Hello Friends, I am so excited to share my ‘think technique’ with you. I knew that I wanted to work with ‘stamping on acetate’ for today’s post.During my process I discovered a new textured technique on the acetate that I am loving and I hope you will too.

I wanted to create a few cards to mark the special months of the year to have on hand for a Birthday or a Graduations etc. The stamp set we will be using today is called, ‘hello’ and I think you will find it very useful for cards, scrapbooking, project life and journaling.

These are the basic tools to get you started. Do you use distress ink? These cute bottles are the ‘re-inkers’ to the distress ink pads when they dry out. The inks work beautifully when used on acetate . The most important part is to use a FELT pad on the ink blending tool. (NOT THE SPONGE that you normally use when you are working with distress ink.)

Cut a few strips of acetate so you can experiment and have some fun. Keep in mind when using these inks you should only work in a well ventilated area.  Select the colors of ink you want to work with (I used Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean & Mowed Lawn)

Add several drop of each color onto you FELT pad.

Place your inked felt pad on to the acetate and dab it all over the surface until you are satisfied with the outcome.

When you continue to work the colors you might get a more muted tone. You can also blot off some color with a paper towel of the colors are to intense for you.

If you add a few drop of ‘alcohol blending solution” to your felt pad you will get more of a stained glass appearance on your acetate.  After adding the drops to the felt on your tool… apply to the acetate again like you did before.

Can you guess which piece of acetate I applied the blending solution to?? The top one!

I was anxious for my acetate to dry so I carefully used a heat tool to speed up the process but, be very careful!!

The Fiskars stamp press is so useful to use because of the large surface area and the lines are easy to see. Line up the months on your stamp press or acrylic block. Stamp with a waterproof ink.

It’s always a good idea to use some scrap acetate to test the ink you want to use and make sure your months line up nice and tidy. You may notice that I carefully cut the clear stamp of October since it didn’t fit on my line the way I wanted it to.

I wanted to separate the months with a tiny graphic and was happy to find the perfect little star in the stamp set.

I was playing around with some pinks and reds on acetate and this is when I discovered a NEW and fun technique!

VERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE PROPER VENTILATION FOR THIS!

Lay your acetate strip down on a paper towel. Lay another paper towel on top. Place a new piece of felt on your inking tool then, wet the felt with a generous amount of the ‘Alcohol Blending Solution’.

Wet the top of the paper towel where the acetate is underneath using your tool. You will need to add more solution to completely saturate the paper towel that’s on top of that acetate. (I am using the tool so I can control the amount of blending solution)

Apply heat to dry the paper towel with the solution WITHOUT moving the paper towel if possible. Please be very careful and remember safety first.  Be sure to keep the heat gun further away then what the photo is showing and continually move the heat around.

(Next time I want to try and wait for the paper towel to dry by it’s self rather than using a heat gun. )

Remove the paper towel slowly. I love the beautiful textured, colorful but, worn look on the acetate from this technique.

This is close up of the stamping .

I just loved how the ‘Hey Girl’ 6×6 papers worked with inked acetate. On this first card I decided to back the acetate so the paper would show through.  A little distress ink was added so the paper would stand out on the background paper. (I changed from a felt pad to a sponge pad.)

Use a punch or a die cut to cut out a circle. I wanted to highlight the month of May in a unique way.

I used a strip of acetate on the back where I cut my circle out and added a drop of Glossy Accents so my circle would stay in place.  The second card was fast and easy. I sewed my stamped acetate to some BasicGrey paper and circled the month with a Sharpie marker.

I hope you found this technique interesting and thanks for the opportunity to share it.