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Rubber Road
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Fancy Cuts on Polished Stone

By M. Elizabeth Lee
Rubber Roadsters
Publisher/Editor/Designer/Writer 

Here in the Southwest, we have a beloved artist, Jim Taylor of Taylored Artwork, who has captured the admirations of many customers.  He is a one man band who designs, presses, cuts, and ships his designs worldwide.  His rubber stamp designs consist of Southwest, Jungle Animals, and Sea Life images. 

This technique, Fancy Cuts, is similar to one that Jim shares with his fans here in Arizona.  The chalk application is a simple, yet smashing method of rendering color to stamped designs. 

Did you know that the Polished Stone technique was originally invented by Suze Weinberg of the Melting Pot fame?  This version reveals the easiest of all methods ever developed  to achieve that look.  The appearance of the Polished Stone is more dynamic, too!  

Supplies:

• Potted Cacti Grouping Stamp (Taylored Artwork Stamps)
• Silver Encore Metallic Ink Stamp Pad (Tsukineko)
• Black Eclipse card stock; cut 2: 5½” x 8½” (Kelly Paper)
• Black Glossy Card Stock; cut to size 5½” x 8½”
• Aegean Silver Embossing Powder (Judikins)
• Blue Marvy Metallics Marker
• Green Marvy Metallics Marker
• Silver Marvy Metallics Marker
• Chalkin’ Easy Applicator (Pazzles)
• Decorating Chalks (Craf~T)
• Chalk Sealer: Fine Mist Hair Spray or Chalk Spray (Blair)
• Funny Bones Bone Folder (Ranger)
• Heat Tool (Milwaukee)
• Scotch Double Stick Tape (3M)
• Foam Tape (3M)
• Viva Paper Towels
• Grid Cutting Mat for Work Surface (Creative Memories)
• 16" Cutting System (Genesis)
• Personal Paper Trimmer (X-Acto)

Instructions:

1. Wet a Viva Paper towel and squeeze out excess moisture.  Using three colors of Marvy Metallic Markers, make random puddles of color onto the black glossy cardstock.  Dab the colors around on the cardstock with the damp paper towel, but do not over blend.  To increase the intensity of the color and effect, make just a few more random puddles of color and slightly dab it again with the Viva paper towel.  Set aside to dry.
    
2. Place the 5½” x 8½” piece of Black Eclipse card stock onto the rotary paper cutter as if it were going to be cut in half.  Close the hold down bar and move the blade out of the way.  Take a bone folder and score the card stock twice right up against the hold down bar.  Remove card stock, fold in half and set aside.
    
3. Ink up the Potted Cacti stamp with Silver Encore Metallic Ink and stamp the image 3 separate times onto the second half sheet of Black Eclipse Card Stock.  Sprinkle with Aegean Silver Embossing Powder, shake off excess, and return to container.  Melt the embossing powder with a heat tool.
    
4. Render color to the designs with the Decorator Chalks.  On the first stamped motif, color only the lower half of the sun with yellow or orange.  Next, color the Potted Cacti on the second stamped motif.  The light source is coming from the right side.  Therefore, apply light green chalk to the right sides of each cactus and apply a darker green chalk to the left sides.  Apply yellow chalk to the cactus blossoms.  Apply different color chalks as desired to the pots by brushing some spots lightly with color.  It is not necessary to color the whole pot as this creates color contrast.  On the third motif, render color only to the Potted Barrel Cactus.  Mist lightly with Blair Chalk Sealer to set the chalk.
    
5. Cut out one complete motif following the entire shape of the image.  On the second motif, closely cut out around all the Potted Cacti.  For the third motif, cut only the front Potted Barrel Cactus image.
    
6. Cut the Polished Stone card stock into these sizes:

4~2” x 2½” pieces
1~3” x 4 1/8” piece 

7. Cut one Black Eclipse piece to size 3¼’ x 4¼”.
    
8. Using Scotch Double Stick Tape, assemble the following pieces.  Attach the 4 pieces of Polished Stone card stock to the Black Eclipse folded card front.  Create a center panel by attaching the one panel of Polished Stone card stock to the one Black Eclipse card stock panel.
    
9. Using Foam Tape, assemble the following pieces.  Center attach the front panel onto the center of the card front.  Attach the one complete cut out Potted Cacti to the center panel on the card front.  Line up the Potted Cacti image and attach it to the base image.  Finally cut out the Barrel Cactus, line it up and attach this over the Potted Cacti image.
    

This design is highly suitable for framing!

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