I loved playing with the Salty Glimmers technique I posted about yesterday (have I mentioned how much I LOVE my Technique Junkies newsletter??). I did the small blue panel, but I wanted to try a whole background. I did the technique with the Walnut Stain glimmer mist I made using Distress Reinkers. It came out very dark and dramatic. Quite cool actually.
The instructions tell you to let it air dry. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't have a whole lot of patience to wait for things to dry. Besides, when I want to make a card, I never think to make the background ahead of time! I used to have a ton of backgrounds which I'd make and then put aside, but I never used them. I want to make the card from start to finish and I always wanted a colour or technique I didn't have in my stash, so now I just make whatever I'm going to want.
Anyway, back to being impatient. I made a purple background using a Dusty Concord spritz I made and threw the salt on it. I figured that if I just used my heat gun, the salt would go flying everywhere, so I grabbed some paper towel, wadded it up, and lightly dabbed the bulk of the wet stuff off. Some of the salt stuck to the paper towel and some stayed on the paper. I did this until most of the pools were absorbed and then flipped the paper over and flicked it from behind so that the salt would come off. Then I heat set it for a few seconds. Then flip and flick and heat set again. When it was dry, I just picked off the last few pieces of salt. Voila, a cool background and no waiting. My kind of technique. And as an added bonus, when I soaked up some of the ink, it lightened the background so it wasn't quite as dark.
After I had my background, I ran it through the scallop border by Tim Holtz. Then I cut a darker purple piece with the same border (I cut the purple piece slightly wider so that I could line everything up later). I then lined it up so that there was a small shadow at the bottom and cut off the extra on the other three sides. I stamped some background Tim Holtz images from Urban Chic and then stamped the bird (Tim Holtz: Urban Tapestry) and saying (Tim Holtz: Urban Chic) in black. Adhered it all to a white card and stamped the saying (Tim Holtz: Just Thoughts) in Dusty Concord Distress Ink.
I took a piece of brown scrapbook paper and stamped some background images from my Spills & Splatters set. I haven't used that set in so long, but I really like it. I had kind of forgotten about it. Then I stamped the main image (the words) in black (it is from Urban Tapestry). I added a little butterfly in a couple of places (from Urban Chic) and then one of my Tim Holtz embellishments. I was reading his blog the other day and he painted one of these tags with a white paint dauber and then wiped off the paint. It stuck to the recessed words and looked pretty cool. I distressed the edges with my Distress It All (which is her favorite tool) and then inked them with some black and adhered it to a brown base.
