Tuesday, October 31, 2017

LEAFING FLAKES

Leafing Flakes or Gilding Flakes as they're also known are making a come back in the craft world.  They will stick to anything that's sticky and some would have you believe that you must use a specific type of glue for them, nope...untrue.   A tacky surface is all that's required for the flakes to adhere to but some work better than others.  If you look at my samples below, the first 3 and last 1 all have used die-cut shapes cut out of JAC paper (double-sided sticky paper) and this is the absolute easiest way to use the flakes.  I have a tub of gold, silver & copper all mixed together but I also have one of just gold and one of just silver.  I store them in a 1.5-litre lunch box as it's really easy to just dip your card in with the sticky exposed, press the flakes on and brush off the excess, all within the confines of the container.  This stuff floats EVERYWHERE!!!

The 4th sample below (Music speaks) is one that I have used by Zig glue pen to trace around the edges of the drips, wait a good 10 minutes for it to get tacky and clear (it goes on blue), then press on the flakes.  Perfect!  Of course, double-sided tape works really well with gilding flakes.  

As an experiment, I also tried out using clear embossing ink and the sticky embossing powder with a stamp.  I was the least happy with this as it was a little patchy in areas though if you were after a random background effect it'd work ok.  Just be really careful to not overheat the sticky powder as it won't be sticky if you heat too much.  It's a fine line.  😉

"Enchant"...

"I'll wear black"...

"Life is short"...

"Music speaks"...

"Stay creepy"...

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

ALCOHOL INKS & METALLIC PAINTS

Even though alcohol inks have been around for years now, they are still a favourite medium of mine.  When you combine them with metallic paints as the base, it creates a different and unexpected background.  Your wash of metallic paints needs to be wet for this to work so the alcohol inks have something to repel against.  The added bonus is the beautiful shimmer that can happen as the inks and metallic elements in the paint react together.  This is one of those techniques that you need to play around with yourself to see the reactions.  I used both Yupo and gloss card for the backgrounds, both react differently.

"Hakuna Moscato"... (gloss card)

"Landscape Painting"... (Yupo)
 

"Fly"... (Yupo)

"In the face"... (Yupo)

"So stupid"... (Yupo)

Friday, October 6, 2017

DISTRESS OXIDES & WEBBING SPRAY

Webbing Spray by Krylon is a fantastic product that has been around for a long time and has such a grungy look and feel to it that it just adds that something extra to an existing background.  Once again we'll be using the new Ranger Distress Oxide inks but this time on gloss photo paper.  They do react very differently when you do the "smoosh" technique with the Distress Oxides onto the photo paper and then when dry, wipe them off with a baby wipe.  This removes the oxidisation from the pigment inks and leaves a more vivid looking background.  Over the top of these backgrounds I've sprayed black webbing spray.  
You really only need the one colour of webbing spray (it's available in black, white, gold, silver, green and red) because if you have some embossing powder at the ready, as soon as you've sprayed your colour, quickly dump on embossing powder in a different colour, tap off the excess and heat.... voila, a different colour of webbing spray!  Make sure your background is really dry to prevent the embossing powder from sticking to the Distress Oxide inks!

"Kiss my sass"...

"Pitch Black"
(how awesome are these baby black spiders!)

"Bend in the road"...

"Paper cut"...

"Underestimate me"...