Resist technique with Lynne Perella Stamps

Too much??? This stamp set is soooo detailed and it just MADE me want to add stacks of colour.  I had to reign in on the embellies and forced myself to add white flowers though I was so tempted to colour then too - but wanted a balance with the pale colour embossing powder I used for the resist.....and if next week I still fancy seeing how bright flowers look then I might just pull em off and do it!
So the start was to paint the cardboard tag with white gesso. This gave a better base for the spray inks I used and helped show the bright colours. Then I embossed the main image from the set onto the tag using a pale pink powder. I then stamped the image three more times with Archival black, coloured them using sharpie fineliners and watercolours and cut various sections adding them to the tag. The border was created with another of the stamps from the set, and I used the beautiful scrip too but it's a bit hidden in all the layers. I hand made mini carnations (love these) under which I added a bit of crocheted wire.  I dripped alcohol inks onto some metal flower shapes to colour them blue/ green and added a selection of sequins around the main image. A pearl in the corner and pearls/ beads in the metal flowers.  A metal heart charm (filled with glue gun glitter) at the top is almost hidden really! And of course those vibrant feathers all made this a lot of fun. Subtle I think!!! Suz xx
Will enter this into the Craft Stamper Challenge.

Oak House Studio One Stamp Project

Such a great idea by Lynnda of Oak House Studio to take one stamp (the Walesby Heart) and see how many different ways you can use it in her One Stamp Challenge. I can tell you I was reluctant to stop but after an internal crafty war I disciplined myself to finish a few things off at 4pm, take pics, upload on blogger & FB then see how much time I have left!
So here goes.

traditional heat embossing

 

Stamped with twinkling H20's

 

 

More embossing this is a gift card made to hold a cheque as a wedding/ engagement pressy 

the back is where the cheque is slipped into a pocket and a message written on the die cut.

 

Friendly plastic jewellery stamped with the heart

Offcuts shaped into a heart and put on a mini card blank (above)  and the rest added to a mini canvass (left) which I'd painted and embossed. Added some jewellery bits too, and the

hanging heart is made from the UTEE heated in a melt pot & stamped into.

 

 

In this journal page the heart it used in the background made with a gelatine plate, then held over the heart and brayered to give a rubbing effect and also stamped around the edges. 

The stone on the right is from the beach, stamped onto then writing added around the edge (ahhhhh).

 

Card one was made with a heart made from a Modge Podge glue gun stick, treasure gold added. 

Same for the second card but a MP butterfly added which was also highlighted with treasure gold

This was my absolute favourite so I'm going to get it framed! Mono print using a home made gelatine plate (following instructions from the Frugal Crafter on YouTube). Leave a comment if you'd like a tutorial.

Same technique but made into a card.

Print 3 also a card.

 Had great fun with this challenge. Still a few more I might add but wanted to get post done while it's quiet! Hope you like them. Suz xx

Alcohol Ink Mini Masterclass

Fab workshop today using alcohol inks on acetate and silk art card from Clarity Stamps. A little out of the usual as it was mainly technique focused, trying 3 ways of applying the ink on both acetate and the silk card.  Then during the second part of the workshop the girls chose the artwork they liked best and made a card from it with some stunning results. One hour of alcohol inks & blending solution was definitely enough with a room full of people, even with all the doors and windows open!

Here are some of the samples I made with a brief description alongside.

 The butterfly and flower cards were made using drops of ink then a straw to blow the ink around before die cutting.

These two vibrant cards were made using the same technique but then adding a few drops of blending solution. Magical watching the inks react and move around!  

  

 The last card was done on acetate. I loved this background and simply stamped a phrase on the opposite side (difficult to see with the light reflecting on the acetate) and filled in the letters with a white paint pen. If it wasn't for the impending headaches I would have gone on for another hour!
Suz
xxx

Andy Skinner Workshop weekend day 1

Had such an amazing weekend in Stockton-on Tees with Sue Tucker and the gang. Shared a room with a lovely person I've never met before. Made more new friends both days. Here are the wonderful creations Andy took us through.

Butterflies

Some days you just really fancy a good old inky, messy play, and I had one of those days yesterday. Here's what I made and some simple steps if you are interested. Suz xx

I prayed a piece of thick card, probably about 400gsm with Oak House Studio Spode spray ink. I then mixed some of the ink with some Sweet Poppy translucent paste, not too much or it just goes flat. Then I used a swirl stencil and some chipped sapphire TH inks around the edge, and another mask with polka dots .  I inked though a butterfly stencil with Versamark, heat embossing the lower with Stampendous Frantage enamels and the other with clear embossing powder which darkened the colour beneath. I added white Signo pen to the butterflies and also used it to highlight other areas and to frame the beautiful sentiment with swirls and dots. I used a blue pencil to give depth in some areas around the butterflies too. To create the bird cage and branches I used another stencil but this time spritzed Dylusions white ink through. The sentiment stamp was from Oak House Studio, just using archival black ink onto which card which I'd also pre-coloured with the Spode. I might also enter this one into the Oak House Studio challenge as I'm still on the blue theme with this!
Happy crafting all.
Suz
xx

Anniversary Card for my Hubby

So here is a card I made for our 22nd Wedding Anniversary next month. Slight problem that hubby saw it while I was trying to take pics, but he will pretend to be surprised on 25th July!

I sprayed the main card blank with the Oak House Studio 'Spode' blue spray inks, which gave a lovely soft colour. I stamped three hearts using the Walesby Heart, also from Oak House Studio using a Versamark ink pad then heat embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Marine Sea Lustre, which I also used for the Anniversary sentiment. I added ribbon top and bottom to the main strip. I had a piece of blue card which I rounded the corners on, divided into 3 parts and added white dots to with a Uniball Signo white pen, which I also did to the card behind the sentiment. I layered it all up, was happy that it wasn't too girly (it's blue!!!) then smudged a mark on the edge of the main heart bit so I die cut more of the same coloured card and added the swirls to cover it up, but I liked it with that too! Tiny scrap of ribbon on the semtiment, just in a knot rather than a feminine bow, and voila!

I'm going enter this into the June Oak House Studio Challenge

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - and my last DT post for Artistic Inspirations!

Hi all. This is the very last image I'll be using as a member of the Artistic Inspirations Design Team and it must be one of my favourites! I went all out and made 4 cards in one morning, great fun.  Here is the link to this image by Bugaboo  http://www.bugaboostamps.com/Red-Hat-Stella-Block--want-to-have-fun_p_1645.html.
The theme this month over on the Artistic Inspirations Challenge Blog is 'Inspired by a Song'.  So this image with the sentiment "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", that old Cindy Lauper classic, was perfect, in fact I'm listening to it as I type this post!
I added colour with Promarkers, then used the same colours to draw frames on the card blanks to match.  More details at the bottom of this post on the pic. I also discovered the perfect copy paper today for printing my digital images, typical as this is my last one!!! It's Xerox ColorPrint paper, and at 100gsm it is brill. One final tip; to give your digi's the effect of being heat embossed, just go over them with a black Sakura Glaze gel pen - works a treat! Best wishes all, especially all my fellow DT members, loved working with you all! Suz xxx

The pic below shows all 4 images on the 1 sheet of A4 paper. I do it this way to play with colour combinations, but as I liked all of them, and the colour went on so well on this paper, I used em all!