Because Monday

It's time for a new challenge with All About Papercraft and this month it's...

There are plenty of great techniques in papercraft and I love many of them, so whittling the list down was a tough ask, lol. 

Back in my very early days of card making I was thrilled to discover rubber stamps and how I could use them to continue my love of colouring in (especially as I can't draw to save myself, lol). Watercolouring stamped images was a revelation to me and it's something I still love to do, so I chose that technique to use for my project as well as some ink smooshing, masking and heat embossing.

I began with stamping my main image on watercolour card then masking it before ink smooshing and stamping on my background. Once that was dry I did my watercolouring and shading. The sentiment was heat embossed twice with clear embossing powder over ink and I fussy cut the teal layer to go over the brown. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Coffee is Not Enough (Unity Stamp Co), Coffee Run (Echo Park), Timeless Textures (SU), Coffee Blends (stash)
• dies - stitched rectangles
• other - water brush, water spritzer, Big Shot, clear embossing powder, heat tool, foam dots, SU markers, distress inks, craft foam

Hopefully you have a favourite technique or two or three that you will want to create with and join the challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

JAI #675 - Just Add the Spotlight Technique

It's technique time at Just Add Ink this week.

In case you're not familiar, this is a colouring technique used to bring attention to a focal point on your card. There are a few ways of doing it, the most common being highlighting a portion of a stamped image, especially by die-cutting a shape to isolate the area. I looked around for other methods and found two I really liked - Gina K used stencils (see here) and Jennifer McGuire used windows (see here). They inspired me to try something a little different.

I stamped and stencilled in grey, adding a pop of colour only to the birds. Once die-cut I moved the separate pieces around to give me a nice grouping for a slimline card, added a plaid die to the background for interest and texture, and embossed my sentiment. After everything was mounted the final touch was a few dew drops here and there. 

By keeping everything other than the birds in tones of grey and white, it really makes them pop visually, drawing your eye directly to them. 

Materials used:

• stamp/stencils/die combo - Songbirds on Branches (Pinkfresh Studio)
• other stamps - Itty Bitty Greetings (Stampin' Up)
• card - basic white, smoky slate 
• inks - lost shadow distress ink, hickory smoke archival ink, salvaged patina and twisted citron oxide inks
• other dies - plaid slimline die (Pink and Main)
• other - Big Shot, MISTI, blending brushes, craft foam, Dimensionals, white embossing powder, heat tool, adhesive dew drops (Craft Consortium)

There are more samples to inspire you over on the Just Add Ink blog. I do hope you'll join us and add your creation to our gallery.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Congrats Songbirds

Over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge their theme this week is Stencil Fun, plus they're showcasing PinkFresh Studios. As luck would have it, I have some PinkFresh stencils I haven't used in a while, although it's not mandatory to use their products. 

I pulled out the beautiful Songbirds on Branches collection - stamp, stencils and die - and was in the mood for some autumn colours. Yes, I know it's actually spring here, but seriously, with the weather we're having this week it might as well be autumn again! 

I stamped in copper ink and clear embossed before using oxide inks with my stencils. Once dry and die-cut, it was a matter of moving the bits around until I was happy with the arrangement. I did some dry embossing on the background for a bit of added interest and die-cut a sentiment in copper foil and vellum. 

Materials used:

• stamp/stencil/die - Songbirds on Branches (PinkFresh Studios)
• card - copper clay, very vanilla, copper foil, vellum (Stampin' Up), watercolour
• distress oxide inks - fired brick, spiced marmalade, aged mahogany, dried marigold, fossilized amber, rusty hinge
• other - Scripty embossing folder (SU), Big Shot, MISTI, blending brushes, Dimensionals, foam strips, double stitched rectangle die, Congrats shadow die

Layering stencils are so fun to work with and take a lot of effort out of colouring images, lol. What's not to like? 

This is my second post today so scroll down for another challenge card and thanks for dropping in. 

Cheers

Kerry