Remember Paris...

Hello again.  I love Paris and have special memories of the time me and Martin spent there for our honeymoon.  We walked everywhere...  saw  lots of the sights.  Beautiful, beautiful city...  really want to go back sometime.  

 

I had a couple of rejects along the way before I finally achieved this effect.

First, I managed to get a stripey sky.  Bin:  1, Barbara: 0

Then I tried embossing some butterflies in the sky while the mask was in place.  Bin:  2, Barbara:  0  (And even worse, nearly ruined my mask in the process:  note to self, heat gun anywhere near a mask and it starts to shrivel and distort).

Tried with acrylic paint rather than ink.  Oh dear.  Bin:  3, Barbara:  0

At this point, I put my efforts on hold, and  did another couple of samples before coming back to this a few days later.

Put the skyline mask in place and used chipped sapphire distress ink for the sky, and a tiny bit of black soot around the rooftops.

Removed the mask, oh yes, better this time.

Stamped 'Remember' from the word chains in place with black archival.

Then I stamped the poppies in place and covered the actual flowers with a mask cut from a post-it.

 

 

Put the stencil (this a new design club one, but the trellis would work too) in place, and brush through with a red distress ink.  I used candied apple, but you could use barn door.  Aim to get more depth of colour in the bottom right hand corner and fade out and upwards.  I also blended in a little bit of bundled sage and black soot distress ink right in the corner.

All that was left to do now was to remove the masks, colour the poppies with spectrum noir pencils and go round the edges with a black sharpie pen. 

 

 

 Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you like it.  I'll be blogging another of my samples very soon.  Till next time.  Xxx

Meadow grasses

Hello again.  I thought I'd share the first of my samples from Sunday's Clarity shows on Hochanda.  This is a nice easy one to start with.

 

 

I trimmed a piece of 7" x 7" stencil card to a 6" square, then stamped some meadow grasses along the bottom edge in black archival.

Then I painted on Spectrum Noir aquatints:  just using red and yellow.  I painted them on very liberally, so that the piece gets very wet and the colours move and blend.  Whilst it was still wet, I sprinkled on some rock salt, concentrating along the bottom edge, and just a delicate sprinkle elsewhere.  You need to be patient;  it doesn't look like much until it dries.

Once its completely dry (and I would suggest leaving it overnight), you just rub away the salt, and, the effect is much more dramatic.  Oooooh...  really like this.

 

 

Then I simply painted the flower heads with water, and blotted with kitchen roll to lift away the colour. 

 

Black sharpie pen round the edge to finish.  Simple, but effective I think.  We all need this sort of card sometimes;  well I know I do.  Sometimes things don't have to be complicated.  

 

 

I thought I would also share my party invitations which were made in a similar way using Spectrum Noir aquatints and Grace from the beautiful ballerina sets.  What I wanted to show here was variations on the same design, all simple to achieve and ideal for a large batch of cards. 

 

 

Colours simply and roughly blended. 

 

 

Salt sprinkled on whilst wet and left to dry as above.

Cling film crumpled over whilst wet and left to dry.

 

Water sprinkled over and blotted with kitchen towel.

 

 

Well I hope you like these cards.  Thanks for popping in for a visit.  I'd love it if you had time to leave a comment to let me know what you think.  I'll be blogging the rest of my projects during the month, so till next time.  Xxx

All you need is love....

Hello there.  Well January's over already;  the days are gradually getting longer, and I'm starting to feel like spring really is only just around the corner.  Valentine's Day is only a fortnight away, and here at the Clarity challenge our minds are turning to love!  Don't think you have to make a card for your other half;  you could make one for your mother, or maybe for a friend, for anyone you love...

 

The idea for this card grew as it went along.  I started off just knowing that I wanted to use the heart stencil, the sentiment "The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of" and the little girl with the balloons.

 

I started by creating the background using squeezed lemonade, picked raspberry and mermaid lagoon distress inks.  I'm just loving this colour combo at the moment.  I brushed and blended the inks randomly over the background, then sprinkled with water and blotted with kitchen towel.

   

 

Then I stamped the sentiment in the same colours randomly over the backgound.  You just want a subtle texture, so check it out on a bit of scrap;  you may need to blot the stamp first, particularly for the darker colours.

 

 

Next, I took the heart stencil and brushed lightly through in the same colour as the background for another layer of texture and interest.

 

Then I stamped the sentiment randomly over the background again with versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder.

 

 

Then I brushed the inks through the heart stencil again, offsetting them.  The embossed sentiments resist the ink, so you get another subtle layer of texture and interest.   

 

 

Now, I sponged Paperartsy fresco finish metallic glaze through the stencil (repositioning and offsetting it again), using a blending tool.  If you wash the sponge straight away before the paint goes hard, the sponge can be reused time and time again.

 

 

The final step for the background was to pull clear embossing paste through the heart stencil in the top right and bottom left corners.  While it was still wet, I sprinkled on a tiny amount of glamour dust glitter for some sparkle.

 

 

Here is the finished background.

 

 

Apologies that I don't have step by step photos for the groovi centrepiece, but I'll talk you through it.

Firstly, I dusted the parchment with talc and stamped the little girl with versamark and embossed using detail white powder.

 

Working from the back, I embossed the double oval frame into place.

 

I used just the hearts from one of the lace borders as a frame;  and large and small dots from one of the other lace borders to decorate the oval .

 

I also added in a sun/moon and a couple of hills.  This would make it easier to cut out and give a bit more strength and stability.

 

Before cutting out, I coloured in the hearts using spectrum noir pencils.  I tried to follow more or less the colours of the background underneath.

 

My original intention hadn't been to cut all the central section away, but once I'd done the background, it seemed a shame to cover it all up.  So it was out with my 2 needle pricking tool.  For me, my magnifying light is vital at this stage to make sure I prick the holes neatly.  Then you snip away with parchment scissors to create that beautiful picot edge;  a technique I'm still trying to master, but practice makes perfect!

 

 

 

Then it was just a matter of rubbing a little gilding wax around the edge of the background and highlighting with glitter before mounting onto the card blank and gluing the parchment topper into place.  I used Pinflair glue gel and was careful to place it under the embossed image, and tiny dabs under the dots, to make sure it couldn't be seen.

 

And voila!!!  I hope this card has given you some inspiration to look at how you can combine groovi with stamps and stencils to produce fresh and modern artwork. 

 

 

We had a record number of entries for last months challenge, as many of you took up Barbara's challenge to join in.  Its never too late, so if you didn't enter last month, I hope you'll think about joining in this month, especially if you've never entered before.  Its always exciting to see new people taking part.  There's nothing to lose, and there's a £50 Clarity voucher up for grabs every month.  The winner is chosen at random, so if you're in it, you definitely have a chance to win it.  Till next time.  Xxx