Wednesday 27 August 2014

Affairs of the Heart

Good Morning Crafters

We have a very long tutorial for you today from our Jennifer today so grab a cup of tea and enjoy.


Sparkle Medium - Black Stars and Champage
MDF Paint
MDF Frame and Charms (Home)
Bride Stencil



Here are the products I used in the making of this MDF project     



Use the back only as a base from the new home charm kit.  Paint it with the cream mdf paint.   




When dry, lay the lady stencil onto the right-hand side of the MDF board, masking off everything but the lady.  



Spread the black stars sparkle medium over the lady.




Carefully remove and wash the stencil and leave image to dry.




Stamp the sentiment to the left of the lady using a black ink pad.




Cover the MDF heart from the charm kit with the champagne sparkle medium and leave to dry.




Take a piece of plasterer's mesh and cover with the champagne sparkle medium.   Lift mesh up and put aside to dry.   Scrape up the excess medium and return to the jar, to be used again.


When mesh is dry, glue down the left-hand side of the board.




Gently rub some fired brick distress ink around the edges.




Glue the gold heart between the sentiment and the lady.




Add a rose and flowers to the bottom of the board and glue some pink rhinestones to the design.




Use the cut-off excess gold mesh to make a bow and glue to the mesh, adding 3 small flowers.




This is the finished project!

We hope you have enjoyed the tutorial for today.

Monday 25 August 2014

Printing the Day Away!

Good Morning Crafters

We have a very different kind of tutorial for you today.

Lindsay has worked really hard on putting this tutorial together and we hope you enjoy this.


Honeycombe Stencil
Elemental Stencil
Harlequin Stencil
Flourish Stencil
Antique Bronze Sparkle Medium

For today's project I thought I would show you how to use your Imagination Crafts stencils and cheap foam sheets to make a printing plate and give you some examples of the sort of thing you can use your printing plate for.



1. I began by gathering the stencils and materials I wanted to use for my printing plate, I began using a pencil but later changed to using a biro as I was having a heavy handed day and kept breaking the pencil (either will work but the biro did turn out to be easier).



2. Next I  took the Diamond stencil and started drawing the pattern through on to the foam pad in random areas. You need to use a reasonable amount of pressure as you want the pen to squash down the foam in the areas you are drawing.


3. I then used the other stencils I had chosen to continue this all across the piece of foam until I was happy with it. (The other stencils I used were Elemental, Honeycomb and Flourish)



4. This is how my foam looked when I was finished. I have also taken a close up of one of the drawn section to try and the way the pen squashes the foam. 


5. I then used inktense bars to colour my printing plate but any water based inks could be used for this.


6. I then spritzed my colours on the printing plate using a spray bottle and water to activate the ink.  



7.  Next you lay your paper on to the printing plate and use a brayer (a rolling pin can work if you don't have brayer but you have to try and keep an even and firm pressure across the entire paper to get a good print). Roll the brayer over the paper with one hand whilst holding the paper in place with the other.


8. I tend to do lots of different pieces on to different types of card all in one go when I do this and I wanted to make a little matching set for this project so I printed several different pieces of card. I altered how much water I spritzed with and how much ink I put on to get different effects. I also printed on to Kraft card and a kraft paper bag and a hessian tote bag (putting a piece of cardboard inside the bag to keep it flat and prevent any ink soaking through to the other side).



9. When all the printing was done and dried I masked off pieces of the Elemental stencil with scrap paper so that only the heart design was showing.



10. I then used Antique Bronze Sparkle Medium through the stencil on to the tote bag in 3 places and on to a piece of white card and a piece of kraft card and left them to dry. 


11. Whilst my Sparkle Medium was drying I chose the printed papers I wanted to use, tore them to size using a ruler and layered them up on to dark card and added a piece of black ribbon to a couple of sections for decoration (and also layered up the Sparkle Medium hearts once they dried).


12. I made a couple of layered bows from black satin ribbon and then stuck all of the pieces in to place on my card base and kraft bag.
You can keep your foam plates once you have finished as they can be reused.





We hope that you have enjoyed Lindsay's tutorial.
Happy Crafting!