Chalkboard Art Meets Stamping...
November 23, 2012
Hello there! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was nice and quiet with lots of yummy food. Just the way I like it.
You're probably all out and about rounding up the best Black Friday deals, but if by chance that's not your thing (like me) and you're at home, with the day off of work and heading to your craft room (like me) -- I have some inspiration for you today!
It's no secret...I've been a fan of the whole chalkboard trend for the last couple of years. I did some posts about it a few years back. The whole chalkboard trend doesn't seem to be going anywhere just yet...in fact, it seems to be growing. If you're a Pinterest fan (ok, that's a no-brainer....) then you've probably stumbled across at least a few of the amazing chalkboard art pieces out there. I love all things typographical, so I am enamored with the likes of these...
...and while the above are computer generated, check out this woman's work...all hand done and amazing.
I could never dream of being able to create something like this by hand, but hey...I always have my stamps, right? Papertrey's designers have done such an amazing job with fonts and sentiments that I was sure I could dig out some of my favorite stamps and put them to use in creating my own stamped version of the trendy chalkboard art. Here is the result...and after I show you a few cards, I'll show you step-by-step how I created this look including some tips I learned along the way for getting a pretty darned realistic look!
All supplies are from Papertrey Ink (unless noted) and complete clickable supply lists for each card can be found at the end of this post.
First off is a birthday card. I incorporated lots of different sets into this card...some sentiments from Movers and Shakers, the new banner from Stitched Sentiments and one of the new Sentiment Signs images. This is the card that I will walk you through from start to finish!
Once I had the panel completely finished, I decided it didn't need a whole lot of embellishing...just a few buttons, a paper clip and a bit of washi tape.
Next up is a holiday card. I'm thinking this might be the thing that pushes me over into creating my own holiday cards this year...I know, I'm lame and usually send out photo cards. Maybe I actually need to make them this year! I'm pondering a way to incorporate this look into some sort of photo card.
The main sentiment is from Stylish Sentiments: Holiday, the flourishes are from Holiday Photo Finishers and the little banner behind the word "cheer" is from Fabulous Frames.
And my third card today is a little love note...it would be perfect for Valentine's day, or any other day. I positioned my sentiment towards the bottom this time, which gave a little more room for embellishing the top. I added a cute heart garland using patterned papers from Basic Grey's new True Love collection (coming to stores soon!)
The "love you" sentiment is from Say it With Style and the "every single day" is from Movers and Shakers.
So how about a little step-by-step of the process I used to create all three cards? I started by gathering some supplies that I knew would be the basics for creating this look...True Black cardstock (at first I thought Smokey Shadow, but trust me and stick with black..everything shows up clearer and brighter!), Fresh Snow ink, white embossing powder and a white colored pencil.
1. Start with a piece of plain black cardstock. An embossing buddy will be your best friend here. You can get one HERE, or you can make your own by sewing a small fabric pouch filled with cornstarch. It will keep the little specks of embossing powder from sticking where you don't want them.
2. Start building your sentiment, stamping with versamark and coating with white embossing powder.
3. Keep building your design. I like to sprinkle the powder as I go (easier to see than the versamark alone) and hit the whole thing with the heat gun when I'm finished.
4. Once you have the design the way you like it, heat it with a heat gun.
5. Now start adding details with Fresh Snow ink. Here I added the banner from Stitched Sentiments. I decided while working on this technique that shading is the key to creating a realistic chalk look -- the embossing provides a bright, crisp white, and the stamping with white ink provides a lighter, softer shade.
6. Go back and stamp all of the sentiments again, this time with white ink. Shift the design slightly so that you create a "shadow" effect. This really helps make it look more realistic!
7. Add hand-drawn lines with a white pencil. This step could be optional, depending on how you want your finished project to look. I did this on all three of my cards...it just adds to the hand-drawn effect. Make sure to stop and start lines so that you don't draw over any of your stamping.
This photo just shows my panel after I was finished drawing lines with my white pencil
8. Next, we need to add some chalk "dust". Take a paper towel, or sponge, whichever you prefer, and blend some Fresh Snow ink onto the background -- around the sentiments, in the corners, however much or little your heart desires. Just be careful not to smudge the stamping you did with white ink -- it's pigment ink and takes awhile to dry -- you might want to hit it with a heat gun before doing this step.
9. You can stop there, or you can add some more hand-drawn details with the white pencil or even colored pencils. Here I took a pink pencil and added some lines around some of the sentiments, etc. You can do this or skip this -- totally up to you and how you want your project to look!
And that's it! So much fun..I want to make more!
I hope you enjoyed today's post and I hope you're having a fabulous holiday weekend. All the best to you and yours....
The complete supply lists for each card are listed below -- just click on the thumbnails to take you directly to the products.
Edited to add: P.S. For those of you who have been wanting a Big Shot, I just stumbled across this amazing deal -- today only (Friday 11/23) -- Half Off the Big Shot at Scrapbook.com! Just use code BSDFR3 at checkout!
|
|
|
|
|
|