French Faux Patina

Happy Wednesday to you!  Here is another card we are doing at my techniques club this Friday.  The technique is called "faux patina", and I thought it would pair perfectly with the Artisitc Etchings stamp set.  This is a perfect technique for a masculine card.

To create the the faux patina, use a series of ink pads -- with a range of color from light to dark -- to sponge color onto an embossed neutral panel.  Add Crumb Cake ink to the inside front of the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, and emboss the white panel.  Sponge more Crumb Cake ink onto the panel to highlight the pattern a bit more.  Next, sponge Marina Mist ink on, rubbing fairly firmly over the pattern to really spread the color around.  Now, add some darker ink -- Always Artichoke -- to deepen the color a bit more.  Finally, add Early Espresso ink until you achieve the desired result.  Let panel dry a little, or use an embossing buddy to rub over the surface, then use a Versamark pad and just dab it here and there over your panel -- don't use too much Versamark!  Add embossing powder (pewter used here, but gold would also be pretty).  If you have too much powder sticking, remove some with a paint brush -- you don't want too much embossing powder, or your whole panel will be silver!  Emboss with a heat gun, and that's it!  This look would be amazing to create a little box for someone, or a tissue box cover for your bathroom or the background inside a frame with the Eiffle tower in the foreground -- lots of options!

I hope you'll try this at home! :)

Happy crafting!

Faux Silk and Rolled roses!

I know that "rolled roses/rolled flowers" have been around for years, but I just recently attempted them, and was pleasantly surprised to find they are not as hard as they look!  My Stampers' techniques club is coming up this Friday, and I wanted to feature the "faux silk" technique using one of my new favorite stamp sets -- Flowering Flourishes.  The rolled flowers were the perfect accent to complete my card!

For the faux silk panel, first stamp a square of white gift tissue (larger than your Whisper White panel) in Espresso ink using the Flowering Flourishes stamp set.  Let the ink dry a little to prevent smudging, then wrinkle up your tissue into a wad.  Gently unfold, but don't take all the wrinkles out.  Use a glue stick to completely coat your white card stock with glue.  The card stock will buckle, but that's ok.  Next, lay your stamped tissue on top and press down onto the card stock, making sure that some wrinkles remain -- to give you that faux silk look.  I then added some adhesive to the back of the card stock, and folded the tissue to the back and adhered.  I find this creates a more finished edge than just trimming it off.  Finally, I used a sponge dauber dipped in Crumb Cake ink to add a little color to the "wrinkles" to accentuate the pattern.

The colors used in this card, are the new In Color -- Raspberry Ripple (a beautiful deep pink -- a little like the old Purely Pomegranite, only I like it better), Early Espresso, and Whisper White. The ribbon is the Early Espresso taffeta ribbon, and of course, Basic Pearls by the dozen.  I used the new Apothecary Accents Framelits and a sentiment from the World Treasures stamp set for the sentiment.  I love those new framelits -- very versatile and add a lovely touch of class!

For the rolled flowers, you can just do a Google search and come up with bunches of options to choose from, but here is a great link to start with.  She cut out a circle by hand, but I used my Scalloped circle punches in two different sizes.  You can also use any circle punch you have on hand.

Happy crafting to each of you!

If you haven't checked out the July special yet, it is get a beautiful, exclusive stamp set -- "Reason to Smile" -- for $5 with a $50 order.  Click on the special on my sidebar to see the juicy details!