Technique of the Week: "Soft Summer Skies" by Marj Marion

The Distress Oxide Inks are such fun, so I decided to create a Summery card with them for this week’s technique. We all can’t wait for the next twelve colors of Oxide Ink to arrive!  The supplies I used for this project are underlined in the following description of my technique.

I began with a smooth, good quality white panel cut to a 4.25" by 5.5" rectangle. I adhered a strip of 2" wide Post-it Removable Labeling Tape, and pressed the tape on the panel so I had 2 3/4" of white card stock revealed at the top section of the panel

Then, I used small Finger Daubers to sponge on Oxide inks as follows: right above the removable tape, I sponged on Wilted Violet, then Fired Brick, followed by Worn Lipstick.  

Then I sponged on more Wilted Violet, then Fossilized Amber Oxide inks.  I used a light touch and left some areas of the white panel showing to create more visual interest.

Next, I used a round watercolor brush (medium size), dipped it in water, brushed off the excess water, and with a light touch, painted streaks across my sunset colors.  I used the brush in different areas without rinsing it to mix up the colors a bit. I love how the colors blended, and the textures ranged from “brushy and spongy” to “streaky”…just like a real evening summer sky. Oxide inks are gorgeous on their own, and you can create many different textural effects by adding water in a variety of ways.

I let my sky colors dry thoroughly; (let air dry, or hurry it along with a Heat-it Tool and then I carefully removed the tape, and saved it for the next step. (If you don’t have a Heat-it Tool, you will want one! It has a softer heat than a regular Embossing Gun, and is great for drying paper without warping it.  I use it all the time when working on watercolor paper, and it’s great for Shrink Plastic, and much more.)

I carefully pulled off the tape, turned the tape upside down and applied the the wide Removable tape so the lower area on the card was revealed. 

I sponged on Oxide Faded Jeans and Oxide Broken China for my lake colors, mixing them about on the lower part of the panel. I varied the pressure I used on the finger dauber so there would be “lights and darks” in my coloring. 

Then, the fun part…..carefully removing the tape to reveal my creation!

Next, I stamped Magenta Cling 0677-N,  Branch at different heights and angles to create interest in the lower part of the card. 

I used Wilted violet Oxide ink….isn’t fun when we artists can make our branches Violet if we want to?!

Sometimes we can see the moon in the early evening, before it is quite dark.  We’ve all had fun this past year using circle masks on some of our scenery cards.  I haven’t ever found a crescent moon stamp or stencil, so I set about to make one.  I sort of discovered it by accident when cutting some acetate to create positive and negative round circle masks and stencils. On my desk, one of the positive circle masks slipped over the negative stencil circle area, and I quickly noticed a space that was a crescent moon shape!  Voila!

On this photo,(with acetate pieces against black paper for better visibility) you can see how I arranged the acetate mask and stencil to reveal a crescent moon shape. 

The strip of Washi Tape held the positive circle mask in the right position over the negative circle stencil, and more Washi Tape held the entire piece of acetate on the card so it didn't shift.  I pounced Hero Arts Unicorn White ink through my hand-made crescent moon stencil. After it dried, I applied another layer of the same ink which made the image a little darker. 

Next, I carefully removed the stencil and let the white ink dry thoroughly.  I also stamped Magenta 07.614 D “Beauty is Everywhere” in the left area of the panel, using Black Versafine ink.

Lastly, I wrapped some White, Silk 1/4” ribbon by May Arts around my panel on the left hand side, tied it in a small bow, and adhered the panel to a So Silk Purple card stock panel.  I trimmed the purple panel to a create a 1/16” border, and then mounted my project on a folded white card.

Art ’n Soul has many beautiful colors of May Arts 1/4” Silk Ribbon in stock. I love this gorgeous ribbon because you can tie a bow with on a card without adding very much bulk. We also have the Hero Arts Unicorn White ink back in stock. If you don't have this great white ink, you should acquire some!

I hope you enjoy this technique, and remember, we love to see your projects inspired by our weekly technique!

What's New at Art n' Soul:

This weekend is Recycled Rubber weekend! We have gotten in SO much amazing stuff and some staff have been cleaning out again. DON'T miss it! And we have AC, so come in and be cool and have some fun! Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 12:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

We recently got in an order from our distributor, and we are restocked on lots of things, including Nuvo drops.

Our Memory Box order is due in this afternoon and will be ready for you to look at and purchase just in time for Recycled Rubber! If you have made a paid pre-order you will receive a call.

We have ordered the new 12 Oxide inks from Ranger. We are in line with lots of other people, so we don't know when we will receive it, although shipping is scheduled to start just after the holiday. Fingers crossed that we will receive it early!

Technique of the Week: Shine, Shine, Shine

This week’s technique features Wink of Stella brush pens on vellum paper.  You will be amazed at the shine you get when you use these pens on vellum.  I saw this technique on Jennifer McGuire’s blog and I couldn’t wait to try it.

To get started I cut a piece of 36# vellum to 4.25” x 5.5”. Because I planned to emboss my stamped image I used a powder tool over the surface of the paper. I put the paper in my MISTI and positioned the Magenta Azalea stamp (14.651.Q) from their Spring/Summer collection on my vellum paper. I picked it up with the cover of the MISTI and then inked it with Hero Arts Unicorn White Pigment Ink. Next I applied Judikin’s White Opaque Embossing powder over the stamped image.

When heating the embossing powder on vellum paper you need to be careful so that you don’t warp or melt your paper (speaking from experience unfortunately!) Before you direct your heat gun to your paper, let it run for about 30 seconds or so to be sure it is up to temperature. Keep the heat gun moving over the surface of your vellum. You can also heat it from the back of the paper, just be sure to keep the heat gun moving. It takes a bit longer to emboss on vellum but for your patience you’ll be rewarded with a beautifully embossed image. The embossing powder will act as a ridge to help remain within lines when you are painting.

I put the image on my craft sheet and collected my Wink of Stella pens. The Wink of Stella brush pens come in 15 colors, plus clear. I only have four pens – clear, dark pink, green and yellow, but after doing this technique I certainly plan to buy more!

Before I started I used a scrap piece of vellum to try some blending. I originally planned to blend some of the yellow with the green to create a yellow-green color for the leaves and blend some of the yellow with the dark pink to create a shade of orange for the center of the flowers. I ultimately decided to keep it simple and just use green, dark pink and clear for this image. 

I started with the leaves on the azalea image using my green pen. I started at the base and painted about half way down the leaf. Then I used my clear pen to blend the color to the tip of the leaf. I continued with all of the leaves in this manner. The Wink of Stella stays wet for a bit longer on vellum than it does on regular paper so you can blot up excess color with a paper towel, add more color or do more blending.

  

Once I finished the leaves, I started on the flower. I followed the same technique as with the leaves. I applied dark pink to the center and then used clear to blend the color out to the tips of each petal.  

To finish the card I adhered a piece of So Silk Beauty Pink (cut to 4.25” x 5.5”) to the front of an A2 card. Since I planned to add the frame you see in the photo. I applied 1/8” Scor Tape to the back of the vellum and then attached it to the front of the card. (As you can see from the photo, regular adhesive shows through vellum so if I hadn’t planned to add the frame I would have used Vellum adhesive to attach the image to the card.)

I cut a piece of textured white cardstock to 4.25” x 5.5” and then used Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics B (the 3 3/8” x 4 5/8” die) to cut a frame. To give the frame some dimension, I adhered foam tape to the back of the frame. I just cut the foam strips in half lengthwise as shown, removed the backing paper and adhered to the frame to the front of the card. I added a few iridescent sequins using Ranger Matte adhesive. I also like to use the Pico Shimmer embellisher to add an additional drop of shine on my sequins. I set the card aside to let it the sequins and Pico dry overnight.

Once I decided on the colors I was going to use for the image, this card came together very quickly so I hope you will give it a try. I encourage you to try blending the colors you have because these pens blend beautifully. This is another good technique where you can stamp several images at one time to have them available when you have a few minutes to paint. The photos don't fully capture the shimmer so please stop by Art 'n Soul to see this card in person.