Safe Travels And A Tutorial

Hi bloggers!  First of all, I want to apologise for the colour issue on yesterday's card.  I have been having some issues with Blogger recently.  The pic was absolutely fine when I looked at it on preview, so I don't have a clue why it came out so pink (as the rest of them didn't look pink and they were all taken at the same time!)  Blogger also sent up a second post yesterday right in the middle of my writing it!  I do apologise if you received a second email that did not make any sense!  Now on to today's card, which hopefully will be a fun card for the guys in your life.  The background was creating using the faux leather technique.  There are about a dozen pics below the card pictures showing step by steps for this technique so I will skip it here.  I stamped the vintage car from the Going Places set from Justrite stamps using a coffee archival ink pad.  I cut it out with the matching vintage Labels and Banner die set.  I used a light inking of Antique Linen distress ink while still in the die.  I used a pale blue pencil behind the card.  Cotton hemp ribbon was wrapped around the card in both directions.  I added some gears as accents, stamped a metal edged tag with a sentiment and tied it on with some natural jute twine.  Add a suitable sentiment for your own personal occasion and your guy's card is sorted!   Finished dimensions are 7" x 8 1/2" in size.

 Here is a step by step tutorial for the faux leather technique.  Begin with a piece of card that size that you want for your background.  Start by tearing small pieces of masking tape and placing them on your card.  I find it easiest to work from the bottom towards the top and allow the tape pieces to go off the edge of the card onto my craft mat.

 Continue this process working up your card.  Remember to turn your pieces so that they overlap.  Also, this will create a pleasing effect since you will always have straight sides from the edge of the tape to disguise.

 This is what it will look like when you have finished applying the tape.  If you notice any areas that may appear different, now is the time to add a bit more tape to those sections. Once you move on to the inking step, it will be too ate to alter that.

 You can either trim your edges in a paper trimmer or wrap the tape around the back of the card (that does take a bit longer to do though).  You can also rip or tear the edges for an interesting effect.  I use scissors to get it started due to the thickness, but it tears easily after that.

 Using any colour of distress ink, use the pad directly on to your masking tape. You can use one or more colours with nice results.  I started by covering the entire piece with Tea Dye here.












 I added Walnut Stain to the edges of the piece to give it a darker shadow. (On the actual card above, I used Pumice Stone distress ink as my second colour.)
Don't worry about how dark it appears as that is only temporary.

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                      Using a piece of kitchen roll, wipe the entire piece down, removing the excess ink.

Next cover the entire piece with clear embossing powder.  You will not need to add any other products to get the powder to stick.  The distress ink will still be wet enough (yes, even after rubbing it) to allow the powder to stick.

 Heat your embossing powder to melt it over your entire piece.

 Here are two pics of your final piece.  One showing the overall piece and one close up for you.

 Next use your piece as a lovely background for your card or even cut it into panels for a more interesting look.  All for now, Sue x