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SAF 2017 Guest: Jessica Frost-Ballas

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16-Jessica

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 8th 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!"

8thanniversary_jfrostballas

Instructions

  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!

 

Supply-list

  • 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

The-Challenge

  • 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.

The-Fine-Print

  • 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!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Simply stunning bronze themed card…love the patina you created! Thanks too for the recipe for making a custom bronze embossing. I went to Joanns and they had no bronze powder. 🙁

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  5. What a beautiful card Jessica, love the teal and bronze together! Gotta go see what I can create now, thanks for the inspiration!!

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  7. I have mixed embossing powders before when I didn’t have the proper color. It’s a great way to get the effect you want.

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  12. Beautiful Jessica! I learned a lot in this tutorial/video. This is so artistic! Thanks PTI for Stamp-a-Faire!

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  20. Thanks for the idea for mixing embossing powders, something I’ll be trying again for sure. I didn’t have the same combination by put together copper, a medium brown & gold, & like how it turned out.

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  22. What a beautiful card, Jessica. I especially love the look of swiping the Versamark across the paper. Nice touch!

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  23. BEAUTIFUL, LOVE THIS TECHNIQUE. ALTHOUGH, MINE DID NOT TURN OUT AS PRETTY AS YOURS. THINK MY SWIPING TECHNIQUE IS A LITTLE HEAVY HANDED. WILL HAVE TO PRACTICE.

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  24. I love everything you did in this video. I never thought to use the versamark reinker and a paint brush for better control. I hope to get to work on this soon.

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  26. Fabulous card! Great technique. Never thought to use the versamark reinker & a paint brush. I will have to try this! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  33. I love how the bronze looks almost like it is sprayed onto the cardstock. I sure will play with this technique to try to get different textures.

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  35. Wow, what a gorgeous card using bronze. My last attempt didn’t quite turn out like I had expected, lol, so I will try again with this one. The inspiration card is beautiful!

    Karen

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  36. OMG, the press n seal technique is life-changing! So glad you put that into your tutorial for a beautiful, bronzey card!

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  84. This is wonderful. Love the colors, love the leaves, and love that each time you make it you’ll get a different, yet similarly striking result. 🙂

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  88. Beautiful card!! Love the bronze with the teal cardstock. I normally don’t like bronze, but this video changed my mind. Thanks for sharing.

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  92. Wow, it’s time to play with some of my embossing powders. And never thought about mixing colors nor using versamark/brush for a bit more control.

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  98. This card is stunning. Thank you for the great technique tips, I especially like how you swiped across the card panel and added embossing powder. I’m going to add that to my repertoire.

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  99. I have been super busy packing for a trip this weekend so I haven’t been able to play along but I have enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful creations.

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  131. So happy I got to use my new Kinda Corny set with this technique since the bronze made me feel in a fall-ish mood. Thanks for the video!

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  137. Wow, so many excellent techniques in one video, and the resulting bronze beauty is worth it! LOVE your gorgeous card, the background patina is so pretty and looked simple too! Love the pretty leaves and thanks for tips on applying Versamark details with the brush, so clever. I love your bronze color embossing powder mix, really adds dimension.

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  144. Jessica, your embossing on Tropical Teal is just stunning! I decided to go with Ocean Tides. This has been so much fun, and I’ve learned all kinds of great tips and tricks from you gals. TFS!

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  146. Beautiful card, Jessica, and great video. I learned a lot of new ideas and techniques. Thank you for the inspiration!

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  149. Your card is gorgeous Jessica! I tried this technique with Delicata inks for a bronze look. I need to pick up some metallic embossing powder now! Thanks for the great video Jessica!

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  154. Such a beautiful card! I can’t wait to try this technique when I get a Versamark Reinker. And a great use for the MISTI. I just got one of these & haven’t played around with it too much.

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  156. Absolutely GORGEOUS card! Love this technique and mixing different colors of embossing powders to create really stretches your supplies…gotta love that 😉

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  158. I love watching videos and learning new things. I have the Versamark refill and never thought about using it the way Jessica has. Great idea that I will be using often!

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  160. Jessica – this is such a fabulous card – I love the “bronze” on the deep teal and the brushed metallic background is awesome!!!

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  164. Well that was fun! I would never think to paint with Versamark but it really helped getting into my small spaces!

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  168. Cool bronze recipe and I am flipping out over that soft blown look of the embossed edge! Love this idea of using the traditional anniversaries for PTI’s 10th!

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  173. 2017 SAF was THE event of all crafting events! It was such a treat to have 3 days of fun crafty activity! I managed to complete 14 of the 21 challenges. Thank you SO much for putting on such an amazing event!!

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  174. I ran out of time before I got to try this awesome technique. I watched the video, though, and it looks awesome! Thanks for the video which showed how easy it was to complete this look! I will definitely try it in the near future.

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  175. Beautiful card! Thank you for your tip filled video-never would have thought about using Versamark reinker with a paint brush.

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  176. This card is so beautiful! I haven’t tried embossing powders in long time so Jessica’s card has inspired me to try them again.

    Reply

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