What a deal! June Sign Up Special

Monday, October 26, 2009

Look! I discovered a new trick...at least new to me!




Ok, so here's what I found out...I was playing around with this great new set, Autumn Splendor (yes, out of the Holiday Mini, of course? Where else would I find cool new stamps?) and trying to come up with a card for my October workshops but they were just looking a little bit anemic, if you know what I mean? I like it...sort of, but it "just needed something". So I figured what do I have to loose and started playing around a bit with it.
Well, I guess that I am getting ahead of myself a little. Here are the images/stamp sets I used. The background stamp is from Woodgrain (a new stamp I bought because Jan Tink, my fellow demonstrator, made me do it after I saw some beautiful samples on her blog!) which I stamped in Creamy Caramel on confetti cardstock. Then I stamped the various leaves from the Autumn Elegance set using the classic inks in More Mustard, Dusty Durango, Ruby Red and Soft Suede but I was "rock and rolling" the inkpads onto the edges of the stamps so I would get some variation in the colors. Basically I would take the lighter color and tap some of the darker colors around the edges and here and there on top before stamping...no big deal but it looks nice because once you stamp you get a variation of color...pretty cool! But since I had stamped the leaves over the woodgrain the colors weren't showing up that well. That's when I got a little creative and pulled out my Aqua Pen. What I discovered was that the classic inks (which aren't water proof because they are die based inks, right) blurred just a wee bit so the colors blended beautifully and also darkened up just a bit. I was very happy with the overal results because the leaves showed up so much better after I "blended" them. Make sense?
If you look at the pictures above you will see the finished card on the left. I have already "blended" the colors on all of the leaves on that card and attached the sentiment as well. When you look at the "close up" picture on the right you can see that leaf in the top left corner is darker than the others, that is the one I have already blended with the Aqua Pen. The others are still pale and waiting to come to life!
Ok, that's more than enough babbling for one night....thanks for bearing with me! I did this card at my workshop on Saturday and will be doing it again tomorrow night at another workshop. What a great masculine (or at least non-feminine!) card...I used "It's Your Birthday" for the birthday sentiment stamped with Dusty Durango on confetti while and layered it on Soft Suede which had been distressed around the edges.
Now lest you start thinking that I have suddenly become a creative genius...I have not. I gained inspiration for this card from a great card (albeit a little more elaborate)which I saw on someone's blog. I printed it out so I would be sure to remember whose card it was...but my dang dog ate the picture! Yes, believe it...one of our Black Labs has a great fondness for paper products and she ate it! If I find it online again, I will post the name of the demo who inspired me but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy my scaled down version and my new trick. Jan
AHA! I found her! The creative stamper whose card inspired me....or rather, she found me! Here is a link to the original card which I saw that got me started on the idea for the above card. http://www.anewinkonlife.com/a-new-ink-on-life/2009/10/enjoy-today.html Jenn did this lovely card which is far more elegant but was my inspiration. Thanks Jenn for link!

3 comments:

Twila said...

So pretty, I wish I had gotten that set.

anewinkonlife said...

Love the card Jan! Aren't those two sets just perfect together? And I really like the blended effect of the leaves,great idea.

Glad to see you posting again.

Jenn

Lin Mei said...

Lovely card, Jan! The colouring is very classy and the background adds the perfect amount of interest.

Hit Counter