Lisa, a regular attendee of my Stamp Camp, has coined the term "uni-sexy" to describe cards that are appropriate for men or women. As a wife and mother to a son, she wanted more cards that she could use for the males in her life. I know that with all those great flower stamps SU carries, it's sooo tempting to stamp one pink rose after another. But being a wife and mother of a boy myself, I could identify with her plight, so I'm making a conscious effort to design at least some cards that can be "uni-sexy!"
This card employs the technique called Polished Stone. It traditionally is done on Glossy White cardstock, to make it really shiny, but when teaching the technique, I usually use regular Whisper White cardstock because the drying time is so much faster. I actually like the look on Whisper White--it is more like an actual stone and less like marble.
To start this technique, I embossed the Fresh Cut stamp in black embossing powder. Note that the black powder does seem to take longer to "cook" than the metallics, so just be sure you've got it all.
Assemble the following materials: A cotton ball, a paper towel, rubbing alcohol and a little dish to pour it in, one metallic re-inker (I used gold), and the re-inkers of your choice (I used Summer Sun, Tangerine Tango and Kiwi Kiss). Start by dipping the cotton ball in the alcohol. You want the cotton to be a little wet, but not dripping.
Then dab one dot of the metallic gold in the center of the wet ball. Dab 2 dots of Summer Sun, 2 dots of Tangerine Tango and then 1 dot of Kiwi Kiss around the metallic gold dot. I used less Kiwi Kiss because I did not want the green to be dominant. I find this technique works best when I use predominantly light colors, with just a little of the dark, because they can overwhelm.
Once the cotton has all its colors, lay the embossed piece on the paper towel and start pouncing the cotton up and down on the cardstock. Pounce all over randomly. You can go over the space you have already covered--there is no rhyme or reason to this. The only rule of thumb is to always work up and down; do not smear the cotton across or the colors will blend and you'll lose the different tones. When finished, lay the now-wet cardstock under a stamp or something heavy to help it dry flat. This takes just a few minutes. To assemble the card, use the slit punch to make slits in Always Artichoke cardstock, slide in the embossed piece and add Vintage Brads for embellishment. Be sure to add some Snail adhesive onto the back of the embossed piece before sliding it in, to help it remain flat.
One side note: If you are making multiple cards at the same time, you can reuse the cotton ball, just add more ink to it.
The color possibilities of this technique are endless, so grab some re-inkers and get those hands messy!
