Make It an Art Card or a Pocket!

 Hello Inky Friends, today for Topflight Stamps, we are making an art card or a pocket element. I have been working on Junk Journals lately & am finding fun additions to pop in there. This card can either go in a collection or be added to a card stock background & turned into a pocket. This week the team is playing with Stamperia, so I used their stamps as my focal image. Feel free to make the same card using your favorite images.*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 helps me deliver free content! 

Here is my card, the inspiration for this page was the quote I found in a newspaper "encourage acts of kindness" something I am striving to do more. It is so easy to get busy leaving no time to help others who may be struggling. When times are stressful it is also a good idea to take your eyes off yourself. Makes me realize we are all going at it rough sometimes. 

 

I have a video for you too! This is a play along with me video so I hope you have the chance to pull out some supplies & make an art card. 

Step 1: This card started as a 4x6 piece of scrapbook paper. German book paper & another light scrapbook paper were torn & adhered with a glue stick.

Step 2: Next step was to add some stencil work with watered down Fresco Finish paint. I stuck to warm colors. 

 Step 3: Stamp the focal image with archival or waterproof ink. 

Step 4: Watercolor the focal image using watered down Fresco Finish paint, & cut out. Excess paint can be put on spare paper & used with stamps or as back ground pieces. Using cool colors or the opposite of the background helps the image pop.

Step 5: Add the focal image again directly on the background a few times. Also some random stamping was done with the driftwood to add texture.

Step 6: Add the sun stamped image. Originally I stamped directly on the background but the image didn't show up well. So it was re-stamped on white card stock, cut out & glued using Cosmic Shimmer Glue. My quote was cut apart, distressed with French Navy Prism ink & adhered

I found the background colors were overpowering the focal images so a light wash of watered down gesso was added. This helps keep the images intact but knocks them into the background a bit. To make up for the loss in color some mark making was done to help the background stand out just a bit. Pen was used & smudged to create shadows. 

Thanks so much for joining me today, I hope you have the chance to play along!

Supplies:

• Stamperia Stamp Set Cosmos Feather
  
• Stencils by PaperArtsy-  PS208 (numbers) & PM010 (rounded rectangles).
• Fresco Finish Paint 
• Prism Inks
• Cosmic Shimmer Glue
• Gesso
  

Journal Prep Pages with Lots of Stamping!

 Do you keep a journal? Write lists? Copy down quotes, recipes or the funny things your kids say? Then this post could be for you. I am not a fan of writing on a white page, where the only thing are my words. I would much prefer to write on a page with stamped images, stickers & color.

Keeping up with a journal like this can be time consuming but a good short cut is to have your journal handy. I like to add whatever I am working on. to my journal so at least some of the pages are prepped & ready to go. Not every page needs to be a masterpiece but this helps when I am busy & just want to get the words down. 

These pages were created when my last post was done. Can you see the stamps used on both layouts?  To see the tutorial of my tags you can go here. Amazing how versatile stamps can be. Let's break down the pages a bit. 

This page has some stencil work, stamping & washi tape as well as a bit of digital imagery. I am loving using Seth's new alphabet stamp set. Very cool design for these letters. The Bumble Bee set is from Indigo Blu, No. 9, such detail. There are so many stencils that can be used, Topflight Stamps has a ton!  

Here is the Bumble Bee No. 9 again such a great image. You could pair this with flower stamps or lots of washi tape as I did here. 

This is a stamper's dream so many images make this page come alive. This piece has some of my favorites. That number stamp is a go to of mine & is from another great set filled with wonderful images as well as some great quotes. 

From this "Shine Bright" set not only the numbers but the dot & line background are used. The light bulb images are also used in the page below. This page is just itching for some photos & writing! 

So many of the Shine Bright images were used here, I love the multi color stamped look of this pages. 

 This new set "Be Different" was also used & even though it has a much different feel then the "Shine Bright" images it still works. The words & some of the circle abstracts were used with multiple colors. It was also used for the grasses on the owl page above.

I even added some new to me glitter embossing on the light bulb. It is hard from the photo but it shimmer & shines in the light. Just used one of the Fiesta Trio's directly one the page it turned out great! Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope you get the chance to get inky.

Supply List: 

• Seth's Alphabet Set. 
• Indigo Blu- Bumblebee No.9 , Shine Bright, Be Different
  
• Prism Ink
• Washi Tape 
• Fiesta Trio Glitter Emboss by Wow 
  

That Time I wanted to Play with Crackle Paste

 Hi Arty Friends, 

I was starring at a blank piece of paper wondering what to do for my Topflight Stamps blog post when it came to me. Crackle Paste. Yup that one thought, as I had nothing else to go on I went with it. Let's see where it led me. *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 helps me deliver free content!

This is my finished art journal page. I so miss the ocean & going to the beach. We try to go every summer but the summer of 2019 we only got 1 1/2 days in. Little did we know that covid was going to come hammering down. Creating a beach drought so to speak. 

I started with a stencil & the crackle paste, simply scrape some on with a palette knife. My paste is kinda old & didn't go on well. I added some water to see if that would help. While that was drying I pulled out some Fresco Finish paint.

Added some paint to get some color down, just with a dry brush. Some of the paste peeled off as I was laying down the color. 

Hum let's see if we can try a solution to the peeling crackle paste. I did a second round of the paste but 1st added a layer of decoupage glue, while it was still wet did another round of the crackle paste through a stencil. My thought was when the glue dried it would stick the paste to the paper. I also added more water & stirred the paste up, it also was a closer consistency to fresh paste but I thought the crackles might be lost in the process. 

While that was drying the focal image was stamped on card stock, & cut out. It is a Stamperia set called Octopus. The backing of these stamps is very different so they are flexible and do not adhere to an acrylic block.  Simply run a bit of adhesive on a block if you want to use it that way. I also stamped the quote in French Navy ink. Some random stamping in Thundercloud with the background image from the same set was next. It just adds a bit of interest. 

Next up was some seaweed courtesy of the Lavinia, Sea Flower. It was stamped in Rainforest Green, Ocean Spray & Cinnamon Swirl. It didn't show up as well as I liked. So the image was re-stamped in French Navy. That worked well & made it look like a field of seaweed with the lighter images creating depth. 

The glue under the paste tricked worked with the newer image staying put nicely. Even with the water added there was still a lot of crackle effect so that was a nice surprise.

Added a bit of washi tape, always good to add a pattern. 

Next up was some stencil work with some acrylic paint. Used Pixie Spray to help the stencil stick to the card stock while I worked. 

With a paint brush & some warm colors I painted inside the stencil.

 

Before the shapes were cut up some random stamping was added. Once dry the shapes were cut out & doodled around. The nice thing about this technique is you don't have to be good at drawing to make something cool! In hind sight the doodling should have been done after the circles had been adhered. 

All that was left was assembly. I put the pieces together and this is what I came up with. The following night I woke up in the early morning with the idea that the bubbles were not great & what I needed were fish! 

Back to the drawing board! Painted on a piece of deli paper with random blue Fresco Finish. A color similar to China, Blueberry & South Pacific I did 3 spots of plain color & then one big swatch mixing the colors using a dry brush.

Then I added some fish from the PaperArtsy set ESC10. It may be out of stock but there are plenty of fish stamps if you go here. The deli paper fish gave the journal page a bit of something extra. Well that is it for this week. I hope you give this tutorial a try & play along.

Supplies:

• Sea World Octopus stamp set by Stamperia
• Sea Flower by Lavinia
• Prism Ink- Cinnamon Swirl, Ocean Spray, French Navy, Rainforest Green
  
• Fresco Finish Paint- Slimed, Sargasso, Smoked Paprika, Cerise, Byzantine
  
• Stencils by PaperArtsy- Various Circles, Textures, & PS249
• Washi Tape by AALL & Create
• AALL & Create-#115 Chess Art
• A Journal such as this Art By Marlene 8x8 
• Therm*o*web Pixie Spray. 
  

3D Camper Caddy for Eileen Hull

 Hello Fans of Eileen Hull, welcome to June with new projects and a new theme for the month. This June the Teams are playing with all things Summer, whatever that means to you. If you are part of the Eileen Hull Fan Club on Facebook you know that Eileen has made a few different caddies, as her die cuts work great for this. I tend to journal everywhere, in bed, on the deck, in the living room watching TV with my hubby. One of the things that drives me a little coo coo is always going back and forth picking up the necessities for basic journaling etc. I wanted a fun good looking caddy that can easily go from studio to other spots in the house.

This was one of my release projects & I am back finally for my tutorial!!! Nothing says summer like Scotty Trailers, a supply caddy & a Llama!  I am putting my caddy to good use, like arting on my deck outside on the nicer days. Trying to keep the basic everythings in it that I need when journaling etc.

Let's Make One!! Cut 2 pieces using the Gift Box die cut out of mat board. There is a supply list below with links for your convenience. Spritz the board with water & use Distress Sprays to add some luscious color. Don't get the box too wet but it helps the ink move a bit. Your ink may be sucked into the mat board & you may have some circle spray images that is OK as we are adding more layers. Dry. 

Add some Distress Oxide & spray with water on your craft mat. tap the box piece onto the ink, move around to cover the areas in droplets. Dry repeat until you get the look you want. Set aside to dry.

Meanwhile cut 2 pieces of paper to go inside the box. You can use scrapbook paper for a quick fix. I went with a light color paper & added stamping using Archival Inks all  over to make my own patterned paper. 

Cut 1 square off the end of one strip.  On the piece that has 3 cubes, mark top on each end square on the white side. Emboss these 2 squares using an embossing folder being aware of direction if you use a folder with numbers, words etc. The 2nd piece & middle cube do not need to be embossed. 

Have you seen the newish Luster Wax by Sizzix? Oh it is so fun to play with & dries fairly quickly which is a nice bonus. It creates a metallic finish that is very rich. 

Use hard foam & Sizzix Luster Wax to hit the high points of the embossed pieces.  A sneaky hack is to use cosmetic foam with dried acrylic paint on it. 

 Here you can see the 2 end pieces embossed & waxed. This technique really brings out the patterns. Can you spot that luscious Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide?

 The finished results of the 2 box elements. The overall look is so rich & nummy! You can see here where to add the Redline Tape on the tabs for box assembly. The folders used are Numeric on the left & Retro Circles which sadly is retired but pick your favorites.

Adhere the 2 square box piece to the bottom of the middle square on the 3 piece. Make sure if you used a directional emboss design that you are gluing in the correct direction. Basically the 3 piece makes up 3 of the sides of the cube. The 2 piece creates the bottom of the box & one side. As we cut off a square there is no lid. Using a stencil pal & a good strong glue adhere your paper to the 3 side piece, covering that tab of the bottom piece. See Photo below. You can also use Easy Cut double sided adhesive which I prefer for this technique but I was out.

Cover the inside of the 3 cube piece with your paper making sure the direction is right. You want those hot air balloons flying upwards not sideways, LOL. You can add a square of paper on the bottom, then finish box assembly. Once the box is assembled add the last piece of stamped paper. This way you are covering the inside tabs. 

Distress edges to cover any mistakes. I added linen tape on outside edges that I did not line up very well, hee hee.

Cut trailer piece out of mat board covered in aluminum metal sheets. The sheets are so awesome to work with, they are basically a sticker sheet & are light weight but when added to mat board look like metal. Lightly spritz back of mat board with water & use 3d folder to emboss. 

Here is my embossed piece. How fabulous is that 3d Mechanics Embossing Folder? Looks like deep etched metal. I used this DecoColor paint pen to cover the white edges of the mat board.

Next step was to cover all that fabulous metal in paint! I used distress paint colors that would give me a patina look. Lucky Clover & Mermaid Lagoon. I let the paint dry a bit until it is tacky then used a dry cloth to pull of some of the color from the high points. This may take multiple layers & there is a learning curve. The goal is to get that patina look by getting those blues & greens into the low or debossed areas. You can also add the copper look back in with the wax, so more paint left is better then not enough. 

Use the Luster Wax in Rose Gold to refine the high points. This also adds a more finished look & makes it easier to leave the paint in the smaller crevices. If you prefer the shiny metal look just leave more of the aluminum sheet showing. 

Now it is time to add in the trailer accessory pieces that also are part of the die cut. Mat board was covered in scrapbook paper & more of the aluminum sheets depending on the element. 

 Some of the accent pieces were cut out of the Silver Aluminum Sheets & then embossed using the Foundry 3D folder. The pieces were taped down so I could get the accents where I wanted them. The same paint technique was used on these pieces as above using Black Soot.

All that was left was to adhere the pieces to my trailer & the trailer to the front of the caddy. A traveling llama was found peaking through the door. How did that get there? Sneaky! A gear & brad was also added as a tire. I have been lucky enough to go on a few of the Paper Trails with Eileen & got a picture of the banner that was set above Scotty so that was also added with an arrow as the rod. 

 

Some Tim Holtz ephemera was added to the side of the caddy. You can see that linen tape was also added to the edges for a bit of interest. An eyelet was adhered so I can attach a dabber to the caddy. I am constantly looking for dabbers even though I have a zillion. This way it cannot wander! Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you have the chance to make one of these awesome caddy's I may need to make a few more!

SUPPLIES:

    Sizzix Website

•  Eileen Hull diecuts- 3D Camper Box, Gift Box
•  Tim Holtz 3D Embossing Folders- Foundry, 
•  "        " Embossing Folder- Numeric
•  Mat Board
• TH Stamp Set Field Notes
  
•  

    Scrapbook.com

• Surfacez Aluminum Sheets in Rose Gold,  Silver.
•  Luster Wax in Rose Gold, Silver
• Tim Holtz Ephemera 
  

    Thermoweb

• Ultra Bond Glue
• Easy Cut Adhesive
• Redline Tape 

    Ranger Ink 

•  Archival Ink
• Distress Stain Spray
  
• Distress Oxide Spray