Stencil Class: Day 3 - Embossing Paste

This day was by far the most fun, in fact it's why I signed up for the class to begin with. Embossing paste is like plaster of paris but in a gentler and easier to use form. It's thicker but adds a nice texture, a slightly raised look to the design elements.

To use embossing paste it's best to have a pallet knife to spread the texture over your stencil. Then when you peel back the stencil you have this nice puffy texture. I am sure there are a 1001 videos available that will show you how to do this if you're interested.

The best thing about EP is you can mix in just about everything; paint, copics, faber castell gelatos, powders, etc. You can also apply glitter and let it dry or embossing powder where you can emboss before the EP dries or after. I haven't tried either but they give you completely different looks.

On this card I mixed in copics for the blue and orange but noticed it does change the color slightly. The yellow was mixed with Martha Stewart paint with no color change and I think this was my peferred choice.

This next card I simply used Aleene's GLITTER SNOW Paint because it promised some glitter but eh it didn't have that much. In hindsight I could have just used normal EP and sprinkled on some glitter..oh well, live and learn.

Next week I have 3 Valentine's Day projects to share. 

Stencils Day 2 - Tracing and Watercolors

So for day two I used a stencil that had small stars on it. This was a big mistake I later learned because the end result was these teeny tiny stars from tracing or rather coloring in with the colored pencil. Then to give it some depth I stamped some slightly larger stars and of course even bigger stars to help this poor card out. Added a bit of bling and a sentiment. Not my favorite but it kind of works.

Next up is this watercolor card and I am going to tell you right now...it was the result of a lot and I mean a lot of mistakes and attempts and frustrations. But through it all I decided I think it workd.

First up I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed it so I could have resist from the watercolors. I used watercolor paper since it is designed to soak up the colors.

I then used this Pinwheel stencil and painted watercolors in the open area. Unfortunately water colors like to blend and bleed and I just can't do messy.

I set it aside and let it dry, then got the idea to paint the remaining white areas and that became even messier so I grabbed a baby wipe and wiped it all over which kind of gave it one big blend. I set it aside frustrated..After awhile I glanced back and thought hey it's not too bad, maybe I can salvage this and spritzed on some Tatter Angels spray and finished it with enamel dots, a big fat pink bow with a bit of toile for accent. I will confess I don't know if I will ever do stencils with watercolors again.



Stencil Class - Day 1: Inking and Misting

As you may know I signed up for my very first online class to learn techniques to use my stencils. I am not sure why I am fascinated by these, but I am and certainly am glad I took the class because it forced me to use the stencils rather than watch them sit in a box or become frustrated with me trying to use them in my own way.

First day was inking with masking and misting. The principal here is to blend inks together or singularly (we used Tim Holtz Distressed Inks) parts of the stencil and masking off beforehand what you don't want inked. I also used Radiant Pearls mist to give this card a sheen.

For this next card, I had to attempt misting twice as believe it or not I don't regularly do this and learned with the stencil less is more. You just lightly mist to ensure you don't end up with puddles of the misting liquid. I then stamped on top with some flowers and added dots of stickles to resemble unopened flower buds.

Stay tuned for Wednesday as I have two more cards using colored pencils and water colors.

The other lost layout

Here is the other layout I had placed away for safe keeping and forgot. I have to say while I was scanning this in it dawned on me there is no title for it. I am not sure if I should add one or leave as is. And at the moment a title for it escapes me. Not sure what I'll do. 

Also I am taking my first ever online class this weekend to get ideas on using stencils so hopefully next week I will have some projects to share and be able to share with you what I learned.

Long Lost Layouts

So I was cleaning my craft room the other day and I found a pile of stuff I stashed away that I had completely forgotten about. In this stash I found two layouts that were pretty much done but sans journaling. I remembered that I had made these at an Expo sometime last year. I go to two a year and sadly I don't know which one. Anyhoo some long lost art treasure. I should have the other one posted on Friday. It's a dbl page.

Last of my Valentine Cards

Well here are my last two V-day cards. Have to say I really enjoyed playing with these new goodies and getting some use out of some older ones. I do have a couple of small projects I am working on so hopefully should have those to share before too long. 

Colorful cards

Still playing with my Valentine supplies and loved the contrast of the pink and white against the brown. I left this blank so I could use it as a Thank you or Birthday card or even just a Happy Valentine's Day card.



I have to admit when I first started to make this card it had a completely different look, but one thing led to another and I felt it looked pretty good going in this direction. 

Dusting off my sewing skills

My dd was complaining how the boys especially Zack like to throw things in her house and of course something inevitably gets broken. So I decided to make some soft plush balls just for tossing around the house.

A quick visit to Joann's resulted in some fabric. I wasn't happy that most of the pre-cut squares were not that boyish let alone childlike so I opted for what they did have that wasn't pink or purple. I love that you can just buy remnants rather than stand in line and cut a bunch of 1/4 yd pieces of material. These square were just $1.99 ea. 

I cut out 8 sides from a pattern that I downloaded from the internet and stitched them together, coordinating the colors.

Here you can see the last of the sides that needed to be sewn. I left a small opening to stuff some batting in and then hand sewed it close.

Next I wanted to make some circles for the ends so I used my Nestabilities for a template. I choose two sizes larger than what I wanted to end up with and traced it in pencil. Then I snipped the edge up to the line a few times to make tucking the ends under easy.

I also found that if I left the Nestability in place and ironed the fabric around it, it left me with a nice neat circle.

And lastly here is the end result.

Another Thank You

I don't know about you, but I work full time and it's hard to find time to play. By the time I get home, play and entertain the kitty, go through the mail, socialize with dh, cook dinner, eat dinner and get in exercise time it barely leaves much time left for fun time. I am so ready for retirement.

I threw together this card and was inspired by the semi-spring time colors. Unfortunately by the time I finished it there was no sunlight left to take a decent photo and I had to scan it in.

A Few Thank Yous

Still enjoying my new goodies, I decided that they could be used for Thank you cards too. Since I needed to make a few anyways. 

December Daily - Finished at last!

So now that I am finally done with this I thought I would reflect back and share my lessons learned for creating a DD since this was my first year.

1. Scanning the pages is much easier than taking photos for sharing online.

2. I need a better printer. I didn't like how some of my prints came out.

3. Have a backup camera. I lost my camera which made me have to use an older one and the quality was just not what I was used to having.

4. Have an agenda. I actually did and that helped me premake some pages that eventually helped save me some time

5.  Collect ephemera through the year. I used a lot of embellishments which I had stashed and used that for most of my pages.

After all that I think I can do this again. I did struggle for a bit and most of that was because I was sick and took a week out of my vaca life which I had hoped to use to scrap.

If you were doing a DD are you finished or am I just the last one done?



Sneaking in a few more V-day cards

I was having so much fun with the Valentine's stuff I just had to make a few more cards. Everything below uses Papertrey Ink supplies, except the pp. I did have those heart banners for awhile and the red heart card uses stamps from their release last year.

Ringing in the New Year, but...

I am still working on the old year's project, December Daily that is. I am almost done just have 5 more days left and hopefully will have these done today.

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year!