Summer postcards

Summer means holidays and holidays mean postcards.  When we go away I take some tags with me to give as an alternative to business cards.  Here are my tags for this summer.  All tags were made using the sizzix bigz alterations tag die and the Tim Holt texture fade embossing folder plus papers from the Tim Holtz ranges.  The texture fade was inked with archival inks before embossing to create a resist for the distress inks added afterwards.

 

the tag above has a butterfly cut out from the papers and dipped in utee.  I then brushed it with perfect pearls and re heated to get the pearls to sink in.  The edges of the background tag was dabbed with perfect medium, dipped in clear embossing powder and heat embossed before adding perfect pearls and re heating to give a gilded effect.  I'd like to enter this tag into the WOW embossing powder summer challenge.

 

This tag has a flower cut from the same set of papers as the background, scrunched and shaped then dipped in molten clear embossing powder.  I then dusted with pink mica powder and reheated.

 

the above tag has cut out butterflies coloured with distress stains then coated with glossy accents.

 

The butterfly on this tag was coloured with distress then coated with clear distress stickles, it sits on a dribble of utee.  I especially loved the way the kraft resist background turned out on this tag.

 

London is the place to be

Today the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka William and Kate) are hoping to give birth to a healthy baby and the world is wishing them well.   Although I have yet to make a new baby card I have created a little patriotic tag.

 

Made with Stamps away flower montage stamps through the Special touch geometric mask.  Stamps away vintage travel stamps - London bus.

Flutterby Butterfly

This card was a result of using my previous project as inspiration and adding in a couple of summer challenges.

The first challenge was to add layers.  I used stamps away stamp n colour card which is semi glossy.  The archival resist technique used in the previous project involves at least two layers, first the stamped archival ink, then the distress.  I used the summer colours, picked raspberry and salty ocean.  I added a third layer by stamping butterflies with clear ink and clear embossing.  I then added a fourth layer using mowed lawn distress ink.  The black swirl is stamped onto the distressed cardstock and embossed with WOW ebony embossing powder. 

I added another dimension by making an acetate wrap onto which I stamped and embossed the sentiment.  Finally I stamped some butterflies and embossed them using WOW white pearl.  I then took some cosmic shimmer mica powders in colours matching the inks and dusted that over the embossing before reheating.  I cut out the butterflies and adhered them to the acetate front.

All stamps used were by Sheena Douglass

I would like to enter this project into Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper Build your layers challenge  , the Country View Crafts Summer Sizzler challenge and the WOW embossing powder summer and sunshine challenges

Archival resist - Be Happy

Archival ink is used on this tag to resist distress inks added later.  I love the Brilliance inks especially the metallic ones.  They need heat setting to dry them. 

The tag was cut from very thick chipboard packaging that had a semi glossy coating. I used Sheena Douglass A little bit sketchy - Ageing Beautifully stamps to put the layers and texture in the background with Archival ink.  After heat setting I distressed with various Tim Holtz Distress inks and dusted with talc.  I then used distress ink through the detailed part of the Splodgeaway face mask and added embossing powder to that section and heat set.  I then took the corresponding shadow and applied a lighter distress ink.  the Be Happy stamp is also from Sheena Douglass.  The flowers were die cut from Graphic 45 papers using Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecone sizzix bigz die dipped in utee and layered with utee dribbles.