Alcohol Inks and Mandalas

I wanted to pop in today to share a few cards I created recently. I am sincerely trying to post more frequently despite the fact that I am having supreme difficulty getting decent photos of my projects.

I've been trying different things for picture taking. Trying my phone, which ends up slightly blurry. Trying my camera, which ends up blurry or dark or in some other way unappealing. Trying in my living room by the big picture window, which ends up with a blue cast. On my dining room table, which ends up blurry and a bit dark. I even tried my bright bedroom as seen in the first photo here and that looks odd to me. I've tried editing these and this is as good as I can get it. I really think my camera is too old, but I haven't pulled the trigger to buy a new one. I have to do something though, because it's getting pretty frustrating. So, feel free to enlarge if you like, but no promises on how decent it looks. Eventually I'll get it worked out.

Enough of that vent, here's what I've been working on.

The first card I am sharing is to give you an idea of what I used for the second card. I used alcohol inks on Yupo paper to get the look you see in this heart. I also added some gold mixative. I tried to capture how pretty and intense the color is.

The Lawn Fawn hugs sentiment is cut from some gold cardstock I bought at Hobby Lobby over the holidays. It's got some dimension from a couple of cuts from black cardstock and layered. 

I had some of the alcohol inked paper left over and recently received the My Favorite Things new Magical Mandala die which I thought would look neat die cut from the alcohol inked background. I tried it on a background I didn't like as much and it failed to cut cleanly despite running the die through a couple of times. I thought the Yupo paper couldn't be cut cleanly until I saw a blogger who shared a card with this same die cut from Yupo paper. I asked her if she did anything special. Nope, just ran it through a few times. So I tried again, this time running it through like 5-6 times. It cut better, but I still struggled to get some of the pieces out.  (My Cuttlebug is the original one from like 2005 or so, it probably is showing its age, too). 

Here's what I came up with. 

 Despite all the struggles getting a clean cut, I am thrilled with the end result!

The happy birthday is heat embossed in gold using the sentiment from Paper Smooches recently released In Stitches stamp set. The rounded corner stitched mat is from MFT Blueprints 31.

This final card is not alcohol inked at all. I just thought I'd share it because I was using the Magical Mandala die. It cut regular cardstock beautifully. I cased a card made by Torico  as shown in this blog post . She colored vellum with Copic markers to get the stained glass effect. I remember learning that technique way back in my early years of paper crafting. I love how these techniques come around again and are so fresh and fun. 

I didn't have a frame for the stained glass window effect that Torico used, so I adhered the vellum to the cardstock mandala using Stick It. I then fussy cut around the edge  of the mandala to cut away the excess vellum. I colored the back side of the vellum using Copic markers.  I used what turned out to be the last of the adhesive in my Xyron 5 inch machine to cover the back of the vellum so I could attach it to the mat. I heat embossed the sentiment in silver. I added the white dots with my white Uniball gel. pen. I'm so happy with the final result. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a happy day!

Hugs,

Distress Oxides + Distress Glaze = Cool!

Hello!

Thanks so much for the wonderful comments about my new blog look. I am so very happy with it. 

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope your day has been filled with fun and love in whatever form makes you happiest. I got to spend a little time playing today (which made me very happy), and I wanted to share what I created.

Last week, I came across this blog post by Laurel Beard. In the post she talked about a technique she had seen in a video using Distress Oxide inks and Distress Glaze on glossy cardstock. She shared what she did in a video on her blog. I was so intrigued. It almost looked like alcohol inks. I didn't make a video, but I tried the technique myself and took some photos. 

First up, I smeared some Distress Oxide inks onto freezer paper and spritzed with water. The colors I chose were Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry and Twisted Citron. Later I added Peacock Feathers and Wilted Violet. 

Then I smooshed a piece of glossy cardstock into the inks and dried it with my heat gun. Drying the inks is very important. I added another layer and dried it. I added more ink onto my freezer paper and smooshed again. I think I smooshed 3 or 4 times. Drying the paper between smooshings. I ended up with this. Which looks pretty cool all on its own. Kind of chalky, but neat.

But look what happens when you start to add Distress Glaze (I bought mine at Michaels with a coupon). I only added it to half the page so you could see the difference. Wow, huh? Isn't that fascinating?

And here is the piece all done. I buffed off the glaze with a paper towel after I was all done. The glaze makes it shiny and waterproof. I really like all the layers of color you can see. 

When I was done, I looked at my freezer paper and saw this

I thought the colors looked so cool, so I took a small piece of glossy cardstock and smooshed  and dried a bunch of times getting this result.

When I started adding the glaze, it looked like this

And finally, I got this result. Gosh, those colors are so pretty!

I will eventually make these into cards, but for now, it was so much fun playing! Thanks, Laurel for sharing what you found and making the video. If you want to see it in action, check out her blog post, linked at the top of this post. 

Finally, I got this shot of our dog, Ollie, recently and thought I'd share. He's a silly, goofy dog, but seems to finally be settling down a bit. His nickname is Goober, because he is such a goober! I liked how this picture came out with his head tilting. I was saying his nickname. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope to share again soon!

Coloring Challenge and Refreshed Blog

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Since the Broncos tanked big time this year, I don't really care all that much about the game, except I'd rather the Patriots didn't win. Not likely, I know. So, I may have it on for the commercials. I saw a Peyton Manning one that was pretty funny. The half time show might be okay. And I might pick up my cross stitch, which hasn't seen any action since Christmas! We'll see.

My friend, Loll, of Stamping with Loll,was so kind to offer her skills in updating the look of my blog. Thanks so very much, Loll! I am so tickled with the happy flowers and the bright fresh look! If you haven't ever been to Loll's blog, I think you should go check it out. She creates beautiful cards that have gorgeous backgrounds. They are a feast for the eyes.

Kathy Racoosin, of The Daily Marker, is holding another 30 Day Coloring Challenge and I started out really well and was coloring up a storm. Here's the last thing I worked on over a week ago now. I've kind of fallen off. Oops.

Anyway, I'm taking a pencil coloring class at Kit and Clowder and this is the image from the class. I'm using Prismacolor pencils, but no blending solution. I just barely started the fur, which is a new technique for me. The classes are really good and Alyce is a wonderful and encouraging teacher who is readily available to her students.  Maybe I'll work on it a bit more later today.

I wanted to make a bunch of cards yesterday, but thought I'd play a bit with some alcohol inks first. Then work on cards while they were drying. Got a little carried away and ended up with these:

This is still wet and also shown in the first alcohol ink picture

This is still wet as well and a little blurry. It's just blue inks with a smidge of green. Looks like water. 

Was having so much fun that I kept playing with the inks and never got a card made. Oops. 

Finally, here's a picture of a mug I saw in Walmart this morning. Sent it to my girls.

True, no? LOL

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have a happy day!