OWH VCMP - Teen Time

I hope you all are having an amazing weekend celebrating and participating with the OWH Virtual Card Making Party.  If you are starting with me, you've missed a whole lot of fun.  Click HERE to be re-directed to OWH for a complete list of all the challenges.

My assignment was Teen Time, or how to make cards for teenagers without having to buy a specific teen stamp set. To make teen cards, I take a clue from teenagers themselves: the are messy and slightly off-kilter!

Here's my first messy card:

For this card, I started by using Tim Holts Distress Stain in Broken China and Peeled Paint to create the big blobs under the sentiment.  The next layer was embossing paste through a home-made stencil.  (See next paragraph for instructions). After the embossing paste dried, I squished more Distress Stain onto an acrylic block, picked it up with a paint brush, and tapped the brush against my index finger to get it to splatter.  I held my index finger directly over the blob part.  This gave me the most concentrated color under the banner.

To make embossing paste, combine 2 T flour (I used Softasilk Cake Flour), 1 T water, and 1/2 t. Acrylic Paint.  I used colored paint (it's actually greenish instead of tan), but you can easily use white paint and colored re-inker.  If you want to be fussy, you can always add your re-inker to your tablespoon before (gently--oh, so gently) adding the rest of the water.

Now, lest you think I'm just that smart, I found the instructions for making embossing paste here.  I had a ton left over so, if I were doing this again, I would cut the recipe in half (BTW, 1 Tablespoon is made up of three teaspoons, so half of the water would be 1.5 teaspoons).  Oh...and be sure you immediately get rid of the excess and clean your dish or leave it to soak.  This stuff is designed to dry hard and you don't want to ruin a dish.

The stencil was created by cutting an overlay pattern from the CTMH Artbooking Cricut Cartridge.  I used 100# cardstock so I cut my overlay twice by positioning one overlay image directly on top of the other.  The machine cuts once, comes back and cuts it again, and it gives you very crisp edges.  I actually cut two overlays (meaning the machine made four passes of cuts) because I figured my template would only be good for a couple uses and I needed to make three cards.  I got two uses before it became too globby to use again.  If you don't have really heavy cardstock, you can glue two overlays together to create the necessary thickness.  (This process works better if you have a plastic stencil, I just haven't invested in many of those yet.)

I also used a little Washi tape along the edges of my mat for extra security.  When you do a double cut, the last thing you want is for your paper to shift around on you.

To make a messy card work, you need to have a few very crisp things.  I used a white on white border, and my banner is pristine, sharp, and uncluttered.  It is also placed 1/3 of the way up the card and is wide enough to cover 2/3 of the card.  Using that thirds principle is crucial when you create a card which - even though messy - is technically Clean and Simple (CAS).

Here's "messy" card number two:

This one uses the same basic "make a mess" principle but without as much actual mess.  This one started by sponging pink through a stencil and adding brown stamped words over top.  To get the edges of the words sloppy, I blotted with a damp towel creating a semi-circle on my stamp before pressing to the paper.  The sponging was also done in a semi-circle shape.  Like the first card, I wanted my thickest and darkest ink under the focal point.  After the sponging and words were done, I stamped chevrons in darker brown at the 1/3 mark to draw the eye.  Again, I wanted to create a juxtaposition between sloppy and crisp.

The sequins are held on with Glossy Accents to be sure they don't come off.  I made sure it squeezed up through the center hole of the sequins and overlapped that edge.  Those puppies ain't goin' nowhere!

Here are a couple "off-kilter" cards:

Both of these are more gender neutral.  To create my off-kilter top panel, I started by cutting a piece of white cardstock at 4.25x5.5 inches.  I laid it over my card base and pinched tight with my finger, turned the top panel and card base upside down, and drew a pencil line where the top panel overhangs the card base. Then I used my guillotine cutter to trim where the pencil lines were drawn. I started with the long edge then cut the shorter edge.  If you are off by a little, you can always use scissors once you've mounted the panel to your card base.  I think there is an actual die cut on the market that will do this for you if you prefer more precision.

LEFT (Green Hello): To get the arrows in a straight line, I made my top panel but didn't glue it down to the card base.  I lined the base and panel up then used a ruler to draw a straight line.  I stamped arrows along the pencil line and used them to line up the rest of my arrows.

RIGHT (Red Hello): I stamped the pattern of the card base with all the word bubbles, but you could very easily use patterned paper instead.

Now, lest you - once again - think I'm just that smart, here are a few of the incredibly talented stampers whose ideas I have shamelessly copied.

• Stampsnsmiles
• Rosemary
• Ange
• Karen D.
• Shari Carroll
• Jen
• Monika
• Lindsay
• Jaydee

Well, that's all from me.  I can't wait to see your off-kilter messes!

Until next time,

Becca

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