Hero Arts Succulent Bouquet

 

I purchased a new stamp set and used it on hot-press watercolor paper. Ever experimenting, I used an olive green shade of Nuvo Crystal Drops to fill some of the leaf areas then couldn't help but throw down some dots around the flower edges.

I created a border with a fine-line marker and green gold Nuvo Glitter Drops. It was mounted on plaid printed paper with a black card stock foundation.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Daylight Dreams

Sharing a greeting card today that was an experiment using a white Uniball Signo gel pen (first time using one). After stamping (Simon's Sunshine Flowers) with gray archival ink on a scrap of Tim Holtz Paper Stash (Memoranda), I filled-in the image with the pen then applied tinting over the top.

The gel pen ink isn't waterproof so I had to isolate the layer with an aerosol acrylic medium. Tinting became more challenging now that the paper lost it's absorbancy but at least the white ink didn't run.

I glazed over the image with some original, liquid Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles (unfortunately, no longer available) and it provided a nice sheen with subtle glittering (very vintage) and also darkened the colors. The text is a Clippings Sticker.

Would I use this technique again? Yes, it's much easier to use a pen over a paint brush to fill-in detailed stamps like this one. I did use a permanent fixative for the isolation coat because I didn't have the "workable" kind so next time I'll try the later to see if there's a difference when it comes to applying color over the top.

I could just use markers, colored pencils, etc., but what I'm seeking is a nice white background when stamping on pre-printed paper so that the colors will pop.

A side note on Clear Rock Candy: I recently bought the dry form that comes in a jar that is sprinkled over any wet medium. I plan to do some experimenting but I'll be hard pressed to replicate the very liquid, easy-to-spread medium that you just squeezed out of the applicator bottle it originally came in.

Ranger doesn't make any of the liquid Distress Stickles any more but, believe it or not, I still have usable bottles that haven't dried out over the years like the non-Distress Stickles do. They came in squeeze bottles with a larger opening on the applicator tip and since I kept some of these empty bottles, well, stay tuned....

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

In the Moment

I've embraced my wilder side today by creating an experimental tag after one of those "wonder what it would look like if..." moments. Here are the details of my technique.

I began with scrapbook paper for the background that's black with printed glittered bees evenly distributed throughout the page.

Then I heat embossed it with the stamped image (Simon's Floral Garden) and painted the inside of the flowers and leaves white. It was easy to scrape paint off the embossing if I went outside the lines by gently using my X-Acto knife.

I tinted the flowers and darkened some of the wings with Pitt Artist Brush Pens.

The text is a Tim Holtz Chipboard Quote peeled away from the chip board so it would lay flat against the tag and embellished with a line of gold Stickles.

 I'm linking up with Simon's Wild and Wonderful challenge.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.