Another day ticked off - 49 days left....

Good evening folks.  Well, I've managed to do a post, not feeling quite as rough as moldy, burnt toast.  It's more just burnt toast now I think :)

Yesterday I showed a card I made years ago - way back in Topaz Crafts days!!  Funny how some old techniques don't look dated. This technique is one that will be good for years.

Initially, my problem was trying to find gloss card, as I knew the technique required a good quality high gloss.  I managed to find two A5 sheets - not even A4!!  Anyway, they did the job.  The ink pads I used were Adirondack, which are a Dye felt ink pad.

First, apply the ink directly to the card, by wiping the pad over the top of the card;

Next just spritz with water

You can either leave it to dry naturally, or blast it with a heat gun.  The type of heat gun you use will give you a different effect.  If you use a strong heat tool, you will move the water, and "chase the drip".  It looks good, but will create "veins" of ink.  Alternatively use a slow heat tool:

The next technique is streaking the ink over the card again, this time I've used two different colours, and then just used a tissue or sponge to blend the ink

I love how it looks, as you still get the streaks of colour, but the inks blend slightly to give a perfect finish.  You can shine the card with a soft cloth to get the shine of the gloss card to pop

I wanted to show you how the exact same technique looks like if you use uncoated card stock.  So, I've applied the ink directly to the card

Spritzed it with water, and then dried it with the heat gun

It gives you a completely different look - literally just depending on the type of card you use

See, when you hold them up next to each other, you can see how dramatically different the results are!

Now, I've tried the same technique with the two different colours

Again, I just used a cloth to blend the ink.  Look at the difference!  Precisely the same technique

Now I've overstamped onto my backgrounds, again to show you how different these look.  Beautiful stamp again isn't it.

Okay, I decided to use the bottom left card, to make into a proper card.  I took a piece of patterned paper, and over stamped, using the Adirondack ink to bring the colour into the background.

I then stamped a vine up the side

And popped my main image on, together with a sentiment, to see how they look

I used the same paper to stamp a flower and a swirl

And then inked a little blue onto the flower and swirl

and then blended in a little of the Adirondack

I laid the elements on, again to see if I was happy.  Keep doing this to check on the progress of your work

I wanted to glaze my flower, and used my versamark pad, with clear embossing powder.  When the first layer was melted, but still hot, I sprinkled a little gold embossing powder, and then clear powder over the top, and heated.  The clear over the gold, breaks the gold up, which I hope you can see from the picture.  It's subtle, but looks effective.

I then covered the sentiment with versamark, and clear embossing powder

Check again, to see what it looks like

And then assemble.  

I added words, as the sentiment says we are the hero of our own story, so I wanted little extra words, that may make up that story

I hope you like it!  Tomorrow has to be a quick post - as it's party time (sore throat, or no sore throat, the party must go on) xx