COLOURING WITH EYESHADOWS

Eyeshadow + Versamark Peacock

I saw a fabulous palette of eyeshadows at a ridiculously cheap price recently and couldn't resist!!  Eyeshadows make a great substitution for chalks in stamping and you can basically use them the same way.  In this example I've used Versamark (watermarking ink ) to stamp this Graphic45 peacock  and then applied a variety of colours over the top.  (I'm tempted to say "applied with a sponge applicator" but truthfully I used my fingers).  This was just a trial run but I'm happy with the results.  If you wanted I expect it could be sealed with hairspray or "proper" fixative, but its fairly stable as is" and if I was using it for a greeting card I probably wouldn't bother.  I have some more eyeshadow ideas to try out over the next few weeks.

FOIL EMBOSSED HEART

This is a piece of thick cardboard with a thick die-cut heart .  stuck on top.  The whole thing is then wrapped in aluminium cooking foil, working gently around the heart so that the shape stands out clearly.  You could tape or glue it at the back of the card but if you fold it carefully it will generally stay in place long enough to secure it to your eventual background.  Next paint over the whole thing with acrylic paint, and while it is still wet, wipe the heart so that some of the original aluminium foil can be seen. You can try it with different coloured paints and different coloured foils (some supermarkets sell these now), and of course the shape doesn't have to be a heart.  The panel can be used "as is" or further decorated, before being used as a card, in a scrapbook or as an ATC.

HANDMADE PAPER BACKGROUND

This is a nice simple background technique that I stumbled upon by accident.  Apply a lot of glue stick to a soft handmade paper (in this case the green) and apply it to a similar paper in another colour (white).  Run the whole lot through an embossing machine (I used my trusty Cuttlebug) while the glue is still wet and the papers will meld together, and appear as one, rather than two layers.  I have just ripped the green paper into strips which works quite well as the torn edges assist the bonding.

COLOURING WITH WATER-BASED PENS

This is a Crafts Too embossing folder coloured with Tombow pens - only a few colours and a lot of blending pen.  Colouring is still not my strong point but I think I might practise a bit more with water-based markers as I've seen some really good results.  I'm quite keen to try colouring some photos as I've had a little play and found they seem to work quite well for this as well.