Last Experiment Of The Year

Hi everyone for some of you it is already the New Year. For me that ball has not descended down yet. Anyway I thought I would do one more experiment before the year ended so I would feel like I kept my goal of trying new things this year.

My friend gave me for Christmas this postcard stamp I fell in love with. In fact he bought me everything I had put on a wishlist for him. Unfortunately except for the  Stampendous Snow Postcard stamp his order did not arrive until after he had left home to visit me. Which means that my Christmas will be extended with more presents to open. :-)

It was hard to get a good photo of the full card since the stamp is stamped on plastic. I used plastic from a page protector and stamped on it with Stazon Rusty Brown ink. The instructions for this technique had you using printable transparencies and black Stazon ink. I did not want to use my printable transparencies as they are more expensive. I've found page protectors at a dollar store for something like 10 cents a piece. I have not yet broken down and bought black Stazon ink. The Rusty Brown I had bought at a craft yard sale. Wish this area had more of those.

It was unbelievable to me the detail that showed up when I stamped on the plastic. I cut my plastic larger than the stamped image so I would not mess it up with the next part of the technique. When the ink is dry turn over the plastic and brush liquid floor wax on the plastic. (I have to use that liquid floor wax up some way since I bought it to make ornaments and a lot is left. Who wants to be waxing floors when they can be crafting.) Then lightly sprinkle fine glitter. If you sprinkle the glitter too heavily the next step will not work. (I wish I would have had a clear or white fine glitter but I don't so I used a greenish gold.)

(Sorry about the shadow and glare. I was trying to show how beautiful this is with the glitter. It was impossible for me to get a picture to show you the beauty of this card.)

 Next place a crumpled sheet of tissue paper over the glittered plastic. (I was so excited to try this technique I forgot to crumple the tissue.) Then take a brush and stipple floor wax on to coat the tissue paper. The floor wax works as a glue. To make sure that the tissue paper was down tight I went ahead and carefully rubbed my brayer over being careful to not tear the tissue paper. If you do tear the paper you can patch with a piece of tissue paper and floor wax. If your patch shows it will add a vintage look.

I was going to leave my project at this point but after it had dried and I placed it on top of card stock to see how it was going to look I decided to add color. Normally this next step you would do before the wax was dried. If you decide to do it after you will need to coat with floor wax. Then color with inks or acrylic paints. I used Folk Art metallic Sapphire and green from my set of metallic paints. Dab the paint or ink randomly and then use a brush with more floor wax to blend your coloring media. Take another piece of tissue paper or a paper towel and blot. If you blot with another piece of tissue paper you can use that in another project. :-)

 I decided to paint a gold border on my card base before adhering my stamped image. Painting the border on the card base instead of on the plastic gives a softer look. The floor wax on the tissue paper makes it more transparent so anything under the image will show through.

I adhered my image using clear Zots by Therm O Web. You could use double sided tape or whatever you use to adhere vellum which doesn't show.

What do you think? Would you try this technique? I am pretty sure if you don't have floor wax that a thinned glue which dries clear would work.

Are you making any crafting goals for the New Year? I will make once again the goal to try new things. I want to grow not only as a crafter but also as an artist. The big goal will be to organize my supplies so I can easily find things. I will continue to use what I have on hand and try to not buy more crafting supplies unless it is glue or solid color card stock.

Wishing you a Blessed New Year and Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!