Polished to Perfection

Copic Airbrushed Autumn Ferns with Dreamweaver Stencils and Paste

                           

I love Autumn, it is my absolute favorite time of year.   This card was designed using 2 Dreamweaver Stencils (LJ 829 Fern  and LJ880 Deckled Edge Rectangle),the Copic Airbrush System and Dreamweaver Gold Embossing Paste on Gold Ore Petallic Cover from Worldwin.  I matted the finished image with black Chromekote and Copper Petallic Cover also from Worldwin. The beautiful fall verse is from Inkadinkadoo and was the inspiration for creating this card. 

Using the Gold Ore Petallic paper, I placed my deckled edge Dreamwear stencil on the paper and airbrushed the all 4 edge of the stencil. Then I picked up the stencil and placed it randomly in a new location and airbrushed around the edges of the stencil again.  I continued to repeat this process until I had designed a full Background sheet of paper. To clean your stencil use the Copic Various Ink 00 blender on a paper towel.  It will remove all the excess Copic ink and your stencil will look like brand new. It will also clean the ink from your hands too. This paper is available in 8 1/2" x 11" so I could get two card fronts from one sheet of paper. 

Next I taped my Fern Stencil in place using removeable tape. I then airbrushed the Ferns using a combination of the following Copic Sketch Colors E09,G21,YR04, R29, R59. After I completed airbrushing a fern I picked up the stencil and moved it to the next location and airbrushed another.  Remember to place these ferns randomly. I made each fern using a different combination of colors.  You may also decide to airbush both sides of the stencil for a little variety. Remember to clean the stencil between uses if you are using both sides. If you have every watched ferns turn color - they all turn differnt colors within the same bunch.

Now I selected my favorite section of paper and trimmed it to a 4 x 6.The gold fern in the upper right hand corner of the card and the bottom left hand corner of the card were created using Dreamweaver Gold Embossing Paste.  If you have not yet had the opportunity to use this embossing paste - you don't know what you are missing. It will breath new life into your stencil collection.

Here is a brief embossing paste tutorial:   

1. Place your stencil in place and tape all 4 sides with removeable tape ( Do not skimp on the tape).  Start with your first tape at the top, then tape the right side, the bottom and the left side.  On the last piece of tape leave a little extra and fold it back on itself ao it forms a tab for easy removal.
2. Using a metal pallete knife, pick up a quarter size drop of embossing paste on the back side of your knife.  Use the 3 strikes rule: Spread in one smooth motion across the entire stencil. For strike 2 scrape off the excess paste using the side edge of your knife in the same direction as the first strike.  Place the excess paste back into your jar for a later date.  For strike 3 Clean up any air bubbles or missed area by spreading paste in the opposite direction as strike 1 or 2.  Note: Do not spread the paste like you are frosting a cake or making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This may cause some of the paste to seap underneath the stencil.
3. Now remove the tape in the opposite order of application.  Do not remove the first piece of tape.  Use this piece of tape as a hinge, lift the stencil up and away and remove the tape after you remove the stencil.  Be very careful not to bend your stencil as you remove it. Set image aside to dry.  Drying time is 20 to 30 minutes depending upon the humidity.
4. To clean your stencil place it immediately in a tray of water and use a foot brush to scrub the stencil clean.  Make sure your stencil is always on a flat surface when you are cleaning it.  To wipe off the excess water place the stencil flat on top of a paper towel and with a second paper towel pat it dry (while it is still flat on the table).  This will ensure that you do not bend your stencil.      

To create the gold embossing paste ferns on my card.  I decided where I would like gold ferns and followed the directions for applying embossing paste.  Since I only need a portion of the fern stencil,  I masked of the area of the stencil I would not be using with a scrap piece of paper and removeable tape.  After I embossed the first fern, I followed the tutorial directions and removed the stencil.  Take off all the tape and throw it away....it has excess paste on it...do not reuse it.  Clean your stencil. Be careful not to stick your fingers in the wet paste of the first fern. Now flip your stencil over and use it on the reverse side to create your second gold fern and repeat embossing paste steps.  Now set aside the image to dry. Next I used Brillance Graphite Black Ink to stamp the verse on the card. I designed the card so I could use this beautiful verse from Inkadinkadoo "Autumn turns every leaf into a precious jewel."  I chose this ink because it is made for stamping on a glossy surface and it has a bit of a metallic sheen. After the image was completely dry I assembled the card.

A great storage and organizational tip from Theresa Winters: is to store your brass stencil collection in 4 x 6 photo albums. This allows you to flip through your collection easily and prevents them from bending while stored. When your albums get full make sure you store your albums upright, so that the weight of the stencils stored in the albumn does not bend your more fragile designs.

Happy National Card Making Day!!!!!!

Copic Sketch Markers Airbrushed

                           

                         

Can I say I am addicted to the Copic Airbrush System!!  You got it I airbrushed my napkins for my Thanksgiving Table setting.  Now this started as a very simple search for a fall napkin that I could design a paper napkin ring for to match my Thanksgiving Place cards.  Every year I wish I had time to set a beautiful Thanksgiving Table.  Somehow this Holiday gets smooched between Halloween and Christmas and the madness of Black Friday.  So this year I decided to design my table in September. After searching everywhere for the perfect Thanksgiving napkin for my table, I settled for a pale yellow paper napkin hoping to design an over the top paper napkin ring.  Pondering this plain napkin on the drive home the light bulbs went off and I decided to try my hand at airbrushing the napkin with my Copic Sketch Markers and my Dreamweaver Stencils. 

     Anyone who has taken a Dreamweaver Stencil class from me knows that I never teach traditional stenciling...I prefer embossing paste, gold leafing, krylon webbing, spray inks and the cool stuff!!  Well let me just say that airbrushing my stencils is now COOL STUFF!!  I airbrushed all four corners of my cloth napkin ( yep, you guessed it - a trip back to town for cloth napkins once I saw how gorgeous the paper napkins looked).  To achieve the airbrushing I cut out a triangle from a piece of copy paper to mask the second image on the stencil. Next I taped off the paper, making sure the removable tape did not cover any of the stencil. Don't be stingy with your tape!! You need to tape down all the edges or you will over spray onto your napkin.  First I airbrushed the stencil with an orange Copic Sketch Marker, skipping over the acorns, then I airbrushed some red, making sure that I did not cover all the orange.  Then I used brown to airbrush the acorns.  I repeated this all four sides of the napkin. ( you may need to re-tape your paper mask before you reach your fourth corner as the copic markers may make your tape less sticky as you work your way around the napkin). You won't believe how fast and easy you can airbrush your stencil. Allow your napkin to air dry and then heat set it with an iron.  Place a towel between your iron and the napkin.  To clean your stencil use rubbing alcohol.  If you happen to airbrush your fingers - Windex works great for cleaning your hands.

Now in that search for the perfect table setting, I could only find white place cards with silver edging. But the place cards had a glossy coating which meant I could use my Copic Sketch Ink Refills to alter them and make them look like Polished Stone Paper.  I like to use a wide applicator for creating polished stone paper.  I used a yellow refill and simply dabbed the re-inker over the entire place card.  I placed the re-inker ink directly on my applicator and dabbed it up and down all over the place card. I added extra ink to the silver edging, which now looks gold!!  The Copic re-inkers take slightly longer to dry than traditional Alcohol ink.  After my image dried I stamped and embossed in black Happy Thanksgiving. MSE has a new thanksgiving clear stamp set with the perfect size verse for the place cards. The pumpkins for the place card and the gift tag were made from a stack of pumpkin stamp from Northwoods Rubberstamp. Here is the gift bags for my Thanksgiving Guests:

                            

     When I first started coloring in the grapes for this image the purple Sketch marker I had was too dark, so I simply used my Copic Sketch Blending Pen to color over the purple and the blending pen picked up the excess ink and lightened my grapes.  Then I used a paper paint palette to dab some of my purple sketch marker on and used my blending pen to pick up the ink from the palette.  This method gave me a much softer shade of purple. You can us the lighter color of any marker to pick up the ink from a darker version of the same color to create a medium tone. (yes, your lighter colored markers can be used like a blending pen).  I stamped this image twice, and cut the bottom pumpkin for the place card.  I used the middle of the pumpkin image for the gift tag.  I plan on stamping my guest names on the reverse side of the place card- closer to the Holiday.