Marble Technique

Happy Sunday!!

Yep ... I SHOULD be napping ... but we're knee deep in play dates again today so I'm just putzing around and finishing off bits and pieces here and there. 

I thought I'd post a picture of the Technique card we will be making in class this week ... using the "Marble Technique".  Thanks to my friend Joan Jeffery (over at j-jcreations.blogspot.com) who recently made a card using this technique and made me realize that while I had HEARD of this technique I had never actually  TRIED it!

First thing you need for this project is marbles!  Naturally, having two DAUGHTERS and no SONS in our family I didn't have any marbles on hand (well ... I knew there was ONE hiding somewhere in the playroom ... but after quickly searching through 5 buckets of small toys I gave up, threw on my sunglasses and a hat and headed to the local dollar store to buy some!  *lol*)

I came home, opened my spanky new bag of marbles and whipped this up:

Here is a close up of what the background paper ... which was made using the marbles ...

Fun!  There are lots of videos posted on how to do this on YouTube.  In a nutshell, you grab one of your plastic stamp boxes, drop a few drops of reinker in the box, drop a bunch of marbles inside, close the lid and shake the marbles around.  For my project I used the new Baked Brown Sugar reinker.  I used about 4 itty bitty teeny weeny drips of reinker ... and 6 marbles.  I rolled the marbles around for a minute until they all had ink on them.  You then take the layer of card stock you want inked, tape it the inside top of the box, close the lid, flip the box over (so the marbles are now on top of the paper) and roll the marbles around.  (get it??  It's hard to explain ... find a YouTube video if I've completely confused you!!)  Since the marbles have ink on them they leave a trail of ink on the card stock.  When you are happy with the tracks you made flip the box back over (so the marbles are on the bottom of the box and the card stock is on the top), open the box and remove your paper.

For MY project I used a second plastic box with ONE itty bitty, teeny weeny drip of Cherry Cobbler reinker and ONE marble and made a few Cherry tracks on the paper.  In most of the tutorials I watched they would just drop both reinker colors in ONE box but I didn't want the colors to get too "muddy" and/or blended so I just used two seperate boxes.

I really like how it turned out.  I then figured I better make the card into a Father's Day card with that big day coming up pretty quick, so I headed to my stamp sets for inspiration.  I found yet ANOTHER set I have TRIED to use quite a few times but never actually completed a project with it ... the "Morning Post Alphabet" set - page 131 of the catty - $42.95 clear; $57.95 wood.  This set works PERFECTLY with the background image!  I inked each letter in Cherry Cobbler and then punched them out with the NEW Artisan Label Punch  - page 181 of the catty - $21.95.  I taped the letters onto a 1 1/2" x 4 1/2" strip of Baked Brown Sugar that I ran through the Striped embossing folder, dovetailed and had put through the marble technique.  I added a thin strip of Cherry Cobbler card stock and underneath stamped "love you" (in Baked Brown Sugar) from the new hostess set called Express Yourself.  I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the font on this set.  I already know this is a set I will NEVER part with!!  To finish the card off I added 3 mini silver brads (page 170 - $7.25)  I think it's a great card for Dad - masculine colors, no bling and not too "mushy"!

This is a really fun technique ... so go raid your kids' marble collection and give it a try!  Pop in tomorrow when I'll share a quick, easy card made with my other favorite hostess set - Simply Sketched!  Until then ... have a stampy day!


Tam