Happy Saturday! 

Saturday’s blog is mostly a new technique. Well it’s new to me! I was happy with the result today, so I thought I might take this opportunity to show off a couple of new stencils which I am airing on TV on Sunday, too. I may well be able to do this demo for you on the day, but in the event that we run out of time, I thought we would get in close and have a good look.

All we need is

Square white card (the Gelli Card which fits the stencils)

Low-tack masking tape

Stencil Brushes and Make-up sponges

Pine Needles Distress pad

Old Paper Distress pad

Tumbles Glass Distress pad

Pastel Beige Promarker

An embossing machine (optional extra)

Sandwich time first.

White card

Cog Stencil

Time & Tide Stencil.

Secure the stencil sandwich at the top and bottom with low-tack masking tape.

Load the Clarity Brush with Juniper and lightly apply an undercoat of light green all over. Then load the brush with Pine Needles green and start twirling the brush around the perimeter of the cog stencil.

Round and round and round….

Using a make-up sponge, carefully wipe the green on the stencil into the openings and gaps, thereby add depth and sharpness of colour, and cleaning your stencil.

Now comes the trick. Carefully slide out the cog stencil, leaving the Time & Tide in place. And that’s why we only taped the top and bottom!

Very cool. Now it’s time to sort the words out.

Let’s take another colour. 

Load a new brush with Pumice Stone or Old Paper Distress Pads, or Latte Adirondack.

I sometimes get asked why we sell the Clarity Brushes in sets of 4. Here’s why. Although they are easy to clean by simply holding them under a running tap, when you’re in the middle of a project, you don’t want to have to wait an hour while the brush dries between colours!

Lightly dust the whole area with whichever neutral colour you have picked.

Remove the masking tape at the bottom, flick the stencil to the top, and let’s have a look. Make sure you leave the stencil attached at the top.

Now you need a Pastel Beige Promarker WITH fine nib.

You can eith go round all the letters freehand, as I did, or you can lower the stencil and carefully draw round it.

Then add the logical letter lines afterwards, to bring them to the front or drop them to the back.

Flip the Time & Tide stencil back down over the artwork. Add some Tumbled Glass Blue, or Stonewashed Adirondack with a make-up sponge, Here and there – not everywhere!

Time to remove the stencil.

Let’s take a closer look…

So now comes the embossing with the Gran Calibur,

 or in my case, E-Bosser.

Back on with the stencil, in exactly the same place, which is easy, because it’s exactly the same size as the card. YAY!

Run it through and then …

This is pretty nice. The Promarker work sits right in the dip.

So the clock and cogs are in the background,

But the white, profound words sit right in the front.

 So with all this poetry and meaningful exchange 

going on right now,  I’d say 

“Time & Tide wait for no man” is rather profound.

What does it say to you?

To me it says

“Whatever it is you plan on doing – it’s later than you think! 

Best get a wriggle on!”

Maybe we should add a little WO in front of the MAN, too!

Nigel and I will be working together on Sunday’s TV shows, 

both at 9am-11 and 2pm-3.

So that will be great. 

Hope you can join us.

much love,