NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) #10

This is the third and final challenge for Darnell's 5th year Anniversary challenge NBUS challenge #10 which has an optional theme of bubble wrap.
What a great way to pull out all that never before used schtuff we all have. Personally I have some that I sell or give away before it's ever used, what a waste (don't tell my husband 🙊), so thanks Darnell for the nudge.

For this card I used  Alcohol inks on Yupo, a mix of gold and greens and blues.  I let it dry and used bubble wrap spritzed with Alcohol blending solution and pressed it onto the AI covered surface.  You can see the imprint of the bubbles in the background.  I let it dry again and then did some stamp layering with my NBUS text stamp from Bo Bunny and a stitched circle by LimeCitrorn.  I'm also adding my bubble wrap to my NBUS list as I've had it for almost a year waiting to be used because I've seen some awesome mixed media and gelli prints with bubble wrap imprints.  Finally I used my brand new leaf die by Gina Marie designs with some dull gold cardstock. The sentiment is from Rubbernecker.

I hope you like the card and would love to hear from you.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Bo Bunny, LimeCitron, Rubbernecker.
Paper: 110lb white, black, Yupo
Ink: Archival Black
Accessories: Alcohol inks, Bubble wrap
Techniques: Alcohol inks on yupo, layered stamping, die cuts, CAS

Gelli plate and Mixed Media

A few weeks back I made some gelli plate backgrounds with my friend Susan.  Some times the backgrounds don't look that great and need a little extra work.  That's what happened with this one.  I didn't particularly like the gelli plate background and thought it was a little blah.  Time to pull out some mixed media products, I grabbed the Viva decor 3D paint and a stencil.  That gave me a wonderful sparkle and shimmer over the paper.  The stencil is one from Carabelle Studios in a leaf shape, I then took some black embossing paste and used the TCW cubist stencil to add some dimension to the card.

Finally I used a memory box die for the branch

I am entering this for the following challenges

Craftstampers January challege

Stamplorations January CAS challenge

Stamploratations January challenge

Mixed Media Monthly challenge

     

Card Recipe
Stamps: Katzelkraft
Paper: 110lb white, Mixed Media
Ink: Ranger Archival
Accessories: Acrylic Paints, Stencils, Viva Decor 3D paint, Embossing paste
Techniques: Gelli print, mixed media

Christmas is now over and time to ink up some of those new stamps

This week's Split coast Stampers way to use it challenge is "Let's warm Up", seeing that title I really wanted to ink up my new Unity stamp Harmony.  I have admired her for so long so when they announced their mega sale I couldn't resit.  There's one more day left for their 54% off all stamps sale so you still have time.

I used liquid friskit to protect her face, hands, legs and handbag from the bister.  Once it was dry I sprinkled blue bister over the outside and spritzed with water.  I tried to control the flow of water so not too much flowed toward the image and mopped up any dark areas with kitchen roll if it did.  Once it was dry I peeled off the liquid friskit and used my zigs to add a little colour.  I think the bister gives a really bluster cold day.

I also made a second card this time with watercolour.  I used Inktense pencils and a watercolour brush to move the colour around and some clear dew drops as waterdroplets.  As you cans see I love red handbags and boots 😀

Card Recipe
Stamps: Unity
Paper:110 lb white, black, coated and cold press watercolour paper
Ink: Ranger archival
Accessories:Dew drops
Techniques: Bister, watercolouring

An old technique revisited

It's so nice when friends start up a discussion about old techniques, and so inspirational.  Thank you Nancy for starting that email thread about pencils and gamsol or blending solution.  I pulled out my box of  Koh-I-Noor pencils and kraft paper and thought about Darnell's NBUS challenge.

Back in the fall friends were visit from the UK, 💡now that's a perfect opportunity to purchase stamps from the UK and Europe and have them brought over hee hee.  Before they arrive I'm trolling the all the online stores and having parcels delivered to them, yes I spent lots of money.  I must admit they were a little surprised by the Brusho's and the warnings that I gave about packing them in their suitcases.  Of course I couldn't resist stopping in at Katzelkraft a french store with a great selection of stamps.  I consider these stamps as NBUS because I have had them since September and this is the first time they have been inked up.
So using my pencils and blender pen I came up with this card-

Both the Zebra and sentiment are by Katzelkraft.  Because I was on a roll I did a second card using another of the stamps from both animal and the sentiment set.  The raindrops are by Designs By Ryn.

I hope you like them

Card Recipe
Stamps: Katzelkraft, Designs by Ryn
Paper: 110 lb white, kraft, black
Ink: Ranger Archival
Accessories: Koh-I-Noor pencils, blender pen
Techniques: pencil colouring

Butterfly, flowers and stencils

I was looking through my stash of backgrounds and found some pretty ink sprayed sheets, both had been sprayed with some Dick Blick liquid water colours.
The sprays are a very concentrated liquid water colour which can be watered down and mixed to increase your colour selection so a are a very economical way to create coloured sprays.  I have 2 cards I want to show you, the first is using the a Glossy card for the die cut and the second on Yupo.

For this card I used Distress inks and blended distress inks over the stencil, sorry I'm not sure who makes this stencil I lost the package.  I die cut the butterfly background from the coated card sprayed with liquid inks and cut the second layer out of white card stock.  I flicked a few water specks over the distress inks.

This card is very similar using liquid inks on Yupo, just be aware watercolour takes a long time to dry on Yupo paper, you need lots of patients 😊

I sponged the circles using distress inks and die cut the flower in white card stock, coloured the stems and die cut the flower head from the Yupo and attached it to the card.

I am entering these for
CAS Mix Up liquid inks
Craft stampers magazine anything goes
Happy Little stampers CAS January challenge Stenciling
Less is more
Snippets Playground

Card Recipe
Stamps: Paper smooches
Paper: 110lb white, glossy card, Yupo
Ink: Ranger archival, distress inks
Accessories: poppy dies, Carabelle stencil
Techniques: Die cut, stenciling

Double stencil Christmas ornament

It's always a good time to create a Christmas card.

I'm entering this for the
CAS watercolour Challenge Snowflakes.
Happy Little Stampers January watercolour challenge.

This card was a little experiment in using 2 stencils.  The first was an ornament stencil I created using a Stampin Up Ornament die with lots of open space to create the frame, the second was a stencil my friend Loll cut for me a few months back with snowflakes.
I elevated the watercolour paper by laying it on an ink pad, it makes removing the stencils later much easier and reduced the risk of smearing the image when lifting if off.  If you watch Lolls Video  she does a great job of describing the technique.
In the picture below you can just see the ornament stencil on the water colour paper and the second snowflake stencil is beside it on the the work surface.

Carefully place the second stencil on top of the first as below being very careful not move the the lower one.  It's hard to see but both stencils are on the watercolour paper.  (Afterthought  💡- you could pre-position the stencils and tape them together before placing place on the watercolour card, that should reduce the risk of moving the 2 stencils before lifting).

Sprinkle your powdered ink over the open areas of the stencil.  Here I used Brushos but I'm sure most powdered inks would work. When I sprinkle I do try and get the powder into all the spaces and my technique is to tap the bottom of the container over the area you want to cover. If you look at the container in image 1 there is a push pin in the lid, when you remove the pin the hole will allow the powder to come out.  I gleaned this trick from Sandy Allnock, Sandy has some great video's on powdered inks.

Next take your water spritzer and spritz the powdered inks so they are wet but not pooling.  The stencil should protect your white space as long as you don't flood the paper.  Once you have spritzed carefully pick up both stencils at the same time (this is where taping the stencils together may help).  You will be left with the outline of the ornament and the image of your second stencil which for this one is the snowflake.

I also outlined the ornament with a silver gel pen by replacing the stencil. I hope you liked my take on the stencil and powdered ink tech

Card Recipe
Stamps: Simon Says Stamp sentiment
Paper: Aquarelle Hot press watercolour paper 140 lb, 110lb white, navy
Ink: Delicata Silver
Accessories: Stencils, Brushos, water spritzer
Techniques: Stenciling with powdered inks

New start to a stamping year with Challenges in Mind

I'm Making the most of my last few days on vacation after Christmas, I have today and tomorrow to get a little card making in especially as we have a blanket of snow from last night.  So I checked in on  Snippets playground which runs till the 7th of January

For my card today I took some coated card which I previously sprayed with starch and sprinkled it with Black Bister and covered in cling wrap to give liquid colours, this left over has been sitting in my stash for a month or two.  

This is one of my favorite techniques which I tried for the first time last summer during the Dare To Get Dirty Challenge on SplitCoast Stampers.  Robin AKA Stamperrobin at SCS provided us with a link to a tutorial at JOZART  There is some waiting time but well worth it, it's so pretty sort of a polished stone effect.

I used a Simon Says Stamp die and inlaid the spray starch pieces.  I then used a Tim Holtz stencil and rubbed some Viva Decor 3D stamp paint around the central die cut.  The 3D stamp paint is quite sparkly so adds a little shimmer to the card.  To finish it off I added some sequins.

I hope you like the card.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Rubbernecker sentiment
Paper: 110lb white, black, coated card
Ink: Bister, Ranger Archival
Accessories:Simon Says stamp Die, Sequins, MISTI, Viva Decor 3D stamp paint, Stencil (Tim Holtz)
Techniques: Spray Starch backgrounds, inlaid die