Alcohol!
Happy Friday Crafters! It’s Nancy here today with one of my words for the Random Acts of Cardness…. and that word is ALCOHOL! You could play with this any way you’d like (wine? beer?) but I chose alcohol inks!
Happy Friday Crafters! It’s Nancy here today with one of my words for the Random Acts of Cardness…. and that word is ALCOHOL! You could play with this any way you’d like (wine? beer?) but I chose alcohol inks!
Hello, my friend! It’s Deb here, for the Design Team. Are you like me, and start stressing over your holiday cards as soon as the calendar flips to November? Maybe it’s because I have to mail to family overseas, but I always start to panic. Well, today I’m going to share a holiday card that you can easily ‘mass produce’, if you’re short on time. It uses the Tim Holtz Carved Ornaments Die for 2 fabulous ornament shapes.
This die is one of the Sizzix ‘Bigz’ dies, which means you can die cut 2-3 sheets of cardstock at a time, as well as being able to cut other heavier substrates, as well. So if you’re into stitching or sewing, you could die cut fabric or felt ornaments for your tree, or as gifts! I, however, stick to what I know – which is paper!
I love the large size of these ornaments!
I just HAD to decorate these ornaments with my alcohol inks! First, I die cut the ornaments from Yupo – the perfect substrate/base for alcohol inks. Next, I chose my colours. I decided to be ‘traditional’, and use red and greens. For the green ornament, I first dropped Citrus and Meadow alcohol inks, added some Alcohol Blending Solution, and then use the Tim Holtz Air Blower to move them around on the Yupo. Next, I added some Gold Mixative, with more Blending Solution, and moved it around. I continued to do this, until I was happy with the result. For the red ornament, I repeated the same steps, this time I used just Poppyfield aclohol ink with the Gold Mixative. It’s super easy to do this technique, and fun, too!
If you were going to mass produce the ornaments, I’d suggest doing a whole sheet of Yupo at once, and then doing the die cutting. You can even stack 2-3 sheets of Yupo on top of the die to cut at once. Your card making would go really fast!
Set aside your ornaments – they will be dry before you know it. Use the Big Shot again with the Hero Arts Snowflake Cluster die and Lawn Fawn sparkle paper. Use a sentiment from the Poppystamps Christmas Quotes stamp set, and stamp in Versamark onto green cardstock. Cover it with gold embossing powder, and set with a heat tool. Use the coordinating dies that come with the Christmas Quotes set to die cut the sentiment. Now you’re ready to put your card front together!
Snip the Snowflake Cluster die cut in half, placing it in the bottom left and top right corners of a piece of brushed gold cardstock. Next, glue the green ornament to the left side. Attach the red ornament with foam tape or squares to the right & overlapping the green ornament. Next, attach the sentiment die cut at the bottom right, under the red ornament. Finally, attach the card front to a green card base, using foam tape.
The shine of the alcohol inks is so pretty in real life – hard to photograph without a glare, though.
Today’s prompt for the Scrap ‘N Stamp daily challenge is – you guessed it – ‘ornaments’! If you’re not playing along, you really should! All you need is a Facebook account, and the ability to share a photo of your project. You can find the group page HERE, Play along with as many days as you like, posting your project with the hashtag #SNSCHALLENGE there, and on your other social media accounts. At the end of the month, one lucky person is randomly drawn to WIN a $50 GIFT CARD to shop at Scrap ‘N Stamp! A new list of daily prompts is posted at the beginning of each month, so you can keep playing along.
All you need to re-create my card, and create your own, is available in the Scrap ‘N Stamp online store. Have fun creating! I’ll be looking for your projects in the challenge group.
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Welcome to a new week! I’m really excited about today’s project that I have to share with you. It’s Deb here, with my word of ‘resin’ for the Daily Challenge. So today, I’m sharing how to create art with resin!
Most people think of resin as just a sealant. As in, create your artwork, and then pour the resin on top, to seal it. Resin has come a long way from that! Of course it has excellent sealing properties, but today, we’re adding colour to our resin, and creating a scenic art piece.
The Ranger Clear Resin is super easy to use; it’s a simple 2 part system of resin plus hardener. You combine half resin with half hardener – the mix must be an exact half-half ratio- and stir for 2 minutes. Then you’ve got about 30 minutes ‘working’ time before the resin starts to thicken and become unusable. Thirty minutes is plenty of time, don’t worry!
It’s important to remember that resin is toxic! Always work in a well ventilated area; have a window open, and/or a fan going. You also should always wear gloves to protect your hands. It’s also important to note that this resin is NOT FOOD SAFE, nor are alcohol inks. This means you should not use it on plates, cups, etc. that are to be eaten or served food from.
Being aware of the working time is important. Get your work space all set up & ready to go, before you mix your resin. For the beach scene we’re creating today, first use masking or painter’s tape to tape off the underside and edges of your Ranger Hard-Core Art Panel. This is to stop any dripping resin from accumulating on the sides & bottom of your panel. Next, put out 1 plastic cup for each colour, and one for mixing the clear resin. For this piece, I mixed 1 oz. of each the resin & hardener, and mixed for 2 minutes. Next, pour some of the resin into each single cup. The amount of resin your put in each cup depends on how much of each colour you’ll need. The 4 colours we’re using are Ranger Latte, Glacier, Laguna and Snowcap. We need less of the Latte & Snowcap, so put smaller amounts in each cup. To colour the resin, simply add 4-6 drops of the ink into the cup with resin, and then mix. The more ink you add, the darker the colour will be. Here’s how my set up looks, with my colours mixed, and ready to go!
I decided that the Latte wasn’t dark enough, so I added 2 drops of Teakwood, and mixed that in. That’s the colour you see, above. In front of the cups, you can see my Hard-Core Art Panel, with the tape on the sides.
First, start by pouring the Latte & Teakwood resin on an angle along the bottom of the panel. This is your ‘sand’ area. Use your stir stick to spread the resin from side to side. Next, pour the darker blue Glacier resin on an angle at the top of the panel. Again, use your stir stick to spread the resin. This is the darker part of the water, which is furthest away. Now, add the lighter blue Laguna resin mix in between.
Now you’re ready to add the waves! Lift some of the Snowcap resin mix with the stir stick, and drop it in a line between where the Latte/sand and the Laguna/water meet. Now, use your heat tool or a blow dryer and direct the air on an angle, so that it pushes the ink into the resin, first away from you, and then towards you. This part is such fun! By blowing the ink & resin, it creates the cells and mixes the two, making it look like waves & foam.
Add more ‘lines’ of Snowcap resin mix into different areas of the water, creating more waves. I had ordered some tiny sea shells & starfish from Amazon to add to my piece, so now is the time to do that. Check for any air bubbles that may be trapped in the resin. You can get rid of air bubbles by holding your heat tool over them, or a butane torch, until they pop. A torch is much faster – it only takes a quick pass to pop the bubbles – but not everyone has one of these. Once you’re happy with the total look, you’re finished!
I think the hardest part of creating art with resin is waiting for the resin to cure, or harden! You want to leave your art piece for 6-10 hours, or overnight, without touching it. If you touch it before this, you may cause indents or marks in the resin, which can’t be removed. After 6-10 hours, you should remove your masking tape. Doing it at this stage will be easiest, as any extra drips will still be a bit pliable, and easier to remove. The resin takes a full 3 days to fully cure; meaning that you can handle it without any fear of leaving marks.
All of the work & waiting is worth it! Stand back and admire your gorgeous artwork!
Here’s a close up look at the cells and ‘foam’ created by the Snowcap ink.
I hope that today’s create art with resin project interested and inspired you! If you’re like me, once you’ve tried it once, you’ll want to do it again.
All of the supplies you need to create your own resin beach scene are listed for you, below. Have fun creating, and be sure to share your project on the Scrap ‘N Stamp Daily Challenge page HERE! Remember to use my special DT Discount Code 10DEB at checkout, to receive 10% OFF regular priced items!
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