Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Cracked Glass & Vintage Glitter

Hi everyone! I'm home sick again today. I called into the office and my boss BANNED me from coming in. I'm the germ carrier and no one can afford to be sick right now with all of the meetings we have going on! I'm going to be alternating between cutsie and vintage this week. I've been working on samples for the new release Crafty Secrets stamp sets that came out at CHA. I've fallen in love with the Vintage Christmas set for sure. The images are so simple to color in, even I'm able to pull off a beautiful image with my limited watercoloring skills. Julie Ebersole also tipped us off on her blog that the Martha Stewart white gold glitter from Michael's looks JUST like vintage glitter. She was right. I edged all of my images in it and it has such a beautiful patina, it makes everything look old and tinny. Pam Hooten (Iris Garden) gifted me with a yellow gold version of it too, which is JUST as beautiful. (The santa image is sporting yellow-gold glitter, and the snowbaby is done with the white-gold.


I used the cracked-glass technique for these cards; I finally found the right combination to do this technique right. I used versamark and Utee. Color your image in with whatever medium you are used to using; on these I used a combination of markers and watercoloring. Then apply versamark directly to your entire image, and sprinkle utee all over it. Heat up the utee until it melts, then quickly turn off your heat tool and cover the hot utee with another layer of utee. Heat up again, and repeat once more, so you have 3 layers of utee on top. Stick the image in the freezer for 5 minutes, and as soon as you pull it out of the freezer, bend the image until it crackles all over. For an extra vintage look, rub a light distress ink over the top to get ink in the cracks. I used Ranger "linen" distress ink, but Stampin Up creamy caramel would work also.

Doesn't this child image look like the snowbaby collectible figurines? The stamp sets are now officially in at Crafty Secrets & should be shipping to stores soon, so you should be seeing them available in Anna Wight's Ebay store, and online at Eclectic Paperie.

Materials used: Crafty Secrets Vintage Christmas Set, Versamark, Utee, May Arts white polka dot ribbon, Martha Steward White gold and yellow gold glitter, Crafty Secrets Radiant, Earthy and Classic Paper pads.

6 comments:

Jenn said...

i think you already know how much I love these!!!! Your are such an amazing stamper!! Hope you are feeling better!!!

Melissa said...

Wow! These are stunning!

Alhambra Club said...

These are fantastic, love the vintage look

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, I was just at the CS gallery, saw all your new cards and was just blown away! These are so gorgeous and I love how the cracked glass went so well with the images. I love how the soft background colors make the images stand out. Just stunning!

Charmingdesigns said...

Wow. I love the look of the cracked glass, and the images...great!!Thanks again for wonderful ideas. Laurie

Anonymous said...

I need great big beautiful fonts here, to appropriately say that these cards are beyond GORGEOUS! Trust me everyone! I watched these beauties as they were being created by our Shabby Queen! Gorgeous is a pale word in comparison to these works of art!

~Tex