City Blending

I couldn't wait to open the newest colours in the Distress Oxide range - and my favourite way to use them is for ink blending as they really make is SOOOOOOO easy!   So I decided to create a simple city scene using the AlteNew stencil and inks and pretty much nothing else....

If you've never given ink blending a go, or have tried it with poor results (as I often did in the past!) then trust me, distress oxides are your friend!  There is NO smoother, more blendable ink on the market that I've tried and it works for me every time.

I started by masking off the back edge of my card with post-it tape and then blending tumbled glass from the new colours (set 4) to the top.

Then I added the stencil over the top of the blue and did my first layer of city with hickory smoke (set 3)

For the next layer I used Dusty Concorde (set 4 again), moving the stencil over slightly to get different buildings on show, and as it was a darker shade I didn't even bother to clean the stencil in between colours.

Finally I went in with black soot (set 2) for the final layer as it is the foreground so you want a bolder colour.  This time I flipped the stencil around and used the other city skyline for a different look.

I went with a sentiment from Reverse Confetti's birthday wishes stamp set as the city made me think of New York and the "big" in the sentiment lead me to the "big apple" so I thought it fit.  I stamped and embossed it using Hero Art's Detail White embossing powder.  Again - if you've ever had trouble getting a crisp finish to your embossing then do try Hero Arts detail powders (currently in black or white) as I have found them to give me a brilliant finish even on the finest of details and outlines.  I added a little balloon (Waffle Flower Limo set but you will find a balloon on tonnes of your stamps I'm sure!) wafting over the city for a little bit of detail.

So if you are unsure if blending is for you - I do hope this encourages you to give it a try.  It opens up a whole world of techniques!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

It will be a quieter week for stock this week - the only confirmed delivery is a VERY LARGE restock delivery from AlteNew which should be here on Monday but may not be in store until late Monday or early Tuesday depending on what time the driver arrives - we're finding they are all coming late as they are covering holidays for each other and don't know the routes.

We have the latest Waffle Flower release in transit but not sure when that will arrive as yet.

As we're heading towards the first week of the month however, all our regular monthly brands will start to send us our previews next week so we'll be busy ordering them all for you.

We already have Avery Elle and Lawn Fawn's HUGE Fall releases on order and they will be in store for release day on 9th and 23rd August respectively.   WE DO NOT DO PRE-ORDERS so check the store on those dates to grab your stock as soon as it arrives to avoid sell outs.

Hope the weather isn't too stormy or too hot depending on where you are this weekend.

Happy Crafting!
Tara

Hibiscus and Trellis

Wplus9 always produce such classy product and this latest release is no exception - I just fell in love with the layered trellis die as soon as I saw it - it screamed art deco to me and I just adore anything from that era.  So today I've been playing around with it to see what different looks you can get and by a few simple moves you can get 6 different patterns.

Firstly I used the two layers separately starting with a full on deco effect with layer one cut from gold mirri layered over a base card made with Lawn Fawn Vanilla Malt cardstock.  I used the same card to stamp the new Hibiscus Bouquet onto as I find this is a fabulous cardstock for using pencils with, they blend really well on it.

There a hundreds of different varieties of hibiscus so I googled them and found an image I liked and used that as the basis for my colouring - a new tip I've learnt for pencil colouring is, if you want a paler shade for things like veins in leaves or petals, add those in first, pressing quite hard, then you can use darker colours over them it the paler shade is preserved.   I coloured the whole image and then used a craft knife to cut it all out (yes including the holes in the cheese plant leaves!)   I then added it to the card along with a layered word die from Bountiful Blooms.

For the second card I used layer two to create a more masculine card layering kraft over a navy base and simply finishing it with a layered Hello die from the Waffle Flower Hey Hi Hello set.  I die cut it twice but left the navy word in the base layer so that the gold word has more dimension on top.  The die is so detailed that you really don't need much else. 

For the final card I wanted to use both layers and again little else - the die set is great for making card that look like so much effort went into them but take so little time as the detail adds all you need.  For this one I used 3 shades of Lawn Fawn Card, Raspberry for the base card, Guava for layer 2 and Vanilla Malt for layer 1.  To get a slightly different look to the pattern I rotated layer 2 through 180 degrees so you get extra little triangles at the points of all the open squares.  By moving the dies around you can get 4 different patterns and I'll show you those below in more contrast so it's easier to see in a photo.
 

As I wanted the pattern to be the star I just added a simple sentiment strip repeated the colours by using a raspberry and guava panel across the card and stamping a sentiment from Reverse Confetti's Birthday Wishes in a vanilla embossing powder (by wow) on top.   You could take it a step further by adding some crystals into each square or even a square sequin for added bling.

As I said above you can get 4 different looks from this die set when using both layers together.  Look 1 - layer up as intended so layer one matches layer 2.

Look 2 - rotate one layer by 180 degrees to get and you get some extra triangles as in my card above but you can see them more clearly against the black background here.

Look 3 - keep the two layers in the same orientation but slide layer 1 up a little over layer two little squares peeking through from the base layer.

Look 4 - keep the layers in the same orientation but slide layer 1 to the left (or right) and you get just one little square peeking through.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

It's the start of a month again so it's crazy stock ordering time - we have the following on order:

• Waffle Flower's latest release which is expected just in time for release day (customs willing!)
• MFT's latest release which should be in store on Wednesday morning
• Concord and 9ths latest release has been ordered - they release on the 9th every month but they don't ship to retailers until after that date so we usually get it about a week later - this month's turnaround is amazing!
• Mama Elephant's latest release (can't say much but its adorable!) will be here on the 15th as always
• Hero Arts monthly kit add-ons are on order and should be here mid-to late-June.
• We have some new really beautiful paper pads from Echo Park and Carta Bella on order again should be here mid-June.
• Sugar Pea Designs also have a new release which is on order - no eta date as yet.
• Neat and Tangled have another new release too which again is on order but no date as yet for when we'll get it.

As always - we announce arrivals the second they are in store on our Facebook page so make sure you follow us there for the latest new and join our customer only VIP group for fun competitions and news.