SAF 2017 Guest: Jessica Frost-Ballas

We are pleased to introduce an exclusive presentation from Jessica Frost-Ballas. 

"Hello!  I’m Jessica Frost-Ballas from All the Sparkle and today I’ll be sharing a project using the 8^th anniversary traditional gift of bronze as my inspiration. You’ll see bronze used in different aspects of my project from embossing powder to cardstock and embellishments and I’ll even show you how to create your own bronze embossing powder. Before starting my project I did a little research about bronze and discovered that it can range in color from greenish gold to red gold or even chocolate brown and the age and patina of the bronze will affect the overall color. So I decided to play with various shades of  bronze on my card and I encourage you to do the same!"

1. First, die-cut the leaves from Tropical Teal cardstock using the Palm Prints coordinating dies. Reserve the negative that you cut the leaves from and place it in a stamp positioning tool (like a MISTI).  Fit the die-cut leaves inside the negative and arrange the Palm Prints stamps on top. Close the lid of the MISTI to pick up the stamps and then stamp them with Tropical Teal cardstock. You can do this technique using an acrylic block, it just goes a little faster if you can stamp several images at once using a stamp positioning tool.
2. Then you’ll want to create a bronze embossing powder if you don’t have one.  I use a pretty equal mix of brass, copper, and gold embossing powders to create a custom shade of bronze.  You can add a litle more of one particular color if you’re looking for a greener, golder, or redder shade.
3. To create the sentiment, adhere stick-it adhesive to the back of a piece of Tropical Teal cardstock and a small scrap of metallic bronze cardstock. Die-cut the sentiment from Boho Rounds four times from the Tropical Teal cardstock and once from the bronze cardstock. Peel the backing off the adhesive and adhere the die-cut words together to create a thick, dimensional sentiment. Adhere the bronze cardstock on top of the teal cardstock.
4. Next gild the leaves by brushing versamark onto the leaves with a small paintbrush. To make it go faster I again place the die-cut leaves inside the negative in my MISTI so that I can stamp several leaves at the same time.  Squirt a little versamark reinker on an acrylic block and then use a small flat paintbrush to lightly brush versamark along the edges of the stamps.  I also flick versamark along the stem and vein lines of the stamps. You could achieve a similar look by swiping a versamark pad across the die-cuts but I prefer the detail I can get with a paintbrush.  A little goes a very long way with this technique so apply the versamark lightly. You can always go back and add more. Once you’re happy with the versamark coverage close the lid of your MISTI to stamp the versamark onto the leaves and then heat-emboss them with the bronze embossing powder.
5. To create the bronze patina of the background panel, lightly swipe a versamark pad approximately two-thirds of the way across an A2 panel of Tropical Teal cardstock and heat-emboss it with the bronze embossing powder. Next, arrange the leaves on the background panel and adhere them with ATG adhesive. Remove the adhesive backing from the sentiment and adhere it over the leaves.  Finally add a few gemstones or other embellishments to finish the card with a little sparkle! I love the different shades of bronze on the card and you’ll notice that the metallic cardstock and embossing powder really changes color depending on how the light hits it. It’s quite a neat effect!

 

• STAMPS: Palm Prints
• INK: Versamark, Versamark refill, 
• PAPER: Stamper's Select White, Tropical Teal, bronze metallic cardstock, 
• DIES: Palm Prints
• OTHER: bronze embossing powder (copper, brass, and gold work well too), flat paintbrush (1/4-3/4" wide), chocolate brown rhinestones (or other bronze color embellishment), embossing powder tool, heat gun, die cut machine, adhesive

• Now it's your turn!  Create a project featuring bronze metallics.  You can choose to re-create the exact project from Jessica above or design your own using the same concepts. Your project must also incorporate at least one Papertrey product.
• Post your project on your blog, in your gallery, Instagram or on any other photo-hosting site (such as photobucket or flickr).
• Add your project to the InLinkz list below.
• You will have until 7am ET, Thursday, August 31st, to add your link to the list to be eligible to win. One project per person please.

• As a reminder, you will have until 7am ET, Thursday, August 31st, to add your link to the list to be eligible to win. 
• One randomly selected winners will be chosen from all of the InLinkz entries on this post on Thursday, August 31st. The winner will be posted on our Thursday night Stamp-a-faire winners page after 9pm ET.  The randomly selected winner will get a $20 PTI gift certificate to spend however they like!
• One randomly selected winner will be chosen from the comments of this post on Thursday as well. You will have until 7am ET, Thursday, August 31st to add your comment and be eligible to win. The randomly selected winner will get a $10 PTI gift certificate.

Isn't this just gorgeous? I love all of the layering and artistic elements that Jessica added to her project, it's just so pretty! Totally frame-worthy! How do you think you are going to adapt some of her techniques to your project?  We can't wait to see what you do with this!