few posts today – hope you enjoy!

I’ve had an idea for this card in my head for a while but was waiting on my wood veneer stars to arrive before I did it. It’s pretty simple but I love the shades of blue and purple.

My oldest and best friend and I took our kiddies to the beach for this past wet and grey weekend and I made this card while I was there so I had limited supplies with me but I’m happy with how it all came together.

I painted the background with my cheapy watercolour paints, which I love, and used lots of water and shades to really blend it together. I didn’t want any lines, just a gradual fade into the darker colours of blue and purple.

Once it dried I misted Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist over my mini Pomegranate stencil. As an aside, that stencil is the best! It’s so versatile and seems to work with and be whatever you want – love it!

Anyway…. I then painted the stars with Metallic Gold Paint Dabber, then sprayed those and the Chitchat word stickers with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist. I had to stamp the word “star” but there is some extra sticky paper left on the Chitchat word sheets so I just used that. I adhered it all to the card and inked the edges to finish it off.

I love the sparkle of the mist and the little bit of dimension from the stars:

What do you think of the stencil? Looks like sky/comet/galaxy/space stuff to me! Do I need the 12×12 version, what do you all think?

Back soon with another one – I had to try a fun material my friend Cathie has been using! 😉

S.

Tuesday Techniques – Dylusions Ink Sprays

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

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Before I start I just want to say that this will be the last Tuesday Technique post this summer. The weather is beautiful, we’re always outside, and I simply don’t have the time to blog like I want to right now! Hope you all understand – things will get back to normal in the fall! We have so little great weather here that I feel the need to take full advantage while it’s nice!

Moving along…

You should all know my love of Dylusions Ink sprays by now, I do use them once in a while! 😉 So, I decided to do a quick little tutorial on how to use and layer them to build backgrounds. All you need are your Ink Sprays:

…and some water!

Dylusions work best for the techniques I’ll be showing you as they were made to react and play with water for neat effects.

First, pick your colours and randomly, but heavily, mist your surface:

I always mist with water and roll paper towel over it after the initial step. This will blend the colours a little more and take off the excess water while subduing the vibrancy a bit. Remember, we’re going for a background here, it needs to be a little more subtle!

The next step is to lay a stencil over the misted surface and spray with water.

Since the Ink Sprays react, the stencil creates a ghost like image to appear. Don’t worry if it doesn’t show up immediately when you try this, it takes a second for the water and ink to react and as the surface dries, the ghosted image becomes more pronounced.

Finally, after drying what’s been done so far, I spatter mist on top to get coloured droplets. All I do is remove the top of the bottle and shake the tube of ink over the surface – instant drops instead of mist!

I almost always finish my bright backgrounds with black stamped images – they stand out better and they make the colours pop. For the lighter images, I rub the ink pad over the stamp instead of properly inking up the stamp. You get a second generation look without having to stamp off first.

Hope you enjoyed this last tag of the summer and I hope you stick around for my erratic postings over the next month or so!

As always, please link me up to your projects – I’d love to see what you create!

S.

Index Card A Day – #35

07 Saturday Jul 2012

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I had totally planned to use my new wood veneer stars for this card but then I got an idea in my head for my new stamp and went with it.

I first painted my card with Golden Heavy Body Acrylic Paint in Mars Black. Once that dried I stamped the background and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I knocked off a  lot of powder before heating to get an orange peel type of texture.

Finally, I simply coloured in the open flower spaces with my Koh-i-noor watercolour pencils and misted with water to blend a little.

Love how it turned out and I decided to leave it alone – no quote or sentiment this time! And the shiny texture is great!

I’m determined to use those stars tonight….. 🙂

S.

Index Card A Day – #34

06 Friday Jul 2012

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I got some crafty stuff in the mail and I wanted to try out the new ink colours – that’s how this started but it definitely went it’s own way after that!

I began by using matte medium to glue and seal old book paper to my index card. Then I stamped a Tim Holtz Mixed Media stamp with four different vibrant Archival Inks.  However, right before stamping I noticed that the text on the book paper said, “I love you.” and “I love you too.” That was too good to cover so I masked it off. Once the stamping was done and the masks removed I liked it but…..whatever.

So I took an old paper towel, cut out holes for the text and glued that over the whole thing. You can still see the stamping beneath but it makes it all a little more cohesive though darker than I wanted. Oh well! 🙂

Finally, I did some stamping, lucked into the phrases being the exact right distance apart for my stamps, and added a wood veneer heart.

There was no way I was getting a good picture of the texture but I heat set the paper towel which made it bubble up and it’s very cool.

I plan to use the tiny little wood veneer stars for my next card – let’s hope it goes as planned!

S.

Things on Thursday

05 Thursday Jul 2012

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1. The Canada Day long weekend was fabulous. Truly. I’m used to having RDF for Canada Day due to capelin weather so the sun and high temps were a welcome change!

And now I can picture some of you saying, “RDF? Capelin weather? What?” 🙂

RDF is rain, drizzle, and fog and we usually get lots of it late June and early July. We call it capelin weather because that cool, overcast weather is what causes the capelin to roll. Capelin are little fish, good to eat but tedious because of all the bones, that roll in from the ocean onto the beaches to spawn. With all those little fish rolling in, the whales come too, chasing food. It’s fun times and the beaches are swarming with people catching dinner!

D took the kiddies out a couple of weekends ago to Middle Cove Beach. M thought they were “disgusting” and wouldn’t touch them (ha!) but G picked up as many as he could and threw them back in, dead or alive!

2. As I sit here typing this I’m hearing a wonderful sound for the first time this year – the ice cream truck! When we moved in 5 years ago and I was very pregnant  with M, I was beyond thrilled to see it and must have looked like a lunatic skipping out to the truck with my enormous belly!

3. Last weekend we went to Central NL and spent the weekend at my in-laws cabin on the lake. This weekend my best and oldest friend (we met when we were 6 and have been together ever since!) are taking the kiddies to my family’s cabin on the beach. The weather is calling for rain, boo, but we’re going regardless. And darn it, we will have fun and we will play on the beach!

This pic is from last year, G is missing though he did go and you can see the craziness we get up to. Crimping iron, anyone?

4. We recently discovered that a little girl just a year older than M is our backyard neighbour. Since her dad is redoing the fence we’ve been talking and have all decided to put in a gate. This means easy access for the two girls and a lot less whining filling my day! For the other girl’s dad, who works nights, it means a little uninterrupted sleep during the day while she plays with and entertains M. A win-win in my book!

5. We had a special visitor today. A few of my girlfriends and I placed a Simon Says Stamp order and Krista showed up this morning to pick up her stuff. And she brought Eugene, her 6 month old cocker spaniel. To say he was a hit with the kids and vice versa is an understatement! They were all wired up to say the least, and I imagine Eugene slept most of the afternoon away! We’re hoping for a return visit soon so he can play in the sprinkler! 🙂

6. As you all know, I’ve been doing an Index Card A Day. One of the women in the Flickr group does the most incredible doodles and did this one of the American Flag. I loved it and commented that she should do a Canadian one for me – and she did, right in time for Canada Day! Isn’t it amazing?

S.

Index Card A Day – #32 & #33

04 Wednesday Jul 2012

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First of all – Happy Fourth of July to all the Americans celebrating out there – enjoy the food, the fireworks, and the fun!

Onto the cards!

Day 32

This started out with a layer of light molding paste over a new stencil which was misted with red and yellow when it dried. To blend the colours I just sprayed some plain water.

Once the card was completely dry, I stamped (and stamped off) some leaves and added the quote. Then I cut out 6 different sections with my Fiskars fingertip knife and added some book paper and old paper towels behind the open spaces. Love how it turned out!

The most fun thing about this? The translucency of the paper towel – very cool when held up to the light!

Oh, and the true colour of the card is more like this one!

Day 33

I finally decided to try my hand at a mandala. I’ve always thought they look incredible and one woman I follow on Instagram, Emily Lagore, does amazing ones. Here’s my, very imperfect and non symmetrical, take on a mandala:

Considering this was my first attempt ever, I’ve really happy with how this turned out!

When M saw my “pretty flower” she wanted to make one too! As always, she was very specific as to where the mist should be sprayed and once it dried, she drew everything herself. I told her to draw an “x” and then a plus sign so she had 4 intersecting lines, and I gave her ideas like, draw circles in the pie pieces, or dots all around the outside, but she came up with everything else herself. I think she did an awesome job!

I got a fun little package in the mail today with new ink pads and fun stars so I’m sure some of that will make it on today’s card! Come back and see it tomorrow!

S.

Index Card A Day – #31

03 Tuesday Jul 2012

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Since this was Canada Day, I wanted to actually do a themed card and do something about Canada. That being said, I didn’t want to just do a flag.

We spent time at one of the National Parks on the day and had cupcakes which had, luckily for me, flags stuck in them! I say this is lucky because I wanted to add a maple leaf to my card and I can’t draw one to save my life. It’s really pathetic…

Anyway, I misted some red, cut out and adhered the maple leaf, sprayed the whole thing with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist and let it dry. I added the words but it still needed something.

I pulled out my Golden Light Molding Paste and smeared it over a new stencil. Just enough to add that touch I wanted!

Not too flag-like but still very Canadian!

I love the Golden Molding Paste – very soft and almost velvety. It adds a bit of texture without being too much:

I hope all you Canadians had a fabulous long weekend – here in NL we actually had wonderful sunny and warm weather! To any Americans who may pop by here, enjoy the Fourth!

See you tomorrow for some more cards, plus a weekend recap if I get a chance to edit some pics. I also will have a Paperie Pick post later this week and am getting ready to go away for the weekend again – going to be a busy one!

S.

Index Card A Day – #29 & #30

03 Tuesday Jul 2012

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I was away for the Canada Day long weekend so I won’t have a Tuesday Technique post for you today – sorry if you were looking for it! I’ll be back next week with something new!

I did manage to keep up with my index cards while I was lazing away at the cabin though! 🙂

Day 29

This was a background left over from when I was working on my alphabet stamps card. It had previously been stamped and gessoed over, then left. I liked the background but it didn’t work for the cards I was doing at that time so I saved it. I kept it pretty simple since I had minimal supplies with me – a few stamps, some mist, and stickers.

I really wanted to play with the Dylusions house stamps, since I finally broke down and bought them, and my Distress Markers, since I love the way they play with gesso, but when I went to get them, they were at home. Hmmmmm….

So I misted some colours on my craft mat and grabbed my paintbrush. Luckily, it worked! I simply painted the grassy hill and the houses, let that dry, then misted some Perfect Pearls and added some Chitchat stickers.

I like how the mist worked, though it took forever to dry, and I love the background of letters. Plus, those little houses are the cutest! There’s also the appearance of great texture from the gesso but it’s actually pretty smooth IRL.

Day 30

My last card for the month is super simple. I sprayed some mist on my craft sheet, misted with Perfect Pearls to tone down the colours and make them even more fluid, then painted them on, taking care to blend them together. I used a Tim Holtz stamp and a Jillibean Soup label sticker.

Definitely not my fave of the series, but it’s another one done! I’ll be back later with the first one for July – Canada Day!

S.