Spring Tag ~ It's Good To Be Back !

Hi everybody! I'm almost ashamed to say that this is my first post of 2019! I've had a little break as real life events have needed my attention. I'm now, very pleased to have a bit more time on my hands! Whilst visiting some of my favourite blogs, I noticed that over at 'A Vintage Journey', they were having their 5th week in the month 'Tag Friday'. I love making tags, so I thought I'd join in.

I started off by creating a textured background, using a wonderful little Dyan Reavely stencil and some modelling paste. The stencil was part of a Ranger freebie given away with with one of the craft magazines. As the stencil was smaller than the tag, I  re-positioned it couple of times allowing the modelling paste to dry each time. I then used my newly acquired Distress Oxide Sprays to colour the surface. It's the first time I've used them and was impressed by how well they covered the textured surface. 

This was how it looked after the first layer of colours. I decided, eventually to use more blue, but was pleased that the amber colour shows through slightly just adding a little glow. I used my favourite bird stamp for the focal image. I hope all the bird watchers out there will allow me a little artistic licence, as I'm pretty sure it's really a Sparrow but has been transformed by the magic of Distress Crayons into a Blue Tit!

The flowers were made using Tim Holtz's Spiral Flowers Thinlits Dies. I love these dies and haven't used them nearly enough! 

The letters that spell the word 'Fly', have been die cut in thin copper sheet using one of Tim's Bigz alphabet dies. I then used a soldering iron and covered the surface of each letter with solder. This is a technique I learnt when I followed the 'Wanderlust' course the other year. It's something I will certainly be doing more of as I love the pewter type finish,

Hope you've enjoyed seeing how my tag came together. I 'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks but will be back with another project soon! x. 

Winners , It's got to be Christmas

Hello, welcome back and Happy New Year ! It's time to announce the winner and top 3 of our last challenge. Please congratulate:

Jul D

Congratulations, we thought these little charms were absolutely beautiful and a fitting winner for our last challenge. Please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for your winners badge.

Now on to the top 3:

Amanda

 Alison

 Amanda

Congratulations everyone, truly beautiful projects. 

This just leaves me to say thank to everyone who joined in with our last challenge and to all those who have been with us along the way. 

I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2019 !

Sue

x

Welcome to today's Guest Designer, Ann !

Today we are welcoming Ann of Ann Chuang Crafts who was the winner of the Spooky Fun with an Autumnal Twist challenge.

Hello Artsy Friends,
I’m super excited and honored to be the Guest Designer for Stamps and Stencils’ December Challenge - It's got to be Christmas!

My name is Ann Chuang. I live in Taipei, Taiwan and work full-time as a Junior high school teacher. I enjoy playing with stamps, stencils, inks, paints, die cuts, etc. in my leisure time.

For today’s challenge - It's got to be Christmas! I must confess that I love Christmas theme very much. So when I knew the theme of the challenge, I was very happy. The following is how I made my card.

Hope you like this card and it is inspirational for you. Please join us for this fun challenge and I can't wait to see your artsy project.

Thank you Ann for sharing your wonderful card with us ! There's still time if you would like to join in with the last challenge.

 

Winners of Remember Remember the 5th of November

Welcome back, today is the day to announce the winner and top 3, however as there were only 3 entries for this challenge they are all winners ! There won't be a guest spot as we will not be doing any more of these posts, but please congratulate:

Shylaa Shree

Helen

Jo

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

It's got to be Christmas and some news

Hello everyone and welcome back ! It's Sue here with you today for the start of the new challenge but also the end of a journey. The December challenge will be the last one for Stamps and Stencils, we have had alot of fun over the three years we have been together but now it's time for a change in direction. I personally want to thank everyone who has visited us and those who have participated in our challenges. I also want to thank the Design Team for producing fantastic projects month after month and some amazing Inspirational Posts. So now it's time to share the theme for this last challenge. It's got to be Christmas! Possibly predictive but as everyone gets busy for the festive season time seems to disappear at a fast pace, so we're keeping it simple . For this challenge we want to keep it festive and see your Christmas themed creations, just remember it must be mixed media and include stamping and/or stencilling.

Sue

Cec

Rachel

Toni

Ruth

An InLinkz Link-up

Inspiration post...Bright Backgrounds

Hi everyone, Ruth here with this weeks Inspiration post. Keeping with the theme of Toni's challenge using bright colours I decided to seek out some of the really bright backgrounds from a Gelli printing session that were also a bit 'uninspiring' or 'not quite sure what I'm going to do with those' and use them to make some quick cards; with Christmas fast approaching they also have a seasonal take.

Firstly the Gelli prints

This one was a magazine print

One of my favourite Lynne Perella images and it's looking like a stormy sky.

Add in lots of star stamps, embossing powder and few white pen dots and dashes and you have fireworks or is it New Years Eve... 

...or maybe even a Christmas starry night

Next snowflakes and it's definitely Christmas, super quick with simple embossing 'sparkling snow'

Lastly a wintry theme which could be a journal page, December birthday card or yes Christmas card, I've used stencils, stamps, embossing powder, platinum crackle paste and die cuts.

Gelli prints can give such gorgoeus colour ways

Lovely Alison bomber quote, hoping you can see the crackle and I've used 'silent night' embossing powder. (All embossing powders were by WOW).

Hopefully that's brought a little brightness into dull, dreary November days. Still time to join in with our challenge. Ruth xx

Welcome to today's Guest Designer, Martina !

Hello and welcome back ! Today we are welcoming Martina of Piece of Me who was the winner of the It's been a while challenge. Let's move on and hear from Martina:

Hello everyone! My name is Martina Stoycheva. I`m from Bulgaria and live in a small town on Black Sea coast named Burgas, with my husband Stanislav and my 4 years old daughter Ava. My interest in scrapbooking started in 2015. I was making albums for my little (then baby) girl. Almost two years later I found mixed media. It was an instant love. So much freedom to create, so much possibilities.
I was making cards for a few months and then slowly discovered layouts, canvases and off the page projects. I love using paints, pastes, powders, different textures. I like all pretty things and exploring new products. You will see me using flowers often, but then you will see projects without flowers.
It all depends on my inspiration and where it comes from. I really hope I can bring up some inspiration for you.

Hugs

Martina



Martina has very kindly put together a video of her project which you can find here. Below is a taster of the finished article ! 

 

Thank you Martina for sharing your fabulous project with us ! There's still plenty of time to join in with the current theme Remember Remember the 5th of November !

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