Acetate and Alcohol Inks

I feel my mojo coming back. My crafting has been up and down as of late. The motivation is there but the energy has been lacking. I realized that I had not been taking my multivitamins. If you are of a certain age…you really cannot go without doing that for long. If you are of that certain age and are not taking any…GET SOME. It will feel like a new lease on life.

Once you get that energy, you might want to give this technique a try. 

Heather at The Paper Castle posted a challenge to our group to use Alcohol Inks and Acetate. Since I had already done a lot of that on my Zentangle Reloaded, I needed to push the envelope a bit further.

Tim Holtz did this technique with glossy paper, alcohol, inks and canned air. I thought why not acetate? That is exactly what I did. I am showing the results here but the Vee-dio is embedded at the end of the post.

Materials needed:

Alcohol Inks

Cut down your acetate if desired.

Blending solution is great to have on hand for over sprays as this is a great cleaner for Alcohol Inks.

The madness in progress.

This is how the piece came together while using the Pearl Mixative. I am sure that against a dark background those pearlized lightened inks will really pop.

I have great ideas for these pieces and the others I made once I stopped filming. I mean how many times do you want to see someone spritzing a sheet of acetate? I promise that I will post the finished results.That is also added to my to do list. 

I will use the embossing folders/texture plates and then Heather suggested hitting the high spots with a bit of Staz On. I like how she thinks.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to lately. I had a blast doing what I love most---playing around with inks. If you have not explored the many uses for your inks, what are you waiting on? Crack them open and get inky.

Until then.

Corner Punch TKO

This was to be my final bout with the punches--hence the TKO. Just as I finished uploading that Vee-dio another idea popped into my head. I am hoping I can get it done. In all fairness I had to place it on my list because there were a few things ahead of it. Vee-dio is embedded below if you have not seen it.

Below are just a few examples of some of the things I did with the corner punches on the 4 ¼ x 5 ½ pieces of paper.

I went into my container of folders and just randomly selected a few. As you will notice, several of them were done without getting the embossing on the punched pieces. I will share how to do that at a later date. I did not think to show that while doing the Vee-dio and then it came to me later. Again, I had to put it on the list.

Now on to making the strips. This same method would work on a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock cut into strips. It takes just a small amount of measuring to ensure that your punches are even and accurate.

This was cut at 2 inches wide with 1 inch spacing.

This strip was cut at 2 ¼ inches wide with 1 inch spacing.

Here you can compare them side by side. It still amazes me how much difference a quarter of an inch makes. Lol.

 

The same treatment was done with the Double Loops corner punch. The measurements are 2 ¼ inches wide and punched every 1 inch.

Another comparison between two strips both cut at 2 inch widths. The one on the left was eyeballed and you can clearly see what happened. Whereas, the strip to the right was measured for one inch spacing.

By simply putting in a bit of work in the beginning you will certainly reap the rewards in the end. If you know you want to do a lot of strips, mark your paper first and then cut it to the desired widths. I love how the Layered Arch punch turned out. Cool.

My final punch was the new Heartbeat from Martha Stewart. I can really see using the strip technique on this one and wrapping it around a box of chocolates. That strip along with the leftover confetti sprinkled on would be awesome. 

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope I was able to help you look at your punches in a new way. I love punching and embossing in white because I can make it whatever color I want it to be. Try this same technique on patterned paper and I am sure you will be just as pleased. Do me a favor and add a bit of ink here and there.

Until then.

Corner Punched Borders

Hello again everyone. I promise that this might be my last punches post. I have gotten carried away with the concepts.  After filming the circle grid Vee-dio I used the scraps and started punching lines. 

 Here is the finished result.

When I saw what was resulting from it, I fell in love with my punches all over again.

 Below is a comparison of the regular border punch vs the corner  punch.

If you would like to see the brief Vee-dio, I have posted it here. 

This would look great on patterned paper also. Just think about all of those awesome lovingly inked edges. My only word of caution would be to ink the paper prior to punching. 

Until then.

Those blasted punches again

I know, I know. I just cannot seem to let it go. Once I got started with the corner and border punches, I was like a dog with a bone. In my quest to punch the perfect circle I went searching for a template.******note the original template has been removed. Paprluvr on YT found this one. It is from Florida's Educational Technology Clearing house ******   I found this one at the CDC. My search also resulted in many illustrations of the Arctic Circle showing lines of latitude and longitude. This was perfect for what I wanted to do. After resizing the template using the format picture--I printed out a few copies on 8.5 x 11 paper.

The next thing was to place my circle on the grid to note the size. I punched a template for myself and noted the number of degrees it covered by pacing it on the cut circle's outer circumference. 

That determined how many times I could punch around the circle.

 I made about an inch and a half mark around the circle on the correct number of degrees and then punched. (Please forgive my typo that I did not catch!)

I was expecting great results but was still surprised with the outcome. Even the extra bits are symmetrical.

I am sure other corner punches would work just as well. So long as you are able to see through the punch for alignment.

Here are a few more stills of my punches.

If you have not seen the Vee-dio; you can watch it here.

Don't forget to pull out your stamps and ink and shade with love to your heart's desire. Until then.

Happy New Year!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Wow, it is officially 2011. Way back in the late nineteen hundreds (sounds like eons ago) Prince was singing about 1999-2000. Well, we hit and surpassed that mark by 11 years. 

Do you recall the fears that were spread during that time: Computer crashes and glitches, ATM machines unable to process requests, widespread blackouts, water shortage, etc., simply because of the 00 digits.

I know several people who purchased generators and tanks of water and stockpiled food. Me, I went out and brought the New Year in right. God says, I have not given you the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

So, last night I was ringing in 2011 by playing around with the Tim Holtz Distress Inks while watching Laura’s UStream –Following the Paper Trail. Guess what?  We had a special visitor…T!m himself. He only stayed for about 10 minutes, but it was great having him pop in. There I was busily working with his inks, serendipitous for sure. With that in mind, I thought I’d provide a bit of eye candy for you.

Aren’t they luscious? I could just eat them. Please keep in mind that this is just a sampling of the colors. Sadly, I do not own all of them.

I really love using these inks, but sometimes it is hard to ascertain which colors are needed for a particular project, especially with the Blues.

I finally broke down and made some color swatches for myself. I am going to punch out some of my corner punches to help with my record keeping. I used the Black Soot on this Holly Leaves corner bunch. Why? Because it was at my elbow. lol. I did three of them trying to see how dark I could go with the saturation. Holly Leaves--light, square to the left--medium and the one on top of the pad--darker.

Don’t ask me how, but somehow I would up with two Scattered Straw pads. I am glad as I like that color.

Each piece started life as a white 2x2 card and I used the Inkssentials tool and blending foam to color them.

 

The Tattered Rose and Milled Lavender are probably the lowest on my list of well-liked colors followed closely by Shabby Shutters, too soft for me.

 

My faves: Vintage Photo, Chipped Sapphire, Worn Lipstick, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Stormy Sky, and Peeled Paint. Yum-O!!! Can I sneak in Antique Linen and Old Paper? Really liking it with the Martha Stewart Iron Gate Punch. The two marry well.

Just wanted to pop in and help you ruin your resolve to not shop as much this year…lol. If I told you about my last year purchases I would have to take you hostage. Keep inking and thinking with love.

Until then.