Hi there!
Happy Easter Sunday!
No Sale today, if that’s ok.
It’s Easter Sunday.
We are on HOCHANDA Shopping TV
today at 11am 3pm and 6pm - that’ll do!
I hope you are having a good day?
Getting set for a good walk and roast lamb here.
But have to weave it in around the telly, becauseour good friend Paul Church is on HOCHANDA TV today,
and he is showcasing some of the latest and greatest of Clarity.
Wait till you see the Leafy Swirl in a Groovi Plate!
Here is the stencil version on a Gel Printing Plate.
We do have some pretty unique and beautiful stencils.
Paul will also be showing off
a set of what are some of the best stencils in our box!
These are a couple of years old now, you know, but still brilliant.
He’s going to show you how to run stencils through an embossing machine, but this is one technique I think it’s good to have a step by step on.
So, I have copied my blog from way back when to today,
so that you can see how we convert the actual lines of the stencils into a quasi stamp.
Here’s the set:
Poppies
Pods
Honesty
Chinese Lanterns
Seed heads
Actually built to fit the 6" x 6" Gel Printing Plate.
(I’ve got some cool news on that note, but more anon....)
I took the Seed Heads Stencil and played with it.
Here are my findings.
Ink up the stencil with Black Soot Distress Pad. The result was better and less blotchy when you use a Speedball Brayer to distribute the ink.
Check out the difference.
Lay a piece of square white card on the inky stencil.
Now here we can decide how dark we want the black to be by how much pressure we add to the Embossing machine.
I am going to go down two routes for you: one dark, one lighter.
I control this by how much copy paper I add to the sandwich I put through the embosser.
More copy paper, more pressure on artwork = darker
Less copy paper, less pressure on artwork = lighter
Pretend you want to cut a die. You won’t use a soft mat. You are not embossing the card; you are simply using the machine like a mangle.
This example here shows a darker example which is quite blotchy, because I didn’t use a Brayer to spread the ink out evenly.
But let’s go with that for a while.
Wash and dry the Stencil.
Position it over the top with masking tape.
Use our fantastic Stencil Brushes and Make-up Sponges to colour the background with Distress pads and Adirondacks.
Both work well.
I used
Lettuce Adirondack
Spiced Marmalade Distress pad
Milled Lavender Distress pad
Use the make-up sponges to add depth of colour to the
flower heads.
So you can see here, when I removed the stencil,
I wasn’t thrilled with the black blotchy frame.
What did I learn? To spread the ink on the stencil with a brayer.
What can I do? Cut off the blotchy frame!
That’s better!
Or we can go down a different creative path.
Rewind to the start,
using a brayer to spread the ink out evenly,
less copy paper = less pressure = grey.
I LOVED this effect.
It reminds me of a fantastic Fabric design by Sanderson!
At this point, I was so delighted with the work, I really wondered whether I shouldn’t just leave it alone...
But curiosity got the better of me, and I got out my lovely box of Faber Castell Colouring pencils
It’s the Easter treat from yesterday, remember?
Hahahaha! 2 years on, and she’s still using virtually the same colours as she did yesterday!!!!
That‘s funny.
My, how time flies when
you are lost in a world of shading and blending...
Avoiding the pin-line white of the flowers,
I proceeded to shade in the seed heads with
Light Flesh, Dark Flesh,
Pink Madder and Rose Madder.
Toned down the white backdrop with Ivory.
Added shade with
Warm Grey, Cold Grey
and finally, a 5b Pencil
I could spend another hour, gradually adding more shade...
but I’m already running late!
Hahahaha! 2 years on, and she’s still chasing her tail!!
Spuds and carrots to peel, beds to make!
So, there we are. Same stencil, completely different look.
Which one do you prefer? I know which one I like better!
Now apply those ideas to the other new Flower Stencils
in your mind’s eye...
A W E S O M E
Ingredients:
White Stencil Card 7"x 7"
Seed Head Stencil 7" x 7"
Black Soot Distress Pad
Milled Lavender Distress Pad
Speedball Brayer
Spiced Marmalade
Lettuce Adirondack
Embossing Machine (E-Bosser)
Clarity Brushes
Make-up sponges
Low-tack masking tape
Black Micron Pen.
Colouring Pencils
Don’t forget to tune in to Paul on Hochanda
You can watch on your TV
SKY 663 (24/7)
FREEVIEW 39 (6AM-9PM)
FREESAT 817 (24/7)
or online, on your PC
https://hochanda.com/
with much love from