The Graduate Going Places

Today’s card is another entry for challenge #94 at HM&F, and I can also enter it for challenge #6 at Use It Tuesday.

When I checked out my House Mouse stamps for something I could use for this challenge, I ran across The Graduate stamp. I know the mouse isn’t moving in any way, shape or form, but to get somewhere today you must be well educated!! So I am taking that road (pun intended) for this card, I think that most graduates dream is to make something out of themselves, and an education is getting them there.

The Graduate was stamped with onyx black Versafine on white cardstock, colored with Prismacolored pencils & Goo Gone. I used a black glaze pen and a white gel pen for the eyes. For the tassel I used a Krylon 18 kt. gold leafing pen. Cut and embossed with a Nesties oval die, and before the die was removed stormy sky & peeled paint Distress Ink was sponged around the image, leaving the outer ring white.

I combined a couple of techniques for the building portion. I saw a video on the Ranger website about the alcohol ink fillable pen. I had thought about getting some of these before, but didn’t want to buy one for each color alcohol ink I have, and after seeing this video, I just had to have one.  I used two palettes and put a couple drops of different colored ink in each well, to have an assortment to start out with, and let it dry. (I need more palettes to have all the colors I have handy.) I also read somewhere else, that you can use plain old alcohol the higher the percentage the better. So I filled my pen with Isopropyl Alcohol 91%. You have to use glossy paper, plain old cardstock does not work, I have not tried it on watercolor paper yet. I stamped the building image from the MFT set Going Places with Versamark and embossed with detail black ep. I tried stamping with some jet black Archival ink, that didn’t work, I didn’t bother with the onyx black Versafine, because that never wants to dry on glossy paper for me, I don’t like SU black because it looks purple instead of black, the only one that I had but didn’t try was jet black Stazon. Each building was colored with a different color alcohol ink.

The next technique I gave a try is the distressed glue technique from Beate John’s blog. When I watched this video, I thought it would be interesting to try it for clouds. I think with a little practice, it will be perfect. I used Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue, and dabbed the spots, then sort of smeared it a little with my finger, after it dried I sponged stormy sky Distress Ink over it, then wiped with a paper towel spritzed with a little water. The background paper is from a DCWV The Tradewinds matstack, sponged with vintage photo Distress Ink, layered onto white with the edges sponged with the vintage photo, and the base card is maroon. The sentiment is from the same MFT set, stamped on white with onyx black Versafine, and cut to fit the label frame. Two silver brads hold the label frame in place.

For the Use It Tuesday challenge, the MFT building stamp had never seen ink, and I had never used the label frames before, the dp is from a brand new stack, and I used two new (to me) techiniques.

Thanks for looking and I love reading your comments.