Happy 2014 Graduation!! A Proud Day for our Family :-)

Hi Stampers!!

This weekend, my husband and I had the privilege of celebrating the milestone of my twin niece’s Home School HS graduation! 

What wonderful, godly young ladies they have both become and we are so blessed to have them in our lives!  We still remember the days when they were young (seems like yesterday) and cannot believe how fast the time has flown by…  We love them so and are thankful that they were able to be taught by so many talented women- what a testimony!  Now they are off to a well known four year university and we are looking forward to seeing how the Lord will work in their lives!

Since they are twins, I decided to create the same basic card and used the Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate along with acrylic paints and a Parisian Embossing Folder :-)  The colors they chose were Silver, Black and Purple (I did not have any Purple Acrylic Paint so mixed Burgundy with Black :-))

Again, I had the Splitcoaststampers Mix-Ability MIX26 Stencils Challenge on my mind and will share a third card design with the same folder (different sentiment that could apply to graduation as well).

Again, I hope you will take the time to check out the Splitcoaststampers Mix-AbilityChallenge site to see the fantastic samples of the Design Teams and other entrants. 

The basic steps to the cards:

Use the Big Shot™ with the Sizzix™ Tim Holtz® Textured Fades™ Eiffel Tower Embossing Folder to emboss a piece of Whisper White cardstock and set aside (for use in a few minutes).

Apply a few drops of silver acrylic paint onto the Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate and use a Brayer to thinly spread the paint but make sure it is thick enough not to dry too quickly. 

Lay down a piece of Watercolor Paper over the printing plate (this card was created using a scrap piece of the Watercolor Paper), smooth with the brayer or your hand to cover the paper and carefully peel away from the plate.  Reapply the silver paint and continue with a few more prints.

As you can see, each card has different variations of color, so just like my twin nieces, they are not exactly the same :-)

Apply a few drops of Soft Black, Burgundy and Soft White Acrylic Paints and smooth with the brayer to mix the paint.  Lay the embossed piece of Whisper White cardstock over the paint, smooth with your hand or a brayer, lift up and set aside for use again.

Lay the silver side of the Watercolor Paper onto the printing plate, smooth with your hand or brayer and lift up (the raised areas of the embossing piece should show against the silver paint).

Once the initial panels were finished and dry (you can use a Heat Tool to speed up the drying process), re-insert the printed piece back into the same embossing folder that was used as the “stencil” and re-emboss using the Big Shot™.

Apply another thin layer of SilverPaint onto the printing plate and roll the paint from the Brayer onto the original Whisper White embossed panel (the one that was used as the “stencil” and is now covered with paint from the steps above) – this way you can use the original embossing panels as well as the print panels- nothing is wasted!!

After all of the panels are dry, if needed, add a bit of Blackberry Bliss Classic using the AquaPainter™ and dry with the Heat Tool.   Gently rub the Silver and Gold Encore™ Pigment ink pads across the top of the embossing to give the panel even more of a metallic look.  Trim the panel and apply to a layer of Blackberry Bliss cardstock and again onto a layer of Basic Gray cardstock.

Using My Digital Studio (MDS) insert the stamp brush sentiment from Go Graduate Plus, create a mask using a square punch (fill with Whisper White) to cover the words below the main sentiment and print out onto Whisper White cardstock.

Use the Big Shot™ with the Chalk Talk Framelits™ to cut out the sentiment and also cut another piece of Blackberry Bliss cardstock.  Layer the two and mount onto the card front using Stampin’ Dimensionals®.

Add the Basic Gray Satin Ribbon bow to the corner of the sentiment and mount the entire panel onto the Blackberry Bliss card base.

Use the Big Shot™ along with the Typeset Alphabet Bigz™ Die to cut out the numbers from Basic Gray and Blackberry Bliss cardstock. 

Offset layer onto one another and add to the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals®.  Add a few Rhinestones to finish off the card (a girl has to have a few diamonds, right?) :-)

Stamp Sets: Go Graduate Plus (MDS version)

Ink: Printer Ink- Black, Encore™ Pigment Ink- Silver, Gold, Acrylic Paints- Silver,  Soft Black, Burgundy, Soft White, Classic Ink- Blackberry Bliss

Paper: Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss, Basic Gray, Watercolor (card #3- Midnight Muse)

Accessories: Big Shot™, Chalk Talk Framelits™, Typeset Alphabet Bigz™, Sizzix™ Tim Holtz® Texture Fades™ Eiffel Tower Embossing Folder, Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate, Brayer, Basic Gray Satin Ribbon, Rhinestones

Third card created with same folder- used Midnight Blue Classic Ink and Paint as well as Blackberry Bliss and sentiment from Loving Thoughts, plus a bit of Blackberry Bliss Stitched Satin Ribbon and piece of retired Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware :-) 

Thanks again for visiting- I hope all of you have a fabulous Sunday!

MIX26 More Fun with Creating Faux Metal Background Panels :-)

Hi Again Stampers!!

Here are a few more of the background panels I created with my new Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate (along with some old acrylic paints I had on hand and various embossing folders).   

These two cards were created with the same embossing folder- both were created for the Splitcoaststampers Mix-Ability MIX26 Stencils Challenge and one also utilizes the Nacho Average NAC91 Sketch Challenge (sentiment on opposite side).

Again, I hope you will take the time to check out each challenge site to see the fantastic samples of the Design Teams and other entrants. 

The basic steps to create both cards:

Use the Big Shot™ with the Sizzix™ Tim Holtz® Textured Fades™ Compass Embossing Folder to emboss a piece of Whisper White cardstock and set aside (for use in a few minutes).

Apply a few drops of gold acrylic paint onto the Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate and use a Brayer to thinly spread the paint but make sure it is thick enough not to dry too quickly. 

Lay down a piece of Watercolor Paper over the printing plate (this card was created using a scrap piece of the Watercolor Paper), smooth with the brayer or your hand to cover the paper and carefully peel away from the plate.  Reapply the gold paint and continue with a few more prints.

For the first card:

Apply a few drops of Soft Black, Soft White and Midnight Blue Acrylic Paints and smooth with the brayer to mix the paint.  

Lay the embossed piece of Whisper White cardstock over the paint, smooth with your hand or a brayer, lift up and set aside for use again (this print also picked up some of the Pueblo Red paint from a previous print) :-) 

Lay the gold side of the Watercolor Paper onto the printing plate, smooth with your hand or brayer and lift up (the raised areas of the embossing piece should show against the gold paint).

For the second card:

Apply Midnight Blue and Silver Acrylic  Paints and smooth with the brayer to mix the paint.  Lay the embossed piece of Whisper White cardstock over the paint, smooth with your hand or a brayer, lift up and set aside for use again.

Lay the gold side of the Watercolor Paper onto the printing plate, smooth with your hand or brayer and lift up (the raised areas of the embossing piece should show against the gold paint).

Once the initial panels were finished and dry (you can use a Heat Tool to speed up the drying process), re-insert the printed piece back into the same embossing folder that was used as the “stencil” and re-emboss using the Big Shot™.

Apply another thin layer of Gold Paint onto the printing plate and roll the paint from the Brayer onto the original Whisper White embossed panel (the one that was used as the “stencil” and is now covered with blue/red paint) – this way you can use the original embossing panels as well as the print panels- nothing is wasted!!

After the layer for the first card is dry, gently rub the Silver Encore™ Pigment ink pad across the top of the embossing to give the panel even more of a metallic look. 

Trim the panel and apply to a layer of Basic Black cardstock and again onto a layer of Brushed Silver cardstock.

Close-up of some of the detail :-)

Mount the panel onto another layer of Basic Black cardstock and add to the Whisper White card base.

Add the layered sentiment from Wetlands to finish off the card.

For the second card:

After the layer for the second card is dry, use the AquaPainter™ with Blackberry Bliss and Midnight Muse Classic Ink to add additional color (spritz with water and dry with the Heat Tool).

 

Ink the En Francais stamp using Midnight Muse Classic Ink and stamp over the compass image (pressing in the non-embossed areas only). 

Gently rub the Silver Encore™ Pigment ink pad across the top of the embossing to give the panel a metallic look.  Trim the panel and mount onto a piece of Blackberry Bliss cardstock.

Add to the layered card base (created from scraps of Brushed Silver cardstock, Blackberry Bliss and Midnight Muse cardstock).

Add the layered sentiment to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets: Wetlands (MDS version)

Ink: Printer Ink- Black, Encore™ Pigment Ink- Silver, Acrylic Paints- Gold, Soft Black, Midnight Blue

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Midnight Muse, Blackberry Bliss, Brushed Silver, Watercolor

Accessories: Big Shot™, Sizzix™ Tim Holtz® Texture Fades™ Compass Embossing Folder, Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate, Brayer, Hexagon Punch, 3/8” Blackberry Bliss Stitched Ribbon (card #2), retired Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware (Card #2)

Thanks again for visiting- have a great weekend!

Life is A Matter of Moments- Another Experiment :-)

Hi Stampers!!

I wanted to share a few more of the background panels I created with my new Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate (along with some old acrylic paints I had on hand and various embossing folders).   

Since a few of the cards incorporate metal brads, buckles, etc. they will qualify for the Craft Hoarder’s Anonymous Blog Challenge #8- Show Us Some Metal or Glass as well as the Splitcoaststampers Mix-Ability MIX26 Stencils.  This card was also created using the NachoAverage NAC91 Sketch Challenge.

I am going to create separate posts for each card to help with linking to the various challenge sites- I hope you will have time to check out each link to see the fantastic samples of the Design Teams and other entrants. 

To create this card:

Use the Big Shot™ with the Sizzix™ Tim Holtz® Textured Fades™ Clock Embossing Folder to  emboss a piece of Whisper White cardstock and set aside (for use in a few minutes).

Apply a few drops of gold acrylic paint onto the Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate and use a Brayer to thinly spread the paint but make sure it is thick enough not to dry too quickly. 

Lay down a piece of Watercolor Paper over the printing plate (this card was created using a scrap piece of the Watercolor Paper), smooth with the brayer or your hand to cover the paper and carefully peel away from the plate.  Reapply the gold paint and continue with a few more prints.

 FYI- if you are interested in using the Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate, there are a few videolinks in the Splitcoaststampers forum as well as searching YouTube®.

Apply a few drops of Soft Black and Midnight Blue Acrylic Paints and smooth with the brayer to mix the paint.  Lay the embossed piece of Whisper White cardstock over the paint, smooth with your hand or a brayer, lift up and set aside for use again.

Lay the gold side of the Watercolor Paper onto the printing plate, smooth with your hand or brayer and lift up (the raised areas of the embossing piece should show against the gold paint).

Continue to repeat the above steps on the additional Watercolor Paper gold panels (if you created more than one)- FYI- I have found that I am creating approximately 10-12 background panels in one session with the printing plate as I experiment with different folders and paint colors (I will be sharing more of the experiments soon).

Once the initial panels were finished and dry (you can use a Heat Tool to speed up the drying process), re-insert the printed piece back into the same embossing folder that was used as the “stencil” and re-emboss using the Big Shot™.

Apply another thin layer of Gold Paint onto the printing plate and roll the paint from the Brayer onto the original Whisper White embossed panel (the one that was used as the “stencil” and is now covered with blue/red paint) – this way you can use the original embossing panels as well as the print panels- nothing is wasted!!

After the layer for this card is dry, gently rub the Silver Encore™ Pigment ink pad across the top of the embossing to give the panel even more of a metallic look.  Trim the panel and apply to a layer of Basic Black cardstock and again onto a layer of Midnight Muse cardstock.

Use the Big Shot™ with the Square Lattice Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder to emboss a piece of Brushed Gold cardstock.  Mount this embossed piece onto a piece of Midnight Muse cardstock and again onto a piece of Basic Black cardstock, mount the entire panel onto the Whisper White card base.

Stamp (or in this case print the sentiment from My Digital Studio (MDS) using the stamp brush set, Elements of Style) onto Whisper White cardstock.  Trim and create the banner points uing the Hexagon Punch, layer onto Basic Black cardstock and use the punch to create banner points as well and add the small scrap strip of Midnight Muse behind the entire sentiment layer (also creating banner points with the Hexagon Punch).

Adhere the layered printed panel to the card front, add the metal clock embellishment (from the retired Tea Times Trinkets Collection) using Black Hemp Twine to the back of the sentiment (add the Whisper White circle for the clock face behind the embellishment) and adhere the sentiment onto the card front using Stampin’ Dimensionals® to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets: Elements of Style (MDS verison)

Ink: Printer Ink- Black, Encore™ Pigment Ink- Silver, Acrylic Paints- Gold, Soft Black, Midnight Blue

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Midnight Muse, Brushed Gold, Watercolor

Accessories: Big Shot™, Square LatticeTextured Impressions™ Embossing Folder, Sizzix™ Tim Holtz® Texture Fades™ Clock Embossing Folder, Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate, Brayer, Hexagon Punch, retired Black Hemp Twine, retired Tea Times Trinkets Collection

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by- I hope all of you have a great weekend and I will be sharing more of the background panels soon!

Metallic Reindeer- Homemade Paper with A Printing Plate

Hi Stampers!!

It has been a busy week for me but I finally had a chance to play around with my new Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate (along with some old acrylic paints I had on hand and various embossing folders) to create some homemade DSP panels using plain Watercolor Paper :-).   

I heard about the Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate from the Mix-Ability Challenges at Splitcoaststampers and have found it very addicting!!  So far the only technique I have been experimenting with is using embossing folders but I cannot wait to try all of the other different techniques with stencils, found objects, etc.

I decided to create a few background panels for the CCC14 Christmas CardChallenge and tne Mix-Ability MIX26 Stencil Challenge (I used the embossing folders as stencils) at Splitcoaststampers and also incorporated the Festive Friday FFC32 Inspiration Photo along with the Seize the Sketch STS20 Challenge.   

Isn't this inspiration photo gorgeous??  I decided to focus on the silver reindeer on the table along with neutrals since I had an embossing folder that I have not used yet in my stash :-)

Again, if you have not stopped by any of the above listed challenge sites, I urge you to do so- great inspiration from all!

To create this card:

Use the Big Shot™ with the Anna Griffin™ Embossing Folder and emboss a piece of Whisper White cardstock and set aside (for use in a few minutes).

Apply a few drops of gold acrylic paint onto the Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate and use a Brayer to thinly spread the paint but make sure it is thick enough not to dry too quickly. 

Lay down a piece of Watercolor Paper over the printing plate, smooth with the brayer or your hand to cover the paper and carefully peel away from the plate.  Reapply the gold paint and continue with a few more prints.

 FYI- if you are interested in using the Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate, there are a few video links in the Splitcoaststampers forum as well you can find many searching YouTube®.

Apply a few drops of Pueblo Red and Midnight Blue Acrylic Paints and smooth with the brayer to mix the paint.  Lay the embossed piece of Whisper White cardstock over the paint, smooth with your hand or a brayer, lift up and set aside for use again.

Lay the gold side of the Watercolor Paper onto the printing plate, smooth with your hand or brayer and lift up (the raised areas of the embossing piece should show against the gold paint).

Continue to repeat the above steps on the additional Watercolor Paper gold panels (if you created more than one)- FY- I have found that I am creating approximately 10-12 background panels in one session with the printing plate as I experiment with different folders and paint colors (I will be sharing more of the experiments soon) :-).

Some of the panels will be darker than others (depending on the thickness of the paint at the time of laying down the embossing folder, etc.).   Again, this is a fun technique that it a bit of a collage-type appearance with random patterns- just remember there is no right or wrong :-)

Once the initial panels were finished and dry (you can use a Heat Tool to speed up the drying process), trim to 4 ¼” x 5 ½” , re-insert into the same embossing folder that was used as the “stencil” and re-emboss using the Big Shot™.

Apply another thin layer of Gold Paint onto the printing plate and roll the paint from the Brayer onto the original Whisper White embossed panel (the one that was used as the “stencil” and is now covered with blue/red paint) – this way you can use the original embossing panels as well as the print panels- nothing is wasted!!

You may find that you like the prints just as they are but I wanted to add a bit more texture and color.   On this panel, apply Blackberry Bliss and Midnight Muse Classic Ink using the Aqua Painter™, spritz the ink with water to allow it to spread and dry with the Heat Tool.

After this layer is dry, gently rub the Gold and Silver Encore™ Pigment ink pads across the top of the embossing to give the panel even more of a metallic look.  Trim the panel and apply to a layer of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. 

Use the Big Shot™ with the Woodgrain Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder to emboss a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock and mount this piece onto the Blackberry Bliss card base.

Add the printed panel onto the card front using Stampin’ Dimensionals® and adhere the 3/8” Blackberry Bliss Stitched Satin Ribbon.

Mount the sentiment from Come to Bethlehem using Stampin’ Dimensionals® on the banner end and regular adhesive along the panel along with the retired Brushed Bronze button and Linen Thread.  

FYI- I used My Digital Studio (MDS) to print out the sentiment onto Whisper White cardstock and the Hexagon punch to create the banner points then mounted onto Blackberry Bliss cardstock, trimmed and created the banner points with the Hexagon Punch. 

Add the retired Brushed Bronze button with the Linen Thread to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets: Come to Bethlehem (MDS verison)

Ink: Printer Ink- Black, Classic Ink- Blackberry Bliss, Midnight Muse, Encore™ Pigment Ink- Gold and Silver, Acrylic Paints- Gold, Pueblo Red, Midnight Blue

Paper: Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss, Crumb Cake, Watercolor

Accessories: Big Shot™, Woodgrain Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder, Anna Griffin™ Embossing Folder, Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate, Brayer, 3/8” Blackberry Bliss Stitched Satin Ribbon, retired Brushed Bronze Button, Linen Thread, Hexagon Punch

Thanks again for taking the time visit-  I hope all of you have a great week and stop by again soon- God Bless!