Recently I purchased a new book. It's called, "Creative Foundations". It's full of techniques for scrapbooking and mixed media. I just love this book. I can't say enough good things about it. I've learned alot from it and the techniques are easy to follow and they give you step by step instructions plus they use products that most crafters all ready have on hand so you don't have to go out and buy alot of new stuff to do these techniques. I used a couple of the techniques that I learned from this book on this card. The first one is called, "faux letterpress". I used it for the back ground paper on top of the card. You just ink up one side of your embossing folder with a dye based ink and run it thru your die cutting machine like normal being careful not to smear the ink when you place your cardstock in the folder. Then, once I had it embossed, I used Antique Linen distress ink from Tim Holtz to color the raised areas of the cardstock. The next technique I used is called, "tie-dye markers". I used it on the strip of cardstock that runs across the center of the card. To do this technique all you do is use some water based markers, any kid friendly markers will do, and you color a few different colors onto your cardstock then you spray it with water and let the ink run. Then you crumple up the cardstock while it's still wet then straighten it back out and dry it using your heating gun. Then used a script stamp and black archival ink and stamped over the marker. I then tore the edges before adhering it to the card base. The designer paper across the bottom of the card is from the Teresa Collins, World Traveler 6x6 pad. I use this paper so often for my masculine cards. I think it looks great for a "man" card. The label die cut is from Spellbinders and the sentiment stamp is from Hot Off The Press and I heat embossed it using Recollections embossing powder in champagne. I just love the way the techniques turned out on this card and I can't wait to try more from the book.Here's the link to find this book if you are interested. Happy crafting! Hugs to you all, Amy K.
