Hello there!

Wednesday’s Blog is something new

so let’s have a play, 

and see what we can come up with, shall we?

We will need:

The New Heart Bird A5 stencil
Garden Heart Claritystamp.

Theuvacard

An embossing machine

Clarity stencilbrushes

Stonewashed Adirondack Ink Pad

Butterscotch Adirondack Ink Pad

Cobalt Bue Archival Ink Pad

Make-up sponge

Scissors or a scalpel blade

Low-Tack masking tape

So as we go along, step by step, I would like you to to put your hand up as soon as you get to the point where you think I went wrong….

Ready?

Lay the A5 Heart stencil down on the A5 Theuva Card.

Perfect fit makes life so easy!

Add some low-tack masking tape top and bottom.

Run it through your embossing machine

This is when you find out how low-tack your masking tape is. When you run it through an embosser, you may have trouble peeling it off afterwards.

How does she know these things?!

No, no, put your hand down. That wasn’t it….

Use the positive side, where the birds and lineart are raised.

Load your stencil brush with Butterscotch Adirondack,  and lightly dust the whole card. You will catch the embossed edges with ink, which is really cool.

Now place the stencil exactly again, and tape it into position.

Load another Claritybrush with Stonewashed and gently start working around the stencil edge.

If you want more depth of colour, use a make-up sponge.

Bit of Butterscotch, bit more Stonewashed, and the blue starts taking on a hint of green.

Let’s get right up close. 
Slowly does it… don’t want to startle the birds…

When you think you have done enough colour, remove the stencil.

Nice.

Perfect for a sentiment….

or a photo!
Using a scalpel or scissors, cut out the heart centre. 

Have you got your arm in the air? 
Because this is where PLAN B had to be applied.
All I had to do was stamp a blinking sentiment in the heart!
Did I bodge it? Oh yes. Spectacularly.

Ah well. There was no way I was starting all over again!
So cut out the heart…

Find a matching piece of card for the backdrop.
I just so happen to have the PERFECT centrepiece. 
Maybe you do, too.
Remember the beautiful Garden heart?
Fits a treat.

Make a couple of orientation marks on the background card, 
so that you know where to stamp the Garden Heart.

Load the Garden Heart with Cobalt Blue and carefully plant.

Bingo. 
But how to centre on the background card, 
so that the outside frame is balanced.

The narrowest side has to be your guide. 
I use a clever C-thru ruler with a steel inlay for this work.
measure from the artwork to the edge of the card, and then trim using a craft blade. 
Here I am using the 1/4″ on the ruler gridlines. 
I will simply use the same line for all four sides.

So that’s how the artwork is centred.

And unless I had pointed it out,  
you would never know I went wrong… 

No need to do anything to the centrepiece; 
the outside stencil frame is busy and colourful enough!

So there we are. 
A beautiful new stencil, designed by our Annie. 
Her baby is almost ready to join us! Any day now…

I cannot wait to use this stencil to frame a photo of the two of them. Made by Annie all round !!

much love