SSS July 2016 Card Kit Card #4

Here’s the most recent card I’ve made using some of the supplies from the Simon Says Stamp July 2016 Card Kit.

Most of the stamping on this card was done using Prima Water Soluble Oil Pastels. It’s super easy to do and the results are awesome! If you would like to see this technique done in a video then make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube. This video will be up in a few days to a week.

Here’s a list of supplies used:

That’s all the supplies! I used mostly what was in the kit except I used a sentiment from the Choose Happy stamp set and used the oil pastels for the stamping rather than an ink.

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Thank you for stopping by and I’ll be back soon!

SSS July 2016 Card Kit Card #3

As promised, here is the last Birthday Card I made using the Simon Says Stamp July 2016 Card Kit.

If you would like to see this card close up, you will want to visit my YouTube channel because I have a video going up of the making of this card right now!

Here’s a list of supplies used:

Silver Embossing Powder

Versamark

Prima Water Soluble Oil Pastels

Simon Says Stamp Birthday Celebration Stamp Set

That’s pretty much it! I really tried to stay with mostly using items that were included in the kit.I will continue to try to mostly use the items that are in the kit as well. I think it shows how versatile it really is. There were some great sentiments in the kit but I really needed Birthday Cards and it was lacking a Birthday Sentiment. Luckily I had other sets on had with some nice birthday greeting and most cardmakers have at least one set like this laying around.

The technique I did here can also easily be done with a different embossing powder color and other watercolor mediums. You can use white embossing powder and watercolor pencils or even black embossing powder and zig clean color real brush markers. Just use what you have! Thank you for stopping by my blog and I will be back soon.

“Stronger” Orchid Encouragement Card

This card came together after I was left with a beautiful watercolored orchid from my last blog post and video. To see how I made the watercolored image using Prima Water Soluble Oil Pastels head over to that blog post.

After cutting out the orchid, from the Stampendous Orchid Greetings Stamp Set, I misted it with some spray mist in a nice light tan color to make the paper look aged and add some shimmer.

I adhered it to a piece of brick patterned paper from Authentique’s “Accomplished” collection. I proceeded to put the orchid image on my background paper with the bricks vertical rather than horizontal (oops!). I didn’t realize this until the very end when I was looking at my card and by then it was too late to remove anything. We’ll just pretend I was trying to be edgy and different!

The sentiment is from a 12×12″ piece of paper that is supposed to look like newspaper ads but has all these awesome sayings. It says “Everyday Moments” at the top. Sadly I threw away the strip with the information and I have no idea who makes it or where I bought it from. I think I may have got just this single piece of paper at one of my local scrapbook stores so who knows what company it was (sorry!). I popped that up with some thin foam tape for a tiny bit of dimension. I sprayed this cardstock with the light tan spray mist to match the background of the orchid.

Lastly, I inked the edges with some Donna Salazar Mix’d Media Inx in the color “Vintage”. These inks are by Colorbox and they are sooooo juicy! I don’t really ever see them for sale at the online craft stores or brick and mortar stores but they are really nice. I was able to find this color and many others on Amazon though.

I always forget to make encouragement cards for my stash so I am glad I have one ready to go now. When you have a friend in need you want to be there for them right away and that means no time to make a card. Now I’ll be ready the next time I need a card for this. Even if it’s just a friend trying to get a raise or save money! It doesn’t always have to be a sad situation to get a card like this.

Thank you for stopping by!

Prima Water Soluble Oil Pastels Review and Techniques

I recently ordered some Prima items and among them were the Water Soluble Oil Pastels. Since one of the boxes came dented up I decided I would keep that one for myself (since the contents were likely damaged- and they were) and write a review about it. 

These pastels come in a box of 24 and retail for $20.00. Simon Says Stamp sells them. We also sell them but by the time this blog post goes up we’ll probably only have a couple left! 

Once I opened my box I got right to work seeing what these worked well for and maybe not so well for. 

First technique was general coloring. The pastels are very creamy and would even draw on the tip of my finger. I tried scribbling on a thin sheet of non primed paper and it easily took the pastel. I added some water with my paint brush and it easily made the numbers I had written disappear. They are very soluble even on a non primed surface. 

Second technique was mixing with a gel medium. I chopped off the end of one of the pastels with my palette knife and smashed it into some Prima 3D Gloss Gel Medium . It’s not as creamy as a gelato so it took quite a bit of smashing to get it mixed in. I used the red color and you can see the result of me applying it through a star stencil on the picture below on the right. 

On the left side of the picture you will notice some light green dots over a purple wash of color. The purple wash of color was added on top of some dried Prima 3D Gloss Gel to see how it would react. I wanted to see if the water soluble oil pastels would stay on that medium or if it would act as a resist. It dried and stayed on it just fine. Then I was able to scribble the oil pastel on a non porous surface and mix in some Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium to create another colorful mixture to put through a stencil. This blended much easier than chopping off the end of a pastel. 

For my next technique I thought it would be fun to see how they worked on enhancing texture. I added some Golden Molding Paste to my journal and dried it with a heat tool to create some bubbles and get a lunar type of texture. Then I lightly scribbled on top of the texture, squirted some water on it, and blended it out with my finger. Here’s the effect: 

It really gets into all of those small nooks and crannies and really accentuates the texture! 

 

Next I wanted to see how these worked for stamping. This one of my favorite techniques with these pastels and it’s enough to make me happy to own them! All you do is scribble on the back of a stamp and give it a few mists of water and stamp down. You can then use a waterbrush to draw some of the color from the edges to the inside or even grab color directly from the oil pastel to add to your image. Here’s how it came out on 140 lb watercolor cardstock using a photopolymer stamp: 

 

Lastly I tried it on a rubber stamp with 3 different colors to see what would happen and that came out nice too. Here’s what that looked like with a woodgrain stamp: 

 

If you like these techniques then I definitely recommend checking out the Prima Water Soluble Oil Pastels! 

Here’s a video I put together showing all of these techniques in action! 

End of Year Sale on the ENTIRE Store!

That’s right! For 3 days ONLY we are offering an additional $5.00 off for every $20.00 you spend. This is an additional savings on top of the other sales and discounts we have going on right now.

This offer applies to all items in the store priced up to $40.00!

This is our best sale all year long and it’s the perfect time to load up on craft essentials and new Valentine’s products!

To see what’s for sale Click Here! 

Black Friday Sale!

No Coupon Codes Required! Just add at least $100 of product to your cart and you will get an EXTRA 10% off and Free Shipping. The best part is, you can still use your coupon codes to save even more. Seriously! 

JUST CLICK HERE TO GET TO THE STORE! 

The sale starts NOW and ends at midnight on November 30th!

Mothers help us Grow – Mother’s Day Card

I created a Mother’s Day card using our new Stencil Set “Mothers help us Grow” . This card was very easy to make and a lot of fun!

Here’s what you need:

• Mothers help us Grow Stencil Set

• Moroccan Tile Stencil

•Luster Mica Spray Mist in 3 colors. Or mix Luster Mica Powder in a spray bottle.I used Blue Ice, Shallow Waters, and Hawaiian Orchid.

• Prima Light Paste 

• Palette Knife

• Distress Inks (one or two greens, a purple, and a pink)

• Watercolor Paper cut down to 4-1/4 x 5-1/2″

•Black paper cut down to 4-1/2 x 5-3/4″

• Cream card base measuring 9-1/2″ x 6″ , scored to create a 4-3/4 x 6″ card.

• Painter’s tape (or something to hold down the stencil

• Sponge Dauber or cosmetic sponge

• Recommended, but not necessary, non-stick craft mat and heat tool.

First lay the Moroccan Tile stencil on the watercolor paper and quickly spritz with the 3 Luster Mica Spray Mists. You need to do this quickly because the paper will start to curl. The cool thing is, you will end up with a concentration of color in the middle and it will fade out to the edges. Let that dry for a second and then grab the Floral Frame Stencil and place that on top of the watercolor paper and tape it down to your work surface. These stencils are made specifically for 4-1/2 x 5-1/2″ card bases so it makes it easy to get it perfect. Grab your palette knife and Prima Light Paste and apply light paste through the stencil. Carefully remove the stencil when you’re done applying the paste. It’s best to let this air dry, but if you are impatient, you can use your heat gun. Just be careful because it will bubble if you leave the heat in one area for too long. One that is dry to the touch, re-apply the stencil and grab your distress inks and sponge. You can easily color the flowers and leaves since you have the stencil protecting the surface underneath. Dab on color as you see fit and then remove the stencil. Let that dry for a little bit and then apply the “Mothers help us Grow” stencil. If you line this up with the paper, it will align itself perfectly inside the floral frame. Grab another distress ink and a sponge and sponge the ink through the stencil. I found that cosmetic sponges work better than the small sponge daubers for this stencil. Since it has words on it, there are a few areas that the sponge dauber would snag on, but the cosmetic sponge did not. You can carefully lift the stencil and peak if everything went through properly before deciding if it’s done. Then all you have to do is tape it on the black piece of cardstock and then the card base. It’s that easy! Check out the dimension you get when you used the Prima Light Paste with one of our stencils! Thank you for stopping by!

All About Creating Texture

I have always been one of those people that touches things. Even when I am not supposed to. I remember being in stores when I was little and getting told ” Don’t Touch THAT!” so many times. I would just find something shiny or pretty or textured and want to touch it regardless of how fragile it was or what the price is and with no consideration of how clumsy I am. So, it’s only natural that I think paintings and mixed media projects with a lot of texture and dimension are even more awesome than their two dimensional siblings.

That being said, not only do we offer our own Texture Tools, but we also carry Ranger’s Texture Tools and all of their Texture Pastes. Prima Marketing also has some great products for texture. I’ll run through each of these really quickly.

In my last blog post I shared our new Texture Tools. These are not a replacement or competition to Ranger’s Texture Tools though because the textures are almost completely different. Having both sets would give you even more texture options.

Click the picture to buy!

Ranger’s Texture Tools come in a 6 pack with a removable ring for storage. These texture tools have texture on the long edge and one of the shorter edges. They have a print of the design on them for easy reference. They are made of a durable flexible clear plastic , very similar to the plastic we used on our Texture Tools. Drag the tools through mediums that can hold peaks and keep their form such as Ranger’s Texture Pastes. Ranger’s texture tools retail for $7.00.

Ranger has three different Texture Pastes to choose from. They each come in a 3.9 ounce jar and retail for $7.50. Click on any of the pictures below to purchase from Simon Says Stamp.

Click to Buy!

The first is an opaque texture paste that will cover any imagery underneath it. This is their original texture paste. Acrylic paint and inks can be mixed into the texture paste to make a solid color. One of my most favorite techniques for using the texture paste is applying it through a stencil with a palette knife. After the paste is dry, you can also stamp on it or paint over it. Ranger states that these texture pastes are artist quality.

Click the picture to buy!

Then, Ranger came out with Transparent Texture Pastes. This picture above is Transparent Matte. Transparent texture pastes are great for adding texture without covering up the layer underneath. You can also tint these with inks to get a transparent colored texture. This one dries clear with a matte finish.

Click the picture to buy!

This is probably the one that I am most excited about! While there are times that I don’t want any gloss, most of the time I am using my Luster Mica Powders or Luster Mica Spray Mists and I want a TON of shimmer on my project. You can mix Luster Mica Powder in this for sparkly dimension! Of course, you can mix mica powder in all of the other ones too, but it shows up the best and sparkles the best when it’s in a gloss.

Prima Marketing has a pretty cool paste as well!

Click to buy!

Prima Marketing’s Light Paste is from Finnabair’s Art Basics Line. I have to tell you that I am IN LOVE with everything Finnabair has come up with for Prima so far. It’s right down my alley. Light Paste holds its dimension, so it’s another great option for use with stencils and texture tools. The difference is that it is light and airy feeling. You can add a lot of dimension without added weight. It is opaque and dries white with a tiny bit of transparency to it. A major bonus is that you can dry it with a heat tool! However, I noticed some shrinkage that may have been attributed to drying it this way. I have not tried air drying it though, so I can not be sure. Most of the time in art shrinkage is not a problem since we are not dealing in “exacts”. Light Paste can also be used as an adhesive, but for economical reasons I would stick to using it for dimension. Art Basics Light Paste can also be mixed with acrylic paints to achieve a white-washed dimensional paste. Another great characteristic of Light Paste is that it is bendable! You can put it on projects that have movement and not worry about cracking. You get 8 fluid ounces in a jar for an MSRP of $13.00. That’s still a great price when you consider what a large amount you are getting. This paste is unlike any others I have tried and is worth a purchase to have in your craft arsenal!

I hope this blog post has been informational and helped you decide which texture product is right for you. If you have any questions, just post a comment or e-mail intoxicatingarts@gmail.com. Thank you for stopping by!

Little Girl Christmas Card

My thought for this fun Christmas card was to be unconventional and pink! Any of my nieces would love to get this card for Christmas! 

Here’s what I did:
I started off with Tim Holtz Stripes layering stencil and used a palette knife to apply Prima Light Paste onto bare white cardstock.  After drying it about half way, I applied worn lipstick and picked raspberry to a craft mat and spritzer with water. I kept the worn lipstick in the center. I did this twice since there was a lot of bare paper left the first time . Make sure to spritz it really good. Then I die cut a piece of white cardstock with Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles die set. The edges were sponged with picked raspberry.  Then I stamped the sentiment from Lawn Fawn’s Into the Woods stamp set (which is on sale in our ebay store!). The reindeer that appears to be enamel is actually one of our laser cut wood pieces that has been dipped in a mixture of UTEE, embossing powder , and pigment . I used my melting pot for this. I had to clean up some edges using a Purple Cows hot tool. The reindeer come in a set of 4 in our ebay store. The reindeer was adhered with homemade glue dots and the sentiment was adhered with foam adhesive.  The card is now finished! I hope you enjoyed seeing this Christmas card using unconventional Christmas colors!

Color Bloom Sprays are here!

 

The new Prima Marketing Color Bloom Spray Mists are here! TO PURCHASE CLICK HERE ! Each bottle contains 2 ounces of beautiful spray mist! They are 5″ tall and feature a high velocity sprayer with a controlled spray. Pull down just a little if you want a splatter or pull down in one swift motion for a great full coverage mist. The ergonomic handle makes it effortless to use ! They all have a gorgeous mica shimmer. One great thing about these highly pigmented sprays is once you are getting low, you can add water to get even more use out of it! Prima already has youtube videos up demonstrating these wonderful sprays.

MSRP $8.00 each. You pay just $7.20!  You pick one color for this price, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy just one!

For combined shipping, just put all of your items in your cart and check out, but DO NOT PAY YET. Click “request invoice” and I will send you an invoice with combined shipping as soon as possible. I also carry many other Prima Marketing items, so please make sure you check out my store! Your sprays will be carefully packaged to ensure they arrive without any spills!