**Tips & Techniques**

Here I Am! In my Stamp Room - Excuse the mess!

I do my best creations when things are messy & disorganised

I Hope you find something interesting and useful in here

Mixing Powders

I am one of those people who loves to experiment with anything! Mixing powders is great fun and you never really know what you'll come up with until you start dabbling. The combinations are unlimited and you will find that your Stamp Room becomes a bit like a Science lab with lots of margarine containers and vials everywhere! Here are few of my favourites:                

Clear & Gold - Gives you a wonderful flecky gold look depending how much you use

Clear/Copper - Provides you with a great mix of copper and clear that isnt too heavy, a great Autumn look

Clear/Liquid Platinum - This gives a similar look to the gold - however the paltinum seems to dominate so dont use too much or it will over ride the clear.

Satin Pearl/Copper - Giving you a pearly copper look, it takes the metallic look away but leaves a great Satin finish.

Gold/Liquid Platimum - A mixed metallic look - very effective!

Embossing Leaves Etc

When it comes to things out of the garden, there are so many items that can be embossed and added to your cards as embellishments. Leaves are the number one favourite, using UTEE or Clear embossing powder and a clear pad, dab the leaf with the pad and then pour on the powder. You get a great glossy leaf for your next collage. But.....wait there's more! Have you thought about all the bark, pebbles and flowers. I have tried embossing rose petals, but must warn you to go very easy on the heat and take it slow. Mix your pwders, Clear/Gold for a great look. A WORD OF WARNING - please go easy on the heat I have had a few tense moments when I think there has been excessive smoke in my Stamp Room - I keep some water handy now!!!! LOL - My husband thinks I'm mad!

Just a few of my favourite things

Rice Paper Collage

I suppose most of you have tried this but for those of you that haven't - Here it is! Rice paper is available in Squillions of colours and designs and is great as it is a light delicate paper. I feather the edges with a paint brush and water, ripping up lots of little pieces and placing them in the desired position on your card. Now this is optional and i'm not all that sure if it is necessary, but i take small amounts of Dble sided tape and stick the pieces of rice paper down so they dont move when I'm positioniong them. Once they are in the correct position I use A Polyurethene Varnish with a Gloss Finish and brush over the entire card. Leave to dry then repeat until you have the gloss look you want. When all of this is dry you can now stamp over and emboss or you can leave it as a background and layer you images on the card. The look is wonderful and it provides you with an intricate looking card with believe it or not  - not alot of work.

Backgrounds       

These are a few of my favourite Background Techniques - Hope you find them interesting.

Webbing: Webbing spray can paint - Easy, effective and fun. Just spray on and Whacko !

Irredescent Paints: I use these ALOT, truly the best ever purchase I have made - Apart from Stamps of Course! The best effects are on Dark card, you can sponge with them or paint whatever you like - Swirls, lines, blobs - Only limited by your imagination.                                            

Marvy Metallics: These are great little numbers, I blob the paint onto an ice cream lid and paint with them, swirls, blobs, etc. On gloss card you spritz with water and then dab on and watch them run into each other - great effects! Or you can be really boring and use them to colour in with -(I do this alot too). If you want to be really daring you could also sprinkle salt into the wound when the Marvy's start to run, the salt tends to soak up alot of the colour but the effect is great, when dry, brush off most of the salt, leaving a little on for effect.

Marble Paper Enhancing:Well we ALL use marbled paper at some stage -DONT WE? Although this is wonderful paper anyway why not experiment and add some more colour. Using a Clear Embossable pen, follow some of the swirls and lines of the Marble. Add some gold or glittered embossing powders and create a great effect on an already great paper.

 As I experiment more and more I shall be updating this site with the results - So be sure to return!