Paper and Fiber Arts



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Showing posts with label Ink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ink. Show all posts

Saturday, July 29, 2023

Elements of Floral Composition


One of the Altenew Academy classes that I recently completed has to do with the elements of design. The class is taught by Jaycee Gaspar. He is an Altenew Design Team Member, as well as an Altenew educator. Jaycee makes beautiful cards using watercolor with stamped floral images. His work is gorgeous! I took this class because I admire his work and wanted to know more about his process. These two clean and simple cards reflect some of what I learned in this class.  The first card showcases the use of line as a design element. 

Line

The heavier weight of a brush marker line as a frame around the circle gives additional emphasis to what is included in the flat frame. Even though nothing on the card front is popped off the surface, the thicker line also helps to make the circle seem three-dimensional. The only dimension on the card front is the use of sequins and pearls. Once the card front was complete, it was popped off the 4.25" x 5.5" base with a black die-cut frame underneath. The front and frame were cut with Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 set. 

The petals of the flower almost cradle the sentiment. Perceived lines in linear composition help with the placement of elements, such as sentiments, on a card. All images are stamped from the Build-A-Flower: Laelia set. First, the card panel was ink blended with Pool ink using a circle mask. This created a focal point for the black outline stamp to rest. One of the layering stamps was used to add a little bit of color, also using Pool ink. There are additional layering stamps in the set. However, I like the graphic look of limiting how much color is on this card. The next card uses the same inks, masks, and stamp set but in a different way.


Shape

Both cards use the circle as a design element but in a reverse way. There is no actual dimension on this card. The leaves are contained within the circle. The images are stamped on the A2 card base after ink-blending the center section of the masked card. Perceived depth and dimension are achieved by the use of the dark center color. This is especially useful in creating flat cards for mailing. Additional interest is added with ink splatters of the Pool ink mixed with a bit of water.

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Monday, July 24, 2023

Floral Stamp Three Ways

Large image stamps are wonderful for cards, art journals, and scrapbook layouts. The floral stamp from the Sweet as Honey Hero Arts set measures about 6.5" from the base of the stem to the top leaf. Stamping the image and heat embossing it on different types of paper allowed for exploring three different ways to use it on hand-created cards.
The first image, on the left, uses white embossing powder over white pigment ink on 100 lb cardstock. After the paper cooled, I ink-blended the embossed image with Catherine Pooler inks in cool colors. Wipe off the ink from the white embossed areas to make the colors shine. The middle image is stamped with Versamark without wiping off the leftover white ink and embossed with clear powder onto a heavy green cardstock.
The pink image is also heat embossed with white ink and white powder. This time it is on watercolor paper. It is easy to watercolor with embossed images because the embossing helps hold the watercolor inside the design. Sometimes, I audition stamped images onto backgrounds before deciding how to use them.
The picture above shows one of the images cut into two pieces and placed on an ink-blended background. And the picture below shows the intact image placed on a stenciled/ink-blended background. This was too busy for my liking.
Ultimately, I layered the image on a small solid panel placed over a heat-embossed background which has another piece of dark cardstock placed underneath and to one side of the front panel. The same dark green cardstock was used for the sentiment. The butterflies, sentiment, and background all use gold heat embossing powder. This is a 6-inch square card.
The 4.25" x 5.5" card, pictured below, also uses a gold embossed butterfly and sentiment. The sentiment is stamped onto the ink-blended panel. This is the same panel that was auditioned (and rejected,) above.
The panel adheres to a top-folding card base and the corners are rounded with a punch. Rounded corners soften the card. This design element is particularly welcome on a sympathy card.


The last card is also a 6-inch square card and is layered very similarly to the other square card. The butterflies are from the New Days Butterflies stamp set and colored with Copic markers. They add a bit of beauty to all of the cards.

Thank you for visiting!

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Sunday, July 23, 2023

Stacked Stencils for Clean and Simple Cards

Have you layered stand-alone stencils to achieve a new look? That is what today's post is about. I used two stencils to create a different effect on three clean and simple cards. The idea is from Nicole Watt in her Altenew Academy class titled "Advanced Stencil Techniques". Her class is filled with a lot of fun techniques. This one particularly appeals to me because it looks great and is very fun to do. Also, I love that there is a bit of a surprise element to what you create that is shown upon the reveal. 

On the first two cards, I used the grid stencil after using an open stencil or mask for the first layer. The card pictured above is the maze stencil with Silver Sage ink blended onto a 4.25" x 5.5" piece of cardstock. Leaving the stencil in place, the grid stencil is aligned on top, and Pool and Navy inks are blended over the original design. The photo above shows the ink blending after that step with the grid stencil removed.
Clean and Simple Card with Stacked Stenciling

These next two cards use a reverse mask from the Wonderland set. The one above shows it with the grid stencil and the one below is with a discontinued geometric stencil. Also, the one below uses navy ink after the geometric design was complete. Each of the cards has a stamped sentiment from the Wonderland stamp set. 

All three cards are layered onto standard 4.25" x 5.5" card bases after die-cutting the stencil background and a frame using Gina K's Master Cuts Set 1 dies. A little bling was added to all of the cards using Pinkfresh Studio Metallic Pearls or Essential Jewels. 
The large die-cut sentiment is popped up with foam tape. It covers some of the card, but not enough to be distracting from the cool-looking background. I hope you give this technique a try! It is kind of addictive, though.


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Thursday, July 13, 2023

Stenciling Two Ways For Beautiful Card Backgrounds

 


Both of the cards shown today are made using the same stencil and ink colors. By stenciling them two different ways, you can create interesting and beautiful card backgrounds. The first card is ink blended by holding the stencil in place and overlapping the ink. Because the colors are on the cool side of the color wheel, it almost makes an ombre effect. For true ombre you would just blend a little more to have more subtle gradation. 

After stenciling the 4.25" x 5.5" cardstock piece, I Zentangled the closed circles with a variety of shapes. This is a really fun technique. If you'd like to see another card made this way, visit here.

Even though it looks really cool as it is, I decided to use the negative cuts from the next card to create a circle around the black 'hello'. 

The sentiment is an inset circle shape that I cut out of the surrounding circle with scissors. This is then inset into the negative cutaway pieces of the other stenciled card which is shown below.

The last picture shows how I used the leftover ink on the ink blending brushes and the stencil which was turned 90 degrees after ink blending over the top of the cardstock as done on the first background. It made a great background for another card and there was no additional mess to clean afterwards!


Both card fronts were cut and layered using the two large dies from Gina K's Master Layouts 1 set. On the second card, the black piece is the smaller cut shape and layered under the stenciled piece to let the 'hello' be the focus. I used two nesting circle dies to make the black frame around the circle. The finishing touch is the little silver half pearls glued to the black cardstock under the 'hello' sentiment die cut.

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. BY CLICKING ON THEM AND PURCHASING PRODUCTS THROUGH MY LINKS, I RECEIVE A SMALL COMMISSION FOR THE REFERRAL. THE ITEM WILL NOT COST YOU ANY MORE BY GOING THROUGH THIS LINK.