To Infinity…

Welcome back to the blog!  I’m sharing another galaxy card because my good friend, Janice, just gave me the new Tim Holtz Alcohol Lift Ink and this is my first card using it!!  How cool is this stuff??!!  To create my card, I began with an alcohol ink print that I’ve had for a while and decided to see how the Lift Ink would work through a stencil!  If you look closely, you’ll see the bokeh effect which I made by using Brutus Monroe’s Paint Spots Mixed Media Stencil.  I laid it over my print then tapped a sponge dauber into the Lift Ink and pressed it into the stencil dots.  When all the dots were covered I removed the stencil, and first blotted the Lift Ink away then rubbed in a circular motion to remove any residue.  Voila!!  The Lift Ink indeed lifted the alcohol ink, leaving behind my soft bokeh!  

I then pulled out my little stars stamp and inked it up with Lift and applied it in the same manner.  It didn’t show up very well after blotting and rubbing, so I stamped more stars and embossed them in silver.  You can see that the powder stuck to my inked background and despite my attempts to brush off the excess, some stayed behind and was embossed.  But I still think it’s pretty!  

I had already die-cut the alcohol inked panel with Stitched Rectangle dies, so attached it to a panel of white, then to a black card base.  I stamped the sentiment from Neat & Tangled’s Celebrate You set onto a strip of white card stock, then attached it with two silver brads and made a little bend.  

The Paint Spots stencil is so versatile and I love how this card turned out!  I’m also looking forward to playing with Lift Ink again!  Reach for the stars, friend and “create your own ending”!  

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It’s A Save!!

Hi there!  This card came about in a very unexpected way!  I recently bought a laminating machine and used it successfully a couple of times, but I had some trouble with it the other day!

I  started this card by taping down Brutus Monroe’s Paint Spots stencil to a piece of card stock, then covering it with a thin layer of Deco Foil Transfer Gel.  When it was dried I laid on a layer of Sunrise Foil Transfer sheet and ran it through the laminator but it got stuck halfway out!  I had to pull it from the machine and it came out all wrinkled and accordian-folded!  GAH!!  But those foiled dots stayed put so I decided to save it and go with a distressed look!

I twisted and wrinkled the panel to add more cool distress lines then got out the beautiful Wagon and Suede Surface Inks and sponged color all over it!  Next I used Raven Detail Ink on a sponge to go around the edges and to accent the wrinkles.  How awesome is that?!

From that point on, I was crankin!  I spattered some black and gold craft paint over it all, then die-cut my panel with a Stitched Rectangle die.  I added a layer of white behind it and adhered it to a black card base.  I die-cut the word “celebrate” from Tim Holtz’ Celebration Block Words  using a strip of black card stock, added the textured gold paper behind it and trimmed the end to a banner then mounted it to the card with foam tape for lift.  I rummaged around in my stash and found these black sprigs and thought they’d be a great accent, so glued them in behind the sentiment.

I absolutely LOVE how this came out!  What a save!!

As you can see, there are SO many ways to use the Foil Transfer sheets and the cute stencil!  You’ll find a really great assortment of both by Brutus Monroe!  Here are the links for the Inspiration Team projects!   Berina , Waleska  and I invite you to get inky and “create your own ending!”

Tim Holtz Meets Brutus Monroe!

 

I know I can’t be the only stamper out there who thinks that Tim Holtz and Brutus Monroe products would compliment each other wonderfully!  I paired them up in this card and love the results!  Let’s talk about what happened here!  

Starting on a base card of Lunchbox cardstock, I placed my grid stencil over it, then covered just a section of it with Deco Foil Transfer gel.  I wiped off the excess then removed the stencil and let the gel dry to tackiness.  I didn’t have my heat laminator at that point, so I just pressed the sheet of Drybrush Transfer Foil onto the tacky gel and rubbed it with a credit card to transfer the foil.  I then turned the foil around to make the design go in the opposite direction and rubbed on some more.  What a cool look!  

I heat-embossed the main image from Tim Holtz’ Road Trip set onto a piece of watercolor cardstock, then colored it in with Zigs, roughed up the edges with my scissors and sponged some Raven Detail ink to make it pop.  On my base card with the foiled design, I stamped out the tire tracks with Hickory Smoke distress oxide ink, then stamped the other images in the background to fill in the space.  

Look at all that texture!

I loved combining the products from two great companies!  I wonder if Tim and Christopher have met in real life?!  Perhaps a collaboration is in the future!  I hope so!  In the meantime, I hope you’ve poked around on Brutus Monroe’s website to see what new toys you’d like to play with!  

Tim Holtz Distress Resist Spray Backgrounds

I thought I’d share a little of my creative process with you in this post!  Above are many backgrounds I created using Tim Holtz’ Distress Resist Spray which I received in my Simon Say’s Stamp June Card kit!  I finally tried it out and ended up with these!  Basically, I laid a stencil onto each piece of card stock, sprayed the Resist Spray over it, removed the stencil and let the paper dry; the spray acts just like heat-embossing and we all know how much fun that is!  The really fun part was to choose my color combinations for each panel and then let it “speak” to me in regards to which stamps to use and how to design the cards!

I LOVE this one!!  I’m partial to a gray & yellow combination, and I love how that black got onto this panel!  (I’m not actually sure how that happened!)  I used Fossilized Amber, Iced Spruce and a little Black Soot distress oxide inks to sponge the color on.  

Speaking of Tim Holtz (I mentioned the oxide inks, right?!) this is one of my absolute favorite “man” sets and just love this vintage car!  I heat-embossed it in black onto the panel, then over-stamped the other images in more Iced Spruce.  I can’t recall who makes the “let’s get LOST” sentiment, but it’s perfect, isn’t it?!  🙂  A lovely Bazzill textured gray base finished this card!  

Remember when aqua and brown was all the rage?!  I still love this soothing combination and added some Cracked Pistacio distress oxide ink to Broken China and Walnut Stain.  The resist background was made with a cool script stencil.  

I pulled out another favorite Tim Holtz set for this card; it’s called The Great Outdoors and has some really wonderful images!  I stamped the wood circle all over a white card base using Walnut Stain, then moved on to create my card.  I tore the resist background in half (now I get to make a second card with the other half!) and sponged more Walnut Stain around the edges.  On a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, I sponged Antique Linen distress ink all over, then dripped water over it for cool texture.  I stamped the trees in Cracked Pistacio and Walnut and stamped the deer in Walnut too.  I used my Walnut distress marker to darken the deer in the foreground.  More Walnut Stain around the edges!  I heat-embossed the sentiment onto a scrap of textured card stock then adhered it to my card after assembling the other pieces.  

OH!  Big surprise!  Another Tim Holtz product; a stencil this time!  😀  I first sponged Fired Brick oxide ink at the bottom, then Carved Pumpkin over it and finally, Fossilized Amber at the top.  Those “cool” darkish stains are from my dirty baby wipe as I was wiping the ink off the resist parts!  Happy accident!!  

I kinda love this “dirty” card!!  The Celebrate You stamp is from Neat & Tangled and I heat-embossed it in black right over my panel, then sponged Black Soot around the edges.  A strip of black & white striped paper accents one edge and I mounted this onto a black base card.  The last detail was to add Nuvo Drops all over and then spatter black paint over it all.  I haven’t done paint-spattering in a while and I miss it!  😉  

How beautiful is this background?!  My favorite Iced Spruce oxide ink is paired with Shaded Lilac and a touch of Fossilized Amber, all sponged over the cool grid stencil.  That resist spray is SO easy and SO cool!  

I’ve already written a post about this beautiful card but it needs to be added here!  I used my spankin’ new Altenew set called Crown Blooms ; stamped out the images onto a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, then colored with my Zig markers.  I fussy-cut the bloom and leaf and layered them over the background where I’d stamped the little floral sprig.  Lastly, the sentiment from Brutus Monroe‘s Super Sentimental set was heat-embossed in white onto a scrap of black, then mounted to the blossom.  A base card of my favorite textured card stock by Bazzill in gray sets this off beautifully!  Now…I have more backgrounds to play with so I’m out!!  Thanks for visiting!  

Stenciled Summer Flowers

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is to use a stencil in a card so I got on the bandwagon and created this!  The stencil I chose is one I drew and cut a couple years ago and I think it makes a nice backdrop for these blossoms from Summer Flowers!  On a white card base, I began by taping down my stencil, then with sponge daubers and distress oxide inks in Walnut, Fired Brick, Carved Pumpkin and Fossilized Amber, I filled in the spaces.  The Broken China blue (distress oxide ink) speckles were made with a very old Stampin Up texture stamp!  

I set that aside and pulled out a piece of special marker paper and stamped the images from Summer Flowers with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then began to color with my new Copic markers.  My colors are still limited but I have enough for flowers!  

After coloring, I added more texture by dotting on some black Nuvo Drops.  Next, I fussy-cut the blossoms and leaves, cutting out some of the petals and curling the leaves a tad so I could stand them up a little for a more realistic appearance.  I then arranged them on top of the stenciled design, gluing the pieces down with Tacky Glue.  I stamped Thinking of You (The Ton’s Basic Labels) with Versafine Onyx Black ink onto a scrap of white, cut it out and mounted it with a bit of foam tape.  I wasn’t sure how this would come together but I’m quite happy with it!  

Softly Stenciled

Today was a very busy day with babysitting grandsons and attending a bridal shower, but I got to spend some time in my stamp room this afternoon and decided to work with stencils, as I’ve been seeing a lot of them used on backgrounds lately!  The first stenciled layer on this card was done with a beautiful Tim Holtz stencil Gothic, using Broken China and Wilted Violet distress oxides and water.  I found the image of a woman on Pinterest, printed it out and made my own stencil with it, and layered that on next, sponging around it with Iced Spruce distress oxide ink.  I then laid a scripty stencil over her and sponged on more ink for added interest.  Black Soot oxide softened the edges of my panel.  

I had this colored floral image (Charmed by Altenew) already in my stash and stamped a script stamp over the flowers, then softened the cut edges with Black Soot distress oxide.  I cut it apart in order to layer it with pieces of foam tape.  

The last step was to heat-emboss in black the sentiment from Altenew’s Label Love, one of my favorite sentiment sets!  A base card of lavender completes my card!