Showing posts with label Tonic Mousse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tonic Mousse. Show all posts

Sunday, 17 March 2019

A positivity canvas

As the weather here was awful yesterday, the best place to be was in my craft room getting messy and watching Queer Eye on netflix so I set about making a mixed media positivity canvas as a gift for a friend which took me around 4 episodes...



I started with a 7 x 5 inch stretched canvas and blended oxide inks straight onto it (I am not a mixed media expert, so although I know conventional wisdom is to prep the canvas first, I don't find I need to)   I used Scattered Straw, Fossilised Amber,  Dried Marigold and Crushed Olive to get a blend from top to bottom and then used a little weathered wood and pine needles to "dirty" it up a little in places before spritzing with water for a little reaction here and there.

The next step was to add some paste detail to the top right corner using one of Tim Holtz's mixed media #2 dies to create a stencil from a scrap of card (you can use acetate to make a stencil to keep and reuse) and gluing it down with stick and spray repositional adhesive before spreading seaspray green tonic mousse through and allowing it to dry.


Whilst that was drying I die cut all my elements to decorate the front.  As one of the sentiments I used is about time, I wanted to feature the fabulous Timekeeper clock die also by Tim Holtz for Sizzix.  This is a steel rule die so can cut really thick material like leather or as I used here super thick cardboard.  I cut two and glued them together for added dimension and then used a couple of shades of green and teal wow embossing powders and Hero arts Copper for that verdigris look.


The floral stems come from the Wild Flowers #2 die set again another one of Tim's, and I die cut them from 3 shades of card - Sage Leaf by Lawn Fawn, and then Pesto and Palm from Hero Arts.  I used some more wow embossing powders to add hints of sparkle in places.

The sentiments were all taken from the Reason to Smile Stamp Set from Altenew, the ones at the bottom were white embossed onto Hero Arts Adriatic cardstock, the one inside the clock was embossed using the "verdigris" combo onto vellum.

Once the paste was dry, I added a little stamping to add some texture to the background using the ocean waves background from Hero Arts (sorry this is currently out of stock but will be back as soon as possible, but any simple pattern would work)   The technique here is to just add random "bits" of stamping rather than the whole image just to add some detail and texture.


My normal style is very CAS, so doing something like this really pushes me out of my comfort zone but I really had fun tyring to make something I was happy with (even if I did ruin my desk by dropping embossed pieces on it upside down!)  I just kept adding things and taking them away and taking photos to remember what I had put where before I fixed it all with strong glue in the end.   Hopefully my friend will like it and the positivity reminders will do their trick.






NEWS FROM THE STORE

This week we will have:
  • Lil' Inker Designs latest release and restocks
  • Altenew's latest release
  • Lawn Fawn restocks
  • Echo Park and Carta Bella papers and stencils and embellishments
For European customers worried about Brexit - I am sorry but there is still no concrete news to give you.  The UK Government have voted this week to reject the "divorce deal" that is on the table from the EU which left us with "leave without a deal" or "another referendum" both of which were also rejected so currently we have no clue what will happen on the 29th March and cannot do any planning for it!!!   It's a case of watch this space still I'm afraid.......

Laters

Tara




Sunday, 8 July 2018

Rainbow Waterfall

I've got a fun card to share today using the finally back in stock mousse's from tonic studios.  Most people turn to the mouses for use with stencils but you can do so much more with them (even add water and use them like shimmer paint).  I've used them a lot for quick backgrounds and have been waiting to share my technique til we had them back in stock, and it's very similar to a technique shared by an uber blogger this week for dragged paint backgrounds, but I'm still using it today regardless of her beating me to it!


All I've done to create the water is to take 3 shades of mousse - aquamarine, pacific teal and seaspray green - and added a tiny blob of each on the left of my card in a line going from lightest to darkest, and then using an old credit card, I've simply dragged the colour across using a waving motion to get some movement.  Because this is a mousse product and not so liquid as a paint, you get more time to manipulate it so I actually turned the credit card around so the darker colour was at the top and did a second gentle wave over the top to create more movement in my water.


To create the waterfall that's making the movement in the water, I used the Rainbow Panel Die from Waffle Flower Crafts and removed the "inner bits" so that I could colour them with the left over paste whilst preserving the white edges.  I trimmed off the cloud shape and used the lines left behind as my lines to follow for the "spray" made by the waterfall and used tonic crystal drops in first in simply white and then white blizzard for a glittery effect over the top.


You can see in this close up how easy you get layers of colour by just two simple passes of the credit card through the paste and how the colours all mingle on the waterfall parts.

I added the"cheers" cat also from Waffle Flower as my focal point colouring him with copics and die cutting with the co-ordinating die.  I used the sentiment from the same set paired with one from the new Stamping Bella Oddball's range.  I didn't want the word "alcohol" from that set, just the bottom two lines.  Stamping Bella are cling rubber, so unlike with clear stamps, its harder to cut them apart as I normally do when I need sentiment surgery, but there is an easy trick with real rubber too.  Simply cover the word you don't want with washi tape BEFORE inking, ink over the top, remove the washi and stamp away minus the bits you don't need.

I've got some more things planned with mousses - and it we can get it working, I will try and video it and will show the techniques I used today too.  Watch this space.







NEWS FROM THE STORE

Customs issues notwithstanding - we should have the following deliveries this week:
  • The new release from MFT is on order, but is behind a day due to the 4th July celebrations, so it may not be here for release on Wednesday morning.  Please also note that the "signature range" of sentiments peeked on the blog is NOT available to retailers and is exclusive to their website so will not be coming to SHC.
  • The AlteNew JUNE release should hopefully be here on Tuesday.  We had no end of issues with it and despite a lot of back and forth between us, DHL, customs and AlteNew, it was unfortunately denied exit from the USA by customs and returned to sender.   AlteNew reshipped it on Friday and we hope it will clear tomorrow and be delivered on Tuesday - keep everything crossed.
  • Our Lawn Fawn restock order is also now in transit and due Tuesday as well.
  • Reverse Confetti is in transit and should be here by mid-week
  • Our Neat and Tangled delivery is also on it's way - eta not confirmed.
  • We have the AlteNew stencil release ordered and it will ship with their next stamp and die release in a week or so.
  • We have ordered the latest release from Concord and 9th - it will ship sometime this week and will likely arrive late this week or early the week after.
  • Newton's Nook also have a super fun new release coming up and we have that on pre-order so it will be here ahead of release date so we can release it when they do later this month.
  • We have restocks from Ranger on order along with Alcohol Lift Ink.  No eta on arrival as yet.
  • We have the new Hero Arts kit add-ons on order - due later this month but no date is ever confirmed, we only know we'll get it 24 hours before it shows up.