HOPE - for the Craft Stamper April Challenge

Hi all

Hope is something many of us need right now. It is a very difficult time and our new world and way of living is affecting so many elements of our lives. So I just want to send a little hope out to all of you. Talking of hope - there are GORGEOUS stamps and a stencil to be won this month, seriously, they are beautiful, and I HOPE you will take part! Take a look HERE.

 I used two vintage book pages, Shakespeare don't you know, (sold by the library years ago as falling apart) glued them together as they were very thin. Added a layer or watery gesso so the text would shows though.

 A little more gesso, then some light blue DecoArt paint added with a very watery brush.

 Stamped Andy Skinners 'Memories of India' stamp, firstly in a green, Shabby Shutters colour, then I stamped it some more with a clear Versamark pad and used a very pale pink embossing powder by Creative Expressions to build interest in the background.

 Then I used all the foliage stamps from Jane Gill's Woodware stamp set 'Hare in the Middle' (JGS699), inked with Olive Memento ink and then with Versamark and heat embossed with clear powder. I did this on my stamp platform as I repeatedly stamped each of the images to build the layers.

 You can just make out the pink embossing in the background in the photo below....

 My plan was to use little white flowers to fill all the gaps I'd left in the foliage. So I used an old die set by Susan's Garden called Flower Yarrow as it cuts loads at once - but you could use any small flower die or punch. I added tiny white pearls in the middles and glued down with Cosmic shimmer. I also found this pretty butterfly which I had in my stash - it was in a set from either the Range or Poundland. To make the antennae I just looked around for a slither of card I'd cut when making another project!

 The Hope stamp is another Andy Skinner stamp. I coloured it with the ink used for the foliage.  Once dry I added another little flower to the edge to tie in with the rest of the card.

And that's it for now.
Thanks so much for looking. Please do keep going.... and have hope.
Suz
xxx

See below for links to the stamps I've used:
Memories of India
Hare in the Middle
Hope

Journal Page for the Craft Stamper March Blog Challenge

Hi all

Todays project for the CS blog Challenge is an A4 journal page.

There are 4 pots of Tim Holtz gorgeous Embossing Glaze to be won this month, so why not pop over to the Craft Stamper blog and take a look HERE. 

Here are a few pics of the process..... 

 To begin, I painted an area with a skintone, then stamped over it. 

I stamped again onto white paper, cut out the eyes and stuck them on top.

 After placing a mask on top of the eye stamp, I repeatedly brayered several fluid acrylics until I had the blend of colours I liked. Then I stamped the smashed glass with Versamark ink and embossed.

 A bit of stencilling.....

Some mark making (paint and the side of a piece of card) 

Doodling with white paint pen, and a black outline smoshed around the eyes. 

I held the page upside down, placed crayons against the page and heated them 

until they melted and ran down the page. 

 Stamped out a sentiment a couple of times (which was the inspiration for the melted crayons), chopped it up and used the pink and green crayons to colour the edges.

 Stuck down the words and used a black Posca Paint Pen to edges them, then with a watery

 brush I softened the black paint. Drew around the stencilled patters with the white pen.

Some stick on ribbon down the sides (bought this from Poundland months ago) and used a 

Stabilo All pencil along both the sides of the crayon section.

 A bit more fiddling with doodles, a couple of butterflies to the sides of the eyes

 (to soften them) and that was that!

Thanks for looking. Not sure how much I like this - but I loved the process. 

Lots of stamping and melting crayons was fun!

Suz

xxx

Rice Bike canvas for Andy Skinner's Creative Team and Creative Expressions

Here's my first project using Andy's February 2020 releases! So much fun.

First up was the rice paper. I watered down a little of the Quick Grab Glue and it stuck down beautifully with no crinkles (glue applied to canvas and on the back of the paper) stick down and brush from the centre out to release air bubbles.  

 Then my first time using the new structure paste - gorgeous stuff, creamy, easy to use and dries quicker than other pastes I've tried.

I used the new chalk paints - first a wash of the Chestnut.

 Then a gentle dry brush with warm white, several times, layering up to bring out all that fab texure.

 I stamped the Rice Bike stamp onto calico and also onto a vintage book page. Layered up some organza and old bandage from my fabric stash and had a play around with layout.

I tore out and stuck down the stamped vintage book page onto the calico. Added torn paper and a strip of tumble dryer sheet (removed this in the end). I glued down thin strips of paper above and below the bike image. But they seemed a little bare, so they were stamped with the 'Cracked-Up' stamp using the chestnut chalk paint (wash paints off stamps straight away). 

Mini metal cogs, jewellery wire, left over bits of torn fabric and an old clip-on earring to embellish, needed something at the top so I used an old bulldog clip too for a bit of fun!

You can check out the other fab projects on Andy's blog HERE.

Thanks so much for looking.

Suz xxx

Stamp and Stitch! Jam Jar Canvas for the Craft Stamper DT Feb Challange Blog

Hi all
Todays project for the Craft Stamper February Blog Challenge is a 'stamp and stitch' piece

using a stamp and die set by Aladine. 

The prizes for the challenge winner this month are a fab 6x6 stencil and stamp by Carabelle Studio! For details on how to enter the challenge click HERE.

I was given this gorgeous set of stamps and dies and some fab Izink ink pads and sprays by Aladine which I've used in this project.

I'm loving textiles at the mo, so I grabbed a piece of calico, and using my stamp platform, 

stamped the jar until I had a crisp image for stitching over.

I used Izink Textile ink diluted with water to colour the jar and gold pigment ink to colour the metal ring around the top of the jar. I made the cloth a bit wet so there was a little seepage over the lines, which I rescued with the Izink white ink.

 Stamped out the first foliage stamp, theses are so cute!

Then stamped out the second using the same colour, but overstamped each for a more intense colour. Using white 300gsm smooth card, I stamped and die cut several of the daisy type flowers, I coloured the flowers with the Izink dye sprays in Cerise and Pearl to give a little shimmer. Then pierced holes in the flowers and stitched on small buttons.

I hand embroidered over the leaves in green and yellow and stitched around the outline of the jar.

Then taking an 8x8 canvas, I glued on lace, flowers and vintage book pages using DecoArt Matte Medium. Then a coat of white gesso once it was nice and dry.

 A few spritzes of Aladine Izink Dye Spray in Cerise that I'd used for the flowers- such a strong colour it took a while to knock it back again with gesso.

 More heavy dry brushing with gesso helps the lace really show up.

 Crackle paint for even more texture. It also toned down the pink a little more.

 I added the stitched project, but with a layer of old curtain material, an organza type material, underneath, this adds a softness to the piece, with folds of fabric over the flowers, framing the stitched work.

 Some buttons on the organza to tie it in with the stitched piece.

 Had to weight the buttons down to make sure they really gripped onto the fabric and canvas beneath!

 And here is the finished piece. I may add words at some stage too.

Thanks so much for looking. Any questions just drop me a comment.

Suz

xxx

Life Without Art Passport Book for the September Craft Stamper Blog Challenge

Hi all
This month sees another fab couple of prizes to be won in the Craft Stamper Monthly Blog Challenge. A gorgeous set of Posca Pens along with a handy case to store them in. Have a look here!
Here's my DT project for the challenge.

I've been getting out my Eileen Hull dies in the last few months, trying to tackle how to use them and different ways to add the paper signatures. I'm also madly into textiles and embroidery too at the minute. No embroidery in this one, but some fun stamping and painting onto calico.

 I used a scrap of thick card from the back of a paper pack for the journal covers and spine.

Vintage book pages from a fab book called "Enquire Within Upon Everything" dated 1861 which belonged to Betty! I started to read some pages while I was working and it's amazing. Don't think I can use any more! According to Wikipedia: Tim Berners-Lee named his precursor of the World Wide Web, ENQUIRE, after this work in 1980.^[7][8] A Forbes article quoted Berners-Lee as saying:^[9]

Back to the project....I stamped one of Andy's new stamps onto a piece of calico.

Stamped it out again to make a mask, which I used to cover up the quote. 

Took another of Andy's stamps and masked off the text inside 

the circles as I just wanted the rings...  

 Stamped it a couple of times over the words.....

 Then started to paint the fabric with DecoArt Fluid Acrylics in Phthalo Turqoise and Quin Gold.

 Then added some Quin Violet around the outside.

 Here's where the book pages come in; I used the leftover paint to 

colour them and glued them to the inside of the journal covers.

 Then I used the diluted quin gold on the spine. I love how it looked, I think I must have had matte medium on my hands from gluing the book pages when I was handling the spine and it acted like a resist, giving a great grungy look!

 More quin gold on the outside of the book cover, that I 

was going to glue the fabric onto, just to base coat it.

 Matte medium to both the cover and the back of the fabric.

 I felt the focal stamp image was getting a little lost so I re-stamped it onto 

tissue paper.....but it wasn't popping enough - so I stamped it again onto painted book 

page that I'd painted white and that worked just right.

 I edged the torn book page with quin gold paint then glued it down with matte medium. The brush I used still had a little blue paint in it, so there are some lovely hints of the colour on the paper.

 I stamped another of Andy's stamps using Titanium White paint around the edges-

paint needs to be washed off straight after to keep the stamps in good condition.

 Then stencilled flowers using crackle paint....

 Once the crackle paint was dry, I added a wash of Cobalt Teal, and a little more quin gold around the tissue paper. A few gems to lift the flowers and the cover was finished. I die cut some recycled pages to create two signatures and now it's ready to use.

Thanks for looking, and if you have any questions just leave me a comment. 

Suz

xxx