Penny Black meets Infusions

Hi Everyone,

I'm a bit late posting tonight but I forgot to do this earlier as I had a house full of men today 😉!  We changed our media supplier back to Sky and although it's changed in the fifteen months since we left so far we are glad to be back.  It was quite funny having our fairly small lounge overrun with two Sky engineers, one Openreach engineer and one OpenReach guy to test the fibre optic connection but they did a grand job.  I can't believe how slow our VM internet was compared to this.

Anyway, onto the crafting.... Monday was my friend Helen's birthday and I'm sharing the card I made for her.

Last month I was really chuffed to be chosen the winner of the Stamping Sensations Challenge and my prize was a set of Couture Creations Mariposa Dies, well, three sets really and this is my first make with one of the sets.  It's a bit of a puzzle placing the dies (it take 8 to cut this design) inside each other but I think it's worth it once I got the hang of it.

I have never used this type of design where the diecut is the principal part of the card,  I'm more into my inks and painty backgrounds so true to form I stuck the pretty diecut ontop of a layer of lovely PaperArtsy Infusion background card I  had made previously.  The diecut is from pearlescent card and I stuck a few sparkly embellishments on, layered onto a co-ordinating matt and finally onto the card blank.

I couldn't have a card without stamping somewhere though so I stamped the sentiment on the inside front and on the inside back I used my gorgeous new Penny Black stamp again (see my previous post for simple stamping of it).  I used a technique with Infusions that Courtney (Leandra and Mark's daughter from PaperArtsy) taught at a Make n Take at Ally Pally in April.  You use your finger dipped into Infusions to apply them direct to your stamp which means you can select specific colours for specific areas, then spritz the stamp with water until it beads and stamp onto your surface.  It gives a lovely watercolour effect  and you can stamp several times with the same application.  The stamping in top right and bottom left corners was after I respritzed the stamp so the definition was going but still a nice effect.

To finish I overstamped with Black Archival Ink at which point I thought I'd made a mess and ruined the whole card but I left it till the next day and it started to grow on me.  In the end I was quite pleased with the effect.  (Don't forget you can click the pics to enlarge)

That all tonight folks.  See you again soon.....

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

And my second post for today.

Hello again,

Well, that's another bank holiday over but at least it's not long to the Spring one. Not that it makes any difference to us oldie retired folks, lol!

My second card for today is another that I haven't decided who it's for yet.  It's also another rediscovered background, this time with a simple sprinkling and spritzing with water of PaperArtsy Infusions.....gorgeous little bottles of pigments with Walnut Stain granules in.  I'm quite excited because I'm going to a workshop using these at Art from the Heart in Harrogate next Saturday.  It happens to be my birthday so a fab way to spend it!  If anyone is interested HERE is the link.  There are still places available and it looks like a good workshop for beginners and more experienced crafters alike.  Lots of variation to the things we'll be making too.  I don't know the tutor, Sandra Botham (HERE is her blog)  but several of my friends do and say she is lovely.  My problem will be keeping up as I am such a slowcoach, lol!

This started life as just two shades of Infusions, Lemoncello and Violet Storms I think and just a light application.  I did a little stamping with Infusions using a technique Leandra showed us at a PaperArtsy make n take at Ally Pally.  I used the more lacy leaf same shape as the ones layered on top, from one of Lin Brown's latest sets (I absolutely love her new stamp sets) and the effect is really subtle and almost unrecognisable as the leaf but that's more or less what I wanted.  When it was dry I used one of Lin's new stencils and applied co-ordinating Fresco Finish paint with a stencil brush.  I also did some background stamping with inks using more of Lin's stamps.

Next I stamped the leaf x 3 and the quote x 2 (Lin's again) onto separate card.  I used 3 shades of green on the leaves and stamped the quote twice so I could leave a decent area of card round each line.  I cut them all out and attached them to the card.

I'm entering this card into the same three challenges at my previous one.

http://mixedmediaworld.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/mmw24-anything-mixed-media-goes-with.html

http://thatscraftychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/bright-challenge.html

Well, that's it from me for today.  I'll be back in the week to share a couple of birthday cards that I hope arrive at their destinations in time.....I made them early then forgot to post them, doh!

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

A taste of the Orient?

Hi there visitors,

Well, I'm still waiting for the signal to travel up the A1 for our new baby's arrival (officially due in 8 days time) so I've managed a rare bit of playtime just for the sake of it.  I found a square of gessoed canvas in my bit box, discarded from some other project and started out just playing with Slick Stix crayons.  I had no project in mind just wanted to mess about and this is what is eventually became.

I began by blending the dark blue and purple Slick Stix onto the canvas with a wet wipe, dried it with a heat tool then sprinkled Infusions in Royal Blood and Violet Storm and spritzed very lightly with water.  When I had the amount of colour I was happy with I dried with the heat tool and then painted the whole thing with a coat of Fresco Finish Pearl Glaze to give a lovely sheen and also stop any further reaction of the Infusions.

 

Next I chose some random stamps from the Lynne Perrella Oriental themed sets to use on the background. I didn't want them to show up clearly so used second generation Archival ink images.  There's a bit of Japanese text from a portion of a bigger image, a koi plus a PaperArtsy mini flourish stamp.  I then stencilled the trailing ivy using one of the translucent Fresco Finish blues which I think was South Pacific, as I wanted the Infusions and light stamping to show through.

 

My next step which I fogot to take a pic of was to stencil some clear texture paste to which I applied a little Aquamarine Treasure Gold when it was dry.  I also added touches of TG round the edges of the canvas.

 

Next was to stamp the main image onto Tim Holtz tissue and then paint it with various translucent Fresco Finish colours, South Pacific, Claret and Pumpkin Soup.  My only complaint with the TH tissue is that I found it very difficult to tear around the image and painting around it with plenty of water seemed to make very little difference.  It's blooming strong stuff but I got there in the end and adhered it to the canvas with Heavy Gloss Gel Medium. 

I then raided my bit box which I hardly ever think to look in, and found some bits and pieces to embellish the hanging.  I painted the leaves with Pearl Glaze so they looked something like the die cut piece of lace I added to the bottom and the tiny butterflies also got the Pearl Glaze mixed with Claret/Pumpkin Soup.

I used bamboo sticks with beads on the end to form the hanger and found the perfect coloured ribbons in my biiiig bag of those annoying pieces I cut out of clothes.....knew they'd come in handy some time, lol!

Well, that's how my playtime over the past couple of days has ended up.  Hope you like it and I just have to finish the post by sharing a photo of one of the lovely busy bees that were enjoying the campanula whilst I was taking the photo of the hanging out in the garden.

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone and thanks for dropping by.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx