recent crafting

Well I have been struggling with a nasty virus lately and have not had tons of energy, but I have been wanting to get in some crafting for friends and family so I have been working on cards and some ATCs.

I have rediscovered a method I learned several years ago at a Stampin' Up workshop for using a ball of rubber bands to create a background effect. By rolling the ball of rubber bands over an ink pad you wet the ball of rubber bands and roll over your card stock in a random pattern creating a really cool effect that looks printed. You could use several different balls of bands and colors of ink to create something really special and unique. As always I try to make sure I incorporate my microbeads from Pennywise Arts into all of my paper crafts. I have found that I like not only to mix the colors of the beads together but I also like adding glitter as well. When using a strip of sticky tape you can make sure the glitter sticks by adding it first on random spots of the tape and then adding on your microbeads to the bare spots of tape. I tried it out on a card the other day and it came out really nice.

I don't consider myself a technique junkie, but I do like to mix it up now and then and surprise myself :) my standby is alcohol inks. You can use the same colors a hundred times and never come up with the same design on paper twice. I also love UTEE or ultra thick embossing enamel. I have burned myself so many times but it is worth the pain to see the shiny results! The crackled glass technique is always fun, creating random crackles and not knowing where they will end up, they should sell that stuff by the barrel :)