Stencil monoprint and stamping

Happy Easter 

I did a workshop at Grayshott yesterday with an amazing group of ladies including Lois, Karen and Dominique.

They wanted to focus on distress ink techniques and create a tag book. We explored 9 techniques and ended up with 11 backgrounds. I came home with my sample book collection plus 32 more panels/tags so I want to use some of them to create some cards. This is the first.

The background which is a stencil monoprint with stamping through the stencil.

The elements. I collected bits together from my collage envelopes and some extra snippets.

A huge thank you to all the ladies who made it such a fun and enjoyable day. I definitely will be back to Grayshot to enjoy your company again.

xx

Supplies

Distress inks - stormy sky, hickory smoke, ground espresso

Stencil - Tim Holtz - Harlequin

Stamps - small text from my supplies, Tim Holtz - Natures Wonder

Dies - Tim Holtz - Silhouette Birds, Crochet

Tim Holtz - Snippets

Black archival ink

Spring Into Life Apple Blossoms watercolour

Apple Blossom 

Stamps by Alison Bomber

I am using a technique I taught at Country View Crafts a few weekends ago, Everyone loved it and the effects they achieved.

Stamp and wider stamp the apple blossom to cover approximately half the page. This was a practice one I did.

Paint the images with masking fluid and leave to dry - this is an experiment in a Hobbycraft Shore and Marsh A5 sketchbook which says it is watercolour paper but it does not allow the distress inks to work and react with water like other card and watercolour papers do. So I shall be giving this sketchbook a miss in the future. After stamping over the images with the masking fluid still on and dipping into watery distress ink puddles, I made sure the ink was dry all over and rubbed the masking fluid from the page and then painted the images using  my chosen palette of colours.

From there I made sure I had recorded colours on a colour palette I created and use quite frequently at the moment.

I also made some swatches as I needed to include Rustic Wilderness which was an additional colour at the last minute.

 After adding the words and some thin cheesecloth I cut coloured papers echoing the coloured inks I had used and made the tiny bunting. The composition just needed something in the top right hand corner ......

.... and it finished with a splattering of white using a large white chalk marker.

xx

Supplies

PaperArtsy Alison Bomber stamps - Apple Blossom Edition EAB46

Ranger arhival ink - Watering Can

Tim Holtz distress inks - Scattered Straw, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn, Rustic Wilderness, Spun Sugar, Kitsch Flamingo, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso.

Frostie the Snowman Tim Holtz

Last Christmas card for 2025

Stamp Mr Frostie with distress archival onto printed paper.

Fussy cut the image.

Paint snowman, face and nose with a mix of decoupage and white chalky finish paint to seal the paper and dry. 

Then add a weak wash of blue distress ink to give him that cold look.

Paint the nose  with Rusty Hinge and paint the Scarf with Festive Berries.

Seal the Background paper with decou-page and dry. This helps the distress inks move around somewhat rather than soak immediately into the paper.

Use a brayer and add some white paint to the background to start to tone it down,

The depth of the whiteness with the brayer wasn't enough so I made a watery wash with the white paint and dipped and splodged some over the top.

Next take some vellum and the branches from the stamp set. 

Make them look like trees. Stamp with the distress archival again.

Now to add details and put the card together. 

Die-cut greenery and add some to the background.

Use a brown drawing pen to add depth, structure and more detail to the trees.

Plan where Mr Frostie and more greenery will go. 

Stamp the sentiment directly onto the vellum.

Dip leaves and berries pieces into a tub of Snow-tex and leave to dry and use a white posca pen to create the look of snow on the tree branches. Glue pieces down and add extra snowtex.

Supplies

TH Stamp - Mr Frostie  CMS499 -  https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/cms499-tim-holtz-cling-mounted-stamp-set---mr-frostie-176446-p.asp

Distress Archival ink – Ground Espresso – Reinker only available in the shop at the moment- https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz---mini-distress-archival-re-inker---ground-espresso-139012-p.asp

Tonic Studios Tim Holtz - Stamp Platform 8.5"X8.5" - https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tonic-studios-tim-holtz---stamp-platform-85x85-75973-p.asp

Tim Holtz paper –

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint – Snowflake - https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/paperartsy-chalk-paint-fresco-finish---snowflake-175174-p.asp

DecoArt Americana Decou-Page Sealer/Glue Matte 4OZ  https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/decoart-americana-decou-page-sealerglue-matte-4oz-69604-p.asp

Distress inks – Unchartered Mariner, Festive Berries, Rusty Hinge – https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-ink--re-inkers-103-c.asp

Sizzix TH dies – Festive Gatherings and Holiday Greens (currently out of stock) however Sizzix® Thinlits Die Set 11PK – Holiday Greens Mini by Tim Holtz are in stock and would be a great substitute.  https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/661597---sizzix-thinlits-die-set-11pk--holiday-greens-mini-by-tim-holtz-180330-p.asp

- Autumn Poppy Field

 Alison Bomber stamps - Poppy and Grasses Editions

Welcome Fall CVC #2 September 

1. Start working on the bottom half of the card first.

2. Make watery puddles of antique linen and vintage photo, dip card and dry several times.

3. Using iced spruce and hickory smoke repeat the same process as above on the top half of the card.

4. In the background dip in a little bundle sage and dry.

5. Dab vintage photo, aged mahogany and gathered twigs closely together on a craft mat and spritz with water. Tap stamp into the colours and stamp onto the card and dry. Repeat to create a collection of poppy seed heads.

6. Use masking paper and stamp the poppy heads enough times to cover all the stamped images. When they are covered stamp grasses using different brown and green oxide inks. Dry.

7. Remove masks and use black and white drawing pens to emphasize shapes, outlines and details of the poppies.

xxx

Materials

Distress Oxides Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Iced Spruce, Hickory Smoke, Aged Mahogany, Gathered Twigs, Peeled Paint,

Stamps - PaperArtsy - Alison Bomber EAB37 Poppy Edition, EAB40 Grasses Edition.

Permanent Black pen White Posca Pen, masking paper.

Silhouette Framed

 Every Adventure is Worthwhile 

I enjoyed making my last CVC August frame project and thought I'd try another one to go to 'Men In Sheds' for their fundraising fayre. If you've not heard of Men's sheds before, it's an association where men can meet for connection, conversation and creation and also to make, repair and repurpose mostly wooden items, supporting projects in their local communities. It also helps to improve wellbeing, reduce loneliness and combat social isolation. Since retiring this has given hubby a great place to hang out and develop his love of woodworking.

I used another piece of the woodblocks hubby had cut me, prepped it and layered with the Frenchic chalk paint. The last bar one layer I added the most minute amount of the scottish salmon paint and mixed it in the the fresco paint. When it was dry I rubbed over some vaseline, randomly, and painted the last white layer. I left it to dry but not mature. I warmed it slightly with my heat gun and then rubbed over the surface with some kitchen paper so it revealed some pink areas underneath, then I lightly sanded to smooth the revealed areas and the sandpaper also exposed some more of the underneath layer.

I used a Tim stamp to produce a fabulous pattern, stamped the words to add and punched a black bird to add as my silhouette. 

To finish I used some paper from Tim's correspondence pad for the background in the frame, found a stamped star in my bits box and die-cut a border using tim's provincial embosslit using white card then rubbed a black soot distress ink pad lightly over it, spritzed with water, dried then brayered white chalk paint over the protrusions.

I kept this one quite clean and simple and finished off with some tissue/washi tapes giving me extra words.

Supplies

TH stamp - Classics #3, Nature's Wonder CMS343

Frenchic Chalk Wall Paint

PaperArtsy - Fresco Finish Paint - Scottish Salmon

TH Punch (very old) Bird

TH Paper pad - Correspondence

Use a frame - CVC April #2

 Apple Blossom Frame

The cherry blossom in my garden, that I can see from my workroom window, is stunning and when I was out last month, in the sun, it was buzzing with bees, in fact I can see a few now flying around the flowers, in and out.               (Time of writing 23/03/25)

I have used the beautiful Apple Blossom edition of stamps by my lovely friend Alison Bomber to meet the challenge theme for Country View Crafts. I stamped all the images and then cut them out and watercoloured the blossoms with distress inks.

I adhered the large blossoms in the background and added some wood offcuts to support the frame.

I extended the layer frame to fit the size of the opening and sewed around it to match the rest of the piece.

The background was created using distress inks and clear embossing.

I added elements I had prepared to fill the bottom inside of the frame ...

.... and the top of the frame. The bottles have real dried seed heads, seeds and moss inside them. Some of the labels were bought from Etsy and others I have made myself. You can of course substitute them with TH snippets.

I also added the bird and 'Springtime'.

xx

Supplies

TH Distress Inks - Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass, Kitsch Flamingo, Evergreen Bough, Picked Raspberry,

Alison Bomber stamps - Apple Blossom Edition (PaperArtsy EAB46)

TH Idea-ology Layer Frames, Snippets,

TH Sizzix dies - Silhouette Birds

Ranger Archival ink - Peat Moss, 

My own bottles but Tim Holtz has great ones to use.