Frantage Christmas House Card

This is an old Stampendous stamp I've had for years. It was stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with Frantage Aged Hunter. Next, I ran the VersaMark pad around the outside and added more of the aged hunter for a border, and painted inside the oval with Twinkling H20s pearl gold. The holly berries were colored with a gold Gellyroll pen.

Gold pearls were added to two of the corners, but they still looked sort of blank, so I decided to add a bow. Most of the ribbon I had didn't look right, so I tried some old green and gold rayon stuff I've had for years. It was originally made for knitting with. The colors were perfect for the embossing powder, but it was quite thin, so I braided it and made a bow. I really wanted to add tiny jingle bells to it, but I couldn't find any small enough, so I decided on these little stars I had in my stash.

After that, the bottom corner needed something, so I added a few stars there too, then I matted and mounted it. All the paper is Core'dinations Pearl and gold mirror card.

Frantage and PSX Christmas Tree

To give everyone a break from cards made with my new Spellbinders. I am showing a card I made a couple of weeks ago using an old PSX stamp I have.

This one was done on Core'dinations Pearl CS and Gold Mirror card. All of the Frantage products were in the Gold Encrusted Jewel Kit. For the tree, I used VersaMark and detail gold EP. Next, I went around the outside with my versamark pad and added the antique gold and gold glass glitter. I also sprinkled a few bits of the antique gold around the card to add texture and detail.

For the encrusted jewel technique, I decided to use UTEE rather than the regular Frantage products, because I tend to get rather heavy handed with them. The UTEE gave a lighter look than the gold EPs. I sprinkled the UTEE between the tree and the border, then sprinkled in some gold mica flakes and glass glitter, and melted everything together.

After that, the tree looked unfinished, so I painted it with gold pearl Twinkling H20s. I did the ornaments with a gold Gellyroll pen, and they are a bit darker than the tree. It shows up more in person than it does in the photograph.

Normally I don't like messy looking cards, but the Frantage products are so much fun to play with that I use them anyway. This card really glitters and sparkles in person!

Another Dud Card

I am posting this messed up card anyway to show the Pearl Ex paints I made. Some of them are duo colors I made by mixing more than one color. I also used some Twinkling H2Os and some Lumieri.

I started this card at noon time yesterday. At six pm last night, I got the image mounted onto green Core'dinations paper. I was very late starting dinner, but my husband was busy too and said he didn't care if we ate late. Feeling guilty anyway, I was trying to hurry. That's when everything started going wrong. I used two brand new gold pens. One was Krylon, the other was an extra fine Pentouch. I think the gold metallic pens we buy in this area must be old ones, because it seems like every time I buy a new one around here, they don't work very well. When I buy them in New York, they work.

Any way, they go from very dry, to blobbing. I ran the fine one inside the die on the darker green layer, and got a big blob in one corner. Then I ran the Krylon one around the outside and it was dry and messed up and I had to keep trying to make it work. Since the border between the two gold lines was messy, I painted dark green H2Os between them to hide it.

The other messy thing was when I was finished and added a few Liquid Pearls. I didn't like the arrangement, and kept adding more. They got messier and messier. I should have stopped working on this card as soon as I finished cutting it out, and waited until I had more time. Then it might have come out nicer.

I started this card with a digital stamp I made from this Phoenix. (I'll add a link to the book later, we are going off the island today). Then I colored it using a mix of Pearl Ex, Twinkling H2Os and Lumieri paint. The darkest green at the top of the wings and the smaller touches of orange on the flower are Lumieri, the medium green is the H2Os, and the rest are Pearl Ex. The Pearl Ex ones are the most Pearlescent, and the ones with the greatest color shift, and the Lumieri ones are the ones I like least on this card. I'm also not very happy with the white shades.

After painting it, I was trying to figure out a good shape. I came up with this. Since the CS was a bit warped after painting, I ran it through the Xyron, hoping that it would flatten when I mounted it. It flattened perfectly, so that was one thing I did right.

Then I decided this was the best Spellbinders Grand shape I had for the card. The outside edges reminded me of clouds, which tied in with the Chinese theme of the card.

The smaller layer is Core'dinations, and the card is cut from ordinary white CS, and painted with Pearl Ex Duo Green Yellow inside the die to match the card better.

Anyway, it's a dud, but it was an interesting idea, and I may try something similar later.

Mighty Sea Card Pearl Ex and Twinkling H2Os

I used one of my scenes from yesterday to make this card.

I wanted to keep it simple because there is so much shine, and without embellishments, it could also be used for a masculine card.

The scene and card background are matted with silver mirror card. The background is some shimmery textured card from my stash.

I put another photo below showing how it sparkles with the sun on it. The embossing powder is silver tinsel I've had for years, and the stamp is from Our Daily Bread Designs.

Below these is another experiment with Pearl Ex.

This experiment was done on dark green CS.

The sky actually blends better in person. Some of the flowers are done with duo colors, so they change color with the light.

I hope this weekend I can get some more of those jars I mix Pearl Ex in. It would be fun to mix duo colors so the scene would change from spring to fall as you move the card!

More experiments with Pearl Ex and Twinkling H2Os

I've never done much with water colors before, and I still need practice, so these aren't great. I decided to try playing with my paints again today to see if I could make a moonlight scene.

I decided to try the Mighty Sea set from Our Daily Bread Designs for this one. For both experiments I used the same dark blue CS.

For the one I did first, I stamped it with VersaMark and embossed it with silver EP. When I embossed it, I realized that there was too much embossing, and very little room for coloring for what I wanted to do. I decided to try it anyway and see if I could make a "happy mistake" instead of trashing it.

It actually looked kind of interesting when I finished it, and I will probably try to do something with it. I painted grass into some of the places where it was supposed to be sand and rock to give it more color.

For the second one, I stamped it with black VersaFine. Please ignore my funny looking birds. :-D I told you I'm not good with water colors!

Anyway, that one could have come out worse, and it was fun experimenting! I'll probably use that one for something too, since the shimmer makes them quite interesting in person.

Pearl Ex and Twinkling H2Os Painted Card

Today I made paint out of my Pearl Ex and gum arabic. The Liquid gum arabic is really expensive, so I was too cheap to buy it. I finally got the powdered stuff from Jacquard last week when I sent for all that stuff.

On Sunday, when we went off the island, I got a bunch of little clear jars made by Leow Cornell, and during the week I kept mixing a few colors a day until I filled all the jars. I have 38 colors of Pearl Ex, so it took a while. (Now I want all the colors)! I also want more of the little jars, because I want to make some more Duo colors with what I have. It's really fun!

I made small amounts of each color in each jar. They are watercolors, so you let them dry and use them just as you do with twinkling H2Os. If you want to try it, it's one part gum arabic powder to 4 parts Pearl Ex, and just add enough water, (I used a medicine dropper), to mix to a creamy consistency.

I used a Duo Red Blue for the roses, and took a bunch of photographs trying to show how the color changes with the light. The roses are shaded with Twinkling Black Cherry.

The colors I used are a combination of my Pearl Ex paint and Twinkling H2Os. I used Pearl Ex Spring Green for the leaves and shaded them with Twinkling Sweet Alfalfa. There is a dew drop on the leaf, which I used Twinkling Pearl Green on, but on the dark color, it turned very green when dry. I forgot to do it before I took the photographs, but I'm going to put Glossy Accents on it.

The baby's breath is Pearl Ex Micro Pearl.

I stamped an old Stampendous Rose onto wine colored paper with VersaMark, and embossed it with gold before painting.

Please excuse so many bad bad photos. Some were taken in the sunlight, and some were taken after dark. Some with, and some without flash. I was trying to capture how the color changes with the light. The background looks different colors as well, but that doesn't change. It's real color is a deep wine. The roses change from blue to violet to pink, and the leaves from a bluer green to a yellower one.

All the painting is very shimmery.

My First Card using Twinkling H20s

I was really excited to use my Twinkling H20s, and also this Spellbinders die, which I've been trying to buy for a year now. Every time I saw the card for it in the stores, it was out of stock, and the same thing for every time I've tried to order it online. I finally got it at Michaels when I was in New York!

This is the stamp that seemed to fit the best of any that I have. It's the same Anna Griffin one I used on a card the other day.

It was stamped onto Core'dinations Pearl CS using VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP, then colored with the Sparkling H20s I had. I love them, they make the flowers look like they are enameled when you see the card in person. (The card looks kind of flat in the photo). Then I cut and embossed the stamping with the die.

Next, the card was shaded with Brilliance ink, while still in the die. After removing the die, I wasn't really happy with the shading on the outside edge. There weren't enough details, so I went around the edge with the brilliance ink.

I really wanted to mount it onto a larger oval, but don't have a larger oval die, so I mounted it onto a rectangle of pale yellow CS, then matted that with metallic green, and mounted everything onto a card I made with the pearl CS.

The leaves were made with a McGill punch, and the roses are some I bought a long time ago. I don't really like what I added to the other corners. I kept trying different things, then decided to just add pink pearls. After adding the pearls, I wasn't happy with them, but it was too late, since they were stuck down.

Then I punched a bunch of butterflies and tried different things with them. The larger ones are the smallest ones from the MS butterfly punch that has three butterflies in it, and the smaller ones are from a hand punch I got at Hobby Lobby last week. I colored those with more of the Twinkling H20s, and folded them up in the middle, then added them to the card. They aren't great, but it looks better than it did without them. Last, I added some gold Liquid Pearls to the die cut.

***

I hate to mention sad things again, but I wanted to extend my condolences to anyone in the Rochester, NY area.

We all know about the tragedy in Newtown, then the next day, here on the island, we lost two fishermen.

We went out to Rochester from Sturbridge, Mass, to see the kids on Christmas Eve. When we got to Rochester, we learned there had been another terrible thing which happened. A man started a fire in the town of Webster, not far east of where the kids live.

He started the fire just so he could shoot firemen. He shot three firemen and one police officer from the town of Greece, where the kids live, on Christmas Eve, and burned seven houses down. These men were killed and seriously wounded while responding to a fire. They were heroes who were helping people when they were shot.

The man had been released from prison eight years ago. The reason he had been in prison was because he had beaten his grandmother to death when he was sixteen.

The kid's baby sitter is from Webster, and that is where Hobby Lobby is, so we heard a lot about it first hand. One of the baby sitter's friends lives in a house next door to the houses which were burned. Both she and her friend had difficulty getting home because of the investigation.

Kids and firemen being killed, and just before Christmas. It's just so heart breaking. I don't even know what else to say.