Dsitress Ink Monoprinting

Zoo sent me a link to a video from Jennifer McGuire Ink, on how to do a background using distress ink and heat embossing. It made two backgrounds for each inking, so of course I had to try it out.

Jennifer McGuire Ink

Distress Ink Monoprint (and 25+ Cards)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsySZEPT8HI&feature=youtu.be

Zoo had given me three of her old Tim Holtz distress ink pads, and as they are the only ones I have it was an easy colour choice to begin experimenting. The colours are: peacock feathers; vintage photo; and tea dye.

In the top two and the bottom left you may notice a faded area where I taped the two pieces of card stock together. I used some masking tape I had sitting beside me and it turned out too thick and affected the way the ink transferred. In the other three I removed the tape before spritzing with water and just made sure I held the pieces together without moving them.

I lost track of the video theme for a few minutes when I used copper embossing powder on some of the backgrounds. I like the effect but I think I would have liked it as a more mono colour style, as well.

I look forward to making new cards with these backgrounds. I will wait awhile though, as I have all but two of my cards for 2019 already made : )

Paper Napkin Transfers

Happy New Year's Eve! 

Hello. Our plans fell through for the evening so I have a few minutes to do up a quick post about the fun I have had with paper napkin transfers. Admittedly, the first attempt was not fun but the experience improved significantly the second time around.

Zoo had sent out a link of a woman doing paper napkin transfers and I was intrigued. She made it look so nice and easy and relaxing. Here is her link.

In her video she used NoName plastic wrap like I have, a medium temperature iron and very little effort. When I tried it the napkins were getting ironed nice and flat but there was not much sticking involved, except with the paper I was ironing it all between and the excess plastic wrap. I then tried it on a hard book with a hotter iron and had a little more success but ended up pressing down sooo hard that I bent my ironing board, lol. At this point, I decided it was either a bust or I would buy some brand name stickier plastic wrap and try it one more time. 

I did shop today and bought some Glad Cling Wrap and tried again. It was sooo much better! I still had to put my iron on a little more than medium but I didn't have to press too hard and it stuck pretty good.

So the emoji napkin transfers were with the NoName wrap and most of them I can peel off if I wanted to so am worried about making things with them and then having them peel off. I may need to frame each one. Aren't they cute though? I was thinking of making kids cards with them.

These last two, below, I was fed up and so I matt mediumed the card stock and placed the napkins right on. I then flattened them using a piece of parchment paper so it wouldn't stick. They turned out fine. A bigger napkin  might not have attached to the page as flat as these smaller sections.

With the leaves napkin I used the much stickier Cling Wrap by Glad. When I started, I thought I was going to like the all colour side the best but in the end I love the leaves with the white. I have put a few napkins in the "Take to Zoo's" box, as I know she will want to play with them. I like hearts and she likes leaves.

In the shot below, you can see one of the corners didn't stick after I trimmed the edges. This amount of fixing will be easy with a tiny bit of matt medium or glue.

So there you have it... using paper napkins from the kitchen for use in the craft room. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve and an awesome 2018!

Take care and have fun!

Red Bear : )

Hello again. I wasn't sure where to put the cards I made with the paper napkins... a new post or added to this one.  Obviously, I chose the latter of the two options. I had such fun with these silly little happy faces. I will end up using them for my valentines cards this year, I think. 

I made a few : )

I used embossing folders on the backgrounds, eyelets (cheaper to mail than brads), string, funky scissors and circles. Easy and adorable.

 I used the different yellow faces on the insides. I only showed the 'lmao' tear smiley face inner.

Have a wonderful January! 

Red Bear : )

SpellBinders Curved Border Dies

Hello again. I am waiting for my banana bread to finish baking and since I am stuck on this level of the house and am definitely not in the mood to vacuum, I thought I would do up another post. I recently stole (borrowed) Zoo's two sets of border die's from SpellBinders (Curved Borders One and Two - each with 6 dies) and fell in love with them. Oodles of fun playing with these dies and I can see making waaaaay too many cards with them.

I have done two sets of cards so far. Each time I sat down to play with them I chose a couple of colours of 8 1/2"x11"paper, cut them half then started cutting different borders from each end of the paper. In this way I ended up with an abundant amount of die cut pieces to mount on to a card. I mounted all the pieces onto the card bases and then decorated them at this point. Probably a backward way of doing things but that was how my brain was working at the time.

When it was time to decorate them I found it hard to cover them up, so only used bows (made with the aid of this awesome video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw6vUApUCrk&list=LLrPw3KR7TMCTKUPVvRy-_3g&index=70&t=969s), Dollarama bling, small die cut shapes and a couple of butterflies from a page Zoo gave me that she coloured and didn't know what to do with (She colours beautiful things and then they sit in her craft room where no one can see them. Such a crime. Thanks, Zoo, for letting me show these off !). Upon previewing the post I discovered that the two cards I made with the butterflies are not in the picture file. I gave them away before I took pictures. Typical me. I know Zoo has one so she may add a picture when she gets a chance.

Anyway... enough of me babbling. Here are the cards I have made so far.

The possibilities with these die sets are endless. I look forward to playing with them again in the future. I know Zoo will want them back when she sees the pretty cards but they have such a long distance to travel back out west that they may have to rest up at my house for a few more weeks : )

Metal Blog page for real

After practicing with the metal tape, Zoo and I were to do a page in our AAJ2 using this technique. I once again pulled out a variety of things from my collection and went to town. I wanted to use drywall tape, fun foam embossed to look like waves on the water, my tree punch and left over twig punches from Zoo’s punch. These things all reminded me of nature and the great outdoors so I figured I would do a camping theme. Growing up we did a lot of camping and fishing in remote areas and to this day, I love exploring in the woods, hiking, scrambling up and over hills and mountains (I dislike bugs a little more now though).

I started with the drywall tape diagonal across both pages, as the walking path. Then I added the road using my 1999 Lyuell Harlow LG611 Stone Wall brass embossing plate. This I experimented with in my Big Shot. I put the metal tape on strips of card stock, ran it through the Big Shot, and then applied it to the page using more metal tape. Being a very thin brass plate it and then layers of tape on top, it didn’t show a deep embossed effect but doable for this. I thought I needed a defining line between the path and the road so I used the beaded string to make the road edges. 

                  Next, I started on the lake. I used the fun foam with waves embossed in it (purchased at the Dollarama). I cut it to fit up in the corner and wanted to find something in my stash to act as a rocky shore. I had purchased, from the fabric store, a set of two 80’s patches with antique brass half domes sewn on them. They were 99 cents and so I bought one for myself and one for Zoo. They reminded me of the shoulder patches in the Michael Jackson era and made my day at the time. Zoo, of course, didn’t have a clue why I had bought them or what the heck to do with them when she received hers : )        They did work perfect for a rocky beach, though, so this page was making me smile all the way during the process so far!

 For the grass, I used a million twig punches. Zoo needed a twig punch for some Christmas cards we were working on a year or two ago and I found one at Walmart here and sent it out to her. Before I send it, however, I killed my hands by punching out a million of them for my use. Well, I used up almost my entire stash in this project. The grass is made up of many, many layers of the twig punches glued on and then taped over. I found that my double-ended embossing tool worked the best to bring out the desired texture. I love the grass. I guess I am a little bit of a tactile person and running my hands over the grass and other areas on this page feels cool.

The tree in the upper left corner is made with my Fiskars tree punch. It was too small so I cut out more of them and trimmed the branches off and added them to expand the branch system. It turned out cute. The page needed a little something so I added a van cut out of card stock and taped over. I attached it using foam dimensionals on the top and glue and the two metal brads (bought from Dollarama years ago – yes… I love the dollar store!!!). 

 

I painted it with the black paint a couple of times until it had the effect I wanted.

I must say, that I do love this page. I had my book standing up on my table with this page open for weeks. Playing with metal tape is fun and inexpensive. Zoo and I will have to do more with it in the future.

 Enjoy! Red Bear : )