Beautiful Day roses and some colouring.

I finally managed to get some crafty time on Friday evening and today.    Yesterday I watched a video on FB by Sharon White.  She had used  Oxide inks on her background, added a few other stamps then added the Beautiful Day stamp from Altenew.   I don't have many Oxides - in fact only 4 colours, but decided to give it a go.  When I went to stamp the roses, I wanted a really vibrant ink so as to stand out from the multi coloured and stamped background... so my handy dandy Catherine Pooler inks came to the fore....

I used all four of my oxides on the background... smooshing them directly to the card and spritzing the life out of the card..  As it's not watercolour paper I was surprise how well it stood up to that.   Dried it then used the oxide to stamp a crackle stamp, a line of music and a harlequin background stamp all over.   Dried that and added the rose outline in Versafine and then added the 2nd and 3rd layers in the CP inks....same with the leaves. These inks are so vibrant and saturated in colour.    Added a sentiment from another Altenew set - double layered in white card.   My base card looks black but is in fact a very dark grey.    I was very happy with the results.   I also did some Altenew stamping inspired by Yana Smakula - did background stamping on a 15cm x 21cm piece of card and cut into two panels.... still have to finish off so will share once I decide how to complete them..

I'm adding this card to the Floral Frenzy over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge 

Today I was home alone as my Dad and hubby were off helping a friend put in some windows.  So what's a girl to do when she home alone and the weather isn't great..... colour of course.  I should have been doing some more of my Altenew homework and a couple of DT cards that need doing, but decided to take part in Kit and Clowder's Confidence challenge.... Alyce challenged us to make a start of a class... I saw a super cute La La Land Marcie Cupcake free class and went and purchased the digi image and made a start..... of course once I started I had to finish... so a couple of hours later I did!  And made it into a card

The class video showed Alyce colouring this in Copic markers.  I didn't have the colours in my Copics so used the Prismacolors conversion that was provided with the class and coloured away.  I'm so happy with the result I achieved.  I added the grounding which wasn't shown in the class and added a little sentiment from Altenew.    Now I must finish off February's flowers and make a start of March's seaside scene.   And of course do the card I NEED to do for my teams!

Hope you all have a great weekend and get your craft on too!

A purple haired fairy

I got a gorgeous The Greeting Farm Fairy the other day and decided to try some Copic colouring using some tips I've found on Kit and Clowder Facebook .

 

I printed her off at a slightly larger size and then used my Copics.  I decided to try something different with my hair colouring.  I was pleased with how it turned out.  I trimmed around her and then after a bit of playing around, decided ont he design.   The sentiment is a freebie that came with a magazine.  I added some Wink of Stella on her wings and the background.   I added a little La La Land corner die cut.

Looking forward to the weekend to catch up on some DT work.   Plus I'm off to vote in the General Election tomorrow.  I'm hoping that the current government stays in charge...

Thanks for stopping by. 

Using metal stencils to Emboss

Today I'm here to tell you how you can use your metal stencil to emboss...

In fact there are a couple of ways to emboss.  You can hand emboss with a stylus or you can use your machine.  Yes... you can use a manual die machine like a Big Shot or Cuttlebug.

I used my Cuttlebug to emboss with the Hibiscus stencil from Dreamweavers

I followed the instructions I found on the Dream it Up! blog post .  Here they are.  I made a few adjustments (shown in red)

The main thing to remember while embossing by machine is the stacking method. If you follow these steps you will not ruin your stencil OR your machine.

1. Place the thickest white plate in the machine first if you own a Cuttlebug this is referred to as the A plate. If you own a Big Shot this is referred to as the thick white platform...do not use the TAB 1 or 2. Instead let those tabs follow through opened up. 

2. Place the  stencil face down on this thick white plate or platform. This means the copyright and stencil code is hidden from view. 

3. Next place the cardstock to be embossed on top of the stencil then spray this paper with rubbing alcohol. (I used a product called Paper Glide) This spritz of alcohol helps the paper fibers break and move into the stencil for a sharper embossed image without making the paper soggy like water would. And has the added advantage of not leaving water spots on the cardstock.

4. Now place the thick Stamping Details rubber mat on the paper. This mat is thicker than most but definitely worth having. Otherwise you need to use two or three plastic shims with your thinner rubber mat. But the rubber mat should be closest to the paper. (I used two of the tan mats from Spellbinders and didn't need any shim)

5. This is followed by two acrylic plates. For the Cuttlebug...these are identified as "B" plates.

Crank this stack of plates through the machine. DO NOT FORCE the machine. If it is too tight you could hurt the machine. Find the right formula for your machine by reading step #4 over again if necessary.


Once I had embossed I used Copic makers to colour the embossed area.  I trimmed out the stenciled area and edged with a gold pen.  The corners are a La La Land die, which I cut from gold card.  The sentiment is by Stamp-It

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to use stencils.    There are also lots of great techniques on the Dream it Up! blog.   I've also posted this over at Die Cut Divas as a sample for our Celebrate challenge.  We would love to have you join us.

 

Dressing Up....

is always such fun.  And I got a La-La Land stamp calling "Dress Up Marci" while I was in Australia last week.  This is my first stamp from this company and I love how much fun it was to colour

I used distress inks to colour in the image. Once I had coloured Marci, I trimmed her and set about making a background card using different purple card and some PP.  I tried a number of different die cuts before settling on the cream Couture Crafts doily die ( Note to self: USE WAX PAPER with this die.... 40 mins it took to pick out all the little bitty pieces out of the die)
Wish now I had bought more La-La Land stamps...

Now a few little pics from the holiday

As you can see lots of lovely sunny weather.  I even managed to have a swim in the sea on one of the days.   Stayed in for nearly 15 minutes as it wasn't too bad once you got over the initial chill shock.   The 6 days in Mooloolaba went so quickly but it was very relaxing.

Hope the week is going well for you all... and thinking of all my American friends as they commemorate the heroes of 9/11 and continue to mourn the loss of life in the destruction of the Twin Towers 11 years ago.

Dawn