Well a lot to share....

Firstly sorry, not sure where the last month has gone, honestly this year is just whizzing by! But I have a fair few techniques and projects to share with you. Which I will do over a few posts. I have recently done a couple of DT spots for PanPastels Here is the latest, loving the effects you can get with these pastels.

To acheive this aged vintage look, I took a lovely foliage stamp, inked and stamped with perfect medium and then brushed a dark green Pan Pastel over the image, this picked up all the detail and distressed the back ground a little. I then set this with some pastel fixative as I needed to ink all over the top with Perfect medium and did not want to spoil the lovely detail. After inking all over the image I applied Ultra Thick embossing powder, heat set and then repeated for 2-3 layers, so I had a nice smooth glazed covering. I then popped the glazed image in the freezer for 10 mins. This make the glazing go brittle and allows you to bend and crack the embossing to give it that aged look. This was then matted and layered on to the card. The final touch came from using the Pan Pastels to create my own vintage washi tape. I took a length of masking tape, stuck it to an old plastic bag, so I could work on it with out removing any of the stickiness. I then stamped the same image as the topper, along the masking tape in Perfect medium, again brushed on the Pan Pastels (using the same colours to ensure it all tones beautifully) working the pastels in well so they highlight the texture of the masking tape. I then tore the tape in to smaller pieces and applied the fixative spray again, as the nature of masking tape does mean if not fixed the design will rub off over time (remember to tear first as the fixative spray makes the tape harder to tear!) I then applied the tape as accents on the card as a nice alternative to ribbon.

The masking tape works wonderfully with mica as well, give it a go. Anyway back to making samples for Friday at 11am and 4pm, see you then. Happy Crafting Ali xx