New? To who? To me!

New? To who? To me!

Wednesday’s blog is something new. To who? To me? To you? Clearly, I can only approach this from New to me, because new and old are very subjective, don’t you agree? If you’ve been stamping for 20 years, you will encounter a lot less NEW stuff than, say, somebody who has just walked through the crafting saloon doors!
Here I have taken a brand new Claritystencil, Madeleine, and run her through a Gran Calibur embossing machine. This may be old hat to many of you, but to me, Stampy Barby, this type of paper embossing is totally new, and I think it is SO totally elegant!

The first thing I notice is that I can flip the image by simply flipping the stencil. Now for a stamper, that is pretty cool!
Then I notice that, depending on which side of the card I look at, I can get a positive or negative impression, an inny or an outy. Another lightbulb moment for a stamper like me.

I love the image just left plain white actually, but I wanted to try out some colour, just to see how it worked best. My verdict? Clarity Stencil brushes and a subtle dye based ink colour, like Cloudy Blue Adirondack.

Both for the inny and the outy, place the stencil back over the embossed lineart, and tape it into position using low-tack masking tape. Gently brush back and forth across the Madeleine stencil.
Once the base colour is down, start only brushing in one direction. This will add shade.
The hardest thing about applying colour is knowing when to stop.
I used a make-up sponge on the flower, to bring it out a little….

The longer I craft and create, the more I realise that I like simple lines, mono colours. A thing doesn’t have to be complex or tricky to be good. In fact, when you look at the lineart of this rather wonderful stencil, the word which springs to mind for me is delicate. So delicate it must be.

But there’s still a skill in simple…

33 thoughts on “New? To who? To me!

  1. Good morning Barbara,
    I ordered this morning at 5 am this new stencil and Gill just called and she has talked with Janice and I have 100£ to spend today on Clarity goodies. I love this technique and your wonderful blog, it is a highlight of my day. Thanks for taking the time to create magic.

  2. Thanks for that Barb, it's only simple if you know how to do it as I discovered after a DT post I did the other week. As a crafter we're always learning x

  3. Good Morning………..That's simply gorgeous Barbara. I'm off to try this out with my stencils but will be ordering Madeleine too! Looking forward to lots more inspiration; I like this daily tutorial – thanks.

  4. I loved this stencil as soon as I saw it, ordered it and now I have seen this tutorial I can't wait to have a go when she arrives …a glorious NEW twist on an old technique xxAnnie

  5. Good morning. I love this stencil and hope it will be on sale at Glasgow, or maybe by Saturday when I come it will have sold out but hopefully not. Tutorial absolutely fabulous. Thank you. xxx

  6. Simple definitely is hard to achieve! This stencil looks gorgeous in the packet you just know that you are going to get good results from a variety of methods and I know she will be well worn out by the time I have finished chucking mediums at her, but simple, elegant definitely the way forward with her. Great Blog again Barbara. Sam xx

  7. Love this stencil. I already have the stamp. Now I will have to get the stencil too. I've just found this blog but will definitely be following it. I love your work Barbara it's do individual. whenever I try out your techniques I feel as if i'm properly crafting. Big fan of the classroom too. Thanks for all your inspiration.

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