I am finally back!!..... Poppy class samples part one.....

Good morning my lovelies........

I do hope that you are all well and are keeping yourself warm, hasn't it been cold over the last few days??

Well first of all, can I apologise for my lack of blog posts lately? February was such a hectic month for me with two Hochanda Shows with Imagination Crafts and the spring NEC Trade Show too. My feet barely touched the ground before I was then sorting out my class for last Friday, so I have just had no spare time to make anything else for the blog last month.

I will try harder for this month, I promise, lol!!.......

I also want to thank our Martina on my DT team who has gone off for a well deserved rest on her maternity leave. I adore what she makes and she is so inspiring and I wish her well with the new arrival. She will be back when she is ready and I along with yourselves will look forward to more of her fabulous work......

So today I thought that I would show you a couple of my makes that were the inspiration for this month's class, using my brand new poppy stencil that was launched at the trade show last month, along with some old favourite background stencils. We were layering with stencils, using stencil paint and then foiling parts of the image with Sparkle Medium......

The initial card for this was one that I demoed on Hochanda on our last Imagination Crafts Show.......

I made the card up front and then decided I would like to show you a tutorial break down on how it was done so that you can have a play at home if you wish......so I made another one and remembered to take photos this time!!!

To begin with, I taped down my stencil using Stencil Tape on to Super Smooth card and got out my Stencil Paints, I used Poppy Red, Lime Green and Meadow Green.

 Then using my Stencil Brush I added a small amount of paint to my brush and then stippled the meadow green paint through the stencil on the leaf and stem areas.

 I repeated the same with the Poppy Red on to the poppy heads. ( If you only have one stencil brush you can clean the brush with a baby wipe after the green and then carry on with another colour )

Next I removed the stencil and added a couple of drops of Magi-Blend, (Magi-Blend is a solution that will water down any water based paint to make it more paint-able but will not dilute the pigment colour at all like water would), to a small amount of the poppy red stencil paint and using a small paint brush I painted in the head of the poppies to make them in to a negative image.  I then did the same with the green for the leaves.

I lined up and replaced my stencil back on the image once it was dry ( it doesn't take too long ) and using a small amount of Sage Green Sparkle Medium and Cut'n'Dry foam I foiled the green parts of the image......

Now when I say foiled you may be saying to yourself how is that done?

The best thing to use is a piece of cut'n'dry foam that you have forgot to wash out and it has gone hard as it creates a much better friction. Apply a small amount to the foam and really work it in to the foam first. Then take it over your stencilled image and rub it in a circular motion. This will friction the glitter and make it foil......There we have it, it is great fun to do and you get some great results.

Here is a little closer look......

The next step was to do the same thing with the red poppies but with the Light Copper Sparkle Medium this time......

Here is a close up of the foiling, it looks great, doesn't it?

Now we could just leave it there and this would be the end result, which looks pretty fab with a few co  co-ordinating matted layers and a message, but I want to take it on a little further with stencil layering......

So we are going to put another lovely background stencil Daisy Diamond on top of our foiled image.

Then I took some Lime Green Stencil Paint and stippled it through the stencil with the Stencil Brush, so that it went around the image to frame it.....

And here you can see I have covered  the whole outside area of the stencil.....

Here is the result, I love the way it frames the image but drops in to the background....

And here it is matted and layered with an added sentiment again........

Below is another one using the Diamond Stencil.......

Well, if you are still with me and the tutorial has not been too long for you,
I thank you.....

I hope it has inspired you to have ago and play. I will be back soon with some more inspiration with my Poppy Stencil and hope that you can join me.....

Have a great week.

Big hugs,
Lisa B xx

    
  

         

Last Friday's Classes in Maidstone

Morning, Kirsten here, hope everyone had a nice weekend. A slight change to my usual routine today; photos from Friday's classes in Maidstone, instead of a project. The classes were all about Imagination Crafts' products, so Lisa brought along her samples from the recent Imagination programmes on the Hochanda craft channel............. 

We had lots of new products, including the new Alchemy Waxes, Rice Papers & Starlights paints from Imagination & stencils, new to Lisa B Designs........

We also had a selection of fab stencils from a company Lisa & I discovered at the trade show; Craft Emotions from The Netherlands. These proved very popular...........

Most of the new products sold out during the day, including all of the new Starlights & most of the waxes. The remainder will be on the website by this evening & Lisa will be reordering everything this week. If you would like to order anything in advance, please contact her asap; lisabaker1@btinternet.com

The class projects had lots of techniques, including stencilling, painting &foiling with Sparkle Medium & everyone was kept busy.

Lisa will show you her sample cards in the next few weeks, in the meantime here are a few of the cards made by class participants............

We will add the photos of the rest of the cards to the Lisa B Designs Facebook page later today. 

That's it from me for now. If you received the March newsletter last week, you'll know that things might be a little quiet here on the blog for a while. Martina is awaiting the arrival of a little bundle of joy - we thank her so much for all of her gorgeous projects & we're keeping our fingers crossed that she will come back after her maternity leave. We wish her & her family the very best. Jan, Lisa & I are extremely busy, so we might not be able to post as regularly as we'd like. We'll do our best to keep you informed via here & the Facebook page.

Have a great week.

Kirsten

Sepia & Hobby Art

 

Hello all, well this is my last Hobby Art blog and thought I'd go a bit sepia.  I actually got the inspiration from Jenny Mayes and I liked the effect so much I thought I have a go.

 

 

So I prepared a 6" x 6" card and covered it in some Blue Bazzil Basics card.  Then cut a piece of dark cream Bazzil to 4" x 4" and matted it with the blue and some white Watercolour Card and set aside.

 

I then cut a piece of Watercolour Card 2.5" x 6" and stamped a shell from the Hobby Art Shells Stamp Set and the Starfish from the Hobby Art Summer Holiday Stamp Set several times on the card using an Adirondack Hazelnut Ink Pad. 

 

I stamped the little deck chair from the Summer Holiday stamp set and masked it before stamping the beach hut, then masked the beach hut to stamp in the shore line.

 

I continued to stamp some little birds and the tiny seagull from the Summer Holiday stamp set

 

I then took a brown water colour pencil and just lightly coloured each image before using a water brush to smooth it out.  Once dry I distressed the edges of both images with some Antique Linen. 

 

 

Sorry about the quality of the above photo I'm convinced I've got something wrong with my camera, or it could be the operator :o)

 

Then it was a case of assembling the card by matting and layering and finishing off with the words Sun Sea & Sand stamped onto white card and cut down to shapes and light distressing again, I also stamped the fish from the same set and 3D foamed him and the words into place.

 

Nice little card I thought, thank you Jenny :o)

 

Here's the card again for you.

 

 

Thanks for dropping by the blog today, hope to see some of you later today at the workshop.

Love Jan -x-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



A Hobby Art Harbour Village Triptych

Good morning crafters! Craft class tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to having a play with some more goodies! My final post using the Hobby Art Harbour Village Set this week, and also my final post before my 'maternity blog leave!'. Baby no. 4 is due in 3 weeks and I need to start getting ready I guess! If only they came out with a manual...

I wanted to make a bright card showing off some of the lovely detail that Hobby Art stamps have concealed within them. I love the fact that I don't have to be an artist to have a play, and depending upon the colouring method you use, depends on how 'perfect' you want to make your finished card. I have played with watercolour, inks and Promarkers over the last few weeks, all giving different finishes and looks.

For my card this time, I planned and stamped out my scene using the Harbour Village Stamps and then used around 20 colours of Promarkers to colour. As the stamps are detailed I used Black Onyx Versafine Ink to stamp and then sealed with Wow Clear Embossing Powder ready to use with the markers. Once complete I divided the scene into an even 3 sections with a view to creating a triptych element on my card.
 

 

My base card was a white DL card with blue and red layers on top (matching some of my Promarker colour tones). My 'topper' layer was cut from White Super Smooth Card to fit inside this. On this panel I stamped and embossed some of the Harbour Village Stamps, again using Black Onyx Versafine Ink and Wow Clear Embossing Powder to make a long scene. Yes, there is a gap, but here is where my triptych will sit, so it does not have to be too precise! Where there were 'joins' I added some detail with a black fine liner pen.

 

Once I started to place my 3 panels in place, I realised there would be some white spaces showing that looked a little odd as my scene behind was meant to be in one long continuous line... I quickly improvised and stamped one of the main stamps again into the gap. It did not join onto anything, but once you put the triptych panels on you really can't tell and it looks far better than a gap...a trick of the eye!

 

My final touches were a sentiment from the Hobby Art Birthday Collection placed to the side, along with some ribbon from my stash. This sentiment set is a fab collection: there are lots of sizes and orientations for all card types: I heartily recommend!

 

Right, that's it from me for a while! Once again thank you for reading my posts, I hope some of them have been useful and we all appreciate any feedback and tips you can give us. Crafting is one hobby that works well when we all share our experiences and I love learning from everyone in class, online and in person!

 

Lots of love,

Martina

xx