“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!!!

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 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!!)

Confetti Layout by Jean

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Jaime

Hi – Jean Okimoto here – with a spring layout of 8-month-old Addison. The background is simply stenciled in ColorBox Chalk Inks. Donna Salazar Fairy Dust Glitter adds a bright touch of baby bling to a “sweet ” diecut. The poufy little accents are just hand-tinted puffs of ivory vintage lace from a set of trims and goodies by Hydrangea Hippo. The wiggly strips are inked white rickrack strips, also from Hydrangea Hippo.

Use papertowels to ink the topside of 12″ strips of lace with Fire and Limon. Gently heat-set the inks, under a protective layer of printer payer, with a medium iron. Sew a running stitch down the center of the lace, then scrunch it and tie it into a pouf – don’t cut the threads yet! Punch two holes in the center of a scrap cardboard circle, pass the threads thru the holes and tie a few knots. It’s a lot easier to glue the cardboard circle to your background, and any excess glue won’t show thru the lace.

Use papertowels to ink the rickrack with Limon and Jungle – then highlight the texture with Bark. Gently heat-set the inks.

Stencil Sea Crystal, Lime Pastel and Rose Coral along the top/left and bottom/right edges of an 8″ square of Bazzill BasicsLimerick Smoothie with Ronda’s Mini Confetti template from The Crafter’s Workshop.

Mat the picture with Bazzill Basics Flamingo. Trim the bottom edge with the Purple Cows Trimmer and Long Wave blade.

Attach Scor-Tape to Bazzill Basics Whirlpool Cardstock and diecut The Crafter’s Workshop’s “sweet” die.

Press Sugar Shimmer Fairy Dust Glitter onto the adhesive.

Clearsnap Products - view the 2013 Catalog here

ColorBox Crafter’s Inkpads – Limon, Jungle, Bark, Fire (*Page 31)
ColorBox Chalk Inkpads – Lime Pastel, Rose Coral, Limited Edition Sea Crystal (*Page 6)
Donna Salazar Sugar Shimmer Fairy Dust Glitter (*Page 46)

Happy Easter from Jean

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Jaime

Here’s an adorable card that Jean Okimoto created for Easter using our stencils. Imagine doing this with any of your large punches or solid dies!!

Here’s what she writes…

“I learned something important from April at Clearsnap that I’d like to share with you. (We affectionately call her April-from-Clearsnap as though she doesn’t have a last name.) Foam inkpads – like these ColorBox Chalk Inkpads – work by compression, so pressing down on the inkpads with the Blending Tips draws the inks up to the surface of the inkpad, making it easy to add great Clearsnap colors to your projects.

Use your ColorBox Stylus and White Blending Tips to ink smooth white cardstock with ColorBox Chalk Inkpads. Swatch colors are – left to right, top to bottom – Orchid Pastel, Rose Coral, Ice Blue, Limited Edition Sea Crystal, Lime Pastel and Lavender. The colors are great – and they dry in seconds so you can stencil them with The Crafter’s Workshop Life Shapes Small Mini Template TCW313s.

I used just five of the backgrounds for the card – then quickly cut them on my Grand Calibur with the Memory Box Classic Egg Die. Cut Grassland Border from Poppystamps (a division of Memory Box) from Bazzill Basics Hillary Cardstock. Cut Memory Box Fringe Circle for the sun from the light yellow cardstock in the Bazzill Basics Card Shoppe Assortment.

Stamp Easter Joy from Memory Box on the pale chartreuse Card Shoppe cardstock with ColorBox Plumeria Limited Edition Chalk Ink. Cut, score and side-fold an A2 card of the pale aqua Card Shoppe cardstock. Assemble the card – attach the greeting with foam dots.

Clearsnap Products - view the 2013 Catalog here:

ColorBox Chalk Inkpads – Orchid Pastel, Rose Coral, Ice Blue, Limited Edition Sea Crystal, Lime Pastel, Lavender, Limited Edition Plumeria
ColorBox Stylus and White Blending Tips

Layering inks is always a great technique – it’s quick, easy and creates some great combinations and blends. ColorBox Chalk Inkpads come in a wide array for colors perfect for spring!”

Michelle’s Splash of Green Girl

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Jaime

I stumbled upon Michelle Mathey’s blog through Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s Pinterest board. I like the simplicity of how Michelle used the Blazonry TCW280 stencil. Here’s what Michelle wrote:

Life has been very busy lately – too busy to draw/sketch!! AARRGGHH – Despite the chaos around me, I took a few minutes to sketch a girl yesterday but then had no time to post her until now. She’s a bit contemplative and perhaps sad?. . .maybe she is dreaming about when she will have more time. . .

Colors are from the current Play Date Cafe Challenge.

Used gouache for the first time (Emerald) – not sure if I like it or not – I was in such a hurry to finish that I definitely appreciated that it was easily squirted from the tube but that’s not much of a recommendation for a paint is it?

Martha Richardson & Pan Pastels

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Jaime

I love keeping an eye out for what Martha Richardson is up to. Here she is using a whole bunch of stencils (our Quatrefoil and our Diamonds).

Martha has used Pan Pastels (so delicious and rich) along with rubber stamps, gesso and collage. For complete instructions and step-by-step photos, click here.

The Crafter's Workshop

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