1 million views! Card making, Magenta Stamps, Alcohol Marker Painting, Sharing my Faith

 Hello Everyone, thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to stop over to my blog.  I continue to be surprised by the number of visits I have had.  I have been blogging for over 10 years now, and my "stats tell me that there have been over 1 million visits to 1200+ posts.  That to me is astounding.  Honestly I'm not that interesting and I know my  "stamping" is a little old school, and even older my main subject,  my true love, the Word of God. If you are reading this, you most likely know It is the one thing in this world that will stand forever as the truth. Making sure our life is lived according to its plan is the only thing that matters - we too are eternal beings, and what we do now or I should say give now, determines how our personal "rest of the story" plays out.  

I love card making to share the Word, and I love helping you in your crafty world to do the same.   

Today I have a wonderful verse made with a delightful vintage Magenta Stamp.  This is considered a bookmark stamp and I have made a lot of bookmarks with it!  It heat embosses beautifully! 

I originally made the card for a  challenge at Christian Card Makers that I hosted using one of your oldest stamps.  This one was from I think 1992.  Magenta Company is my long-standing favorite stamp maker.  They are a family-owned business that began back in the 1980s.  I've worked on their design team and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.   Magenta has stood the test of time and weathered the storms that most companies from their start era have sadly not. 

A newer stamp company that I also really love is located a mere 35 minutes from my home in NY- Altenew.  They are pretty awesome at innovating new techniques and of course, flower designs - never too many beautiful flowers!

Beeswax Rubber Stamps,  is a  Husband - Wife owned business out of California that is fun and funky, like Magenta, it offers its stamps in 3 forms - naked rubber, cling mount, and wood mount.

My Card:

I've alcohol marker colored this, with a slightly different method.

I stamped the image using a  Maker Forte's Eclipse black.  This is a super crisp black made for alcohol marker coloring.. I have found that using this ink and Magenta stamps, Hammermill super smooth white, 100# 271 gsm paper works really well. It also makes a good card base.  I have learned the hard way about the super heavy card stocks and postage costs. My cards tend to have a lot of layers - I don't mind paying for 2-ounce postage, but if the card does not have enough flexibility, it will have to go as a parcel and that will be almost $4.00!

Another trick with Magenta wood mounted stamps: because many of them are finely detailed, to get a super image you do need to pay attention to the paper and ink you are using and give the paper time to absorb the ink.  I have other posts in my blog about using these art stamps - but the quick trick: super smooth paper, good ink, and a  weight.  I have a little antique iron I keep on my desk that weighs 2lbs, I stamp, leave the stamp on the paper, and put the weight (iron) on it for a minute. 

It works, using a speedball lino press works well too, But they are harder to find and pricer.  I have also used a fabric-wrapped brick.

I stamped my image, let it dry and then painted it with denatured alcohol, you can also use 90% rubbing alcohol.  I then added color with a marker a little at a time. 

It gives the coloring a more painterly look.  Of course, you could use watercolor too - but then there is the paper issue, watercolor paper is textured and not as user-friendly with engraving style detailed stamps.  I also used a stump, to blend my Prisma colored pencils with the alcohol 

 It is so fun to try this!!

I mounted this on two layers, Gold foil, and a Black mat

added to the card from, printed out my verse - a wonderful verse for times like these and found on    Word Art Wednesday

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your time here - if you go over to Word Art Wednesday, why not join the Challenge?  You might win a very nice prize!!

Have a great day!

Ginny M