Thursday 28 January 2016

Sketch Challenge 50

Materials used:-
FRS609 Graffiti Super Star
Clearsnap "Stephanie Barnard" Premium dye sprays:-
Banana,Tangerine,Strawberry & Blueberry
Sakura Koi water brush pens
Brilliance Graphite black
Metallic Wax Silver
8"x 8" cream card blank
Woodware watercolour card
Micron pen
All available from:-www.woodware.co.uk
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
Liberty Craft
33 Exeter Road
Exmouth EX8 1PT
01395 273238
libertycraft33@yahoo.co.uk
It's sketch challenge time & a chance to use one of the great new season's stamps from Woodware designed by Francoise Read. The background was created on the watercolour card with the Clearsnap sprays. I have stamped the image onto a die cut circle using Brilliance & coloured with the Sakura pens. The bar at the bottom of the cut off circle has been passed through an embossing folder & then lightly covered with the Metallic Wax. To finish I've randomly stamped one of sentiments from the set onto the background & added some faux stitching to the edges of the card blank.  
Here's the sketch

Friday 22 January 2016

Creating Embellishments


Our quest this week is to create our own embellishments & I've created 2 designs to choose from. The first one will take you back a bit! Who had a Spirelli set? You can re create the effects with a simple punched circle & come up with some great results. 

Here I've used 2 circle punches, the 3.5" scalloped circle & 1.5" plain circle. As you can see the design creates a circular area at the centre just right for the punched circle & then the message on the top which is a Craftwork Card "In Circles Everyday Messages" To create the Spirelli design I have used Woodware "Bakers Twine" & you simply attach the twine at the back of the punched scalloped circle, take it over the front & over to the back again 8 scallops along. Go to the next scallop from where you started & take that to the eighth scallop work your way all around the circle clockwise until you've completed the circle. For the second scalloped circle I've just worked from the same point across the circle & back again so that you end up with a scallop shell effect. The background paper comes from Perfect Prints paper pad "Vintage 4" & the card blank is 6x6. 

Here I've made some Card Candi flowers. Just punch a small circle of card & add a dollop of silicone glue to the centre. Fold some Candis in half & place them upright in the glue with the folds facing inwards. Continue all around the circle until complete & then place a Candi at the centre. When dry trim away any of the punched circle showing. I've used 2 die cut ovals for the sentiment which comes from Jane Gill's JGS403 "A Touch of Humour" which is something we can all do with a times. The background paper again is a Perfect Prints pad "Dark Dots" & I've finished with some more Candis around the edge of the oval & some bows of Striped organza ribbon.   

Here are the 2 punches used.

All materials used today available from:-
www.woodware.co.uk

Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
Liberty Craft
33 Exeter Road
Exmouth EX8 1PT
01395 273238
libertycraft33@yahoo.co.uk

Don't forget to pop over to the Woodware blog at
www.woodwarewitterings.wordpress.com

Saturday 16 January 2016

Funky Shaped Cards

Materials used;-
FRS194 Just For You
JGS405 Going Around in Circles
Colorbox dye inkpad "Guava"
Versafine Onyx Black
839-09 7.5cm Super Duper Flower punch
A5 card blank 
Acetate
All available from:-
www.woodware.co.uk
Sometimes it's fun to make our designs a bit more interesting by making them an unusual shape. Here I've taken an A5 horizontal card blank & cut a triangular shape out of each side. I placed a folded A5 piece of acetate  inside as an insert. The flowers are made from the flower punch & there are 5 layers which have been snipped into & given shape with a DEET & a large ball tool. Before shaping I stamped randomly over the flowers using a solid stamp from "Going Around in Circles" & "Guava". The centres of the flowers have been formed by filling with hot glue & sprinkling with seed beads. The sentiments are from "Just For You" Why not pop over to the Woodware blog to see what everyone has been up to. 
 https://woodwarewitterings.wordpress.com

Friday 15 January 2016

Brushos with Bleach


Another day, another Brusho sample! This time I've been experimenting with thin household bleach, you know the cheap stuff! It worked a treat as I thought it would having previously worked with bleaching techniques with various coloured card. I created the Brusho background on white linen card & because I'd prepared this a while ago it was completely dry. I gave it a quick wipe with an anti stat pad & embossed with Versafine black & clear powder. I then painted on the bleach & the colours disappeared nicely leaving a pale yellow. When it was completely dry I added some colour back in with some coloured pencils. Voila! The stamp set I've used here is Woodware's "Skinny Vase" (FRS304) designed by Francoise Read.




The 2 pics below are 2 new additions to my Brusho sample swatch. The green one is the bleach technique- just dripped onto a background. 


This one is very simple. Add some powders to acetate, spray & print onto some flat white card.  

Tuesday 12 January 2016

Brushos Meet Dreamweaver!

Now I got to thinking the other day, like you do, what if....? What if you sprinkled Brusho powders onto wet embossing paste, would it be wet enough to activate the colours? The answer is "Yes" & success to varying degrees. Only some pigments activated & these tended to be the lighter colours. You can risk a very light spray with water from a good height  & I also found that when the piece was absolutely dry you could wet areas which were too dark with a brush & gently blot some of the colour away. Interesting! I simply taped the stencil down & pasted with white embossing powder. Next untape 3 sides & carefully lift the stencil to check the image is OK then replace the stencil & very lightly sprinkle with the chosen powders. Now remove the stencil & leave to dry thoroughly. I did add a little crystal glitter to the crimson & blue design- couldn't resist! The other thing you need to consider is the choice of stencil. It can't be too fussy or detailed, large open areas are best. Here I've used Dreamweaver stencils "Heron" & "Maple Branch" with matt white embossing paste.






Monday 4 January 2016

New Year, New Designs

Ok it's official I'm a Brusho addict! May have to go into rehab soon! Here are a few of the designs I've come up with lately & I seem to be on a quest to come up with as many different ways to use them as possible. I've even put together a swatch of sample cards now- oh please!! How sad is that!! Here's what I've been doing..... 

The greeting is Woodware stamp FRS194 Just For You. I've spritzed some Brusho powders onto acetate & left to dry over night. I've taken some Woodware paper flowers & given them the Brusho treatment to match & filled the centres with hot glue from the Stix2 hot melt glue gun & then covered with Clear Plastic beads from Stix2.
 

Here I've created a whole page of card with Brusho colours then die cut some flowers & leaves (Tim Holtz Tattered Florals & Tattered Leaves) run them all through an embossing folder before finally giving them a soft coat of Metallic Wax Patina (silver) from Woodware. The flowers sit on a panel of acetate which has been put through an embossing folder.

A closer look at the acetate panel.

Here I've just run a piece of card which has been randomly coloured with Brushos through a embossing folder & coated with Metallic Wax.

Finally we have Woodware's JGS392 Bubble Bloom "Michelle". This has been embossed with clear powder over Versafine black onto copper pearl card. Brushos were added, spritzed & blotted until the desired effect was achieved.  When dry I went back in & added some colour to the "bubbles" with brush markers. Finally I randomly added some copper embossing powder & heated from underneath. 
Here's my sample swatch if you want to know more I'll be demonstrating Brusho techniques at Liberty Craft Exmouth on Thursday 7th January

Scallops, Curves & Curls

Materials used:-
FRS227 Curly Stitched Background
JGS341 Mini Flowers
JGS901 Birthday Textbox
2" & 1.5" circle punches
Kaleidacolor Autumn Leaves
Natural Hemp Cord
Fingerguard Trimmer with Scalloped blade
Versafine Vintage Sepia
Tombow brush markers
Craft Card
A5 cream card blank
All available from:-
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
Liberty Craft
33 Exeter Road
Exmouth EX8 1PT
01395 273238
libertycraft33@yahoo.co.uk

Hello again & Happy New Year to you all. Isn't it nice to put away the glitter (for now!) & do some simple crafting. This week, to kick off 2016, our theme is "Scallops, Curves & Curls" & a chance to bring out some old favourites. I started by clipping some half circles with the 1.5" punch from a panel of craft card which I had cut along the long edges with the Fingerguard trimmer. I made a mask with the punch through which I stamped "Birthday Textbox"  onto the card blank using Versafine. The craft card background was stamped using the Kaleidacolor pad & "Curly Stitched Background". I punched some cream circles using the 2" punch & stamped one of the "Mini Flowers" using brush markers straight onto the stamp. I tied 3 colours of the hemp around the centre of the craft card & tied in a simple knot before attaching to the card blank & adding the flower circles with 3D foam pads. Lots of Scallops, Curves & Curls!