Moroccan Tile-inspired Birthday Card

I'm here with another birthday card today.   I actually had this piece in mind, with all its bright colors, when I first came up with idea to try to replicate Moroccan Tile.  My last project, Summer of Creative Chemistry 2016: Week 8 -- Embossing (with a little Moroccan inspiration), showed me what not to do with shrink plastic and alcohol ink when trying to replicate the look and feel of glass tile.  This time, I was able to control the color on the tiles, sealing them with the Krylon Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze, before grouting them with the texture paste.  My experimenting turned out much better for my 2nd project.

The card background is mixed media paper.  I gave it a slight ombre effect by starting with a light coat of Candied Apple Distress Ink, applied with a blending tool, over then entire background. Then applied  more coats of Candy Apple to the top third of the card (until I had a very intense red at the top) which then blended into Abandoned Coral in the middle third, which then blended into Carved Pumpkin.  Really gorgeous colors!!!!!

After drying the ink with a heat tool, I grabbed one of my favor Tim Holtz stamps of all times( the scrollwork) and applied it to the top and bottom with Distress Embossing Ink.  I embossed the scroll work border with Ranger's Enchanted Gold embossing powder.   I absolutely loved the vibrant background, but it was almost too vivid to work on (I needed sunglasses).  So I toned it down a bit with Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges and lightly over the top of the entire background.  This made the embossed scrollwork pop a little more. I embossed another of Tim's classics stamps, with regular gold embossing powder, on a separate piece of mixed media paper.  I colored the diamonds with a Candied Apple Distress Marker.  I fussy cut the diamonds and adhered them to the background with Distress Collage Medium (matte).

I trimmed the card out with a piece of gorgeous gold fiber ribbon that I got in an after-Christmas clearance bin.  The sentiment is another Tim Holtz stamp.  I used a piece of black card stock embossed with gold embossing powder.  I added some gold remnant rubs on the sides of the sentiment and then gave it a coat of Glossy Accents.  Finally the entire background got a the "spritz and flick" with water treatment.

Now a little more info about my Moroccan-inspired "glass" tile center piece.

  The tiles were made from shrink plastic that I die cut with Tim Holtz's Trellis die.  These pieces are the insert pieces left over from the shrink plastic lattice that I used to create the "Moroccan Tiled" texture in my last project.  I stamped these left over pieces with a variety of Tim Holtz stamps prior to putting them in oven.  After the pieces did their "shrink thing" in the oven, I let them cool.  I applied a variety of colors of alcohol ink (on the opposite sides) by just dripping the ink on the side opposite of the stamped image. I used a cotton swab to mop of a little ink if it was too dark or spread ink out evenly.

I thought about adhering the tiles inside a large bezel, but then decided to try another experiment.  I die cut one of Tim's labels out of his White substrate sheets.  I laid out my tile pattern on it and decided I needed something to cover the edges of the label.  I covered the edges with Ranger's Perfect Medium and then heat embossed Turquoise Iced Enamels Relique.  Love the metallic and black flecks in it!  I edged the embossed label with Ginger alcohol ink to give it some definition.

Next I I covered the interior of the label with about a one-eighth inch thick coat of gloss Transparent Texture Paste.  I was able to apply all of my tiles at once and continue to move them around if they weren't lined up the way that I wanted them.  Applying the layer of texture paste instead of just using it as a glue (like I did with the Glossy Accents in my last project) allowed for a longer drying time of the medium.  It worked like a dream!  I let this dry for an hour before coming back to grout it.

The grout is a mixture of Ranger Texture Paste (opaque white) and Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise Spray Ink.  I managed to get just about the same hue as the turquoise Iced Enamels.   I applied it over the tiles with a palette knife and then used a water-dampened paper towel to wipe away the excess ground from the top of tiles.  I used my finger tips and a little water to smooth the texture past out in between the tiles and along the edges.  The grout cracked a little bit when flexed the substrate to flatten it out (a more rigid surface like chipboard will be my choice next time).  I then added a coat of Glossy Accents to the top of all the tiles.   After all of this dried, I adhered the center piece to my card front with foam squares.

I'm going to enter this in Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge -- Anything Goes Challenge because just about everything went on this project :)  Thanks for dropping by.  Hugs to you all!  -- Mary Elizabeth