Spritzin' and Flickin'

Before I explain the title of this post, I just want to say that tomorrow I am leaving the Empire State for the Garden State.....yep, I'm heading to Jersey with my pals Pat and Cheryl for six days at CREATE.  It's the first time being held on the east coast, and I am so excited.  I'm taking six classes with some fabulous instructors, so in a week or so you can expect to hear all about it.  Classes will be held Wednesday through Sunday and it is my understanding that there are still some openings, so if you're interested, click on the link and maybe I'll see you there.

Now, back to spritzing and flicking.  That is the technique for this week's Compendium of Curiosities 2 challenge.  It's an oldie but goodie from Tim, and just the right thing to add to my fishy tag.  My wonderful friend Elena sent me the LaBlanche stamp as a present because she thought it looked like me.  No, not that I look like a fish, but that the stamp looked like my style.  And right she was.  I absolutely love it and had a wonderful time working with it.

I stamped the fish on the tag (it's a smallish tag, to give you an idea of the size of the stamp, the tag is 2 9/16" x 5 1/4") with clear embossing ink and embossed it with fine black powder.  Next step, coloring the fish with distress markers.  Here's a close up, and I hope you can see a bit of sparkle on some of the fish's scales.

This is how I did that:  I reheated the embossing and scattered bits of two different powders on the areas where I wanted a little bling.  I used the tip of a craft stick and very little powder, so I did have some control.  The powders were a blend of Ranger's verdigris from the Antiquities line, and goddess gold from the Ancient Gold line.  Then I reheated again and the newly added powders melted into the image.

The last thing I did was apply the background inks (salty ocean, peacock feathers, and mowed lawn) and do the spritz and flick distress technique (which can be found on page 42 of Compendium of Curiosities, Volume 2).

I enjoyed this process so much, I did a "few" more.  Looks like I have enough to share with some friends.

This week Simon Says Stamp is offering a $25 gift certificate for one randomly selected participant, so there's another good reason (besides the fun of getting inky) for jumping on the CCC train.