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Showing posts with label Stencils. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stencils. Show all posts

Monday, 24 March 2014

Further Playing Around With Stencils

Hello My Dear Readers

What a wonderful weekend we've had. We've been entertaining my Sis-in-Law who stayed with us for a few days. Great to catch up on all the gossip.

I also treated myself to a few crafty goodies. Well, who can resist a spot of shopping? I've invested in a new heat gun from WOW. I already own one which heats a wide surface area but I wanted one with a narrower heating point. Now, you can't have a gun without buying some powders. Or that's what I tell myself and I've not tried their range before. I grabbed a couple of their blacks, a vibrant purple and a glittery pot.

So whilst I haven't spent an awful lot of time in my craft room, when I have, I thought I'd give my new toys a bash.



I also wanted to play around with stencils again. This time I took some white card and my Memory Box Cressida Stencil and gave it a good old going over with a Versamark pad.

I applied black embossing powder to the card, gave it a blast with my heat gun and came away with a rather tasty, graphic result. I trimmed one edge to a point and backed onto blue card. I finished it off with a stamped sentiment from Hero Arts and a pink button. Using foam pads, I attached the whole piece to black card to finish it off.

Love the rich colour of the blue, it really pops against the black. Colour has been a theme of the weekend as I've just bought a DVD on the science of colour from The Great Courses site. Mr Postman popped it through my letterbox last Friday.



Now I may know a thing or two about colour theory already but there's always more one can learn. I was intrigued by what scientific research has uncovered. I'm only halfway through it and already I've picked up some ideas I've not come across before. 

For example, I don't like yellow. It's a colour I really have problems adding to my designs. And it turns out I'm not alone. It's one of the least favoured hues on the colour spectrum. I was already aware that yellow and white are excellent colours for attracting the focus of your eye but I'd assumed it was because they were brighter. Turns out that like red, our primal instinct is to notice yellow as the colour of ripe, edible fruits. Or at least, that's what studies and science will have you believe. Then again, yellow is a complex colour when it comes to how it affects us. It can generate feelings of both health as well as sickliness, depending on hue and strength. Whether or not I'm sold on all the conclusions in this programme, I'm definitely enjoying it. 

Green is next on the list when I next have a moment. Can't wait lol. May have to sneak it on later.


Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Stencil Ideas & Practice

Hello my wonderful peeps

Now that I have regained back my time for crafting, I've been playing around with some stencils I bought a few weeks ago. I'm still getting to grips with using embossing paste and need a little more practice but I've gone ahead and used my play pieces anyway.


I experimented with adding embossing powder over the embossing paste for this one. It ended up a tad messy in places but it still gives a striking effect. The texture IRL is much better than I've been able to capture in the photo.


A softer palette here. I laid the stencil over white card and used a sponge dauber to apply ink. I die cut the heart out of the resulting card and added a complimentary 'smaller hearts" die cut piece in it's place. Backed it onto pink card and voila.

Right, I'd better go back to my work. My tea and biscuit won't feel right if I haven't done something to earn them :)