Alcohol ink baubles

Gill is our host at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown for the month, and has set a colour challenge for us:

I got ahead for this one, during a workshop earlier in the year using alcohol inks on a gel plate, with stencils.

 

The two on the left are from the gelplate, applied through the stencil (from Clarity) then lifted with white acrylic. The ones on the right are then cleaning off the stencil, with IPA.

I used top right and bottom left.

 

I didn't muck around with these at all. I simply cut a section to fit the side of a 6x6 card blank and edged with black pen. I stamped the sentiment in black archival, and added dots with a black pen.

 

 

A simple layout to allow the alcohol ink designs to shine.

 

The two techniques give different effects - the first is brighter and cleaner, but I really love this more grungy look.

To play along come and visit us at 52CCT.

This challenge is open for a week, to Friday 19th November.

Have fun!

 

Baublicious

Jenny has chosen an unusual but very pretty colour combination for us at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week.

It took a little while to think what I wanted to do for this, and a bit of serendipity played a part.

The background uses an embossing folder, I saw a youtube of someone using this technique, which I haven't done for ages, so decided to have a play.

I didn't have an ink that I would call aqua (there was a bit of a discussion at home about what colour aqua was, how much green is in it!). So I blended distress oxides, mostly peacock feathers, with a bit of tumbled glass and bundled sage sponged on. Cracked postacio may have been a better green to use, with hindsight. I added the ink to the deboss side of the folder, and spritzed the card with water before running through the embossing machine. I had a few iterations, this was the one I was happy with - although the photo is doesn't show the touch of green there is in real life!

(You can see I also used a spray over an embossed panel, but haven't made that into a card yet. The spray was also a blend, of distress reinker colours.)

I was going to do a gel plate paint print for the rose pink, but then on holiday last week I treated myself to some pink alcohol inks, and a gold mixative (amongst other crafty things!). So it seemed rude not to use them for this colour challenge.

I used these, again blending the pinks to get a shade I liked, to make a background sheet. I used yupo paper and coated card as bases, to compare.

I preferred the piece on coated paper, although that's not what I ended up using!

Onto these, I stamped my baubles in versamark ink, and heat embossed with a light gold powder. Of course, yupo paper is plastic so doesn't handle heat well - it curled up a lot!

However, once I'd fussy cut them out, I preferred them, they had more dimension, and the card ones looked flat in comparison. So those are the ones I used. And the rest have gone in an envelope to be used another time!

I arranged on the base, then stuck down with red linetape, to cope with the plastic surface, curl and embossed base.

At this point I realised I hadn't cut my base to size, it was slightly large (as is my usual practice, in case I don't like a bit or the edge pools or something). Fortunately, it was only slightly too large, because the baubles weren't coming off! I trimmed the base slightly, and made my card blank a bit bigger than usual, and it worked out.

I sponged peacock feathers around the edge, then added the bauble strings with a gel pen and ruler. The gold was a bit too yellow next to the embossing, so I used a little silver as well, while the ink was still wet, mixing them on the page to get a more subtle gold colour.

So, there you have my rose pink, aqua and gold card. Unfortunately the photo has distorted the colours a little, and the texture on the base and baubles looks a lot better in real life! But this is such a pretty colour combination, I hope you can get a feel for it.

 

 

To play along with this challenge, visit us at the 52CCT blog. You have a week, until Friday 20th August, to enter your card into our gallery.

Alternative pinecones

At 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week, Andreja has chosen a theme I really like - pinecones.

I had only two options for this from my craft "collection" - a mini stamp from Lavinia stamps, and a die. So I decided to use both!

My two cards are very similar, and use a design I've used before, but have very different colour schemes, made in different ways.

The green and brown version started with a smoosh using the plastic folder technique, and oxides in iced spruce, weathered wood and bundled sage. I made another piece in brown shades.

I overstamped the greeny background with the pinecone stamp and the same oxides, second generation.

The brown background I cut to a matt, then die cut the pinecones and sentiment from the centre and offcuts. The sentiment I sponged with some extra walnut stain distress ink, so it was dark enough to stand out, and the matt I did the same with brushed corduroy. I use distress ink rather than oxide as it's translucent so the mottled pattern shows through. The pine cones I left with some white on. I edged the card front with the iced spruce.

The base of this card uses alcohol inks. I applied them to a solid stencil (I used an aperture stencil with the innie replaced). I then used the grand calibur due cutting machine to transfer the ink to card with blending solution applied to it.

To overstamp, I used archival inks this time, in matching colours.

I did make a background piece using mushroom alcohol ink, but it didn't stand out on the bright background, so I swapped in some black coated card, again die cutting the sentiment and pinecones from the centre.

This has turned out to be a very pretty, naturalistic card. The pinecone stamp makes a great pattern in the background, enough detail to be interesting without being overwhelming.

This one, on the other hand, is deliberately unnatural. The colours really zing, they may not be that Christmassy but they're bright and cheerful, and lift my spirits.

 

 

 

So, now over to you - what pinecone themed design will you come up with?

The challenge is open for a week, until Friday 23rd July. Pop along to the 52CCT blog to see the rest of the design team inspiration, and link up your card.

Alcohol and gelli

This week on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, Andreja has set us a colour challenge.

 

Last weekend I did an online workshop with Angela, using alcohol inks with the gel plate and stencils. I came away with a huge stash of gorgeous backgrounds, not least because I kept going after she finished, there was just one more stencil to try, one more mop up, one more idea....

Some of them I made with this challenge in mind, using Clarity Christmas aperture stencils.

I've made two of these into cards, the rest are waiting (along with so much else) for another day!

For this one, I dabbed purple twilight and aubergine ink through the stencil onto the gel plate, then pressed bubble wrap into it. Once the ink was dry, I brayered white acrylic paint over the plate and pulled my print. There was yellow ink residue on the plate, which wouldn't clean off, which has given the background a pale golden glow.

I cut the print to size, using a scrap from the side for the gold embossed sentiment. I edged with a gold sharpie, then doodled on the star, tree and border with a gold gel pen. I do like the bubble wrap baubles.

 

 

This card is the "waste" from the technique used above. With IPA on my felt, I swiped the excess ink from the stencil onto a clean piece of card. I then pressed the bubble wrap in - I think it would have had purple ink on to start with (from another print) then I spritzed it with the IPA and pressed, for the subtle impression.

The background of this one was therefore clean white card at the start.

I replaced the stencil and used an embossing pen over the cap area, then embossed in gold. I also embossed a border (after cutting to size).

I placed the "innie" stencil over the bauble, along with a piece of card to protect the loop, then used gold pigment ink to stamp the script in the background. I also sponged this ink round the edge to give the aged, vintage feel.

On the bauble, I stamped the sleigh and heat embossed in white. I added the stars/snow and line with a posca pen, then the larger star, again embossed.

The final touch is a slight drop shadow with light and dark grey polychromo pencils, to give the bauble some depth.

 

 

The paint pull on this gives a grungy feel that the photo doesn't capture. I like the looseness and imperfectness of this image.

This one has taken a grungy feel I didn't anticipate from the starting print. Blending the ink around the egde softened the script print, which I over did a bit, and gave a balance. The sleigh stamp is so pretty and delicate, even when embossed.This was overlooked in my stash for a long time, I'm glad I've "discovered" it now.

To join in and share your ideas for using these colours, head over to the 52CCT blog, where you'll find all the inspiration from my design team colleagues.

The challenge is open for a week, to Friday 16th July.

Have fun!