Gilded Wings | ft Nuvo Gilding Flakes and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

A little while back I did a review on the Nuvo Gilding Flakes and showed how you can gild an image and then colour it afterwards with Copic markers. Today, I have a card that uses this technique but instead of using Copics I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (which I also recently reviewed) to add the colour to the image.

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock with my powder tool. I then stamped the small and medium butterflies from Urban Stamps "Butterflies" with VersaMark ink and then heat embossed them with Sticky Embossing Powder by Ranger.

I have found the trick to using the sticky embossing powder is to remove the heat from the paper as soon as it is melted. Get your heat gun good and hot before bringing it to the paper and remove it as soon as the powder melts. I discovered that if you allow the heat to stay after the powder melts it won't be sticky, it just cooks. And that defeats the purpose. It has taken me some practice, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Once the powder was melted I used the Radiant Gold gilding flakes, pressing them down with my finger, then burnishing them away with a stiff brush.

I then used 022 Carmine Red and 052 Bright Yellow Zig Markers to add the colour. These markers are fantastic on the Bristol paper. The smooth surface stops the colour from seeping into the paper and drying too quickly. For this card, I drew a thin line of the red at the base of the wing then a thicker line with the yellow and used my water brush to pull the colour out to the edges. You could also skip the water and use the lighter colour to pull the red out to the tips, but I wanted a softer watercolour look.

To finish off the card, I added the greeting from Stampendous "Happy Messages" with the gilding flakes as well, then mounted my panel on a top folding A2 sized black card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

If you hop over to my Facebook page, I currently have a poll going to see what you want to have reviewed this week. Voting closes December 14th 2017 at about 1:00pm MST, so if you want to vote click on over and do so!

Hippie Hello | ft. Forever In Time "Sunshine Daisies"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

You know how your Mom or you Grandmother would have different decorations for each season? Different framed pictures on the walls, different throw pillows and colour schemes depending on the time of the year? Just to keep things fresh. Well, I've decided that it's time for that to be me.

I recently had my first Dollar Tree experience, I couldn't believe I had never been there before. I got an entire set of Autumn dishes (large plates and bowls) for like $20!!! For eight place settings!

Last week, my Mother and I were back at Dollar Tree looking for a set of Winter dishes (because why wouldn't I buy another set?) and I came across a set of clear stamps by Forever In Time. I had used their embellishment products before because they are super inexpensive but I had no idea that they made stamps. So I figured why not? At $1.25 for the set what did I really have to lose?

I started by stamping out the largest daisy with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I then did the medium size, then the smallest. My intent was to create a patterned paper for a background.

It wasn't until they were all stamped out and coloured with Copic markers that it struck me as a very "Hippie" background. I then did something, that I had never even considered before.

I coloured the background with Copic markers. I know that seems pretty common, but I'm kinda cheap and the idea of using a Copic (not cheap) to fill in such a large area was somehow terrifying to me. But I am sooo glad that I did.

Once the entire panel was coloured I remembered I needed a greeting. So I prepped the whole piece with my powder tool and stamped the "hello friend" from Stampendous in VersaMark ink and heat embossed it in white. Now typically, that's where I would leave it, but even with the contrast between the white and the colours the text seemed to get lost. To solve this, I took my 0.3 Staedtler pigment liner and carefully traces around the embossing to make the letters really pop.

I created a splatter looking using a bit of watered down Copic Opaque white and a clean brush. On the front of my standard A2 sized card base, I sponged on some Broken China Distress Oxide ink just around the edges and then adhered my hippie panel to the front.

I wasn't really expecting much from this stamp set, I expected a low quality that didn't hold the ink very well that I would probably end up tossing. But I can honestly say that I have paid more for other "more popular brands" that frustrated me to no end. These worked better than I had ever thought. They certainly aren't perfect, but considering I paid $1.25 for a set of 10 stamps, I'll definitely purchase any others that I happen to come across.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.