VALENTINE SHAMROCK

Hi Everyone! It's Holly here today and my project is another example of the Caught In Crystal Technique, but done a little differently this time.

I stamped the flower heart from  Valentine's Day/Love 2013 onto a transparency using jet black Stazon ink . Once dry, I flipped the transparency over and worked on the back side.

I smooshed Distress inks onto the transparency and once the area was well covered, I dribbled on some Future Floor Finish. I mixed it all around, sprinkled glitter over it and followed up with the crumpled tissue paper. Pressed it all down, then dried it.

I cut out the hearts and from a scrap, cut out a stem shape. Drew a few lines around the stem with a Sharpie. I wanted more green to show on the heart/petals so I just sponged more on the back and let it dry. And it worked!  So, I pushed my luck and sprayed a little shimmer spritz on it too.

Using Black Archival ink I stamped Always Kiss Me Goodnight, also from Valentine's Day/Love 2013, onto a scrap of white, then cut out KISS ME.

I embossed white cardstock with Spellbinders Expandable Botanical Garden Die , sponged around the edge of it and the two words.

I attached the white to the green card base, then adhered the shamrock petals with glue dots and glued the words on.

The sparkle and shimmer in real life is stunning.

 

Thanks for looking and remember to avoid the pinch on Sunday and wear something green!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

 

 

 

 

 

To Create - Caught In Crystal Tulip

One of the Quietfire Creations DT does a technique at the beginning of the month and this time it was Holly doing a "Caught In Crystal" technique. We can try the technique if we want or not - up to us... I've done alcohol inks on plastic, but never went further with the Diamond Glaze, glitter & tissue paper, so thought I'd give it a try. BIG GRIN.

So stamped my jumbo tulip (Inkadinkado) onto the clear plastic using Staz-On black and clear embossed. Note: I tried with Versafine and it never dried even after 24 hours... so wiped it off and re-stamped. PS Holly didn't clear emboss, and if you do, you have to be careful you don't warp your plastic.

Note: make sure your plastic is larger than you need, so you don't get the inks and Diamond glaze seeping underneath,

I didn't find my Diamond Glaze so used 3D Crystal Lacquer. I put several blobs in various areas of my flower and dropped alcohol inks (butterscotch, raspberry) into the blobs in the colors for my flower, and then my stem (meadow). Using the tip of a bamboo skewer, smeared and moved the blobs around. Added more blobs of lacquer and the blue (Pool) of the background, smeared it around, then sprinkled with Distress fine glitter "Star Dust", then scrunched up a piece of white tissue paper, un-scrunched and lay it over the whole of my background, leaving some of the wrinkles for texture. Set it aside to dry completely.

Trimmed it down and adhered it to my cream toned 5"w x 7"h card.

Die cut the corners from black cardstock, using Cuttlebug "Ornamental" die set. They're the negative pieces... Adhered them to the card with the lacquer.

Stamped the quote "To Create is to..." on a scrap piece of cream cardstock and clear embossed. Trimmed it around the quote and also used a circle die from Spellbinders and my hard rubber mallet to cut around areas. Adhered to card with the lacquer.

Click on images to see larger views. Enjoy

Hope you give it a try. Was fun.

CAUGHT IN CRYSTAL TECHNIQUE

Hi Everyone! This is Holly bringing you another 'oldie but goodie' technique, hopefully inspiring you to give it a try.

 

 

I chose Where So Ever You Go , Butterflies / Dragonflies , and Flourishes 1 to creat the design elements on the transparency. I stamped them with Stazon Jet Black and was careful not to let the stamp slip while stamping on the transparency. You can see in the photo where I drew out and 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" rectangle on white paper to serve as a stamping guide. Once the ink dried, I flipped the stamped transparency over and put a piece of tape on either side to keep it in position.

 

 

Then I got the remaining supplies together- Diamond Glaze , Re-inkers , white tissue- slightly larger than the design area, glitter, and a craft stick for mixing.

I poured several puddles of Diamond Glaze onto the transparency, then put a drop of re-inker in each puddle. I mixed with the craft stick, then spread it out to the drawn lines that show through.

 

 



I sprinkled glitter here and there, then crumpled the tissue paper, slightly smoothed it out and laid it straight down onto the wet Diamond Glaze.

 

I pressed down the tissue until the entire surface was covered, making sure to keep some wrinkles in the tissue for texture. Then, I left it to dry for a couple hours.

*NOTE* It's important to prevent any Diamond Glaze from seeping under to the front side of the transparency. By keeping the working piece of transparency much larger than the design area, and keeping the Diamond Glaze in the design area, no Diamond Glaze gets under it.

 

 

You can see how much darker the project looks once it is dry. I removed the tape and trimmed the piece to fit my card front.

Texture detail created by the crumpled tissue paper.

 

Glitter detail.

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and try this technique. It's a lot of fun!

 

Thanks for looking!