WOYWW

Hello Everyone! Today I have spent the morning sanding drawers for my advent calendar. Lots of dust and sandpaper. See more desks at the stamping ground, click here.
Sharing my work desk for the first time today, a lovely friend, Sarah (www.sarahscraftshed.co.uk) told me about it and I was very excited to take part. If anyone else would like to join in head over to the link I posted above and get involved every Wednesday.

On yesterday's blog I posted a photo of a background I had created using distress inks, I decided to make something using this colourful piece today. To start I cut the watercolour card in half so I could create two toppers or mixed media pieces. Firstly I used my 'Phill Martin Sentimentally yours' background stamp called 'Splatterlicious cracked & splattered background'. I love this stamp, I never use it on a block or using a stamp platform. I find I get wonderful effects just holding it and pressing certain areas into the ink, then pressing parts of the stamp to my project. I wouldn't say its a neat or tidy look but gives a lot of interest to the art work.

With this stamp I used wilted violet and faded jeans distress oxide inks. They work well with the colours I initially used on the background. Next I decided to get mucky, I pulled out my 'super thick slap it on' by indigo blu. before applying that through my two stencils I added Indigo Blu 'luscious pigment powders' in the colours rose bronze and raspberry. This will give a beautiful shine and texture once the paste is dry.

The rose stencil I used on the left page is called 'big roses by Dutch Doobadoo' and the right hand one is by imagination crafts but unfortunately I do not have the name of that particular stencil.

Once the paste is applied and the stencils removed and cleaned, I moved onto the sentiments, so then the projects have time to dry.

I found a lovely little sentiment in my stash by 'Bee Crafty' and felt it would be nice to use the same one on both pieces. Although the two pieces I made started with the same background, I want to show you how different they can look even when similar products are used.

So the sentiment I stamped twice onto some paper I found in my offcuts box, I used black archival ink for both. Next matted both onto some plain cardstock I felt matched the stencil paste well. I then attached them use 'stick it' foam squares. A little bit of dimension can add a lot to any artwork.

To add some more texture I popped some ribbon onto the right of the darker page as the colours co-ordinated perfectly.
I felt something was missing from each page, there was lots of open space and I needed that full stop to finish them up. I picked out some plain paper flowers I was gifted by a lovely crafty friend and painted onto them using the same Pigment powders I added to the 'super thick slap it on'. Considering only water is added to the powders for this technique it has such a beautiful finish once dried.

I layered the flowers on top of one another once they were dry, then added a small gem that worked with my colour scheme.

I really liked using the gems so decided to add some to the page randomly after I glued down the 2 flowers. I use cosmic shimmer glue for this project.

To the left is the first piece finished off and I love the shimmer and sparkle. I am sure some of you are like me and love anything shiny or glittery.




Onto finishing up the second page, I again made some flowers and coloured them using mica powder, this time I used 'Phill Martin's mica powder called decadent wine'.

This mica powder has a stunning rich colour, if you don't have it, you need it, trust me !

For these flowers I used pearls from 'Ultimate crafts' , putting three in the centre to add some detail. Again I arranged several across the second piece in a scattered fashion.

There we go, that finished the second half of the project. I always find it fantastic how using mainly the same products on two things can result in something so different.





If you enjoyed todays projects please let me know, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to spend with me, I will see you tomorrow!

Crafty hugs!

Ellie