Lorrie professor@mn.rr.com

ORIGINAL Polished Stone Technique Supplies:
Tria or Studio ll Refill inks.
GLOSSY White Paper (1/4 sheets work best)
Krylon Leafing pens (Comes in Gold, Silver or Copper)
Applicator (Cotton balls, Felt squares, sponges, etc.)
Rubber Gloves!
Table protection (preferably plastic and even this will get stained)

Technique:

Prepare your table, the inks will stain!!! I like to make several of these at once because it is a messy technique. Choose two or three colors of ink, working quickly, dab small drops of Krylon pen ink onto cardstock, (just push down on the pen to get the ink to flow). Place 3-4 drops (or more if you like more intense colors) of each ink color on the applicator in a triangle or next to each other. Starting with the Krylon dots, start to smoosh the inks into the paper, working the entire surface, you can use a dotting motion, a rolling motion, or a rubbing motion). You will start to see the metallic ink and colors make patterns around the paper, stop when you like the pattern. Let dry for a few minutes. You can use these as a background papers, stamp right on them, emboss on them, etc. Experiment with different color combinations, different Krylon pens, or without the Krylon.

POLISHED STONE DIRECTIONS

I thought you all would be interested in a Quick, Easy and Not Messy, way of doing the Polished Stone Technique. With so much talk about this technique, I thought it only fair to share our technique using the Studio 2's. We demo this technique quite frequently but we have a unique style quite different for some of the descriptions I have seen explained. Some seem very confusing and messy so here is our version which is the quick and easy method:

1. I have my glossy paper in front of me.

2. I choose 2 (or 3) colors and apply them side by side on the felt. The amount of ink you use is a personal preference thing here, I tend to like the results better with a generous amount of ink but let me warn you, splattering will occur when your pad is heavily saturated and those splatters could get on your clothes so if this happens you know you have applied a little more ink than necessary. (Remember, this is the Non-Messy version so maybe we used too much if we have splatters.) At this point I add a few drops of Blender (#135 in the Accents column) usually on each end of the inked felt. The Blender allows the ink and the Krylon gold to vein and blend and move more. (Again, just a personal preference thing that I like but this is your piece so practice and play until you find the look you like).

3. I dot the Krylon pens 4-8 times on the paper, NOW HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART. QUICKLY stomp on the dots with the block of inked felt. Once you have the coverage you desire, this is just something I do for variety, hold the card by the edges and tap the bottom edge on the table. If you have used enough ink and enough gold......they blend and the lines made by the block (if any) will disappear. Try it, you will see. Now just set it aside. As it dries and the inks absorb it will give beautiful results. Even if you don't think it turned out the best, wait until it dries before passing judgment. It just might surprise you and be one of your favorites.

4. As an added touch, we like to add a gold border on all four sides by using our cork-back ruler and the same color Krylon pen we used to make the dots.

No extra alcohol is needed to 'spritz' the paper with this method. Nor do we find the need to use Diacetone since there is already alcohol in the ink. This eliminates the mess the other method(s) produce leaving more time to make gorgeous backgrounds and less time needed for clean up. We just put a few sheets of sketch pads papers down to work on and when we are done, even these are too pretty to just throw away so, we punch dragonflies and butterflies out of our sketch pads we used for blotters. No waste and no mess.

LNDA GLASER giggles-001@msn.com
Linda Glaser's Ready Tex Faux Polished Stone Technique

You need a little wood block.

Some sticky side of Velcro to put on your little wood block. Now you need some felt. I bought a big bag of felt scraps at the Craft Store for $1.00. You will also need a spray bottle with rubbing alcohol in it some glossy or matte card stock.

I used white in the samples but the some of the products were wonderful on black!

Now you are going to cut a piece of felt to fit the side of your wood block.

Push the cut felt onto your Velcro covered wood block.

Using three different colors of Ready Tex put three daps of color on your piece of felt. Spray the paint with your alcohol and pounce on the paper moving your little wood block in all different directions. Don't waste the paint and do as many backgrounds as you can. You can respray if you want to get a pastel look once the paint seems to be used up. I usually cut my card stock up in 4ths so I can get 4 different looking backgrounds with the same colors. Once the card stock is dried I stamped my image with my Versamark (I use my Versamark for everything I emboss because it seems to hold the embossing powder better than most pigment pads) and embossed it with Stamp On Inn's Gold embossing powder. Then I just cut it out. Once you get your backgrounds made.....save them and when you need a quick card you can send something very elegant looking.

One thing I need to mention to those of you who have never tried this technique. You must change your felt piece each time you change colors or mediums. That is why you look for that bargain felt! LOL!

Also, in the original Polished Stone Technique they use a Krylon Gold Pen to swirl gold around. I found by using the Copper Plated Gold Iridescent with the Iridescent back ground I came up with the same effect only I didn't have as many "spots" as you sometimes get with the Krylon Pen.

Studio 2 Inkets Faux Polished Stone

OK Girls, here's the scoop. Your search for affordable inks to do the PST is over. We all know that we love the Polished Stone Technique and all the variety it gives us for backgrounds but what we don't like is the price of the Tria Inks. So Cathy & I looked for a similar product that gives the same results. What we found were Studio 2 Inkets. They are alcohol based as the Tria's, telling me they are formulated in much the same way as the Tria's but manufactured in the US instead of France making the cost more affordable. There are 144 colors of Studio Inkets offered and we usually have them all except for all of the grays.

POLISHED STONE DIRECTIONS

I thought you all would be interested in a Quick, Easy and Not Messy, way of doing the Polished Stone Technique. With so much talk about this technique, I thought it only fair to share our technique using the Studio 2's. We demo this technique quite frequently but we have a unique style quite different for some of the descriptions I have seen explained. Some seem very confusing and messy so here is our version which is the quick and easy method:

1. I have my glossy paper in front of me.

2. I choose 2 (or 3) colors and apply them side by side on the felt. The amount of ink you use is a personal preference thing here, I tend to like the results better with a generous amount of ink but let me warn you, splattering will occur when your pad is heavily saturated and those splatters could get on your clothes so if this happens you know you have applied a little more ink than necessary. (Remember, this is the Non-Messy version so maybe we used too much if we have splatters.) At this point I add a few drops of Blender (#135 in the Accents column) usually on each end of the inked felt. The Blender allows the ink and the Krylon gold to vein and blend and move more. (Again, just a personal preference thing that I like but this is your piece so practice and play until you find the look you like).

3. I dot the Krylon pens 4-8 times on the paper, NOW HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART. QUICKLY stomp on the dots with the block of inked felt. Once you have the coverage you desire, this is just something I do for variety, hold the card by the edges and tap the bottom edge on the table. If you have used enough ink and enough gold......they blend and the lines made by the block (if any) will disappear. Try it, you will see. Now just set it aside. As it dries and the inks absorb it will give beautiful results. Even if you don't think it turned out the best, wait until it dries before passing judgment. It just might surprise you and be one of your favorites.

4. As an added touch, we like to add a gold border on all four sides by using our cork-back ruler and the same color Krylon pen we used to make the dots.

No extra alcohol is needed to 'spritz' the paper with this method. Nor do we find the need to use Diacetone since there is already alcohol in the ink. This eliminates the mess the other method(s) produce leaving more time to make gorgeous backgrounds and less time needed for clean up. We just put a few sheets of sketch pads papers down to work on and when we are done, even these are too pretty to just throw away so, we punch dragonflies and butterflies out of our sketch pads we used for blotters. No waste and no mess.