Thursday, October 22, 2009

Joseph's coat technique

I've been busy making a bunch of cards for the Stamptoberfest challenges on 2peas. Yesterday I ended up playing most of the day with a fun new (to me) technique called Joseph's Coat.

Here are the directions posted by Daria:
Make a card using the Joseph’s Coat Technique. This is one of the techniques that drew me to stamping. I saw such beautiful cards using it. When I tried it, I didn’t have much success. Recently, I wondered why I had such poor results. After all, it’s just a resist technique. I tried again, and it worked fine. There are a lot of tutorials on the web for this technique. Some have different directions. This is how I made mine.


Supplies:
White glossy cardstock (A few people are using a smooth regular cardstock instead, and it's working great.)
Spectrum ink pad (I used Kaleidacolor.) or three or four different colors of dye ink
Embossing Ink (I used VersaMark.)
Stamp (Bold images work best.)
Clear embossing powder (I used Ranger’s Super-fine Clear EP.)
Black dye ink (I used Adirondack.) or another color that is much darker than your background colors.
Brayer (soft rubber) or a sponge
Paper towels or soft cloth

Directions:
1. Use a brayer to apply ink from a multi-colored ink pad to glossy cardstock. Allow to dry completely. (If you don’t have a brayer or a multi-colored ink pad, you could use a sponge to apply different colors of ink to the cardstock.)

2. When dry, rub surface with an anti-static bag or a used dryer sheet. Stamp an image over the colored background with clear embossing ink. Heat emboss with clear embossing powder.

3. Brayer over the entire card front with black dye ink. The embossed image will resist the black ink. After completely covering the card, use a soft cloth or paper towel to remove excess ink from the embossed image and to buff the rest of the card front. If you want the background to be darker, repeat this step.

4. Use your finished piece to make a card.

Tips:
1. When you put ink on your brayer don't roll it back and forth. Instead, roll it across the pad completely and start again at the beginning and roll again. Otherwise you won't cover the entire roll, just a part of it. Repeat several times. I do it about ten times.

2. When you apply the ink to the paper, act like an airplane coming in for a landing when you get close to the paper and going for a take-off as you leave the other edge of the paper. Reverse so you're going back and forth. Repeat until you have the depth of color you want. You may have to re-ink the brayer. I usually turn the paper around to do the other side.

3. The brayer couldn't get the black ink into tight places. I needed to use a sponge and go over and over the little dots in the Judikins image on Sampe Card #6.

4. Bold stamps work best. I also tried using the more detailed stamps that I used before, and this time they worked. With the background stamp that had all the dots and dotted flowers, I had to add black ink with both the brayer and a sponge. The brayer couldn't put the ink between the dots very well.

5. I don't wait for the black ink to dry. It's a dye ink so it's probably on the dry side right away, but I just start buffing as soon as I've applied the ink. If the black doesn't cover the colors in the background very well, I apply it again and buff again.

6. To clean your brayer, just rinse it with water and dry. The black ink will stain your brayer. It won't hurt it, but it will forever be black. I actually keep one brayer just for black ink, but this really isn't necessary.

**Megan's note: I ended up using some items I had here on hand instead of some of the items that were suggested above.
Here's the list:
Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Faded Jeans, Broken China, Peeled Paint. Fired Brick, Worn Lipstick, Walnut Stain)
Foam Blending tool
Smooth white cardstock (not glossy)
Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink (Dark Brown)
Marvy Matchables Black inkpad
Clear Embossing powder and Tidy Tray
Anti-static powder bag
Rubber Brayer
Heat tool
Various stamp sets (Heidi Swapp Damask, Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday Loving words, Anna Griffin Darcey stamp set)











Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Stamptoberfest on 2Peas

I'm looking forward to finally getting started on the Stamptoberfest challenges on 2Peas. It's been a busy week and this is the first chance I'm getting to sit down and stamp.  There are quite a few challenges posted on the Stamping forum and lots of inspiration...I will be sure to share my projects here soon! :)  You know when there are stamps involved, I am in!! :) haha

Saturday, October 3, 2009

2Peas Online crops

I've been able to create quite a few layouts during the 2peas online crops. These layouts were finished during the last crop in August, but I haven't posted them here to my blog yet.





This was the other layout I completed at August's crop:



This was the first layout I completed for the October 2Peas Crop. It was for the All about Me challenge.



Another layout I completed tonight was this one...Digital template challenge by Jen Martakis. You didn't have to use them as digital elements, but could use them as sketches. I used #2.



Heading off to bed now...I think the caffeine is finally wearing off. :)

I've been working in my scrap room...

Stay tuned for some layouts that I've completed recently. Here's a little sneak peak...