Save the date . . .

Hello eP friends, Tracy here today and it`s so good to be back and sharing a little of my art with you all!

In my design team package, I had the most adoreable little rulers from Maya Road { swooooon } thank you Kim!

Cute, cute, cute!

What was I to do with them, hmmmmmm?

A layout, bindings for mini books, cards . . . the list went on and on I can tell you, but inspiration came from another project I had created involving cakes . . . mmmmmm!

A little project on wood using Gesso, Scrap paper and Pan Pastels.

. . .loving the cakes, lol . . . so what if I used the little rulers as a frame and an old book page for the background.

I backed them onto cardboard packaging to add some strength.

 Time to mix up a little Yellow Ochre Pan Pastel with Gesso. I smooched it on with my fingers, making sure to let the words and parts of the design on the rulers show through.

 Now I have to apologise, I got so wrapped up creating the cake that I forgot to snap any more pictures.

But here is a close up of the finished confection . . .

Layers of pretty paper

A sprinkling of roses { Distress Stain }

A frosting of Distress Clear Rock Candy 

{ I wish you could see how much this sparkles }

A little doodle doodle doo`s

and

 letters snipped from old book pages to finish.

 I went on to add a little Permanent Red Pan Pastel onto the background with my finger, before applying more Yellow Ochre, Titanium White and Black Pan Pastels around the frame.

How cute this would be made into special cards for an engagement , or as an embellishment to mark a special occasion . . . or . . . or . . . giggling here because my brain has just exploded with about another dozen ideas . . . watch this space,lol!

Be sure and leave us a link if you do in the comments, we would all love to see your creations.

I hope you enjoyed my post today and maybe you will be inspired to grab a few supplies and get creating yourself.

Till next time

Big hugs

XOXOXOX

Materials and links to the eP Store -

Maya Road- Measure Once, Cut Twice Wood Embellishments

7 Gypsies Harmony Paper Pad Collection

Pan Pastels - Exploring Mixed Media Sets 1 & 2

Tim Holtz Distress Stain Fired Brick

Tim Holtz Distress Glitter - Clear Rock Candy

Inkssentials Glossy Accents

Spread Your Wings.

Hi everybody! It's Toni here to share a tag I've made using my new  Tim Holtz  'Bird Feather 'stamps and Latticework layering  stencil. whoopee ! who doesn't like new stamps! When I saw these in the eclectic Paperie shop, I just knew I had to get my hands on them. I started this tag in true 'Holtzian' style, by creating a background putting distress stains on my craft mat and swooshing the manila tag through the inky puddles. I used my two favourites, Pumice, and Antique Linen. After drying with a heat tool, and doing a bit of spritz and flick with water, I stamped out the bird and the nest with Sepia Archival Ink.

I liked the simplicity of this but wanted to take it a step further, so I made a mask for the bird and then used the Tim Holtz, 'Rays', layering stencil with Scattered Straw Distress Ink, applied with a blending tool.

I  couldn't resist adding a little more stencilling and used the new Latticework Layering Stencil  with Antique Linen Distress ink, in the lower half of the tag. I also stamped out the text from the stamp set. I still hadn't had enough, so I turned my attention to the bird. I decided to give it a bit of dimension and pulled out an off cut of Wendy Vecchi Clearly For Art, that had been on my table  since Christmas! I stamped the bird onto a piece of manila card with black Archival Ink and used Distress Markers to add a little' bird-like' colour. I also stamped it onto the Clearly for Art and cut it out. I used my heat gun to shape the bird and then adhered the  stamped manila card bird, to the surface with Studio Matte Medium. I used dimensional tape to attach it to the tag. 

To finish off, I added a printed out sentiment popped up on dimensional tape, a little lace border and of course... a dyed seam binding ribbon bow. Oh! and  a few tiny eggs. I stamped out one of the larger speckled eggs with Wendy's Archival Ink in 'Hydrangea' and used it to cut out three little ones, well I thought it was a pretty good idea ! So there you have it, another tag to add to my collection ! Until next time, 'Happy Crafting' x

Kim has the eclectic Paperie shop well stocked with loads of new products !  Below are some of the products I've used.



Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) - Bird Feather	Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Latticework	Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Rays	Distress Ink Pad - Walnut Stain	Distress Ink Pad - Scattered Straw
Distress Stain - Pumice Stone	Distress Stain - Antique Linen	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 Archival Ink - Hydrangea	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad	Archival Ink - Sepia Ink Pad
Inkssentials Foam Blending Tool	Inkssentials Surfaces #8 Manila Tags	Distress Stain - Scattered Straw	Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Vintage Photo	Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Walnut Stain
Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Wild Honey	Claudine Hellmuth Studio-Multi-Medium Matte	Studio 490 - Clearly for Art

Cards (My last post as Guest Designer)

Hello everyone! Isha here sharing my 4th post as guest designer for January. Today, I have 2 cards for you using the wonderful products from eclectic Paperie. I made these cards, which have similar layout, yet are different in many ways

For my first card:

I started with sponging the chunky chevron stencil to give a soft and gradient effect. I then inked and stamped a text stamp randomly, while the stencil was still on my paper. I then stamped the poppy stamp onto a watercolor paper. Colored in a bit, keeping the colors soft and attached it to the card using some tissue paper and thread. To finish, I just added a bit of sparkle using the Tsukineko Shimmer Spritz to the flower.

For my 2nd. card, I kept almost the same layout. I used the mini burst stencil. I applied some white embossing paste to which, I added a bit of StazOn re-inker. Now this re-inker won't mix in fully and thus giving a beautiful shaded effect. Once this was dry, I cut some flowers using the pattern papers, inked the edges before assembling it. I diecut some leaves out of vellum. Finished the card with a sentiment banner and some thread.

I really enjoyed my month here at Eclectic Paperie! Happy crafting :)

Isha

Supplies:

Card: 1

Cardstock: White, (Tim Holtz) watercolor paper; Stamp: Crafty Individuals (Pretty Poppy), Hero Arts (Happy Definition), Simon Says Stamp ( Sentiment); Stencil: TCW (Chunky Chevrons); Inks: Imagine Crafts/ Tsukineko (Memento: Black, Love Letter, Peanut Brittle, Nautical Blue, Olive Green; StazOn black, Shimmer Spritz; Tissue paper

Card: 2

Cardstock: White; Pattern Paper: Simple Stories (Say Cheese, I Heart Summer); Stencil: TCW (Mini Burst); Stamp: (Tilted Banner Sayings); Die: Paper Smooches (Big Bloom Dies), , WPlus9(Folk Art);  Ink: Imagine Crafts/ Tsukineko (Onyx Black, Teal Zeal,  StazOn-Gold re-inker); Vellum

Hope part 2 !

Hello, it's Sue here and today I'm sharing the journal page that I've created to give my Hope tag a home ! If you missed my tag you can find the details here. 

I started to alter an old  book last year and the size of it makes it perfect for my jumbo tag. I started by glueing 2 or 3 pages together on either side.

I painted both sides with Gesso and then when it was dry gave it a coat of Glue 'n' Seal to protect the paper. I then used Wendy Vecchi's embossing paste with the Prima Harlequin stencil and also the TCW Cubist stencil.

I used chalk acrylic paint and a baby wipe to build up the layers of colour. As I'd already made the tag my  choice of colour was sorted !

I used the Cubist stencil again when I was happy with the layers of paint, I've also used the Tiny Circles and Bingo stencil too.

To create the stencilled flowers I used Wendy Vecchi's From the Garden stencil and made the stalks and leaves using the Fresh Flowers and Lovely Leaves stencils, masking off the areas I didn't want to use. The leaves on this page are cut using the Tim Holtz Garden Greens die and I've painted them with acrylic paint and also stamped some script on to them (which unfortunately doesn't show up on the photo).

I added some more leaves using the Garden Greens die on this page too to blend in with the tag. I finished by brushing some Treasure Gold around the edges.

I hope you've enjoyed today's project.
Sue
x

Keep Calm and Do

Hello and happy Monday!  Micki here to share an art journal spread in which I faced my fear..... my fear of sketching and painting a face.  Perhaps the fear stemmed from knowing that the end result would be posted here or perhaps because I was video taping my efforts.  For some reason, doing quick sketches during my lunch hour seem no problem at all, why is that?  Anyway,  let me start with the background:

• I cut up several sheets from the Idea-ology - Collage Mini Stash - 8x8 paper pad, into varying sized squares which were glued to both pages in my Dylusions Journal with Matte Glue-N-Seal.
• Next I used my Craft Scraper to apply gesso over both pages.
• Once dry, I added Black Soot Distress Paint, spreading it with a wet baby wipe.
• I added lots of stencils with paints but ended up covering all of it with Broken China Distress Paint.  While the paint was still wet, laid Donna Downey's 12x12 Hexagon Grunge stencil by Prima on top and removed the wet paint through the stencil with a baby wipe.  LOVE this technique called Stencil Resist.  (The camcorder had stopped and I didn't realize it so this resist technique is not on the video :(. )
• Then came the splatters using Liquitex Free Style Large Scale Splatter Brush - sooooo much fun.

Here's the video creating the backgroun:

In case you can't see it, here's the direct link:  http://youtu.be/cx5erjUta_I

Now came the stomach churning apprehensiveness - the sketching.  Well, actually the sketching didn't make me tremble.   In the video, you'll see where I rummage through my pencil case looking for different pencils.  I believe I used them all, from 2H down to 4B including some charcoal pencils but in the end I used a 4B the most.  Once I had the pencil sketch down, then came the stomach churning...... adding paint!  

• I used a lot of paint, adding spritzes of water in addition to using the glazing medium to keep the paints more "wet".  To create the shadows and try to built shadow layers, I was heavy handed on adding water to the paints.  If I thought the shadows were too dark, I just went back with a slightly damp brush and blended the shadow out.  It's a "back & forth" which you will see in the video.
• I tried to remember to mix my paints with the Palette Knife instead of the brush, but towards the end I was so engrossed in painting, that I forgot.  You should use a palette knife to thoroughly mix paints.  I've had that incident where the individual paint colors would show in the paint stroke because I "thought" I had mixed the paints thoroughly with my brush.
•  I utilized the pencil marks for creating shadows since the soft lead (4B) smudged with a wet brush.

direct link in case it doesn't work:  http://youtu.be/mgNBfinXCa4

Once I decided that I could literally go on and on with the shading of the face, and I really had to fix dinner, I decided to stop and finish:

• Because I had quite a bit of paint left on my craft sheet, I used my finger and randomly stenciled on the pages.  
• Using Christy Tomlinson Coffee Filter sheet as my base for a stamped sentiment by covering it with some left over white paint.  
• Don't forget to use your Craft Scraper as a paint tool by making straight linear marks with it.
• I used the hexagon stencil resist areas for my journaling.
• The blue "Keep Calm" was my library due date reminder which I had to use :).  The stamped sentiment, Donna Downey What Others Day from Unity Stamp Co, was stamped onto the gessoed coffee filter paper with Wendy Vecchi's Watering Can Archival Ink.  I cut all the words apart, glued them on to the page and then doodled around them.  
• To keep the words from being to "crisp and clean", I used a very wet brush and watered down paint to give them a wash followed by drying with a paper towel.

Direct link: http://youtu.be/bP-zShbgPnU

Wow, I think I covered it all.... I think!  She's not perfect but I kept calm and did it!  Now I just need to learn iMovie so the next time it doesn't take me five hours to create these three videos!
I hope you were inspired to try your hand at sketching a portrait,  or just to get your paints out and play.

Supplies used:

InLinkz.com