Welcome to my creative space!
I'm back with my second project as the Spotlight Designer for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenges during the Month of April. I am so delighted and honored to be guest designing for them this month!
This week's theme is:
'E' is for?
Be sure to hop on over to the Simon Says Stamp blog HERE for all the details and to be inspired by the gorgeous design team projects.
For this "E" challenge I used the theme of Easter. We just celebrated this special holiday yesterday, so I created an Easter card. I decided to grab my alcohol inks to create a vibrant and sparkling background to go behind this gorgeous Tim Holtz die cut using his Sizzix Bouquet Die. The flowers are cut with his Wildflower Stems #1 and #2 dies which are colored with Distress Oxide Inks. Be sure to scroll down through my Tips and Techniques section for all the details.
Tips and Techniques
I just adore alcohol inks!! I used to use them a lot, but have gotten away from creating with them. I recently purchased the new 2020 colors and Alloys so thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use them. I purchased this pack of Silver Sparkle Alcohol Ink Cardstock last year, but never got around to trying it out. So I thought I would experiment with it. Honestly I thought I had created quite the mess until . . .
I placed the black Bouquet die cut over top.
So . . . I started out by dropping alcohol ink onto the paper then added 70% rubbing alcohol over top and tried to move the alcohol ink color. Well, that didn't go so well. I ended up wiping it off with more alcohol, but it had stained the paper. Yes, you can still see the stain marks.
Then . . . I used a pipette to pull a line of alcohol across the paper. Then I added drops of alcohol ink into the wet alcohol. A felt applicator was then used to swipe the color across the sparkly cardstock. That worked MUCH better. Well, except the stains were still there.
So . . . to add more color and maybe help hide the stains, I added puddles of alcohol and dropped alcohol ink and Gilded Alloy into the puddles and moved them with the "cool air" setting on a hair dryer. It created a nice effect, but still didn't cover up the stains.
To be perfectly honest, I thought it looked, well, um, ugly . . . unattractive . . . you get the idea. I was ready to admit defeat and toss it in the trash. I figured I had learned a lot and knew how to move forward with a new sheet of sparkle paper. That would be alcohol first, then alcohol ink.
But . . . on a whim, I decided to place the the black bouquet die cut over the alcohol ink background, mostly to have an idea of what colors looked nice to know how to move forward with the next background and then to my disbelief, it looked absolutely gorgeous. Who knew??? Can you believe this transformation??
Here's a close-up of the Wildflower Stems flowers. I die cut them from white cardstock, then colored them with distress ink. I mashed the ink pads onto my Glass Media Mat, spritzed a little water next to the color and used a paint brush to mix the colors and paint the die cuts.
Here's a close-up of the alcohol ink background behind the die cut. You can see how glittery the background is on the Silver Sparkle Cardstock when the light hits it.
And another section showing the blues, purples, and Gilded Alloy.
I dyed a length of rayon seam binding with Boysenberry and Vinyard Alcohol Inks along with Intrigue Alcohol Pearls. I dropped some rubbing alcohol onto the Glass Media Mat to soak the ribbon, then dropped the alcohol ink onto the soaked ribbon and scrunched it until it was completely colored. While it was still wet, I added a few more drops of color and just lightly scrunched it some more so the color would vary with some darker and lighter sections. I held the ribbon in a scrunched up ball with my tweezers while drying it with my Heat It Craft Tool, so it would be nice and crinkled when dry.
The ribbon is tied into a triple loop bow. I also colored a Tim Holtz pearl Bauble and Heirloom Rose with alcohol ink to adorn the bow.
This metal piece from the Tim Holtz Nature Adornments set is colored with alcohol inks. I used a Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink brush to paint the ink onto the metal.
I colored white cardstock with Distress Oxide ink in similar colors and then stamped this sweet Easter sentiment. The edges are brushed with more of the purple Distress Oxide Ink.
As you may know, the Simon Says Stamp Store is accepting new orders, but have longer shipping times for the moment due to the coronavirus. With this in mind we have made the difficult decision to suspend the $50 voucher for this challenge.
We know that many people are staying safe at home and we would love it if you would continue to enter the challenges and have fun! We are all in this together! You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in. The challenge can be found HERE.
Supply List
Alcohol Ink Mountain Rose
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Heirloom Roses Embellishments
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Nature Adornments
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Baubles
Tim Holtz with Tonic ~ Travel Stamp Platform
Cardstock ~ White
Cardstock ~ Black
Hug Snug ~ Seam Binding
Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L ~ Crafty Power Tape
Home & Hobby ~ Extreme Double-Sided Tape - 1/2"
Tim Holtz with Tonic ~ Travel Stamp Platform
Oh my goodness Tracey how gorgeous is this!! I love the shimmery background with the black floral overly, so beautifully striking! The flowers and whole design of this is stunning!! ❤️
ReplyDeleteHope you have a great week!
Stay Safe my friend XX
luv
Lols x x x
Gorgeous Easter card, Tracey! Love the beautiful colors and that ribbon, oh my! hugs, Maura
ReplyDeleteThat background looks amazing with all the colors and shimmer! So cool. I love the flowers too.
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