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Monday 20 February 2017

Happy Birthday Gorgeous

(Apologies for the poor photo quality, we still haven't replaced the bulbs in the kitchen!)

Today, I've been playing with two new additions to my craft cupboard. A beautiful tree stencil, which was the January Clarity design club gift, and It Is Written stamps from BoBunny, which were part of my Valentine's present from hubby.

I started with Clarity stencil card, cut to size for a 5x7 card base (this one is going in the post so didn't want to be too extravagant). To give some base colour, I added antique linen distress ink with a stencil brush, as I didn't want the stark white.

I masked a border on three sides with tape, then taped the stencil over the top, which masked the fourth side, and obviously the tree shapes.



To add more vibrant colour, I brushed on aged mahogany towards the outside, with brushed corduroy at the edge, then ripe persimmon more centrally, and a burst of wild honey in the centre. This last is a new ink pad and more juicy, so was a little more intense than planned. But not an issue, I intend to build up the colour anyway.



Time for the new stamps, which have script and music on them, as well as a large music stamp I've had for ages.

Using the same colours, I over stamped roughly in different areas with the different patterns. I didn't use a block, so I could get in between the stencil better. The stamping doesn't have to be perfect for this effect.



I wiped the ink off the stencil onto the card with a sponge, to intensify the colour and really define the edges. I tried using my current favourite distress stamps from Sheena, but they're rubber and stiffer, so didn't get in close to the stencil as well. I added more colour at the edge with the sponge before removing the stencil.



Lovely crisp image for the trees, and I love the flash of orange in the centre.

I used a Faber Castell polychromo pencil to add shadow around the trees, for more definition. I also dragged the aged mahogany pad around the card to edge it.

For the words I used scraps of stencil card, which I had also brushed with antique linen. I have an alphabet stamp set I think of as the circus one, with a mixture of quite ornate fonts. I used this to stamp the separate words Happy Birthday Susan Gorgeous Friend, in potting soil archival ink and claret stazon.



I cut them out (by eye with scissors, I didn't want them perfectly straight or square). To liven them up, I used the stamps again, and a couple of the distress ones. I used aged mahogany and brushed corduroy, but found that a splash of the wild honey looked great. I also edged them with the two darker colours for definition.



I really like how these have come out!

To help them stand out from the background (I don't want to use foam due to postage) I mounted them on more scrap card brushed with the antique linen, and hand cut them with a narrow border. I brushed the edges to make them a little darker.

I then mounted these onto the background with a tape pen, and attached the background to the card base in the same way.

I used the stamps and the same colours to decorate the insert and the envelope.






Spot the "deliberate" mistake? Out of habit I did the insert in portrait, it should have been landscape for a tent card. Oh well, I can live with that.




I love this stencil, it's so simple and stylish. It works well with the busy, shabby chic background. I like the amount of texture there is in what is by necessity actually a very flat card.





PS I just noticed that this is my hundredth blog post - that doesn't seem possible! I guess time, and posts, fly by when you're having fun x


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Lucinda