2013 Technique Calendar - January AI Felt Stamping

Woo Hoo!!!

I'm so excited to get started on this calendar.  I have lots of techniques I want to incorporate but only 12 months so I'm sure you'll be seeing the extras some other time.  As I mentioned before I want to make this a mix of some of my favorite techniques plus some new.

Today's technique is something that is a really fun technique that incorporates Alcohol Inks, hand/die cut felt shapes and stamping all in one. 

Before I get to the technique I wanted to talk a bit about my calendar and other variations you might like to think about.   I personally like to make my calendar pages reflective of the particular season or holiday during each month.  You of course don't have to do so...you might have a color scheme in mind or perhaps you have a specific theme you want to work with, etc.  All of those are fine and can easily be adapted to the various techniques I will be sharing by simply switching up the colors of medium(s) used. 

I will also be giving alternative ideas in case you don't have the exact supplies I will be using.  I hope this helps and that it enables you to play along.

Remember, this is for fun so no stressing!

2013 Technique Calendar

January

Alcohol Ink Felt Stamping

I wanted to capitalize on all of the wonderful pre-cut felt shapes out on the market today but I know that many people also have die-cut machines so you can pull those in as well or you can simply hand cut your felt into the desired shapes! 

This techniques is based loosely around an alcohol ink flower technique I came up with back in 2009.  I basically hand cut flower petals, inked them (w/AI's) to closely match real flower colors and "stamped" them accordingly.   I play around with so many different techniques that it's difficult to find the time to play with all of them regularly so I thought this would be a fun one to bring back with the twist of using pre-cut/die-cut shapes which weren't readily available back then.

Supplies:

Calendar Template
Glossy Cardstock
Alcohol Inks
Felt Pieces - pre-cut; die-cut; hand-cut; etc.
Ink Applicator & Felt
White Gel Pen, Black Gel Pen, Silver Gel Pen (optional)
Stickles Glitter Glue (optional)
Calendar (Jan)
Embellishments (optional)

Instructions:

1. I started off by drawing my pennant template onto the glossy cardstock.  This will give you a set area to work with.

2. Next, using a full sized felt pad, ink with desired color for your background and swipe across the cardstock as shown.

3. It's time to hand-cut, die-cut or select your pre-cut felt pieces which we will be turning into stamps.  I am using a couple pre-cut felt snowflaes plus a larger snowflake that I die-cut. 

TIP: for larger felt shapes you can make your own handle/tool.  I simply took an old wood block from a rubber stamp that I had un-mounted (never throw anything away!), covered the block with "Hook" velcro and now I have a tool that can handle the larger felt shapes! 

4. Ink up your felt with desired color(s). Here you will see that I have inked up my die-cut snowflake. I actually used 3 different colors which will show up once the snowflake has been stamped.

TIP: The wetter your ink the more it will spread. I am going for a very soft, diffused look with these initial snowflakes so I will begin stamping immediately. For more detailed images you will want to let the inks begin to dry on the felt before stamping. You will see more clearly what I am talking about in the following steps/photos.

5. Here are the first initial snowflakes that I stamped immediately after inking.  You can see how the inks have spread across the cardstock for a softer look and feel.  You can also see the various shades of blue Alcohol Ink that I used to ink the felt die-cut.

6. Next I stamped my second snowflake in a different color of ink.  For this snowflake I stamped several immediately, then I let the ink dry a bit on the felt and ....

stamped several more without re-inking.  You can see the difference in the images as the snowflakes are now more defined.

7. I took a third felt snowflake and inked it with a purple ink.  Let it dry quite some time for a highly defined look once stamped.

8.  You can stop here and call  your design done and skip to Step 10 or continue on with the following optional steps depending on the look you want to work with.

9.  For a bit more depth I took 3 different color of gel pens and added details to each of the different types of stamped snowflakes.  I used silver for a shimmery reflective look, white gel pen for high definition and contrast on the blue and finally black puffy gel pen for another layer of dimension. 

You can see what a change adding that tiny bit of pen work makes.

10.  Cut the paper and adhere it to your substrate ~ I am using a heavy chipboard which I recycled from an old game box.

11.  (optional) Since I like to add a bit of sparkle and shine to many of my projects I took a bit of Stickles Glitter Glue and added it to all of the background areas not covered with snowflakes.  By doing so I have added another layer of dimension popping those snowflakes off the background.

You can finish off your pennant by adding any number of embellishments your heart desires.  Since my pennant was still wet (with stickles) I'll have to share my finished pennant tomorrow :)

 

Now it's your turn!

Time to pull out your inks and felt to give it a go!

 

If you'd like to share your results, please feel free to post a link to wherever you might have it posted so we can all ohhh and ahhh over it!