Splitcoast Tutorial: Painted Wood Burning

This week's tutorial over at Splitcoast is called Painted Wood Burning! I thought it would be fun to stretch our skill set a little bit. Are you with me?

I started off with the digital version of one of my stamp images - I've added it to my Etsy store HERE if you'd like to have one of your own! I love the rubber version, but I wanted to be able to enlarge it for this project. I printed the image on text weight paper and then used some graphite paper to trace it onto my wood plaque (this is from my stash of cheap wood pieces I've collected from thrift stores to paint on).

This type of wood wasn't at all ideal for the wood burning process, but at the very least I did end up with an indented, darkened outline, and learned some things for next time. If you're "in need" of a wood burning tool, this is the one I have - this kit actually comes with a variety of tips for different functions (I have used the hot knife several times) and the temperature is adjustable.

Instead of craft paints, I started off with a watery layer of gesso and then colored my image with colored pencils - that was quick and fun, and I love how vibrant the colors are! The sentiment I used is from Visible Image, and you can find it HERE. 

Here's a closer look at the details of the image - I'm excited to try wood burning again!

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: Christmas in July

The Impression Obsession team's challenge today is to create a Christmas project!

I'm bending the challenge just a little bit to share a couple of winter silhouette cards - they could be great Christmas cards too! My first card has a stenciled background that was done with two layers of brushed ink, flipping the stencil once (you can find the stencil HERE). I added some snow dots with white gesso, applied with a ball stylus.

For the snow I used a curved hill die set that makes great scenes as well as card edges - that's linked below.

I stamped the Skater Silhouette over a gel printed panel, then embossed it with a snowflake folder and sanded lightly to give the scene some depth. Love that effect!

Stamps I used: Sled Silhouette, My Heart is Warm,  Skating Silhouette, Layered Bow clear set, Hill Landscape Layers die set

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration -

Anna @ Sassy & Sweet Notes
Daniela @ For the First Time
Giovana @ Believe
Ilina @ Creativity Within
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Jenny @ One Krafty Kat 
Karen @ Paper Lilies and Ink 
Kelli @ Stamping with a Dream 
Kittie @ Kittie Kraft
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio


Remember you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps! See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us.

My Sweet Petunia and Visible Image!

I'm a guest of My Sweet Petunia on a beautiful blog hop today featuring stamps from Visible Image - I really enjoyed playing with these new and unique stamps, and I hope you'll enjoy my creations as well as the others in the hop! Keep reading for more info on how you can win your own Visible Image stamps, or a MISTI! If you've been hopping already and you've come from Elisa Ablett's blog, you're doing just fine.

I've had ColorBox Premium Dye Inks all over my desk this week so I've used them on all my cards here as well! For this card, I watercolored the jellyfish from the Dare to Swim with the inks, then laid the Fibres stencil over it to dry for a subtle pattern in the water.

I added a few circles from the Jazz It Up set after the panel was dry, and die cut some small circles into the panel so the sparkly base could show through. 

For my second card, I did some smooshing with the inks to create a background, then stamped the sentiment - using the MISTI allowed me to stamp it two or three times for a really intense black. 

The piano border was stamped twice end to end; using the MISTI I was able to line up the stamp perfectly so I could move the card down and extend the border image. I stamped right onto the background, then used gesso and colored pencil to fill in the white keys.

This card sort of evolved as I went - I knew I wanted the circles around the end of the trumpet, so I set up a little template in my MISTI with a 3" die cut square, marked the corners of the opening on my card panel, then stamped and rotated to fill the space.

From there, I filled up the background with brushed ink and lots of layers of stamping.  (Script stamp is from the Scripted Streets set.)

The musicians are stamped with Versafine ink (again, multiple impressions for a perfect image), and then embossed with clear powder so they stand out even more from the background.

Thanks to Visible Image and to My Sweet Petunia for letting me join along with you today! And nowwww for the good stuff: 

Two lucky commenters from the hop will win one of two prizes: a $50 shopping spree at My Sweet Petunia or a $50 shopping spree at Visible Image! 

Be sure to leave your comments no later than Monday, April 30th, at 11:59 PM Central time. Winners will be announced on Tuesday May 1st, on the Visible Image and My Sweet Petunia blogs! Good luck!

From here you'll be hopping to Heather Mitchell's blog - thank you for visiting me! If you get lost or want to start at the beginning, you can find the entire hop list below. Cheers!

Veerle Moreels

Ilina Crouse

Lisa Taggart

Jeanne Streiff

Sharon Traynor

Kia Gibson-Clapper

Becca Cruger

Ceal Pritchett

Pauline Butcher

Giovana Smith

Josefine Fouarge

Chris Dayton

Jane Tyrrell

Stephanie Severin

Tenia Nelson

Janine Tinklenberg

Elisa Ablett

Dina Kowal -------------------------- YOU'RE HERE!

Heather Mitchell

Kyra Sanders 

Lynn Good

Susan Wymer

Lanette Erickson

Joan Bardee

Aga Baraniak

Judy Rozema

Eileen Godwin

My Sweet Petunia