Winter Pastels

This is probably the sample I have been asked about most this season, so to Barbara, Alison, Lucy and so many more, here is the how to as promised...

You need a stamp which gives the illusion of being more or less symmetrical. This one is an old favourite from Inkadinkado and I sometimes use the old PSX Christmas Village in the same way.

I used black cardstock, cut to the same width as your stamp and twice as high, as the base but any deep coloured cardstock will do, and the Ranger Perfect Pearl colours I used were Perfect Pearl, Interference Violet, Turquoise and Berry Twist. You can try other Mica Powders for this but the inbuilt resin in Perfect Pearls allows for a wonderfully clear and crisp image.

Use a piece of scrap paper to mask the top half of the card, I always use a torn edge as I like the ragged

look. Cover the botom half completely with Versamark ink or similar and then stamp the image also using Versamark in the top half. Add Perfect Pearls randomly to all the inked areas making sure no base cardstock shows through on the bottom part. Polish away the excess Perfect Pearls with a large soft brush then ink the stamp again and stamp in the solid area to lift the Perfect Pearls off and create a negative image, which your eye believes is a reflection of the top image. Very simple when you know how but very effective. 

The next two cards use the same products and techniques but with very different stamps. The background is white vellum, I used the weight normally used for Parchmentcraft, inked with Ranger Adirondack Brights Alcohol Inks in Sailboat Blue, Purple Twilight, and Pool. Once the inks were dry  I stamped the Darkroom Door Seasons Greetings Wordblock with Versamark and embossed with WOW Bright White Ultra Fine EP. I cut an aperture and the surrounding frames with my Fiskars Trimmer, it is fiddly the first time but with a bit of practice you will soon be cutting all your own apertures.

This card was made in exactly the same way but stamped with Hero Arts Stunning Sowflakes which gives quite a different look but the light through the vellum on both looks very effective.

This is a very poor photograph, I always have trouble photographing Plastic Paper/acetate so any tips/tricks to improve this would be gratefully received!!

Anyway, the window is Bazzill Plastic Paper or heavyweight acetate which I covered with the same Ranger Alcohol Inks as used in the previous two samples. Once dry I stamped the Hero Arts Stunning Snowflakes in Versamark and embossed with our own brand clear embossing powder. Let the embossing cool then using a clean felt pad and Ranger Alcohol Ink Blending Solution wipe away the background inks leaving the pretty multicoloured snowflakes. I used Spellbinders for the aperture and frame on this one but I think I actually prefer the ones cut with my trimmer. The ribbon embellishment is just a button tied with embroidery cotton and a length of Grosgrain Ribbon from Beresfords.

The final card today is made with Ranger Distress inks in Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Stormy Sky applied with a stippling brush or Ink Applicator to a masked area of the card with snowflakes stamped in Versamark and embossed with clear EP to act as a resist. The stamp set I used was Hero Arts CL551 and you will need to stamp and emboss the baubles from this in the same way onto spare white cardstock, cut out and coloured with the distress inks. I spritzed the background and the baubles with water and Pearfect Pearls to add some lustre and then assembled the card as shown above.

Hope you find the techniques useful.

Back soon with more.

Thanks for looking xx