Recycle and save.

Hi everyone Yvonne here to share another inspirational post with you all.

One of my favourite recycling products is old packaging 

and  together with scraps I store,  just in case they may be useful,

 this is another   '' Make it 3D ''    project  I have made for Halloween.

Strip back some of the surface card and give the whole piece a coat of white gesso or acrylic paint.

Then simply tear off pieces until you get the shape you would liker to use

  Some pieces from  my bits box.

Start places them to get an idea  of where you want them before sticking down.

Adding some stencils {Tim Holtz]  with Modelling paste for added texture.

Paint it all over with white acrylic.

Now for the  inky addition using Spray paints.

Dylusions Calypso Teal

Prima Summer Sky

and a home made black watercolour spray

Its finally ready to add the  Halloween images. The die cut cat  [Tim Holtz]was also recycled packaging painted glossy black.

All the stamps were from Stampers Anonymous or Chocolate Baroque.

There is still time for you to enter our current challenge.....

Make it 3D.

which ends on the 4th November.

We hope you will join us.

Art Spoons

Morning everyone, the current challenge is about 3D creations and when looking around for ideas for this Inspiration post I found 3 spoons that I had picked up in a charity shop for 30p each. There about 13cm long, just a bit bigger than a teaspoon. These are some of my ideas for art spoons.

These are made of EPNS (electro plated Nickel silver). Most of the silver has worn off but I thought they had a pretty shape with potential.

There are lots of ideas on pinterest where spoons, forks and other cutlery have been turned into jewellery, assemblage and other amazing items. I decided to create 3 different items and managed to use stamps on all three!

The spoons bent quite easily (that or Uri Geller had been handling them). One I wanted to create a pendant from and thought either side could be used. More about the pendant later.

The most tarnished I chose to use for a nest and sprayed with Lindy's Stamp gang mica sprays in blue and green.

The eggs were made form paper clay and rolled on a stamp with black archival ink on to give a speckled appearance.

I've seen altered spoons turned into nests for Easter which is where my inspiration came from but it's Autumn now and the nest has been abandoned, the eggs never hatched and lots of seed heads and dried grasses have fallen onto the mossy bed.

Second is the pendant. I incorporated some stamping on tissue and then started playing with UTEE. I think ice resin would have worked beautifully but as I was short on time I used UTEE.

I sprayed some of the seed heads I had gathered for the nest with the same LSG sprays and added beads and mica. I think this could be developed further but was just experimenting and wanted to show you the possibilities.

For the third spoon I added a Lynne Perella face. This was stamped onto tissue and sealed with matte medium onto the spoon.

Once dry I used twinkling H2O's to paint in the detail and added a little charm and some silver wire.

Hope you're inspired to look at everyday objects in a different way...they all have potential for altering into a unique piece of ART!

There's still plenty of time to join in with our current 3D challenge and just a reminder that this month there's a blog hop with a prize as well. See here for details. 

Transfer Printing

Hi everybody ! It's Toni here with another of our monthly Inspirational Posts. I've chosen to share a few ideas about using Tee Shirt Transfer Paper. The transfer paper I've used here, was bought from our local Asda supermarket. It costs just over £3, for a pack of five A4 sheets and is the type that is used for light coloured tee shirts. As well as printing on the paper with an ink jet printer, the paper can be stamped, stenciled or brayered with inks. I've also used Distress Markers for colouring and even tried using acrylic paint but found this wasn't very successful. The advantages of using a printer are many. For example, images can be manipulated by changing the colours or re-sizing  and of course they can be reproduced numerous times. The other fantastic advantage, is that as bloggers and crafters, we all have a wealth of beautiful images from our past projects already  stored on our computers ! The printed papers shown above are from a selection of my past projects and this is what I did with one of them. It's a transfer printed calico tote bag......

I've used an inkjet print of a Warhol style canvas I made a couple of years ago. The 'frame' has been made with hand cut strips of transfer paper that had been firstly brayered with Distress ink, then stenciled with black Archival Ink.

It's easy enough to brayer the ink onto the transfer paper as it has a smooth, coating on the surface surface which readily absorbs the colour. I'ts important not to over wet the paper, as the coated layer could break down and separate from the backing. It should be left to dry thoroughly before stamping or stenciling, but don't use a heat gun as it is heat that activates the transfer process.

The instructions, included in the pack for ironing the transfer paper onto fabric, are easy enough to follow. Just remember to use a firm surface. I used a piece board on top of my ironing board and had my iron, without steam, at a the highest setting. I found that it took longer to transfer the image than stated in the instructions. I ironed on the central image first, then covered it with baking parchment, so that I could iron on the individual strips to make the frame. The baking parchment will stick to the image but it can be carefully peeled off whilst it's still warm. Once I'd ironed all the pieces on and removed the backing paper, I used a black Sharpie pen to outline the picture and the frame.

Here is another bag I made a while ago. This time the images were created directly on to the transfer paper, with stamps, stencils and inks.....

The bag is of a very simple construction, if anyone wants more details about how to make this, let me know. Here are a couple more examples of printed fabric using the direct printing method using brayering and stamping.......

Well, you might have guessed that I love using transfer paper and I know there's a lot more to discover about it. I hope this post might have inspired you to give it a go. Until the next time I'm here, happy creating ! x

Winner and Top 3 - Up,Up and Away!

Hello and welcome back! Today we're sharing the winner and the top 3 of the 'Up,Up and Away with a twist' challenge. There were some ingenious takes on what goes up and away combined with the beautiful palette of Autumn. This made it very difficult to choose from so many beautiful entries.

However there can only be one winner and Congratulations go to

Chris

Congratulations Chris! We loved the framing of the central image and the autumnal shades on this beautifully embellished tag. As the chosen winner Chris will be invited to Guest Design for Stamps and Stencils at a future date. Chris please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for the details. 

Now on to the Top 3

Tindaloo

Ellie

Nikki

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 3D with a hop and you've still got plenty of time to join in.

Make it 3D with a hop !

Hello and welcome ! Today we are starting the new challenge for the month of October and as we have now been up and running for 6 months we are celebrating with a blog hop and a prize for the chosen winner. Below is the prize which is a few goodies from the fabulous PaperArtsy. There will also be the usual DT chosen winner who will be invited to join us as Guest Designer and also the top 3.

So, let's get going ! Below is the order of the DT who you need to visit to be eligible for the prize. You will need to leave a comment on each blog and also collect a letter. When you have all of the letters they will need to be re-arranged into a word which you will need to leave here on the challenge blog. Comment verification will be switched on for this challenge so you can leave your answer in confidence.

The letter you need to begin with is R. 

Blog hop order:

Yvonne 
Ruth
Julia
Sharon
Toni
Sue

So now the formalities are out of the way here are the DT's fantastic projects to get you started ! 

Yvonne

Ruth

Julia

 Sue

Sharon

Toni

So now it's over to you ! I hope you enjoy the hop and look forward to seeing all your fabulous projects !

Sue
x

An InLinkz Link-up

Travelling Light

Hello Sharon here with the last Inspiration post for September. I'm just back from a holiday in Normandy France, we had a fantastic time and what a better way of recording those memories than a little journaling.

Heres the Gite that inspired me to sit down and try to and capture the beauty of it. From where I sat I could see a Wisteria cascading down and a Lavender growing in a little gap in the paving.

 The Lavender

My small travelling kit. It consisted of a small Pink Pig plain journalling book which I had previously  covered with chipboard embellishments and painted with Acrylic silks.

My pencil case slimmed down with just my favourite pencils. Journalling pens and stabila pencil and putty rubber. A small tin of Caran Dache Neocolor 11 a few paint brushes. I also included a Artist journaling book for some ideas. Just enough to fit into a small bag, so when there was a few minutes spare after travelling around I could sit and draw a few images and then finish later.

The front of my Travel Journal

Don't forget to pick up any information on places of interest, later I will use some of these to make a Journal page, it also helps you to remember some of the smaller details....

A Dark Room Door stamp I will include later with some info on the Famous Biscuits.

My first page which I sketched and painted at the Gite then added some Stamps And Stencils when I got home.

I have tried to blend the torn out picture from the leaflet in with the background using distress Inks and then some splatters over the whole page..

There are more pages to be done but since coming home at the weekend I haven't had much time, but I hope it inspires you to take a little kit with you where ever you travel.

Happy Crafting Holidays 

Thank you for stopping by from Sharon @ 7 Till 9 Crafting Time

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 !