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Sunday 27 February 2011

...March release Day 2...



ED - For the rock salt tutorial, be sure to use small grain rock salt and not large grains as this may cause damage to your machine. If in doubt, try passing one grain through first, if it does not want to go through easily, Don't do it. You have been warned ;)

It's only day two and I'm in trouble, we had a plan to show samples from a particular set each day and here i am breaking the rules!!! I'm showing more western, instead of Vintage labels 18...oops...

Thing is, I am also trying to move my crafting gear into the new room and it's not what you'd call tidy around here, d'ya think I'll get away with it? lol...

Anyhow I have two techniques for you today, both great fun, both super simple!! But first we'd better go see what the ladies have been up to - apologies for yesterdays fluffed links, I sent folks all over the country to people who weren't 'entertaining with WMS' yesterday...promise I'll do better today!!



Anyhow, today's first card features a sentiment from the new Back in the saddle set - it's a terrific quote attributed to John Wayne. It covers a lot of situations, and I think I'll get a lot of use out of it. I set it in a mixture of Western Style fonts, and I really love how it turned out.

I wanted to make it the feature of the card and so I didn't pair it up with an image, I just went for a little supporting texture. I used a text background from Way out West on the background mat, which i also distressed with rock salt. See how below.

For the sentiment panel I simply stamped the sentiment in a mixture of versacolour bark and versacolur pinecone, applying both directly to the stamp. The I trimmed out the sentiment into a rectangle with added space at the top. Sponged some Ranger denim ink for a night sky, managing to smudge the 'E' on my way past...and hand cut a wee crescent moon. I felt that it was somehow reflective of the sentiment. The very first fear I ever overcame was a fear of the dark.

Little bit of ginger gingham ribbon tied around the mat and a rusty star finished the card.

Here's how to make the background.

I sprinkled lots of Rock salt, the course grainy stuff, onto a piece of white paper - the white paper was sitting on my Grand Calibur base plate. I used the white paper so that my base plate didn't get covered in salt grains and need cleaning. I'm lazy that way.


I laid a sheet of white cardstock directly on top of the rock salt, placed the embossing plate on top (ED- with tan mat!!! oopsie!) and fed it through the GC. This is what it looks like when it comes out, below. The rock salt embeds itself or crumbles into the cardstock. You can give the cardstock a good shake, and leave it like that ( a story for another day) or you can take a few moments to pick the embedded crystals out of the card - I chose to remove the crystals, I used an old stiff toothbrush for this. You will curse my name for dirty low-down varmint as you do this, but I thought it was worth it on this occasion...lol


Then I sponged (is there any other way, seriosly?) some Ranger Denim ink onto the paper - see the fabby distressed surface and how it soaks up the ink, leaving deep pits of white here and there, I love this look. I also love how ranger inks blend and spread, fabby stuff.


Next I added a little orange, I think that is Rusty Hinge Distress ink. Also with sponge. I think these two colours capture a western feel for me, the blue skies and orange sunsets, the red hills, denim jeans, at least that's how I imagine it is. The inks blend well together and I felt this technique produced an aged distressed look almost like a weathered plaster, pitted with dare i say, shotgun pellets, like some western movie set.

Anyhow, I trimmed out a square of this and stamped over it with the text border to get the mat for today's card.


Today's second card is so simple. You'll soon be addicted to this magical wee technique. I wanted to make a little card that looked like it had been branded, you know, like the cowboys do with cattle??

Well I remebered the lemon juice technique. Fold a little piece of kitchen towel/paper in half, you want to make it a little bigger all round than the stamp you want to use. Place it into a flat bottom dish and squirt yourself a little drop of lemon juice onto the paper towel, enough to make it all soggy. You have just made yourself a lemon juice ink pad.

Ink up your clean stamp in lemon juice, stamp onto a piece of white/cream cardstock. You won't see anything just yet.

Get the heat gun and heat up your image, keep the gun moving in a circular motion so that you don't burn the cardstock. The lemon juice image will start to appear very quickly and will look as if it has been sort of 'burnt' onto the card. It's fabby and the way the image appears out of nowhere is most addictive. You can overheat areas of the image that you want to appear darker than the rest but be careful not to burn the card or your image won't stand out from the background.

I looked at this card for days thinking that I might add another detail, but I eventually decided that I liked it just the way it was.



Hope it tickles!!

36 comments:

  1. What fun! This set is something I don't generally gravate towards as a style, but these peeks have me totally wanting to broaded my deal! So exciting!

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  2. Claire - A-MA-ZING!!! Love the rock salt tutorial, and I am coveting A Grand Caliber now!!

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  3. fabulous technique, Claire! that background is soooooo pretty! fab card! thanks for sharing!

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  4. A very cool technique... thanks for the tip! And of course your card is wonderful. I'd heard of the bleach trick, but not the lemon juice trick. Must try that one, too!

    Hugs,
    Lisa

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  5. Claire - loving these stamps. I wasn't sure about the wild west at first - but the inspirational cards from you and the DT - maybe.

    But I love Labels 18!!

    Deborah xx

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  6. What an interesting technique! Must give it a try. Thanks for sharing!

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  7. I already know I "need" that sentiment on the card.
    The rock salt technique is new to me but I love the result. You made a great card.
    Eveline.

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  8. Love your brand new technique with Rock Salt!!!
    Great card and I love the simple AS Howdy Partner!!!!

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  9. Gorgeous new releases. SO fun. Can't wait to see the rest. Thanks so much for sharing your embossing on rocksalts background; it's simply ingenious!

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  10. Brilliant, Claire. Who would have thought that Rock Salt would be a craft room staple! It truly provided some awesome texture and a bonus of "no-embossing-folder-needed."

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  11. No household item is safe at the Brennan's when it comes to stamping! (Do your children hide their toys when they see you coming? Ha!) Both cards are tooooo cool! I seriously don't know how you come up with this stuff! Great post, Claire!

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  12. Another interesting tutorial Claire - I like the new way to use Rock Salt and hadn't heard of the lemon juice technique before. A quick question - does the lemon juice damage the stamps at all and would it work with real rubber ones too?
    I'm loving the vintage labels 18 stamps and the Design team have done an amazing job with them! My absolute favourite though is Anya's gorgeous bracelet - what a talented lady!

    Lynn Wild

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  13. Oh! I just love that sentiment and that rock salt thing is awesome! My first thought when I saw that was, how did she do that? Now I'm off to see the next new stamp.

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  14. great looks, and seem to match the sentiment so well, thanks for sharing your techniques!
    Sandra ltb

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  15. Yikes Claire - what a mind you have! love the rock salt look! and the secret message lemon stamping! You could just stamp it and leave it - with a note to the receiver to blow their hair dryer over it to see the sentiment!!! LOL!!!

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  16. I LOVE your first card Claire!! That a beautiful inspirational statement that is still very masculine (you know how men think lots of inspirational statements are 'girly'?) Perfect for those heroes in our lives, I see this set being a BIG hit with Operation Write Home!

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  17. Love both of these cards! I'm intrigued by how intrigued many Europeans are by the American West. Living in Colorado and being married to the son of ranchers, I can understand the allure. Did you know that many Americans are intrigued by European castles? Castles start showing up very early in our lives in the form of nearly every fairy tale. We don't have true castles here because we're so young. There are some gorgeous Native American buildings that are more than 200 years old, but most everything else is MUCH newer. I have enjoyed your posts, full of American Western colloquialisms-all used correctly!

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  18. What a fabulous card Claire! Love the textured background you creating! Thanks for the tutorial!

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  19. What fun techniques! I always learn something fun from your blog posts, Claire. Looks like a great stamp set and I love that quote on the first card. Amazing cards as always!

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  20. Thank you so much for the tutorial! It is so gorgesou, I can't wait to try the rock salt technique. Genius!!!

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  21. LOVE the two techniques you shared! I cannot WAIT to see this set...anything western is a MUST for me!

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  22. Wow Claire, never knew about the lemon juice.. how fun.

    Love both of your creations - just fab.

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  23. Great card Claire. And I love your rock salt method! Must try it!

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  24. This is why you need time to create!! What an easy technique with an outstanding result! I love the way your mind works!

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  25. BRILL-I-ANT -- absolutely on both tuts/resulting cards!!! I'm sooo glad you broke the rules today, Claire! My first thought was they should 'string you up', but I'm sure they've forgiven you (as have I)! ;-)
    With each new western card I am more in love with these two upcoming sets!
    Pure LOVE!!! Know my boot-scootin' GF will love them also!!!

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  26. Hi Claire,
    wow, that rocks!!! Cool ideas :-)
    I remember the lemon juice technique for secret messages, when I was young. :o)
    XX Kathi

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  27. cool, I got some lemons today with the shopping, have to try that technique!! thanks for the inspiration!! : )

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  28. Well, as I was looking at your first card, I was thinking "Where did you get that paper?", and then as I read on, there you gave us the directions to make it with the rock salt!!! Thanks!! You are always so wonderful with your "how-too's" Yes, I think you can be excused for using the same set twice: your tutorial more than made up for it!! Love you and your creations, or in other words, "They tickle" :-)

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  29. Fabulous techniques that really set off the sets.

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  30. Two great techniques....your cards are fab!

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  31. GORGEOUS! Simply gorgeous! And I'm totally going to have to try that. I l always love your tutorials!!!

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  32. Your rock salt??? That really is the "low down" pardner :0) Claire, this is sooooooo brilliant! Love it!

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  33. ooo - you make amazing card. i love love your techniques; most importantly you are bringing back great childhood memories! can't wait to create my lemon juice ink pad...

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  34. Amazing card! Thank you so much for the tutorial ... that was my first ? when I saw your card--'how'd she get that fabulous background?' :)

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  35. Rock salt has been added to my crafty wish list!! Dying to try this out! Thanks for the tips on it! I am also looking forward to trying the lemon juice stamping!! TFS!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment, :) I read them all and I appreciate you taking time to visit!