Some More Black Magic

If you've read my blog lately (and a big heartfelt thank you if you have!) I've been experimenting with various incarnations of the "black magic" technique.  Some of the things I've made I've liked, and some I have wondered what in the world I was thinking of!  But I can safely say that this card I like!

First off, I have to give credit to Michelle for providing the basis for this card.  As soon as I saw her card on SCS, I was in love and I knew I had to CASE it!  The combination of basic black and river rock cardstock is to die for!

I also experimented today with adding a border to my image in Photoshop.  The good news is that I did it!  The bad news is that I'm not sure how I did it!  I followed some directions that I found when I asked "Mr Google" but I didn't think it worked so I tried a couple of different things.  I couldn't see the border when I was looking at the image in Photoshop, but clearly it's there!  So, I'm not sure which thing I tried was the one that worked.  Back to the drawing board, I guess!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

A Little Purple Magic

As I was experimenting with the black magic technique, I tried what I affectionately call the purple magic techique.  The technique actually works with any dark colored background, but I think it looks best against black.  I experimented with Concord Crush as you see here.  I also tried Chocolate Chip.  But I've got to say the results were somewhat disappointing in both cases.  I almost wasn't going to post this card, but I love this color combo so much I decided to.  And even though I'm disappointed with the "black" magic, I think the card is very pretty.  And this designer paper, Lap of Luxury, is to DIE for!  Like the name says, it is very luxurious!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

A Little Black Magic and MTSC89

The other day, I tried the chalkboard technique.  Today I've tried the black magic technique.  I've actually been experimenting with this one for a while, except it could more properly be called the purple magic technique because I've been trying it on Concord Crush (with mixed results).  I used the same stamp set as the chalkboard card so I could compare apples to apples.

For this card, I used the sketch challenge over at Mercy's blog and first impressions are that this technique makes a much more dramatic effect than the chalkboard one.  Especially if you outline part of the image with a white gel pen, as I've done here.  And you don't have to worry about pastel dust coming off on your fingers or that annoying shadow effect you get from the pastel dust you can't seem to get rid of.  I tried experimenting with the retired SU! metallic art pencils on some scraps and I would have to say WOW! about those.  The metallic look really makes a difference.  I love all things shiny so maybe I'm biased, but it's a shame that they've been discontinued.  I guess people don't like to color like I do!

I think I'll keep on experimenting with this one and see what I come up with.  But thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!