Masked Stencilling - Group of Seven Cardmakers

Hi everybody.  I am privileged to have been asked to be a Guest Designer over at the Group of Seven for this month and the technique this time is Masked Stencilling.  I cut a heart shape for the mask using a die from a set by Sweet Dixie, and a couple of different heart stencils from a set which came from The Range a few years ago and made by Craft Sensations.

I started with the background colour within the heart and decided on a combination of Distress Inks - Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Twisted Citron.  I applied the ink with a blending brush having first masked off a wavy shape down the right side which I tore myself, and using the same inks to apply the first heart stencil adding the corresponding ink in that portion of the heart.  I then took away the shaped piece and added some more of the three colours down the rest of the right hand portion of the heart, then replaced the mask using the other end of the piece I tore the mask from so that it matched up when placing over the left side.  I then added the second heart stencil again with the corresponding ink colour over each of the three coloured areas of the narrower piece on the right.  I then added some tiny white hearts around the background which I had saved from some previous die cutting, I think it was probably a Sue Wilson die which I have and it has lots of different sized hearts within the large heart but I just used the smaller ones.  It looks a bit like embossing and I think it just adds a bit more interest to the background.  I finished the card by adding a sentiment strip with the anniversary sentiment stamped using Versafine Clair Notcturne ink, and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder, and backed it with some foam tape for more dimension.  The card is a little less than 6" square.

I hope you go and visit the Group of Seven who are a lovely group of very talented people, and there are lots of links featuring previous techniques to take a look at for even more creative inspiration.  There is also a link at the bottom of the post where you can add any cards you make using the Masked Stencilling technique.    

I am entering the following challenges:

Stencil Fun Challenge - Feb. 24 Anything Goes/Love/Hearts.
Allsorts Challenge - Week 769 Anything Goes/Things That Fly.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Box Full of Hearts

Hi there.  I have an anniversary card today and I saw somewhere on line a design with butterflies escaping from an open box and it gave me the idea for this card but using hearts instead.  I used a new heart design die from Impression Obsession (249-Y) which I got fairly recently, but on this card here I just embossed it, but this time I die cut it and backed it with a piece of patterned card/paper using one of a few freebies I got with an order from Crafty Individuals. 

I started by die cutting two of the heart squares from white card and attached each to the patterned piece of card.  I then decided the dimensions I wanted and cut each down for the lid and box to fit neatly on to my 6" square card base and added a piece of craft foam on each for dimension.  I decided to stamp the sentiment as though that was coming out of the box too, and used Versamark and heat embossed with WOW Silver Metallic Embossing Powder in the position I wanted and then attached the pieces for the box around it and used some of the larger hearts which came out of the die, coloured using Adirondack Pink Sherbet Ink using a blending brush, and attached each surrounding the sentiment and to fill the space within the box shape.

Thank you for visiting me here today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

I am entering the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - No. 769 Things That Fly/Anything Goes.
Shopping Our Stash Challenge - No. 516 It's not Easy Being Green.
Double D Challenge - Patterned Paper.
Simply Clean and Simple Challenge - Feb. Anything Goes/Pink.

I am also joining in with Darnell's  I.D.E.A.S., a challenge which she has set for herself but has said that anyone is welcome to join in.  This is Week 4 Anything Goes.

Foliage Star

Hi everyone.  I bought this Xcut embossing folder fairly recently and am using it for the first time, and it's called Foliage Star, and at first I was thinking Christmas, but then I looked at it again and I thought actually it doesn't have anything in the foliage that definitely makes it a seasonal card, and some of the shapes made me think of card embroidery.  Here is an image of it so you can see what it looks like without the embroidery.

The very centre I made into a star piercing a hole in every point  and one in the centre, and then the pieces all around I pierced a hole at the bottom and one on every point.  I then picked out the same shapes going around it alternately in gold and silver.  I think it works and here is the result.

I finished by going over all the rest of the star with a Wink of Stella Clear Pen and I have left it without a sentiment for now.  I think it will probably be a birthday card.

Thank you for visiting me today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Can You Handle The Pressure Challenge - 10.2.24 - Anything Goes with a Twist of Reds and/or Pinks.
Allsorts Challenge - Pink/Anything Goes.
NBUS Challenge - No. 59 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Let's Craft and Create Challenge No. 204 Anthing Goes/Polka Dots and/or Stripes.
Ally's Angels Challenge - No. 79 Anything Goes.

Simply Clean and Simple Challenge - Feb. 24 Anything Goes/Pink.

Darnell who a lot of you will know has set herself the challenge of putting up a card every Monday following a rotational monthly theme the acronym for which is I.D.E.A.S.  -  Inks/Colour Mediums, Dies/Die Cuts, Embossing Folders and Anything Goes..where there is a fifth week in the month it will be Stencils, and has said that anyone who wants to join in is very welcome, and I am going to do my best to join the party every week.  This uses an embossing folder for Week 3.  

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi everyone.  Here is a Valentine I made for hubby.  I visit Hannelie from Desert Diva blog and she had made this card here, which I thought I could adapt to make a masculine Valentine, so I have CASEd it for my card.  I used a set of hearts from Sweet Dixie which I have had for a long time, bought at The Range, and also a large 'love' die which I got from The Works, also a long time ago when they did do a range of dies of their own at a very reasonable price which I don't think they do anymore.  I also used a Hearts 3D Embossing Folder from Sizzix which I got before Christmas and which is having its first outing.

I started with the horizontal stripes in the background.  I used a snippet of white card and a ruler and one of my new Alcohol markers.  I spaced the lines by eye placing them quite close together.  I have to say when I got to the end they weren't that straight, but I cut it into a rectangle and managed to straighten the edges so they weren't wonky..lol.  I then got out several Pixie Powders in blue, green and a white pearl mixer and using another snippet of white card I sprinkled them over and spritzed with water and finished up with a piece in a blue/green shade with a soft sheen which I thought looked fairly good and I cut a larger heart and five smaller ones from it.   I then used the Hearts EF on the large heart and having a senior moment I debossed it instead of embossing it, and didn't particularly like it, so I cut a further white heart from another snippet of white card and did it again, only to do exactly the same thing...duh!!  This time I decided to get out some Distress Ink in a similar blue which seemed to be Broken China, and I ink blended over the top and actually I preferred the look of the ink blending, so I doubled up the hearts placing this over the original.  To finish I die cut the 'love' die three times from another white snippet and layered it up to add over the centre of the embossed heart, and I added the striped piece to a 5" x 7" card and then added the large heart backed with some foam tape for dimension, and then four of the little Brushoed hearts along the bottom.  I did cut a small piece off the bottom of the card as the proportions didn't look quite right to me.  

I wasn't sure about the look of the card, but hubby thought it was good, so that is the main thing.  Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - Week 767 Hearts/Anything Goes.
NBUS Challenge - No. 59 Where we use up our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Snippets Playground Challenge - No. 473 Where we use our snippets of card and/or paper etc.

Try it on Tuesday Challenge - Hearts and/or Flowers.
Can You Handle The Pressure Challenge - Anything Goes/Reds and/or Pinks.
The Male Room Challenge - No. 183 Valentine/Use a Heart.
Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge - No. 340 Love.

Stencilling with Alcohol Inks

Hi all.  I wanted to make a card using this month's technique of Alcohol Inks with Gilding Flakes over at Group of Seven Cardmakers, this is not a challenge as such but they have a link where you can add your card, and I decided to use the AI's with a stencil which is a chevron design called Turn Ahead by 'That Special Touch of ' which is being used for the first time, and Ranger AI's in Pool, Stonewashed, Indigo, Butterscotch and Lemonade, and also some WOW Gold Foil and Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Flakes called Autumn Leaves.  The Yupo is Ranger Transparent 5" x 7".  I used a Zig Glue Pen for the fine lines to add the foil on the background, and a Zig Glue Stick with a wide applicator for the gilding flakes on the shadow behind the sentiment, and it is good for spreading the glue across the back of die cuts too.

I have been watching various YouTube videos about using stencils with the alcohol inks, and as I visit Heather Telford and I did find this video really helpful, I have left a link to it here.  I started with a mix of my colours adding them and then diluting and moving them about with Isopropyl Alcohol 99.9% dispensed into a little bottle with a very fine needle like nozzle, using an air blower that I bought a while ago.  I covered the piece and then whilst it was still very wet I laid the stencil over the top and continued to blow the air around, trying to move as much of the ink from under the stencil into the gaps and I even very carefully lifted bits of the stencil up and down to help to move it.  After removing the stencil when it seemed to be more or less dry, I then used a piece of tissue and carefully dabbed up some of the ink that had stayed, and it did remove some of it, but luckily the pattern had come out reasonably clearly and I was very happy with the result.  

I suddenly realised that I had not added the gilding flakes and decided instead to use gold foil which should really go on before the inks dry, although you can use a glue pen, which I did in various places following some of the edges of the pools of ink which inevitably form.  I thought I had a better chance of getting the foil to stick and gilding flakes do seem to go everywhere you don't want them..lol.  The foil did stick but in a rather random way and not quite as I had hoped they would.  I think I was too impatient and it is best to let the glue turn from blue to clear before removing the piece of foil, but nevertheless they did give  a lovely bit of sparkle which doesn't really show up in the photo.

I used a sentiment which is from Crafter's Companion which I have had for a while but this is its first outing, and I did incorporate the gilding flakes on the shadow piece behind the white die cut sentiment.  I find they make less mess by using a pair of tweezers to lift pieces of it onto the gluey surface and when the piece has a reasonable amount on it...it doesn't need to be completely covered, you use a scoochy - mine came with Indigoblu gilding flakes a very long time ago - or a soft cloth to burnish them.  Doing it this way made very little mess, and I just placed a piece of paper beneath to catch the little bits which were not worth putting back in the pot.  I added some foam behind the sentiment to give it a bit of dimension, and I cut the words twice to layer them before adding them onto the gilded background and stuck them down using the Zig Glue Stick.  

I'm sure a lot of you will feel life is too short to read all this and a lot will be made clear if you visit Heather's YouTube video, and there are a couple of videos showing how to use the inks and add the gilding flakes over at the Group of Seven Blog.  I think my belief is why make a simple explanation when you can go on about it for ten minutes...lol.  

I am also entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - No. 59 Where we use our Never Before Schtuff. 
Stencil Fun February Challenge - Love/Hearts or Anything Goes.

Darnell who a lot of you will know has set herself the challenge of putting up a card every Monday following a rotational monthly theme the acronym for which is I.D.E.A.S.  -  Inks/Colour Mediums, Dies/Die Cuts, Embossing Folders and Anything Goes..where there is a fifth week in the month it will be Stencils, and has said that anyone who wants to join in is very welcome, and I am going to do my best to join the party every week.  I do have some die cutting on this card which is for Week 2.  

Stack of Books for a Birthday

Hi all.  This is a masculine card for a family member.  I saw a card by Deb Hallett over on YouTube and I was so taken by the look of the pile of books and as I don't have any dies like this I went over to the Globleland site on Amazon and ordered a similar set of dies.  There is a frame of books, a pile and a single book in the set, and I also used an Inkylicious Bubble 2 Stencil which is having its first outing as well as the book die.

I started by die cutting the stack of books twice from pieces of white card, and stuck them together to make them more substantial.  I chose some different colours of Distress Inks and first I watercoloured the book pages using some paler grey and brown tones, and then started with three or four stronger colours of red, light blue, darker blue, green and brown for the covers using a waterbrush to add the colour from my glass mat.  I finished by adding a bit of pencil to sharpen edges and I also added some gold and silver pen to some of the book spines and the two bookmarks hanging out of the books, and made some pencil marks to represent a bit of writing here and there.  I also added the name on one and then happy and birthday on another couple of the books.  I finished by adding a piece of background white card on which I dry embossed the Bubbles 2 Stencil, and then attached the book stack over the top adding some foam tape to the back for dimension and then added the sentiment banner clear embossed with WOW Metallic Gold Embossing Powder.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - Week 766 Bingo Grid/Anything Goes.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Simply Clean and Simple Challenge - Feb. 2024 Anything CAS Goes.
NBUS Challenge - No. 59 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.