Serene Stripes

I've been playing with a stencil for this week's cards.  If you saw my video run throughs of the new releases on facebook live this week then you'll have seen that I loved the serene stripes stencil from Newton's Nook in particular and had already done a really quick background with it to show on the video.  Well for my first card I've turned that background piece into a card.

Other than the inked background all I added was a sentiment using AlteNew's Happy Birthday die which I love as it's a big statement and the die is all in one piece so it's super easy to cut and use and makes a bold statement.  As I find I often miss a birthday by a day, when I don't turn the calendar over quickly enough, I find it useful to have belated cards ready to go, so I added a sentiment from Newton's Birthday Essentials and with a black matt to draw it all together we're good to go.

Now, when I cleaned the stencil, I did it on my desk on a sheet of scrap and just sprayed water over it and dabbed it dry with a paper towel.  When I lifted it up, I noticed that there was a beautiful watercolour effect background on my mucky scrap paper.   Soooo, I had another go to make a really soft background for a card.

I just used one colour of ink this time and really like the soft look you get (the trick is to cover it with water and dab it dry quickly so it doesn't bleed completely under the stencil)   I added a few splatters of bolder colour and finished with one of the super fun Llama's and punny sentiments from Sugar Pea Designs Llama Just Say set which I love the humour of.

Finally, one of the reasons I love this stencil is that the stripes can be used individually as borders rather than a whole background so I made another card using less of the stencil and leaving more white space.

I added a die cut frenzy of cacti using the back in stock die from Lil' Inker Designs (So Prickly Cactus set) which is super easy to piece together to make a brilliant scene.  The sentiment is actually from Concord and 9th's Stuck on You set and is a block sentiment but I just snipped it into 3 lines so I could make it one long sentiment instead on the thin black shelf.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

It will be a quieter week for arrivals this week  although we will have a couple of new things:

•  Stamping Bella, will hopefully be here mid-to end of the week - it should have shipped on Friday but sadly the courier failed to show up so it will ship tomorrow.

• I have emailed AlteNew twice this week to chase our shipment which we have been waiting for them to process for nearly 10 days now.  Hopefully they will finally get it packed and shipped early this week so there is a chance it will arrive before the end of the week.

The quieter week will let us get some restock orders placed for Lawn Fawn and other brands so they will be coming soon.

Getting Messy With Falling Autumn Leaves

Now I'm normally a pretty CAS card maker, but every now and then I do like to mix things up a little and stretch my skills in the craft room and just lately I've been having lots of fun with texture paste and this weekend as there is a distinctive feel of Autumn in the air I've been using it with colour to get some easy realism into autumn leaves using the new Falling Leaves stencil from Newton's Nook.   If you've never used paste then don't be put off - it is really easy - all you need is an easy clean mat and a spreader (old credit card will do but I use an old icing spatula) and it all cleans up with a wet wipe ;-)  

To colour my paste is shades of autumn I used water soluble oil pastels as they blend beautifully into the paste without adding any extra liquid - you just scribble a little directly onto the mat and pop a scoop of paste on top and mix.  You can use ink pads directly onto the mat too but not reinkers as they make the paste too wet.  From there it is just a case of adding a little of each colour into random areas of the stencil starting with your palest shades - here's a little step-by-step photo to show you the process.

Whilst I'd got the paste and pastels out I made a couple of different pieces with.   I wanted to leave one plain but I wanted to add some hints of metallic shimmer to the second so after applying the paste and removing the stencil I sprinkled on a tiny bit of gold embossing powder onto selected areas.  You need to allow the paste to dry before heating the embossing powder or it can bubble up and destroy the embossing layer with holes, but the drying time doesn't affect the embossing powder so just set it aside for an hour or so and finish the process later.

As I had a bit of paste left on the sheet, and being a tight Yorkshire woman not wanting to waste it, I used it on a small card- it was mostly all the same shade of browny-orange so I went with a green base and to get the colour variation used a mixture of red, yellow, copper and green embossing powders.

You can see here the difference between the finished pieces - the plain paste and the hints of gold on the embossed version.

Then it was time to turn the embossed pieces into finished cards.   For the plain version I decided to pair it with a simple copper-embossed birthday sentiment and a very thin matt of copper to match.   I used the fabulous Happy Birthday die cut from AlteNew which is great when you want the sentiment to be the big bold star of the show.

For the second one I decided to emphasise the autumnal feel with the addition of a branch wreath die cut from Hero Arts and some elements from possibly my all-time favourite seasonal die set from Wplus9 - the woodland basics set and a simple greeting from their basic greetings die set to finish.

I hope that's given any fellow messy-phobic crafters out there inspiration to get out of their comfort zones and try something a little different.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We will have deliveries this week from:

• Concord and 9th
• Lil' Inker Designs
• Winnie and Walter
• and Neat and Tangled (although that is currently being held by customs in the USA so could be further delayed)

We have Lawn Fawn restocks on order but currently don't have an eta on their arrival - it is likely to be 2-3 weeks.

That's all for today.   Happy Crafting!

Tara