The Lovely Lily (by Doreen)

 

This different but very beautiful lily is not the type that many of us are used to seeing, but I think it is exquisite. it comes from the DL Lily set of stamps, although it does actually have a four leaf clover, ladybird and several other worker stamps in the set. The sentiment comes from the Bold Blooms set.

Products used in the making of this card are:

• Chocolate Baroque Lily DL stamp set
• Sentiment from the Chocolate Baroque Bold Blooms set
• Versafine Clair Nocturne
• Clear embossing powder
• A torn out page from a discarded or old book that has an aged look but has probably seen better days.
• Koh-I-Noor watercolour pencils
• Satin finish mirri card for mounting on

1. Trim page from book but keep excess for stamping and mounting sentiment.

2. Stamp and emboss image.

3. Roughly colour the image in your favoured shades and blend using a little water on your brush.

4. To enhance the image go round using either a grey or light blue pencil and drag out the colour with a little water.

5. Stamp the sentiment using the Versafine Clair onto a piece of the scrap from the printed page and trim quite close to the stamped image. Edge the sides using your inkpad, then mount on another piece of the scrap from the page, and edge again using the inkpad.

6. This is a flatish card, no foam tape was used in the mounting of this onto the satin card or for mounting the sentiment, so perfect for the post. 

As an afterthought, if you like a card to have some sparkle, then instead of using water just use a clear sparkle brush pen to blend the colours. This will leave a subtle sparkle not as noticeable as glitter.

Thank you for looking

Love Doreen

Katya Messenger Bag (by Anne)

Good morning. I was so excited about the launch of the new fabric panels from Chocolate Baroque – enlarged images from my favourite stamp company printed onto fabric ready to paint and stitch – yay!

I have been working on a bag design big enough to carry A4 folders plus craft stash for when I am out & about. The large bag flap was a perfect place to feature the Katya panel. You could create similar using a commercial bag pattern (messenger style or tote), or by applying the panel to a ready made bag front.

I have used fabric painting, stamping, applique of stamped images, stencilling, machine and hand embroidery – but don’t despair if you are a non stitcher. I have included an idea for decorating a ready made tote bag with no stitching involved. The panels are also fabulous to use in mixed media projects such as book covers or canvases too – just stick it down with some gel mat medium or book binding glue. Then add stamping and embellish as for other mixed media work.

Materials used:

• Printed fabric panels (3 Ladies)
• Stamp sets: Take It or Leaf It, Large Crackle Background, Artistic Affirmations, Harlequin Rose, Bold Blooms
• Stencils: Silhouette Palace 1 and Silhouette Palace 2
• Range of fabric paints from my stash – all fixed by ironing: silk paints (fluid), transparent and opaque fabric paints plus multi surface paints (off white, cream, red, orange, yellow, blue, turquoise, pink, purple, metallic pink/purple, transparent pearl and green glitter)
• 3D fabric paint (pearl green) – such as Appliglue or similar
• Alcohol ink pens (yellow, turquoise, pink, green)
• Archival Inkpad (Jet Black)
• Tonertex foiling fabric glue and foil (gold)
• Cotton quilting fabric scraps for applique (white, purple, lilac, cerise, plus waste strips of printed batik)
• Cotton fabric (black) for backing and framing panel
• Machine embroidery threads (black, variegated pink/blue plus green/orange)
• Hand embroidery threads: Stranded cotton (variegated pink/purple and orange/yellow), Pearl 5 cotton (variegated blue/green/turquoise)
• Iron on paper backed glue mesh (such as Bondaweb or similar) and Fray Check Glue
• Paint brush and Cut-N-Dry Foam
• For making the bag I also used: sewing thread, heavy weight cotton fabric (blue), light weight linen patterned fabrics for lining (blue & cream), plastic sink drainer (for base), Bosal foam stabiliser (one side iron on), bag feet and magnetic clasps (silver colour), zipper (blue), shoulder strap (recycled from old bag)

How it was done:
I first made a lining using my heavy weight cotton and linen printed fabrics. I wanted a heavy weight long lasting lining so layered my fabrics and treated as one layer. I also included plenty of pockets. I haven’t included details of my pattern here – sorry – but it’s something I am working on for my own business. You could choose a commercial pattern for a messenger bag with a large front flap to decorate, or a tote style bag to feature the panel.

I painted the Katya panel using transparent coloured paints so as not to obliterate the black outlines.

Fabric paints designed for light coloured fabrics are best suitable. Opaque colours (designed for dark fabrics) would obliterate the printing so you need to bear this in mind. I also used some paints designed for multi surfaces (including fabrics). These can sometimes leave a stiffer finish than those specifically designed for fabric. However, for a bag this can actually be a bonus and it is not essential to keep a soft fabric feel. If you are not intending to wash your fabrics then you can use just about anything that you would use on paper. However, I would recommend heat fixable paints for a bag as you don’t want colours to transfer from the bag or run if caught in the rain! Painting was fixed by ironing.

Tip: I like to leave my fabric painting overnight before heat fixing with an iron (follow the manufacturer’s directions). The panel is silk/cotton so can be ironed using a cotton setting safely. I usually iron from the back.

I did test the panel for compatibility with alcohol markers and found that if over wet and rubbed with alcohol the printing did bleed slightly so I would avoid these, or use with care (i.e. without flooding close to the printing).

I then applied some of the Tonertex glue, left to ‘dry’ (goes tacky as dries clear) and applied gold foil to elements of her headdress.

If you are not a sewer you could stop at this stage. As with card making the panel benefits from ‘mat & layering’. Black fabric provides a nice frame. You could back the fabrics with fusible web and iron onto a ready made bag. Heat fusible webbing does not always provide a strong hard wearing bond so gel mat medium, book binding glue or a fabric decoupage glue could be used to prevent the panel lifting off or fraying with extensive use. There are also several types of 3D paint that could be applied around the fabric edges too (e.g. Appliglue).

I found some lovely strips of batik fabric in my ‘waste’ scraps bag (I knew that they were too nice to bin – ha ha) so I had to include them in my bag panel design. Nothing was stuck down yet.

Next I stamped various colour fabric scraps to use as applique elements, using an Archival Inkpad. The images were dried and then heat set with an iron. Colour was then added using alcohol ink pens. Again colours were heat set. 

Fusible web was applied to the back to prevent fraying and the stamped and coloured images were cut out.

When stamping with paints I prefer to apply them to my stamps using Cut-N-Dry Foam. I find that it gives a more even application with less clogging of the stamp than brushing or using kitchen sponges etc. In addition if placed paint side down in a plastic tray (recycled) they stay wet for longer. This is particularly so for multi purpose paints that can dry out very quickly. I also spritz the tray lightly with water to help keep them wet while working.

The fabric background was first coloured using the fluid silk paints (they are like an ‘ink’ formulation rather than thicker paint) – encouraging them to bleed and blend with a light water spritz. As with card making I tried to create a darker blended edge to frame the scene.

Next the bag panel was stamped and stencilled. The applique elements and panel were ironed down (using the fusible web backing). I used the border stamp across the top edge and lovely crackle stamp in the background. I had to add a little bling with the metallic colour too (you know me! – ha ha).

Tip: Stamping onto a darker fabric you will need to use darker or more opaque paints (or they won’t show up). Metallics work well too.

I added some 3D glue ‘pearls’ to Katya’s headdress and overlayed some areas with transparent pearl paint for extra shimmer. I also added glitter paint to some areas. Simply wasn’t enough bling already.

The panel was backed with foam stabiliser before embroidery (I wanted a quilted effect). I stitched down the panel and fabric strips and then used free machine embroidery to stitch down and decorate the applique. Hand stitching was added for additional texture.

Note: The fusible web backing does help prevent fraying but some areas may benefit from a little Fray Check along the fabric edges (e.g. my batik strips were not backed with webbing before stitching down so are likely to fray with wear).

Detail showing stencilling, stamping and embroidery.

I used free machine embroidery and black thread around the applique motifs, then further embellished with hand embroidery. The stamped smaller flowers were free machined with variegated thread.

Here you can see the stencilled palace with additional hand embroidery to highlight. 

The back panel was also decorated.

Love this sentiment stamp – describes me perfectly.

So happy with my decorated bag (back).

The pockets on the front panel were also decorated (sits under the front flap).

Detail – love this sentiment too.

The finished pockets with magnetic snap closures (to hold down the front flap).

I also decorated the little side pockets.

Texture added with hand embroidery.

Here you can see a little more detail of the free machining and hand embroidery on the main Katya panel.

I hope that you have enjoyed my latest creation.

Hope to be back with more soon, Anne xxx.

New Year's Eve Butterfly (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas and are enjoying a bit of quiet time over the festive break. This year seems to have gone so fast, and has brought many changes, I even made my first tentative steps onto live TV! Whatever you have done and are looking forward to in the months ahead, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, and a healthy, creative 2018, from all of us on the Design Team. We are looking forward to sharing lots more inspiration with you next year.

I have some cards to share today using stamps featured in last month's TV shows on Hochanda. To create my first card, I made a background using Brushos, spritzed with water. I wanted to create the effect of a Wintery sky, and so I chose shades of blue, purple and grey for the background. I stamped a large butterfly from the Tangled Garden stamp set onto a piece of sparkly acetate, and stuck this to a piece of coloured background that I had in my scrap box. By chance, this was a very similar colour to my Brusho background. I fussy cut the butterfly out, omitting the antennae.

I stamped the sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp set, and an image from the Seasonal Fragments stamp set onto the background using Versamark and silver embossing powder. I added a few sparkly gems randomly throughout the fragment images. Just before I stuck the butterfly to the background, I stamped the antennae onto the background, using black ink.

Here are a couple more of my show projects, a pretty gelli plate card using another image from the Tangled garden stamp set:

A necklace and tag using images from the Bold Blooms and Words of Inspiration stamp sets. I have used shrink plastic to create the necklace:

Finally, a card made using Soft Form Relief Paste to create the focal point, adding gilding wax over the top, to pick out the fabulous detail of the stamp:

Thanks for stopping by,

Bold Blooms Wall Art (by Anne)

Good morning. I used the Bold Blooms and Tangled Garden stamp sets to create this 3D wall art piece.

Materials:

• Bold Blooms and Tangled Garden stamp sets
• White Board Shapes – Hearts and Circles sheet, 8 X 8 inch construction acetate (recycled packaging), black card (for decorative die cut frame), mount board (backing and outer frame)
• StazOn Inkpad (Jet Black) and Versamark
• Alcohol ink pens (blues and pinks)
• Gesso (White)
• Acrylic paint (light blue satin and metallic pearl)
• Coloured art pens, glitter and metallic pens (blue & pinks)
• Double sided sticky sheet
• Embossing powder (clear with sparse fine blue glitter), Ultra thick embossing powder (UTEE - plain clear and clear with mica sheen)
• Glitter (extra fine clear and chunky black) and glitter glue (silver)
• Large decorative frame die and texture stencil

How it was made:

1. The flowers were stamped onto the acetate sheet using StazOn Ink. Alcohol ink pens were used to add colouring to the back of the images (StazOn would bleed with alcohol markers). Some areas were left uncoloured. White gesso was then painted onto some areas to make them opaque (alcohol inks are transparent).
2. Double sided sticky sheet was then attached to the back and extra fine clear glitter applied with some chunky black glitter around the edges. A decorative die cut frame was then glued to the front.
3. The shapes were pushed out of the laser cut sheet and the waste was painted with light blue acrylic paint and trimmed around to make an overlay. Images were stamped with StazOn, aligning them carefully with the images on the base acetate sheet. They were coloured with various art pens. Versamark was then applied and a layer of clear embossing powder with fine glitter applied.
4. Some of the circles were stamped and coloured with art pens. Versamark was applied and they were double heat embossed with UTEE (one layer with mica sheen, one plain clear).
5. The embellishments were all glued down with 3D glue gel. Silver glitter glue was added around the border and onto elements of the stamped images.
6. The mount board frame was decorated using pearl blue paint using a texture stencil. The piece was then mounted onto backing board and the outer frame glued in place.

Bold Poinsettia (by Judith)

Hello everyone, as Christmas Day draws near, I hope that you are all nearly ready with your plans and preparations, whatever you are doing. I have a festive card to share with you today, using stamps featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

I created an inky background using Distress Inks, which I spritzed with water, and stamped a leafy spray from the Steampunk Christmas stamp set on the background, and added a sentiment from the Let's Get Festive stamp set.

I stamped and embossed some leaves and a flower centre from the Bold Blooms stamp set onto cartridge paper, using gold embossing paper. I coloured the images with ink and a water brush, before fussy cutting them out, and attaching them to the background, to create a poinsettia style flower.

Have a lovely Christmas everyone, and if you get a chance, do try and watch Lesley on Hochanda today. Her shows are on at 12.00 and 3.00. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Bold Blooms (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a card made using one of the beautiful images from Bold Blooms.

I began with an inky background using Wilted Violet, Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry distress inks. I used the large mandala stamp inked with gold acrylic paint to roughly stamp the background creating a shadowy effect. Next I stamped the large mandala image and some of the leaves several times on white card. I used a quickie glue pen to add glitter to the images, cut them out and layered them up with 3d foam pads.

I added a stamped sentiment, a pretty bow and some sparkly gems to finish off.

 I hope you're keeping snug and warm in this cold weather ... 

perfect to bunker up in your crafty space!

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire xx

Imagine by Brenda

A very good morning, Brenda here with today's share of more samples from Lesley's recent Hochanda shows which featured he most beautiful floral and Butterfly stamps that were a joy to work with.

My starting place for the above card was a background of Oxide Distress Inks which like so many of us I am totally addicted to. Onto the background I stenciled an arch window using Distress Ink, stamped what is probably my favourite Chocolate Baroque sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp sheet using Versafine Toffe and using the same ink stamped a selection of leaves around the edge from the Tangled Garden stamp sheet. The beautiful Butterfly is from the same set stamped onto Bristol cardstock and coloured with distress inks, the same colours as the background but not Oxides as I find the chalky finish can detract from the detail of the image.

For this card I used the blooms from Bold Blooms and leaves from the same set and Tangled Garden, stamping all onto a piece of card coloured with Distress Inks and Pearl Mica Spray, I like to add that to inky backgrounds sometimes as it helps to bleed the colours and also leaves a nice sheen. I used a piece of torn paper to create a sunray effect when I wanted to place the flower which I layered up after cutting our three different sized blooms . I cut he leaves out and arranged onto a hand drawn stem with a little bit of doodling to ass interest. The lovely Wordsworth quote is also from Bold Blooms.

I had an idea to create a shadow box surrounded by Butterfly, so started out with the base made using a die set. I coloured a large sheet of card with Distress Oxides concentrating on keeping within a tonal colour palette of oranges and yellows. Onto that I stamped several Butterflies from Tangled Garden and cut out ready to assemble around the frame. The fairy within the aperture is from June Fairy set and grasses from Silhouette Grasses stamped with Versafine Toffee and a masked and inked background plus a few small stamped Butterflies. Finally I layered the Butterflies around and within the layers of the shadow box.

This one to coin Charlie of Hochanda's words is "heavy on the grunge", I started with acrylic paints and brushed them randomly over a piece of 600gsm Fabriano cardstock, it's so sturdy that it takes water and wet mediums without warping. Next added some texture paste through a stencil to the top corner and applied some gilding polish to lift the pattern. I also added some gold gilding flakes here and there. The Lily is from the Lily Fuchsia and Hyacinth multibuy stamped with versamark and heat embossed with copper detail powder and then colour added using the same acrylic paint as the background, the sentiment is from Birthday Words and finally some lace tied across the bottom.

On the rare occasion I find myself with time on my hands I make up a batch of inky backgrounds as I find it really handy to have some in reserve when I am up against the clock to get sample made. This is one of those using acrylic paints and crackle glaze onto which I randomly stamped a sentiment from Birthday Words and then the focal bloom from Breath of Spring  using Versafine Black and then colourd in with sparkle pens and stickles. The base has been stamped with several of the foliage stamps from the Lily Fuchsia and Hyacinth multibuy.

As always my thanks for taking the time to visit today.

Indian Bloom (by Anne)

Good morning. This was another of my recent creations using the Bold Blooms stamp set. I have called it Indian Bloom. The stamp went perfectly with an embossing folder in my stash.

Materials:

• Bold Blooms stamp set
• 15cm square card blank, black card, silver satin metallic card
• gilding wax (Silver)
• StazOn Inkpad (Black)
• Glaze pen (pink)
• PVA pearls (pink), faux gem flowers (pink, red), glitter glue (silver)
• Indian style embossing folder 

How it was made:

1. The black card was embossed using the embossing folder and rubbed over with silver gilding wax.
2. The flower was stamped three times onto the metallic card, coloured with glaze pen, cut out and lightly shaped for layering. I used 3D glue gel to attach to the card front.
3. Gems were randomly glued to the front and it was finished with PVA pearls and plenty of glitter for bling.

Pretty Steampunk (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope you caught Lesley's fabulous Steampunk shows last week on Hochanda, featuring an eclectic mixture of Steampunk images. I love working with this genre of stamps, because you can use the images in so many different ways; very grungy, adding lots of texture, or more feminine in style, altogether prettier, using brighter colours.

I have created a floral card, which could be for a friend's Birthday, or just to show that you care, using a sentiment from the brand new Punky Expressions stamp set which will be available on the website in the next few days.

I started to create my card by blending several colours of Distress Ink onto a piece of smooth Cartridge paper. I spritzed the background with water, to create a mottled effect, blotting the background here and there with a piece of tissue. I stamped the large script stamp from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp set over the background, using blue ink. On a spare piece of card, I stamped the small clock three times, and cut it out. I added a bit of yellow ink to age the images slightly.

I die cut some flowers from some Crafty Individuals paper, and scrunched them to give them a bit of texture and movement. To complete the flowers, I stamped three stems using an image from the Diamante Delights stamp set onto the background, and some leaves from the Bold Blooms stamp set onto some scrapbook paper, which I cut out. I added the clock faces to the centre of the paper flowers, and used some 3D foam behind the central flower.

You may have caught sight of one of my old samples on the show created using images from some of our Steampunk stamp sets, featuring the fabulous beetle from the Steampunkery stamp set as a focal point. I have again used paper flowers to create this design, but added cogs in the centre, dropping beads into the middle of each one, and stamping onto the leaves this time.

I will be back later in the month with more ideas to share with you, do keep checking in to see more fabulous ideas from my Design Team mates. Thanks for stopping by,

Spring Savings (by Gerrina)

This week we welcome Gerrina back for the first of her three posts and her project is a real burst of Spring. I think you will enjoy this one.

And so it is March again and is it already six months ago that it was my turn to post here, so this month you will see some of my projects again.

This time I stamped on a moneybox in a birdhouse shape with the stamps from Chocolate Baroque and made a matching card:

Materials:

Chocolate Baroque Fantasy Meadow and Bold Blooms (quote)

Ink: Stazon, Vesafine Onyx Black, Distress Ink Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn and Mustard Seed, Memento Cottage Ivy, Tangelo, Dandelion and Danube Blue

Other: Wood Moneybox, blending tool, brush and water, tissuepaper, Multi medium matte, piece of yellow linen and blue cardstock

How to make:

At first I painted the moneybox with gesso and left it to dry. With a sponge, brush and water I coloured the box and let that dry again. The flowers were stamped on tissue paper with several colours of Memento ink, fussy cut and glued to the box with Multi medium matte.

For the card I used the same ink colours and Stazon black for the quote on the yellow piece of linen. The piece of linen was glued first to the card and then the card on a base.

Hope you liked this project and I will see you soon.

Createve greetings,

Gerrina

What a lovely project to start Gerrina, thank you for such bright and pretty artwork.  We look forward to seeing what you have in store for us next week.

Meanwhile, please drop by again for more inspiration from our ever talented Design Team.