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
