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

Tall Grasses

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well. I have a project to share with you today, mixing and matching several favourite stamp sets. That's the beauty of Chocolate Baroque stamp sets, once you have them, they can be used with other sets from your collection.

I started this project by stamping a couple of bees from Honey Bee and masked them using Masking Tissue. I worked out where I needed them to be by placing a couple of the foliage stamps on my background, so that I knew how tall they would stand. I then covered my gelli plate with green and blue Distress Oxide Ink and placed my background smooth stamping paper over the top.

I stamped a phrase from Words of Gratitude using third generation stamping in a couple of the corners. I wanted the words to be visible, but not overpowering.

I used a couple of silhoutte grasses from Walk Tall, and various shades of Versafine Clair to create a grassy meadow, using first, second and third generation stamping. I chose shades of green and purple.

Finally, I removed the masks and coloured the bees with Inktense pencils. I added a touch of water using a waterbrush to blend the colour. A touch of grey pencil around the bees makes them look three dimensional, but they are flat on the page.

Thanks for stopping by, I will be back later in the month, with something else to share. Take care,xx

Focus on Florals

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well. I am back to share more projects from last month's TV shows.

My first project was created with a piece of scrap corrugated packaging, the sort that comes as a parcel containing books or anything flat, really. I opened it out, took off any extra pieces, and peeled away the top surface to reveal the ridges underneath. 

I created a large piece of A4 background paper by using one of the little worker stamps from the Flora and Fauna stamp set, stamping and embossing it randomly over the background using white embossing powder. I then coloured the whole background using Fossilized Amber Distress Ink and a blending brush. I chopped the background into three pieces to fit my corrugated panel, and added a bit of torm script paper to the lower portion. I die cut three tags from Drawing Cartridge which had been stained with tea. I stamped the main images from Walk Tall onto the tags, and edged them with Black Soot Distress Ink. On one tag, I added a sentiment directly, and on the other two, I added a piece of black ribbon and a little piece of card with a sentiment. I stuck the tags to the background and added lace and black buttons. I matted the yellow background to black card for definition before adhering it to the corrugated card. I chose to score the corrugated card to make a tryptich that would stand up, and for stability, I added washi tape to the back.

I created a similar background for my second project, using another little worker stamp from Flora and Fauna, embossing the stamp using white embossing powder over the background. This time, I chose Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink as the background colour. I stamped the image from the same stamp set onto a piece of Drawing Cartridge, and coloured it initially with Distress Inks and a waterbrush. I added shading with pencils. I stamped a sentiment from Punky Expressions onto a small die cut rectangle. I edged all of the card pieces with Distress Ink before adhering them to the card blank.

I chose to use the very pretty foxglove from the Honey Bee stamp set as the main focus for my final card. I stamped the image three times, along with two of the bees, and masked the images, before adding colour to the background with Distress Ink. I spritzed the background with water. I stamped the silhouette image using first and second generation stamping using green and purple ink. I removed the masks and coloured the images with pencils. Finally I added the sentiment from the same stamp set.

I will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you. Take care, and thanks so much for stopping by, xx