'What you do speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you say.'
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tuesday 3 March 2020

...or style, or medium, or....?

Crafting time has been short for me lately, but this is a great opportunity to try something I haven't done before. So I thought I'd try the Eclipse Technique. 

I kept it simple because time was short, but also so that I could master the actual technique. I planned to use my alphabet dies to say 'ART', so I duly hunted out my letters and agghhh! I can't find the upper case 'T'. That took up even MORE time, sorting through all my dies and sorting them further into sets - but no. I was left with the option of using a lower case die OR using another word. My dies are quite big, so I only had limited choice. So, I decided not to use my lovely alphabet dies (bought partly for this purpose) and to use a word instead. 

To keep it simple, I used one of my favourite inky techniques, using primary colours to create a rainbow. I sponged my card in Red, Yellow and Blue, overlapping the colours. 
My Candied Apple Oxide was in a mess, so I had to use Festive Berries, which is slightly more brown in colour.
I then spritzed with water, to blend the colours more. Here you can see that the colours are beginning to move around and blend together.
Once dry, I flicked with water droplets, drying with my heat tool, then stamped an overall pattern, using an old Stampendous stamp - just to keep it simple - (I overlapped it, which spoiled the effect a bit, but you can still see the way the Eclipse technique works.)

Next, I  die cut the Happy Birthday from the stamped card, then five times more in white card. After gluing them one on top of the other, finishing with the stamped card, I replaced them in the space created by the first die cut, using the coloured 'leftovers' to fill in the bits inside the letters that the die had removed. 

This is the result. It's NOT perfect - some of the letters slipped while adding more layers and I hadn't noticed - but it still works and that shows that you really don't have to worry about getting it absolutely perfect 😉.
And these photos show the raised dies a little better ... as well as the lovely water splatters.
 
I much prefer the red in Candied Apple for the rainbow effect - it blends better and is a truer red, thus making a truer orange. 
I've made sure to clean my inkpad again for next time (it had sort of exploded and leaked all over everywhere - again - yuk!)

It's a very simple example of this effective technique, but I hope it illustrates it clearly enough. 
It IS more fiddly than I expected, but that's mainly because of the fiddly little bits inside the letters and my poor dexterity. If you can use tweezers, which I can't do well, it would simplify it a little.

Rosie, my (very talented) teamie, created a few lovely scenic examples of this, well worth a look! If you scroll backwards from this link, you'll see a couple more.

The TIOT Design Team have created some wonderful examples of other techniques for you to see, so please go have a look...
I hope you'll join us for the next fortnight and share your new techniques 😊
I'm sure that like me, you'll always get excited by new ways of creating art!
I look forward to learning from yours.

Thank you for calling in today
Back soon
Cath
xxx

19 very kind comments from lovely people:

Joan said...

This is lovely Cath, love your rainbow colours, another technique for me to try


Joan

Rosie said...

A wonderful card, dear Cath

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Most impressive. I like the idea of the background, even though I have no oxides. I don't have dies, but I probably wouldn't be able to stack those, since I have a real dexterity problem. thanks for the heads up on that part.

DVArtist said...

Wow! Cath this is so pretty. I love the background and the stamping and raised letters makes is very sophisticated.

Let's Art Journal said...

Such a beautiful card! The raised embossing looks amazing and I love how you created the rainbow effect, the water spritzing blended the colours beautifully 😁. Thanks for sharing this technique with us today and wishing you a wonderful week! Hugs, Jo x

Linda Kunsman said...

what a lovely effect with this technique- it almost looks like watercolors in the finish. Love the raised sentiment and that lovely little floral stamp too.

Meggymay said...

Its a great card and I love the vibrant colours and rainbow effects, a super technique Cath.
Yvonne xx

María said...

It's a fantastic card, I love that background full of color it's great.

You've explained very well the technique so maybe in a future I try it. Hugs, María.

crafty-stamper said...

Fabulous background and the words look fine to me-love the eclipse technique but never tried it
Carol x

pearshapedcrafting said...

What a fabulous card Cath and two new to me techniques to try! I'm afraid that like you, I am not getting enough time for everything we need/want to do! My dies stay tidy for quite awhile then suddenly I use them lots and they get into disarray again! Take Care! Hugs, Chrisx

froebelsternchen said...

Stunning dear Cath! I love this !

Mrs.B said...

It's a fabulous card Cath, love the vibrant rainbow colours and black stamping for the base. This is a technique I've been meaning to try, so thanks for the inspiration.
Avril xx

Anne (cornucopia) said...

The end result is lovely.

My name is Erika. said...

I think this is fabulous Cath. It might be simple but your rainbow background technique is so cool. This card is perfect for this challenge! Hugs-Erika

Marjut said...

Beautiful card. Lovely rainbow colours

Janet N. said...

A beautiful card, Cath! The black stamping sets off the rainbow perfectly. I am so bad at email nowadays that I miss a lot of your posts, but it made me smile when trying to catch up a bit, I found this one today!! I hope all is well with you and yours 💕

Janet N.

Neet said...

I love rainbows so your card really appeals to me. Thanks for showing how you did it, the water definitely makes a difference in the blending of the colours. Funny but on Monday it was an Oxide day for me too - must be a bit of telepathy going on.
Love how the black stamping shows up so well against that background.
I've never seen this background before so will have to give it a go whilst the Oxides are out.
Hugs, Neet xx

DVArtist said...

Cath this is just gorgeous.

Aimeslee Winans said...

You did a beautiful job and I'm grateful they slipped a snoodge because the fear of not being able to glue my layers well has kept me from attempting this. Good to know and see proof it doesn't have to be perfect. Candied Apple makes perfect sense here. It's an orangey red to begin with. XOX