Emboss Resist Ink Blended Sunset Skies: Brutus Monroe August 2020 Inspiration Box

Brutus Monroe August Inspiration box this month called Whistling Windmills is inspired by The Netherlands.  Have you been there? I have when I was 12 years old on an exchange student program.  The program was actually in Finland but on the way there, our student leader took us to many places in Europe.  We went to Rome, Italy, Athens Greece and on the way back from camp, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I was utterly mesmerized seeing windmills for the very first time and the fields of tulips! The stamp set that comes in the box has these two scenes! The windmills and the fields of flowers! It also has a couple of hot air balloon stamps that would go so well with these scenes.

I wanted to create a sunset scene with hot air balloons floating in the sky.  I asked crafty friend of mine, Karen of Misplaced Mojo if she had suggestions on colors for a sunset sky.  She sent me a photo of a sunset scene from her where she used to live.. it was a wonderful , yellow, orange and purple sky just like this. 

I decided to create a slimline card as I thought it would be perfect for the scene. I wanted to do an emboss resist technique and the beautiful Clouds Background stamp from Brutus Monroe was just perfect for this.

First, I placed my 3.5″ X 8.5″ slimline card panel onto my Misti.  It’s ok if it hangs out the bottom, I just made sure I taped it with washi tape onto the Misti to prevent it from moving around.  Then I placed the Clouds Background stamp on the upper half of the panel. 

I used Distress Oxide inks for this technique. First, I took some Squeezed Lemonade and dabbed the ink of the lower parts of the clouds.  This will create the highlighted reflections of the setting sun underneath the clouds.  Then, I blended Ripe Persimmon after the yellow, then Candied Apple, closing the door to my Misti after every application of color.

I then used Wilted Violet and Chipped Sapphire for the upper part of the clouds, applying each ink with a finger dauber to soften the blending between colors. I even added a little Black Soot at the very top to show a little more darkness as the sun rays begin to fade.

Here is the important part of the technique.  After I was satisfied with the blending of my clouds, I heat set it a little without removing the paper or the stamp from my MISTI.  When the ink was dry, I inked up the Clouds Background stamp with Embossing Ink but not before cleaning the inks off the stamp. I sprinkled Clear Embossing powder and proceeded to heat set it.  Doing this created an embossed “mask” on top of the inked clouds.

Then I proceeded to ink blend the panel, starting with Squeezed Lemonade, then Ripe Persimmon, Candied Apple, Wilted Violet, then Chipped Sapphire at the top. I used a soft cloth to wipe away residual ink over the clouds.

I stamped the fields of flowers scene from the stamp set onto White cardstock with Raven Detail ink. I allowed it dry before I ink blended on top of it using the same color combinations that matched the sky.

I stamped out the images of the hot air balloons, colored them with my copics before fussy cutting them. I then used a little of the Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Ink dabbing the ink on the sides of the balloon images to create a shadow effect.

I stamped the sentiment “Hello My friend”, cut it out and used my copics to create a gradient color over it. I adhered all the elements onto the slimline card base using foam tape.

This was a fun project to make and I hope to do more skies like this with different gradients of color.

Thank you so much for dropping by my blog! I hope you were inspired by my project.

‘Til next time!

❤️

Anna

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