POLISHED STONE

I haven't been doing much in the way of stamping lately due to other life activities, but the other day I did once again play around with the polished stone technique. I don't get out my alcohol inks often enough and this is one of the main, okay maybe the only, thing I know to do with them. Fortunately I love the technique.

It's very easy and fun to do. The supplies you need are few: glossy card stock, alcohol inks, ( I use ones from Ranger), a blending solution (also from Ranger), and an applicator . For these cards I also used a copper metal mixative.

When I do this I make a lot of backgrounds at once. Usually I cut up two 8.5x11 inch sheets of glossy card stock into 4 pieces each and prepare 8 backgrounds. It can be a little messy and so I get the mess over with in one sitting. Rather than my trying to explain the technique to you I am going to send you to the experts. Tim Holtz has a video that shows using these inks in YouTube. You can watch it here. This is the technique I used. For those of you that don't have alcohol inks and would still like to try the polished stone technique SCS has a tutorial on doing it with dye ink refills. You can read it here. I have done this as well. I like the Ranger ink version better mainly becasue you don't have to seal it with a spray and I think it is shinier.

One of the things I like about polished stone is everytime you make a background with this technique it is different than the last time. Even when you use the same colors. Becasue I was thinking fall I used yellows, reds, and oranges with just a little green and even less blue in the mix.

The stamps I used are both Stampin' Up sets. The top card uses Upsy Daisy which is in the main Fall Winter 2008-09 catalog and the lower card uses a set which is in the Holiday mini catalog that is currently out. It's a set called Happy Blessings. There is also a cute scarecrow in this set. I especially like the Upsy Daisy over the polished stone background. I think the solid black image is very striking.

I will try and be back tomorrow with some more fall creations. Thanks for visiting.