IN MY THOUGHTS

Happy pre St Patty's Day!  Locally we had fireworks last night and a parade today.  There's alot of Irish in our little area and every year rain or shine festivities are in full "Swing".  Unfortunately for some they are absent this year.  My sisters Mother-in-law passed this week.  She had a very long fulfilled life of 92 years.  She will be greatly missed by many.  So I decided to make a few Sympathy cards today to send to some of her family members.

First up I had decided to keep it clean and simple.  Clean and simple does not mean technique free to me though.  I decided to do a wax paper resist and a process called thumping that I saw from another fellow stamper.  First the wax paper.  

My card was a 5" x 6.5", so after making the base card I needed a piece of white card stock measuring a tad larger than the card itself, so I made it 5.5 x 7.  Actually I cut 2 this size since the technique allows me to get 2.  I then cut a piece of wax paper the same size and scrunched it into a tight ball.  Opened it up and slightly smoothed and placed between the 2 pieces of 5.5 x 7 pieces of card stock.  Heat your iron to hottest setting (no steam).  Place a piece of computer paper over your sandwiched card stock and place hot iron on top.  Do not wiggle.  Heat all sections of the card stock lifting and moving iron to next spot and leaving in each spot for about 10 seconds.  When you have heated the entire piece, discard computer paper, separate 2 pieces of card stock and remove wax paper. ( TIP ..... save the wax paper!  Its beautiful and can be used with another card in a different way.  Stay tuned!)  Choose a desired color and dauber and rub ink over entire card stock and the wax resist will show up revealing a beautiful pattern.

On the left it shows the paper in progress.  The more ink you add to the dauber and the more times you layer on the card stock the richer the color gets and the more visible the lines are.  The one on the left is with multiple coats of Tim Holtz walnut ink pad.  Though it looks heavily textured it's actually very smooth with a light sheen to it.

Next technique is Thumping.  I used a flower stamp I had on hand.  The entire stamp is inked with 1 color.  I used a Memento Lux pad in a honey color.  Then I picked out a couple Tombow markers to coordinate.  2 shades of greens, an orange and a med brown.  With the brown and 1 of the greens I added a bit over the stems right over the honey.  Then with the other green and the orange I quickly but gently thumped the brush tip on each flower just 2 or 3 times per the 2 colors.  Thump thump thump...just like your playing the drums!  LOL  Then before stamping "Huff" the stamp and then stamp it on the paper.  VOILA!!!  Flowers have just a hint of green and orange in the honey color..  I love it and you could do this with other colors too.  Just experiment.
  Here's my finished card.

I know it's hard to see but believe me it's there.  So subtle.
Well I'm off to reuse that wax paper.  Check back to see what I did with it and until then.....

HAPPY CARDING!