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Monday, January 4, 2010

Tutorial: How to make Faux Polished Stones


Okay, so here's a sneak peak at one of the l/o's I made for the January Main kit from My Creative Scrapbook. I'm often asked how I come up with some of the idea's I used on my layouts, and the answer is that I'm often inspired by products, photo's, print ad's and in this case TV! When I was working on this l/o there was an episode of America's Next Top Model on TV and the girls came out wearing these huge polished stone necklaces. And I thought, ...hey, I could make that out of cardstock to decorate my page! Above is the result and here is how I did it....

You will need the following items:

~ Some bright blue cardstock (skyblue, bright blue or turquois)

~ Circle punch or scissors (for other shapes)

~ black in pad

~ black fine point pen

~ white gel pen (like Inkssentials or Signo Unibal)



Step 1

Punch out circles of blue cardstock (or you can cut out odd shapes that you've seen polished rocks come in....I used a scissor to cut out the rounded diamond shapes on the left side of the layout). Now take your ink pad and rub around the edges of your cut pieces, creating a soft shadow that will give your 'stone' a 3D effect......



Step 2

Take a fine point black pen and randomly draw on black veins. Try to keep them running in one direction, although they can slightly wrap towards the top and bottom. Go lightly with the veining towards the middle of the 'stone'.



Step 3

Now to give your faux stone more of a rounded look and some shine add a slightly curved thick line of white with you white gel pen. ....Easy-peasy! You've made your own faux polished stone!



To add a different look to the stone you can mount it on a 'metal' base as I did in the l/o above. I did this by simply painting some plain black cardstock with some metalic gold paint, stick the faux stone to it and following the edge of the faux stone cut around it leaving a small edge (approx. 1/8 of an in or smaller)

Here are a couple close-up pic's of the faux stone in my l/o.....




Be sure to come back tomorrow and check out the reveal of all the wonderful new kits available for the month of January from My Creative Scrapbook. I've got another 9 l/o's that I made using 3 of the gorgeous kits for this month. The LE (Limited Edition) kit is out of this world this month!....I'll be sharing more tips & techniques with tomorrows reveal!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Gabrielle xxx

15 comments:

  1. Very cool technique!and easy too! TFS!!

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  2. WOW...Amazing technique, Gabi!! The result on this LO is stunning!

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  3. Oh Gabi, this is just awesome, there is no end to your talent. They look so real!!!

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  4. Thanks for sharing this technique Gabrielle. I am definitely going to use this one. Oh, love your layouts - so gorgeous. Hugs, Irene xx

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  5. Beautiful Work!!! Lovely technique!! Looks amazing!! Thanks for the tip!

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  6. Wow, simply amazing! Love your creativity!

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  7. I'm in LOVE with these stones! Such an amazing tutorial. TFS!!

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  8. I can't believe it's not "real" stones!!!!!!!!
    THANKS!!!!!! XOXOXO

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  9. WOW, this is a great technique. One could never tell that those faux stones were faux!!! LOL great job. :) thanks for sharing.

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  10. Awesome technique. Thanks for sharing.

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  11. Oh my goodness, thank you so much for sharing this technique. I think even I could manage this, and I am not handy with drawing etc. Thank you again, I cant wait to try this. Lee xx

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  12. They are wonderful I added glossy accents as well and that is also a great efect. Thankyou

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  13. Wow these are great Gabrielle, you are so talented with all of your techniques. I feel very excited when I get an encouraging comment from you as I feel like a real newbie when I see your work. Thank you so much for sharing everything you create.

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  14. Wow. That was great, but I was wondering. What would happen if after you finished your faux stone, if you covered it in either clear embossing powder or Tim Holtz Glossy Accents, would it then become more jewel like?

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