A-Z techniques- S

The next letter for the A-Z techniques on ArtVentures is S. I decided to do the Stamp Smoosh and Sparkle Marble which I learned from the wonderful Cathie Allan.

I used Lipstick Red, Lime Pastel, and Yellow Citrus fluid chalk inks to stamp smoosh the background and for the Sparkle Marble technique I used Siren, Luscious Lime and Gold Lame Smooch ink.

I decided to add a Cuttlebug die-cut star for the central image. I added some Sookwang tape to cardstock and ran it through my die-cutting machine. I removed the backing from the largest die-cut and covered it with some gold Stampa Rosa glitter. On the smallest star, removed the backing and covered it with Clearsnap's Cherry Pie Designer foil.

I decided not to add anything further as the background is so sparkly, although the picture does not show it very well.

Row Houses

On Mixed Media Misfits Trish suggested a Row House swap. I have not made any of these for a while so I was up for this swap.

I coloured some cardstock with Clearsnap fluid chalk inks using Cathie Allan's Stamp Smoosh and Sparkle Marble technique. I attached this to a piece of cardboard and cut out the three house shapes.

I added some Tim Holtz tissue tape to the bottom and coloured it with the fluid chalk inks to make it blend in. I stamped an alphabet background stamp in a second generation in Versafine sepia ink.  I added a couple of other stamps to give it some depth. I took a piece of sequin waste and added this with some acrylic paints.

On the left hand one I added a corner piece from cuttlebug embossed with pearlised embossing powder at the top. The circles are stickers coloured with alcohol inks. The butterfly, roses and the lady are from Moonlight Journey.com.

On the middle one, at the top, I added a piece of a die-cut from Memory Box coloured
with Clearsnap Smooch Gold ink. I stamped the PSX saying with pearlised embossing powder. The image from digitalcollagesheets.com  and coloured with chalks and set it with Judikins Microglaze. The butterfly and the roses are from Moonlight Journey.

On the left hand one I added some opals embossing powder and stamped into it while hot with the alphabet background stamp. Added a corner sticker to the top coloured with alcohol inks. Added the lady, butterflies and roses from Moonlight Journey.

Heart Strings card

The card of the month swap theme on AFTCM was Heart Strings and as always the interpretation was up to us.

I started by cutting out 3 different heart shapes with a Sizzix die. The largest was covered with a piece of an old book page and I coloured it and the second one with Smooch Siren ink. The smallest has some book print on it and was coloured with both Smooch Siren and Gold ink. I took some gold and red metallic thread and wound it around the largest and smallest hearts - "heart strings".

For the background I used Cathie Allan's Stamp Smoosh technique with fluid chalk inks then her Sparkle Marble technique over the top.

I made some flowers using a the Tim Holtz die and the same colors of ink used on the background. I punched out some hearts and leaves and added them to the cards, along with some of the metallic thread. I added a little piece of a border die from Memorybox, which is actually a winter border but I added  some centres to the star shapes to make it look like a vine with flowers.

To finish the card I attached it to a black cardstock base.