Metallic Ink Resist

I happened to pop in on my friendly StampinUp Demo just as she was checking out the Workshop Wow DVD she picked up at the convention last week and got to see this technique demonstrated by Heather Summers. I was intrigued and just had to try it myself.

You pour a small amount of the metallic All Purpose Ink onto a paper plate then dab it onto your cardstock using a scrunched up piece of plastic wrap, leaving plenty of white space.

Allow the ink to dry, then sponge on dye ink over the metallic ink.  Wipe excess dye ink off of the metallic with a tissue.

Once that is dry, you stamp over it with a solid stamp.  I used Archival Ink so you can see traces of the metallic through it.  I plan on trying it with StazOn to see if that will make a smoother, more opaque impression.

To finish the card I made a smaller piece of the resist for the sentiment panel.

You can try this technique with a detail line stamp and used sponges to color the image in.

Sources: Tsukineko All-Purpose Ink (Frost White); StampinUp Cardstock, Dye Ink & rubber stamps; Ranger's Archival Ink; Spellbinders dies; pearls from Michael's

Til next time...

Family Craziness

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a week. A friend has been out of town and we have had to care for her dogs. Then we had to rush our daughter-in-law to the hospital with appendicitis. On top of that, while I was waiting at the hospital on Saturday for my daughter-in-law to be discharged, my wonderful husband ran down to Petsmart for dogfood.  CAWS happened to be there with rescued dogs for adoption and "The Dogfather" found one he just couldn't walk away from. He had been abused so he's a bit skittish but he follows me everywhere. We took him to the vet yesterday for a complete checkup, shots, medicine for his eye and dewormer for his tapeworms.  Other than the irritated eye and the tapeworm, he is in excellent shape.  Once he learns to negotiate the staircase to my craft room, I'll be working on a few techniques I have wanted to try.

So here is MacTavish Muck-

Dry Brushing Make It Monday

Why is it that when the word Challenge is mentioned, things become harder than they really are? Or am I the only one who goes spastic over card challenges? Dry brushing (MIM technique found here)  is a very simple yet effective technique that should have taken me no time at all to do and here it is late Tuesday afternoon and I am just finishing up. Sheesh! My color scheme started out as Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, Night of Navy and Very Vanilla but it ended up as Wild Wasabi, Rich Razzleberry, Pool Party, Island Indigo and Whisper White. I dry brushed white paint on the Indigo layer and then dry brushed the Pool Party layer with the matching Pool Party ink. I'm not sure if I like the paint but I think dry brushing with ink is a great alternative to sponging.

Cardstock, ribbon and ink from StampinUp

White paint from Making Memories

Snowcap White ink from Ranger

Stamps, basket and napkin die and Impression Plate from Papertrey Ink

Other dies from Spellbinders

White Lace and brad from stash

Til next time...

BBQ & Horseshoes

Sorry there isn't anything to show today. I have company coming and still have potato salad, cucumber salad and deviled eggs to make.  I would love to hear some opinions on the new blog design though. Tell me what's good, what's bad, what should be changed or kept. I'd really appreciate it.

Til next time...

Waltzing with the Mouse Again

Did you ever have a project that just refused to cooperate? I decided to do this weeks Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge found here and had a card pictured in my mind but it fought me tooth and nail. I lost track of how much paper went into the recycle bin. It still isn't exactly what I planned but this is about as close as my ink and paper would allow.

I used several stamp sets, all by Waltzingmouse, cardstock and reinkers from StampinUp, Versamark, and glittery embossing powder from my extensive collection.  The sentiment was cut out using a cute little die set from Verve.

Til next time...

What the Cluck!

I just had to show this card I made for a friend's 50th Birthday. He was so impressed with my chickens that this spring, he got 3 of his own, hense the chicken card.

The chick and party hat are from a Crafty Secrets set called Farm Chicks , Candles with stars are from a See D's Birthday set I picked up used, Gingham background stamp is from Waltzingmouse, sentiment was made with a JustRite alphabet and the cardstock is StampinUp's Real Red, Baja Breeze and Whisper White. Ink used was SU's Real Red, Memento Tuxedo Black, Antique Linen Distress Ink and Copic Markers.

Til next time...

Too Much Nightlife

Having a bit of a slow start today. Last night we went to the Triple-A Home Run Derby in Salt Lake City and had a fabulous time - Beer, peanuts, popcorn, hot dogs, live band, some incredible hits and a spectacular fireworks show. Got to watch a high school junior slam the ball right out of the park and take second place after the Pro.  Actually, if you add up his Home Runs from all 3 rounds, he hit more HRs total than the League Players did and only lost the Derby by 2. By the time the fireworks were over and we got to the car it was getting pretty late and once we got home we had dogs to take out and chickens to lock up etc. and it took me a while to settle down. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep before it was time to get up, let out the dogs, open the chicken coop, feed the cats and take out the trash barrels and I don't do mornings at the best of times.

Today's card was made for my friend Kim and her husband's Anniversary. I used a new Verve set I had just gotten along with some PTI that hadn't seen ink yet as well as a StampinUp embossing folder that was still in the package.

Colors used are Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Soft Suade, Certainly Celery and Always Artichoke all by StampinUp. Also by StampinUp is the ribbon and Tulip Border embossing folder Stamps are Verve's Bloom and Grow with the matching dies, PTI's Mat Stack 3 and Love Birds with their matching dies. 

Til next time...

Megafortress Monday

First I have to tell you... the last 24 hours have been unbelievable. Yesterday I discovered I had won a Top Mouse Award from Waltzingmouse Stamps for this card, then this morning I found out I won last week's Make-it Monday prize from Papertrey Ink for this card. I never win anything!! I've put up my Top Mouse blinkie in my sidebar and now I am going crazy trying to decide which stamp set I want from Papertrey Ink. I think it's going to end up being Daydreamer.  What do you think?

Now on to today's card.  My husband Chris is hooked on an old DOS game called Megafortress from 1991.  I recently upgraded our desktop to an Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge Processor with 8 GBs of Ram, 1 GB of video Ram, a 240 GB Solid State Drive for the OS and programs and a 500GB Sata drive for all saved files and this man still wants to play Megafortress. Sheesh!  So our youngest, Alex, set up a DOS shell so dear old Dad could play his game and Dad is now a very happy gamer.

Now that you have the background you will understand why Alex asked me to make a Father's Day card for him to give his Dad that looked like the box the game came it.

Here is the game:

I used Make-the-Cut to create the cut file for the plane then cut it out along with some clouds and wonky stars.  The colors used were Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, More Mustard, Whisper White and Black from StampinUp. The Father's Day sentiment was from PTI's Masculine Motifs and the inside sentiment was created with an alphabet set from JustRite Stampers.  The Poppy panel was embossed with the Cuttlebug diamond plate folder and the Pacific Point panel was embossed with the stars folder.  I did the gray shading on the clouds with my Copic Airbrush System but I need a lot more practice with airbrushing.

So here is the card and it's not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Card Closed

Card Open





Til next time...

Double Flap and Finished Swap

We finished all 51 of the swap cards yesterday and they are gorgeous!!  I can't show you the card until Thursday but I can show you the card I made for my father-in-law that I based the swap design on. This is how Kim and I work. One of us comes up with a design and the other tweaks it and we go back and forth until we have it right. Once I post the swap card on Thursday and you compare it to today's card, you'll see what our collaborations can achieve.

I started with a Flap Fold pattern from Technique Junkies Fancy Folds and Motion CD then, as usual, I did my own thing to it. The stamps, ink and cardstock are all Stampin'Up, the bikes were colored with Copics and the faint texture you see on the Baja Breeze cardstock was applied with the Papertrey Ink Linen & Canvas Impression Plate.

Card Closed:

Card Open:

Til next time...

Double Gate Fold

Have to do this quick.  I'm helping a friend make her swaps for the StampinUp Convention this week. 51 of the same stinkin' card!  Glad I'm not a Demo. So any who way...

One of the Father's Day cards I made for my husband was a double gatefold using SU's Plane & Simple set. I cut 2-  5 1/2 x 8 1/2 pieces of Wild Wasabi, scored and valley folded the at 4 1/4 then scored and mountain folded them at 2 1/8. I then overlapped the 4 1/4 inch ends to make a 5 1/2 X 4 1/4 card when closed.

Colors are Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake.

Til next time...

Katie's Kitchen

One of the main reasons I haven't posted in so long is the total renovation of our kitchen area.  We completely gutted the room and started all over from scratch with new electric, plumbing, insulation, wallboard, ceiling etc.  It was a much larger undertaking than I thought and took far longer than expected but it was definitely worth it.

Here is the old, dark, dismal, cramped kitchen. It looks way better in the photo than it was in real life.

And here it is torn apart.

On it's way back together.

Here it is waiting for tile backsplashes and a big tile something or other over the stove.

Our tile installer got involved with a big job out in California and while I was waiting for his return I realized that tile would be too overwhelming.  That and I really wanted the darn room DONE!  So out came the paint, roller, blue tape, then starch & iron for the curtains.  A trip to Hobby Lobby for something to hang over the stove and it is finally finished! 

The west wall.

The north wall.

The south wall.

This has been a dream come true for me.  The kitchen has always been the center of our home and family and now it is the heart and soul as well.  We have already shared some great times together in this room and are looking forward to many more to come.

 

Til next time...

Another Challenge

Wow! I've posted 2 days in a row! I'm on a roll. Today's card is using the technique for this week's PTI Make It Monday Challenge found here. The ink and cardstock is from StampinUp in Very Vanilla, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz and Chocolate Chip. The flowers are from last years PTI Anniversary set, Round and Round, which is not available for purchase. All other stamps are from current Papertrey Ink sets. The dies are from PTI, ribbon from my stash, border punch from Fiskars and the buttons were made from cardstock using SU's embosslit, Sweet Buttons and coated with Crystal Effects.

Til next time...

Back & Up for a Challenge

I can't believe it's been over 3 months since I have posted anything.  I know I've been very busy but just not sure with what. I've made a ton of great projects but forgot to photograph any of them before sending them off to their recipients. Hopefully I can get back in the swing of things starting with this sketch challenge from Waltzingmouse.

The colors used were Real Red, Peach Parfait, So Saffron and Certainly Celery in inks and cardstock from StampinUp. Rubberstamps are from Waltzingmouse, Dies from Spellbinders, border punch from EKSuccess and ribbon from my stash. Flowers were colored with Copics in the colors shown.

Tomorrow I will be posting my card for PTI's Make It Monday Challenge.

Til next time...