Sunday 20 August 2017

Flora Musica card created for Chocolate Baroque

Good morning. This was one of my recent show samples using the Flora Musica stamp from Chocolate Baroque.


Materials:
  • Flora Musica stamp
  • White card blank (10.5 X 15cm), black card, pink metallic card, decorative background paper (blue/lilac)
  • Versamark Inkpad
  • WOW Embossing Powder (Gold Rich)
  • Fine tipped pen (black)
  • Gouache paints (white)
  • Watercolour pens (pink, burgundy)
  • Sparkle pen (green)
  • Pebeo Gilding Wax (Empire Gold)
  • Oval die (Tattered Lace), Decorative frame die (Tonic) and harlequin embossing folder
How to make it:
  1. Trim and emboss the black card with the harlequin embossing folder. Lightly rub over with gilding wax and glue to the card front. Add faux stitching with the fine tipped pen.
  2. Stamp the Flora Musica onto patterned paper and heat emboss with gold powder. The embossing makes colouring really quick and easy. Colour with watercolour and sparkle pens and drag out colour with a damp brush. Use some white gouache to add highlights. Gouache paints are semi opaque so are great for covering over patterned or precoloured areas. Note: the watercolour beneath will dissolve and move when painted over with wet media and so will tint the white gouache.
  3. Cut out the topper, edge with a little gilding wax, and mount onto decorative mat cut from metallic card. Glue to the card front using 3D foam for added depth.

Saturday 19 August 2017

Blue and White Baroque Tiles card created for Chocolate Baroque

Good morning. This was one of my recent show samples using the Baroque Corners stamp set. I built up a pattern using the large and small corners in Blue & white, reminiscent of vintage tiles.


 
 
Materials:

How to make it:
  1. Stamp the large corner stamp onto each of the 4 corners of the card blank. It is easiest to turn your card 90 degrees between stamping. An acrylic block with grid markings also helps to align the stamp straight with the edge of the card. I used the Tim Holtz stamping platform which made the pattern stamping really easy. Simply stamped, turned the card on the platform (butting it up against the platform ridges) and stamped again. It is not essential to use a stamping platform or alignment tool but it does make it so easy and quick. No hovering and aiming.
  2. Edge the card with blue marker to frame and draw faux stitching with the fine tipped pen.
  3. Trim the next panel to 13cm square and stamp using the smaller corner stamp. Add the faux stitching and layer onto the dark blue card. Glue to the card front with foam pads for added dimension.
  4. Trim the next panel to 11.5cm and stamp the small corner stamp into the centre. It may help to draw pencil cross hairs to help alignment. The little sticky out swirls also help you see where you are going and help align the stamps square.
  5. Stamp the sentiment into the space in the middle. This is quite easy to align with the clear stamp. Trim off the corners (at 45 degrees) to create the octagonal shape. Note: not all the sides are equal, 4 sides are a little shorter than the other 4. Add the faux stitching and mount onto blue card. Attach to the card front with foam pads.

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Egyptian Cards and a bit of experimentation with Powertex and stamps

Oh I just love the new stamps from Anna Hewlett (Rosehart Studio) and Powertex. They sold out in a flash on the Hochanda shows too. Here are a couple of my card samples created for the show.
 
 
 
On this one I used the Hiero Heaven stamp. The background was stamped and embossed with clear or gold embossing powders onto the black card. The vintage papers were created by stamping and colouring with Distress Inks (Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint).
 
 
On this one I created the background by stamping with black archival ink onto craft card and colouring with pencils (they gave a nice chalky effect).

I created the gold embellishments using a Soft Form Relief Paste (Pebeo). I inked the Hiero Heaven and Scarabella stamps with archival black ink, spread with the paste and left to dry for 48 hours before peeling away. Extra colour was added to my scarab using acrylic paint.

No Powertex in these but I did have a little play:

Experiments:
This soft form paste stays flexible when dry so it can be curved around 3D objects and can also be stitched into. Some of you may know me for my paper crafting and textile art, so this is something I keep in my stash.

I have since had an experiment with using Powertex onto my stamp and leaving that to dry. I did have a concern about using Powertex on my stamps at first. Not that it would harm the rubber but I like to mount my stamps onto foam mount for clean crisp stamping in my textile and paper crafting. I thought that the Powertex might seep into the foam and harden it up ruining the cushion. I did a couple of bench tests to try it out:


  • I inked up part of the Heiro Heaven panel with Archival Ink and poured on some Ivory Powertex. Immediately it started reacting strangely with the ink. The outer edges of the puddle started moving and swirling and lost their colour.
  • I also poured some Powertex onto a non-inked area (although there was a bit of residual dried ink on there).
  • I mixed in a little Stone Art into the Powertex, making a paste, and spread this onto an inked area. This was more controllable than pouring liquid and there was no strange reaction evident with the ink beneath.
  • I also poured some Powertex over one of the smaller stamps, deliberately spilling it over the sides and onto my foam mount.
Experiment results:
Similar to my usual texture paste it took 24-48 hours to dry fully. All the test pieces worked really well and peeled away from the stamp really easily. Residual dried on Powertex was easily removed with warm water and a nail brush. The embellishments are quite stiff but remained flexible enough to curve around if desired, particularly if warmed up in the hands or with a hair dryer.


The ink transferred really well giving a nice dark image into the embellishment crevices, even the one that seemed to have a strange reaction with the ink worked well.

The smaller stamp that I covered in Powertex also cleaned up easily and the Powertex pulled away from the mount foam ok too, although I had to pull it away gently as it hung onto the foam quite tightly.

If you use unmounted stamps then obviously there is no issue in covering them with Powertex. I would say that if like me, you like to foam mount your stamps, then I would recommend making a bit of a paste with Powertex plus Stone Art or 3D Sand and spread this over. It is much more controllable and you can keep it away from the edges and foam mount more easily.

I hope that my experiments help with your own creative play.

Quick and Easy Floral Harmony card created for Chocolate Baroque

Good morning. Today I am sharing another of my show samples for Chocolate Baroque using another of the lovely stamps recently featured on Hochanda. This is also a quick and easy one using the Floral Harmony stamp.


Materials:
How to make it:
  1. Stamp and heat emboss the image and sentiment with white powder.
  2. Spray over the image with ink sprays, spraying more pink ink over the flower. While the ink is still wet drag out the colour over the stamped image using a damp brush. The embossed line makes this quick and easy. Use a little extra water and blotting with tissue where the colour needs lifting out and lightening.
  3. Drag some of the ink out across the base to anchor the image. I used a hair dryer to speed up the drying (a heat gun can bleach out some of the colour and may re-melt the embossing).
  4. Outline the topper with burgundy pen to frame and glue to the card front.

Quick and easy Chequered Flowers card created for Chocolate Baroque

Good morning. This one is a quick and easy card using the Chequered Flowers stamp from Chocolate Baroque.


 
Materials:

How to make it:
  1. Trim the stamping card to fit onto the card front. Mask the border using a strip of copy paper (tip: cut the strip wider than the card and tape to craft mat at either side).
  2. Repeat stamp the image across the card front.
  3. Remove the mask, stamp the sentiment and draw the border edges with black pen and a ruler. Colour the bottom edge with 3D glaze gel pen.
  4. Edge the topper with black marker to frame and glue to the card front.
  5. Stamp another flower onto scrap card, colour quickly with watercolour pen (don’t worry about staying within the lines – just scribble over to colour). Cut out the flower, shape slightly and glue to card front.
  6. Finish with clear sparkle pen over the background flowers, and by drawing faux gems and shiny detail on coloured flower with 3D glaze gel pen.

Sunday 13 August 2017

Sneak Peek of my first show samples for Powertex on Hochanda tomorrow

Tracey Evans and Powertex are back on Hochanda tomorrow at 6pm and 8pm (Freeview channel 85). More shows on Tues 9am, 1 and 5pm. Here is a sneak peek of my first set of samples.
 
There are fabulous new stamps, stencils and more. I cannot wait to see the demos and Design Team samples.



Saturday 5 August 2017

Chequered Golden Flower card created for Chocolate Baroque


Good morning. This is another of my recent show samples using the Chequered Flowers stamp.

Materials:
How to make it:
  1. Spread the relief paste over the stamp with a palette knife and leave to dry. Drying time depends on room temperature and humidity but it will need at least a day. Mine took 2 days to fully dry. When dry gently peel away from the stamp and trim around to neaten up any messy edges.
  2. Stamp the image with Versafine and heat emboss with gold powder. Colour with watercolour pens and a damp brush. The embossed lines resist the water and make colouring quick and easy.
  3. Apply a couple of drops of glycerine to a blending sponge and work in well. Now use this to pick up watercolour from your craft mat. Blend colour around the edges of the card. The Glycerine make the watercolour behave more like a Distress Ink making blending easy.
  4. Apply Versamark Ink along the card edges and heat emboss with gold powder.
  5. Glue down the paste embellishment. Attach the ribbon and bow, then glue panel to the card front.
  6. Finish with PVA pearls