Polished Stone on Yupo Paper

I'll start out by saying that this is going to be a long post.  A friend of mine played with alcohol inks and the polished stone technique on Yupo paper.  Then she gave me 3 pieces and challenged me to come up with some cards using it.  I was not familiar with Yupo paper, I wasn't even aware that she had used it when I accepted her challenge!  The first piece made me think of water so I decided to make a card with the little Fun in the Sun girl from MFT (see my last post).  I covered the polished stone with Versamark ink and then Amazing Glaze embossing powder but when I went to heat it, before the EP melted, the "paper" started to melt and curl, kind of like what happens with shrink plastic!  I was really surprised and disappointed because I'd totally ruined one of the pieces my friend gave me.    

I moved on to the 2nd piece which was beautiful. I stamped some script in black on it because I thought it would look cool. Here is a piece of it. 

I thought it would be really pretty with flowers and the Joseph's coat technique. I used Stampin' Up's Garden in Bloom set and stamped the flowers with Versamark ink and detail clear embossing powder.  This EP is much finer and melts quicker so I thought I could get away with it before the Yupo melted.  I was very happy when it worked!  The next step in this technique is to cover the entire thing with a dark color of ink.  The idea is to cover up the background so the beautiful colors only show up beneath the embossed areas.  I started rubbing a black ink pad over the piece and was pretty surprised that not only did the ink  not stick to the paper but it completely rubbed off the alcohol ink that was on it!!  It looked SOOO bad. I was disappointed again because I'd ruined the 2nd piece of polished stone from my friend.  :(  The flowers were unique and pretty so I cut them out and glued them onto a piece of dark gray card stock and added some leaves that were stamped on green dotted paper.  I used some jewel circles that I got at a stamping convention and I was happy with the result.  

Now I was down to the very last piece of polished stone from my friend!  I was afraid to do anything except cut, die cut or punch it so that's what I did.  I started by cutting out some grass.  This is what the piece looked like...  

This piece had fall colors so I immediately thought trees and leaves would be good.  For the first card I used MFT's Trees in the Forest dies.  I used MFT's Stiched Snow Drifts and dotted paper to make hills for my scene.  I then cut a window in the top layer of my card using MFT's Jumbo Peek-a-Boo Circle Windows die.  To finish the front of the card I added one of the little mice from the Harvest Mouse set by MFT and a little cardinal from the Cooler with You set.  

Here is a close up of the trees.  I wanted a plaid scarf so I added some lines with my Copics.

For the next card I use MFT'S Grassy Edges die and a leaf stamp and die from MFT's Fall Friends set.  The scarecrow and crow are from the Fall Friends set as well.  I used a circle die to cut an off center window in which to build my scene.  I started by using Clarity brushes and Distress inks to color the background.  Next I added the grass.  I colored the scarecrow with Copics and used a brown Prismacolor pencil to add lines to his hat.  I wanted the crow stamp to face left so I used waxed paper to get a reverse image and colored him with Copics, too. 

To tie the window in with the rest of the card I added a branch from the I'm Tweet on You set (MFT).  I wanted to use the polished stone leaves so I only cut out the branch and not the leaves.  I attached the branch and leaves then finished the card by adding two different patterned papers and a sentiment.

For the final card I decided to cut the remaining polished stone piece into strips to use in making a mosaic type background.  I also cut some coordinating patterned paper strips and solid strips. They are 1/4" and 3/8".  Next I covered a piece of A2 card stock with double sided adhesive and stuck a strip diagonally across the sticky surface.  I kept adding strips until the whole surface was covered.  I really enjoy making these backgrounds.  I had enough polished stone to make 2, one with using patterned paper and one using only solids.

Once the background was complete, I cut an oval and colored it using Distress Oxide inks and a sponge dauber.  This ink blends like butter!  Then I added a dark green frame cut with MFT's Stitched Oval Scallop Frames .  The fox, crow, acorn and leaves come from the Fall Friends set (MFT). I stamped and cut 2 leaves from the remaining polished stone paper and colored everything else with Copics.  

The fox looked a little flat so I stamped him again, colored his head and cut it out so I could pop it up. Adding leaves, the crow and the acorn around the frame finished the card off.

I found out one interesting thing when making this card.  I added some Nuvo drops and as they dried, they pulled the color of the Distress Oxide inks into them.  I only used 2 colors, Dandelion Yellow and Ripened Pumpkin, but if you look at the dots, there are more than 2 different colors!  I'm going to see what happens when I put white drops onto the different colors of Oxide inks!  Fun!!

Thank for taking the time to visit.  Did you stamp today?

Janet