How to … Polished Stone

Ok – time for another How To. This time it’s for Polished Stone.

Let me preface this by saying there are many different ways that people create the Polished Stone Technique. This is the way that I create it – and it’s the method that I taught at a CTMH Convention a few years ago! It’s not that difficult, and in my opinion looks pretty realistic.

If you have questions – let me know. Thanks!

Supplies:

Glossy Cardstock
Colored Re-inker
Metallic Re-inker
91% Isoprophyl Alcohol (You need to make sure it’s the 91%)
Cottonballs
Tweezers
Krylon Clear Coat Spray

Step 1:

Drop several drops of the colored re-inker (in this example, Spring Iris) onto the cottonball. You’ll want to hold on to the cottonball with your tweezers, as this can be very messy.

Step 2:

Start “dabbing” the cottonball onto the glossy cardstock. Continue to do this until the paper is pretty much completely covered – you may need to add reinker to your cottonball.

Step 3:

Repeat the previous step with the metallic reinker. The coverage doesn’t need to be as complete as it was with the colored reinker. This is what it will look like:

Step 4:

Repeat Step 2 one more time – this time with a cottonball and the alcohol. As the alcohol begins to react with the metallic reinker, you will start to get the “marbled” look that you are going for. You can continue to play with it a little bit as it starts to dry to try and manipulate it a bit more. Don’t over work it though.

Step 5:

Once the piece is completely dry – it could take 20-30 minutes – take it to a well ventilated area, preferably outside, and spray with the Krylon clear coat. This will keep the metallic reinker from rubbing off on anything and everything and seals the final look.

Step 6:

Cut to your specs and make your card!

Have Fun!

How to … Soot Stamp! (A Tutorial of Sorts)

So I had a couple of requests from some friends for a “how to” on the Soot Stamping.

I’ll try my best to put together a step by step here, but it’s hard to get some of the pics (cause of the fire involved ya know)!

What you need:

Glossy Card Stock
Stamps (I prefer an Outline stamp)
Candle w/ lighter
Acrylic Spray
Light colored Stamp Pad
Tweezer (not shown)

Step 1 – Cut your piece of glossy cardstock to the size you need. Light the candle. With your tweezers, grip your piece of paper (glossy side down) and run it through the flame. Don’t stop in the flame, just keep running it back and forth. The soot will start to collect on the cardstock. Continue until you have the coverage you desire.



When you are done, it will look like this:



Step 2 – Ink your stamp in the light colored stamp pad. Stamp off on your scratch piece of paper. I do this for a couple of reasons. First, it seasons the stamp. And second, it keeps the soot from sticking/staining to your stamp.

Once you’ve inked it with ink, and stamped off, stamp into the soot. Be careful on this step – the soot will smear if it’s touched.



Step 3 – Spray the stamped piece with the acrylic spray. This will seal the image and prevent the soot from smudging. This will take just a couple of minutes to dry. WARNING – Use this spray in a well ventilated area (preferably outside)!

Step 4 – Finish card as desired.



Hopefully this helps some of you! Good luck, Be Careful, and Have Fun with this technique!