'Old School' 3 -Salt!

Hello!
Another old favourite inky technique today, although this time I've only used bits of the background created on my final piece! My finished creation is this page...

The bright red poppy heads are the product of todays spotlight technique: Salt backgrounds!
Adding rock salt to wet ink is a great way to create fab texture and interest, and it's really simple too!
Step1: Prepare! The is messy, so put your card down on a wipe clean surface.

Step 2: Spray! (or drip...) Any drippy ink will work for this, acrylic inks, ink sprays, stains, you name it. I knew I was going to use the result for a poppy head, so I sprayed in just the one colour. You can go as bonkers with the colours as you want!

Step 3: Reactivate the inks with a little more water so the surface is nice and wet...

Step 4: Add on the rock salt...

Step 5: Spray with a little more water to make sure the salt has a nice wet bond with the surface..

Step 6: Now you can go one of two ways. Leave it to dry by itself, or blast with a heat gun. Drying naturally gives nice results...but for the impatient.....Blast with the heat gun!

Step 7: Once ALL the ink is dry, wait until the cardstock and salt is cool. It's really quite surprising how hot salt gets! Once cold, rub off the salt...

Step 8: Admire the fab textures and design the salt creates!

I then cut circles from my salty background, and added seed beads to the centres to give me my poppies.

I typed straight onto an old book page to give me my title...

Which was very apt, because I wanted to doodle my way around the rest of the piece, no stamps at all. I was a bit hesitant about letting go and creating the stems and leaves of my poppies, so really needed to believe in myself!

I *think* it worked, but need a lot more playing about until I'm confident!
Have a go with the salt, its a really nice technique!

See you soon,
Trish xxxxx

Color Bloom Sprays (and a puffin!)

Hello!
My mojo had really gone walkabout this week...until a rather exciting package arrived, a few of the new Color Bloom sprays! Of course I had to have a little play......

First thing I LOVE about the sprays is the spray mechanism....no more stained fingers! They say the nozzle will not become clogged, fingers crossed on that point. The sprays also have a little ball inside, so when you shake to mix up the mica you can hear the mixing going on! Squeezing the nozzle hard gives a really nice overall coverage. I used the Glistening Waves colour for the background on my panel, with the Lime Wedge as accent splats....

Squeezing the nozzle very gently gives the bigger splat effect. I found that the colour of the Lime Wedge really varied, the green was so much more noticeable when used to give full coverage, the splats (as you can see) are very gold! I added in some white splats of my own, by using white UTEE, and by stamping in white paint, using a Stampotique stamp.
The sheen of the Color Bloom Sprays is difficult to see.....it becomes a bit more obvious if I tile the cardstock...

You can really see the difference between the matt white paint stamping and the mica sheen of the sprays!
I added in a little text paper and some home made washi tape...

I didn't have any blue tape, so painted and stamped a bit of regular masking tape!
My Crafty Individuals Puffin is stamped onto patterned paper. I usually use this paper as a photo prop, but I decided to see what it looks like stamped on....definitely going to do it again! The paper is a dotty one from Bazzill.

I do like adding in different coloured crowns to my creations, and this is no exception! Stamped again onto red card, cut out then glossed with a touch of Glossy Accents.
So, mojo well and truly back now, will be spraying all manner of things!
Have a great day,
Trish xxx

Color Bloom...

excuse the spelling, it is correct. Honestly. 

I'm please to be able to bring to you the news that the long awaited Prima Color Bloom Spray Mists have arrived!
yay!!

22 gorgeous colours in total in 3 finishes. 

10 Sultry Shimmers

6 Vintage Metals

and 

6 Sparkling pastels. 

The bottles have an abundance of shimmer allowing for 1-2 refills.
A unique nozzle design that provides two different effect: full coverage or splatter. 

Check out the Prima video to see them in action. 

They're now in the shop and priced at £7.49 each. 

 No gimmicks, no multi-buys, just the lowest price we can bring them to you for. 

Just when you thought you didn't need (more) spray mists in your stash.

Happy Creating!

Vicki