Dream canvas.

Good morning!

Well, this is indeed a more complex piece of artwork but I had a ball with it!!!!!  I let my creative side just take over!

I am very grateful Cec and all the team at Stamps and Stencils challenges

stampsandstencils@blogspot.co.uk for asking me to be their Guest Designer this month.  Their new theme is "swirls, whirls and flourishes" - it's a brilliant theme and there is lots of scope there to include a swirl, a whirl or a flourish on your piece.

As you will see, I went the whole hog and got swirls, whirls and flourishes on here so shall we take our usual journey and see how I got there?

OK, I started off with a piece of tissue paper (gift tissue) and with some cut n dry foam applied some Archival watering can ink through the stencilgirl stencil.

Then it started to get messy (my favourite place!!!) I stuck the tissue paper to a 12 x 12 inch canvas using Powertex napkin glue and allowed that to completely dry. Then I applied some modelling paste through two stencils - a swirl and a whirl!.

Here I have sprayed some yellow Powertex Bister Spray to start the background colour.

Now we have some drama on that background, I've used green and yellow Bister Sprays now, I added some lace that I've applied with Mod Podge and sprayed with the ink sprays too.  The flourishes are Sue Wilson Dies and the small paper flowers I have had in my crafty stash for so long, I have no idea where they originally came from!

Now, the problem I saw was that the girls face was too lost on the canvas and I needed to bring her completely forward so I made a start on completely enhancing her face and her hair.

There! What fun I had!  I used the modelling paste to change her hair to bring her forward and the face I enhanced to bring out that nose and mouth and particularly the eyes. I have used Pebeo gilding wax (silver) to highlight all of the swirls and flourishes and gold gilding wax to highlight her hair.

I stamped the sentiment of "Dream" from Clarity Stamp on there and I was very happy with this.

If nothing else, this project shows you how you can adapt your stencils in to anything you wish them to be.  Use your stencil to start your piece off and build on it from there as I have in this piece.

This is all the ingredients apart from the stencilgirl stencil which you can see in the first photo.

Hope you like what you see and that you have enjoyed our crafty journey today.

Don't forget to pop along to Stamps and Stencils and join in their new challenge of "Swirls, whirls and flourishes".

I would like to enter this piece in to current That's Crafty challenge of "Silver and Gold":-

http://thatscraftychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/silver-and-gold-challenge.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Live with promise, Laugh with pleasure......

Good morning! I hope that everyone has had a really lovely Christmas - Happy Boxing Day!

Earlier this month I had lots of fun when I went out with some friends (we actually went Christmas wreath making) and I thought of them when I fell across this stencil whilst having a bit of a craft tidy (much needed!!!) - so this piece was born!

I had a wonderful time having fun with one of my gelli plates and Stencilgirl stencils! I have taken photo's along the way so lets take our journey and see what a mess I got in to....... (I mean, see how I got there!!!!!).

OK, first of all I laid my mask on to my gelli plate and I used acrylic paints brayered straight over the top.  I then removed some of the paint with some scrunched up paper towel then removed the mask.  Of course, there is no paint where the mask had covered the plate so I lifted the print and this is what I got. 

This is often how I craft, I just "go with the flow" and see what I get! - Then, I work with what I've got tweaking it along the way!!!

So here I used the actual stencil part and laid it on top and ink sprayed through it so that the ladies started to take on some colour. You will notice at this point that I had laid the mask down slightly off centre so that I got a natural white edge to the right hand side. I'll show you the actual stencil and mask that I've used at the end of this post.

So here the mask has been laid down over the sprayed green area to allow me to work on that background a bit further.  This will give those of you that get a bit confused with stencils and masks a chance to see the difference - the mask is the "cut out" of the aperture of the stencil (the inney) and the stencil is (the outey) bit!!! - hope I'm helping and not confusing further!!!!

Here you can see that I've sprayed some purple paint on to that background (it's still wet!).

I've swapped the mask for the stencil again now and have sponged some brown on to the ladies to enhance them a bit. An Indigoblu script stamp has been used and the sentiments have been stamped at this stage but need more work....

There!!!! mighty fine job!!! - even if I do say so myself!!!!!!!

I've worked on the sentiments with alcohol pens and a white pen and used my charcoal pencil to pop the ladies off of the page.

Mat and layered.

There, a card to create a memory - celebrate with friends! Really pleased when a plan comes together!

The Stencilgirl mask (the inney).

The Stencilgirl stencil (the outey).

Impresson Obsession sentiment and Indigoblu script stamp used.

Hope you like what you've seen and that you've found it useful if you were struggling to remember your masks from your stencils - I also hope that I've helped you to open doors to using some masks and stencils that you may have at home and were wondering what to do with them!!!!!.

I would like to enter this in to the Time Out Challenge - "Inspired by words":-
http://timeoutchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/challenge-73-inspired-by-words.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

"Art Sisters"

Good morning!

Well, following the Try it on Tuesday challenge "sun, moon, stars" - I achieved a top 5 place and Avril kindly asked if I would do a guest designer spot for them for their new challenge "Layer it up" which goes live today - so here is my inspiration with lots of layers!!!!

Please go over to the Try it on Tuesday challenge blog and have a go and show them what you can do  - it's so great to see your wonderful efforts and how each and every one of us comes up with something so completely different!

I have done a full step by step so lets take our journey shall we?

I started with my usual piece of sheena stamping card and sponged on some distress inks (shabby shutters, crushed olive and peeled paint).

I stamped my central image and using a Sue Wilson pierced square die, cut that out and worked out the largest die from this set that I would need and just put a pencil line around the outside so that I knew the space that I had got to play with!.

Ok, then I had some fun using the same distress inks and some lovely stencils, from Stencilgirl, Clarity Stamp and Imagination crafts.

So here I have laid down my Sue Wilson pierced square dies and taped them in to position.  To have your dies so close to each other like this isn't always advised as they can jump in your die cutting machine and damage each other but I find that if you are careful it's usually ok and if it's not, then you've only got yourself to blame!!

So you can see what is happening now (from the other side).

Here we are, the right side facing us and all the layers perfectly cut.

OK, I've worked through the "art sisters" sentiment on to the actual card blank so that when it is all placed and assembled on my card, it all looks right! I have also at this stage backed each layer on to sturdy craft card as it would have been tricky to get those layers together. Some highlighting has been done around the images too.

Waahaaay!!!! That's what I call layering it up!!!!

Foam tape has been applied behind each layer.

There, the end of todays journey, bus stops here!

Well, art sisters is what we are isn't it?

Hope you enjoyed the journey, don't forget to go over to the Try it on Tuesday challenge blog and show us what you can do with our new challenge of "layer it up" we all look forward to seeing your creativity and good luck!!!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

For Someone Special............

Good morning!

Something a little "different" today for us!

I just love stencils and to work with stencils as high quality as this one is just brilliant! This is from Stencilgirl working on tissue paper - so shall we take a journey as to how I got there? - let's go!

Now, even to me, it's not that obvious where I started on this piece of artwork! Well, I actually started with my usual blank white piece of stamping card (Sheena Douglass stamping card) and laid down some Brusho's in a couple of tones of green and spritzed gently with water. (I should have taken a photo at this point but must confess, was so deep in thought I totally forgot - quite usual!!!!).

I then painted on a layer of Americana Decoupage glue sealer and laid my tissue paper (gift tissue) down and sealed again over the top. (Are you with me so far?) - good! I let this dry completely.

So, I placed my stencil on the tissue to see how it would look with the green coming through the open areas and liked what I saw! So, I had to reverse the stencil to do this (as naturally you would put a colour through the open areas and this would have left the face green!!! No no no, I didn't want that!!  

So, I mixed gesso with glycerin (purchased from a chemist, often used in skin products and totally harmless to your skin) to prolong the drying time of the gesso., Then brayered the gesso mix on to the stencil and flipped it on to the tissue paper and pressed down using a piece of copier paper.

Now, the coloured area with white gesso is actually the "solid" area of the stencil. (We are effectively stamping with our stencil here).

I sponged some Dusty Concord distress ink around the edge and again, left it all to dry completely.

I primed the edges again with some more gesso so that I could take the edges a step deeper with the Dusty Concord distress ink and stamped two birds (Inkylicious) and shaded those with diluted distress inks. At this stage I also highlighted the eyes a bit more with a white pen.

 Time to tidy up a bit I think!

Using the same American Decoupage glue I fixed my artwork to  layer of white card stock and tidied the edges of the tissue slightly - I still wanted a rather rough look though.

A mat was made sponging the same Dusty Concord distress ink.

I then stamped my sentiment "For Someone Special" and matted and layered the card up.

An unusual colour scheme but kept "thin" these colours work extremely well together and can be really rather pretty and peaceful looking.

Happy with that!

I would like to enter this in to the Cards in Envy challenge - "Purple and Green":-
http://cardsinenvy.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/purple-green-card-challenge.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Life is a Journey..........

Good morning!

I thought I'd have a go at the current Moving Along With The Times challenge - "sketch".  I always think this kind of challenge is rather fun and have endless possibilities.

I have taken some photo's along the way so lets take a journey shall we?

I started with my usual piece of white card stock, this time it is Sheena Douglass' stamping card.  I've drenched the card with water and used a current favourite of mine - drawing ink and let it bleed. This is sunshine yellow.  Don't panic about the card stock rolling up, (you could tape it down with low adhesive tape or stencil tape) - it will flatten out as it dries off.

There you go!

I having been itching to use this new stencil from Stencilgirl so I inked some distress inks through it, looked at it and thought, "it needs something to bring it to life!" - so in went an eye rubber stamp from Stampers Anonymous Classics.  That did it for me!  I then die cut around it with a Tattered Lace    

die.

I cut three strips from the same stamping card and used the same water and drawing ink technique, this time with some nut brown colour as well and left those to dry naturally.

This was me laying it all out to see how I was doing.  Was I getting to where I wanted to be? Yes, I think I was!  I cut the rectangular piece of card and stained that in the same way as the others, this time using a tad more nut brown and went through the stencil again with distress ink trying to ensure that I would be around the original circle piece with it.  I stamped a sentiment "Have a wonderful day" on the lowest card strip and prepared my backing card with the gelli plate.  I over loaded the gelli plate with acrylic paints so that when I pulled the print off I got that "sucked" look texture on the card - it is a lovely warm effect on the backing card. Then left that to dry naturally too.

Then it was time to assemble.  

I added "Life is a Journey" and a buzzy bee from Chocolate Baroque to fly in on to the flower!

Got the sketch theme right I think and really enjoyed making this one.  That eye makes the flower come to life don't you think? 

Life is a journey so always keep one eye on that road!

I would like to enter this in to the Moving Along with the Times challenge - "Sketch".

http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/30-sketch.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

Wicked......

Good morning!

Well, we are on the "dark side" again! Well, it is October after all - we're allowed to be!!!!

There are lots of creepy challenges out there this month and I personally love something a little "different" and having a choice to get away from cute and cuddly for a while!

I took photo's along the way so lets take a journey this morning shall we?

This card started with a piece of good quality watercolour card stock.

Now, one of my favourite mediums at the moment is drawing ink, I know lots of people shy away from it as with watercolour painting but believe me, it's really quite forgiving, just have the confidence to give it a go and the next time and the next will be better and better!  I soaked my watercolour card and dripped some yellow drawing ink on to it to make it bleed and followed that with some black india drawing ink.  When I was happy that it had spread enough I dabbed with a paper towel and lifted off the excess which lightened it to where I wanted it to be - nice and dirty looking.

Next came my stencil, this one is from Stencilgirl - isn't it fabulous! I thought she looked rather mean and ideal for a bit of a creepy card.  I went through it with black soot distress ink and then diluted some of the distress ink and painted in the right hand side of her face to give it shadow. I then stamped the drips (Designs by Ryn) on her face, neck and from the top of the image and coloured in with distress markers and topped with Glossy Accents (you can just see the tinge of blue at the top here as it wasn't dry when I took the photo).  I then stamped around the edge with some funky foam that had been embossed from a folder (another technique I've mastered recently) and stamped in spiderweb designs around her.

Here is the Sheena Douglass embossing folder that I turned in to a stamp!

I stamped the suitable sentiment "Wicked" - Chocolate Baroque.

To finish I mounted on to black card stock, framed with a gold die cut frame (Sue Wilson Pierced Squares) and mounted that on to a white 8 x 8 card which I blended the black soot distress ink all around.

I didn't want to add anything more as I felt it was complete just the way that it was.

Happy with that and if my 16 year old daughter says it's cool - then I'm happy!!

I would like to enter this in to the following creepy challenges running this month:-

Dream in Darkness - 31 days of Halloween:-

http://dreamindarkness.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/october-1-challenge-post-31-days-of.html

Country View Challenges - All Things Spooky:-

http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/october-challenge-all-things-spooky.html

Dark 'n' Daring Challenges - Anything goes :-

http://darkndaring.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/challenge-6-anything-goes.html

Cards in Envy - Frame it:-

http://cardsinenvy.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/frame-it-card-challenge.html

Once again, I hope I haven't frightened you off! We have to get in to the spirit don't we!!!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x