Elements Ink Play & News

Happy Saturday! 

As you know from the title I'm going to be sharing some inky fun with you but first I wanted to share my news...  As you know I recently became a design team member for Fairy Hugs - a new line of stamps consisting of fairies, underwater creatures and similar elements. This line of stamps coordinate perfectly with Lavinia stamps (from the UK).   

Well the owner of Fairy Hugs has a store dedicated to selling Lavinia stamps here in the US called Lavina World. To avoid some brand confusion among customers he has just opened a brand new web-store called Fairy Stamper that encompasses Fairy Hugs stamps, Lavinia Stamps as well as all sorts of other fairy, mermaid and mythical products from other companies. These products include stamps, stencils, dies, inks, tools and more! I am thrilled to announce that I am a member of Fairy Stamper design team!!

Fun huh? So look for more fairies, mermaids and mythical creatures in the near future.

Elements Dye Inks

You all know how much I love inks...well today I wanted to show you what I've been playing with the past couple days - Elements Inks from Lavinia available here in the United States at Fairy Stamper.  These are Lavinia's answer to the discontinuation of ColorBox inks.  They have come out with 12 initial colors shown here...

I decided to make a color swatch of each of these colors to share with you. One thing I noticed immediately is that these ink pads are VERY juicy. A little bit goes a long way (you'll see what I mean on the swatches). The colors are highly pigmented and very intense - check 'em out...

I applied each color to plain white 110lb Georgia Pacific cardstock using a jumbo sponge dauber. I intended to do a gradual fade from full coverage to white but as you can see that didn't happen. The application is a bit heavy handed on some colors for the simple fact that if you dab in the inkpad more than once or twice you're going to get A LOT of ink on the sponge. Seriously the Sundance was pounced onto the pad twice and it completely covered up the square. You can just barely see where I stamped the mushrooms. I tried to lighten it up after that but these inks do take some getting used to.

Beautiful colors but I must say I was a bit confused about the Henna and Truffle - I personally think the names should be switched because to me Henna is a reddish brown and Truffles (chocolate truffles that is) are chocolate brown.  I was also surprised that there wasn't a red included in the mix. I'm thinking they may have had the Merlot in mind for that part of the rainbow but I think it's more purple than red. Again - that's just my own opinion. Maybe they will come out with more colors in the near future to fill in the gaps.

Overall they are beautiful, highly saturated colors that stamp great. I did want to show a bit of play I had with them on a gel plate. This is a technique that is very popular over in the UK to pair with the Lavinia stamps so I thought I'd give it a go with their inks.

You use a brayer to roll on the inks onto a gel plate which I have done here... Normally they use one color but as you know if you've been here long I don't follow directions very well and like to do my own thing so I put on two colors. This example is Pine and Sundance. I should note that I only rolled the ink onto the very end of my brayer...about 1 - 1 1/2" on each end - you don't need any more than that or you'd just be wasting the ink. Next, flick on a bit of watered down Brusho's (a dry pigment ink) then press a piece of paper over the ink.

Now I really started getting into it and forgot to take pictures for a bit. The center one in this photo is from the Sundance and Pine. I can't remember what the combo's are of the others...to much fun was being had.

As I realized part the way through that I had forgotten to take pics...I picked it up here - this is Blue Lagoon and Mermaid after 1 pull. I didn't roll on anymore ink, I just left the ink as is and flicked on a bit more Brusho's just to see what would happen.  I am happy to say that I was able pull a second sheet with lots of color from the inks/brusho's.

The image on the right was the first pull from above, the center sheet is what I pulled from the combo shown in the photo above. The one on the left was made by rolling the existing ink/brusho over the gel plate, flicking on more Brushos and a third pull.  I told you these inks were intense...3 pulls from just one inking.

These examples are Sahara and Merlot - 1st, 2nd and 3rd pull in that order.

The final set was made using just Mulberry.... o.k. I tried one color but actually I think I like the bi-color better.

I'll leave it here for now...Hope you've enjoyed these experiments with this fun new ink.

I will be sharing more experimentation with these inks in the near future.

Till then friends - stay inky!!

Succulent Garden

 Hello my inky friends...happy Friday to you. I hope you are doing well and have had a nice week.  Today I wanted to share a few cards I made using one of the new sets from Rubber Stamp Tapestry...the peg stamp people...called Succulent Garden. It's a lovely set with 5 different succulent images.

It's such a fun and versatile set for all sorts of occasions, events and even holidays as you'll see below!

Sentiment - Whispers from the Garden

My first card is a fun little card for a friend. I started off by drawing an oval in pencil as a stamping guide. I then stamped the succulents and other foliage around that pencil line. After I was satisfied with the look I die-cut to create the oval that you see here. I stamped a scallop oval frame a bit larger than the original so that the background would show through the gap.

I wanted to try a bit of clean and simple stamping on this card (very hard for me to do - I don't handle white space well).  I started off by stamping a "swish" of color then stamped all of the images atop. I'm not sure how well I did - I never quite know when to stop - LOL!! I used a tiny sentiment stamp (Papertrey Ink) to finish it off. 

Finally I have created a Thanksgiving card using these stamps. I know - normally succulents and Thanksgiving aren't in the same thought but I figured I'd give it a try and I really like how it turned out. I think it really works. I created this card using the same pencil outline trick as the first card only I didn't die-cut this one. I used a tiny flower and branch stamps to create Bittersweet! A bit of twine, a sentiment and a few sequins from Sparkle Blends and it's done!

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Succulent Garden, Whispers from the Garden

Imagine - VersaFine Clair Inks, Memento Inks

Sparkle Blends Sequins Mixes

Papertrey Ink - Cloche Quarters Mini Sentiment Set

Not So Fast Christmas....Gobble Gobble!!

 I know this year has been hell on everyone and it seems like most people are ready to jump right in to Christmas but I want to call a time out here to celebrate one of our lost holidays...Thanksgiving. Just a few short weeks and our day of giving thanks will be upon us and here is what I made to help celebrate...

I want a chance to play with at least a little bit of my Autumn stuff for a bit longer so I created this fun Thanksgiving shaker card.  The papers are from the Authentique collection called Pleasant. 

The turkey shaker is from Creative Embellishments. The back of the shaker is covered in Gold/Gold Starstruck Rinea Foiled Paper. The front of the shaker was painted with DecoArt acrylic paints to which I added some black acrylic marker pen work. He has been filled with a limited edition shaker mix from Sparkle Blends called Give Thanks. He's so darn cute don't you think?

I added the words Gobble Gobble from the Autumn Sentiments set also from Creative Embellishments which were covered with VersaMark ink and gold embossing powder.  I embellished the card with a few extra sequins here and there for an added element of sparkle. 

I would like to enter this card in the following challenge....

Creative Embellishments November 2020 Challenge

The challenge is to take inspiration from the above photo. My inspiration comes from the lovely colors and the beautiful leaves. So very pretty!

Supplies:

Authentique - Pleasant Collection

Creative Embellishments - Turkey Shaker, Autumn Sentiments

Sparkle Blends - Give Thanks

Ribbon, Cardstock

Happy Moon Card and Envelope Set

 Hello my friends!! Hope you're having a wonderful day.  Today I wanted to share my latest Fairy Hugs creation...

I love the Happy Moon stamp, he is perfect for so many themes. I thought it would be fun to create a night sky for him to shine.

1. To create this card I used metallic Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors flicked onto a piece of black cardstock and a black envelope. 
2. I then stamped the Happy Moon with Gold Delicata ink from Imagine. 
3. The pane was then adhered to a black card blank with a Gold/Gold Starstruck Rinea Foiled Paper mat.
4. To finish off the envelope I stamped the Happy Moon again with Gold Delicata ink.
5. I used a white acrylic marker to draw a rectangle for the address.

Fairy Hugs Store Supplies:

Fairy Hugs - Happy Moon

Other Supplies:

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors

Rinea - Gold/Gold Starstruck 

White Acrylic Pen

Black Envelope

Cardstock

Be sure to stop by our Fairy Hugs Facebook Group 

Happy Halloween 2020!

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

I hope you've all had a wonderfully spooky time following along with my haunted offerings this month.

One final card to share with you this Halloween season....

To create this card I started off by stamping the Spiderwebs Background image on a piece of black cardstock using VersaMark ink and embossed with white Mboss embossing powder. This was mounted on a card base that had been covered with a piece of Rinea Violet/Violet Starstruck foiled paper. I also cut a wonky frame using the same foiled paper.  The sentiment and black cat were stamped on a piece of grey pattern paper and was then cut using the same frame die.  The frame and sentiment were mounted on the card and it was finished off with various sequins from Sparkle Blends.

Hope you all have a hauntingly spooktacular Halloween!

Roni

Supplies:

Lost Coast Designs - Spiderwebs Background, Cat1

Carmen's Veranda - Witches Go Riding

Sparkle Blends - Sequins Mix

Gina Marie Designs - Die

Club Scrap - Pattern Paper

The Poison Apple Exhibit....Just One Bite

 Hello and welcome to the Poison Apple Exhibit...be sure to read to the end for a complete list of exhibits and a chance to win a wonderful prize package from Gecko Galz.

A collection of frightfully delightful Halloween creations for you to enjoy....

and here is mine...

Just One Bite - 

because that's all it takes from a Zombie.

It is a vintage cigar box that I painted with black acrylic paint then stenciled purple ink over top. It's very subtle in the photos but shows up very well IRL.

The Skull Flourish Corner was painted with white acrylic paint then aged with inks. I really wanted to make the roses and flourish  pop so I covered them with glitter (from Fairy Hugs) Currant and Emerald.

Open it up and this is what is revealed!!!  The entire inside of the box was painted with black acrylic paint. I then created the moon using Champagne Ice Metallic Luster from DecoArt. Fab Fuchsia was used for the sky and Lavish Green was used on the bottom section for the grassy area.

All of the Bats were painted black then covered with Raven glitter. The ghost from the Graveyard Set was painted and distressed similarly as the skull on the front of the box.

I had so much fun with this. In addition to the bats, a couple pieces from the Graveyard Set (coffin, tombstone) were used as well as the Zombies, Zombie Hand Set.  The Coffin was covered with black acrylic paint then enhanced with more glitter (who says glitter can't be spooky?) - Gold Nugget on the cross, Shiny Penny along the edges and Silver Lightning for the nails in the coffin. 

I colored the hands with a variety of paints and colored pencils and the rest of the items were painted with black acrylic paint.  All of these items were positioned using foam core board pieces. I added bits of moss to help cover one more item....

Tiny lights!!  Woo Hooo.... Yes, my Zombie graveyard scene is lighted. I have to say it looks so freakin" cool in the dark....really scary and such fun! I hope you have enjoyed what I have to offer in the Poison Apple Exhibit!!

Supplies:

Creative Embellishments - Skull Flourish Corner Set, Bats, Graveyard Set, Zombie Hand Set, Zombies, Tiny Lights

Fairy Hugs - Fairy Powder (glitter) - Currant, Emerald, Gold Nugget, Shiny Penny, Silver Lightning, Raven

DecoArt - Americana Acrylic Paint - Black, White; Metallic Luster - Lavish Green, Fab Fuchsia, Champagne Ice

Beacon - 3in1 Glue

Other - Moss, Vintage Cigar Box

Don't forget to take a stroll through the rest of the exhibits from these wonderful designers....

It's Oddly Appealing

Creatif Edges  

Ink Stained Roni - You Are Here 

Helen Angel-Cullum  

Chaitali Dekhtawala 

Louise Thompson 

Moniques Pretty Dark Art 

Lynes Laboratory  

ZoeB 

Rituparna 

Angel B

 Savvy Handmade 

Monica Longard  

On to the goodies.....

We have a wonderful digital prize package up for grabs, courtesy of Gecko Galz! You'll receive: Face To Face Jewel It Collage Set, Steam Punk Collage Set, Picture Perfect ATC Set, Clockwork Christmas ATC Set, and Spellbound Digital Stamp Set (which has 25 images!).

To have a chance of winning, leave a comment on this post, along with your email address or social media contact (IG, FB, etc) from now through Monday, 2 Nov. One lucky winner will be picked randomly from all comments left from all of the artist's participating! The winner will be contacted via email or social media so it's important you leave your address/social media contact info! Good luck and enjoy the hop!

I would like to enter this into the October Challenge at Creative Embellishments :)

Steampunk Halloween Skull

 As the month is winding down I find my self in a hurry to fit in all of my Halloween creations before the big day arrives. I always seem to have far more Halloween ideas and plans than I do time. BUT I was able to check this off my list. My Steampunk Halloween Skull....

What do you think? I am tickled with how he turned out which of course isn't anything like what I had planned!  I had originally thought to make him more of a character by giving him a mustache and a blinged out Steampunk hat but as things progressed I decided he needed Mr. Octopus instead. I'm glad I made the switch...I like this much better.

All of the gears were colored using Craft T Metallic Rub-On Paints which that have been in my stash for years and years. They were one of the first things I bought over 20 years ago and they are still great! Amazingly enough these things work better than many of the current far more expensive metallic waxes and rubs on the market today.  Just do a search for the above name and you'll see what I mean.

All of the chipboard pieces as well as the wood skull are from Creative Embellishments. I love their selection and imaginative offerings.   I added a couple little sequins and crystals (from Sparkle Blends LE Sequins Mixes) for the skulls eye as well as the octopus eye (shown in the photo before this one).  

A few brads for the hinges and DecoArts acrylic paint for the spider web caught in his eye socket and the skull it's self. I wanted to give it a worn distressed look so I used a bit of burnt umber applied with my fingers (messy on purpose) which I then went over with a bit more white to blend it all together. I love how it aged the stark white to something long ago forgotten.

I drew on some cracks in the skull and smudged a bit with more white paint just to give a more aged look. The gears and parts are to help him hold it all together. I feel like I need them sometimes.

So there you have it...my Steampunk Halloween Skull.

Hope you enjoy this make.

I am going to enter this into the following:

Creative Embellishments October Challenge

Steampunk Challenge

Bleeding Art Challenge

SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenge - October

Supplies:

Creative Embellishments - Skull, 1 1/2" Gears, 1" Gears, 3/4" Gears, Loose Parts, Octopus Set, Steampunk Timepieces, Spider Web Corner Set

Craft T Products - Metallic Rub Ons

DecoArt - Americana Acrylic Paints - White, Black, Burnt Umber

Mini Brads

Happy Howl-Oween!!

Cat's last week...dogs this week!
I thought it would be fun to bring a dog friend to the party....

This little cutie is from the Circus Dogs set of stamps. He was stamped on white cardstock then fussy cut. I created his hat by stamping the Oz Witch hat, colored it with glitter gel pens and fussy cut. 

I stamped one of the spider webs from the Spiderweb Background on the upper left corner of the pumpkin pattern paper and the large and small Bat from Carrie's Menagerie in the other corner.  The stamped panel was affixed to a card base and a bit of washi tape was added to the bottom. I used foam tape to add the dog to the card and hand wrote the sentiment.

Supplies:

Lost Coast Designs - Circus Dogs Set, Spiderwebs Background, Bat

Carmens Veranda - Oz Witch

Pattern Paper, Washi Tape, Gel Pen

Toadstool Trio

Today I wanted to share my latest Fairy Hugs creation...

I love this simple Toadstool image. It is so versatile and can be used alone or paired with any number of the other lovely Fairy Hugs stamps. Today I have a trio of toadstools with an extra little tip to make your mushrooms grow a bit.

Directions:

1. Stamp the middle mushroom on a piece of white cardstock.

2. Without reinking, stamp the image onto a piece of scrap paper and trim. This will become your mask for stamping the rest of the card.

3. Cover the stamped toadstool with the mask, ink the stem part of the image and stamp it below the stem on the first stamped image. You just "grew" your mushroom!

4. Leaving the mask in place, stamp a second and third mushroom on either side of the tall mushroom.

5. Color the mushrooms as desired.

6. Stamp foliage and flowers around the mushrooms.

7. Use watercolor to create the ground and give more color to the images/foliage.

8. Die-cut the image; diecut the frame using Mocha/Mocha Starstruck Rinea foiled paper.

9. Cut and mount the Fairy Wings Background paper on a brown card base.

10. Cut a strip of Moss & Stone Background paper and adhere it to the center of the card.

11. Mount the mushroom image and frame on the card.

12. Add a twine bow.

Have a lovely day friends!!

Fairy Hugs Supplies:

Toadstool

Fairy Hugs Background -  Fairy Wings

Fairy Hugs Background - Moss and Stone

Other Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Peg Stamps Foliage, Flowers

Gina Marie Designs - Frame

Watercolor Paints, Twine

Be sure to stop by our Fairy Hugs Facebook Group 

 

Rustic Rudolph Shaker Card

 Hello Friends - I hope you are all well and enjoying the start to your week.  Today I wanted to share a shaker card using the Limited Edition mix called Rustic Rudolph.

I know black isn't a traditional Christmas color but I really like the looks of it. I made this card by initially stamping the black panel all over using stamps from the Rubber Stamp Tapestry set called Vintage Christmas using Golden Glitz Delicata Ink from Imagine.

I then die-cut the window and a layer insert with the deer (both from Spellbinders). I attached a clear piece of acetate for the window and mounted the insert on the panel.  A bit of foam tape to create the shaker portion of the card, filled with the Rustic Rudolph mix and affixed the Turquoise/Turquoise Starstruck panel to enclose the shaker.  This shaker was then mounted on a black card base.

To finish off the card I added a few sequins to the front of the card and a gold stamped sentiment inside.

Even though it's not what you'd traditionally expect to receive I hope it will bring joy to someone this holiday season!

Supplies:

Doodles Paper Playground Sparkle Blend Limited Edition Sequins Mix - Rustic Rudolph

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Vintage Christmas

Rinea - Turquoise/Turquoise Starstruck Foiled Paper

Spellbinders - Window & Insert

Imagine - Delicata Ink - Golden Glitz