Festive at Stamps and Stencils...

Hi everyone, time for our last challenge of the year over at Stamps and Stencils and of course we are getting festive. Sue has chosen the theme this month and wants us to use both Stamps AND Stencils in our festive mixed media style pieces.

'Festive Stamps AND Stencils - Now normally to join in with us we ask you use either stamps or stencils, but for this challenge I want to see both and lots of them with a Festive theme ! So dig out all your stamps, maybe some long forgotten that need some love and all of your stencils and let them take centre stage ! '

I decided to make a box full of gift tags to use this year in my present wrapping.

I started by altering a box...

..and then made a few tags!

For a few years now I have been making my own Christmas wrapping paper inspired by a gorgoeus post Alison Bomber of Words and Pictures did for PaperArtsy here. I love 'brown paper parcels tied up with string' and Scandanavian crisp clean motifs so here's what I came up with this year.

I started off with a teabag box that I'd saved and flattened out for painting.

I still have some Irish Cream fresco paint so used that but didn't add any embellishments as I wanted the box to be practical.

I used cherry red stazon to stamp the images and had some matching card which would be perfect to make the tags from. These were my ingredients. The stamps on the right are a Waltzing Mouse set which unfortunately you can't get now BUT I am sure there are lots of alternatives out there that could be used.

As we are a mixed media blog I had to embellish the tags a little and used crackle paint, teabag paper, tissue, stitching, foiling and embossing enamel in the process. I don't think the tags need step outs but it's rather photo heavy now so you can see them in more detail.

I loved making each little one of them (2 1/4 x 2 3/4 inch) and will have plenty to use next year as well now.

I hope you're inspired to dig out some of your well loved or forgotten stash and create something festive for our challenge and don't forget to hop across and see what the rest of our talented team have created to inspire you. I hope to be back before Christmas but in the meantime enjoy your Christmas crafting! R x

Tags, Bags and Boxes at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, it's November already and we are fast approaching the festive season. Cec is our talented host for this months challenge and she has kept that in mind with her choice of this months theme.  'With Christmas coming up and the gift buying underway, we are going to need something to wrap them in.  Let's make some mixed media tags, bags and boxes that will be as treasured by the recipient as the gift itself.  Don't forget to include some stamping or stenciling.'

I had a lot of fun with this one and opted for quick and easy techniques that are hopefully effective. It's a photo heavy post as I created variations on the colour theme to include other occasions, hope you enjoy...

I started off altering a small Kraft bag but then decided to decorate a gift envelope and different sized tags for Christmas, a Birthday and as a Thank you.

This is the step by step for 'Thanks'  but I'll explain the variations along the way. Firstly brayer some chalk fresco roughly over the background, it will dry in no time.

Next brayer a little copper, gold and caramel fresco in places.

A few scraps of masking tape and a little stamping in black, sepia and plum archival and the background is created in minutes

I think these colours go so well together.

To finish the bag, I applied some die cut book page leaves and a ready made flower was 'frantaged'... shabby white embossing enamel melted over it.

The sentiment was stamped on painted book text and I added some stamped leaves.

For the envelope I added plum and sepia stamped images, the sentiment embossed in black and wiggly lines around the outside....super quick.

The tags are a mixture of the techniques and stamps already used and sticking to the same colour palette creates cohesion.

Next it's Christmas

A claret fresco paint background, crackle glaze and chalk paint top coat.

A gold snowflake has been 'shabbified'...aged with ink and paint. Stamping in plum archival and white frantage (I know I keep using it but I just love the effect a little sprinkling gives to to a project)

The crackle just transforms the tags

The last one is for a Birthday and is super quick.

The background is just white gesso scraped on with a credit card...

Add a die cut, sentiment and frantage...job done.

The die cut started off as cream paper which had been lightly brayered with paint  and stamped as in the first step. You can see a little of the torn paper added to the bottom of a tag.

The trio displayed in all their glory.

These were all such fun to make and genuinely quick and easy. I now have a lovely stock, especially useful when you are on the last minute...

Hope you'll join in with our challenge and for more inspiration pop across and see what gorgeous makes the talented DT have made. x

A few tags....

..and other dabblings. After sharing a few cards just thought I'd share a few more of my dabblings with infusions. The first two tags are made with infusions and grunge paste. Once spread through a stencil I've brushed the grunge paste to get some textured petal lines.

Tag 2 - The colours are different shades of  pink and blue but the walnut pigment will give a vintage tone and quality to the piece.

Both stencils and most of the stamps used are JOFY

An infusions background and then painting with pearl glaze using Sara Naumann stamps.

Different tones on glossy card..

and this time stamped with gold fresco paint.

A short post but hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for stopping by R x