more techniques

Another couple of fun cards. For this one, the trick was using the little stamped image in the circle cutout. Not hard to do. However, there are a couple of ways to glitter them. One is to use Stickles. That's what I tried. However, make sure your image is completely dry. Use your heat tool if there is any doubt. And for some inks that will always react if you put something wet on them, maybe try another medium. I used markers on this and no matter how much I dried it, it kept smearing. Some were worse. Ugh. I'm going to try chalks next. You could also use Diamond Glaze and pour on a good layer of glitter. Then seal it with sealant or more Glaze.


This is a simple transparancy sheet folded in half. I used Staz-on ink for the clouds.

It's summer!

Okay, I'm not the person most likely to be engaged in some physical, outdoor activity, but I do like to be out in the sunshine when the weather is good. And now that it's summer, it seems the rain has gone away in my neck of the woods. At least for the time being. That means lots of steamy afternoons in the pool and NOT in my inadequately air-conditioned scrap room! So fewer projects for me. But I've been doing some stuff in the last few weeks to share!

Here's a fun one that I saw on the Hero Arts blog. I think it was Jennifer McGuire (my hero!). Not exactly like the one she did, but close enough for government work. Instead of using a punched or die cut scalloped circle frame, I drew in the scallops with a Signo gel pen. I stamped the cloud image twice and cut out those and the sun. The hard part was stringing the beads, but once I got the hang of it, I just affixed the three strings between the two cloud cutouts to look like rain! The sun sits right behind the cloud. I used chalks to color the sun and cloud then sealed them with a spray sealant. I also used Diamond Glaze to glue the cloud to the transparancy.

For this card, I used alcohol inks on glossy cardstock for the background. I stamped the fishes with Versamark. The faux metal embellishment was fun with heat embossing. First you cut a piece of cardstock about the size of your stamp. Then you coat it with Versamark or other embossing ink (Ranger makes one too). Heat emboss it, then while still hot, give it another coat of embossing powder and heat it. Do about four layers of that. Before heating the final layer, get your stamp ready with a little Versamark (this keeps the stamp from sticking). Heat the last layer of powder, then stamp the image onto the heated embossing powder. Let the stamp sit (NO wiggling) for several seconds until it's cool (I counted to 15). Gently remove the stamp. I added a punched hole (with my Crop-a-dile) and a jute bow for a more manly feel.

This card doesn't feel done to me and I may add something else to it. The trick is to use white-core cardstock. Stamp an image that has diagonal lines. I used a simple diamond pattern stamp but you could use anything really as long as the lines are clear (either clearly there or "felt" between a series of images). Use either an embossing tool or one of those sticks they give you in packages of rubons to score the lines, fold and sand. You'll have white lines when you get done. And yes, very fold-y paper! You can go a step further, as I did, by using distress ink on the sanded areas. This is another great Jennifer McGuire tip!

Here's

sketches!

They're simple, but I'm still learning how to work my photoshop program. I usually edit photos with Corel Photoshop Pro X2, so I'm not as familiar with Photoshop. I have several more sketches to get worked up and then I'll share. Have fun creating!

Sketch help!!

So here's the deal...I have been taking pictures of my fellow mental health center employees for a photo directory. Not a glamorous job, let me tell you! I'll never - God willing! - work for one of those companies that takes school pictures!

Anyways, I have set aside time to take the pictures and I set up the camera/tripod/backdrop/lights in our big conference room which is on the other side of the building from my office. Which means for an hour, I'm away from my desk. I can't work because most of my work is on the computer. So this week, I printed off some rectangles, put them on a clipboard and proceeded to sketch my little heart out while I was waiting for folks to wander in for their pictures. I now have around two dozen sketches -- but no good way to get them onto a graphics proram. The others that I have done have been done with a generic Paint program. VERY time consuming and hard to do.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to do a sketch graphically? Is there a program you use? A website you go to? Any freeware you download? HELP!!!!