March 2020 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop and Cracked Glass!

Welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop! I'm sure Krista's blog left you speechless, so thank you for continuing on to join me here! This month I wanted to use some of the new items in our brand new March/April 2020 Idea Book.  Therefore, I used one stamp set, Yesterday & Today - Cardmaking Stamp & Thin Cuts, and challenged myself to use papers from two different paper packs with that same stamp set. I also pulled out an old technique for my two cards, i.e., the cracked glass technique.  In fact, I got messy!  My craft room currently shows it, and I'll be cleaning up for a while this week to get back to normal. 😉

To start this card, I stamped the flower and leaves on White Daisy Cardstock.  I colored the images by pressing the Espresso Ink Pad on a craft sheet and picking up the ink with a waterbrush, using varying amounts of ink to do the coloring.  I also used a bit of spatter with the same ink onto the image after I was done with the coloring.

After thoroughly heat setting, I started working on the cracked "glass". I pressed my VersaMark Ink Pad all over the stamped cardstock very thoroughly.  I then sprinkled Ranger Clear Super Fine  Embossing Power over the whole thing and heat set it.  I let it cool, then repeated the process 4 or 5 times.  Finally, I put it in the freezer to harden.  Note that this can be done over a few hours, but I let it sit overnight.  After removing from the freezer, I let the embossed cardstock acclimate a bit to room temperature, then started cracking it in places.  Once I thought I was satisfied, I wiped the Espresso Ink Pad across the embossing to allow the ink to seep into the cracks. I then used a paper towel to wipe off the ink on top of the embossing.  I repeated this process several times by doing more cracking and adding more ink.

To finish the elements of the card, I used the checked paper from the Yesterday & Today Paper Packet and cut a circle using the large die from the Basic Circles Thin Cuts.  Next I used the stitched circle die from the Shaker Window & Confetti Thin Cuts and cut an open, stitched circle from Espresso Cardstock.  I also used this cardstock to create a mat for the card.  I used French Vanilla Cardstock and the Espresso Ink Pad pad to stamp and emboss the bird and sentiment, as well as used the cardstock for the cardbase.

The card was assembled by adhering the Espresso Cardstock mat to the cardbase, the embossed cardstock to the mat, and adding Foam Tape to the checked paper on top.  The remaining pieces were adhered as pictured, with some natural twine added as an embellishment.

Here is a closeup of the technique:

For this next card, I repeated the same process as above, but used Black Ink, Black Cardstock, Linen Cardstock, the Seas the Day Paper Packet, and some Mink Twine.

And here is another closeup:

I hope this was helpful to anyone wanting to learn the cracked glass technique!  Now please head over to Marie's blog and prepare to be wowed!