Craft Stamper...just a bit excited!

Hi everyone, just a quick post to share some exciting news....well for me anyway! If you follow the link here to the Craft Stamper blog you'll see some sneaky peeks of April's Craft Stamper issue which comes out this Friday...and one of the peeks is a project of mine!!

I've been sitting on this news for ages and I still can't quite believe it.....I have bruises from pinching myself to prove it! Towards the end of last year I had an email from the oh so talented editor Trish Latimer which resulted in some undignified jumping around in the street (I was on my way to a meeting when I opened the email!).

I'm thrilled to have been asked on board and definitely looking forward to this journey. Thanks again to Trish and as always, thanks for stopping by. Ruth x 

Wax part 3..

Hi everyone, I'm sharing the last of my encaustic endeavours with you tonight. It's a photo heavy post with 4 unfinished or technique pieces. First up is a piece incorporating  stamping, stencilling and shellac....again!

Acrylic paints and wax don't really mix as the acrylic causes the wax to lift, but if used on the base it has a chance to absorb into the encaustic board and in small amounts can be used. It's very difficult to see but I used Bubblegum Pink fresco and an Ellen Vargo stamp across a section at the top and stamped a Lin Brown stamp 'Timeless Moments' in archival...which you can just about make out.

I then used a layer of clear encaustic medium and once set, used an Emma Godfrey stencil PS015 to paint blue encaustic medium through, across the base and the top section. Once cool I dry brushed other wax colours on and at this stage so wished I'd taken a photo as I was loving the effect...but I didn't.

I just couldn't resist trying the wet shellac burn again, I thought just a thin line dripped in the 3 white spaces would finish it off, but of course the flames just started to melt the design, however it was a happy accident as I really do like the result. Like all experiments you never quite know what will happen.

For the next piece I tried some more dry brushing this time layering a few different colours of paints, this creates a lot of depth.

You must wait for the paint to cool in between to achieve definition which at first doesn't take long as the board is cool but as the layers build it takes longer to cool. Not being the most patient person when I'm experimenting the top layers started to lose that definition, however if you zoom in the edges are much more textured.

Just using a few colours can acheive quite a variation. The tiny white specks are from a pearlescent wax paint.

The first 2 pieces were on 6 x 6 plywood panels, this next piece is a 4 x 4 piece of wood which had a base coat of white encaustic medium which I made by mixing a small piece of white oil stick paint into clear medium. I'd seen a video by Nancy Crawford where she transfers flocked paper onto wax and so was inspired to incorporate this.  

Another lesson learned as I didn't press hard enough so the image is very pale. I then thought I'd have a play adding some black and red in lines across the base along with clear medium and yet again should have stopped, walked away, thought about it and come back...but I added some more in the corner and then over fused and the red started to run....wasn't happy with this so had a think.

Well I hadn't tried any scraping back...so I did. White oil paint rubbed in to the creases, some india ink drips and lastly dry brushing with white wax. This was all done in stages and I realised it's s good idea to have  few pieces on the go  at once so you can give the wax chance to set and stop yourself from messing when you shouldn't! Definitely for reference and not a finished piece.  

Last but not least is a piece that went through many changes, many layers....and this is it's journey.

I hadn't used paper as  base so using some Chatsworth paper, I glued it down and left it to dry overnight. At this stage it has stamping on the paper, a layer of clear encaustic medium and some cutting in using a stencil as a guide, then some portfolio pastels rubbed into the circles before fusing.

Another layer of wax, cutting in, burnt umber rubbed in to dips and some more paper applied. Not sure at this stage.

Another layer and definitely don't like it, losing all the layers.....need a change of direction...melt some of the wax off.

Pan pastels, the stamping is showing through more but I'm still not happy.....another change....think the shellac is calling.

I'd seen mica powder used with wet shellac burn so another technique to try.

Think this is my new favourite, I even threw on some beads that were on my desk just as it was setting.

So vibrant

The stamping is still visible and love the touches of white portfolio pastel. 

Well done if you got to the end, I will definitely be exploring encaustic more in the future and hope you've enjoyed seeing the results so far. Hope you have a lovely crafty weekend and thanks for taking the time to visit and leave comments, I appreciate them very much. Ruth x

The wonderful world of wax!

Hi, thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post, as promised I'm back to share a few more results from my encaustic explorations. Whilst I don't expect to inspire you to have a go, I thought you might be interested in the results. The first two are 10cm square pieces of stampboard.

This time it's using shellac and a technique called a wet shellac burn. Firstly alcohol inks are used across the top strip, once dry apply shellac and 'burn'. Yes flames are involved and outside is the best place to do this part but for more information please refer to the book I mentioned in my previous post.  I then decided to add more wax with dry brushing.

A different colour way in blues.

The last one for tonight is a dry shellac burn, I used pan pastels to colour the clear shellac and the applied over white encaustic medium.

 Once dry you burn areas, usually in circles but I thought I'd do snail trails. The pinky edges are from coloured wax that was under the white.

Rather like the effect.

As I said in my previous post there is just so much you can do with wax and these are just ideas that I might use in areas on a piece or as a whole.  I hope you're enjoying the slightly different posts at the moment and I'll share my last few waxy experiments later this week.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your crafting!

Glue & Wax

Hi everyone, following on from my last post I've been exploring all things encaustic. There are so many techniques you can use with wax and I've been trying things out guided by the resource which is You Tube and my 'bible' ...The Whole Ball of Wax by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch. I'm sharing a finished piece with you tonight and also entering it in the current PaperArtsy challenge which of course is Wax!

As there are many resources available and explanations along with safety information would take a long time, I'm just giving brief information on the technique.

It's a 10cm square piece of wood and I've used one of Lin Brown's new stencils to create this. I used white glue through the stencil before some burning took place with a recently purchased inexpensive cooks blow torch! There's one coat of encaustic medium on the piece and the colouring has been done using pan pastels before fusing. A final tickle of treasure gold completes the piece.

 I've created several technique pieces which  might also be called works in progress and thought I'd share them with you over the next week.

Thanks as always for stopping by and enjoy your weekend.

Simple Scene at PaperArtsy

Evening everyone, I'm sharing a sneaky peek with you of my creation over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight! For the current theme we are talking 'Wax' so of course I had to have a dabble... Please hop across here for all the details of how I created my simple scene.

As always thanks for stopping by...

New Eclectica Lin Brown...part 2

Hi, busy week for me with 5 posts! As promised I'm back again with my remaining samples from Lin Brown's stamp release last night. In case you missed it you can click the link to last nights post on the PaperArtsy blog. It was a real joy to work with these stamps and stencils.

As soon a s I saw this stencil I knew I wanted to use grunge paste with it.

I started with a brayered background using the colour palette given, we used Fresco paints in Vanilla, Yellow Submarine, Caramel, Toffee, Chocolate and Claret. I used the lighter colours and also added in some Fresco Gold at the end in one sweep of the brayer to leave some texture.

Next stamping in co ordinating archival ink with the leafy background stamps.

Lastly having applied the grunge paste and let it dry I replaced the stencil and brushed on some metallic glaze and Biscotti perfect pearls just to make it pop. The lettering had some additional Treasure Gold applied to the bottom half and then some wobbly stitching just finished the edges off.

I have quite an eclectic style and went down a clean and simple route with 2 of the samples. I wanted to show how versatile the stamps are. The daisy one is quite straight forward, once shaded the daisy heads were layered up. I used one stamp to make a leafy background and border and dots were added with a gold pen.

I thought some of the stamps could be used in an oriental style and combined it with a favourite 3 panel layout of mine. These are the ingredients.

Fairly straight forward, the background 'waves' were created using the stems of the seed head stencil and distress ink.

A wash paint for the panels, cut them out first then stamp and finish with gold pen highlights.

Lastly, this is an idea I had but didn't get finished in time for sending. I've used pan pastels before to create a meadow style scene and just thought with all the lovely small leafy or flower style stamps available on the plates, I could repeat this. The above left is the pan pastel one using versamark to stamp and then colour in with the pastels.

 This one is the finished Fresco version but using archival inks in various colours instead of versamark. Now  I didn't know but the way I created it is an ombre style as demonstrated by Jo Firth Young on a periscope demo she did yesterday at PaperArtsy HQ....serendipty?! So if you want to see a fab demo click the link here to the JOFY post and embedded video.

To finish some gold highlights.

That's all from me for the time being.... I've really enjoyed it. Thanks for taking the time to visit and leaving such lovely comments. R x

New Eclectica Lin Brown stamps at PaperArtsy!

Hi everyone, it's the new product launch this week of  PaperArtsy goodies and tonight it's the turn of the wonderfully talented Lin Brown. I've long admired Lin's work and guess what...I got to play with her new stamps as I have the honour of being one of her wingmen for this release! Firstly enjoy a video from Leandra (Mrs PaperArtsy) showcasing all the new goodies and samples. Eek!

Well I think we all went sample crazy because the stamps and stencils were so easy to work with so I'm sharing the ingredients of mine over 2 posts, 4 tonight and the remainder tomorrow. It's a long photo heavy post so make yourself comfortable.

I just had to make something using this magnificent flower head as the focal point, combine that with my love of using textiles and Rusty Bloom was born. Here are the ingredients.

I sprayed teabag paper with LSG sprays before stamping the image with glue and sprinkling with rusting powder. A vinegar and water mix was then sprayed on to the image to rust it. Lastly a little glue brushed on before adding bonding powder and some wow fab foil in gold and copper.

The image was stitched onto book page and good old fashioned mulberry paper from my stash.

To finish, leafy images were stamped onto a piece of hessian and then grunge paste spread through one of the new stencils before some dry brushing with paint.

Next up I've used the delightful Daisy plate

It was time to get my 3 x 5 Gelli plate out mounted on an acrylic block and using the paints and stencils stamped onto card and fabric. Further stamping with archival inks created the background above.

The daisy reminded me of the flower Rudbekia which has gorgeous claret petals so I stamped onto crunchy wax Kraft paper to create the bloom. Love the font on the sentiment too.

The printed fabric was used as a base for a couple of atc's.

The fabric was further enhanced with stencilling, stitching and a little glitter. Loved the colour palette we were given to work with, all warm brown tones.

Last up tonight are the Lilies, these were stamped and embossed onto more of the Gelli plate print card and further shaded with pencil crayons.  

It has a crackle background with additional stamping and another new stencil with some further shading. I seem to have gone stitching mad as well!

I was over the moon when Lin asked me to be one of her wingmen along with the very talented Hazel Agnew and Karen Eaglesham. Please hop across and see all the fabulous samples on the PaperArtsy blog and check out all the weeks releases.....and hope you can pop back tomorrow when I'll be sharing my remaining projects.

Thanks as always for stopping by and I hope it goes a little way in explaining my absence of late.

Splatter, Spritz, Smoosh at Stamps and Stencils

Hi....what a great title, it's the new challenge theme over at Stamps and Stencils chosen by our very talented DT leader Sue  and it's all about messy play. Here's what Sue says about it.

'What can be better that getting messy in your craft room, so for this challenge it's time to get out those sprays, paints and inks and really get messy ! We want to see splattering, spritzing and smooshing ! Just remember to include either some stamping or stencilling.' 

The theme spoke journal pages to me...but this time I went down a vintage route.

Like many of you I've started the year trying to use stamps and stash that I haven't used for ages or maybe not used at all...

I started with a background of fresco paints in Sage and Vintage Lace that were spritzed with Prima Blooms in Tea Stain.

Next Light Modelling Paste through a TCW stencil (? garden gate but may have made that up!).

Next Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays in various shades of blue and green spritzed, splattered and dripped, love how the mica pools.

The hearts are a Chocolate Baroque set that I've always liked but don't often use because they are hearts, but I felt they fitted the vintage style of the pages. Gold fresco (I know...again) as a base and then stamped with Plum archival.

The font and the swirly bits are Stampers Annonymous. Various background stamps in blue archival inks and some stencilling with Vintage Lace to soften the pages.

Lastly Treasure gold to highlight.

 Green and Red are a rare combination for me to use outside Christmas but I might use it more often as I've really enjoyed a'spritzing and a'smooshing!

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments and for stopping by again, please pop across here to see what my lovely talented teamies have created for you and hopefully tempt you to join in.