A Ship's Journey

Morning all!  First of all I would just like to say a great big thank you for all the wonderfully supportive comments that you left on the blog yesterday!  I found myself in tears reading them all.  And yes, keeping that a secret has been killing me!  I wasn't supposed to put up any sneak peeks just yet, but it got the best of me, I just couldn't stop myself!  Maybe another one tomorrow too since I have already been bad! LOL
More ships for today though!  I have used the cracked glass technique on this sample.   This is a really fun technique to use with your ultra thick embossing powders and it is especially nice with those vintage and grungey styled cards too.  I stamped the ship using a coffee archival ink pad on to a cream card.  I heat set it so that the ink was good and dry.  I used a clear perfect medium pad and inked the entire piece and poured clear ultra thick embossing powder over it.  I heated this from below the card so that it would give a nice smooth finish (heating from the top gives it a bumpy finish most times).  I applied three coats of the ultra thick in the same manner to build up a nice thick layer.  Next step is to pop it in to the freezer for several minutes.  I usually leave it for about 8 to 10 minutes.  It will curl up as it gets cold.  When you remove it from the freezer, bend it back flat and you will get these really nice cracked pieces. If you are happy with the cracks, you can ink over them to accent them even more.  If you haven't inked the cracks and you don't like the way they have come out,  just reheat it and it will melt back together!  I cut a circle frame out of some dark gray coordinations card and sanded it to distress it.  That piece was then mounted on to a slightly larger dark brown circle frame and I added some faux screw brads to them, giving it a porthole look (again, hey it's a ship, I just see portholes!)  I tore a piece of Tim Holtz glassine paper and crumpled it.  I lightly swiped the top with walnut stain to bring out the wrinkles a bit.  I stamped a light gray piece of card with the sentiment on the bottom, the map stamp on the top and attached the glassine and a few strands of jute before attaching my porthole and ship.  I stamped the telescope and cut it out and attached it to the corner.  I distressed all the edges of the gray card and mounted it askew on to some dark brown distress card to complete the entire piece.  See, I don't just do frilly, girly stuff all the time!  Hope you like it!  Sam has put an amazing tutorial on her blog on how to make the sailors knot (like I showed on my first ship card).  You can check it out at www.http://www.creative-studios.co.uk and don't forget to tune in to see Sam's shows on Friday at 10am and 2pm for more inspiration!  All for now, Sue x