Inspiration: Global Design Project #429
I was watching a gel printing video and got inspired to pull out paints and give it a try. I looked at current colour combo challenges and picked the one from Global Design Project as inspiration. I picked the closest paint colours I had on hand and started playing.
On one of the prints, I used the Graffiti stencil and once I was done, I placed it face down on a piece of cardstock on which I had rolled the excess paint off of my brayer. When I was finished gel printing and starting to clean up, I lifted the stencil and realized the transfer was pretty cool! The one thing that pattern reminded me of was a scratched ice after people have skated on it. And it turns out that I had this Purple Onion Design stamp of a little penguin playing hockey that I had yet to use, so I decided to stamp him on watercolor paper and color him with my Fäber-Castell watercolor pencils. I had also watched a watercoloring video previously that evening, so I tested out the techniques the artist was showing. It turned out pretty cute.
The penguin was fussy cut and mounted on foam adhesive. I had this gap in the paint on the side that I felt needed to be incorporated in the design, so I grabbed one of the doilies I had used in my gel printing to add designs. I did not want to go too feminine with the design, but it reminded me a little bit of a hockey net, so after putting it on and taking it off a few times, I finally decided to keep it and staple it in place. I also tore a piece from the leftover painted paper and placed it in the middle of the doily.
I now needed to find a way to add a sentiment. I know that Tim Holtz usually use his Archival ink to stamp over many different things, so I tried it to add the first part of my sentiment. The result is readable, but as you can see, the ink is uneven. Guess it goes with the grungy look so I decided to live with it. This sentiment set is designed so that you can overlap the two words together, so I dried the ink with my embossing gun and then I oversamped the second word, but when I added the silver embossing powder over it, it stuck everywhere and I knew the word would not be legible. So I brushed the powder off of the cardstock and stamped the word on a piece of Smoky Slate cardstock instead, fussy cutting the word out and popping it on foam adhesive.
I die-cut my painted paper with PinkFresh's Diagonal Stitched Rectangles dies. I used Lost Lagoon for the card base and a layer of Smoky Slate in between. The whole thing felt a little drab, so I embossed the layer with the Subtle 3D embossing folder to give it Bazzill-like texture, and I inked the edge with a darker grey ink. I also inked the edges of the card base, but the whole thing still felt too clean, so I stamped some markings using Studio Light's Wrtitings stamp set, which really helped bring the whole thing together.
Once I started assembling, I decided to offset the panel on the grey cardstock and to go back to my sewing maching to add some funky stitching around the edge. I'm glad I took the time to do that, because it filled the space nicely and added additional texture. I popped that panel on foam adhesive as well.
For the envelope, I went very simple and just stamped the penguin again in a matching ink colour.
Supplies
Stamps: Writings (Studio Light); Storm (Stacey Yacula for Purple Onion Design);
Souhaits en grand (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Lost Lagoon, Smoky Slate, Basic White (Stampin' Up!);
Watercolor Paper (Fabriano)
Ink: Basic Grey (Stampin' Up!); VersaMark; Jet Black (Lawn Fawn)
Dies: Diagonal Stitched Rectangles (PinkFresh Studio)
Paints: Hibiscus, Silver, Agave (Sizzix)
Accessories: Pearlized Doilies, Mini Stapler, Stampin' DImensionals, White Medium Envelope (Stampin' Up!);
Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils (Fäber-Castell); Gel Plate (Studio Light);
Sewing Machine