Ok so here's todays card, this using various techniques but I feel it's worth that little extra time spent on as it's got a lovely variety of textures.
Items Used
White square card blank
White card for centre image of good thickness i.e. 230mg
Gold or contrasting colour card for layering
4 Metal Brads
Distress inks in Brushed corduroy, antique linen and walnut stain
Brilliance ink pad in starlight black
Grunge Paste
Tando Creative Reindeer stencils
Lavinia Believe stamp
Snow flake stamp ( found in many sets)
Stampendous Frantage Aged Ivory embossing enamel
Treasure Gold in Renaissance
Water in a spritz bottle
Versa-mark ink pad
To start with I secured the reindeer stencil onto the white card with low tack masking tape spread the grunge paste through the stencil with a craft palette knife. This I left to dry over night although I think this would be ready to use after about an hour.
The next stage is to stamp "Believe" at the bottom of the greeting card in the starlight black ink. I love this make of stamps as they are so different to many on the market and they also seem to print out so beautifully with the Brilliance Dew Drop ink pads.
Once dry I then coloured the edges of the card with the distress inks starting with the palest, antique linen first and working through the shades. The very centre will be covered up so there is no need to waste time and ink on that. The snow flakes were then stamped around the edges in the starlight black to keep in tone.
Now for the fun part !
I started by inking the complete card with the distress inks, again starting with the palest colour first. Once I was happy with the overall colour and shading I gave the card a light spray with water, left it for about 20-25 secs and then blotted the card with kitchen paper. Its very easy to over do this part so it's perhaps best to do a little first and see how you like it once its dry as you can always give it another quick spray. Once you are happy with this stage its onto the embossing round the edges. This is quick and easy, just hold the versa-mark ink pad at an angle and apply small amounts to the edges then sprinkle with the aged ivory embossing enamel. This is quite thick compared to embossing powder so you will need to apply sufficient ink for it to stick to the card. Then emboss with the heat gun. Once cool apply the treasure gold metallic wax with your finger to the areas you want to shine and buff with a soft cloth after about 10mins when dry.
I love how this picks up the different textures on the reindeer, and you can add little bits of the wax to give the effect of shading around the image.
Now its just putting the card together, firstly I stuck the reindeer to the gold card with double sided tape and then added the brads to the corners. Then the mounted image was stuck to the card also using double sided tape.
So there you have it, quite a grown up card in a way but still on the magical side and fun to make as it's great to see how the image is transformed from the gooey pot of grunge paste at the start.
I hope you have enjoyed todays entry, do add any comments at the bottom of the page and I hope this will inspire you to give this technique a try.
Thank-you for stopping and reading this blog and I hope you will pop back soon, until next time, take care and Happy Crafting whatever it may be Jane x
