Karen Bearse Designs: October 2019

Monday, October 28, 2019

Angel Mix Media Monday for Topflight Stamps

Hello Blogland, I am here with a quick tutorial making an angel mix media card for Topflight Stamps. I was sent a stamp set from Crafty Individuals & not going to lie it was a challenge to make some mix media fun with it.

Paper piecing the angel image using gel press pages gives this card a mix media vibe for sure. As the angel with the gel prints was quite busy and had a lot of pattern going on I decided to keep the rest of the page simple- never an easy task for me.

Let's get started! First step was to pick some background Gel Plate prints. Using a stamp press, stamp on the paper with an archival ink until you get some good images. I like using a press because the gel prints are made with acrylic paint so it is sometimes hard to get a good stamped image. The press alleviates this challenge. Cut out the pieces. Stamp the full angel image on a piece of card stock & assemble the pieces on top. Adhere. I left the face blank so I could color that in using a bit of water color & some markers.

Stamp the background paper with the star banner & heat emboss in black detail powder. I used the press for this as well to get a fully covered image. Check positioning of angel before doing this step.

Color in the stars using metallic paint pens. Adhere 1/8" SuperTape along the edges of the card. Place the foil pretty side up on the tape & simply rub with your finger. The foil easily adheres to the tape. Pull the sheet of foil off to reveal the cool metallic shine! If you miss a spot simply replace the foil and rub.

Assemble & voila, you can use this as a card, or art journal page. Love that foil border!! Thanks for joining me today, I hope you have the chance to get inky!!! Remember use my code karenbearse to save 12% off you order at Topflight Stamps.

Supplies:

Christmas Collection-set 1 by That's Crafty.

Stamp Press by Hunkydory

Embossing Ink

SuperTape 1/8"

Rainbow Shattered Glass Foil

*Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like so enjoy the inspiration.
**some of these links are affiliate, I receive a small percentage from the company at no cost to you. This may help me continue to bring you techniques & more inspiration.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Tag Techniques For Topflight Stamps

Hello Topflight Stamps Fans!!! I am here today with a quick, fun technique & an idea for batch crafting. I had a really good, inky play with these products just creating without a ton of thought. It was really relaxing so I hope you give it a try especially if you are stressed, worried or overwhelmed. I ended up with a feeling of satisfaction at creating multiple pieces in one go. Not sure why it felt like such as accomplishment as my kitchen is still a mess!!

I made these 3 tags & took step out photos in 2 hours. There is a base recipe to making them & then it is a matter of adding ephemera, ribbons & charms. Batching means doing one thing multiple times to make the task quicker. Take a bunch of tags, card or art journal backgrounds & pull a bunch of stamps, inks etc. For example I took 3 tags & did Step 1 with all 3, then Step 2... assembly line crafting works great because you get in a groove & produce more items quicker.

Step 1: Using an archival ink stamp your focal image. I use a Stamping Press to insure a crisp, dark image. Once the ink is dry, cover it in Distress Glaze. This will protect the image acting as a mask so you can easily stamp on top, without getting ink on your protected image.

Step 2: Ink stamp with multiple colors of Prism ink & spritz with water. Stamp over tag randomly to create a water color like background.

Step 3: Once that is dry add words, ephemera etc. Add ribbon & charms or thread to finish up your tag.

The crow tag below was made using Crafty Individuals Gothic Crow, the spider web from Indigo Blu Autumn Nights set, the quote from Visible Image & Seth Apter emboss in Crimson by Emerald Creek.

To emboss the quote, stamp with Prism in Fire Coral & then emboss in the Crimson. The dye ink stays wet long enough to get good coverage with the emboss powder & if the some emboss powder gets blown off you still have the ink to show the quote. The background is in colors like Slate Grey & Thundercloud.

My last tag was made using the Indigo Blu stamp set Shine Bright. The quote was stamped in French Navy & embossed with Lime which is a translucent color that gave the quote an epoxy look to it. The background was done in Ocean Spray, Canary Yellow & Blue Lagoon like colors. I also added a few Diamond Sparkles for fun! Thanks for joining me & remember use karenbearse code on your Topflight Stamps order to save 12% off- some restrictions may apply see website for details.

Supplies:
Stamps Shine Bright & Autumn Nights by Indigo Blu
- Gothic Crow by Crafty Individuals
-Live Life Now by Visable Image
Stamping Press by Hunkydory
Seth Apter embossing powder by Emerald Creek in Lime & Crimson.
Ephemera by Tim Holtz.

*Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like so enjoy the inspiration.

**some of these links are affiliate, I receive a small percentage from the company at no cost to you. This may help me continue to bring you techniques & more inspiration.

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Pocket Notebook Reveal with Eileen Hull

Welcome to the Pocket Notebook Release Party! This is Eileen Hull’s newest book die with Sizzix.

Eileen’s Inspiration and Educator teams have combined to show us their amazing Pocket Notebook ideas. Please follow the Blog Hop to see all of the fabulous projects, techniques and videos! There are links at the bottom of this post to the other designers fabulous projects.

There are also two GIVEAWAYS- the Pocket Notebook die and a gift certificate for Eileen’s Etsy store. To enter to win, leave a comment on each of the posts. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, October 8 on Eileen’s Facebook Live show.

...drum roll please the Pocket Notebook!!

On this die, you get all of the pieces you need to make an entire book- the cover, pages, latch and pen loop! The Pocket Notebook measures 6 3/4” x 4 1/2” with a spine that can adjust from of 3/8” to almost 2”! String it with elastic, hemp, ribbon or twine. So many options for this fun die! I decided to use one of my favorite background techniques that I have not done in awhile. Love the textured lusciousness it creates!! My project is a "Through the Years" Mini Album.

Here are all the beautiful projects that the Inspiration Team & Education Team made for this hop!!! So many lovely projects...

1st Step- cut 2 covers using mat board. Cover them in light modeling paste but a fairly thin layer like peanut butter on toast layer. The idea is it is thick enough to stamp into but not so thick that when your lift the stamp the image is lost. Do not add paste around the edges.

Using a clear good quality stamp with multiple images press into the paste & carefully pull stamp straight up. If your image is not good you can smooth the paste out & redo it. Once dry add the crackle paste around the edges.

I had an idea for the cover & this was the start of nothing going right. Using Color Blends 2 cut 1/2 & 1/2 with Acrylic Glaze & a paint brush I added color & took it off with a baby wipe. It did work as a sort of glaze but did not blend together as much as I wanted.

What happened next was many layers of Metallic Acrylic paint as I tried to get this cover to bend to my will!!! I really thought I would have to scrap it & start over but I was on a deadline & did not have the time for new pages to paste & dry. "Sometimes you have to get through the ugglies to get to something good" quote by me!

I also added Faded Jean Distress spray & carefully wiped off to leave the dark blue in crevices. That really helped the image pop. Next time I would start with a navy acrylic paint cut with glaze & wipe down to leave the navy in the crevices. Then I would add the other colors one at a time & wipe back with a baby wipe. As a final step a heavy body Copper paint was scuffed across the top layers to add more of the images pop!

Next the spine was put together using Redline which is super strong. The die cut makes this easy as all you have to do is line the holes up. I advise you add the inside paper at this point if desired. I added copper colored eyelets to add even more stability. The spine was stamped using archival ink & once dry embossed with Glistening Glass.

I stung my elastic so it was fairly hidden on the outside.

There are many ways to do this and here is a video showing a few different ways.

Time for some embellishments!! I die cut the butterfly with heavy cardstock & used the same red metallic that is on the cover for the solid piece. The fancy cut out piece was heat embossed with Golden Rod.

These pieces were assembled and a hat pin from my stash was strung with wire & beads to act as the butterflies body. In this close up you can really see all that wonderful texture created by the pastes and highlighted with the paint.

A label was made with layers of black cardstock & the same metallic paints as well as a quote. Charms dangle on the side & an elastic band with another metal quote which may be too much but for now helps keep the book closed.

This book has room for 5 signatures. I decided at this moment that I would make a book of me through my life with each signature spanning 10 years. We as documentors are so focused on family and kids that our story is sometimes lost. I have started putting in some papers with 3 signatures & will add as I go.

I like the idea of pulling photos from the past & creating my journey up to now. The beauty of this book is the pages are removable so as I add photos it is easy to re-arrange the papers.

I chose some of my favorite scrapbook papers & did a mix of those plus journal, mix media, tags & project life cards. This was super fun using up lots of stashed papers saved over the years. Adding die cut pieces really gives this project extra life.

Hot Tips:

-some of my favorite papers I left 12' long & created flaps or side pockets out of them.

-use your paper scraps as you make your book to cut tags, pockets journal spots out of which has the bonus of automatic matching embellishments.
-keep all the pieces of your project in one container so it is easy to pull out & work on it.

Here is a look at the Pocket Notebook from the packaging.

Supplies:
Eileen Hull Pocket Notebook diecut by Sizzix
" " - Credit Card Sleeve & Tags, Birds & Butterflies, Bookmark, Tag & Pocket...
Mat Board by Sizzix
Eileen Hull Red Line 1/4" Tape by Thermoweb
Color Blends 2
EH Embossing Powder- Glistening Glass & Golden Rod by Emerald Creek.
Stampsl403 by Studio Light
Light Molding Paste & Crackle Paste
Finnabair Metallic Paint in
Golden Heavy Body in Copper.
Wanderlust Tim Holtz Assemblage Charm & Chat Stickers - Snarky.
*Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like so enjoy the inspiration.

Thanks for hopping with us today!!! Remember to tune into Eileen's Facebook Live today, Thursday, Oct. 3rd at 4pm to see some of these samples live!

Eileen Hull