Welcome to today's Guest Designer, Claire !

Hello and welcome ! Today we are welcoming Claire of Claire's Crafty Creations as our Guest Designer, Claire was the winner of the Happy Holidays challenge and therefore was invited to join us for a day ! So let's move on to hear from Claire and see her beautiful project.

My name is Claire and I live in the UK with my 2 dogs and my parrot. I work for a mental health charity and when I'm not at work I can usually be found getting inky in my craft room. Like a lot of crafters I began with cross stitch many years ago and over the years have tried lots of different crafts. Its so exciting to see a blank canvas or piece of card transformed into a little work of art. I enjoy trying new techniques and I have a real love of colour and texture. I don't think I have a particular craftiing style,although I do enjoy creating projects with a vintage look.  I love stamping and stencilling so its a real treat to join the team at Stamps and Stencils as a Guest for this months challenge.

 

I used an 8x8 canvas but for a change I decided to use it as diamond shape.

I began by blending acrylic paint to create my background splashing with a little water for some texture

I stamped my images (from Chocolate Baroque) onto tissue paper and tore them out before applying them to the canvas with matte gel medium.

Next I coloured the images with Graph'It markers and stencilled some butterflies using a Splodgeaway Stencil and texture paste.

 

 To colour the butterflies, I replaced the stencil and applied versamark ink over the butterflies before adding some colour with PanPastels.

At this point I decided it was looking a wee bit too summery for the brief of Autumn Colours so I set too with some Vintage Photo Distress ink to tone things down.  I watercoloured some shadows around the butterflies, distressed the edges and splashed some watered down ink here and there.

As a finishing touch I stamped the Butterfly Dress image onto acetate and embossed with Gold, Copper and Brass WOW embossing powder, cut the butterflies out and glued them to the image. I folded the acatate wing and just glued the bodies for some extra dimension. The butterflies were finished off with some pearls, again coloured in Autumn shades using Graph'It Markers.

 

 

To edge the canvas I applied a coat of black gesso and once that was dry I rubbed a Versamark inkpad lighly over the edges before applying PanPastels.

 

 I'm sure you'll all agree that Claire's project is gorgeous ! If you would like to join us as Guest Designer all you need to do is join in with the current challenge Up, Up and Away with a twist !

Feather master board

Hi Ruth here with this weeks inspirational post which is a step by step. Masterboards are so useful to have around for backgrounds, inchies and in my case when I need a quick card. I know they are not a new thing but I thought I'd set myself the challenge of making one inspired by the current theme and try and stick to one main image....feathers!

I started by using a brayer to cover a piece of card with autumnal shades of translucent fresco paints. I didn't mind some white showing through.

I then assembled all my feather stamps...I found  5 in different sets. Using archival, sepia, red and rusty shades I started randomly stamping with them. I decided there had to be some contrasting images so I also used a text stamp and some circle themed stencils. I used paint through the stencils.

 I then just kept layering the images trying to cover all the board so that wherever you look you can see detail. I do this in case I want to make inchies.

It's difficult to see but I also used some gold embossing powder on some of the images.

 The finished master board may look very busy but that's the result I wanted. Just to show how it can be used, I made a couple of cards.

 I stamped a feather image on each, one in  brown archival and one white embossing enamel and because the background has feathers it echoes it rather nicely.

The background above uses a stencil and white paint mixed with some silk glaze.

This background is splattered silk glaze.

I also stamped some further images which I will use at a later date. There's still plenty of time to join in the current challenge, hopefully you'll be inspired to enter. 

Winner and Top 3 - Time Flies

Hello and welcome back ! Today we're sharing the winner and the top 3 of the Time Flies challenge. There were so many beautiful entries and so many different interpretations they were all wonderful, but as usual there can only be one winner.

So congratulations go to:

Pamellia

Congratulations Pamellia! Your card is absolutely beautiful with so many wonderful details !  As the chosen winner Pamellia will be invited to Guest Design for Stamps and Stencils at a future date. Pamellia please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for the details. 

Now on to the Top 3 

 

 Kathy

 

 

 Margik

 

 

 

 Valerie-Jael

 

 

 

Congratulations everyone, please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for your top 3 badge. 

 

All of the winners will also be pinned on the Stamps and Stencils Pinterest Board! 

 

The current challenge is Up, Up and Away with a Twist! and you've still got plenty of time to join in.

 

 

Up Up and Away with a twist!

Hi everybody, Sharon here and I am the host for the September challenge here at Stamps and Stencils, the theme this month is -Up, Up and away with a twist ! For this challenge we would like to see something that goes Up Up and away. It could be a plane, bird, a feather... anything that can go up. The twist? you must use autumnal colours. 

So get out the copper, rust and burnt oranges, be it paint, metal or embossing powders and don't forget to include some Stamps or Stencilling. Please remember we are a mixed media inspired challenge blog and your projects should reflect this.

Here's some inspiration from the talented design team to get you started!

Sharon

Sue

Yvonne

Julia

Toni

Ruth

Now it's over to you.

We can't wait to see your 'Up, Up and Away' inspired projects.

Sorry, inlinkz will be up and running later!

Welcome to today's Guest Designer, Lula !

Hello and welcome ! Today we are joined by the very talented Lula of u Luli blog. Lula was chosen by the DT as the winner of the Small is Beautiful challenge and was asked if she'd like to join us for a day. So, without further ado let's move on and hear from Lula !

My name is Lucyna Marynowska, aka Lula from http://ululi.blogspot.com/
I come from the north of Poland. Fifty-six, part time working widow, mum of two grown up boys and a proud grandma. I started my crafting journey 3 years ago as a card maker and immediately became an addicted paper-lover. My latest craze is playing with mixed medias and altering things. My beloved husband has passed away recently and I found true solace in crafting. I love challenges to spark my creativity and I love making crafty friends all over the world.

This is my take on the theme: Time Flies.
I altered a clock from the charity shop. I started with covering the whole piece with black gesso. To add the texture I put some modelling paste on it, using the Tim Holtz Burlap stencil.

Next I decided to add some die cuts to make the surface more dimensional.
Another layer of black gesso was put on it as well as on some metal and chipboard embellishments.

I stick all pieces together with gel medium and started adding colours with Inka Gold metallic paints - very shimmery paints with great shine.

Then it was time for the dial. I stamped and embossed it with Shimmerz Enamel- Molten Metal.
 

Some die cut cogs, metal pieces , hand made button with the photo and some lettering was added to it. Hope you like it!
 
Absolutely beautiful project Lula ! I'm sure you'll all agree that Lula's piece has provided even more inspiration for the current challenge Time Flies which you still have time to join in with !

Glazing, drippage and rust !

Hello and welcome to today’s Inspirational Post ! It’s Sue here and today I’m sharing a journal page that was inspired by the wonderful Donna Downey. I’ve had some of Donna’s stencils in my sticky mits for a while and not had chance to have a play so today is the day !

For this journal page I’ve used the wonderful Donna Downey paintbrush stencil and started with Grunge Paste over a Gessoed page. 

Once the paste was dry I used with London Bus Fresco Finish paint mixed with acrylic satin glazing fluid and using my finger rubbed it over the page.

I then used Tango and Blue Glass Fresco Finish paints and did the same thing, leaving the colours on the page for a minute or so before taking a baby wipe and wiping it back. 

It leaves just a hint of the colours behind, but I love this, and it’s starting to look like the kind of artist palette I had in mind. 

Now as it was an artist palette that my thoughts were following I wanted to have lots of drips and having recently dabbled with Clear Tar Gel, which you can see here, so I reached for it again. I mixed the gel separately with Tango, London Bus and Blue Glass and then dripped it over the page, standing the book upright to encourage it to run down the page. The gel takes a little time to dry so I left the book over night as I didn’t want to use a heat gun on it. 

I wanted to add more depth so next up was Golden’s Payne’s Grey, not at all grey but this wonderful rich, deep blue! It was mixed with the glazing fluid and painted over the whole page.

After a minute or so I then wiped it back with a baby wipe, the hints of the darker blue are caught in the texture of the Grunge Paste and the layers of colour are now blending and creating depth. 

I still felt that there was more needed so I first of all sanded the Grunge Paste making the brushes look a little more shabby then reached for Slate Fresco Finish paint and again mixed it with the glazing fluid but only painted it around the paint brushes this time. It was left for a minute then wiped back, now I was a lot happier ! 

I’d decided to tie this page into the current challenge here at Stamps and Stencils which is Time Flies and one of the things that Donna encourages is to use what you already have. So, looking at the bits and pieces strewn all over my work space I spotted some die cuts that I had intended to use on another project but changed my mind. The clocks are die cut from Claudine Hellmuth’s sticky back canvas which is stuck to the Heavy Smoothy card. I’d also zipped around the edges with my sewing machine, so there was lots of texture already, but I wanted more ! I used Grunge Paste again and patted it on to the clocks using a metal spatula to create a stippled effect. I wanted the clocks to have a rusted, forgotten look to them so first of all painted them with Golden Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold. 

Next up was Burnt Umber Light which was starting to give me the finish I was after. To add some depth I used Raw Umber and now I was quite happy ! 

I didn’t want to add too much more at this point as I wanted the brushes and drips to still be visible, but I needed some words and reflecting on what I wanted to achieve on this page I came to the conclusion that my time had been well spent, so that was what I used ! In true Donna style I looked around at what I could use up and saw some off cuts of the card covered with sticky back canvas (I’d forgotten how useful this stuff is!). I die cut the letters using the Tim Holtz Block Talk Lower Case die and then used the Golden colours I'd used on the clock to paint them.

There was one last thing that happened by accident. I hadn’t wiped up the mess I’d made with the Clear Tar Gel and it had dried overnight and the result is coloured skins ! These were in all sorts of shapes but perfect for adding that ‘splodge’ of paint effect. 

This page was more about my enjoyment than anything else but being able to have some precious time to play and achieving an end result I’m happy with is definitely ‘Time Well Spent!’

The current challenge of ‘Time Flies’ still has a couple of weeks to go so you have plenty of time to join us, and I hope you find that your time is well spent too !

Sue

x

Winner and Top 3 - Happy Holidays

Hello and welcome back ! Today we're sharing the winner and the top 3 of the Happy Holidays challenge. There were so many beautiful entries and so many different interpretations they were all wonderful, but as usual there can only be one winner.

So congratulations go to:

Claire C 

Congratulations Claire! Your project is absolutely beautiful and the serene scene is just fabulous !  As the chosen winner Claire will be invited to Guest Design for Stamps and Stencils at a future date. Claire please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for the details. 

Now on to the Top 3 

Pamellia

Sara Emily

 Alison

Congratulations everyone, please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for your top 3 badge. 

 

All of the winners will also be pinned on the Stamps and Stencils Pinterest Board! 

 

The current challenge is Time Flies and you've still got plenty of time to join in.