Hello! It was a sad decision, but I decided to quit the DT's I was on. Even though I love them both, I was feeling too busy creating assignments and not working on projects for myself. Plus, I took on a lot more volunteer stuff at school, and well... I feel better already. I worked ahead on cards for Cupcake Inspirations, so you will still see a few more Sunday posts from me, so make sure you come back and go play along with them. :)
Recently I went to a Farmers Market that I love to go to occasionally, and I met a woman who had beautiful art for sale using different types of mediums. One of them was alcohol ink art. Alcohol ink? I have that! I have used it a handful of times in the last 7 years, probably, using only one technique. She wanted me to come to one of her classes, however, instead... inspired I checked out a few youtube vidoes... and then went to Michael's and bought more alcohol ink colors, gesso, Tim Holtz crackle paint (used to have that, too, in my supplies, but discovered it was all dried up. You snooze you lose, I guess!). I also got Tim Holtz stamps, distress ink markers, and watercolor paper.. whew. I have a long list of techniques to try now, but here is what I've done this week.....

For this card (if you click on it will enlarge), I used alcohol ink on some foil. It is kitchen foil so I folded it a few times for thickness. I embossed it with a pretty rose embossing folder, then applied gesso (let dry) and applied alcohol ink. That was kind of a long process of trial and error and finally with the addition of black ink and sanding, I created a look I thought to be pretty. I love that about the inks, because I was able to keep going until I was happy rather than needing to toss it out after working on it for so long.

The layer on top of the foil is photo paper that I covered in alcohol ink, then applied two layers of picket fence crackle paint..... The blue board is stamp board that is covered with alcohol ink and rock candy (clear) crackle paint, and the butterfly is a Tim Holtz grungeboard image that I applies gesso too, and stamped with a worded SU! stamp (which you can't really see in the photo- but you can in real life), let dry and then added alcohol ink to it.... :)
This card is much simpler, and pretty much the original technique on glossy cardstock that I was taught by the lady who works at my local stamp store (not a class, she just gave me some tips)... I stamped some A|S stamps on it.. The fish are colored in with Copic markers with dots.. a little pointillism. ;)
Inside... using vellum and punched pieces of left over background. Stamp by SU!
TFL! I look forward to trying out some more "artsy" techniques and getting back into scrapbooking. I'm currently getting 2 kits and they are piling up!
Happy weekend! :)