New Year, New Challenge (Blog): Beyond The Blue

 New Year, New Challenge (Blog)! 

I have been crafting with some new Facebook friends for a few months now (thank you, Pandemic), and, under the guidance and tutoring of @understandblue (Lydia Fiedler), we've all been discovering the wide world of mixed media papercrafting techniques.  The new techniques and new friends are a powerful combo--and the results often pop up in my cardmaking.  

Enter this:  Beyond the Blue--a papercrafting techniques weekly challenge blog, where a few of us will try out one of Lydia's techniques that are mostly demo'd in one of her many YouTube videos, and we'll post our results, in order to inspire you to try out that mixed media craze.  As our fearless leader, Lee is choosing the techniques, and we're trying them on, one at a time.  

We hope you'll try these techniques, too and link them to our new challenge blog--anything goes and definitely, definitely Use. Your.  Stash!  My fellow design team members are all Understand Blue followers, and I hope you'll follow them, too!  

Looking forward to seeing what you create, and we'll all be "showing some love" to your linked creations.  

How I made it:  Today's new technique is to use your gel plate or gel press (same, same)  with something most of us have in our cardmaking stash:  dye reinkers, embossing ink (like Versamark) reinkers, and stencils.  Lydia's instructional video is linked in the challenge blog.  The card above is my favorite result--so far!

What I used:  The reinkers were a combo of things in my stash, the stencil is a leafy bordered 6X6 from Simon Says Stamp, and the die cut is a set called Botanic Images from Mama Elephant (that I coveted, bought, and never used...until now!). And the gel plate measures 6X6 The bits below the card are to show you that I've used EVERY little bit of the print I made--those scraps are all that's left!--and also peeking out beneath the card and scarps is a second print I pulled that uses the stenciled image in reverse.  I'll use that in another card, or maybe in my art journal. 

I hope you'll check out the rest of my friends' creations when you go to our challenge blog.  Most of all, I hope you'll try this technique for yoursel, and please post your creations!

We'll be back next week with a new technique--and a new challenge!

Thanks for stopping by,

Essie