News

News

Dreaming Of A Deserted Island Vacay with Erica

by Erica Andersson-Burke on Feb 02 2021

Hi guys! It’s Erica back on the Picket Fence Studio blog with a card using the You Or Wifi stamp and coordinating die set. It’s been a looooooong time since I’ve been on a beach holiday and it would be asolutely amazing to go on one, don’t you agree? Well, in the lieu of an actual holiday on a beach, I decided to create a beach themed card and dream of sand between my toes, sun on my face and a good book to read whilst working on my tan! I started out by stamping up the island image from the You Or Wifi stamp set, with the help of a mini MISTI and the Black Hybrid Ink, on Copic friendly paper. While I was on a roll, I stamped up two of them actually. With a huge array of Copic markers I coloured in the images. When that was done, I picked one and used the coordinating diecut on it. On a white card base, I ink blended some left over yellow ink over the Corner Sun stencil. This was just ink left on my Life Changing Blender Brushes as I wanted a really soft look. After achieving the look I wanted by gently blending the brushes over the stencil, I shifted it and kept blending. This gives the soft look I was after, with a few areas of slighty more opaque colours, for a gorgeous 'first rays of the day' look. With the help of the diecut, I masked off the area that would be water, and used another Life Changing Blender Brush with blue ink on it. The card just needed a sentiment and I ended up using one from the You Or Wifi set. It's stamped up with Black Hybrid ink and with that, the card was done! What do you think? Want to meet me on the beach? Bring the SPF and a good book. Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

News

Paper Glaze Extravaganza with Erica!

by Erica Andersson-Burke on Dec 01 2020

Hi guys! Today's blog post is a bit of an epic, I'm not gonna lie. I'm showing a technique that I like to call Paper Glaze Printing. It's sort of like Gel Printing but with paper, stencils and Paper Glaze... I'll explain it, or you could hop on over to the Picket Fence Studios YouTube channel and have a look when the video goes up instead. I created a video for this blog post as well, so you can actually see the technique in action. You start out by making sure you have plenty of card stock on hand, as you need to work quickly with Paper Glaze. Plenty of tools and kitchen roll are good to have too. Start by adding your choice of colours through a stencil as you normally would. Before removing the stencil, you place a piece of card stock on top of it and press down firmly, whilst taking care to not move the card stock too much. Then remove the card stock, and then swiftly remove the stencil you have used too. Ta-da! Two for one! If you use the length of the stencil, 4"x10" you will have plenty of area to choose which bit to cut out with the Slim Line Diecutting System for your cards. With some of these prints, they are not going to be perfect or maybe even that pretty, but don't throw them away! Here is a close up on one of the prints made with the Slim Line Broken Fence Stencil and Paper Glaze in Snowdrop White, Jade Vine and Black Pansy. I love that there is three different textures on this one panel! It's great to have some of these for when you use diecuts and want a bit of texture or colour on them. Like I've done here, and used the Snowflake Lydia on some of the ones from the photo with the three panels. That colour and texture really take your projects up a notch, and the best part is that every single one is going to be totally unique. I used three of the snowflake dies for a wintery card. First, I made a background by smearing Snowdrop White Paper Glaze on white card stock. When that was dry, I used the smallest rectangle from the Slim Line Diecutting System to cut it out. This I added to a white card base and then I glued down the snowflakes with some glittery Nuvo Drops. I used the same Nuvo Drops to create lots of snow flurries around the snowflakes. Clearly this card didn't have enough shimmer and sparkle already, right? It was finished off with a very slim banner, stamped with 'It's the most wonderful time of the year' in Black Hybrid Ink, This sentiment is from Believe In The Magic. While I had all my Paper Glazes and stencils prepped with Pixie Spray, I kept playing. Why just make one or two when you can make fifty eight, lol! Well, not quite 58 but quite a few. The next couple of panels are made with Black Pansy and Cornflower Blue. Mixed together these two made the most incredible navy blue! I used the Slim Line Broken Fence Stencil for these as well. I did the same printing technique, and I'm swooning over these results! This one I haven't used for anything yet, but look at that texture and colour. Isn't it gorgeous?? The printed side came out stunning too, and it looks super shimmery! It seems that when the Paper Glaze is smooshed down, like when it's "printed", it goes even more shimmery than normal. This is the one I decided to use for my next card, so I got the Slim Line Diecutting System out again and used the smaller rectangle on it. The bigger rectable I used on black card stock and then I layered these up. I decided to use the BFF Elise stamp set and the biggest dog in the Pet All Of The Dogs stamp set. Both of these are coloured in with water colours, but I only got a picture of Elise before I assembled the card. I'm loving the fact that there are coordinated diecuts for these sets. You can find the ones for Pet All Of The Dogs here. You might notice that I coloured Elise in with a very coordinated colour scheme to the background panel. I was a bit worried at first that she was going to melt into the background but I think it works. The dog is also very colour coordinated. Maybe she got dressed to match her dog? Let's go with that, rather than the fact I'm mad as a hatter, lol! This card was finished off with a sentiment from Pet All Of The Dogs, again stamped up with Black Hybrid Ink on white card stock. Now, you didn't think I'd pass up the opportunity to make a rainbow, did you? I am a rainbow-oholic (and I don't want to go to rehab, no, no no!) after all. The OBVIOUS thing to do what to use the Slim Line Rainbow stencil, with... wait for it... a rainbow of Paper Glaze! I did the same printing thing with this one as well, but you can see that the yellow had dried a bit too much to get a good print. Oh well, it's still gorgeous and I ended up using the printed panel for my last card. The colours used are, from top to bottom, Leaf Green, Jade Vine, Cornflower Blue, Agapantha purple, Peony Pink and Daffodil Yellow. The texture on those rainbows is incredible, if I may say so myself. For this card I used an image I had already coloured, You Or Wifi. I did this one with no-line water colouring and then used the coordinating diecut to cut it out. To cover up the botched yellow part on the background, I adhered it over this and then trimmed off the sides. It didn't go all the way to the bottom so instead of covering up the Paper Glaze background, I stamped up one of the sentiments from the You Or Wifi set on white card stock, and adhered this right along the bottom. There have been several #Iwishwelivedonadesertedisland kind of days this year, hasn't it? I figured this card could be sent to literally anyone who has experienced 2020. Well, with that, I am (finally) done for the day. Lots of backgrounds made and three finished cards. All very different but with one common thing: Paper Glaze! I love that stuff. Just in case it wasn't super obvious already, lol! If you do watch the YouTube video, I have another couple of backgrounds done with a SUPER neat trick to create a bit of a Norther Lights look! Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this post and got inspired to try this Paper Glaze Printing technique for yourself! Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica