Stamp connection #15

Hi everyone Today's post is so exciting, because I was asked to participate in a  feature called "Stamp Connection". You have no idea how special this makes me feel as this is with Cornelia and Tanja and they have started asking others to join them in this monthly event. 

Connected through their love for card making, blogging 

 (Tanja from Little Art Cottage  andCornelia from Fun Stamping) decided to 

create a monthly project within predefined requirements. They show you the result 

every 3rd Sunday of the month and this is their fifteenth transatlantic get-together!

And because they have had such a successful year they thought they now

 invite somebody to play along to increase the fun!  

This month Cornelia  chose the theme, "Alcohol Inks",  and they invited me.

 Alcohol inks I love playing around with so couldn't wait to get started.

Alcohol Inks work best on glossy surfaces like Yuppo/ Glossy card stock and Acetate. I have never tried Yuppo before but had ordered some and it was just sitting there waiting for me to use it. Perfect excuse (as though one was needed). Before I go further if you haven't used Alcohol inks there are some brilliant videos on YouTube, just type in Alcohol Inks and go for it.  also be aware that Tim Holtz has just released six new colours and they look fantastic. they're bright and summer and fit between colours already available.

and while there check out the new colours in the enamel accents ohhh my goodness I know they will sell out of both products before I can get them and they look fantastic.

This is the card I made for today

I have written quite a bit down below about how I made this and other patterns using alcohol inks and in this instance Yuppo paper. I have die cut the butterflies out of the Yuppo then again out of white cardstock.

I found after doing my cutting that the die cut had not cut clear through so needed to do a bit of fiddly cutting work with a scalpel so need to remember to make a thicker sandwich for cuttlebug next time. 

I then trimmed a 1/4" for each side  of the white panel and turned the piece so they started in a different colour combination.I  glued everything down leaving the full butterflies with only the centre glued. Love it and the feel and look is wonderful.

I would like to enter this in a couple of challenges but will come back tomorrow once its live to do that.

Challenges:

The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge Day 14

AAA Cards Game #69 -One Favourite from your Stash

alcohol inks hit toenail on the head.

Pile It On Challenge #112 : Use Your Favourite Colour(s)

If you follow my blog then you know my favourite colours are rainbow colours, 

bright colours and this card is certainly it.  This card suits this challenge and the next challenge perfectly.

Virginia's View Summer Challenge #22 : Its All About Colour

Thank you so much Cornelia and Tanja for inviting me to play.

Now, it's time to go and check out Cornelia's and Tanja's creations. They're fabulous!

Cornelia- fun-stamping  

Tanja-  Little Art Cottage  

The following is information and photo heavy

The rest is for if you are interested in knowing more of what I did and the different mediums used and some samples i made.  

Samples I did first:

These are some of the ones I did with pouncing using my round blending tool and a small piece of felt, and twisting as well as pouncing and I really love the look I got. Each was two colours and a wee bit of silver or gold. Keep the darker colour to only a couple of dots then a few of the lighter colour and add a bit of blending solution. When it stops doing anything just add a bit more light colour and blending solution and keep twisting and pouncing. These inks dry very quickly so it is a short play time and no point in adding the blending solution to a bowl to work with cause it just evaporates (mmm wonder how I know that!!!)

All of the above ones were inks onto glossy card stock.

These ones have all been done on Yuppo, it is the most unusual product that looks like glossy card stock but feels like a type of plastic and cuts like one too. If you don't like what you see you can add blending solution, wipe it off and start again.

The rainbow one is just each colour added to a piece felt and pulled down the piece with the blending tool

The second piece is me experimenting with pulling colours, swirling , dropping ink and using a small cottonwool bud with a bit of blending solution to make those dots - lets pretend its the sea and a beach or a sun blazing down. Anyway get the idea, play.

The third piece again on yup, smaller piece, drops and blowing with straw and blending solution, got a bit carried away and it became rather heavy with colour so I put it aside to see if there was anything I could do with it later. 

These bits are done with different colours dropped onto acetate and blown with a straw. Then to get the action going I added a bit of blending solution to the end of another straw and flicked, a bit here and there, gave nice small action.These pieces look fantastic backed with some white paper then added to a card dark or white.

This lot is with the rectangle blending tool and a piece of felt. The felt I use I just went to a craft shop and bought a square probably 7 x 7" and just cut that up into little squares - cost me something like 50 cents for the piece so a lot cheaper than buying packets of felt to go with blender tool, they were also a lot thicker. 

In this instance I have added three colours each across the felt and a squirt of blending solution then pulled across the glossy card stock. The second one went first across then added a bit more colour of each to blender tool and came down the card. Nothing great but looks okay to use for die cutting. The third sheet was a mix or green, orange and blue for the strips.

This is those same sheets as in the first photo but the one that looks like a real mess is the inks blown on the glossy cardstock. Click on the picture so it enlarges and check out the silver.

 The silver, gold and copper don't spread and dilate like the inks but if you drop a bit of blending solution on the silver it tends to like bubble and spread and thin, looks much better with the inks.

I also did some sheets, where I dropped  some drops of the colours on my Tim Holtz sheet a bit of blending solution and then laid the glossy card stock glossy side down into the mix and squished and twisted and ended up with some really nice pieces but forgot to photograph the pieces. So busy cleaning up the mess.

I also have a piece of acetate that has each of the colours dropped onto it and the name written so you can see works together colours wise. The gold etc needs to be shaken vigorously and if you have had it a while quite a long time shaking to get the medium mixed well and looking good.

What I did find is my three greens are very close to each other and I don't know if its because Ive had them quite a while or just the way they are. 

But obviously I need more colours (lol) and some darker colours as I saw some things on Pinterest that really looked good but with dark colours.

Now finally we come to some of the results of this days play, told you I love this medium.

This is a card I did yesterday and that beautiful butterfly is from that small square of what looks like a total mess of colours.

See all those little butterflies they are all from that same little piece as the big one. These little butterflies come with a big one that gives you a solid outline of the lacy butterfly. The big ones come separately.

Check out the postage die cuts, perfect for the front of a card.

Here is some of my smooched ink on the mat used for the hearts die.

Check out this new double die I bought from Hero Art. 

Doesn't this look fantastic.

That little piece I put aside, I ended up using the Love word die, and yes I Love IT.

The blue and silver I have made into a snowflake shaker but not happy with how it sits in the card so back to the drawing board there.

Another of the squished inks and blending solution on glossy cardstock and then die cut twice. Once in white and once in colour and put the colour into the white outline and will do the reverse with the other.

I have so much left I will be dazzling you with cards for years with it. Firstly of course I need to finish off the die cut items and cards I have started. I hope this has given you something to think about. Don't forget to check out the new inks just released- rainbow of colours.

Honestly I reckon glossy card stock is as good as the Yuppo and a lot cheaper but thats me.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.