Reuse, Recycle

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a few projects to share with you today featuring stamps from this month's TV shows on Create and Craft.

My first project features a bit of recycling, and when I showed it Lesley, we both laughed, as we had both thought up very similar projects! I started by creating a vibrant background using red, orange and yellow Brushos on a piece of Drawing Cartridge. These backgrounds are a great starting point for a project and you could have a crafty afternoon making lots of them and save them for later.

I then cut up a brown paper shopping bag, the sort that you get your groceries in from a supermarket, and ironed a smalled piece nice and flat. I stamped the Poppy Ledger image using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. I put a small amount of yellow, orange, red and olive green Brusho onto an acrylic block and gently spritzed each colour with water. I used a brush and some extra water to paint the image with these colours. I then used a couple of the colours to splat the image with my brush afterwards, to make it look a bit older. 

I added a piece of scrap card behind the image to make it a bit stiffer, then attached it to a piece of corrugated card that I had trimmed to become a mount. I think that this card would look great with some little tickets and some twine added to finish it off, don't you?

I have a couple of older projects to share with you. On my next project, I decided to stamp the lovely focal image from Fragile Wings onto dark blue card for a change. I used white pencil for highlights and than added some blue and green pencil for a pop of colour. The blue/green background uses a couple of useful background stamps that tie in well with the main image.

 

Next, this card featuring Floral Study is another older card, but I like the greens contrasted with the pinks and oranges, it feels quite warm. I have added stamping from the Glorious stamp set in the background, and used watercolour pencils to colour the main image.

I am also sharing some projects using some stamps from the tree house stamps that we brought to the shows. My next project uses the fabulous Tree House stamp set, and I chose to stamp the image onto a piece of patterned paper created by Lesley a while ago. The paper had lovely pink and green elements, and this became the basis for my colour scheme. I created a background for the card using Picked Raspberry and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks, then added a tree image and sentiment from the Trees a Crowd stamp set using a dark green ink. I stamped both repeatedly over the background.

I coloured the focal image with pencils, and then added extra shading around the main image and background using the Picked Raspberry Distress Ink.

You could create a similar look if you did not have the patterned paper, using a piece of black and white script paper or a piece of plain smooth white stamping card. You could add script and a subtle floral image to the plain background, or some coloured stamping to the script background, plus a bit of shading. You can very easily achieve a patterned background that looks every bit as nice as the one that I started out with.

I have some older 'house' projects to share with you today, to round off this month's selection. I hope that you enjoy them. 

This one is created using the Mushroom House, and the moon reflecting on the house at night.

This one is the Heath Robinson House. I stamped the main image on a tag, coloured it with pencils, and used one of the sentiments to create a background over a gelli print.

 This one is Italian House, with a couple of Trees from Orchard Design a Tree, words from Words of Wisdom, and circles from Make Your Mark. I have added texture paste through a stencil and coloured the images with pencils.

This card was created using the Dutch House, and a tree from Trees a Crowd. I wanted the colourful houses to look like a street in Amsterdam in the Spring. 

Finally, a project from the Garden House. I stamped the image onto book paper, using the Tagtastic stamp as a frame. I added a couple of bees from the Honey Bee set and a sentiment onto the watercoloured background.

Thanks so much for stopping by and take care xx

Fun With Flowers

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a few more projects to share with you featuring stamps from this month's TV shows on Create and Craft.

My first project was created by stamping and embossing the very pretty Wish Flower repeatedly over a piece of Drawing Cartridge using Versamark and white embossing powder. I then added Wilted Violet and Broken China Distress Oxide over the top. The white embossing acts as a resist, and creates a beautiful design. 

I then stamped the flower again, complete with its accompanying words onto a piece of fabric using Archival Jet Black Ink. Don't be worried about stamping onto fabric, you just need to allow a little bit more time for the ink to do its job, so allow the stamp to sit for a bit longer before you lift it off. I coloured the image with Inktense pencils, first a pale green and a lilac, then added water with a brush. While the image was damp, I added a deeper green on the leaves and stems, and a turquoise on the flowers in the dotted areas for shading. As the fabric was damp, the colour was a little bit deeper.

I chose to leave the fabric as it was, but I could have frayed the edges, sewn the piece with a sewing machine, or drawn some faux stitching around the edges with a fineliner pen, (see my example below). You can really play around and experiment with fabric, it can be a lot of fun.

My second project was a pretty little acrylic bookmark using one of Lesley's newest patterned papers. These are all bookmark size, so perfect for this project. I stamped the image from Garden House using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink, then needed to decide what materials to use on the top. Because I knew that I was going to use Matte Medium to adhere my bookmark to the acrylic piece, I could not use anything that might react to something wet, for example watercolours or Distress Inks. So I chose to colour the image with pencils to be on the safe side. I added a bit of shading at the bottom, again with pencils, and also used pencils to colour through a stencil. 

I added a sentiment at the top, which normally would have been too wide, so I used masking tape to cover parts of the sentiment each time I inked it up, enabling me to break it into three parts. Finally, I covered the whole bookmark with Matte Medium and adhered it to the acrylic tag. I allowed the glue to dry before sanding the edges and punching a hole at the top. If you chose to make one of the bookmarks and stick it to a chipboard shape, you could use all sorts of mediums, paints, watercolours, Distress Inks, whatever you like. It was purely because I was inking over the top that I needed to be so careful.

I have an older project using the fabulous Wish Flower that I am sharing with you today. I have stamped the image onto patterned paper and coloured it with pencils. I then took a piece of greyboard and painted it to match the patterned paper, adding some stencilling and the words from the stamp to create a matching background.

I will be back soon with more projects to share with you. Thanks so much for stopping by, take care xx

In Flight

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have some projects to share with you featuring stamps that were part of this month's TV shows on Create and Craft. 

My first project was created by adding some Distress Oxide Inks to a craft mat, (I used Wilted Violet and Evergreen Bough), and spritzing them with water. I patted a piece of Drawing Cartridge onto the mat to pick up the colour. I dried the Drawing Cartridge and then picked up some of the left over colour, to get a layered effect on my background. I am explaining this technique purely for any new stampers out there. I know that I use this technique a lot, but due to the time constraints of a TV demo, I need to add colour to a background very quickly, and this works very well.

For the next stage of my project, I brayered Evergreen Bough Distress Ink onto some smooth stamping card, (on my original card, I used a gelli plate for this step). I added some extra texture to the background by stamping over the top using the Square Bubbles stamp and Lucky Clover Distress Oxide Ink. I then stamped the A Year of Stamping Issue 5 - May image using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink. After ensuring that the image was completely dry, I coloured the dragonflies using Artway shimmer paints. I coloured the dotted areas of the wings with Inktense pencils to add a bit of shading.

To finish the card, I found a piece of patterned paper in my stash, to which I added shading with Distress Inks so that it matched my overall colour scheme. I stamped a sentiment from the Fragile Wings stamp set. I trimmed the main image around the outline, and then ran a black inkpad around the other components of the card to match. I allowed everything time to dry before attaching it all to a card blank.

My second project features the very pretty Bird of Joy stamp. This is such a versatile stamp, as the words can also be removed and stamped separately, or not at all. I chose to create a large, colourful tag, and started by stamping the image with Versafine Clair Nocturne. I masked the image and also used a circle mask for a sun. I added background colour in blue and green. I then used a couple of floral images from the Walk Tall stamp set, stamping them in plum and olive shades. I added the wording using a grey Versafine Clair Ink, and second generation stamping, so that the words were not too prominent.

I removed the masks and added yellow ink for the sun, and coloured the image with Zig Clean Colour markers. I love how vibrant these pens are, and how they blend so easily.

I have another card using this fabulous stamp that I created a while ago, and I thought that I would share it with you again. I made a gelli print directly onto a square card blank, and then stamped the Bird of Joy over the gelli print. I simply coloured the image with pencils. I obviously like this colour option, as both birds are very similar! 

I will be back very soon with more cards to share with you. Thanks so much for stopping by, take care xx