Michael Strong Card of the Day - Toxiferous Technique Thursday

First I want to say that today's card REALLY shocked and horrified me!   Last week the Tim Holtz blog had some tutorial where they made the same tag with all different kinds of paper to show just how different a look each paper produced.  What a GREAT idea!  So I tried that and I must say I was VERY surprised about the results. 

Since it's Thursday I need to show a technique.  The technique I'm showing today is the Wrinkle Free Distress Technique.  I'm not really doing it exactly right though but there is a tutorial on SplitCoastStampers if you want to check it out.  Basically what I think is the whole point of this whole blog post is to show you how the different papers look.  The technique doesn't really count for anything so that's why I wasn't really concerned about doing it "properly".

So here goes:

The papers I used were Glossy paper, Watercolour paper and Stampin Up! Naturals White and Whisper White paper.  I kept them in the same place throughout this tutorial so you can tell which is which.  Now normally I would have just used Whisper White paper which is my normal paper to stamp with so I was expecting that to work out the best.  Here are the 4 tags.  See the glare on the Glossy paper?  Get used to that:

 For the Wrinkle Free Distress technique you are supposed to not get the colours mixed up but I didn't pay much attention to details when I was reading it so I kinda skipped over that one.  Anyhow I layered Seedless Preserves on top, Ripe Persimmon in the middle and Peeled Paint on the bottom then misted with water.  My mister is a bit funky so there are large drips on the bottom where I held the mister.

 Now I put the tags into the mess.  I didn't drag them or move them in any way.

 Here's the result when I flipped them over.  Right here I noticed a BIG difference in the papers.  The Glossy paper had the most vibrant colour while the Whisper White paper (far right) had the least.  Here's where I was shocked and horrified.  My go to paper worked BY FAR the worst! 

 Now I put some water in my hand and flung it on each of the tags.  The tutorial doesn't do that, but again I wasn't really paying too much attention to it.  Again my WW paper just doesn't look very good.  But I was loving the watercolour one...

 Here is the result when dry.  I did dry with a heat gun to make it quicker.  Here my favourite tag is the watercolour one with the glossy a very close second.  Wasn't too crazy about the other ones but they do get better...

 So now I stamped on Mike's spooky tree.  The Glossy paper actually stuck to the stamp and I had to peel it off but the black ink (Black Soot) covered the entire stamped area on this tag and not on the rest.  You can see how the black is faded quite a bit on the rest.

 So I touched up the inking with a Black Soot marker (not the Glossy one -- it didn't need touching up).

 I sponged around the top with Seedless Preserves, Ripe Persimmon in the middle and Peeled Paint on the bottom. 

 Then I added some dots with Black Soot and a stencil.

At this point I had the cardstock ready that I wanted to add the tag onto but the tag didn't show up quite as much as I wanted so I added some Black Soot sponging around the edges of the tag.  Then I added some ribbon dyed with the Seam Binding Ribbon Dying technique from the Oct/Nov 2014 issue of Technique Junkies (I used the same 3 colours as in the tag) to get this:

 Then I added a couple of glitter stickers to get my 4 tags.  Now before this experiment I would have just used Whisper White because I always tend to use Whisper White but it was actually my least favourite tag.  The Watercolour one was my favourite and the Glossy one came in second because the colour was so vibrant.  Between the Naturals and the Whisper White I far preferred the Naturals just because I thought the colour worked better on it.  Anyhow definitely something to try to see what paper you like best.  I think Tim's point was that there is no right or wrong, good or bad just differences and some people like one paper better and some like another.  On the tutorial the lady didn't like her watercolour one at all but I liked mine best (and to be fair I liked her's the best also so I guess we just have different taste...)  So give it a try and see what YOU like!

 So here are the cards:

This is the card made with the watercolour paper and still my favourite on the cardstock (Rich Razzleberry and Lucky Limeade.)

This is the glossy one that I don't feel looks as good on the card because there is a big difference in the card paper look and the glossy tag look. 

This is the Naturals tag and I do like it much better now that it is complete and on some cardstock.

This is the Whisper White tag and again I do like it much better now that it is complete and on some cardstock.  There were some tense moments for it though...it almost didn't make it after that first dip.  I REALLY didn't like it at that point...  But I think it looks better on the card then the Glossy one just because it matches the whole subdued paper look.  (On it's own the Glossy totally wins out.)

Anyhow next time rather than reaching for your normal everyday paper try using a few more to see which YOU like best!

Stamps:  Michael Strong (Spooky Silhouettes)