Archive for ‘Neat ‘Nique’

Decorating Eggs with Alcohol Inks

By , 12 April, 2009, 1 Comment

Beautiful Easter eggs can be created using this technique.  Make a card using the same formula and you’ve got a match made for giving.  If you’re not familiar with Alcohol Inks, just come into the store and we’d be happy to sit down with you and give you a little demo.


The first thing we’ll do is get the colors ready that we’ll be using on our project.  We’ve used “oregano, red pepper and mushroom” from the Tuscan Garden set as well as gold. 
 Begin with adding 3-4 drops of each color on the felt followed by the blending solution.  You don’t need a lot of solution.  Keep this in mind, the more solution is on your felt, the more washed out the colors will be.

Now you’re ready  to “smoosh” the inked felt all over the egg and the glossy surface of your paper.  We used regular glossy white paper cut out into an egg shape.  Any non porous surface works with alcohol inks including acrylic, acetate, glass, vellum, tins etc… The inks take no time to dry.

We’ve cut shapes using our Quickutz Squeeze.  The Double Daisy is the perfect size for this project.  If you don’t have a die cutting machine, you can use peel offs.  We have a sample of this one in the store.  It’s just gorgeous.  Back to the demo…  Use double sided sticky paper (ours is from dreamweavers) to cut out the shapes.  Place them here and there all over your eggs.  (the real one and paper one)  
Get your glitter ready because that’s all that’s left for you to do.  Peel off the top layer of the cut flowers to reveal the stickiness of the paper top.  Pour the glitter onto this and tap off excess.  Now your flowers have that nice glittered look.  Your egg is done and now you can place your paper egg onto card stock and add finishing touches of your own.  Then you’re done.  
Have a Great Easter,
from all of us here at Cherish The Thought 

Watercolouring with Twinkling H2O’s

By , 6 April, 2009, 1 Comment

 We will be using Twinkling H2O’s, which is a watercolour paint that has some sparkle in it.  Due to the fact that Twinks have been discontinued, I will not list the colours used other than to say blue, brown etc.  However, Cherish does also carry a line of Sparkly watercolours by Art Quest, that work in the same way, if you are interested in getting into this awesome art form.  We will also be using a Koi water brush that has the water inside the body of the brush, but a regular paint brush and a cup of water will work just as well.

 The first thing that you’re going to do is to stamp an image with enough empty space to color.  We’ve used our very cute Pink Cat Studio stamp of a lovely bird out on a shopping spree.  Be sure that you used Staz On ink so that your image stays crisp.  Staz On ink do not run when coloring with water paint.    The other important thing to use is watercolor paper.  We have some available at the store in the perfect size of 4″ x 6″.  It’s the perfect size for the card maker in all of us as well as for an image that you’d adhere to a layout if desired.  

 Step 1 – Swish your brush around inside the pot to pick up some of the light blue colour and colour in the body of the bird, the hat band, and the back of the bird’s head that is peaking out from under the hat.

Step 2- Clean off your brush by wiping it on scrap paper until the water is colourless and swish the brush in your brown paint to colour her shopping bags and her beak.  I did a second layer on some of the stripes to create a two tone effect.

               – Clean off your brush again and paint her knees, hat and scarf in Orange. 

Step 3 – drop a little puddle of water into the  blue H2O container and let it sit for a minute or so.  This will allow the colour to become thicker, giving you are more vibrant tone and twinkle.

 Now you can paint the wing and the tail with the thickened Blue H2O as shown in the image to the right.

Step 4 - punch a hole in her hat with your 1/16th punch and attach a small flower with a brad. 

Step 5 – We believe that a project just isn’t finished unless it has perfect borders.  Here we’ve inked all our edges in brown ink .

That’s it.  Put all your nicely inked pieces together and voila! A beautifully colored (by you ), handmade card for that special person.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and come back to see more.  

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