Mulberry Paper & Dragonflies

 A card using up some of my mountain of Mulberry Paper, and an image I'd got already stamped up. A lesson in not overbuying, just because something is the new must-have. I think I cornered the world market in Mulberry Paper. It does produce a nice effect though,when torn to leave soft, fuzzy edges. The trick to that is to drag a wet paintbrush, or a waterbrush along the edge of a ruler, then tease the damp fibres apart.













As my stamped piece was on a blue/pink/purple oil pastel background, I used blue & purple mulberry paper for the background mat.












 I tore two squares of each colour, and used a scrap of card to stick them to, using DST. The scrap won't show beneath the stamped piece.
That bit done, I mounted the image with DST onto the squares, then onto a square white card blank. Next, a Dragonfly made from Angelina fibres was added over the one in the image with some silicone glue.
 The row of flowers along the bottom is one of the ones I received from Deeyl, Queen Lightwell, in the ATC swap!
   Onto a scrap of the same oil pastel card I stamped the saying in Black Versafine, and trimmed it to a tag shape. Added an eyelet & some fibres and mounted it with silicone glue again.


Supplies:
 Dragonfly Post stamp, Crafty Individuals 001
Mulberry paper
Oil pastels & white card for the background
Sentiment stamp, mine came from Life Sentiments, Kaiserkraft
Embellishments
 Black Versafine

Dragonfly Collage card

Still plodding away, using images I've had stamped up for ages. This one is a Crafty Individuals stamp again. Its stamped onto an oil pastel background, for how I did that, see here. For stamping onto oil pastel, Staz-on is the better ink to use, I think. Versafine, Memento & Archival I have found all need to be sprayed with an Artist Sealant.
As the background featured blues, pinks & purples, I used blue & purple Mulberry paper to matt the image onto. 
I cut a thin scrap of card, and ran a strip of DST along it for starters.

The angel hair paper was cut down so that four strips would be a little wider than the image. To cut it down, and keep the 'fluffy' look to it, take either a paintbrush dipped in water,(or a waterbrush) & a ruler. Run the brush along the edge of the ruler, letting the water soak into the paper. Then just pull the two edges away from each other, and you'll be left with a nice feathery edge.
I stuck these, alternating the colours, onto the DST.

   The strips are all different lengths,  so I levelled them off using the ruler & waterbrush method.
 
 






Now all the same length, I  mounted the stamped panel on top……..






……..then trimmed off the card strip so it wasn’t visible beyond the edge of the image.I added a layer of a darker purple Mulberry paper, then mounted onto the card front.





To finish off, I stamped a Happy Birthday sentiment onto a scrap of the oil pastel background, and trimmed with fancy scissors.
A dragonfly made from Angelina Fibres (fusible fibres) was added to the bottom of the image.
Supplies:
Crafty Individuals CI-001, Dragonfly Collage
Mulberry paper
Oil Pastels The Works.
Fusible fibres

Mystic Moon(light)

  Here is the second of my DT pieces for Craft a Scene's March challenge, Moonlight.
It uses a couple of Stampscapes stamps, and a couple from Non Sequiteur.
The background is also a little different this time, created using oil pastels. If you go to this page, you will find instructions on how I did this. Its a really simple technique, but can produce some interesting results. The important thing is that you will have to stamp in Staz-on, or it will wipe off, Versafine will work, but you need to spray with a sealant to make it permanent, I use cheap hairspray.
I created the background on white pearl card, an A5 piece,leaving a white area where I was going to place the moon. The oil pastels I used were a mix of blues with a little black for the night sky, browns in the centre for the mountains, another layer of blue where the lake would be, then greens for the foreground.
     Another bonus with the oil pastels is that when you have your images stamped, if areas are too dark, or just to make  areas of light & shade, you can remove some colour using tissue/kitchen paper/cotton buds.I did this in the water area to simulate the reflected moon.
The first image I stamped was the mountains, Rocky Peaks,188F, roughly in the middle of the background. Next I added the Cloud with Crescent Moon Lge, 202G, placing the moon in the white area. A Stamp Positioner helps here.

72C, Mystic Dreams

At the base of the Rocky Peaks I stamped Lakeside Cove Lge, 049G. To finish the scene, I used a stamp of Standing Stones, from Non Sequiteur plate 72C, Mystic Dreams. These stamps are now available from De Stempelwinkel. You can see the full range of images here, at Non Sequiteur,. They have some fabulous stamps, images you won't find anywhere else, all u/m.
 Finally, some white gel pen was added to give highlighted areas. I trimmed the image down, then matted onto black, then silver card. Before mounting onto the front of a Black base card, I stamped the words MYSTIC MOON, also from the Mystic Dreams plate, in Silver Encore pigment ink, added Silver Detail embossing powder, and Heat embossed. Then I mounted the image above it.
 So, to recap what you will need:

Stampscapes stamps

 188F, Rocky Peaks
202G Cloud with Crescent  Moon
049G Lakeside Cove

Non Sequiteur stamps
72C Mystic Dreams

Oil Pastels
White pearl card
Black card
Silver card
Black Staz-on
White gel pen
Silver pigment inkpad
Silver Detail embossing powder
Heat gun

WOYWW #94

 Blimey, Wednesday already!! Where do these weeks go? Happy WOYWW to everyone,heres my offereing for this week. Get yourself off to our Glorious Leaders site,Julia Dunnits  The Stamping Ground, if you don't know what this is all about and come & join the fun- legal stalking & snooping, lol.


   
On my desk this week, is a lot of untidiness!For putting this card together, I have a ball of Eyelash wool, a couple of square punches, my Tim Holtz ruler, and another clear gridded ruler,scalpel, Titanium non-stick scissors, dst, Memento Tuxedo Black inkpad,and Provocraft Silent Setter.

           The main image
(Illuminata, Inkadinkado) was stamped in Black Stazon on an alcohol ink background, using Blues & Purples, with Copper Mixative. I also stamped it onto an oil pastel background, also in blues & purples.

Silent Setter

The background panel is a Magenta stamp, 26019-R, stamped and heat embossed in gold on black paper.This panel was attached with dst to the front of the card base, a square black one.  The Illuminata image on alcohol ink was matted onto black card, then mounted on top of the Ornate panel. Then I cut and punched some random sections of the oil pastel print, coated these in Glossy accents and sprinkled with a few seed beads.These were then stuck over the corresponding parts of the original image, some with glossy accents, so they sit flat on the surface, and some with a little silicone glue to add dimension.

 Some blue eyelash wool was wrapped around the front of the card, and the phrase' Unique Art', Paperartsy, was stamped onto some offcuts of the Alcohol inked image.  I stamped the two words separately, by covering one with lowtack tape while I inked the other word, then peeling the tape off before stamping.They were then heat embossed using Black detail powder. This allowed me to cut both words into a tag, which had a copper eyelet added before being threaded onto the eyelash wool & knotted in place.

Next on my desk this week, is another bargain for you. I ordered theses Promarkers on Sunday, from Cowling & Wilcox, and they arrived yesterday.They are a bargain, because at C & W, these 5 packs are only £5.95. The 12 packs are only £11.85. And no, that is not a misprint. They really are that cheap. They do charge p & p, but if you enter this code : PROM211  in the promotional Code box, you will get FREE P&P until April 30th. They have all the packs too, not just a few.

 And thanks to everyone who liked my review of Paper Transformed last week, I am glad it was useful to you. As & when I get time, I will review a few other good craft/stamping books I have for you.
Quick reminder to all here in the UK, the clocks go FORWARD one hour this weekend!!!!

WOYWW #89

Two cards on my desk this week, both using Crafty Individuals stamps.The card on the left uses the 4 Birds stamp, CI 184, and Owl Postage, CI 225. Both were stamped onto an oil pastel background made with yellows and browns, using Staz-on black. I cut the four birds into individual images, and trimmed the owl stamp down to the postage stamp edge. I matted this onto gold card, and trimmed down to leave a border, using a stamp edge blade.  I then cut a sheet of gold card to size slightly smaller than the card front, which is an A4 sheet of cream linen card scored & folded, and used landscape format. I cut the gold card into four sections and added some matching paper from the Papermania Earthtones pack. Two panels had very narrow brown ribbon wrapped around, then all the images were put in place, sticky tabs used on the two bird images that overlap the owl. A small greeting was added to the final blank section.
The card on the right  uses CI 001, dragonfly postal stamped onto an oil pastel background made with blues & greens. A sheet from Papermanias ' Antique Cream' paper pack was used to cover the front of the card, then I tore 8 strips from toning mulberry papers, and attached these in a wave across the front of the card. The stamped image was matted onto a scrap of dark blue card, and trimmed down to leave a very narrow border. Two dragonflies were made using Fusible Fibres and the dragonfly on the stamp. These were attached with silicone glue.8 small flowers were punched from pearl paper, in toning colours, and paired up, overlapping the petals, and secured with a yellow brad, again attached with silicone glue.
How to make the oil pastel backgrounds is shown on one of my pages.

I thought this may be of interest to anyone with a Tesco nearby. I went in earlier this week, and in their £1 promotion area, I found this pack of 10 DL size storage wallets, like the sort sold for storing peel-offs. I thought they would be really useful for scraps and offcuts of paper/ spare stamped images/etc, and ten for a quid is a real bargain! So much so, I think I will be getting another couple of packs when I go in again- you can never have too much storage, can you?

And talking of storage, here is how I store my brass stencils- photo albums intended for 7 x5 photos, they cost me around £2.50each, again they came from Tesco, in one of their end of line sales, I think. I have adapted some of the pockets, dividing them down the middle with a row of staples, or in some a row across the centre, then cutting a slot in the side, depending on the size/shape of the stencils.

Whispers in the Wind.

Two more cards made using the crafty Individuals Treeline stamp, again on oil pastel backgrounds.I love this technique, as you never get the same effect twice, and the streakiness gives wonderful 'Evening sky' backgrounds.

Lakeside nightscape

The background was made using oil pastels in shades of blue top & bottom, and browns for the middle area where the rocks would be.Star Birth (217G) was stamped first, then Tall Peak (182G) then Lakeside cove (049G) all from Stampscapes, in Black Versafine, using a stamp positioner for lining up.Then sprayed with sealer. The image was cropped down and matted onto black then white card, then mounted centrally onto card front. The sentiment panel was cut using a Nestabilities Petite scalloped ovals large die, and the words stamped in black versafine. The words are taken from Non Sequiteur Winter Holidays plate (064). Two slots were punched in the oval and a short length of dark blue ribbon threaded through and the ends trimmed and mounted with foam pads.

Triple embossed birds

The 4 Birds stamp from Crafty Individuals stamped onto an oil pastel background then trimmed down. Mounted onto thick card and dabbed with a clear embossing pad then triple embossed. Dark blue card used in landscape format and a strip of dark blue angel hair paper stuck across the middle, with a slightly narrower strip of embroidered handmade paper placed across this. The bird squares are mounted with silicone glue. 3 Square brads added to the top left corner, and sentiment ( Stick & Stamp magnetic stamps, Rubbadubbado) stamped in silver in lower right.
By the way, if you stamp onto an oil pastel background, either use Staz-on ink, or spray with sealer (or hairspray) to prevent the image being smudged.

Sympathy

A return to the same stamp for a sympathy card, this time in shades of purple. Stamped in black stazon, on an oil pastel background, then matted onto black card and trimmed to a narrow border. Two shades of purple vellum punched with a rope border and fixed down the centre of a white card blank. The sentiment is stamped onto an offcut of the background and fixed with foam pads.

Stampscapes

This card uses two Stampscapes rubber stamps,Star Birth (217G) and Lakeside Cove Lge (049G).The background was made by dragging oil pastels to give a 'Northern Lights' feel vertically over the top two thirds of a piece of white card, and dragging blues horizontally across the bottom third for the water. I then stamped the Star Birth in Black Versafine, then lined up the Lakeside cove below it, also in Versafine black. The image was cropped then matted onto Black then White card. I scored and folded a sheet of dark blue card, then trimmed down to make a square card blank. Crafty Individuals stamp CI 021, which is a words background was stamped in Black Versafine in the top left and bottom right corners of the card front. The matted image was then mounted centrally on the card base.

Backgrounds

Four different backgrounds for the same stamp, 4 Birds, ( Crafty Individuals).
Top (L to R) Brayered dye ink on glossy photopaper, Oil pastels on matt paper.
Bottom(L to R) Mica powders on matt paper treated with Versamark, Alcohol Inks on glossy card.