2020 #8 Popping Pink: A Trio of Wishes with ESN {by Miriam Grazier}

2020 Topic 8: Popping Pink

Intro
Both paint and infusions are popping for this pretty trio of cards by Miriam. It's nice to have stripped back ideas: simple stencilling, white space, black ink and careful use of one colour is all the is necessary. Sometimes we just make things more complicated that they need to be!
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Miriam with you today, and I'd like to share with you a trio of cards that I have created to send to friends and family that I cannot see at the moment due to the travel restrictions in the UK.  

I felt, in these unprecedented times, that I wanted to let people know that I am thinking of them even though I cannot physically see them just yet.  For me, craft is also great for my well-being.  I find it relaxing and it takes my mind off my worries, even if it's for a short time.  

I kept my cards easy to make for beginners, whereas a more experienced crafter could advance my instructions very easily.  

What I really enjoyed was creating cards with very few materials that were quite striking once complete.  I have also ensured that, even though there is some dimension, they can be posted using a normal first class stamp.

This card was super simple and you can adapt using the stamps that you have in your stash.  I kept the colour scheme very clean in order to allow the Bougainvillea to really 'pop', after all, that's the theme this fortnight.

I simply loved the black solid bird and branch image against this background.  Sara's images often lend themselves to being able to cut parts out and layer them up, which is what I did here with the bird, simply to give a bit of dimension.

I also wanted to show how a stencil used alone can create a striking background.  

This time I chose this beautiful quote stamp.  You can use any stamps that you want here, including images if you did not want to use a quote, but I simply love this quote and know that the recipient will too.

If you wanted, you could tidy the lines up slightly by using a white gel pen, but I loved the imperfect look that I created.

Again, this is a very simple card, and very quick to make too.  Here I created a very quick background colour using Magenta Infusions.  You could do the same with paint or ink just by pressing them onto a craft mat, adding water then swooshing your card panel through.

The main image was stamped onto the card and then separately onto another panel of card so that it could be cut and mounted.  I also followed something that I have seen Sara do many times, which is to cut and colour parts of the collage image and layer them up.  I have done this with the stamps on the collage.

I also stepped this card up to see how it would look.

This time I used a thin layer of Grunge Paste onto the card panel first.

I loved how the Infusions caught each peak and texture of the paste, however, the pink didn't 'pop' as much when I used it on top of the Grunge Paste.  I thought about this and concluded that If I wanted to do this again I could paint over the panel using Snowflake Fresco Acrylic chalk paint before I added the Infusions, which would make it 'pop' again.

Here are the two Infusions cards together.  You can see how brighter the pink looks on the card without the Grunge Paste.

I loved how I could create simple, but striking, cards using not many materials.  

I also love how you could step each of the cards up by using more layers and gems, to name only two things.  The ideas could be endless.

More importantly, creating these came me a moment of calm in what is currently a crazy world.  And I know that the recipients will love receiving them too.

I really hope that I have encouraged you to create cards yourself.  Whether you are a beginner or whether you are more experienced but want to lose yourself in the joy of creating, I know that you will be delighted with your simple makes.  If you want to make them more detailed, that would be fabulous.  Whether you plan to keep them or give them to those that you love, the joy of creating will satisfy you.  I would love to see what you create.

Thank you for joining me this evening.  
Happy Crafting!
Miriam

Blog:  Miriam's Creative Dreams

2018 #16 Reinkers: Garden Love with ESN {by Ellie Knol}

2018 Topic 16: Reinkers

Fascinating process by Ellie in this post where she uses her reinker in a clever way to create a fun background, and in the process a resist-pop! It may look like a simple, elegant home decor piece, and it is, but she had to work hard to get there! Well worth it! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Ellie Knol with you today, and I'd like to share with you the making of some home decor, to be precise: an MDF board with 49 MDF inchies (sized 1,5 inch each) with reinkers, tissuepaper and the beautiful stamps from Sarah Naumann!

Creating something for this theme was a bit tricky, as I wanted to use pigment ink reinkers of for a technique that could not be done with a regular (pigment) ink stamp pad. Also, I had to think of using it with these beautiful stamps and enhance both of course!! I had it all finished a week ago but had to start all over as I did not like the first one I created. I had to scrape everything off, and sand and paint all those little squares first!! My husband told me I was crazy; maybe I am a, but I do like this one more than the first one, and that's why I did it again!

This is a close-up of the first one I did, I certainly did not like the stencilled squares on this project, they were too prominent.

As you can see I chose to use only the blue pigment ink for version 2, not the green. I like the contrast between the Ginkgo leaves and the blue so much this way, and I wanted it to look like this from the start. As soon as I added the green color on the first project, it started being too much, I was left with less white parts of the initial white background. This is way better!!

Let's start on this project! I used tissue wrap paper, approximately the size of the project, a tiny bit bigger.

I stamped the beautiful stamps from ESN20 with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.

(PS .. I laid it on a darker piece of cardstock so the embossing would be visible on the photograph above).

I had prepared the MDF base with white gesso and a layer of Snowflake Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint. 

LOVE this paint, one layer is enough to cover it, it's that opaque! I adhered the tissue paper to the project with decoupage glue, by brushing the glue onto the surface (also between the inchies) and pressing the tissue paper onto it with a damp cloth.... ...  SO, there is no glue on top of the tissue paper. I did this on purpose, You'll see why in the next step.

I used a sturdy (dry and clean) brush to push the paper inbetween the inchies (yes it will tear, but that's OK) , and used a ruler to press the paper to the sides of the MDF inchies. Of course this needs to be dry before the next step.

Now for the fun part: adding the reinker! Brayer a fair amount of Colorbox Cyan pigment re-inker onto a gel-plate, and brayer it sparingly onto the project. Don't cover the whole background but just partially. Re-ink the brayer every time from the gel-plate and brayer over a different part of you project until you are satisfied with the result. Certainly don't overdo this step.
 
The pigment ink gets soaked up mostly by the tissue paper; more than it would have if I had covered the tissue paper with decoupage glue in the previous step.

A close-up of the brayered pigment ink. Leave it to dry completely. Don't use a heat tool or else if the embossing powder re-melts, then you will tint the white embossing with the blue ink permanently. You may carefully use the heat of a heat tool to dry it from a distance, though.

When totally dry, wipe over the white heat embossing carefully with a damp cloth to clean up so the words pop and are more obvious.

 

On this photograph I was laying out the leaves to see where I wanted to glue them down, and whether I would add some more brown-red stamping first. I Covered the leaves with 2 layers of Fresco Finish - Gloss Glaze to make them more sturdy and glossy.

I chose to stamp the words 'garden' and 'love' from the same stamp set in a brownish red to match the Ginkgo leaves; only horizontally on the height of the leaves, to give them kind of a base. I used the same ink to outline the outside and inside border of the project. And then I adhered the leaves to the project with a hot glue gun.

Cover up the leaves and splatter with Snowflake Fresco Acrylic Paint to give it a more artistic feel.

LOVE those leaves and quotes from the Sara Naumann stamp set. It adds so much to the dreamy background.

The blue really makes for such a clean contrast with the white heat embossing and the Ginkgo leaves !!

I certainly learned a lot in making this project. First thing was that you can very quickly overdo the brayering and fill up the whole background with color, which in this case was a problem for me! I have never used the pigment reinkers this way, and really had a tough time to figure out what to make and cover the theme and use the stamps to go with it. I wanted to enhance both those elements to the full! There are not many techniques that can only be done with re-inkers; most of the techniques can also be done with an ink pad.
It was a fun project though, and I will try and use some Mica Gloss from Judikins with this brayering technique soon! I could not use them for this project as they are not re-inkers.

I really hope you get inspired by our posts this fortnight and try some of the techniques we share, and of course enter the challenge to WIN! 

Hope you liked my project and see you next time!

Ellie Knol 

Blog: http://elliecreahoekje.blogspot.nl/   http://ellieatcs.blogspot.nl/ 

Owner of : https://www.facebook.com/groups/DutchArtJournal/  

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Pinterest: https://nl.pinterest.com/ellieknol/

To join our challenge and win a £50 PaperArtsy gift voucher:

Simply make something arty relevant to the topic, and link your creation from any social URL (eg. Instagram, Pinterest, Blog Post etc) sharing your original make to this challenge page.

The current topic link Topic 16: Reinkers will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, September 30th 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

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Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!