Saturday Showcase - Seth Apter Izink ICE and Pigment Inks by Aladine

Hi everyone and welcome to another Saturday Showcase, the Design Team's chance to share tutorials and products available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique with you. This time the focus falls on Seth Apter's Izink ICE and Pigment Inks by Aladine which can be purchased individually or handily in bundles.

Having recently obtained a set each of the Izink ICE gels and Pigment Inks I am having a lot of fun experimenting with them. Today I'm sharing a tutorial for creating four different 'backgrounds' that were made on A5 sized pieces of mixed media card (that's roughly 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches in the US).

On the first piece of card I applied Whiskey Frost Izink ICE through the Finnabair Prima 'Floral Net' stencil - I found using an old membership card worked well to do this. Allowing the ICE to air dry seems to work better than using a heat tool which can make the surface bubble a little.

On the second piece of card I spread more of the 'Whiskey Frost' ICE using a spatula this time, pulling away from the surface to create an uneven textured finish. Again I allowed this to air dry.

On the third piece of card I spread a thick layer of 'Cheddar' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint. This can be dried with a heat tool but to be honest it dries that quickly anyway you probably won't need to.

I applied the same paint through another Finnabair Prima stencil, this time 'Oriental Wall', onto the fourth piece of card.

For the next stage I applied a little of the 'Whiskey Frost' Izink ICE onto the surface of the two painted backgrounds and some of the 'Cheddar' Paint onto the two ICE'd backgrounds.

From here on in I used the same Izink Pigment Inks onto all four backgrounds. To intensify the orange colour I added 'Roast Chestnut' Pigment Ink in patches to them. The method I've found best for this is to add a little to one area with the brush in the bottle, spread it around in lots of directions with a spatula and move on to the next area. Spreading with a spatula is not so easy on a more dimensional surface like the 'Floral Net' stencilled one so I opted for an old paint brush which was equally effective.

The next colour added in areas was 'Raspberry Beret' Pigment Ink. If you choose three places on each background and move out from those with each additional layer it seems to work well.

With all that warm colour I decided to contrast it with some 'Avalanche' Pigment Ink; yes, it is possible to layer white over all those darker shades! I also applied it through the 'Vintage Wallpaper' Finnabair Prima stencil using a small piece of sponge to dab the ink through the gaps.

With lighter areas now created I was able to add some other paler Pigment Ink shades,'Stratosphere' and 'Cotton Candy' (a favourite shade). I love how all these different ink colours layer beautifully over each other. It's key to allow each layer to dry before the next is applied but since the ink is so fast drying you don't even need a heat tool to help with this.

So now I had four backgrounds with subtle differences that needed enhancing individually. I started with the 'Floral Net' stencilled one, laying the stencil back over the existing pattern and applying a mix of 'Royal Gold' and 'Avalanche' Pigment Inks over the raised areas.

Next I tackled the piece which began with the 'Oriental Wall' stencilling. I'd made sure some of it remained visible as each of the ink layers were applied. Now it was time to re-enhance this by replacing the stencil over the card, applying a little 'Whiskey Frost' ICE with a sponge, then following it with some 'Avalanche' and 'Stratosphere' Pigment Inks.

Now for the piece that started with lots of 'Cheddar' paint and a little 'Whiskey Frost' over the top. With no real pattern to this one I went for 'Avalanche' and 'Royal Gold' Pigment Inks through the 'Vintage Wallpaper' stencil.

The final piece of card was the one more heavily textured with the 'Whiskey Frost' ICE. The paler inks had already started to highlight the texture and I enhanced this, first by warming up the colour with some more 'Whiskey Frost' ICE on a sponge and then with 'Avalanche' Pigment Ink. I splattered the 'Royal Gold' Pigment Ink over the top to finish.

Here are the four completed pieces, all with the same colour palette but each one with a different look. Click on the image to see them more closely;

I used a couple of the pieces to create collage style cards. The first one has a Tim Holtz 'Large Stems' flower embossed with Pam Bray's 'Peppermint' Rock Candy Embossing Powder by Emerald Creek Crafts. There's a lot of inbuilt texture and shine in this powder which was further highlighted by a little 'Gilt' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint. The scrap of fabric was also dyed with the Pigment Inks (as shown in a previous tutorial HERE) and I used a little of the 'Stratosphere' and 'Royal Gold' Pigment Inks to enhance the smaller strip of paper. The words come from Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 stamp set 'Funky Flower Art'.

The second card was created in a similar way to the first with the Tim Holtz 'Large Stems' flower covered in a layer of 'Royal Gold' Pigment Ink before being embossed with Pam Bray's 'Butterscotch' Rock Candy Embossing Powder - this shade of the powder has more of a translucent look so needed a boost of complimentary colour underneath. The piece of 'lace' underneath the flower was cut from card painted with 'Heather' Dina Wakley Media Paint and had a dash of the 'Royal Gold' Pigment Ink added to it to make it shimmer. Again the words came from Wendy Vecchi's 'Funky Flower Art' set.

Thanks for visiting to catch today's Saturday Showcase tutorial - I hope you've enjoyed seeing some ideas for using Seth Apter's Izink ICE and Pigment Inks.

There's still time to enter the current Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog challenge 'Christmas Cards in July' to be in with the chance of being a Guest Designer here. We look forward to seeing your amazing creations.

Jenny

Products used to create this junk journal are available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and are listed/linked below.

Seth Apter Izink ICE and Pigment Inks
Prima Marketing Finnabair Stencils
Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz Large Die - Large Stems
Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits Die Set - Crochet
Pam Bray Rock Candy Embossing Powders by Emerald Creek Crafts
Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint
Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Stamp Set - Funky Flower Art

Saturday Showcase - Eileen Hull Designs Treasure Box and Molten Dimension Embossing Powders

Hi everyone and welcome to another Saturday Showcase, the Design Team's chance to share tutorials and products available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique with you and kick start your creative weekend. Today's project ties in with the current challenge theme 'Treats Not Tricks!'; I've created a gift box using Eileen Hull's 'Treasure Box' Die from Sizzix with her Molten Dimensions Embossing Powders from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies.

Here's how the box came together; after die cutting the two lids from white matboard I went on to cut four lid sides to make a box that's thinner than the regular sized Treasure Box. These pieces were all embossed with Tim Holtz 3D Texture Fades Embossing Folder - Botanical.

All the embossed die cut pieces were then heat embossed using Eileen Hull's 'Golden Rod' Molten Dimensions Embossing Powders. Make sure to tap off as much of the excess powder before heating as the finished results are much better if the embossing is uneven. You'll also see I didn't bother to emboss the tabs as these are never seen once the box has been assembled.

Another reason for omitting to emboss the tabs on the lid sections was to make it easier to remove a layer of matboard from each as this removes some of the bulk where the pieces overlap.

After using strong wet glue to stick the lid sides together, the top piece was added to create one side of the box. This process was repeated with the remaining die cut pieces to form two lids.

Once the glue had dried the embossed surfaces on both lids were covered with Dina Wakley Media 'Turquoise' Acrylic Paint.

Before the paint had chance to dry I wiped away the excess with a damp piece of tissue to reveal a lot of the embossed surface underneath. This helped to give the finished box a look of verdigris metal. The edges of each lid were matched to the embossing by adding a little Dina Wakley Media 'Ancient' Acrylic Paint. You can age the edges of the box further by dabbing some brown Archival Ink over them.

Linda has a lot of fantastic metal pieces that work perfectly when constructing boxes, including hinges, corners, handles, latches and feet. I used two Bronze Tone Hinges with some coordinating Long Fasteners to secure the back of the lid pieces together.

On the front I added a Bronze Tone Mini Box Handle again with coordinating Long Fasteners - whilst this is merely a decorative element it also helps to add a little weight to the top of the box and hold it in place.

To cover the insides of the box I die cut pieces of paper from the Stamperia 'Oriental Garden' Paper Pack and glued them in place after inking the edges with the brown ink.

To finish the box a few elements were added to the lid to form a mini collage. These included a die cut Trinket Frame from Metallic Kraft Stock (sanded to give a worn look and with Hardware Heads in the corners) some off cuts of paper, folded, layered and hand stitched together, flowers die cut from the Oriental Garden Paper and a Filigree Metal Butterfly, altered with pens to add some colour. Here are a few close ups to show the details;

Thanks for visiting to catch today's Saturday Showcase tutorial. And don't forget there's still time to enter the current Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog challenge 'Treats Not Tricks!'

Jenny xxx

Links to the products used from The Funkie Junkie Boutique;

Eileen Hull Designs Sizzix Scoreboards XL Die - Treasure Box
Eileen Hull Designs Molten Dimensions Embossing Powder by Emerald Creek Craft Supplies - Golden Rod
Tim Holtz Sizzix 3D Texture Fades Embossing Folder - Botanical
Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz Die - Trinket Frames
Tim Holtz Idea-Ology 8 x 8 Metallic Kraft Stock
Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Hardware Heads
Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - Turquoise and Ancient
Stamperia 12 x 12 Paper Pack - Oriental Garden
Bronze Tone Hinges - Set of 4

Antiqued Bronze Tone Mini Box Handles - Set of 4

Filigree Metal Butterfly 5 Piece Set