Friday, July 5, 2024

It's out of this world!

 The Funkie Junkie Inspiration Ave had us being inspired by pastes and paints this time around!  I used those mediums to create a fun picture for a special birthday boy featuring the planets! 

The background started with stenciling stars randomly using distress texture grit paste. Then a splatter of watered down white acrylic paint was applied randomly over the surface.  After the paint dried the next step was to spritz a variety of sprays over the surface.  Water was applied to blend the sprays and allow pooling of colors around the stars.   

After the background was complete, the planets were cut out using various die cuts.  I did some research on the various sizes of the planets and colors inspired form some online images.

The planets were all painted with various distress paints with a base coat of color and then different patterns were applied with coordinating colors. 


I then applied the planets on the background and mixed in a few different sentiments to inspire the birthday boy! 

Happy inking! 

Suzz

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Friday, June 21, 2024

An Inky Gift Bag

 Hi!  I am sharing another project for the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  We were challenged to use alcohol inks this time.  I tried something new for me with the alcohol links and tried coloring an image! 

I used the beautiful Idea-Ology Tissue paper prints and used a mix of Alcohol Blending Solution with the Purple Twilight alcohol ink to color the flower petals.  I layered the color into the petals by mixing on my craft mat the blending solution with the purple ink. 

For the leaves I repeated the process using a green alcohol ink along with a hint of brown.  After the ink was dry, a splattering of white acrylic paint added a highlight over the background.  

The edges were torn and sponged with distress ink and a stamping of a script was added across the background.

The image was larger than what would fit onto a card face so I embraced the image and found a white gift bag to use as the backdrop.  I layered another tissue collage print in the back with a layer of white cardstock behind the main image.  All the different layers and bag received a soft distressed edge with brown distress ink.

I pulled out some additional embellishments to add a focal point with the sweet birthday sentiment.
I enjoyed using the alcohol inks to color the images and have ideas floating on how to use them on different surfaces with stamped images. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

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Friday, June 7, 2024

It's Ideal!

 Hi!  I am back to share some new Idea-ology from Tim Holtz!  The Funkie Junkie Boutique team is sharing their inspiration using the new Idea-Ology and here is where I went with the new Paper Strips!

The paper strips vary in size and pattern.  They work well with creating a gorgeous background or even a basket weave.  I paired together varying widths and patterns to create a solid background for my card.  Then I sponged a watered down white acrylic paint across the surface to soften the pattern. After that dried a touch of brown dye ink was sponged around the edges. 
I saw some fabulous fabric flowers at a vintage flea market a few months ago and they were in the back of my mind and I wanted to try to create something similar.
I have to say the ones at the flea market were constructed much better than mine because I am sure that the designer sewed her petals.  I lack in sewing so I took a quick route and just stapled mine together using the mini attacher.

To create these beautiful flowers you will need to cut many squares out of the fabric that you want in varying sizes.  My first flower had two layers of 1 1/4" by 1 1/4" squares and then a top layer of 1" by 1" squares. 

I sprayed all the fabric with dye ink and let them dry.  After that I folded them into funnels and stapled them.  I repeated for all the petals.  I then used  a glue gun to glue them all together ontop of a base piece of cardstock.  


After they were assembled I added a layer of vintage buttons in the center and sponged white acrylic paint across the surface to add a touch of shabby chic.  This flower was too big for my card front so I recreated a second version with smaller squares (1" x 1",  3/4" x 3/4") to use on the card.  I also changed up the colors on to coordinate with the paper strips.

Suzz

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Friday, May 24, 2024

Stencil Sensation

 Hi!  The Funkie Junkie Inspiration Ave has us being inspired by the new stencils from Tim!  I played around with the Stampers Anonymous floral deco stencil and tried to show how versatile it is! 

The stencil was beautiful with distress oxide inks, distress inks, and inky sprays!  I started with just a soft background with distress oxide vintage photo ink.


I accented the background with a shimmery pink spray from the mica stain spray.  A few different die cut flower and butterflies sprayed and sponged along with a beautiful quote from Robert Browning.


Then I used the stencil to sponge on a soft blush pink and then shifted the stencil slightly and sponged again with a brown oxide distress ink. 

I stamped the four leaf clover multiple times and fussy cut them to create flowers to attach on the front of the card.

I layered the flowers and used a few pop dots to make the butterfly float above the flowers.
Finally I finished with a blend of die inks sponged on the stencil.

I sponged the bottom with a brown and blended into green and then blue.  I then stamped and colored a flower to place over the pattern.  

I hope this has you pulling out your stencils!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

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Friday, May 10, 2024

Out of the Vault II

 Hi!  I have been playing with the new dies from Sizzix in Tim Holtz where they have remixed dies into the new release Out of the Vault II.  The Funkie Junkie Inspiration Ave provided me with the globe die and I am so happy to be able to play with the set! 


On my desk I had pulled out a variety of background created previously in other projects. I cut them up into ATC size backgrounds and pulled them out to use in my ATC's with the new dies. 

  

The background of this one was a mix of mica stain spray and distress ink stain spray.  It was stamped over with a soft distress oxide ink and text.  

Then the globe was die cut and sponged with distress oxides to layer the world along with the clouds onto the atc.  The plane was cut from an embossed silver background.  

Then I added a cute stamped sentiment.  

Next I  used a similar color scheme background with a kraft base.

The world was die cut from the backdrop paper and the plane was sponged in distress oxide ink. 

The sentiment was stamped to coordinate.  

The globe and plane with arrows all are a great size to use on the ATC's or smaller tags.  The letters are a perfect size for sentiments on a card base. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

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Friday, April 26, 2024

Permanently Perfect

I hardly ever do perfect... Part of the reason I love the vintage grunge style of crafting is that I don't have to worry about that extra smudge. :)  The Funkie Junkie Inspiration Ave is challenging the team to use Archival inks because they are a permanent ink!  I love archival inks and the variety of colors along with the ability to not smudge and dry quickly!  

The beauty of the archival ink is the ability to use other mediums which you can blend and spray without losing the sharpness of the inked image. I also love the various colors which can be paired with watercolors to change the way the image looks.  I decided to use the same image and ink it up with three different archival inks and color the image with the same watercolor to show  how the outline ink can change your art and how it appears. 


I started with three scraps of paper that I cut into a tag shape.  I then stamped the flower with three different archival inks.  

For my next step I used a pink watercolor pencil and a water brush to add shading to the flowers. 

I loved the effect of all three flowers and how they looked different just because of the ink used on the outline stamp.  The watercolor pencil was the same for all three and yet each flower looks like they have a different shade of pink and green.  

I also used the archival ink to ink up the edges of the tag all around just create a nice crisp line.

Then I took each flower and created a different background  using a mix of distress inks, distress ink sprays, and archival inks to add texture and interest. 

On this first tag I stamped the flower on a scrap paper and cut the flower head out and laid it over my tag's flower.  I then stamped the field label using black archival ink in an alternating pattern.  I then used post it notes to mask off the rectangles to sponge in distress oxide ink in the alternating rectangles. 

I finished with a stamped sentiment which was cut and applied at different angles.  

For the next tag I used a new stencil with the same distress ink to add a little visual effect in the background of the tag. 

I could have used the mask but because I was randomly applying the distress ink, I just sponged around the flower.  

I also used a watercolor pencil (black) to add a hint of shading around my flower to make it pop from the paper.  I used a water brush to soften the shading of the black watercolor and was able to do this because the archival ink will not respond to the water brush. 

I added a hint of distress spray inks to the background and use the same effect on another piece of card-stock to stamp my sentiment and apply. 

For my final tag I wanted to use the archival ink to add the pattern to the background of the tag.

I stamped the pattern using the same archival ink.  The pattern started to take away the focus on the flowers so I smeared watered down white acrylic paint to soften the effect of the archival ink.  

I added shading again with the black watercolor pencil around the outlines of the flowers to make them really stand out.  I finished with a splatter of distress oxide stain spray spritzed onto my craft mat and picked up randomly onto my tag. 

I hope this inspired you to try out your various archival inks in a fun way.  I wanted to share with you the first thing I did when I received the new archival inks.

I always smear a solid section of the ink pad onto a scrap piece of card-stock.  (you also can use labels which already are ready to stick on your ink pad container)

Then I cut strips and tape them to the ends of my ink pads.  Because I have a wonderful ink rack my husband created for me that stores all my archival inks that looks like this: 


It makes it really easy to pick out my ink pads whether they are in the rack or stacked up on my craft desk. 

Suzz

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Friday, April 12, 2024

The Flowers are Coming!

The Funkie Junkie Inspiration Ave is blooming with inspiration!  The team is highlighting flowers in anticipation of the flowers bursting open for spring!  

I wanted to play with my new watercolor pencils in Scorched Timber, Jet Black and White.  I decided to play around with limited color and just highlight the neutrals with the flowery images. 


I love the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz set Floral Trims.  They let you color away with the beautiful lined flowers. 

My goal was to see if I could use the brown, black and white watercolor to highlight the flowers and just use accent colors in the background and leaves. 

For my circular image I stamped the image using a distress ink in soft gray. I was hoping to highlight the image using watercolor pencils and shading. 

After stamping the image I used the scorched timber to add a touch of color around the petals of the flower and the green watercolor pencil in the leaves.  I then used a water brush to soften the edges of coloring. I came back with a yellow watercolor pencil to add a touch of yellow to the center of the flowers.  I used the water brush to blend that and soften the edges.

After I finished with my coloring and blending I decided to come back with the black watercolor pencil and add the lines again to the image to really make it pop.  I also shaded around the outside edges of the images with a hint of gray and blended with the water brush. 

Sometimes when I finish a project and the colors are softer and don't really pop out at me I will clear emboss the entire image.  This will make the colors richer and more intense.  I did that with this image. I sponged the entire surface after it was completely colored and covered it with clear embossing powder. I then heat set the embossing powder. Sometimes this takes two coats to get a clear finish. 

I then mounted the circle image on several circles before placing it on a black cardstock base and adding the coordinating butterfly and stamped sentiment. 

For my next experiment, I stamped the floral image with black archival ink on white cardstock.


Then I shaded and blended with the watercolor brush inside the flowers using the black watercolor pencil. I added a bit more shading with the brown watercolor pencil.  Blending each time with the water brush.  I came back and added a  heavier shading of black around the inside of the image.  

For the leaves I used the green watercolor pencils and colored around the inside and blended with the water brush.  

Next I decided to bring in pink around the outside of the flowers and a golden brown around the leaves.  I colored on the outside of the lines and then used a water brush to soften the edges and blend the color out. 

I finished the image with a black cardstock base and a stamped sentiment. 

I really wanted to use the white watercolor pencil and I tried a few different ideas and this was the one that worked most successfully.  I started with stamping the image using versamark and clear embossing powder to create an outline of the image on black cardstock.

After that I took the white watercolor pencil and shaded and blended the white inside the flower.  This made the white disappear into the black cardstock.  I came back and colored again with more pressure and further out to add more shading.  I didn't use the water brush as I wanted the white to pop off the black background in my second round of coloring.
To make the flowers really pop from the background I came back with a white gel pen and outlined the image to make is move and stand out.

Then the sentiment was stamped with Versamark watermark and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  I mounted the image on white and then a black card base. 

Not your typical spring flowers but I had fun exploring the use of white, black and browns with the flowers. 

Suzz

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