Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Sunday, and Happy Mother's Day!  I thought I'd show you the card I've made for my mum, using the Pomegranate Bits from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

There are two masks in the pack, and all I did was ink them with Distress Ink Minis, spritz lightly with water, then lay each one down onto white card, pressing with kitchen towel to ensure full contact and to make sure the inks blend.

You can get a bit of splatter/leakage as you lay the mask onto your card, but that suits me, because I add more splatter anyway!

When you remove the mask, there is still sufficient ink left on it for another quick spritz and a softer image.  You can also use either side of a mask, which helps to give a bit of variety to your composition.

To finish off my card, I defined the edges of the images by very quickly and loosely scribbling around the edges with a fine tipped black pen.  I created a matching sentiment by watercolouring the same Distress Inks onto white card, then die-cutting the Hero Arts Happy Stamp & Cut, and stamping the rest of the sentiment, then mounted the whole panel onto yellow card.

That's it from me today - enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Shirley x

Spring birdie canvas

This mini canvas has been recycled from a project I made a few years ago which featured a bird, then stamped using a Tim Holtz stamp and a little nest made from torn strips of paper.

Well, the bird has evolved with confidence into a hand drawn and collaged image and the nest has become significantly more sophisticated along with the background.

My background is simply finger painted with acrylics but it's the addition of the Finnabair White Crackle Texture Paste through my favourite Balzer Designs stencil Fleur de Lis which really made the background interesting.

I used a mini 6X6 pad of papers by Basic Grey called Spice Market to collage my bird as I thought the designs and colours were a bit spring like. I added some extra interest by stamping with one of the lacy borders from a Finnabair stamp set called Lace and Doily by Prima.

A touch of doodling with Posca pen and it was finished. I now have it hanging above my desk to help cheer up a plain wall.

Have a good weekend.

Jaine x

Layout for December

By the time you're reading this, Trish and I will be at the NEC in Birmingham at the CHA UK trade show looking at all the good things coming out this spring.

Anyway, I felt it was time to do a December layout before spring comes and everyone is totally fed up with all things Christmas.

I didn't want to go down the usual Christmassy route so opted to use a kit called Freedom by Jenny Bowlin for Echo Park as I love that red and black look.

For the stars I used a Balzer Designs stencil called Punchinella  and tried out some black embossing paste by Dreamweaver for the first time and was totally blown away by it. I've usually added black gesso to my paste before but I thought I'd try out one which was black to start with and it's gorgeous. It's thick so no leaking under the stencil and glossy so you have this gorgeous shine when it dries.

The only other things I used on the page were some white gesso, Broken China Distress paint and a few bits of shiny turquoise washi tape by MME.

Have a good weekend what ever you're doing.

Jaine x

Drippy and wet.....

No, not me personally!!!
Hello!
I have an messy inky background technique to share today, the background I used to make this...

Make sure your work surface is covered, and put gloves on if you don't like getting very inky!
We need to prepare the surface first. As we are going to be using lots of water and ink, the surface needs to be sealed, so give a chipboard square plenty of gesso layers to begin with! I wanted a little texture and pattern on the background, so got out the texture paste and the stencils......

(Yes, I know, white on white makes for a great picture.......)
Next, get out your inks! Now, you can use any ink for this technique (paint too), but I much prefer acrylic inks. They dry to a permanent finish so you can layer them without any mixing and muddying of colours, which is a very good thing! The other benefit is that I find they are much more light fast than other spray inks can be. I like to look at a project months down the line and for it to still be the same colour as it was when I made it!
So....drip on a drop of ink...

Then spray with water. As you play about with this technique, you'll get a feel for how much water you want on the surface. I would say, start out with a little bit at first, then you don't drown the project! You can always add more....

Now tilt the surface so the inky water moves about...

Move it about until you're happy, then dry it off. Add more of the same colour to fill in some gaps....

Again dry it off. Drying in between layers not only stops colours mixing and running, it also stops the surface from getting too waterlogged!
Second colour...

Add the water...

This time I added a little more water, and let most run off to colour a larger area..

Dry off again, and add another colour...this time I used red to complement to yellow and pink...

Once that was dried, I thought it needed a 'pop' colour.....turquoise!

Squirt on the water...

Let it run off....

Add more if you feel it needs it, then dry off for a final time...

Once it it totally dry, you will notice the colours lighten slightly, you can see this if I put a finished pic next to the just inked pic above..

For some reason, the red seems to lighten the most....weird....
Anyway.... I did a little printing and stamping on the background...

I also painted white circles, and melted white UTEE for a splattered look...

Because the background is so busy, I wanted the focal image to stay black and white...

My 'go to' Stampotique girl, with added text stamping in her dress!
Lots of messy detail, and a nice way to play around and make some backgrounds!
Have a nice Friday everyone!
Trish xxxx

You are so worth it!

Hello!
A little inspirational message from me today....... with a stack of birds!

A colourful painty background, lots of layers..

A little washi tape and some melted in UTEE to give some splatters...

I stamped the birds onto tissue, then stuck them to the background using Mod Podge. Each one was done individually, to form the bird stack!

I used Prima stickers (Sun kiss) for the words....

Nice and bright and cheerful for a Sunday morning!
Have a great week everyone!
Trish xxx

Wish -tone on tone paint effects.

Hello!
I'm back to painty messiness today...and I want to show you how you can incorporate scraps of waste, but matching colours into your work.

I created a background using lots of layers, and added in some stencilling through some sequin waste, and splats of black UTEE. A few random painty lines too!

When I'm adding paint to cardstock, I always work on a base of white copy paper. This means when I go over the edges of the card, paint ends up on the paper. When I'm done, it means I have a piece of A4 paper with random painty mess on it too! In this case, I stamped the heart onto a section of the A4 paper, then cut it out and added it to the background using gel medium....

With a tone on tone effect like this, it can get a little lost, so I gave the heart a little shading around the edges. Everyone has their own favourite way of adding shadow, I like using a black pastel pencil and smudge with a paper stump. Whilst you want the heart to stand out, you also want it to blend in too, so it looks part of the piece and not just plonked down on the background. To do this I made sure my painty lines went across the heart too, and the UTEE splatters were on there as well!

The final touch was a simple stamped word....

You could always stamp onto tissue and glue down with Mod Podge if you're not that confident stamping directly onto the finished piece!!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Trish xx

A little collage for the new year!

Hello!
New Years resolutions? Oh yes.....but just the one so it's manageable!
I'm determined to play around with crafting styles and techniques that I don't 'do' on a regular basis! Stop the 'go to' creating!!!!!
So, first technique I really should do more of...collage! Now, my initial idea was to use cut out magazine pics, but that was just a step too far and I got the stamps out instead!

Quick and easy painted background....just smear and brush on the paint, then add stencilling and doodling. Not too much thought, just go with it!

Random stamping..the Prima Finnabair stamps are perfect for this...

The stitched circle is another Prima favourite! I stitched the painted panel to a piece of black card, them got on with the elements for my collaged art doll.

She is created from a combination of stamped images and hand drawn/painted shapes. The wings are Stampotique hearts, stamped over some text...

Her body is a shape cut from painted cardstock...

Her legs and arms are scraps of card given the stripy treatment, with a little doodling added...

Her face is of course Stampotique again, LOVE these large heads! Perfect for art dolls. I've used hot glue to attach all the bits, I really like using hot glue as you can manipulate it it be a little 3D in places so your design isn't flat. In this case, her extended arm with the punched out star is standing proud, giving nice dimension. This may not be ideal if you are creating a journal page, but as this isn't destined to be squished together in a journal it works just fine!!!
See you soon
Love Trish xx

Have a Great Christmas!

Hello!
For my last project before the big day, I want to share a Christmas themed piece, but not in traditional tones!

Lots of bright colours, and some text shapes as Christmas trees.
I painted the card with bold streaks of colour, then sprized with water and blotted off whilst still wet. This led to a happy accident! The paper towel I was using to blot just happened to be embossed with dots. Some  have squares or other shapes, but this one happened to be dotty. When I gently pressed on the background to blot, some paint transferred itself to the towel, so when I moved it about I was in effect using it as a large stamp! I noticed tiny white dots first...

and then when I looked closer, I saw blue and green dots too!

I may have to look closely at the paper towel design before I buy them from now on!
I gave the background lots of layers, printing and stamping and splatting along with all the paint...

The trees were cut roughly from French text, then sewed on.....yes, you can see where the machine jammed slightly!!!

The trees had spindly stitched trunks, and then a little black printing just to 'ground' them on the page.
A little rub on greeting and it was finished!

Have a fabulous Christmas everyone, and I'll see you back here on New Years Eve with my top three projects of 2013!
Trish xxxxx