Welcome to today's Guest Designer, Rupa !

Today we are welcoming Rupa as our Guest Designer, who was chosen by the DT as the winner of the Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep challenge.

I am Rupa (45yrs) from Bangalore, India, married and blessed with 2 kids (a son and a daughter).

My interest in arts started when I got married and had to set up my own house. I had a flair for interior decoration but no formal training, which is when I started learning various forms of art and painting just to decorate “my home”! After the birth of my first son (a child with special needs) I was forced to be a stay at home mom and that’s when my passion and hobby became work too. I started taking art classes from home and have been doing so last 15 yrs and still do. My son now is 17 yrs and I have a 7yr old daughter too and my entire family is very supportive of my passion.

My entry into crafting was 5years back. I discovered my style was Vintage with lots of textures and most importantly, altered art. My USP is up cycling and have hoarded a lot of trash at home and they all get their time to get pampered and have a new lease of life. I see a canvas in any neglected item or house hold trash and love giving them a makeover. These not only serve as home decor items but also have a utilitarian value! Now that’s living your second life to the fullest! A deserving re birth, what say??? If you wish to see my works, do visit my blog at : http://rupastofa.blogspot.in/ and my FB page link is : https://www.facebook.com/Togetherforarts/?ref=bookmarks. Until my next creative journey, happy crafting and recycling.

I am so happy to be Guest Designing at Stamps and Stencils today and their challenge for this month is FABRIC/FIBRES! How interesting!

I have upcycled a liquor bottle for this project and have used lace and coconut coir for the theme.

This is the end result!

 Let’s get to the process…

First apply a base coat to the bottle. I have applied Home décor chalk paint in brown. Let dry and give a second coat.

Apply PLAID crackle medium on places of your choice. I have done on the bottle neck. Let dry completely. 

Once the crackle medium is dry, apply the top coat. I have used chalk paint here which is a vintage white. Once the top coat is applied, the cracks begin to appear. Let this dry.

 As this is drying, I have spray painted some lace in gold.

I then choose a tissue for decoupage and cut the pattern from it. Next the tissue is adhered to the bottle with modpodge. I have chosen to have the pattern on the base of the bottle. Then with complimenting acrylic colors, I create a background to blend the tissue.

I further create textures on the bottle with some stamps. Here I have used some script stamp and Archival inks and the splatter stamp too.

Once I am happy with the bottle coloring and stamping, I decide to stick the lace on. I then create depth around the lace with watery acrylic paint.

The bottle is then given a coat of varnish to seal the work. I highlight the lace further with some Inka gold.

The bottle with the golden cap is now ready to be embellished.

 

I have adhered some hand made flowers on a bed of coconut coir on the bottle. The flowers compliment the tissue design and whole bottle has a vintage weathered look. All falls in to place.

I love how this bottle turned out and this will be a proud display on my table.

I am so thankful to the entire team of STAMPS and STENCILS for having me over this month. I hope you enjoyed my post and I look forward to hear your comments.

Until my next creative journey,

Happy crafting and recycling,

Cheers,

Rupa

I'm sure you'll all agree that Rupa's altered bottle is beautiful !  Thank you Rupa for sharing such a fabulous project with us. You still have lots of time to join in with the current challenge Fabric and Fibres. 

Winners - Lucky Star

Hello and welcome back ! Today we're announcing the winner of the Lucky Star challenge and the top 3 picks. Lots of fabulous entries but as always there can be only one winner, so congratulations ...

Mary

We thought the black and turquoise had real impact. Please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for the details of your Guest Designer spot. 

Now on to the top 3:

Shilpa

Mimi

Marjut

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 Fabric and Fibres and you've still got plenty of time to share your projects with us.

Fabric and Fibres

It is Cec here and I am the hostess for our May challenge.  I am calling it Fabric and Fibres and here is what I have to say about it:

Let's add some fabric and/or fibres to our creations this month. You can use linen, burlap, organza, wool, lace, ribbon, rope to name a few. The list is almost endless but whatever you add, make sure there is some stamping or stenciling (or both) on your creation as well.

Our design team has made some wonderful inspiration for you. To get the details of their projects, just click on their name and you will be taken to their blogs.

Sue

Rachel

Cec

Branka

Toni

Autumn

The design team will choose one winner, who will have the opportunity to be a Guest Designer at a future date and I will select my 3 top picks so I am looking forward to seeing what you create.

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to today's Guest Desinger, Elli !

Today we are welcoming back Elli who was the winner of the Texture, Crackle and Paint challenge and was therefore invited to join us as Guest Designer. Let's move on to hear from Elli !

Hi there!

I'm Elli and I'm very happy to be a guest designer at Stamps and Stencils. I’m a stay-at-home mother of two lovely children. And I have a wonderful husband, who supports me in all my adventures.

Been through many hobbies, but since I discovered scrapbooking and especially mixed media, they turned into a real passion. In my projects I love trying out new techniques and designs and adore playing with textures, layers, colors, stamps, splashing and flowers!

For the current challenge "Lucky Star" I created a Mixed Media Watercolor Glitter Canvas "Little Sparkle".

I made step-by-step tutorial so you can follow the whole process how I created the canvas. 

 1. I started with stamping the ballerina and the ballet shoes from the Gabrielle Pollacco's Haute Couture Stamp Set, sprinkled some clear embossing powder and hot embossed with the heat tool.

 2. Next, I added some color using the Lindy’s Magicals and Prima Color Bloom Mists. First I sprayed some water over the canvas, then sprinkled some pigment powders and added more water and mists. And let the colors blend.

 3. Then, I stamped two kind of stars around the ballerina.

 4. Next, I added more texture by applying modelling paste through a Starburst stencil.

 5. I mixed some pink art sugar and 3D Matte Gel to cover the dress and the shoes. Then I added some glitter nail polish for more shine.

 6. Next I hot glued a lot of sweetheart blossoms and roses and colored them with magicals pigment powders.

 7. Then I distressed the edges and highlighted the flowers with Inka Gold. I also added some white, red and black splatters around the ballerina "masking it off" with a piece of paper.

 8. Next I glued some Art Pebbles, edged them with a turquoise mist and let the color flow down. I added some highlights with a Gloss Paint Marker and the Faber-Castell Artist Pen Big Brush.

 9. At the end I added more texture and shine with Mini Prills, Gala Glitz, Glitter Embossing Powders and homemade glitter mix.

And voilà - here is the finished canvas:

 Hope you like it!

You are very welcome to visit my blog at Made With Love by Elli . Here you can find more close-ups and the full list of supplies I used. Have a nice day!

Hugs,
Elli

I'm sure you'll all agree Elli's canvas is absolutely gorgeous ! You still have time to join us for the current challenge Lucky Star.

Inspirational Post ~ DIY Stencils

Hi everybody ! Toni here, it's my turn to put together an Inspirational Post and I'm hoping to inspire you to have a go at making your own stencils. Let's get started.........

I firstly wanted to find out which materials would be good to make stencils with. I wanted something that would be durable and easy to cut. I chose to experiment with, a plastic file divider, a piece of acetate, some plastic packaging, a clear plastic wallet and a piece of Mylar.

 First up was the plastic file divider. In order to make it a more manageable size, I cut the divider in half. I then used a craft knife to cut out a simple design.

I chose a simple shape, and repeated it, making it larger and smaller and reversing it from time to time. I tried to just go with the flow, not so much concerning myself with accuracy. I recommend using a good sharp blade and a cutting mat. Once finished, I sprayed the back of the stencil with re-positionable adhesive. I then used a cosmetic sponge to apply paint, onto a Distress Spray background, I'd prepared earlier....

I was quite pleased with the results. The stencil worked very well with no leakage of paint. I also had a go at die cutting another piece of the file divider, with one of Tim Holtz's Thinlits. It cut well with a couple of passes through my Big Shot.

Next up, I used the plastic packaging. This was thicker than the file divider, so I decided to die cut it with one of my Bigz Dies, Tim's Tattered Leaves. The die cut through the plastic very easily. These were the results...

The resulting stencil is very sturdy and I think it would be easy to use with modelling pastes. The edges of the leaves were nice and crisp, with no paint leakage.
I then decided to try something different. This time, I used a piece of the plastic wallet. I chose a picture of a woman from a magazine and used the plastic and a black pen, to trace around her outline.

I then used my craft knife to cut around the outline. I kept the inside pieces from her arms. Once again I used repositionable adhesive on all of the pieces. I then arranged the stencil on my background, and applied paint with a cosmetic sponge.

I think there's a lot of potential for making stencils with this method.

The next stencil I tried was made of Mylar. I slightly cheated with this one as I used a design I had cut on my Scan n Cut machine. I developed the design using a programme on my ipad called Brushes. It really is very simple. If anyone out there would like to know more about this, feel free to leave me a message on this post and I'll get back to you. Any way here are the results....

Mylar, comes in different thicknesses and can be bought quite easily on the internet. My last experiment was with a sheet of acetate. I firstly drew a design, onto a piece of white paper and placed it under the acetate sheet. I then used a craft knife, to cut around the design. The acetate cut quite easily, but was more flimsy than the other materials. I also made a short split in it, as I was removing one of the petals. After that, I used a pair of scissors to snip away any that were still attached.

So there you have it! I hope you've managed to last to the end of this post! If you have, then I hope you'll have a go at making some of your own, unique, stencils. Until next time, happy creating!x

Winners - Chirpy, chirpy, cheep, cheep

Hello and welcome back ! It's time to announce the winner and the top 3 of the Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep challenge. So, please congratulate....

Rupa !

We thought Rupa's sign was absolutely beautiful and the fact that it hangs outside her studio is just the perfect place. Please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for the details of your Guest Designer spot. 

Now on to the top 3:

Hazel

Drea

Kate H

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 Lucky Star and you've still got plenty of time to share your projects with us.

Lucky Star

Hello, everyone! Welcome to a new challenge here at Stamps and Stencils. 

Branka here and I am your host this month.
I have chosen the theme 'Lucky Star'.

For this challenge we would love to see a mixed media project that has star/s in it somewhere. You can create anything you like as long as you include a star. Don't forget to use stamps or stencils or both! Can't wait to see what you create!

Here is some inspiration from our design team:

Rachel

Branka

Cec

Sue

Autumn

Toni

Now, it's over to you! We're looking forward to see your 'Lucky Star' mixed media projects!

An InLinkz Link-up