JUGS140 & Retro Sketches 15 Techniques!!





There have been some awesome challenges this week, and three blogs inspired me. Just Us Girls has an Acrylic Distress technique that I had never heard of.  It sounded like a lot of work, and turned out to be quite easy for a spectacular result. You cut a shape, emboss in a folder, paint it with Acrylic, sand, ink, mist with water and wipe.  It does require a bit of patience while allowing things to dry....not being the most patient sort, I did help things along a bit with my heat embossing gun.  I suggest you go to their site for a link to directions which will be more helpful than mine.
Then while exploring I saw some unusual cards made using a "flower pounding" technique. The artist at Creative Lynks suggested checking out the Cuttlebug site for directions.  Basically, you find fresh flowers from the yard, place them in a folder of paper (watercolor is suggested and that is what I used), and running it through the Cuttlebug in an A/B/C sandwich.  This took more experimentation...I discovered that it was best to use only the flowers pulled away from all stems/pods.  The leaves and stems mostly just made a big, wet, brown mess.  It's a very delicate coloring you get from the flowers, and you can use both sides of the folder.  This image was made using bachelor button, forget-me-nots and some hot pink perennial that has been like a weed in the garden forever.  (I am sure they have a name, but I don't know it.)
Finally, I used the Retro Sketches #15 here to put it all together.  What a fun morning!