Flowering Fields Versatile Cards For All Occasions

Flowering Fields is one of the most versatile Stampin' Up!® Sale-A-Bration stamp sets available this year.  For today's post I've used the same set and the same basic layout to create different cards. 

As usual I like to challenge my class attendees a little and I included a tiny bit of brayer work. Yes, they all grumbled about it, but as I say - "Practice Makes Perfect".  Seriously tho', the thing about brayering is that it has such a serendipity effect that  all we can do is try to get to know how our colours will work and work a little on our technique each time we try. 

Here is the first card -

I really enjoy the tryptic effect - it gives the original composition a whole different feel.  I have brayered the top part of  a Whisper White piece of card with So Saffron, then stamped a variety of images from the Flowering Fields stamp set, using Archival Black Ink.  The images are coloured  with a Blender Pen and Classic Ink. The card is made from Thick A4 Whisper White.

The next card uses the same techniques - just different colours and a fine mat around each piece of the tryptic.

Just change the greeting, the colour range, add a little punched flower and some Linen Thread and you have a different card.

For the next card I decided to try repeating just one of the flower Images and I really like that effect too. What do you think?

 I have a few more versions of this card on the go and find it fun to change things up a bit. I don't like making lots of the one card, so combining the techniques of this card along with the versatility of choosing just one stamp or combining different stamps from this set gives lots of opportunity to create different results. 

Do you love this set? It is a Sale A Bration set and therefore only available until March 31. If you want it you'll need to act quickly to place an order for $90 AUD and then you can choose it for free. Go to my On-Line store to place an order and add the item code 141300 (wood blocks) or 141303 (Clear Mount)
Don't forget to add the Hostess Code (top right side bar on this blog) to be in the running to win the Hostess Rewards for next month. It's free and fun!

I hope you are inspired by these cards ,

Until next time

Happy Crafting

Brayer Magic With Stamps

I'm often asked how to create this type of scene with our Stampin' Up!® supplies and I love to demonstrate both the technique I find best to use with a brayer, and explain the serendipity that often results with this technique. 

What do you think of this one? I started with one of my very old multi-coloured ink pads and originally intended what has become the sky, to be the land. I punched out a 2 and 3/4 inch circle on a sticky note and applied the ink straight over the top. 

It is important to use a very light pressure when doing this and a little trick I've learned is to move the brayer on different angles when applying the ink. We worked on glossy White - I find that much easier than regular card stock.

I added some more colour to the base (the green/blue area) and all of a sudden when I turned the work up side down, I saw a lake appear with a lovely atmospheric sunset sky. You can see from the lighter areas at the top of the page, the directions I used with the brayer.

The moon always ends up with a white rim because I use the negative area left over from punching out the circle, as a mask for sponging some colour onto the moon. I apply the colour with a dabbing motion rather than a rubbing motion and this produces the grainy appearance. 

The floral silhouettes were stamped in Rich Razzleberry first, then another layer was stamped using Jet Black Stazon Ink. I have to admit the line that defines the water from the sky was not intentional, but most of the other effects I did try to achieve.

Thanks for looking today,

Until Next Time,

Art Journal Experiments with Stamps and Inks.

This year I decided to get some inspiration from my customers and friends in a more relaxed atmosphere than what is possible in a class. I love teaching classes, showing all the wonderful products and stamping techniques available from Stampin' Up!® but I wanted to provide an opportunity for sharing ideas, experimenting with products and techniques and creating stamp art with no pressure to create a particular item. 

Hence the "Creative Tuesdays" sessions evolved.

Friends arrive when it is convenient, sometimes stay for lunch, the urn is always on, and everything in my studio is there to play with. The girls bring there own supplies too, and each session we try to combine traditional techniques with "whatever" and see what happens. Some of the girls do what I'm trying, others "do their own thing" and we all have such a good time.

Today I wanted to show a variety of ways to use the brayer combined with other stamping techniques, and as my interest in Art Journals has evolved, I've become more fascinated with textures. 

Here is the finished product for my first experimental piece.

I started by applying colour with the brayer onto Glossy White card using  a Stampin' Up! Tea Lace Doily as a mask. Starting with the lightest colour - Daffodil Delight - other colours were added to cover most of the background. Then I stamped with Versa Mark and Clear Embossed the doily shapes and Gorgeous Grunge stamps before adding more colour with the brayer.

Some stamped images were added using Stazon Jet Black and then I used one of my new favourite stamps - Off The Grid by Stampin' Up!, heat embossed it in gold then finished off with a little sponging around the edges. 

I came back to this fun method later in the day and added more experimental elements to a new page.

I used the same basic elements - Tea Lace Doily and stamps, but this time I added some circle masks as well. More brayering, some stamping with the stamps covered in stamp cleaner (this gives a similar effect o bleaching) and some spritzing with an Alcohol based spritz.

The detail photos show some of the lovely effects achieved with these combinations of techniques.

The circular shape at the bottom Left corner has been stamped with one of the images from Gorgeous that had stamp cleaner sprayed directly onto the stamp. It was very wet at first but I loved the effects and was able to remove quite a bit of the excess simply by dabbing with a tissue.

I can't wait to add these pages to my Art Journal, and hope you have enjoyed a brief look at these fun combinations of techniques. 

Until Next Time

Happy Stamping

Brayer Some Atmosphere onto Your Stampin Up Cards

I had the best fun the other night getting my fingers dirty and playing with abandon with my lovely Stampin' Up!® Classic Inks and a brayer.

Some of us are a little afraid of the brayer, but it really is a wonderful tool and it makes card making really quick and colourful. 

For these cards I worked on Glossy White card stock. The first example is named "Bushfire Haze" as it reminded me of driving through the bush after a fire had swept through and blackened everything. The method I used is to swipe the glossy card with the Embossing Buddy (very important when using black emboss powder) then stamp all the images with Versa Mark ink and finally pour Black Emboss Powder over the image. Make sure you have a good coverage and ensure you give the card a good flick with your finger to remove any stray embossing powder

Heat the embossing powder until glossy.

I added some additional sponged colour in some areas to enhance the colour palette. To create the moon just punch out a circle (any size that suits your design) on a sticky note. Ensure you have some of the sticky portion in the circle and stick onto the card where you want to place the moon. 

Then brayer away happily until you achieve your desired effect.

HINT: Always start with your lightest colour, and remember that the colours will be blending into each other so do not place complimentary colours next to each other unless you want to end up with neutrals. 

The ink stays moist for a while on the glossy surface so continue the brayering motion until blending occurs. This may take some practice, but one of the wonderful things about using a brayer is the serendipity - you never quite know what will eventuate.

The second card is framed on Basic Black card stock. The moon is masked before any ink was applied so a white circle was left. I sponge additional ink on the moon area to create depth and to soften the shape a little.

This card uses a different colour palette  and was a little dark so I added highlights with a white gel pen. You need to wait until the ink is thoroughly dry before attempting to use the gel pen, but it gives the composition a lift  when using these darker colours.

The Stampin Up stamp set used is a very versatile silhouette style stamp called "Serene Silhouettes". I also used this set for a lot of my Convention swaps and find it quite delightful to use as a stand alone image or as multiple stamped images as I've done here.

Hope you like the cards. I'm making a series of them for the upcoming Canberra Craft Fair.

If you would like to order any of the products used in these projects, please have a look at the catalogues and try placing your order on-line via my new on-line store. This is a new and easy way for you to obtain your Stampin Up products. If you would prefer me to place your order then just contact me and I'll be happy to help

Until Next Time

Stay Crafty!

Stampin' Up Technique Class - More Fun With A Brayer

I love playing with the brayer and inks, and recently held a Stampin' Up! technique class where I introduced this fun technique. My aim was to de-mystify the technique and show that it can be suited to all abilities and styles. 

Experimenting with colour is one of the wonderful elements of the BRAYER  technique and for this card I was aiming to show that a smooth blending of the background colours is not always necessary to achieve an interesting atmosphere.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that your colours will loose their intensity and clarity if you overwork them. I have a rule to start with my lightest colour first and ALWAYS  leave some of the white background showing through. This allows the purity of any secondary colours to show through as well as blending them with the original light colour. 

Do I sound a bit confusing? Have a look at this card and see if you can work out what I mean. 

I really like the "sky" section where you can still see the brayer marks of some of the colours. I wanted to move away from them more blended  look and create a sense of movement and life in the scene. 

I have called this "Blue Moon" 

Can you see that I started with the Saffron on the top half of the card, leaving the lower portion White? Then I rolled on some Turquoise across the top and the base of the card - the difference being the Turquoise turns a greenish colour at the top but retains its Turquoise hues behind the UPSY DAISY and POCKET SILHOUETTES stamps. A small amount of Perfect Plum was applied in selected areas prior to stamping the images in Turquoise, Perfect Plum and Black. 

The detail shows the difference between SPONGING - the colour on the moon - and brayering. It's always fun to combine techniques. I have used Stampin' Up!® Whisper White card stock as the base of this card. I find it absorbs the colours a little and allows you time to "work" them if you choose. You would get a slightly different result when using Glossy White card stock.

I hope you will have a go using a Brayer - it is a very quick way to achieve nice results.

Until next time

Stay Crafty!

Embossing, Brayer and Sponging

Hi again,

It is so dreary here today I thought I'd try to warm up by doing some warm coloured cards. 

Those of you who follow my blog will know I have a penchant for brayering - yep! I looooove it. Sometime it doesn't look quite how I intend it to look, but that is part of the charm - a little serendipity adds to the creative outcome and often leads us down a different path to what we intended. 

 

The jac-inks Challenge #9 is to use Warm Colours. 

I know it goes against common knowledge but there are such things as warm blues, greens and purples. (I learned this is a pastel painting class at the School of Art here in Canberra) So it didn't feel wrong to include a bit of "warm " purple in the sky.

 

I started the card by embossing in black the foliage from the gorgeous "Nature Walk" set by Stampin' Up! Then I punched the moon shape using the 4.4 mm Circle Punch out of a sticky note, and I tore some thin writing paper to use as the masks for the clouds. 

I used my brayer over the top of the masks and embossed images, starting with Daffodil Delight, followed by Pumpkin Pie, Real Red and Perfect Plum. 

Next, to form the clouds I started to move the mask on different angles and sponge with Daffodil Delight and Real Red

Finally,  I inked up the butterfly image and the greeting with Versa Mark and embossed them in black. The strong colours on the wings are achieved by colouring with Stampin' Write Markers.

This card started out much larger, but has been trimmed to improve the composition. 

Matting with a tiny edge of black card, and raising with dimensionals over cream card adds the lift needed to give this card a bit of impact. And who can pass by the delightful finish brads give to any project. This time I kept them simple black and small, but they do help to take the eye around the entire composition.

I hope you enjoy the card, and you'll pop on over to jac-inks to see a variety of creations using warm colours. We'd love you to participate too if you have some current warm coloured projects.

Until next time

Stay Crafty!

Simple Brayer and Silhouette Card.

I love Brayering. However I still find it extremely difficult to be confident that my backgrounds will turn out how I expect.

This card is a great way to start using your brayer as it is such a small area to cover, and you can experiment with a whole host of colour combinations to create different looks. For this example I used So Saffron, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and Pacific Point.

First you'll need to cut a mask - I used my Circle Scissors Plus to get just the right size and position for my design.

Starting with the lightest colour, load the brayer and roll it half way through the circle. Continue adding your colours, being careful to allow for inconsistent coverage, and you'll end up with something like this. Notice the white rim? That is caused because of the thickness of the card stock used for the mask. It should be of no consequence as you'll be adding more card later, but if you prefer, you can use some of the thinner grid paper or plain copy paper.
And yes, it's fine to practice on the scrap to see how the ink is coming off the brayer.

Next I stamped some silhouette images from the Level 1 Hostess Set "Silhouette Sentiments". I then added some dry embossed card to hide any untidy images. Be sure to cut out the circle before you dry emboss the card - it's very difficult to do it the other way!

 

Stamp your greeting along the bottom of the card, add a few highlights to the silhouette images with a White Gel Pen, tie some 3.2 mm Black Taffeta Ribbon and finish off with a large red button from the Designer Buttons Brights collection.

Such a fun card to make, and so easy to change by using different colours for the brayered background and a different coloured button. I can't wait to see what the girls come up with.

Until next time 

Stay Crafty