Welcome to today's Guest Designer, Helen !

Hello and welcome back! Today we are being joined by Helen Liu of Happy Stamping and Happy Life. Helen was the winner of the Grunge/Industrial challenge and was therefore invited to join us for a day.

Hello Artsy Friends,

I’m super excited and honored to be the Guest Designer for Stamps and Stencils’ October Challenge - Spooky Fun with an Autumnal twist.

My name is Helen Liu. I live in Taipei, Taiwan and work full-time as a Banker in a Commercial Bank. I enjoy playing with stamps, stencils, inks, paints, die cuts, etc. in my leisure time. To know more about me, please check out my previous Guest Post in March here (link: http://stampsandstencils.blogspot.com/2018/03/welcome-to-todays-guest-designer-helen.html).

For today’s challenge - Spooky Fun with an Autumnal twist, I must confess that I’m not really into the spooky things, especially that I don’t have little children around me for some years. Yet I’ve decided to challenge myself to create an Autumnal tag with spooky elements. It’s fun to explore something out of my comfort zone. The following is how I made my tag.

1. Stamp text (Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz) with brown shadow ink on a watercolor paper tag.

2. Apply various Distress Inks on tag.

3. Die cut several leaves die (Sizzix/Tim Holtz) to create a DIY stencil.

4. Apply several Distress Inks over the DIY Leave Stencil to create a tone-on-tone effect.

5. Spread a thin layer of Texture Paste over the Gothic Stencil (Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz) on tag.

6. When dry, the Texture Paste will absorb some of the Distress Inks. Further apply several Distress Inks over the DIY Leave Stencil to enhance the tone-on-tone effect over the raised texture paste pattern.

7. Stamp Halloween elements (Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz) in black, die cut and color. Stamp text (Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz) in VersaMark and Heat Emboss in white on a black card scrap.

 8. Adhere Halloween elements on tag.

Hope this non-traditional Halloween tag is eye-pleasing and inspirational to you. Please join us for this fun challenge and I can't wait to see your artsy project.

Thank you so much for your wonderful project Helen ! There's still plenty of time to join in with the Spooky Fun with an Autumnal Twist challenge.

Autumnal Match Box

Hello and welcome back ! It's Sue here and today I'm sharing an Autumnal match box. This was a sheer fluke in terms of where the idea came from, I had just finished a box of matches and was about to throw the box away when ......

 I had an idea and grabbed the Gesso ! The sun also came out at this point so apologies for the shadows !

 I also grabbed my Amsterdam acrylics, which seem to be my go to at the moment. The Gesso creates some wonderful texture and the paint, applied with a baby wipe, really highlights it.

 A real change about too are the stamps I've used, the above is a Tim Holtz stamp that I've only used once but I do love the script. I've used Amsterdam acrylic to stamp on to the box.

 Some bits of washi tape are added then some stencilling, using cut 'n' dry foam as the box isn't strong enough to stand me pounding on it with a stencil brush !

More stencilling and stamping, with Tim Holtz stamps and a Wendy Vecchi stamp, all done with Amsterdam acrylics. A little bit of smudging with Gesso then stamping the script stamp again and embossing with white EP. 

The handle is made from jute that I've plaited and the leaf is made from Grunge Paper ( I still love the smell !)

 I even dug out my Distress Inks to shade the leaf and rubbed some Archival Ink around the edges to colour the cut edge.

The text is stamped onto Smoothy card and the stamp is from a Lin Brown set. 

One final shot to show how everything goes all the way around the box.

I hope you've enjoyed today's Inspirational Post and remember you still have time to join us for the Spooky fun with an Autumnal Twist challenge.

Winners, It's been a while

Hello and welcome back ! Today's the day to announce the winner and top 3 from the It's been a while challenge. There were so many fabulous entries but a winner has been chosen, please congratulate:

Martina

Congratulations ! We loved the colour combination and the textured design. Please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for the details of your Guest Post and winners badgs. 

Now on to the top 3:

Amanda 

Alison

Nikki

Congratulations everyone ! Please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for your top 3 badges. 

There's still time to join in with the current challenge Spooky fun with an Autumnal Twist.

Spooky Fun with an Autumnal twist

Hello all! How are you? I hope you are well. Time for a new challenge at Stamps and stencils this month ...I would love to see your mixed media makes with a Spooky theme, but if Spooky is not your thing then Autumnal colours also fit the bill ! - you can make anything you like as long as it is in a mixed media style and involves stamps or stencils!!! Enjoy!


Here's a look at what me and my amazingly talented teamies have come up with...

Cec

Rachel

Sue 

Ruth

Toni

Now it's over to you ! 

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