Stencils and Scribble Sticks

Hello friends! I hope your weekend was fun. My dad and I went to see a concert with Rod Stewart and it was really great, not only the music, but also the graphics, images and light effects. I was amazed to see scrapbooking and mixed media inspired illustrations. There were torn patterned papers, old letters, and cool retro designs. 

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog our theme is Use Stencils. I hope you will join us! Don't miss the project by our May guest designer Ashley with her fantastic blog She Is Crafty.

Stencils are so versatile and take almost no space to store. They can be used for many different techniques and this week I wanted to try something I hadn't done before. I was curious about how Scribble Sticks would work if applied directly to the stencil and was really happy with the result. This is a very easy technique and you get lots of background in one go.

I used the SSS Triangle Blast stencil. Apply Scribble sticks generously over the entire stencil. Don't worry about the little bits of pigment that gets rubbed off, we will use that too, so don't through it away. In fact, you could place the stencil on top of watercolor paper and use that paper too. I only thought of this when I was done.

I used Night and Lapis Scribble Sticks, from Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks 1 and Scribble Sticks 2.

Mist the stencil generously with water and press down on watercolor paper. I used one of the cotton-rag watercolor pages in my Dina Wakley Media Journal. The stencil was cleaned before this photo was taken. There is plenty of pigment on it left to repeat the process at least four times.

I continued misting the stencil and pressing it down on watercolor papers, until almost all the pigment was gone. Remember those shavings of Scribble Sticks from the first step? They can be sprinkled over the still wet paper (the paper to the far right), or over paper misted with water (the paper to the bottom left).

On the journal page itself, I misted a little water and sprinkled the shavings. Misting more water if needed. This gives a really cool effect and is a great way of avoiding to waste any pigment.

The lovely butterflies come from the Aall & Create Stamp set 45, designed by Tracy Evans. Stamp the butterflies on watercolor paper with Jet Black ink.

Smear Mustard Seed Distress Ink on a craft sheet, mist with water and paint the butterflies. I wanted Brimstone butterflies, since they are commonly seen in spring. We call them 'lemon butterflies'.

The yellow looks nice together with the blue background.

This is a really fun technique and you will get a slightly different result every time. My favorite part is the darker areas around the triangles, created by pigment being stuck to the edges of the stencil.

I really like the speckled effect of using up the pigment shavings. If you don't want to see the speckles, just use more water.

The title was die cut with Tim Holtz's Letterboard die, using SSS Glimmery White Diamond and Glimmery Coal cardstock.

I die cut trails for the butterflies using Tim's Adorned die, and SSS Glimmery White Diamond paper. The yellow flowers were die cut from a paper first colored with Mustard Seed ink, using the Funky Floral 2 set.

I printed the sentiment, also on White Diamond paper, and cut into strips.

I hope you will join us this week in our Use Stencils challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Canvas background art journal page

Hi everyone! I hope you had a good weekend! We had mostly sunny weather, although it hailed during our walk yesterday. We also went on a fun outing, where I missed the turn-off on the highway, so we decided to carry on to the next town, and do a completely different outing than initially planned. There we also happened upon a unique second hand/antiquities store.

 

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Happy Hour challenge. Don't miss the project by our May guest designer Ashley with her fantastic blog She Is Crafty. It's a really cool project.

I wasn't sure what to do for this challenge at first, but then I got the idea to do an art journal page about our Friday tradition. Ever since Anton started nursery school, we've been doing something special after school on Fridays, like going for a smoothie. Nowadays we call it Fredagsmys, which can be translated to something like 'cozy Friday'. It's a common thing in Sweden, but we do it a bit differently by combining it with 'Saturday sweets'. Since about the 1950s, 'Saturday sweets' has been a common thing here, and some kids only eat sweets on Saturdays. We don't do Saturday sweets, but instead go right after school on Fridays to a sweet shop, where the kids pick their own sweets. Then, in the evening, we see a movie at home, eat the sweets, and sometimes also some chips. The kids love this end-of-the-week ritual.

Start by die cutting circles from watercolor paper, using the Stitched Circles die. Stamp images from Tim Holtz Mini Blueprints 6 with Archival Black Soot. Trace three larger circles using cups or plates and cut out roughly. Distress the edges.

The images were watercolored with Dina Wakley's Scribble Sticks, mainly by picking up the pigment with a paint brush directly from the tip of the Scribble Sticks. Add a shadow to make them look more dimensional. I used both Scribble Sticks 1 and Scribble Sticks 2.

The three larger circles were also colored with Scribble Sticks.

I worked on one of the canvas pages in my Dina Wakley Media Journal. Wet the tip of a Scribble Stick and draw a border. Dip the tip of a black Scribble Stick in water and flick a paint brush against it to create splatters.

The larger circles were stitched to the page with embroidery floss. Prick the holes first, to make the stitching easy.

I painted a very light layer of grey all around the images. Every seventh day was encircled on the stamped ticket. The ticket stamps come from Tim's Odds & Ends set.

The Scribble Sticks are very versatile and can be used to quickly color a big surface, but also for small details like these.

I wrote journaling on Tim's new Classic Label Stickers and also added pieces of Film Strip Ribbon.

You can add rub-ons directly to the canvas.

The title was die cut with SSS Glimmery Coal cardstock, using the Archie Jr die.

I hope you will join us this week in our Happy Hour challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Glow In The Dark Butterfly Tutorial

Hi everyone! I hope your weekend was a good one. We had several sport related activities, which were fun. I also spring-cleaned our windows. It always makes such a big difference. Leo helped, but prefers to water the flowers. 

It is a new month and as always when it is a new month, the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge team showcases products from a specific designer or company. This week it is Brutus Monroe. You can find all the cool stamps, stencils, embossing powders and coloring media by Brutus Monroe here. You don't have to use their products to join, but it is always fun if you do.

Our theme is 'Add something metallic'. Fun! Don't miss the first project by our May guest designer Ashley with her fantastic blog She Is Crafty. I hope you will stop by her blog to say hi.

I made a butterfly wall-hanging for Leo, which glows in the dark. It is a big hit and he loves the glowing butterfly, trail of sea class and text. I also added metallic bits in the form of embossing powder, faux screws and an embossed sheet of metal. When I was a child, I had a small glow in the dark elephant and a glow in the dark eraser, and I remember how very fascinating I found them. The elephant still stands on a shelf above my desk.

For the background, I started with a sheet of watercolor paper, which was a left-over from my recent play with Distress Resist Spray. You can find the other projects here and here.

Mist with water and drop Aqua Pigment on top. Add more water and more pigment until you are happy with the result. I used Blue Green and Yellow Green Aqua Pigment. Aqua Pigments are liquid watercolors, and there are also metallic versions.

Place the Simple Blend Butterfly stencil on top of mat board and pounce an Emboss It Dabber through it. Emboss with three layers of Glow In the Dark powder. I also added feelers with a marker, but the effect later disappeared somewhat, since I hadn't melted the powder on the feelers properly.

Mix a little water into the Blue Green Aqua Pigment, to make a lighter shade of turquoise. Paint on top of the butterfly.

Around the edge, I embossed Milky Way powder.

Place the butterfly mask on top of the embossed butterfly and then stamp the background with the SSS You Matter Background stamp.

Add a shadow to the butterfly with a pencil.

The metallic panel was embossed in Tim Holtz's Foundry 3-D folder and distressed with Black Soot paint. I die cut the title with the SSS Archie Jr Solid set and embossed them with the Glow In The Dark powder.

The background is cardboard, embossed here and there with the Milky Way powder. I also used a sheet of Simon Says Stamp Glimmery Coal Cardstock.

After the butterfly, there is a trail of Glow In The Dark Sea Glass. I love these. For more glow in the dark inspiration, check out the space panel that I made last year.

I also added a couple of Brutus Monroe Peacock Cabochons.

And some of their cool Acrylic Bubbles. I love how they magnify the letters underneath.

I hope you will join us this week in our Add Something Metallic challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.