Fancy Friday

Hey Everyone! Welcome back to another Fancy Friday! For this month's hop we are featuring our favorite technique! Hmmm. . . there are so many fun techniques that I love, I had a difficult time choosing!

I have had a few people e-mail me and ask me how I created the background for my butterfly card I posted a few weeks ago, and though I thought about keeping you all amazed by not giving away my secret ;), I then decided this would be the perfect opportunity to share! I must warn you however. . . though it may look amazing and perhaps difficult to achieve the look,  this technique is actually super simple! Now I knew the technique I wanted to showcase, but I was stumped on a project idea. . . so I searched some of my favorite challenge blogs to help spark an idea. Wouldn't you know that both the Monday and Wednesday challenges over at Simon Says Stamp are both:

ANYTHING GOES and NO RULES!

HAHAHAHA! Not very helpful for my creativity stump. But, I finally decided to just start stamping and see where I ended up! I am going to show you the card first, then I will tell you step-by-step how I created the panel on the card. Check it out:

 

I started out by first stamping my lined image on my cardstock panel. Now, you will definitely want to use a non-water based permanent ink like the Stazon Jet Black ink pad, otherwise the image will just bleed out when you move on to the next step. As you can see, I only inked up a portion of the Pleasant Poppies background stamp.

I then took the small splatter image from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set, inked it up (I actually chose to ink it up first in my Tangerine Tango, then in my Real Red ink pad to change the color slightly to a more vibrant red-orange) and spritzed it with water.

Then I stamped it twice without re-inking it (this allows for a dark and light image) and then repeated this process a couple of times until my image was colored in how I wanted.

I used the same technique with my Pear Pizzaz ink pad to "color in" the stems. **this was the last step I used for the Butterfly Card.

After allowing my image to dry completely, I used my Blender Pen and ink pads to color in a little more detail (this step isn't necessary, but optional to achieve the desired look.)

I then used the light splatter image, inked it up, and stamped it on my panel to create a darker splatter.

Now, this creates a fun panel you can leave it as is and create your card from here, or you can opt to try out another fun technique! Lately I have been fascinated with Mixed Media. I love the look of all the layers and textures, I love the creativity that is expressed, and I am one who likes to get my hands inky! So. . . I added a few more stamped images using the Butterfly Basics stamp set which has many great images you can use to achieve a collage look. Then I covered the panel completely with my glue stick. You can also use modge podge for this step.

Then, I took a wadded up piece of tissue paper, unwadded it. . . is that a word? Then laid it on top of my cardstock panel wrinkles and all! I used my finger to smooth it out over the panel and make sure every square inch was glued down.

Then, I trimmed all of the extra overhang of tissue paper from my cardstock panel.

If you notice, adding the tissue paper over has softened the image by quite a bit, and almost has washed out the flowers, so using my Blender Pen and Project Life Pen I went back over a few portions of the image to brighten it up a bit. Now, you will want to be sure and "dab" the color on by pressing the side of the pen tip onto your paper rather than using the back and forth motion of coloring, as this could tear the tissue paper.

Then I added a few "scribbles" with my Project Life pen, and viola! I know had a completed panel to use for my creation.

 

Hope you enjoy these fun techniques! Now, before we head over to Cathy's blog, I have a winner to announce from last month's Fancy Friday post! and the winner is:

Amy McCue!

Amy, e-mail me your address and I will get that stamp set out to you ASAP!

Now, let's head In The Cat Cave and see what Cathy's fun technique is, shall we?!