Glass Bead Glitter Gel Makes Christmas Bright

One of the tubes in my Gelatos mixed media kit is called Glass Bead Glitter Gel. Doesn't that name sound positively dreamy? Of course it does. The glass beads reflect light beautifully, and glitter is always good...especially when it comes in a sticky substrate rather than loose and apt to stick to your face, hands, clothes, dog, and every other blessed thing in your house.

Glass and glitter make me think of Christmas, so here's a holiday card that would be VERY hard to mail.

You might notice similarities between this card and Friday's card. First, the Gelato background was created on a small piece surrounded by white, Second, the design elements on the background incorporate white, thus making the whole seem more unified. Third, there are two cut-out words and one shaped image...that's it.

These were all on purpose because once I find something that works, it seems only sensible to experiment with variations on it. And you'll note that today's card has a completely different feel than Friday's card. Where color bursts off the first card, today's is simply white and gold.

The process and products used are also different.

This card started with a rectangle of white mat board. I painted the board with gesso to prime the surface, and then mixed the glass bead glitter gel and some gold metallic Gelato to form a thick paste. Using a damp brush, I painted the the paste onto the mat board, leaving the top relatively light while gradually pushing lumps and clumps and texture toward the bottom, keeping everything very loose and irregular.

The star started as a plain wooden cut-out painted with two thick coats of gesso. Once those were dry, I added glass bead glitter gel straight from the tube...also loosely so it wouldn't look neat and tidy, as is my usual modus operandi.

The words come from a Winnie and Walter Christmas set: The Big, the Bold, and the Merry. They are hand-cut and popped up on dimensionals.

While this card lacks the colorful impact and really strong texture of Friday's card, I prefer it. It feels more like me, if you know what I mean. Monochrome. Very simple. Sparkly. But it would be tough to mail with mat board and the wooden star, and I'm considering framing it to put on my mantle for Christmas instead.

The glass bead glitter glue was very easy to work with and results are stunning. The gold metallic Gelato coated the glass beads and made them opaque, so they don't shimmer and shine at all, even if they do add some lovely texture. The glitter sparkles through the Gelato, though.

My next experiment with this gel will be to paint Gelato color on as a watercolor onto the dry gel to see if that preserves the sparkle better.

After a week or so of playing around, I've made some spectacular messes that ended up in the trash, especially a laughable attempt to stamp on semi-dry whipped spackle. I also long for the days of whipping up a card in ten or 15 minutes with no pesky drying time slowing things down. Patience may be a virtue, but I don't have much of it apparently.

The glass bead glitter gel, however, is truly pretty and might need to be standard in my stash. It looks just a bit different from Stickles, and if watercoloring on it keeps things pretty and sparkly, it may well serve a need I didn't know I had.

Whipped spackle, however, might be too complicated for me. Not sure yet!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan


Supplies
stamps: Winnie and Walter The Big, the Bold, and the Merry
ink: Archival potting soil
paper: Papertrey white, mat board
accessories: gold metallic Gelato, glass bead glitter gel, gesso, wooden star, glue, brush, dimensionals

Can Mixed Media and CAS Live Happily Ever After?

Short answer: 
Anything's possible.

Long, rambling, discursive answer:
So, ever since I settled on a screen name of LateBlossom at SplitcoastStampers, I've been fully committed to clean-and-simple (CAS) stamping. Sure, I occasionally dabble in collage or shabby chic styles because, you know, it's fun to get outside your box and play every now and then. But clean and simple is my box, and I love my box. My box makes me happy. It's a very good box for me.

Collage and shabby chic get along nicely with CAS on quick playdates, but you don't really need a whole lot of special supplies to make those playdates work. A bit of ribbon or lace, a charm, a scrap of fabric, a button or two...nothing special. Stuff the average crafter has lying around on principle.

Mixed media is a whole different critter. Every time I poke my nose into it, I pull away in shock and horror at the cost. What if I pay $50-$75 on a few different pastes and paints and tools, and end up hating it? Then I'd also hate myself for not spending that money on stamps and ink I know I'll love.

Even worse, what if I love it? Ohmygosh! My obsessively acquisitive self would have to buy some of everything. My kid's going to college next year. I can't afford that.

Or perhaps I'm over-analyzing this whole thing in typical drama queen fashion.

The kit I won a week ago fixed that problem of initial investment, and I've been playing around with it to see if a buying spree is in my future. The jury is still out on that, but my first card is a pretty cool union of CAS and mixed media.

Mixed media is all about layers, texture, and color. CAS is all about minimalism and white space. My strategy going into this was to create smallish focal points of intense texture and mat them onto cards of white. As I used the Force to feel my way toward something that didn't look silly, it dawned on me that bringing elements of white into the design would have a unifying effect.

To make this card, I took a small scrap of cardstock and covered it in gel medium and crumpled up white tissue paper on it, adding gel medium to get all the folds (or at least most of them) to stick down. This was messy, and there was plenty of tissue hanging off the cardstock, but I left it there.

After it was dry, I painted on pink, orange, and gold metallic Gelatos that I'd prepared with a bit of water on a palette. I let each color dry before adding another so they wouldn't blend too much and make mud. The Gelatos can stay sort of lumpy and thick as watercolor, which can add more dimension and interest to the final product.

After the coloring was done and dry, I trimmed all the extra tissue off the cardstock scrap with scissors and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to decide what to do with this little background. After much hemming and hawing, I settled on a simple white butterfly with bling and a couple of words from an old StampinUp set.

And there you have it. My first official foray into mixed media.

Not too shabby, eh? I'm pleased, and hope you are, too.

But as for happily ever after? That remains to be seen.


Supplies
stamps: StampinUp
ink: Archival potting soil
paper: Papertrey white, tissue paper
accessories: Gelatos, gel medium, brush, glue pen, rhinestones, craft foam, glue, butterfly punch (Martha Stewart)

Mother's Day

Sadly, I have no dedicated Mother's Day stamp sets and very few Mother's Day sentiments. Every May, it occurs to me that I should remedy this deficit, and then I promptly forget about it. Now, I've splurged quite enough in the past month and don't feel comfortable investing more in stamping at this point.

Also sadly, that probably won't stop me from placing an order for some of the new Hero Arts stuff, but whoever said a crafter needs to be consistent in her reasoning?

No crafter I've ever met, that's who. And really, should we listen to non-crafters about crafty stuff?

Of course not. Duh.

Anyway, this year's Mother's Day card makes excellent use of older stamps...a Hero Arts wood-mounted sentiment from at least 15 years ago and the older Papertrey set A Wreath for All Seasons. Throw in two shades of smooch and lots of tiny rhinestones, and you've got yourself a pretty clean-and-simple card!

As you can see in the close-up, I dabbed the Smooch on random dots that were stamped in Hero Arts cornflower ink. The Smooch adds a subtle shimmer and dimension to the wreath, It was pretty enough with the Smooch but still seemed to lack a little something, so I added a bunch of tiny blue blings in two shades for some added kick.

The results are lovely...soft, feminine, and sparkly!

Instead of rushing out to buy something new, see what older stamps you have in your stash which might enjoy some lovin' and have a go with them. It's fun!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey A Wreath for All Seasons, Hero Arts sentiment
ink: Archival potting soil, Hero Arts cornflower
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: dimensionals, scissors, rhinestones, Smooch

A Grab Bag of a Post

1. I received a lovely reply to an email I sent to Impress Cards and Crafts following receipt of a defective navy ink pad. Ann apologized for the problem and is sending me a new one ASAP. I adore the Impress Fresh Ink pads and colors, and out of the many I own, this was the first time there was a problem. So you might say I'm impressed by the customer service at Impress.

2. My elder son had several small speaking roles in his high school's production of the musical Catch Me If You Can, which I saw twice last weekend because I'm his mom and the show was awesome. He did a great job, and he's cute. Also silly.

3. Several of you sent me wonderful cards in April, and I want to share them because they really made my month, which was often full of stress and irritation. These three cards seemed to arrive on just the right days to lift me up and remind me how wonderful people are!

Patti's lovely Easter card uses just the right
amount of yellow with purple-y blues
to create a fantastically pretty card!

Michele's adorable peek-a-boo Easter card captures the pastel
goodness of spring with iconic jelly beans and
a cute, cute bunny!

Don't you love how she highlighted the bunny with that soft background?
I do!

Carol's card made me "awwww" and laugh at the same time.
Her soft, beachy scene with the scavenger sea gull and
salty sentiment is simply delightful!

4. I continue to play with the Mixed Media Gelatos kit, but it's early days. I don't want to judge too quickly. All I can say at this point is my anal-retentive, neat-freak self hasn't pitched the mess in the trash yet, so clearly there's some growth here.

5. Today's cards showcase the Copics I bought last week. If you need a reason to buy Copics, let me add that you can coordinate bling with your card quite easily with the darker shades. Lighter shades of Copic often don't color the bling as well, but you can get some subtle colors with them. Also, while my photo shows clear rhinestones with color added, know that you can change the shades of colored rhinestones with Copic or Sharpie markers. Don't be afraid to experiment.

The first card uses these blue and green Copics:

The shading of these colors is lovely, although I will say that G05 and G09 are not hugely different, and if you're on a budget, one or the other, but not both, will get you a good gradient with the G000 and G02.

This next card is not great as a card (that flower isn't my favorite), but it does show you the colors of the turquoise blue Copics I got...and they are lovely.

I used the 000 and 02 on the center petal, 02 and 05 on the next two petals, and 05 and 07 on the outer petals

So there you have it. A grab bag of a post. Little of this, little of that, a whole lot of pictures.

Mercy, grace, peace, love, and thanks for the wonderful people in this world,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Simon Says Stamp
ink: Memento black
paper: Gina K heavy white
accessories: rhinestones, Copics, craft foam, glue

"It's a Major Award!"

This most excellent box of mixed-media goodness was my prize in a random drawing from Marco's Paper on Friday. Here's what I went into the store to buy that earned me four tickets for the drawing, one of which was selected for the MAJOR AWARD:

Because, you know, I need more Copic markers. (Not really, but let's pretend and call that "an alternative fact.")

And y'all, these colors are amazing. If you're looking for periwinkle blues, true greens, and turquoise-y blues, these numbers totally rock and blend beautifully. I'm thrilled with all of them.

So, back to Friday at Marco's. I'm checking out with my pile o' Copics, and the clerk tells me that there's an awesome give-away bag if I buy something from Faber Castell. So she takes me over to the Gelatos, which are cheap, and I buy two--a light and a dark blue--without the slightest idea what in the world to do with them. But hey, I get the free goodie bag, which includes these things:

"Well, yay!" I think. A booklet to show me what to do with the two Gelatos I bought and the one I got for free!

As for the rest, I already have the two stencils, don't own any texture mediums to make the texture cards worthwhile, and the crayon thing is purple (not my favorite), plus a quick survey of videos to with them yields nothing that excites me.

Hmmm.

Later that afternoon, I got the call about my major award, which includes a few things that might make those texture cards worthwhile. It's been quite a while since I won ANYTHING at all, so this truly was a thrill!

So this is what happens when you get sucked into the vortex that is craft-supply shopping: you end up trying a whole bunch of new stuff. So, "Yay!"

Today, I broke open the kit and played around. There's nothing to show for it yet except a giant mess on my desk. But we shall see. I've wanted to experiment with mixed media for a while but hesitated due to the need to buy new stuff and ohmygoshwhatifIhatedoingit and whatawasteofmoney!

So for about five bucks, I get to play. Bottom line, I'm pretty thrilled with my major award!

And now for today's card, which is as happy as I am!

The inks were spritzed with water before stamping. The result reminds me of stained bacterial samples on a microscope slide.

Or not.

Whatever. It's happy, isn't it? And happiness is contagious! Thank heaven for that.

No Gelatos were used in the making of this card. Time will tell if I can make them to work for me, but it sure will be fun figuring that out with my major award. Yay, again!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Watercolor Wonder, Simon Says Stamp Uplifting Words
ink: Memento Luxe black; Memento Bahama breeze, dandelion; StampinUp green galore
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones

Getting Well and Thanks to Cheryl

In the past few weeks, I've caught myself complaining. A lot.

Then, we found out that one of my husband's friends is dying of cancer. And I went to a funeral for a church member. And I attended an in-service on Alzheimer's.

Perspective, people.

Perspective.

Several friends and church members have had surgery lately. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to send get-well cards to them...and they are obeying my command, thank heaven!

I'm also grateful for Cheryl, who sent a bunch of get-well and sympathy cards for Karen's Card Shop. Here are a few of the beautiful cards she sent.

Note the gold stickles dots accenting the gorgeous cut border and
butterfly...so pretty!

This big, beautiful butterfly would have made
the Karen of Karen's Card Shop so happy!

Pretty pink flowers will sell quickly in the card shop! I love
the idea of using gorgeous photos simply matted on cards.

 Thank you, Cheryl, for supporting Karen's Card Shop so beautifully and generously!


Now, my last post showed two cards using Papertrey's Ruby Reprise set, which is just as cute as can be. (You can see the other two cards on this post.) Today, we're looking at card #3. Y'all know I tried it on a white card base first, but it simply didn't work. Flexed to a light blue and it was much better. Pink, red, and baby blue make a lovely combination.

Typically, I don't use bright red on get-well cards, but this one works for me. Not sure why, but does it really matter? Of course not.

Tomorrow, I'll show you my new goodies from Marco's Paper and tell you how I won an extremely unexpected and intriguing prize. Good things come to those who spend money.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Ruby Reprise, Keep It Simple sentiment set
paper: Papertrey white, light blue
ink: Archival
accessories: dimensionals, scissors, rhinestones

Same Stamps, Two Different Cards

Papertrey's Ruby Reprise is one of the stamp sets pulled from my cold storage. I love these flowers, and had so much fun playing with a super-clean design and a super-abundant design. Both make me happy--one for its white space and the other for its fun colors--and I hope they make you happy, too!

The inks are various quick-drying pigments (Impress Fresh, Memento Luxe, etc.), which give better, crisper images with these stamps. The lines don't get fuzzy, as with the Hero Arts dye inks. And the dense color of the pigment inks looks fabulous.

The past few weeks have been sort of crazy around here. So much going on: some of it awesome, some of it extremely stressful, but none of it life-threatening, so we have that going for us! Jennifer McGuire posted on Facebook yesterday explaining why she's not posted lately, and I thought, "I'm not alone! I'm just like Jennifer McGuire!"

I instantly felt better.

Life happens, doesn't it?

Mercy, grace, peace, and love for sure,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: various pigment inks
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, craft foam, glue