Inspiration: An old technique .... but worth a repeat. The Gel "Water" Technique

 

It's about time I introduce one of our card designers, Virginia Awender, Virginia is so creative in her designs and her use of paper in her card designs is inspired. You will be seeing them frequently on this blog and in our card classes at the EC Papercrafts retail store in Shannonville, Ontario (Canada).

Virginia used a technique that has been around for a few years but we revisited it here with the Creative Expressions "Fillables" line of the Fish Bowl (CEDD21001) and Underwater Accessories (CED21002). It uses either hair gel or in Virginia's card she used hand sanitizer gel.  Hair gel is hard to find in clear and we needed clear for this project.

The colored paper is a release from Mairanne Designs from the summer. Love this paper, but then of course I am a bit of a watercolor freak, if you've been following 😉.

The background of the fish bowl is embossed with a new embossing folder from Leane Creatief "Bubbles"(352960).




So for the gel technique you just fill a plastic bag of some sort with the gel and if you are lucky enough to have a heat sealer, you'd seal it off. But Virginia just used "a whole bunch of glue." And what makes this so applicable is the tiny air bubbles that occur in the gel. Simply adorable!! You can see the Bubbles background in the back of the gel and accessories done in a turquoise paper.

Products used: Creative Expressions Fish Bowl (CED21001) and Underwater Accessories (CED21002), Leane Creatief Bubbles embossing folder (352960), Marianne Designs "Mixed Media Colourful" Paper (PK9140). All of which can be found at Ecstasy Crafts www.ecstasycrafts.com

Technique: sub·strate [səbˌstrāt/] noun

A lesson to be learned!

Substrate: noun 

a solid substance or medium to which another substance is applied and to which that second substance adheres.

Case in point my latest watercolor technique. This blog wasn't going to be about paper and the significant role it plays in your card projects .... but I figured why waste a good learning opportunity.

Waste: adjective

(of a material, substance, or byproduct) eliminated or discarded as no longer useful or required after the completion of a process.

I'll explain ....

We received some lovely stamps in and a co-worker exclaimed, "I am no good at stamping. I mean what do you do with that? Do you just stamp it in black?"

Me: "No you can color it with watercolor markers and use different colors all over the stamp." (see picture) I proceed to demonstrate.

Beautiful, right? But then I couldn't leave well enough alone, you can't really just use a stamp on a white background. Oh, I know, I'll do another of my watercolor backgrounds and stamp this on top. 

This is where we made a [fatal] mistake. I took out a piece of card stock, not from my usual stash. Proceeded to do a really washed out version of the background I did yesterday. 

Hmmmm, doesn't that look grainy? I did the same thing as yesterday. So I spritzed with water and really tried to work the watercolor around to smooth out. Nothing made a difference. Well we'll proceed. Let's see what this turns out like. Kind of funky, might look OK.

So it's all taped down, and I ink up layer #1. Huh, super grainy, not smooth. Layer 2, layer 3, layer 4. It's not getting better.

Wow, right??!! So I spritz it with several fine mists of water and head out for lunch. Nothing a Poutine won't cure.

Poutine: [poo teen] noun 

a Canadian dish, originating in the province of Québec, made with French fries and cheese curds topped with a light brown gravy.

This is the final image I came back to. All-in-all, I can live with this.

You think you are a "bad stamper"? Perhaps it's your paper! Dies even cut better with quality paper. 

And the last lesson from today. 

Pa·tience [pāSHəns]: noun

the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

Patience. Why do I forget that one some times? It is essential in using any kind of media. 

Until next time .... happy crafting.

Jenn