Christmas Card Club Challenge #23- Use Stencils.

Hello ladies, and here we are with Rachels choice for this Challenge, to use Stencils.

My stencil is from Sweet poppy, and is called Mistletoe Tree. I made my own glitter stencil paste, using Translucent paste and mixing in a pale green glitter. This is a really good way of glittering stencils, as you get all the glitter, but because it's mixed into the paste, there is no shedding. It's also way cheaper than buying small pots of pre-made glitter paste!

The sentiment is back to me using up my peel off stash, added to a thin die cut label. 

 I added a few half pearls to some of the design.

 And thats my contribution for this challenge.

Not sure how many cards I have now, but suspect I'm well into next years supply!

Favourite Cards of the Year- 2016

So, I've done this post for the last few years, at the end of each year. Slightly different this year, as I'm doing two- Christmas Cards are getting their own separate post, as I've made so many! This years  Favourite Cards, in no particular order, start with this one, a mosaic made from a piece of masterboard. This mosaic technique remains one of my firm favourites, especially because you can use any assortment of pieces- masterboards, leftovers, trimmings from things that didn't quite work-  a whole host of potential scrap pieces get a lease of life this way.











Next up are two cards using Stencil Paste, Sweet Poppy Stencils and Glitter.

White on Black, then Black on white.

These cards were really all about the technique- one I came across on Pinterest.
 Although I'd used brass stencils with paste and glitter, I hadn't thought of using Tim Holtz's Layering stencils to do the same. Although this looks like a black lacy design on a white background, it's actually the reverse.

I also learnt that you could colour white paste with ink, which led to a whole host of possibilities. And with Embossing powder, which led to even more.

A new discovery for me this year was Honey Doo Stamps, courtesy of a visit to the Happy Stampers Festival.


These cards all used the same stamp, just different coloured inks and vellums.

The ribbon & Bows are Sue Wilson Dies.

A lot of fun was had this year trying new techniques to me, and stencils of all types played a huge part in this. The stencil here is from Clarity, and have been teamed up with Lavinia Stamps, and inks applied with a soft brush.

I had a great time doing this one, again using a Clarity stencil, and an assortment of Halloween images from various companies.
It also made me think that maybe I could transfer this design to a canvas- a process still under consideration!

Almost done, these quick & easy cards came about after I made some Christmas Cards the same way, using Card-Io/Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps.

My final selection uses stamps from Visible Image. The skeletons facing each other was achieved by stamping them on opposite sides of a piece of acetate, which then had double sided film added, so I could cover the back with gilding flake.


These are just the ones that jumped out at me- I could have added more, but I think this enough. I've added a link in each description to the relevant Blog post.

Glittered Baubles Christmas Card

These are the cards I was working on before I got sidetracked with the previous experiment.

A Sweet Poppy stencil,Holly Baubles is the starting point.

I used gold, silver and green glitter over the paste.

At this point I remembered I had some Cosmic Shimmer sparkle embossing paste in a draw, from the supplies I had gifted to me recently. The one I tried out was called 'Warm Gold', but I thought when it dried it looked more coppery than gold.




Still a nice effect, but as I said in the other post, I thought a bit expensive.


Anyway, when all the pieces were dry, I took a stack of 6x6 white card blanks, from Craft UK Ltd, to matt them onto.



 I think I've mentioned this before, but don't place a great deal of reliability on the size shown on the wrapper. These actually measure 5 3/4" square, not 6". I'm guessing that is the envelope measurement, not the card.
As part of my Christmas backing paper stash bust, I also took some of this to cover the card fronts with.
 
Mainly this one, from Anita's, although a few sheets from some Papermania packs got used too.

Mostly trying to use ones that were not too busy.

The kraft trees paper was from a pack picked up in Hobbycrafts a while ago.

The far left paper is from a  pack by Kay and Co, from years ago, the right hand one from a Papermania one.

These are the Cosmic Shimmer Glitter paste ones.


All thats needed now is to add some acrylic flatback gems to the Holly berries.

 I didn't cover every berry, I tried that with the first one and it was too much, so I took some off.

In some cases, I've flipped the stencil over, so I have both left and right hand baubles.

All lay out for the gems to dry. Now all that's needed is a sentiment, and I'm still thinking about that one.

Glitter embossing paste, and an experiment

This turned out to be a side project from some other Christmas cards I was making. These are done with a Sweet Poppy stencil, and some Cosmic Shimmer glitter embossing paste that was among the items I was gifted a while back. I'll post the actual cards in a day or two.

I thought I'd give it a go, to see what it turned out like.
 To be honest, it turned out very well, and the real beauty is that you have the glitter look, without any shedding.
 On the downside, I think it's very expensive for the amount you get, given that this pot holds 50ml, and retails anywhere between £4.50 and £5.50, depending where you buy from.
 Sweet Poppy's own paste comes in 150gr jars, and retails around £9.
 After a bit of Googling, it seems that 1ml= 1gr, so you get three times as much in the Sweet Poppy jar, for around double the jar cost.
 However, as yet, Sweet Poppy don't seem to do a glitter paste.
 It was while testing it- and forgive the slightly blurry photo here- that I had a thought.

As I applied it, it seemed to me it had a very similar look & consistency to glitter glue. It had quite a gritty feel to it too when spreading it over the stencil.
Apart from Stickles, I don't have any glitter glue, but I will be getting a pot to see if it works. I may have to add some glitter to thicken it up, but we'll see.
 Now, I had another idea. Could I mix normal glitter into a Translucent paste, and get a good result?

I dolloped some paste (Dreamweaver), onto a small mylar mat. then added a generous amount of blue glitter. The fine stuff- there is a company called Glitter Magic who are often at craft fairs, and any number of retailers on E-bay.

Gave it all a good mix together, I used a combination of a palette knife and an old store card to do this.

I used the same stencil, and it applied just as easily as the ready made one.

This was the piece after I removed the stencil. I left it overnight to dry. At this stage, it looked much the same as the 'real' stuff.

The excess went into a little pot for next time, if it works ok.I reckon I'd probably get 4 or 5 stencils from the amount of paste I made.

Next day, and I've got exactly the same effect- nice glitter sparkle, with no shedding. Now I can mix up any colour of glitter paste, and I'm pretty sure it's going to work out way cheaper than buying little pots.