Winners , It's got to be Christmas

Hello, welcome back and Happy New Year ! It's time to announce the winner and top 3 of our last challenge. Please congratulate:

Jul D

Congratulations, we thought these little charms were absolutely beautiful and a fitting winner for our last challenge. Please email [email protected] for your winners badge.

Now on to the top 3:

Amanda

 Alison

 Amanda

Congratulations everyone, truly beautiful projects. 

This just leaves me to say thank to everyone who joined in with our last challenge and to all those who have been with us along the way. 

I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2019 !

Sue

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Welcome to today's Guest Designer, Anne !

Hello and welcome back ! Today we are joined by another lady who is very well known in blogland. Anne Redfern was the winner of the Let's Fake it challenge and was therefore invited to join us for a day. We asked Anne a few questions and also asked her to share her 3 favourite projects:

Hello, my name is Anne Redfern, aka Redanne.  I live close to the countryside in the beautiful County of Cheshire, England.  I have been crafting in some form or other since I was a child.  I love mixed media, vintage and 3D crafting. My style is eclectic and I love trying out new things and if it is messy, so much the better! 

I am so thrilled to have been asked to share some of my projects here, as Guest at Stamps & Stencils.  I have huge admiration for the Design Team and love the mix of projects they bring to us for inspiration!

How long have you been crafting for ?

 

I have been crafting in some form or other all my life but only seriously for about 6 or 7 years.

Who or what inspired you to start crafting ?

 

I went to a local craft shop, just out of interest, and saw a man demonstrating a Big Shot machine and doing some stamping.  Within minutes I was hooked, bought the machine and some stamps and have never looked back since.

What is your favourite technique ?

 

My favourite technique, at the moment, is brayering with paint and ink.  I love that it turns out differently each time and creates wonderful texture.

What excites you most about crafting ?

 

I think what excites me most about crafting is the huge diversity of products (and techniques) available.  Just when you think no-one can possibly come up with anything different, they do just that...

What is your 'go to' craft product and why?

 

Tough question but I think my go to craft product is Multi Matte Medium and although it does not dry very quickly, it will stick just about anything to anything!  It is so versatile.

Who would you most like to take a class with ?

 

I am very lucky to have taken craft classes with a few of my crafting heroes but I would love to take a craft class with Richele Christensen who works with Tim Holtz, I just love her vintage style.

What's your favourite style of crafting i.e. journalling, altered items etc..

 

My favourite style of crafting is most definitely 3D, I just love dimension!

Where do you find inspiration?

 

I find inspiration from many sources, Pinterest, other crafter's blogs, Craft Stamper Magazine, nature and also YouTube.

Thank you so much Anne for sharing this insight into your crafting journey. 

If you would like to join us for a day the current challenge is Ombre and there is still plenty of time to join in.

2nd class post....

Hi everyone..Ruth here and I know, I know, it's a terrible play on words, but I couldn't resist. 2nd post of the month, an envelope journal and after all it is Technique School so this is the next class! Well after the wonderful inspirational post by Autumn I didn't want to let the team down.

If you follow the link on my name from the original challenge to my blog, I shared a video of how to make this...and gave a sneaky peek of the front cover by mistake!

I usually share experiments or new products and techniques that I've tried when I do an inspiration post but sometimes teachers need to go back over things to check how much you've learnt and in the process developed.

I've revisited my Gelli plate this month as it's been a while and whilst I'm not going to give the basics (as there are lots of videos covering this already), I thought I'd share some of the things I've tried this time around. Inspiration for me came from a Birgit Koopsen video showing how to make backgrounds (thanks to Sue C for giving me the nod in this direction)

For the front cover, I've used lovely Seth Apter stamps again in creating this, brayering paint on a background of Kraft card before adding the stamped image.  Now for the inside pages.

I'm working with the same colour scheme as the last envelope journal, just love these colours together. I also used a drop of drying retarder to extend the drying time of the chalk paint.

They are a mixture of translucent and opaque colours, the only thing you need to remember is that opaque will cover the colour underneath but translucent will let the colour underneath show through...which can look muddy if you use the green (chartreuse) over the purple tones so I tended to start with the green and use the purple tones as accents on top.

I haven't gelli printed on book text so this was a new one for me and I also 'brayered off' on the book text and then stencilled on top.

And now for the results, warning - photo heavy!

Gold always lifts a piece...it's my go to

Alternating printed white card with book text and there's stitching of course.

The light and the dark and there's plenty of room for journalling.

A few detail photos to finish

This time around I felt good results came more easily and could have carried on pulling prints all day...but I stopped short of the whole floor being covered..I'll certainly be printing on book text again and I think some cards may be in the making soon.

The aim of a teacher is to inspire so now it's over to you and can't wait to see your results! I'm also hoping Mrs Clark at least gives me a mark for effort! Ruth x

Learning to write

Hi, it's Sue here today sharing with you my first dabbbling at journal writing. I have long admired the wonderful journal pages with the all the various types of fabulous handwriting. I bought Joanne Sharpe's The Art of Whimisical Lettering months ago and have never, until now, sat down and read it and played around with the lettering examples in the book. So these are my first attempts, but lots more practice is required !

I gathered together some pens and I also bought a cheap set of brush pens to add to my little collection.

I grabbed a note book and started to work through Joanne's book. The above are trying out a brush pen and then an old paintbrush dipped in Bombay ink.

I also purchased a cheap set of calligraphy pens, working through the alphabet to get a feel for how to write with them.

As I worked through the different examples of creating different fonts and diffent styles of writing I was really pleased with the effects. The bottom example above is the end of a paintbrush dipped in Bombay ink.

Even when it starts off looking really quite scruffy when you add colour and block out areas and add some doodling it takes on a completely different look.

The brush pens are water based so colouring around the lettering, which is written in a waterproof pen, then using a waterbrush gives a great watercolour effect.

This style is called Wonky Printing, I quite like it but I need more practice !

The calligraphy pens are really quite effective and I will need to put in more time to perfect a style with them.

The above style is called It's a Wrap and it's all about drawing a vine like leaf around your lettering. I was a little dubious when I started but it really is quite effective !

The above page is roughly copied from Joanne's book, sometimes to copy something gets the brain thinking how you can use this style. The text is written with the black brush pen so I had to be really careful when colouring around it with the blue brush pen and then using a waterbrush.

Dabbling done, now it's time to create a page, or in this case a bag ! The above is a brown paper bag, the kind that some shops give you when you've purchased some goodies. I gave it a coat of Glue 'n' Seal first of all to protect it from the paint. I then splodged some Snowflake Fresco paint over it, this blocks out the background and then you get the true colours of the paints that come next. The numbers stencil is by Donna Downey and I've used Snowflake Fresco paint again.

I've used the 'Bumping' technique and stencilled the numbers again, I think this colour was Bougainvillea Fresco paint.

The leafy stencil is another one from Donna Downey and I've used Eggplant Fresco paint.

 

I carried on building up layers of stencilling and also stamping. Then it was time to be brave and add the text ! One of the things I learnt from this exercise is to pay attention to the placement and space for the text. If I was to do this again I would probably change how the words are placed on the page (bag). 

 

I added some doodling with a white pen and also white dots by dipping a paintbrush end into Snowflake Fresco paint. The flowers are drawn with a Micron pen, which is waterproof, then I've used the brush pens to colour them.

I am quite taken with the end result and my next brown paper bag is already prepped and ready for my next page ! 

I hope you've enjoyed learning to write all over again, and if you're quick you can still join in with the current challenge Words with Meaning. 

Create in Blue !

Hello ! Welcome to today's inspirational post, it's Sue here and I decided to create another project in line with the current theme 'Oh so Blue'. You still have a few days to join in with us !

I gave my journal page a coat of Gesso to seal it then used Fresco Finish Turquoise. I used the circle stencil which is by TCW, with Snowflake Fresco Finish.

I don't know what it is but I love large numbers and this stencil by TCW is one of my firm favourites. It's also great for using with the 'bumping' technique. I stencilled the numbers with Mermaid Fresco Finish then moved the stencil slightly and stencilled again with Space Cadet Fresco Finish.

To add some texture I used Ranger Texture Paste through a Dina Wakley stencil and then continued using the stencil with Snowflake Fresco Finish.

I wanted to 'knock back' the page and tie everything together so I used Space Cadet again, this time mixed with some satin glaze and painted it all over the page. After a minute I used a baby wipe to wipe it away, leaving some of the colour behind.

I've stamped some script over the page using a Tim Holtz stamp and Cornflower Blue Archival ink then stamped the poppies (which you can just about see!) on both pages. 

 I used Snowflake Fresco Finish slightly watered down to paint the poppy heads.

I stamped and cut out some Wendy Vecchi flowers onto Prima watercolour paper then painted them with watered down Fresco Finish paint.

The word Create is a laser cut MDF piece that I've painted with Fresco Finish paint then rubbed White Fire Treasure Gold over it.

On the opposite page I used a PaperArtsy Hotpicks stamp, stamping the tulip flower and butterflies onto more watercolour paper.

To  balance the pages I added a single butterfly to the opposite page. Finally, to make the numbers pop I grabbed my white Sharpie pen and outlined them.

I hope you've enjoyed today's inspirational post and I also hope it's given you inspiration to join in with the current challenge, Oh so Blue !

Sue
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