“U2″ – a layout background created with stencils

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Sanna Lippert

Hi there, Sanna here again ! Thank you so much for your kind comments on my previous post beginning of May – they really made my day! As promised, here´s my second post for May. This time I wanted to play with stencils by creating a unique background for a layout.

I started by layering the “Aztec” stencil over a 30×30 inch piece of water color paper (taped it down with masking tape to keep it from moving) and then borrowed a white wax crayon from my kids . I covered the open spaces with wax crayon for a resist effect.

After that I flipped the mask around and stamped with an acrylic stamp (that was just big enough to fit into the open mask area) some stamp images onto the paper for more interest. When the ink dries, it looks much lighter.

Now I went on and sprayed a reasonably big amount of water onto the water color paper to make it wet. See how the wax keeps water from soaking into the paper?

Before adding spray inks I mixed them with water to create a lighter tone and then just went along and brushed the colors over the paper.

Since I added quite much water, the colors will need a while to soak into the paper, but I like the effect it creates, so I let it air dry.

After the paper is dry you can wipe over the page with a baby wipe to remove any residue ink from the wax areas. The parts that did not get totally covered with wax, will absorb color, so now you´ll see how carefully you have worked with the crayon .

You can leave the paper like this or add even more details and layers. I stamped around the edges with a background stamp to give them more interest..

..and then continued by adding even more layers with crackle paste.

I wanted to create a grey crackle paste, so I mixed some grey acrylic paint with the white paste.

Then just applied it over the “Tiny Circles” stencil with a palette knife. Depending on the medium you use, it might dry quite fast, so remember to carefully clean your stencil after using it, if you don´t want any residues left on your stencil (rinse with water)!

Next I mixed some yellow spray ink with the paste to create a light yellow tone. After that just applied it over the “Diamond” stencil and let it dry.

Now the background paper is done. You can go on adding media on it, if you like. You might notice that I added some white and black ink splatters in the end (just can´t seem to do anything without ink splatters lately..).

Finally just built up my layout by adding embellishments, stickers, stamping, rhinestones, chipboard and a photo.

Hope you have enjoyed this step-by-step! I sure have had a great time preparing these tutorials for you and playing with these stencils – thanks TCW & Jaime for having me here!!! See you around!!

Happy scrapping,
xoxo, Sanna

Find Yourself Canvas…..Lynne Forsythe

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Lynne Forsythe

Lynne Forsythe here with a little ditty I created……

I began with a Die~Namites “Daisy Bunch” die.

I cut (2) full images from a piece of Canvas Corp ~ Handmade Paper.
I colored one with Dylusions ~ Black Marble Ink Spray.
The other I colored with Rain Forest ~ Twinkling H20.

I then cut (2) each of the “Daisies” from the same Handmade Paper.
I colored the flowers with various amounts of
Love Struck, Just Peachy and Mango Freeze ~ Twinkling H20′s.

I created the background for my “posies” by
applying Claudine Hellmuth’s ~ Gesso,
through The Crafter’s Workshop ~ Mini Bricks Template
onto a Canvas Corp ~ Burlap Stretched Canvas.

When the Gesso was dry, I placed the Mini Bricks Template
back over the “gessoed” bricks….slightly off.
With a palette knife, I randomly applied
Viva Colour ~ Amber Gold and Golden Green Ferro.
What a BEAUTIFUL Brick Wall indeed!?!?!

Don’t you just love the dimension of these flowers??

I hope I’ve inspired you….
to pull out one of your favorite
Crafter’s Workshop stencils…..
and have a BLAST!!!

Carolyn Dube+NancyEmilyPolly

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Jaime

Have you been intrigued by Dina Wakley‘s silhouette figures? Like these:

Well here’s a little something that Carolyn Dube created. She called it an “oops” but I think it opens up many new opportunities (isn’t that what an “oops” really is???)

Take a look at this “lady”. So pretty. She could be on a card, a canvas, a layout, even done as a quilt project (think fabric instead of paper.)

For all of the how-to details, go here.

And feel free to post your creations here: https://www.facebook.com/TheCraftersWorkshop

Donna’s “faux encaustic” Tiny Circles!!

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Jaime

Have you seen Donna Downey’s Inspiration Wednesday video? Do you see those wonderful Tiny Circles by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer?? TCW361!!

Gorgeous, right? I love the way that lemon yellow sits on top of the surface like that. You can watch Donna’s video here or below. But make sure to stop over at her blog to read the whole shebang!

Easy “Mod” Scrapbook Layout Backgound

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Lain Ehmann

Hey! It’s Lain Ehmann of Layoutaday.com. I’m primarily a scrapbooker, so I love to find ways to incorporate templates into my scrapbooking layouts. The TCW265s Mini Ringlets was perfect for a “mod” background on this artsy layout. Who needs patterned paper when you have TEMPLATES!?

It’s super-simple, and easy to adapt to any template or style. Here’s what you’ll need to do.

1. Lay your template over a black piece of cardstock (do you like my glittery, paint covered spray box?):

2. Spray over the template with a spray ink such as Mr. Huey from Studio Calico (I used Calico White):

3. Depending on your preferences, use a lighter hand. As the white ink is absorbed quickly into the black cardstock, I used three passes of ink for a more complete coverage:

three 4. Remove the template carefully.

5. After you let the paint dry, grab some colored pencils or pastels, and color in some of the shapes left by the template. I stuck with a palette of yellow, white, and pink. Lighter colors look especially smashing against dark cardstock:

6. After you’ve colored to your little heart’s content, admire your work!

7. Then just use your background as you would normally use a piece of cardstock or patterned paper. You could cut it apart, die cut it, use it on an art journal page, make it into a card, wallpaper your room… you get the idea:

You’re done!

I hope you enjoyed this idea. I’d love to see what you create using your templates.

Easy stencil ideas for cards by Sanna

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Sanna Lippert

Hi everyone, Sanna here! When Jaime contacted me and asked if I would like to do a blogpost or two for the TCW blog, I was more than thrilled and immediately agreed. I love the TCW Stencils and have been using them quite intensively recently!! So my first post in May is about cards. I did four cards using the Mini Garden Gate, Quatrefoil, Kaleidoscope, Honeycomb, Tiny Circles and Mini Elevator Gate Stencils. So prepare for quite a long post …

Materials for the first card:

You will need: stencils, white cardstock, a card base, embossing ink pad, clear embossing powder, craft sheet, heat gun, ink pads and a pen.

1. Place a stencil over the white cardstock and press embossing ink over the mask into the paper. While you are at it, cover the whole paper up, so you can use the other images for later projects, if you like.

2. Remove the stencil, cover the embossed areas with clear (or white) embossing ink and heat them with the heat gun until the powder starts to melt (don´t burn your fingers!).

3. This is what everything looks like after you are finished heating the powder.

4. Now add ink over the images with an ink blending tool. I used Distress Inks (bundled sage, wild honey and worn lipstick) from Ranger Inc. You could also use a spray ink here too.

5. After inking, I outlined the stencil images with a black pen for more contrast, but you could also skip this phase, if you prefer the original look.

6. After that just use as much or as little of the embossed and inked paper for a card (or on a layout) and decorate/embellish to finish your project. I used a wide chevron washi tape to create a flower. Just first fold the washi in half and then fold it again lengthwise to create a flower. Fast and easy and adds nice contrast to the card.

Now for the second card. Since I had leftover pieces of that previously embossed paper, I used them for this quick project.

I punched butterflies out of the leftover pieces and layered them over each other and added a rhinestone on top. Then I used the “Tiny Circles” stencil, placed it on the card and dabbed some white acrylic paint with a sponge over it. This creates a really nice background for the colorful butterflies – I really like this stencil a lot! Finally just decorated and glued all together. Really fast and easy!

Materials for card number 3:

You will need: craft sheet, Mini Elevator Stencil, card base, embossing ink, embossing powders (white or like me holographic, cream, yellow and orange), heat gun and embellishments of your choice.

First place the stencil over the card and add embossing ink. Then take orange embossing powder and add a wide strip over the card. Dab off the residue, then add in the same manner yellow, cream and the lightest color. Next heat the powder with a heat gun. Now your ombré card base is done. You can create gorgeous backgrounds just by changing the colors and stencil patterns! You could now either outline the images or even add spray ink or stamp ink over the white areas, if you´d like to experiment more, but I wanted to leave the image as it is. Then just add the embellishments and your card is finished!

For the last card you will need:

Card base (I prepared the background with Distress Ink – scrattered straw – and a background stamp), “Honeycomb” stencil, twine, needle and a black pen. And later coloring pens – I used Copics.

First place the stencil over the card and outline the image with a waterproof black pen. Then grab your coloring pens and color the pattern. After that punch holes around the hexacon images to be able to stitch through the card with twine. Finish the card with a sentiment and embellishments. I used a hot air balloon stamp and a rub-on, then glued everything down with foam pads for a more dimensional effect.

I hope you have enjoyed the tutorials and got inspired by them! Thank you TCW and Jaime for having me here – looking forward to my next post later in May!! See you!

xoxo, Sanna

Kelly Grace’s gorgeous pants!

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Jaime

First, let me say that I’m not usually photographing women’s legs/thighs. But this was just so incredible that I needed to share! This is our sales rep, Kelly Grace. She lives in Canada and has so much energy and creativity that it oozes out of her. Here are her black pants that had a minor stain on them. So sad. So what did she do? She grabbed her TCW382 Garden Gate 12×12 stencil and went to work. She used her Lumière Graphite paint with a little black mixed in. Slowly and carefully dabbing onto the stencil, onto the pants. I think she said she used some wax paper inside the pant so that it didn’t bleed through. Then she used Viva paint pen for the final “texture” beads on top. Awesome!!

Gisele’s cool bag

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Jaime

If you think this bag looks cool in this photo, you should see it in person!! Gisele Cabral is so incredibly talented. And she plans on teaching this at Scrapbook Centrale soon. (She was inspired by Dina Wakley’s gorgeous stencils including TCW355 Casey& Penelope!!)

Carolyn’s Gremlins

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Jaime

I love how Carolyn Dube’s entry is about finally embracing the gremlins that were knocking around in her head. Read her delightful blog post here. In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful creation using Julie’s CityScape stencil TCW376.

Louise’s Wedding Album

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Jaime

Okay, not LOUISE’s personal wedding, but the wedding of her godson! Now that we’ve got that straight, take a gander at what a little modeling paste on white paper (and our lovely stencils) can do! Here’s another;

Wonderful, right? I love the subtlety of white on white with a little color sprayed onto the peaks and valleys.

To see more photos, and a listing of what products were used, click here.