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

Getting my Hero on

Some super cool products I'd been itching to play with arrived from Hero Arts this week so I couldn't wait to get playing with them this weekend.

I started with the party confetti fancy die which is a really fun die for backgrounds but could be used in sooo many ways I've barely scratched the surface with my first two plays with it.  As well as using it for backgrounds, the streamers would make great accents on their own and could also be used in shakers, you could also use it to create your own stencil - some tonic mousse spread through would make a brilliant shimmering backdrop to a celebratory project.  I'll be having a go at that next!

I just went for a couple of different backgrounds first.  I used some super thick 300gsm navy card stock and ran it through the machine lightly so I could keep all the "bits" in the card and stick it straight on to the card.  Its a sort of like flat embossing that way and the texture alone with no colour looks fab for a classy card.

I added a simple white frame using a couple of stitched rectangle dies and created a focal image using the large Martini die also from Hero Arts - it comes with lots of different garnishes (cherry, olive, citrus peel and slice as well as bubbles and cocktail stick) so you can get creative and make any cocktail you fancy!  I went with a cosmo for this one and finished with a complimentary glittery cheers sentiment.

For my second card I used the same die but cut it twice - once from the blue (this time I ran it through twice to make sure it cut through) and once from white.   I popped out all the little bits and one the white card coloured the streamers using zig colour clean pens.  I then simply pieced the coloured streamers into the blue background for a colourful fun card.

I wanted the background to be as much the star as the rest of the card so just went with a simple white embossed sentiment (brushstroke birthday greetings from MFT) on some vellum with a single die cut party balloon using Lawn Fawn's Party Balloons.   I just traced the back of the word using a glue pen to adhere the vellum and folded a thin edge to tuck behind the blue panel on either side.

For my final project I switch to a different die as I've been waiting for the new You're a Fungi stamps to come in to stock to pair with it.   The Branch Wreath Fancy Die is a large die and because it's a nice plain twiggy version can be used all year round - just add your seasonal embellishment of choice and it works from Spring through to Winter (I also think if you cut it from grey it could pass for barbed wire too for a more masculine look)

I had lots of fun colouring the fungi - there is something quite relaxing about colouring mushrooms, I went for something approaching realism but you could equally go fantasy and pair them with some fairies!

I coloured them with zig color clean markers and a water brush so I used the pens like water colour paints (scribble them onto the back of any acrylic block and pick up the colour with the water brush - that way you can get more shades of colour from the one pen.)   Once coloured I just cut them out with scissors and arranged them in the twiggy frame - the idea was to create a sort of window into the fairy dell.  I added one of the super cute little snails and one of the fun sentiments from the same stamp set.  Simple quick and easy guy card!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

• We've just received our delivery of the latest release from Stamping Bella  - there is ALOT of it - so it may take a few days before I can get it all added to the store (I always do orders first to get them out to you all, and work on adding stock once that's done each day)
• We have an order for the new release from Concord and 9th in but that won't ship until later this week (we always get their releases but they don't ship until after they've released themselves each month)
• Our restock order from Lawn Fawn shipped on Friday so we should get that early this week too.
• We have ordered the latest release from Altenew (with the double dies) and are waiting for it to ship.  It usually takes them a couple of weeks to process and ship orders so we expect that towards the end of the month.