Look for beauty

Hello there again and welcome to the newbies! 
Our Maria will be on TV later with some really cool Groovi stash. I hope you will be able to watch her tonight and tomorrow too! 
But for now I want to share something I did when Leonie launched her first lot of stencils. They are brill and can be used to make pretty much any style of item from really grungy stuff to pretty CAS cards. 
This one was a journal page I did using the stencils as a background and then adding stamps to build up the layers.  I will be honest with you..this kind of art used to terrify me!! But watching Leonie and now Louise on TV, plus meeting up with Louise for play days, has actually shown me that it really is nothing to be scared of. It's mixing mediums but also layering that gives your project the desired look.
This project could be done on paper or directly in a journal depending on how you want to work.
I have given you the ingredients and the instructions but you could change it easily by using different colours or images or by adding other words that are more poignant to you.

Ingredients.

Leonie's frameless stencils

beauty Wordchain stamp

Alphabet Wordchain

Marigold and friends stamp set

Basic circle and friends Stamp set

Blues / Greens and Orange Paints

Artistry inks in similar colours to the background

Book pages

Charcoal pencil

Green archival ink

Mixed media paper or work directly into a journal

1.  Use the paint to create a background by adding different colours in different areas and covering the complete paper.

2. Place stencil with squares over the page and sponge white paint through the stencil. Move the stencil around to cover the page. Change the stencil to the one with little circles on it and sponge blue and yellow paint through small areas and again move it round across the page. Leave to dry.

3.On spare decoupage paper stamp the flowers outline 3 times. Use artistry ink to fill in one of them and cut out the circle. The other need cutting out. Stamp the words for the sentiment and brush ink over them .

4. On the page stamp the infill stamp in green archival ink around the page. Add some strips of torn book pages and the flowers and words. Stamp the circle a few times around the flower circle. 

5. Use the charcoal pencil around the elements and rub in with your finger.

Feel free to leave me a comment below especially if you feel inspired to have a go.
Hope you have a good day and happy crafting.

An inky/parchment crossover.

Hello to you all. 

I am off out later to Stockport to meet up with a  small group of folks who are all into mixed media and journals. It's a great little group and we haven't been able to meet since December due to various things. I love going as it is one of my inky playtimes. It's only for a couple of hours but I seem to have got loads of stuff to take with me. Oh well I am sure I will have fun. and that's what crafting should be about. 

Yesterday I shared a card made with the Garden Heart stencil. So today I thought I would share one done with the stamp set. This one is done on parchment and uses a groovi plate to create an embossed frame for the heart and verse to sit in. It also has some embossing done on the reverse to create white areas within the heart design. The thing to remember when stamping on parchment is you need to let the ink dry properly before you start yo do any work on it. You stamp on the front of the parchment to get the image the correct way round. However if you want to create a reflection or a mirror image to something stamp one on the front and one on the reverse and bingo! 
Any way here is todays card and as usual the ingredients and instructions are below for you.

Ingredients.

Garden heart stamp set

Rainbow river Parchment

Rainbow River Paper

Nested rectangle plate GRO-PA-40524-04

1. On a piece of designer parchment  Create a rectangle measuring 11cm x 16.5 cm

2. Stamp the heart and sentiment in black archival ink and leave to dry thoroughly.

3. Working on an embossing mat and using the Number 3/4 Groovi embossing tool add white work to areas.

4. Use and eraser to remove the colour from the parchment then use a green pencil to colour them in.

5. Trim evenly around the frame with a paper trimmer then attach to a piece of white card with brads and then mat on a piece of matching designer paper and mount on a card blank.

Have a good day whatever you are doing.

Happy Crafting

Boy and girl in flight

Good Morning to you! 
OOO it's been so cold here I wonder what today will bring. It doesn't encourage me to stray too far which is probably a good thing as I do have a lot of secret stuff to keep me busy! And I have a few personal cards to do for friends upcoming birthdays!

Todays artwork was done for the shows Barbara did on QVC Germany! I do like these two stamp sets. The boy and the girl can be used for so many different occasions. Used with the foliage they make a great quick card. Even quicker if you use the designer paper or card.

Ingredients

Flyaway and Carpe diem stamp sets

Northern lights designer paper

Indian summer designer paper

Black archival ink

1. Put two different pieces of designer together and draw the curve up the centre then cut it with scissors.
2.Take the pieces and fit them together...you get 2 for 1, just the other way round.  
3. Stick the pieces onto a piece of copy paper and trim to size.
4. Stamp the boy and girl in place the surround them with foliage in 1st and 2nd generation ink.
5. Add a moon mask and brush black ink gently around the moon. Make hills using ripped paper and brushing black ink. Darken the edges by brushing black ink around it. Remove the moon mask.
6. Attach to a piece of gold card then on to a card blank.

Please let me know if you have a go at this technique.
Happy crafting  xxx