Gettin' Inky!

Would you believe I sat down with a piece of plain white cardstock? Well, it was Papertrey Ink's white cardstock, so it was thick enough to hold up to some heavy inking and a little paint! But, just look how colorful white can be!

I cannot tell you just how much I love getting inky. I've been asked how I get so much on my hands or would I like gloves on more than one occasion, but truth be told, I want the ink and the paint on my hands! Looking down and seeing colorful fingers reminds me that I found time to play. And like the rush that I get when zooming down Splash Mountain, landing with giddy fits of laughter or whizzing around inside Space Mountain at Disneyland, feeling the air rush through my hair, grinning ear to ear the whole ride, I feel like a kidlet at play seeing the colors marking my hands. So, ink on, I say!!!

Now, back to how I obtained those inky & painted hands! Starting with a piece of white cardstock, I inked it up, first with the yellow, blending in the red, then two shades of purple. A light wash of yellow pearlescent paint went over the bottom yellow portion for just a hint of glimmer. Next, I moved to my tree. I grabbed some sheets of Grungeboard that the fantastic Tim Holtz has given us, drew (I so cannot draw, so I did my best!) a shape on the back of the sheet, and cut it out. Did you know that Stampin' Up!'s Craft & Rubber scissors cut grungeboard easy as pie!!! Large chunks, small slivers, it really doesn't matter. Now that we're not using them for rubber so much, its nice to know they won't sit neglected and lonely in my tool bag! Okay, back to the tree....when I achieved the shape I wanted, I painted on a coat of silver pearlescent paint, then a coat of black acrylic paint. I began sanding the grungeboard and did not love the effect I was getting, so I backed off to a really light sand and liked the amount of the silver pearlescent paint that was showing through. With one more really light coat of the silver, following with a clean, slightly damp brush (to make sure the final coat was indeed light and allowing a lot of the black to show through) my tree was finished and back to my background, I went.

Using India Ink, I inked the edges, all the way around in black. Next I stamped some swirls up in the night sky and some foliage on the ground below. A night sky is in need of some sparkling stars to twinkle and shine above, so on they went. I used a combination of my ATG and Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive to glue my tree to my background and then matted it on Pure Poppy cardstock before putting the whole thing on to a True Black card base. And voila!


My little Princess, who is oh so girly, but can keep up with almost any boy is starting to get into all kinds of crafty goodness..................and I love it! She has a coloring printout of Disney Princess Jasmine that she has colored and intensely worked on cutting into the edges of it with my neglected decorative scissors and every time she sits down to work on it, she says, "Mama, I'm going to work on my 'Project'." It doesn't look like much when I read it in text here, but I hear her oh so cute voice saying it that just tickles me to no end!

When I inked up the cardstock with the yellow, red, and purples, she got so excited. She obviously had great plans. "Mama, you can put some pink on it and see?! Glitter!!", she says as she picks up the industrial sized Martha Stewart garnet glitter off of my table. When she got up the next morning, there was utter disappointment on her face and in her voice when she saw the black, inked on the edges. "Do you like it?", I asked. "Um, no." She doesn't hold back, "You can put pink on it! Mama, I tawt you were gonna put sparkle on it?!" Its more of a demand than a question. She's mildly satisfied with my end product, but does insist that the stars should be on the tree, rather than in the sky.

My craft desk is in our bedroom (thank you kind, tolerant hubby!), but I've been crafting in the living room lately (again, thank you kind, tolerant hubby!). Consequently, my creative process almost always involves my kidlets. So, I suppose my daughter would really appreciate seeing something sparkly and pink soon and my son would love it if those Star Trek stamps that I have from fifteen years ago would come out and make their way on to something for him. But, first I better get my act together and make some Father's Day cards....asap!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, Pure Poppy, True Black - Papertrey Ink
Ink: YoYo Yellow, Real Red, Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant Classic Inks - Stampin' Up!; India Ink Black - Stewart Superior
Stamps: Bronc Buster, Pocket Silhouettes - Stampin' Up!
Paints: Black - Delta Ceramcoat; Yellow & Silver Pealescent Paints - Yasutomo
Embellishments: Grungeboard - Tim Holtz; Clear bling - Bling It On by Lisa Bearnson