Inked Paper Flowers - Feature Friday

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Happy Friday, all! I hope you have a fun weekend planned. I have some office rearranging to do - so a combo of drudgery and something new. The weather has been phenomenal, so that makes me happy. 

I'm still trying to attract crows to my yard, so stay tuned for progress there. :)

I did a Facebook live after I got the new Concord & 9th inks last week, and I have the video of that for you today - a new way to see the unique color combos you can get with these fun new colors. 

This die set can make several different shapes of flowers, depending on how you put the pieces together, so I have two different looking flowers side by side below, where I just arranged the inked petals differently. I used a hole punch and silver glitter paper for a little flower center on both. The ink colors are Aqua Sky, Buttercup and Honeysuckle.

So here you can see the difference in the shape of the two flowers I made - and there are lots more configurations, depending on how many times you die cut it and how you choose to layer it. Very fun. 

So here's the very quick video with supplies below - enjoy - and have a great weekend!

Fresh Cut Florals Dies Edition 3 -... [ C&9 ] Aqua Sky Ink Pad [ C&9 ] Buttercup Ink Pad - Concord & 9th [ C&9 ] Honeysuckle Ink Pad - Concord & 9th [ C&9 ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

Loveyameanitbye.

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Masked Ink Blending Two Ways + A Discount!

I went on a bit of a masking spree last weekend. It's weird how certain techniques stay around for a week or two, and then flit off to be replaced by something else.

This week it was masking.

I decided to do two different versions of masked ink blending for my final spot with Neat & Tangled this month.

First, I wanted to do a layered image that would remain uncolored, with an ink blended background.

Layered masking is a challenge for me - figuring out which image to stamp and mask first, etc. I usually pile the stamps on top of each other and then take a few notes about what goes first. I know it comes more naturally to some people. But I'm a problem child. :)

So for this first card, I put the mammoth down, then sat the boy on him, and positioned the talk bubble. So that showed me that the first image stamped and masked had to be the little boy, because he would be blocking out the wooly mammoth image. I actually picked up the whole stack on my MISTI once I got the boy positioned right, and then just removed the mammoth that was stuck underneath. Then I stamped the boy, and stamped him again on masking paper, cut that out and covered him. Then I did the same with the talk bubble and the mammoth. I used my new, LITERALLY life changing ink blending brushes and Peach Bellini, Key Lime, Sea Glass and Lovely Lavender inks for a soft rainbow background. Then when that was done, I brushed on a little shadow with Kraft. These new brushes are changing my life! When I got them and tried them out, I had to tell them they were LIFE CHANGING and so now that's what they are called on the website. :) But seriously - such seamless, soft blending and the different shapes let me do fun effects. Look for a video soon.

I removed all the masks and left the images white to let the background be the star, and stamped the sentiment. The images and sentiment are from this set, below.

Prehistoric | Neat and Tangled [ N&T ] Prehistoric - Nice and Neat Dies |... [ N&T ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Peach... [ GNK ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Key Lime [ GNK ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Sea Glass [ GNK ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Lovely... [ GNK ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Kraft [ GNK ] Tsukineko VersaFine Clair NOCTURNE... [ SSS | ELH ] Avery Self-Adhesive Removable Laser... [ AMZUS ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSW | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT ] Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth [ AMZUS ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... [ AMZUS ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... [ SSS | ART | BLIC | ELH ] Ink Off Cloth [ INK ] Claritystamp STENCIL BRUSHES Set of 4... [ SSS ]

For the second card, I wanted to have a colored image on  blended background, so I stamped this image in Morning Mist, stamped a second one on masking paper, and masked it. Along the side, I stamped these florals in the same ink, and cut masks for them as well. Yes, even those teeny berries. I'm crazy like that. Then I brushed on Sea Glass ink in a swath across the larger image, and then closer to the image, I added Blue Raspberry.

The reason I did that first, is so that if I spent 30 minutes coloring the main image and then somehow messed up the ink blending, I wouldn't be mad. I'd rather do my coloring last, as I'm a very slow colorer.

I colored the image with Blick Studio pencils, which are sort of my go-to these days. The cardstock is Neenah Solar White. I think that this set - it's hard to choose - is my favorite Neat & Tangled set. The sentiments are funny and the images are so incredibly sweet. I don't consider it just a fall set - I use it all year. The sentiment is from the floral set I used.

My Favorite Nut | Neat and Tangled [ N&T ] My Favorite Nut - Nice and Neat Dies... [ N&T ] Friendly Florals | Neat and Tangled [ N&T ] Friendly Florals - Nice and Neat Dies... [ N&T ] 22063-0369 - Blick Studio Artists'... [ BLIC ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Sea Glass [ GNK ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Blue... [ GNK ] Tsukineko VersaFine Clair MORNING... [ SSS | CST ] Avery Self-Adhesive Removable Laser... [ AMZUS ] Coloring Glove - Anti-Smudge [ AMZUS ] Derwent Battery-Operated Eraser [ BLIC | AMZUS ] Ipoint Orbit Pencil Sharpener, Turquoise [ AMZUS | BLIC ] Global Art Classic Leather Pencil Cases [ BLIC | AMZUS ] Staedtler Mars Plastic Erasers [ BLIC | JGG | AMZUS ] Sizzix - Big Shot Express Machine... [ SBC | BMS | SSS | ELH ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC | AMZUS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSW | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT ] Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth [ AMZUS ] Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... [ AMZUS ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... [ SSS | ART | BLIC | ELH ] Ink Off Cloth [ INK ]

My friends at Neat & Tangled are still offering you a discount for shopping from my blog - so don't forget there are only a few days left to shop with my code. 

It's been so much fun guesting with them this month, and as I said - Danielle is a stellar human, a hardworking mother of young kids, and I love any opportunity to support her with a shopping spree.

Loveyameanitbye.