disappearing act...

Welcome back everyone!

Want to learn a magic trick? 

They say a true magician never share their secrets, but since I'm no good at normal magic tricks, I guess that rule doesn't apply to me. =)

Have you ever spent hours working on a project, then while adding the finishing stamped flourishes, the stamp slides and you get a blurry image-- completely ruining your project? Or maybe you love the popular collage look but are hesitant to try it because you aren't sure exactly how to layer your stamped images? Or maybe you have run into the same problem I had while working on my mini album.... The front of the page is so textured and dimensional, that there was no way to get a clean stamped image on the back...

 Well, if you have ever run into any of these problems, here is one solution you may want to consider... use tissue paper. That magical cheap stuff you get for wrapping gifts, is a great way to solve these problems. 

What you need:

Tissue Paper

Stamps

Creative Inspirations Paint (cuz we love the shimmer!)

Clear Liquid Glue/ Decoupage Glue

Paint brush

For my mini album, I wanted "Silver Frost" swirls, but for easier demonstration viewing, I went with "Aqua Marine".

Step 1: Ink up your stamp (of course, for the fabulous sparkle effect of the CI paints, I suppose I should say "paint" up your stamp. LOL)

 Step 2: Stamp onto white tissue paper. 

 Step 3: Trim around your stamped image.  It doesn't need to be exact, but you don't want too much extra paper to try to deal with later.

Step 4: Decide on placement... Here is where you can move the stamped image around to find exactly where you want it. Because of how thin tissue paper is, you can see through it somewhat to give you an idea of what it will look like in the end. (always nice for those who work better visually than picturing it in their head)

 Step 5: Using a paint brush start applying glue over the tissue paper. Start in the middle of the tissue paper and pull the brush outward past the edges. Make sure you go past the edge of the tissue paper to ensure a good seal of the edges.  The glue will seep into and through the tissue paper. As this happens, the tissue paper will become fragile, so don't over work the glue, but you can use your brush to gently work wrinkles out to the edges.

Step 6: Allow to dry.. As you can see, once the paper dries, it becomes nearly invisible, leaving you with a fabulously stamped image in the exact spot you want despite the dimension on the other side of the page.  Nice little magic trick to keep up your sleeve, huh!

So, here is the finished back side of my mini album cover.

You can see how well the shimmer shows up on the swirls! 

A couple of things to note:

-If your glue has a glossy finish, you may need to cover the entire background with glue so it is all glossy instead of just patches... If your glue has a matte finish, you probably won't have to worry about that.

-Keep in mind that this technique works better on some surfaces than others... when in doubt, do a test on a similar surface that you don't care about.

-Be sure to wash your stamp and brush thoroughly after to avoid ruining either!

-You can also use this technique to get a mirror image of your stamps!

So, is the hand really quicker than the eye?  I have no idea, but hopefully this trick will help you in your creative journey!

~Kassi