I am off to Yorkshire tomorrow with my friend Linda to a craft retreat. We have been a few times now and always have a great time. Janet and Michelle (Lovin'Ink) always make us feel very welcome. A whole weekend of crafting, eating and talking!! Just what I am needing right now!!
I have been asked to do a mini workshop on making your own backgrounds. So I thought it would be nice to show how you can use one stamp to make the background and also use it for your focal image.
Here are my samples ..... I hope they go down OK!
I am now packed and ready to sit down with a glass of wine and looking forward to the weekend.
Hope you all have a good weekend too.
Siobhan x
Well that's another weekend gone and all my good intentions flew out the window!! Still I did have a lovely walk up at Faskally woods near Pitlochry on Sunday with my husband and our dogs. It was a lovely day and the trees are starting to turn to their autumn colours.
This week I am first up for the Woodware team and our challenge was to use a resist technique.
I chose to do a wax crayon resist as it's one I don't use often. But it is very simple and quite effective. This works best on glossy card. I stamp the gorgeous Stampendous Agapanthus cluster onto white glossy card with black permanent ink (Memories, Archival or Versafine). Then I coloured in the flowers and along the stems with a white was crayon. Then I used shades of soft yellows and brown dye inks, blended over the top with Cut'n'Dry foam.
I also found the little bee stamp (another old Stampendous stamp) as a little addition.
After layering up with gold and bronze card stock, I punched out a few maple leaves and gave them a bit of shape with a large embossing tool. The sentiment is also by Stampendous and I thought it fitted perfectly.
If you haven't tried this technique, give it a go. It works really well and is so easy. Remember to check out the Woodware blog all this week to see what other types of resist get show cased.
This week at Woodware we have gone all Autumnal. Which I guess it is appropriate as we are fast approaching that time of year of battling home from work in the wind and driving rain, darker evenings and cold mornings!!
My offering this week uses a new Woodware stamp designed by Jane Gill called Ferns JG5274. It is one of these foliage stamps which are so versatile. I can see myself using this one regularly.
The single fern is very delicate and great for backgrounds.
I used a selection of orange and brown tones in my Tombow brush markers to colour directly onto the stamp. Then lightly spritz with water to help blend the colours.
I made a decorative border with my favourite crafty edger punch and added a bird.
The bird is from a Magenta laser cut chipboard sheet that has several birds on it. To colour the bird I used brown and orange Cat's Eyes ink pads. These make it easy for detailed colouring on small items such as this. Because it is pigment ink I then cover with clear embossing powder and melt. I usually use 3 layers of powder (using Versamark in between each subsequent layer of powder). This gives a lovely enamelled look. A little black pearl gives your bird a beady eye.
Well that's it for now. I am trying to get ahead of the game as I have a couple of trips coming up and want to be all organised for once!! I can but try!!
Siobhan x
This week's challenge at Woodware is to make something without using any stamps. Not something I do very often!! Last week I used a stencil so I had a rake through some peel-offs (yes....I actually have a drawer full) .
I found a sheet of Stampendous peel offs featuring little trees and thought they were quite sweet and would make a simple and quick card.
Rather than stick a tree straight on a piece of card I made a little landscape using embossing powders. I cut a circle of card, inked it thoroughly with Versamark. Starting with the lightest colour, cover a strip near the bottom, tip off the excess. Then with the next colour pour on another area and tip over the first powder. This prevents any contamination. Once all your colours are on heat to melt.
I used Stampendous powders Aged Ivory, Golden Sand and Caramel.
I added some matting layers using Kraft and copper card stock.
I even used the sentiment peel-off from the sheet and a few little birds. A quick and simple card!!
I am away to watch The Great British Bake Off. Still on a high after Andy Murray won the US open last night .... a fantastic end to a great summer of sport. Maybe I will get more crafting done now it's all finished!!
Siobhan x
Our new challenge over at The Stamp Man was chosen by Kim. She apparently loves hot summer colours. As we appear to be having a nice spell before autumn arrives I was a bit confused and ended up using my lovely Stampendous Raven stamp. So apologies for my misinterpretation!! Just see the hot colours and not the raven!!
Both the background panels were made using blended Distress inks - Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Barn Door and Picked Raspberry. I added some layers of stamping for texture. The gorgeous border stamp is another Stampendous stamp that I use a lot. It comes from a Jumbo Cling set called "Hollyhocks".
I have a thing about Ravens and find them fascinating. As soon as I saw this stamp I had to have it!! The little punched circles came from the Stampendous Crowscape stamp that I bought last year, which is still available.
To finish the card I made a flower punched from Glassine paper. I used the largest flower from Tim's Tattered Floral die and cut several layers. I stamped them with a texture stamp using metallic gold Staz-on. Before joining the layers with a brad I crumpled them up. I love the effect you get with this glassine paper.
Remember if you want to join us, the theme is Summer Sizzlers... anything you like using hot summer colours. There is a £10 voucher for the winner!! Pop along to the challenge blog to see what my team mates have been making for your inspiration.
It's time for another sketch this week from Woodware. This one is very simple and I have stuck pretty much to the original design.
I met up with Dorothy last weekend at a trade show in Perth. It was nice to catch up and to see all the lovely new products on the Woodware stand. I saw a lovely sample made with a new Dreamweaver stencil and that inspired me to use it for my sample this week.
This is the stencil : LG745 Tree Line
I ran the stencil through my Cuttlebug with black card to emboss it. Then I sponged Versamark ink through the stencil. To create the moon I punched a circle (I used the Woodware yellow circle punch) from a post-it note. I positioned the circle where I wanted my moon to be and used a brush to brush on pearl mica powder. I used Pearl-ex but there are lots of makes of these shimmery powders.
I removed the circle mask then brushed on 2 or 3 shades of gold powder with the darker one at the bottom.
Then I removed the stencil (which was attached with low tack masking tape) and used a large soft brush to remove any excess powder. A quick spritz of water sets the powder.
To finish off I added a bit of Stampendous Aged Gold and Aged Taupe the image and gold matting layer.
I stamped a few sprigs in black onto the bronze background, added a greeting and then punched out 3 maple leaves from copper metal sheet.
I love the shimmery effect of the mica powders, but as is often the case the photo does not pick up the shimmer too well!!
This is a challenge sketch, so why not show us what you can do and perhaps win a voucher. Check us out on the Woodware blog for details on how to enter.
Looking forward to the weekend and some rest and relaxation!!
Siobhan x
