Neon Lights Technique

They say necessity is the mother of invention.

Last week, Jac, Lori and I were in Novi, MI, for the Great Lakes Mega Meet. We had a booth and I taught two classes each day. The booth was stocked with past monthly and special edition kits, as well as our Neon Ink Dabbers, Neon Inkpads, and Neon Doodles unmounted stamps. Jac enthusiastically demonstrated the "Neon" line for passers-by, until doing the same thing over and over got kind of dull. It was time to get creative.

Having the freedom to "play" can lead to discoveries, and that's what happened on Saturday. Jac's "play" time with the Big Deal stencil (from one of my classes) and neon inks led to a fun new technique I couldn't wait to share with you!

Neon Lights Technique
Supplies:
Neon Inkpad(s)
Ink Applicator(s)
White Gel Pen (Graffiti CS Gel Pen or Graffiti Lite 3-D Souffle Pen*)
Black or dark-colored cardstock
CS Stencil (we used Big Deal)

Trace stencil images onto black cardstock with white pen. 

Add scribbles/doodles inside traced area until desired look is achieved.

Re-align stencil; use applicator tool and Neon Ink to color artwork.

Artwork "lights up" with color from the Neon Inks.

Add sentiment stamped with white pigment ink; add matte to create card.

Here are more of Jac's demo samples to inspire you:

Same technique as above on Big Deal Gray Plain.

Try on other colors, too: Big Deal Yellow Plain.

White Plain (from HPOP stash).

Add hand-written greeting to create a quick card.

3D Neon Lights Technique

For a fun twist, add a three dimensional element to your stenciled artwork.

Color stencil with neon inks onto Big Deal Tan Plain. Shift stencil slightly, then trace image with white gel pen.
Resulting "offset image" creates a 3D effect, making the image pop off the page.

I hope you'll try this fun technique with your favorite Club Scrap stencils. We'd love to see what you create!

*The Graffiti Lite 3-D Souffle pen works very well with this technique; however, this ink formula goes on nearly clear and must be allowed to dry completely to a bright white before adding Neon inks.

Creatively yours,

Karen

Gelli Plate - Art Orphan Paper Pack

Recently I participated in the Big Deal Blog Hop and shared the details on how to create your own paper pack on my CapeScrapper Blog.  Using Bookbinding, Padding and Laminating Glue and a stack of art orphans, created using my Gelli Plate, I now have a paper pack of artsy goodness.

Today I want to share how I created one of these papers in more detail.

Step 1. Squirt a few dots of red acrylic paint onto your Gelli Plate and roll on with a rubber brayer.

Step 2. Use the Big Deal tiny suits stamp from the Art Nouveau UM sheet to remove some of the red paint by dabbing it randomly over the wet painted surface.

Step 3. Place a sheet of plain white paper down onto the stamped Gelli Plate and remove.

Step 4. Wipe your Gelli plate clean between paint applications. Add dots of gold paint to the plate and roll flat with the brayer.  Lay a stencil (Full Circle 2012) on top of the wet paint and remove to the red painted paper. With another sheet of paper over the top of the wet stencil, burnish down onto red painted paper.

Step 5. Lay down a Masking stencil (Tahiti 2012) directly onto clean Gelli Plate. Add dots of white acrylic paint and roll on over the stencil.

Step 6. Carefully remove the stencil.

Step 7. Lay down the gold and red paper panel onto the wet white acrylic paint and burnish.

Step 8. Remove the paper to reveal the image.

Step 9. Stamp over the finished piece using the same Big Deal tiny suits Art Nouveau stamp and a checked stamp from the Concrete Playground 2010 Crafter Classic stamp set.

You can achieve so many different looks each time.

I made this card using a portion of the art orphan, a Take Wing red panel, Watercolor Blossoms "thinking of you" sentiment, and Big Deal brads.

Here are some of the other papers I created using a variety of stamps, stencils, masks, and paints.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you have a creative weekend.

Julie


Other Club Scrap Products used in creating the Gelli Plate art orphans
2003 Poetic feather and diamond wood mount stamp
2006 Collections script wood mount stamp
2012 Sorrento doily mask
2011 Versailles swirl mask
Neon Ink Dabbers Blue, Purple, Pink, and Green

Make your Own Digital Stencil - It's a Big Deal!

Last week, Kay showed off her amazing talents with some really cool techniques using the Big Deal stencil - if you missed them, click HERE and HERE to see both posts.

I was especially WOWed by this one:

We don't get a stencil in the digital kit, but that didn't stop me from creating my own and riffing on that amazing card! Let me show you how I did it using the Big Deal Digital Kit.

(To make this a bit easier, we'll break this down into a couple of different parts.)

Part 1: CREATE THE STENCIL

1. Create a new document in your program of choice (I'm using Photoshop CC). I made mine about 8 inches square and gave it a white background so that it would be easier to see what I'm doing.

2. Open 0214BigDealCSD_StampImages1.png.

3. Use the lasso tool to select the 'suits' background stamp and drag it onto your new document.

4. Duplicate the layer and drag the new layer over to the left, fitting it close to the first layer without overlapping any of the image.

5. Duplicate the layer again, dragging it to the right - we'll use this to fill in some gaps.

6. Use the lasso tool to select one of the suit graphics and drag it into one of the gaps. Continue until you're satisfied with the look.

Tip: You can also move parts of the graphic on the left to make everything fit together better. Feel free to rotate images as needed, too. Play until you think it looks good.

7. Use the marquee tool to select the unused images on the right. Press 'Delete' to remove them.

8. Merge all the layers except the white background.

9. Select the white background layer in the Layers Palette and delete it.

10. Save your stencil as a PNG (or PSD) file so you can use it as often as you'd like.

Part 2: CREATE THE CARD

1. Create a new document that measures 4.5" wide by 6.5" tall.

2. Open your stencil file and drag the stencil onto your new document.

3. Click-and-drag on a corner handle to make the stencil larger, so that it continues beyond the edge of the document in all directions.

Tip: Hold down the Shift key while you click-and-drag to maintain the proportion of the stencil.

4. Command-Click (Mac) or Ctrl-Click (Windows) on the thumbnail of the stencil layer in the Layer Palette. You'll see 'marching ants' around the graphic.

5. Select Edit -> Fill and choose white. This will turn the stencil white. Deselect the layer.

6. Create a new Layer UNDER the stencil layer and use the paint bucket tool to fill the layer with black.

7. Select the stencil layer and Command-Click (Mac) or Ctrl-Click (Windows) on the thumbnail of the stencil layer in the Layer Palette. You'll see 'marching ants' around the graphic.

8. Create a new layer ABOVE the stencil layer.

9. Select the brush tool and choose a medium-sized brush with fuzzy edges.

10. Select a color from the color Palette and 'paint' a portion of the stencil.

11. Repeat step 10, choose a variety of colors, until you're satisfied with the look.

12. Use the Marquee tool and select the card back graphic from 0214BigDealCSD_StampImages1.png and drag it onto the card top. Click-and-drag on a corner handle to make the stencil larger, so that it continues beyond the edge of the document in all directions. This will add a bit of 'visual texture' to the card.

13. Add a graphic and sentiment to complete the card panel.

14. Command-A (Mac) or Ctrl-A (Windows) to 'select all'; you'll see 'marching ants' around the perimeter of the window. Select Image -> Crop.

14. Select Image -> Canvas Size. Change the size to 5 x 7.

15. Add a layer or two of different colors and/or backgrounds, trimming as needed. Add small drop shadows to create a bit of depth.

That's it!

I hope you'll give this a try. It's really not difficult and you can produce some amazing results!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

-Ron

Big Deal Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Big Deal Blog Hop, where our bloggers are celebrating the February Club Scrap kit!

My project was inspired by a favorite Big Deal quote from the Borders & Backgrounds UM. I thought it would be fun to feature the quote on an altered 6x6 canvas I could display on my desk at the office.

I trimmed the center from a 6x6" piece of Ivory CS Print and glued it to the back side of the canvas. I added stamped accents, a die cut Bingo chip, mini Scrabble tile stickers and a wooden domino for embellishments. The chipboard "3." is from Let Me Count the Ways.

I decorated both sides, so visitors coming into the office could enjoy the view as well.

This side was created using the Big Deal Lite Stencil and red pigment ink spray, over-sprayed with white pigment ink using Versailles Mask. I added the Short Sleeve Pants Harlequin image stamped with black acrylic paint. The wooden ruler is from a past Workbench project. The dice, wooden disc (stamped with crown from Art Nouveau UM) and domino are from my stash. 

Ready to see what our other bloggers have up their sleeves? Be sure to leave comments if you like what you see!

Club Scrap Creates

Julie at Cape Cod Scrapper

Inkstains with Roni

Deb Duz Scrappin'

Jill's Place

Tricia at The Efficient Crafter

Hetty at Craft Chaos

Kay's Keepsakes

Cathy at the Artful Gamut

Anne Marie at Artfully Balanced

Debby at Masculine Inspirations

Dishing with Janet

Tiare at iClassy Girl

Lisa at Carpe Memoria

Marya at A Notebook Novel

Annettes' Digital Musings

Enjoy!

Creatively yours,

Karen

Big Deal Stencil Techniques--Part Two

On yesterday's post, I shared two stencil techniques for the Big Deal Lite stencil. Are you ready for two more? (If you followed the preparation steps outlined in yesterday's post, you should still have one black and one white panel left.)

Ombre Ink Technique

1. Use a foam tip applicator and dye inks to add a variety of color to the painted black panel.

2. Rubber stamp the panel with India Black Ink and small text image.

Text stamp from Up, Up & Away CS UM

3. Add a stamped greeting and layer the panel onto a 5x7" card base.

Gelato Baby Wipe Color Infusion

1. Color the white paint on white panel with Faber-Castell Gelatos.

2.  Activate and spread color with a water brush.

3. Use a moist baby wipe to remove excess color from the painted stenciled shapes.

 4. Stamp sentiment onto the panel and layer onto a coordinating matte and 5x7" card base.

Sentiment stamp from Big Deal Greeting UM

I hope you enjoyed all four of the stenciled background techniques. Which one do you think you'll try first? Leave me a comment below!

Enjoy,

Kay at Club Scrap