Stencil blog hop

Welcome to the Stamplorations Stencil Blog Hop! 8 new designs by Sanna Lippert have been released and will be showcased along the hop.

First up, a colourful card where I made my own "patterned paper" with the ARTplorations Leaves 2 stencil.

I took a bit of texture paste, coloured it with acrylic paint and applied with a painting knife through the Leaves 2 stencil.


For more interest and dimension, I then covered the paste with Wow embossing powder in Olive. Before using the heat gun, the paste must be dry!

I cut a piece of pink hand made paper with 2 of the Stitched Snow Hills dies and added my sentiment from the Fond Expressions 2 stamp set.


For my second project, I played with my Gelli plate to create a distressed background.

I applied a first layer of blue paint and placed a piece of canvas on top to create texture.
I spread a second layer of paint with pinks and lavender on top of the DRIED blue layer and placed the Flowers 2 stencil over the plate.
Immediately, using a scrap piece of paper, I removed paint through the stencil.
When the second layer had dried I applied a final layer of paint, in a deep Lavender shade, and lifted my print, which pulls up all of the dried layers together.
This is what I obtained:

I wasn't happy with the lack of contrast between the stencil motif and the rest of the print, so I started again this time with an orange colour instead of the pink (I didn't take pictures but followed the same process). The stencilled motifs were barely visible so I added stencilling directly on the print.

I cut a piece of the print to fit my card base and added double sided adhesive around all around to create an embossed "frame" with Wow! Grape embossing powder.

My focal image is using the top 3 petals of the Flowers 2 stencil motif and the stem and leaves of the Leaves motif. I used Pan Pastel for the petals and Distress Oxides inks for the green. It is matted on the smallest die from the Crazy Double Running Stitch set.

**********

 

You have until the 4th of December to join us on the Stamplorations Stencil Blog Hop and leave comments for a chance to win prizes.
Winners will be randomly drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blogs. There will be 1 winner of $20 gift certificate and 2 winners of their choice of 3 Sanna Lippert Designs stencils.

Have fun hopping!
I am entering both cards in the SSS Wednesday and Polkadoodles challenges.



       

On the road again

Welcome to my second inspiration piece for the Country View Challenge, where the theme chosen by Gabrielle is Stencils.

And I'm still travelling... this time with a Vintage tag:

I first blended 4 colours of Distress Oxides on a manilla tag.

Then I sprayed water through 2 stencils:

The wall stencil is difficult to see but you should be able to glimpse the woodgrain. Not that it matters, since it is totally obscured in the finished tag!

Now a bit of background stamping with the Scripted Streets by Visible Image.

Then, I used a DIY stencil (made with a Papertrey Ink Cover plate die) with transparent texture paste. After drying, I re-applied more D.O on top to show up the stencilled hexagons.

A piece of netting die-cut, corners and lace scraps serve as mat for the vintage image by Crafty Individuals (this is NOT a stamp).

I had a bit of "white" space left and I thought it was crying out for one of the Adventure Words from the Sizzix Thinlit die set, and more  hexagons (die-cut from cork sheet) so I obliged...

Your turn to pull out your stencils, there's still plenty of time to enter our Country View Challenge. If you do, you could win a £20 voucher!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Creative Artiste, That's Crafty, and We Love To Create challenges.

A card and a bonus tag

Welcome to my second inspiration post for the Stamplorations Theme and Sketch challenge.

Bear in mind that to enter the challenge you can choose to follow either the sketch, or the theme:

 

 

I made card following the sketch and a tag that follows both the theme and the sketch.

For the card, I stamped the bird from the Trendy Birds 2 stamp set with Distress Oxides inks in Salty Ocean and Wilted Violet. I then used the mask from the ARTplorations Stencil Some Birds
to protect the bird when I stamped the leaves from the Trendy Leaves set with Versamark.
I took the mask off and used Wow Embossing powder in Fairy Tale, which is a gold with holographic glitter.

The sentiment is from the same Trendy Birds 2 set and has been embossed in white.

The glint and multi coloured reflections of the embossing powder are hard to capture on film but here goes:

On my left it looks blue... and
on my right, it looks green...

Beautiful in natural light!




For the tag, I stamped and embossed a flower from Dee's Artsy Impressions - Smile set  and masked it with masking fluid (liquid frisket, rubber cement or similar).

Using the Retro Circles stencil I applied Distress Glaze to create a resist before spraying with water and sprinkling powders on top (Brushos). When dry, I removed the masking fluid to reveal the flowers and stamped the sentiment from the Shery Russ Designs - Fond Expressions 2 stamps set.

You still have time to enter the Theme and Sketch challenge so hop on over to the Stamplorations blog to get more inspiration from the DT. Your make only need to follow either the Sketch or the theme and there are lovely prizes to win...

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the The Artistic Stamper, That's Crafty and Craft Stamper TIMI challenges.


           

Winter birthdays

Spare a thought for those December babies... forever overshadowed by that most famous of babies and somewhat neglected when it comes to their birthday. Some can feel quite prickly about it.... (no names here but I know someone very close, ahem, in that case).
With this in mind I designed this birthday card especially for the December born.

Supplies:
Succulents stamp set: Craft Emotions stamps
Starlight paints - Imagination Crafts
Brilliance inks
Glitter card - Art-C
Water soluble pencils: Derwent
Enamel accents Ranger

Hop on over to the Craft Barn blog to read my set by step.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Craft Stamper TIMI, Penny Black and more, Fashionable Stamping, We Love To Create, Creative Artist challenges.

Giving Thanks blog hop

To celebrate Thanksgiving, Stamplorations have organised their 3rd Annual Giving Thanks blog hop and you're all invited to join! Plus, you can link your Stamplorations products wishlist for a chance to win it, the Wish List Linky party kicked off Monday.

 

There are 35 participating designers all in all in the hop (complete list below) -- with 8 talented guest designers from the various challenge blogs that STAMPlorations has had the privilege to sponsor in the last year.

 

 This is a long post, but well worth getting to the end if you like Stamplorations  designs and a BARGAIN...

 

********

Although Thanksgiving is a uniquely US celebration, I decided to make a card on the theme anyway, as I have wonderful memories of a Thanksgiving dinner where orphaned lost souls, be it foreigners like me or just too far from home, gathered for a traditional turkey dinner.

I can't remember if pumpkins were involved, but hey they bring a little bit of sunshine with their vibrant orange hues in an otherwise grey November...

I stamped the small pumpkins from the newly released Thankful & Blessed onto yellow cardstock with Distress Oxide in Fossilized Amber, coloured them with pencils and fussy cut them.

The big pumpkin, from the same set, was stamped on ivory card with yellow die ink. For the colouring I first applied watercolour pencils dry and then used the brush to dissolve the paint.

To anchor my pumpkins I added shading with pencils and a few leaves, stamped and coloured.
The big pumpkin is sandwiched between 2 pieces of card cut with the Stitched Snow Hills dies.

I embossed the sentiment, also from the Thankful & Blessed, with Wow EP in Fairy Tale, you can see the glint of the glitters reflecting off the base!

I am entering my pumpkins in the Fashionable Stamping challenge.

****************

When Thanksgiving is all over, or if you don't celebrate it where you live, you can still use the pumpkins, which at the stroke of midnight turn into... flowers!

I stamped and embossed the small pumpkins with Sea Glass EP from Wow! on a piece of leftover masterboard and fussy cut them. I added a stalk by die-cutting twice another piece of Masterboard with the ever useful Stitched Snow Hills die. The center of the flower has been filled with Ranger Enamel Accent.
I pulled out some old paper with inclusions (they were all the rage moons ago) to use as a mat for my flower, and completed with a sentiment from the Thankful & Blessed stamp set.

I am entering the Pumpkin Flower in the Penny Black and more challenge

********

Don't delay and start hopping... You have until the end of the month to leave comments and link up a project or two of your own. There are prizes to be won for linking projects, commenting along the hop and also on Facebook and Instagram, as well as the chance to win your Stamplorations wishlist.  You'll find all the details here.

 

And if you're not one of the lucky winners.... Shery has thought of you too, with a fab Thanksgiving Sales:

 

* If you do order,  mention in the notes section of the order, that Craftyfield sent you there for a free word die (up to $10) of your choice. This is an offer you can't pass up ladies... *

You should have arrived here from Carol and your next stop is : Kathy. If you get lost, the full list of participants is below.

Enjoy the hop!

Both cards are entering the SSS Monday challenge.
   

3rd Annual STAMPlorations Giving Thanks Blog Hop & Wishlist Linky Party Participating Designers

1. STAMPlorations blog  2. Deepti Malik  3. Melissa Chipperfield - CASology  4. Carol Mayne  5. Christine/Craftyfield  6. Kathy Schweinfurth  7. Becca Cruger  8. Debbie Owens - Cupcake Inspirations  9. Sue Nagata  10. Stephanie Severin  11. MariLynn DeGroot  12. Julie Beech  13. Trish Latimer - Craft Stamper Make It, Take It  14. Terri Koszler  15. Jerrie Mead  16. Ina Grehan  17. Melissa Lane  18. Sandie Munro - Time Out Challenges  19. Wei Wei Wang  20. Tanja Kabel  21. LauraJane Head  22. Monica Taylor  23. Sarah Platt - Less Is More  24. Karola Rehnstrom  25. Sanna Lippert  26. Chris Dring  27. Elaine Place  28. Jane Taylor - AAA Cards  29. Monika Skinner  30. Maria Fischer  31. Cornelia Wenokor  32. Dana Warren - Coffee Loving Cardmakers  33. Amy Almeida  34. Helen Gullett  35. Nonni Niskanen - Time Out Challenges  36. Shery Russ

(Linkup closed)

X-mass production

Yes, it's that time of the year again, when we crafters REALLY need to knuckle down and produce, en masse, those Christmas cards!

Today, I have chosen a design going to the heart of the matter, with a simple Merry Christmas sentiment die-cut as the focal point of an otherwise very simple card.

Come by the Craft Barn blog to read my step by step, this is a quick one, which I hope will come in handy for your Christmas makes.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday Challenge,  challenges.

Christmas Tags

In what is becoming an annual event I have been making my "rubbish" tags again....

As you can see they are all different, which is not ideal for mass making but is an excellent way of using up some scraps, rather than binning them.... hence the "Rubbish" tag moniker!

Deer tag:

Creative Expressions Warped Circles Stencils

D. Oxides in Picked Raspberry and Twisted Citron

Memory Box Deer die-cut

Scrap of foiled cardstock.

Versafine ink

Wow Embossing powder in Fairy Tale

X-mas tree:

Crafter's Companion Pearlescent patterned cardstock
Memory box Christmas tree die
Green Distress and pigment inks
Wow Embossing powder in Fairy Tale
Die'sire Merry Christmas die

Butterfly tag:
Gelli print with Starlight paints
TCW Mini Specimen stencil (TCW454S)
Grunge paste tinted with acrylic paint
Versafine ink
Clear EP

Stamp from my own collection

Branches tag:

MFT Snowfall Stencils
Branches Die-cut
Prima Heavy Gesso
Graphmaster acrylic paint marker
Merry Christmas stamp (Freebie from magazine)
Versamark
White EP

Signpost Tag :

Gloss paper and Ranger alcohol inks

Spellbinders Victorian Signpost S2-177 die

White embossing powder

Merry Christmas stamp (freebie from magazine)

The light conditions are so difficult at this time of the year I photographed all my tags in direct sunlight to show the shine and also in the shade to give a better idea of the colours, especially for the very shiny Butterfly and Signpost tags.

Let me know what you think!

I am entering the following challenges: Addicted to stamps, SSS Wednesday Challenge, Paperbabe, WOW Embossing powders and Vintage Journey (I don't know about marvels but all my tags are indeed less than 4").

Amost Halloween bird tag

Today is the first day of a new Theme & Sketch challenge at Stamplorations.

The theme and sketch are:

 

I chose to go with the theme and, since Halloween was only a few days ago, I made a tag using the orange and violet colours usually associated with the event.....

Did you notice that the ARTplorations Stencil Some Birds has the same motifs as the Trendy Birds 2 stamp set? When I did, I immediately saw the opportunities available when combining them. Furthermore, the stencil comes with both the positive and negative shapes so you get the mask AND the stencil for even more possibilities!

For this tag I used the bird mask and applied it on the cardstock with removable adhesive. I sponged Distress inks, both regular and Oxides to the whole tag.

Replacing the mask with the stencil, I coloured the bird with Distress ink in Wilted violet.

I kept the stencil attached in case I needed to apply further colour and proceded to stamp the bird with a combination of Salty Ocean and Wilted violet Distress Oxides.

I stamped a sentiment from the same set and added two leaves from the Trendy Leaves set, stamped with dye inks.

Hop on over to the Stamplorations blog for more inspiration from my teamies and do join us in our Theme & Sketch Challenge.
If you do, you might win a lovely Stamplorations prize...

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Craft Stamper TIMI, SSS Monday Challenge, Addicted to stamps and Inkychicks challenges.

       

Inspired by travel

New month, new challenge at Country View Crafts, where the theme is Stencils, hosted by Gabrielle.

Lots of scope with this theme so I decided to make a journal page and experiment.

On the left hand page I used the stencils with acrylic paints, applied with a piece of Distress foam.



On the right I used a technique akin to brass rubbings. The pages of my journal being fairly lightweight, even after a coat of gesso, this technique  still works with a thin stencil like this.

To take the "rubbing" I hold the coloured pencil very flat against the page, pressing quite firmly and the design appears as by magic! (my inner child had lots of fun with this...)


In the next step, I added washes of acrylic paints in yellow, orange and magenta (DecoArt) across the page and, with a sponge, added black paint all around to frame the pages.

Onto the stamping... I have many stamps related to travel, here I used Rubber Dance Globe map, La Mappa, Venezia and Vintage Hotel receipt  which have been added to the Country View Crafts shop. I used a variety of ink colours to give an impression of faded ink.

Finally, I couldn't help but throw in some die-cut words from the Adventure and Vacation WordsThinlits by Tim Holtz/Sizzix.

I hope I have inspired you to join in our challenge, remember there's a £20 Country View Crafts voucher for grabs, so crack out the stencils and start crafting!

Thanks for coming by,
 I am entering the Rubber Dance Forever challenge.