WOYWW #251

Gooood Morning WOYWWers! All happily linked up over at The Stamping Ground, with our Chief Desker, Julia? Good, then we'll begin. Not a huge amount on my desk this week, some new stamps from Chocolate Baroque- I've been coveting the Fragments one for ever, with all those delicious Gothic Arches. And the borders-I can see a lot of uses for those.
Other than these, just some experiments with inking card with Distress re-inkers and water.

I love the Spiced Marmalade DI- such a glorious colour- I think I got a bit carried away, it was supposed to be more subtle than that! I have a problem with subtlety, you may have noticed.





This was how I started, and was more what I was aiming for- I didn't allow for how strong the Spiced Marmalade colour is. So it'll be back to the drawing board- or the inking mat- this weekend, Less ink and water this time.
Seen on top of my 'craft mat'- £1 heat resistant baking sheet from Poundland, sorry Tim.
 

   Some cards made over the weekend in the previous post,  triple time stamping, mainly thanks to Julias experiments recently with the Brilliance pads- I'd forgotten how wonderful they are.
Speaking of Tim, thats something I am waiting to arrive. I saw one of his CHA videos about his Blending Solution pen, for Alcohol inks, and also the palette for the inks. Looks good to me, so found both online.  You can put a few drops of alcohol ink into the palette, let them dry for a few minutes, then pick them up with the blending pen for colouring.

Mosaics again!

Three cards in this post, all using the mosaic layout.  The real beauty of these is that you can use up oddments, scraps, images that didn't come out properly- or you can stamp a bunch of random images and use those. It can't go wrong, as long as something unifies the design, whether its a theme or colours.For this one I used a couple of images stamped onto alcohol inked card in similar colours, added a word fragment with Glossy Accents, and a violin charm to echo the one in the stamped image. The phrase' Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, art is knowing which ones to keep' is a Tim Holtz stamp, and I stamped it onto an offcut of alcohol inked card with Versafine Onyx Black, then cut it up into words and sentences so I could arrange it over the card. The phrase fits the theme perfectly- a card created from things that went wrong.

This one is a mix of scraps and deliberately stamped images, all heat embossed in either black or white. A completely eclectic mix of images unified by colour.

The third card was created with a selection of  randomly stamped images which I then punched out. Some have been heat embossed, some left without.
 The punch I used is a Woodware one, and punches out 1 1/4" squares.

A return to Triple Time Stamping

I like this really neat technique, which exploits the 'halo' effect you get when you stamp over a paper mask. For this card, which is on a 6x6 square base, the stamping pieces were 5", 4" and 3", and the blue mats 51/4", 41/4"and 31/4".

I cut all the white pieces first, then stacked them up using a repositional tape runner on the backs.














 I stamped the flower, which used to be a wood mount, by Butterfly Kisses, called Sakura,
in Brilliance Pearlescent Blue.










In order to get the effect, you need to make sure some of your images are stamped over all three layers.


I added some random small flourishes in Versafine Majestic Blue.
 The blue matting layers were cut next, and each stamped panel added to its corresponding mat.
 A useful tip here is to write a letter 'T'  lightly at the top on the back of each stamped and matting layer as you separate them. Its very easy to get disorientated when  flipping them over to add tape, and it can be awkward to get them layered right, depending on what images you have stamped with.
Before attaching to the card blank, I wrapped some ribbon around the panel. the sentiment is an old Penny Black stamp, and was stamped in Versafine Majestic Blue again, then die cut with a Nestie, Labels 4,small,  and a mat layer cut with the next size up (large set). I added it over the ribbon with some small foam pads.
 I repeated the design for two more cards, both for Mothers Day.

 This one was again stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Blue, this time I used a brighter blue matting layer.  The second card was stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Lavender, and a different scroll stamp used. The sentiment is die cut on the same Nestie die, just larger sizes.


Supplies:
White card for stamping
 Brilliance Pearlescent Blue and Lavender inkpads
 Versafine Majestic Blue
Matching cardstock for matting layers
Image stamp- 2 is best
Sentiment
 Ribbon
 Nestabilities Labels 4, large and small set

WOYWW #250

Hi folks, wasn't that a glorious weekend we just had? I think we can be fairly certain that spring is here now.Our Headmistress of Desks, Julia, is waiting for your link over at The Stamping Ground, so don't disappoint, go link up now. Show us what you got!
 So what have I got? Well, there's another Clean and Simple masked card a couple of posts back,and the previous post is my almost-disaster, a stamped image that went horribly wrong right at the end. But I saved it- so proof that never bin anything till you're sure it can't be saved is the way to go.
 So, on my desk right now-these Paper Mache dress forms.

I put the Tim ruler next to them so you can see the size- just over 7" tall. Some of you might remember I mentioned a company called Creativity Direct a while back, and how they had the most amazing selection of alterable stuff. I had in my mind buying a Jewellery Stand for my Granddaughter Merlins  birthday later this year, but hadn't been able to find one suitably gothy for her. Then I remembered seeing these, and thought I would make one instead. So thats one project for the next few months. They were great value too- £3.20 each, inc VAT. Whilst browsing the site, I also thought about a jewellery box, and found this one:

This one cost me £13.99, and they have masses of wooden boxes, of all types, sizes and shapes.
This one opens up like this:
And I have plenty of suitably gothic/halloween/fairy stamps to alter it to suit her perfectly.
 If you like this sort of thing to alter, I recommend giving their site a look,they have  almost every shape/type of Paper Mache or wooden item you can name.













 Last thing on my desk, well they were before I moved them to show you these, is some stamps from Designs by Ryn, the lady behind my much used Water Droplets stamp. A different set of Water Droplets, Rising Bubbles, Raindrops and some Starfish.The Starfish are currently at 50% off. Ryn doesn't have a UK/Europe supplier yet, so you have to order from Canada, but the exchange rate is great, and  her shipping is so fast- I got these in under 7 days from ordering, I've waited longer for orders within the UK! Nice deep red rubber stamps, they come mounted on foam. Speaking of exchange rates, and ordering from abroad, I had been looking around the UK for a refill bottle for my Versafine Onyx Black pad. No-one at all seems to have any, and I know they say you should never have to re-ink, because they last for ages, but mine is getting a bit dry, after about 6 years, and I object to having to throw a pad away and buy another, on environmental grounds, as well as cost. So, I found refill bottles on Amazon.com, for the Black, and got two bottles, plus shipping, for £11.98. I also ordered a refill for my Sepia pad while I was at it, as it doesn't need re-inking yet, but I thought I may as well save on the postage. That is the only two colours of inkpad they make refills for, by the way. Have a good week everyone, and I hope the weather is suitably spring like wherever you are.

Cat and Butterfly Scene

                                                           

   I have made a very similar scene before, and to be honest,
this one was intended to be pretty much exactly the same. I also forgot to take pictures till half way through, so this wasn't going well.  I started off by sponging a sheet of card with purples and browns.Adirondack Cool Peri, then DI Shaded Lilac, then Adirondack Eggplant. The browns were Adirondacks, Lake Mist, Latte and Hazelnut.




I followed that by stamping the Inkylicious cat in Versafine Onyx Black, and also the Oak Branch, Stampscapes.






Having got the tree and cat in place, I used a couple of stamps from the Inkylicious 'Essential Grasses' set along the bottom, using first and second generation stamping.

 I also added a butterfly, which comes with the cats on the Inkylicious set.

 Now this was where things began to go downhill. I decided it needed something on the right for balance, and thought I would go with some bushes, made by stamping with the tops of trees over a post-it mask.




That worked ok, it was when I decided that they needed 'grounding' that it all began to go wrong.

 I think if I'd stopped at the edge of the bushes, it would have worked. But I'd put my post-it mask across the whole scene, and sponged over the edge to create a hilly landscape.  Complete disaster- way too dark on the side by the tree. So I attempted to remove some of the ink- that actually made matters even worse, removing paper as well as ink.

 So I'm sat there, really annoyed at myself, and tossing up whether to bin it, or can I retrieve this unmitigated disaster? When I remembered a set of Hobby Art stamps I'd last used ages ago, which had a hedgerow and a stone wall in it. Found the set, and spotted the fence stamp, which by an amazing fluke was facing in the direction that would best hide my mistake.






Funny thing is, I think it actually makes the scene work better- and I'd never have thought about it, if I hadn't made such a pigs ear of the scene.

Supplies:
 Adirondack inks in Cool Peri,Eggplant, Lake Mist, Latte and Hazelnut
 DI in Shaded Lilac
Versafine Onyx Black
 Inkylicious stamps, Playful Cats (2cats & 3 Butterflies)
Inkylicious Essential Grasses set
Stampscapes Oak Branch also available on Nature Sheet 8
Hobby Art In The Country set