BLEACHING...

On the 'marigold' (yellow) color of this card I used a very simple technique, "bleaching". It produces a cool effect & depending on what color card stock you stamp the bleach on, you'll get a different color of bleached image. On 'marigold morning', the image bleaches out to 'apricot appeal'.

I took a paper towel & cut it to fit a plate. I then poured bleach onto the towel, but not too much! Then all you have to do is "ink" your stamp with the bleach & stamp away!!!

I stamped a whole sheet of card stock & then cut it up to make atc's. I had some left over, so I popped it onto this matchbook cover card for my secret sister!

Peek~A~Boo Card!

I made this little card for my secret sister recently! I thought it was a really "fun" card, so this is what we'll be making in my next class!

I cut a piece of cardstock lengthwise in half, to give me a piece 4 1/4 x 11. Then I scored it at 3 5/8 & 7 1/4... I folded it at the score lines. It left a little overhang, which I trimmed off.

I punched the front flap with the big tag punch & the middle flap with the word window punch. Then I just filled in the rest!

...the virtues of ATCs...

ATC = Artist Trading Cards

Recently my Big Secret Sis emailed:

"i just have to know- why ATCs? i guess i am not sure what the "value" of them is..."

My answer:

"ATCs.... are awesome! like yesterday, i needed a baby card, but i didn't have time to make one, but i had gotten an extra atc for bundle of joy recently, so I slapped it onto the front of one of the su! mini cards (that come with envelopes) and stamped a sentiment inside & viola! done! the other thing i like about them is you can get 10 of them from one sheet of cardstock, as opposed to 4 cardfronts...so they are also economical. they can be stored in sport card pages, 9 to a page, so storage is good for them, too! there are thousands of other reasons, but i'll stop there!"

Okay I admit it~ I've become an ATC swap junkie... I "L-O-V-E" those little cards!!! Here are two I did for a swap a couple weeks ago (I was late getting them mailed- out of the blue Chance quit eating & had to visit the vet...$240....another story) anyways, they were both for technique swaps... my first attempt at Joseph's Coat (the purple one) and Mulberry Batik (the yellow one).

I say my first attempt for the Joseph's Coat... I made several others before this... but I always seemed to rub off some of the black ink, leaving light spots. After trying with a few different things (paper towel, q-tips, used dryer sheets) to wipe the ink off the embossed images, I finally got it somewhat right! I still wasn't totally thrilled with this technique, though!

As for the Mulberry Batik~ I cheat! I don't iron the embossing out... the first few times I tried it a couple months ago it didn't work so well! I don't always practice patience! I love the effect of this technique a LOT!

Color Blocking...

I tried this technique a couple months ago, after finding it on Splitcoaststampers.com in the demo challenges forum... titled "TLC49 - Be a Blockhead! :)". It's called color blocking... & it reminds me of a Piet Mondrian painting: There are directions on the challenge page, but I used a template I created in Word. I drew a big rectangle & sized it for a card front, & then began filling it up with smaller rectangles & squares until I liked it. I printed off a few copies, & then marked it up to show what colors I would use where... and then lay the print on top of the card stock & cut through it to get my shapes. I then stamped them before pasting them down.

I created this one using circle punches, but the same technique... unfortunately I didn't have a template for this one! It would have been a lot easier!