It's your birthday...

Hello everyone,

For my second inspiration piece for Christine's stencil challenge over at Country View Challenges,  I have made a birthday card.

I started out with a piece of pattern paper on which I stencilled the letters. I used a Tim Holtz stencil called 'Cargo' and Broken China Distress Ink with a blending tool for this. I distressed the edges of the panel and added the same ink. Next I stamped the main image and the gears; all from the same stamp set by Tim Holtz called 'Dapper' (CMS267). I used black and gray Archival Inks for this. 

I then added the sentiments (both TH also CMS219 & CMS236) and decided that it needed a little white. I used a Dylusions polka dot stencil and some white acrylic paint for this. 

I added a chipboard moustache which I had in my stash for ages, I just painted it black and adhered it in between the hat and shoulders. 

Lastly I adhered the panel to a white card. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope I gave you some inspiration ! 

Bang !

Hello everyone,

and welcome to my first inspiration piece for this month's challenge over at the Country View Crafts' Challenge blog... The theme is 'stencil' and it was chosen by the lovely Christine.

This month alongside our Challenge, we are also running a Blog Hop with a Sizzix Big Shot Machine & Die Bundle as the prize. To enter, you must be a Follower of our Challenge Blog and Hop along to each of our Design Team Members Blogs and leave a comment. We will still be running our normal monthly challenge and those who link their 'Use A Stencil' projects will also be entered into our £20 Voucher draw. The Winners will be picked at random in early June.  

You should have arrived here from Brenda's blog. 

I have made a postcard this time:

This postcard was started with painting it with a layer of Gesso. I then used a Tim Holtz stencil called Latticework with some Grunge paste by Paperartsy. I applied the paste with a pallet knife. 

When this had dried, I used my Distress Crayons to add colour. I just scribbled it on and then blended it with a damp baby wipe. I did lose some of the detail of the grunge paste and to make it stand out more I used a water brush and some kitchen roll to remove some of the colour in the 'valleys'. This way the texture stands out a little more. You can do this with these crayons as they are water soluble. Anyway, I also dripped some water on the surface and mopped it up to create some lighter spots. 

Next I stamped the cat (Crazy Cats by Tim Holtz), the sentiment (Crazy Thoughts by Tim Holtz) and the balloon (Crazy Things by Tim Holtz). I used Memento Ink as I wanted to colour everything with my Copic markers. The balloon string was stamped directly on the card and extended with a pen. I also stamped the cat directly on the card to get his whiskers as they are too thin to cut out. 

After colouring I cut everything out, went around the cut edges with a black Copic Marker to hide any imperfections and then adhered everything to the card. 

That was it ! 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you will play along with us !

And don't forget to hop over to Jane's blog from here.

To have a chance to win the prize you will have to visit all the blogs and also leave a comment at each one ! 

Happy Hopping !!!!