Here We Come A Caroling

Hi dear readers as much as I love to get inky and stamp there are times I need to use digital images since I either don't have an image of what I want to use or it is the wrong size. In this case it was the fact that the only caroler stamp I have is of snow people which right now I am not sure which box the majority of my wood mount stamps are in.

Sometimes I don't like how a card looks when I photograph it which is why I now use re-positional adhesive so I can change things if I don't like the arrangement. In this case though I basically ended up adding more detail.

Except for the stars and tree the images are from the Melonheadz Christmas Caroler set. I wrapped gift ribbon around the lamppost and crotchet thread around my tree. My sidewalk was card stock airbrushed since I don't have gray card stock and then a stencil used.

I was experimenting with rubbing alcohol and paint again for my background. I had bought Prussian Blue paint at a thrift store and when I opened it the paint was really liquidity which no amount of shaking changed. I painted my canvas paper and then while the paint was wet splattered rubbing alcohol over it. I didn't like how it looked so misted my paper and took a house painting brush and swiped over it. I love my result. I can see a lot of potential using thin paint and rubbing alcohol.

What techniques have you tried lately?

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Stopping By The Woods

Hi my dear readers. Ever since I learned about poetry at an early age Robert Frost has been one of my favorite . My favorite poem by him is "Stopping By Woods On  Snowy Evening". I decided to make a card based on that poem. Although my Just For Fun stamp has more than one person in the sleigh.

I tried a alcohol technique and it didn't work. Being the queen of frugal I went ahead and painted my forest on the dark blue background.On the bottom of my background I applied heavy gel and fine glitter. I didn't realize that if the heavy gel is put on too thick that it will crack. In this case it was a happy accident. I cut out my frame and used my airbrush to color it.

My stamp was being stubborn and I was ready to throw it out. Then I remembered about putting down a piece of foam underneath so took the stamp off the stamping platform and stamped. I decided to leave the image as it was without coloring. I also decided that the horse peeking over the frame would give more of an idea of motion.

I'm happy the way this card turned out. Sometimes I have an idea but never really sure what the outcome will be.  Sometimes also a card will evolve while I'm working on it.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Joy To The World Sheet Music Card

Hi all I saw in a mixed media book where sheet music was used for a collage along with heavy gel and acrylic paint. I decided to not use actual sheet music but to scan in a piece and print it 3 x 5 for a card using my laser printer. Of course if you are not going to use paint and gel you could print your scanned piece with an ink jet printer. Here is my result. Just wish the photo would have done it justice as it looks better in person.

Lol! After taking this picture I cleaned the dried heavy medium off the bottom of the scanned piece. Didn't notice it before but my camera magnifies everything.

Following the technique in the book I brushed heavy medium over my scanned piece of sheet music. When dry I brushed thinned metallic turquoise paint over the top portion. Once dried I mixed yellow paint with heavy medium and brushed it on. I decided to leave white where just the words are.

I stamped on a scrap of white card my holly which is a Just For Fun stamp with Dirty Martini Dylusion waterproof ink. I then painted with glitter paint and metallic paint. While unpacking boxes I found the scrap of dark blue paper to use for a mat.

There you have it my different sort of Christmas card. You could use any sort of sheet music and embellishments to create a simple card.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Poor Woman's Crackle

Hi everyone while looking through a library mixed media book I saw the glue crackle technique I had tried years ago and discovered why it had not worked out with metallic paint.

While unpacking stamps I found this La Blanche stamp which a friend had bought for me. The funny thing was I discovered later that I had from Dover a digital image of this stamp.

I know stop the yammering and show the finished card. Be prepared to be blown away. This card exceeded my original expectations. I love when that happens.

I realized my black card stock was too lightweight so I used my airbrush with a black marker on my 110 weight white card stock. Before I owned a airbrush I painted the card stock with black paint. Of course if you have heavy weight color card stock you can use that. Be aware there may be some curling. Georgia Pacific 110 card stock doesn't appear to curl as much as other brands I have used in the past.

With a clean dry brush heavily brush white glue on your card stock. I use Elmer's glue but other brands of white glue may work.  With another clean brush brush your choice of paint so that it is just floating on the glue. If you overwork the paint it will not work. The resulting pattern will depend on what direction you apply the paint. In this case I did sort of a wavy vertical direction.

It took two days for the glue to dry. I did once a skin had formed took my hair dryer. I still had some stubborn areas and the hair dryer caused some curling. I went ahead since it was not tacky at this point and placed it under my airbrush machine. A pile of books would work.

After stamping my image with Ranger archival ink I rubbed Tea Dye Distress ink with a sponge dauber everywhere but the face area. I used my finger picking up flesh color soft pastel I had scribbled on a scrap of paper to do her face. Then took a Tombow marker to color the lips. It doesn't really show in the photo but the spades are outlined with a Jellyroll clear glitter pen.

I used my regular tape runner to adhere my stamped image to the mat. Then brushed heavy gel on the back of the mat. I placed my finished card under a pile of books to make sure that the mat adhered tightly.

Hopefully I will eventually get better lighting in my playroom and can start taking photos of  my experimenting or different techniques I use.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

More Experimenting With Hard Gel Medium

Hi all I did more experimenting with heavy gel medium. My faux encaustic sky didn't turn out like planned but I like it. I also put my piece when dry the wrong side in my embossing folder but it all worked out.

Sometimes when adhering something on glitter it hasn't stuck or if it has it ends up later on falling off. So far the heavy gel has kept the snow person on the card. We will see if he/she is still on the card before I mail out my holiday cards.

Without further ado! Here is my finished card. Not the way I had planned it but I like it. I hope the person I send it to will like it also.

For my sky I put drops of acrylic paint on canvas paper. Then loaded my plastic pan scraper (the pan scraper is wider than a palette knife) with heavy gel medium blending in the paints and medium. When dry I embossed with my Darice folder. Brushed on white paint and while still wet wiped it off with a paper towel leaving the white in the design.

Took a photo and printed it out. Did some creative cutting. I brushed heavy gel in places and used it to create some snow drifts. It didn't flatten like other mediums do. I thought I had grabbed white glitter but it was multi-color crystal glitter I sprinkled over the wet hard gel. Was going to add more hard gel and white glitter to discover I am out of white glitter.

The snow person is a Just For Fun stamp. I used waterpoof ink to stamp with since I was coloring with markers.I colored with Tombow brush markers and Prismacolor markers. After cutting out I adhered with a dab of the heavy gel.

It was fun playing around seeing what the hard gel will do. I'm back to unpacking and organizing my "playroom" if I'm lucky I will be done by the holidays. Lol!

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Fall Is In The Air Time To Play With Paint

Hi everyone I had so much fun this weekend playing with both water color paint and acrylic paint. As well as experimenting with hard gel medium which I just bought.  I also had fun organizing and sorting through more stamps. I found my stamptangle stamps from Just For Fun and had fun inking up both the pumpkin and one of the leaves. Without further ado here is what my final result was.

Unfortunately my light is so dim in my playroom that I was not able to take photos while I created my background. Instead of using masking tape I used painter's tape as it is has less of a tendency to tear card stock when you pull it up. The next time I do this though I will have a tab as it was a pain to find under the layers of paint where some of the tape was. Much less pull it up.

I started by painting canvas paper which is textured with yellow paint. When the paint was dry I randomly placed torn pieces of tape. I am clueless where my orange tube acrylic paint is so I mixed yellow and red for orange. Once that was dry I randomly placed more tape and painted red. When that was dry I placed more tape and painted walnut gel stain. When that dried I pulled off the tape and applied gel stain and wiped it off before it dried. Once dried I took a palette knife and applied hard gel medium. The medium created a rich look to the colors.

Next was to see if hard gel medium could be used over water color paints. I stamped my leaf on brown packing paper using Ranger Archival ink. I then painted with water color paint and when dry coated my leaf with the hard gel. Once dry I cut out my leaf and was able to curl the leaf and have it stay curled. So happy to know that I can seal over water color paint.

Then it was on to experiment with painting a detailed stamped image with acrylic paint. I painted the pumpkin and then with a paper towel wiped off enough paint so that the stamped details showed through. I used Dylusion Black Marble ink which was not as dark as the Ranger ink to stamp with.

After adhering my leaf with some hard gel onto my background I curled my pumpkin and adhered it only down at the sides to give it dimension.

I hope you won't be afraid to experiment and to try new things. As well as with Fall in the air and cooler weather to get into your craft room and play.

I'm off to play more with the hard gel. As well as unearthing more of my craft supplies. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Snowy Evening

Hi everyone! Hope life is treating you well. I finally started unpacking and organizing my stamps as my old method was not working. When I found the Just For Fun Buck stamps I knew I wanted to use one on a card. Looking through my photos I saw a winter scene which I thought would be perfect.

Stamping with a stencil didn't work but I discovered I could paint more than one color on a stencil and then use a finger to fill in the stencil with my finger. This created nice multi-color stars. I decided to go ahead and use my airbrush with a black marker. I then brushed a light layer of glitter glue.

I went and did some cutting of my photo as I didn't want straight edges.

I stamped the buck on kraft card stock with Stazon Timber Brown ink. I pop dotted him onto my snow scene.

There you have it my mixed media winter card.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!