When I woke up this morning I decided to check out the Color Challenge on Split Coast Stampers  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=386411

The color challenge today was to use Stampin’ Up colors Baja Breeze, Really Rust and Chocolate Chip.  This combo really intrigued me so I gave it a whirl.  This is what I came up with.  The Baja Breeze really gives an icy feel to this piece.  I know, I know, I know it is Autumn, not Winter yet, but this is what came to mind.

Let’s get started. 

Supplies:

Brayered Baja Breeze ink at the very bottom of a 4.5″ x 6″ piece of Whisper White card stock.

Brayered Really Rust at the very top of the card stock.

I decided to not use any emboss resist this morning, so this scene is being built from the background to the foreground, so I had to keep in mind to go from lighter objects to darker ones.  So the darker (foreground) objects cover up the lighter ones underneath them.  Clear as mud?

Stamped trees from Lovely as a Tree set with Baja Breeze ink, by stamping off on my scrap paper first to make them lighter (this is called second generation stamping).

Stamped fence with Chocolate Chip ink.

Stamped large tree with Chocolate Chip ink.

Stamped tree again to make a shadow using Baja Breeze ink. 

Note, I did not ink up the root part of the tree trunk in order to omit it.

While my Baja Breeze stamp pad was closed, I squeezed it to make a pool of ink in the lid of the stamp pad.   I used the pool of ink and an Aqua painter to make shadows for the fence posts.  I made the ink pretty watery here.

Used the Aqua Painter again with a watery Chocolate Chip ink to color in the fence posts.

Sponged Baja Breeze along the bottom of the background trees and around the sides and bottom of the card stock.

Note:  I use a dry sponge when sponging.  If you are getting dots and streaks you don’t want, keep adding more ink until they disappear.  Another problem could be you are using a card stock that is not super smooth.

Sponged Really rust at the very top of the card stock.

Darkened some of the large tree branches with a Chocolate Chip marker.  Added some snow on the branches with a White Gel Pen.

Added Panels, Front to back, Main image panel, Chocolate Chip Panel, Baja Breeze Panel, Chocolate Chip panel.

Assembled card front and here it is finished measuring 5″ x 6.5″.

I hope you enjoyed this icy scene tutorial and will give this color combo a try.

May your day be filled with laughter and joy.

Until my next post. . . . . . . . .. . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Links to all my tutorials can be found here:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/tutorials-ive-written/

Here is a link to my workshop calendar if you want to get info on beginner and advanced Brayer workshops:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar

This morning I brought back out this witch from the set “All Hallow’s Eve” by Inkadinkado.  This has to be one of the funniest images for the Autumn season this year.  The trees at the bottom of this card are from the Stampin’ Up set “Lovely As a Tree”. 

Let’s get started on today’s tutorial. 

Supplies:

Sponged Apricot Appeal ink on the upper right hand corner of a 4.5″ square piece of Whisper White card stock.

Cut a 2.5″ circle of card stock with my Coluzzle to use as a mask for the moon.

Held the circle mask in place as I sponged Baja Breeze ink around the out side of the mask.

Removed the masked and sponged Not Quite Navy on the card stock, not covering the Baja Breeze ink entirely.

Ignore the witch being stamped, lol.  Missed taking a photo. 

Sponged Night of Navy ink on the card stock, not covering the Not Quite Navy ink entirely.

Then I stamped the Witch with Basic Black ink.

Stamped Trees with Basic Black ink at the bottom of the card stock.

Sponged More Mustard ink on the moon leaving the outer edge light.

Sponged Basic Black ink around the edges of the card stock.

Stamped more trees at the bottom of the card stock.  Used White Craft ink this time.

Using the edge of the stamp pad, smeared some stripes of White Craft ink across the card stock.

Using a ruler and a white gel pen, made some dashy lines across the card stock.  Also, colored in the stars and added a few dots here and there.

Here is the finished card front measuring 5.5″ square.

Thought I would show you my new tool.  I’m so excited!  No more crooked card bases for me.  :)  I got a Scor-it Board so I can make the scores on my card bases.  I never show it in my tutorials but I attach all of my card fronts to a White card stock base card.  I’ve tried to get an even fold by folding my card base in half, but it never is really straight.  Now that I have this Scor-it Board, I won’t have that problem any longer, YEAH!!!

Let me show you how simple I found this tool to be.

This is what the board looks like.  It looks heavy, but is very light.

I cut my card stock for my base card.  Move the little brace at the top to the measurment I want. 

Insert the scor-it tool at the “zero” notch and pull in streight down the middle rail.

Nice straight score line.  This makes me so happy.

Fold the card at the score line and there you have a straight card base.  There are all kinds of folded cards, bags, etc. you can make with a scoring tool.  I’ll have to check those out.

I got my Scor-it board from Marco’s Paper.  Here is a link:  http://www.marcopaper.com/

Hope your day is filled with crisp Autumn breezes and sunshine.

Until my next post. . . . . . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Links to all my tutorials can be found here:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/tutorials-ive-written/

Here is a link to my workshop calendar if you want to get info on beginner and advanced Brayer workshops:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar

Happy Saturday!  I love the weekends when I can take my time doing a project in the morning as I drink my pot of coffee.  No rushing off to work today.

I’ve had some requests to do some winter type scenes so I got out this great set of stamps by Fire Cracker Designs by Pamela.  Here is a link if you want to check out their great online store:  http://www.safesecurestore.com/stores/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=firecrackerdesignsbypamela

For those people already making their Christmas cards, MORE POWER TO YOU!  I won’t be starting mine until November at the earliest, lol.

The frame I used in this project is one I picked up at a garage sale for 75 cents.  It had a horrible picture in it, but that’s all the better.  I didn’t feel bad throwing the picture in the trash.  I get frames and then make stamped pieces to go inside.  It’s easier to know what frame you are going to use and then cut your cardstock to fit it, instead of making the piece a certain size and trying to find a frame to fit the piece.  Clear as mud? 

I’m giving this framed piece away as blog candy.  I will use a random number generator next Saturday, October 4th to select the winner.  To enter all you need to do is leave a comment on this post telling me an item you like to re-purpose.  It could be anything.  If you are getting this post update by e-mail, you will need to click this link and then leave a comment on the post:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/09/27/winter-cardinal-tutorial-124-and-blog-candy/

Good Luck!

Let’s get started on today’s tutorial. 

Supplies:

Stamped tree by first loading stamp with Versamark and then loading it with Black ink before stamping it on a piece of 4″ square Whisper White card stock.

Heat embossed tree using fine detail clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Stamped Cardinal by first loading the stamp with Versamark and then loading it with Black ink before stamping it.

Heat embossed the cardinal using fine detail clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Stamped the house in the distance by first loading the stamp with Versamark and then loading it with black ink before stamping it.

Heat embossed the house using fine detail clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Colored the Left half of the tree with a Prismacolor 10% Cool Grey marker.

Colored Left side of the tree using a Prismacolor 30% Cool Grey marker, but did not cover the 10% Cool Grey entirely.

Colored the top part of the cardinal using a Prismacolor Scarlet Lake marker.

Colored the cardinal’s underside and tail using a Prismacolor Crimson Red marker.

Colored the Cardinal’s beak using a Prismacolor Burnt Ochre marker.

Colored the very left side of the tree using a Prismacolor 50% Cool Grey marker, not covering the 30% Cool Grey entirely.

Colored over all the images with a Versmark marker, making sure not to go outside the lines.  

Heat embossed all the images using fine detail clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Covered the bottom of the card stock with a post it note to mask it.

Brayered on Baja Breeze ink at the top of the card stock.  The embossed images will resist the brayered ink “emboss resist”.

Brayered on Not Quite Navy at the top of the card stock, not covering the Baja Breeze ink entirely.

Sponged on some mountain shapes using Not Quite Navy ink.

Note:  If putting in two mountains make one mountain much smaller than the other one so it doesn’t look like your mountains need a bra, lol. 

Sponged on some Night of Navy ink at the top of the card stock and at the mountain bases.

Remove the post it note and throw it away.  Using a new post it note, rip through the sticky part of the post it note to create a hill shape.  Put in on the card stock to mask the bottom of the card stock.

Sponged lightly Baja Breeze ink at the post it notes torn edge.

Remove post it note.

Sponge Baja Breeze ink under the tree  and the cardinal to create a shadow for them.

Add a few specks of black marker around the bird.  Gotta feed the bird!

Held a Sharpie Gold Paint marker tip, half on the card stock and half on my scrap paper and ran down each edge of the main image panel.  

Note:  Try this out before doing it on your finished panel. 

Panels are as follows from top to bottom:  Main image panel, Baja Breeze Panel, Basic Black panel, Not Quite Navy Panel.

One more thing before you run to craft room to start making your Christmas cards, lol, yeah right, I want to give you a great link to a Creativity Survey.  Fill the survey out and you get $10 off of your Craft DVD order and it also enters you to win $300 Full Library of PageSage Craft DVDs produced by Page Sage for Artists like Tim Holtz (my hero) and Carol Duvall.   Check it out:   http://pagesage.com/

Well it’s time to go do some Autumn clean up in my garden, I’ve played long enough this morning.

May your Saturday be filled with really good times to remember.

Until my next post. . . . . . .. . . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Links to all my tutorials can be found here:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/tutorials-ive-written/

Here is a link to my workshop calendar if you want to get info on beginner and advanced Brayer workshops:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar

Thought I would talk a little about ink today.  As you see I have a few ink pads.

All of my ink pads are dye inks, not pigment.  I like the way the dye inks soak into the card stock I’m using, especially when I’m brayering.    I don’t use pigment inks because they take longer to dry and lay on top of the card stock instead of soaking in.  Don’t get me wrong, you can use pigment inks, but my preference is dye based inks.  I’m not a fan of waiting for the ink to dry. 

My two favorite brands of ink are Adirondack dye ink pads and Stampin’ Up “Classic” which are also dye based.  You will see me use these two brands of inks together in projects.  Since they are both dye based inks my only deciding facter is the color I want to use.

Now these Tim Holtz Distress Inks are wonderful and I love sponging backgrounds and the edges of projects with them.  Of course, they are super for distressing card stock.  I love all the colors these come in too.  There are a lot of things you can do with these distressing inks that I have never tried.  One of these days I’m going to get more adventurous with them. 

I have just this one pad of Stazon ink.  I use it when I want to stamp on something that is non-porious.  An example of non-porious would be a domino.  Most inks just lay on top of the surface and can’t soak in or dry.  Stazon will dry on such a finish.

One Last ink that I use is Palette Hybrid Ink.  The only color I currently have in this brand is “Noir Black”.  I use this ink when I want to stamp images and color them with Solvent based mediums, such as, Prismacolor Markers or Prismacolor Pencils combined with Odorless Mineral Spirits.  This ink is very good not to run or smear with these solvent based mediums.

I will have to correct the problem of only having one color in this brand.  I feel a shopping spree coming on. 

I am definitely not an expert on inks.  This is only a little breakdown of what I own and how I use them.  There are so very many ink brands out there that I have not even tried.  So if you have questions regarding inks that are not in this post, you will want to seek out the manufacturer who would be the expert.  :)  I find manufactures to be a wealth of info on their products, as they should be.

  I hope this has answered, at least, a few questions on why I use an ink at a certain time in a project.

One last thing, the wood shelf unit I use to store my ink pads in came from a gas station my oldest son worked at as a teenager.  It use to hold cigarettes behind the counter.  It now has a much healthier purpose. 

May your day be filled with the colors of a rainbow.

Until my next post. . . . . .. . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Links to all my tutorials can be found here:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/tutorials-ive-written/

Here is a link to my workshop calendar if you want to get info on beginner and advanced Brayer workshops:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar

This is a farewell to the hummingbirds here in Ohio.  I’m always so sad when then leave.  But I can hardly blame them for heading for warmer climates in preparation for the Autumn and Winter to come.

I feel this card would be a good Sympathy card.  Sympathy cards are always so hard for me to come up with.  I try to create a peaceful scene that is not sad.

Let’s get started. 

Supplies:

Stamped Baroque Motifs Flourish twice on a 4″ x 5.5″ piece of Whisper White card stock using Versamark.

Stamped Hummingbird using Versamark.

Heat embossed images using fine detail clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Sponged Sage Shadow ink all over the card stock using a circular motion.

Sponged Not Quite Navy ink on the card stock using a circular motion.

Wow, I can’t remember the last time I used the ink color Handsome Hunter, but I pulled it out this morning and sponged it over the Not Quite Navy ink, not covering it entirely.

Stamped Flourish at the bottom of the card stock using Sage Shadow ink.

Wiped the ink from the embossed images using a soft rag.

Sponged some more Not Quite Navy ink at the bottom left corner of the card stock.

Assembled card and here it is finished measuring 5″ x 6.5″.   

I hope your day is filled with peaceful scenes and peaceful thoughts.

Until my next post. . . . . . . . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Links to all my tutorials can be found here:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/tutorials-ive-written/

Here is a link to my workshop calendar if you want to get info on beginner and advanced Brayer workshops:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar