Crafty As L

Have you checked out the new Visible Image Wrapped Up   Christmas release yet?   For my DT post this week, I’m using a stamp and stencil from the new collection and my make has lots of texture and shimmer. For the background, I used Distress Grit Paste through the Close Knit stencil then set it aside to dry. Once dry, I sprayed the panel with Distress Spray Stain Lumberjack Plaid and Distress Mica Stain Yuletide.   Whilst the background was drying, I stamped, coloured and fussy-cut the topper elements from Marshmallow Moments . To add some more sparkle to the background, I rubbed my Versamark ink pad over some areas of the background, added gold embossing powder and heat set.   The smaller elements were glued to the background and the mug and sentiment were popped up on foam tape. Finally, I added some Wink of Stella to the heart and then covered it with Glossy Accents.    

This past week, I’ve not been making cards but have been trying out different art media.   I've only really done watercolour painting so when I saw this  acrylic workshop run by Charlotte ,  to create a contemporary seascape, I was interested to see how to use acrylic paints.   Plus, I love a sea scene! The first painting was done using a paintbrush to blend the colours, starting with the sky. Then the sea and the beach were added. Finally, clouds were added using a palette knife.  One of the beauties of acrylics is that you can just paint over the dry paint if you want to add more to the painting. For the next masterpiece, we used the sponge side of a scouring pad to blend the paints for the sky and sea, then used a brush and palette knife to add the details.  I really enjoyed this workshop and would like to try more acrylic painting now. The second media new to me is pastel pencils.   I’d watched Jason Morgan’s YouTube  video ...

For this week’s post, I’m doing more stamping and stitching, trying out another of my stamps with free-motion embroidery.   I used the large sunflower from Visible Image Sunflower Grunge and stamped it onto a bit of old wash basket liner.   I used my large MISTI so that I could repeat stamp if needed. I put a couple of layers of gold organza over the sunflower and first stitched around the edge of the petals with a golden coloured thread.   Next, I filled in the petals with a lighter yellow. For the centre of the flower, I started with dark grey but with yellow in the bobbin.   I adjusted the tension so that some of the bobbin thread would pull up to the surface to give the effect of pollen. I continued the centre with a light brown and then a darker brown at the edge. After putting a layer of green organza over the leaves and stem, I stitched these in the same way with three shades of green.   I made some random long stitches for grasses at the bottom ...

It’s time for my Design Team post and recently, I’ve been experimenting with using my stamps with free-motion embroidery, thanks to a “Travelling Book” scheme in my monthly textile group, which you can read about here . The fabric is the liner from an old wash basket and I used the Wildflower stencil as inspiration for the background grasses, which I drew with brush tip markers. Next, I added a few flowers and dots to make the wild flower meadow. Using black Archival Ink, I stamped the dragonflies from Brighter Days directly onto the fabric. I then set to work embroidering the dragonflies using free-motion embroidery and raw-edge appliqué.   The feed-dogs were lowered on my machine and I put the fabric into an embroidery hoop so that it was drum tight - this stops the thread getting tangled up underneath.   I placed a piece of rainbow organza fabric over the dragonfly wings and first stitched around the edge of the wing and then wiggled around to make the veins. ...