Love Rocks card

Another AIRs challenge is featured today, this one is called the " Heartfelt" challenge.  No one does a better job with hearts than Dina Wakley!  These are some of her stamps featured here.  The details and supply list can be found on the Imagine blog.

I always appreciate your visits, please leave a comment so I know you were here!  Thanks.

Hugs, Renee

Sacred Heart Series Canvases ~ Immaculate

This is my fourth canvas using the Artistcellar Sacred Heart Series of stencils.  This final stencil is called "Immaculate".  If you'd like to see how this small canvas was made I have provided a tutorial. So, take a few minutes, sit down, grab a cuppa and take a look at the process.

Burlap canvas measuring 6" by 6" called "Immaculate"

To begin I have cut a piece of 6" by 6" watercolor paper, applied a thin layer of gesso to it and allowed it to dry.  When the paper is dry I applied Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo and Broken China to the panel and blended the colors with a baby wipe.

I laid the stencil called "Immaculate" on top of the panel and started making an outline of the parts of the stencil with a Stabilo All pencil, this will provide shading later.

Now that my pencil marks are in place I began applying the Broken China DI with an applicator through the stencil.  This activates the Stabilo pencil and changes the color to a gray blue shade.

I sewed a little here and there around the edges of the canvas, leaving the threads long for now, I'll trim them later.

I added some stamping with Memento London Fog ink and StazOn Jet Black ink.  I applied water to the edges of the panel to break them down and age them.  Then I used a distressing tool to tear the edges and then inked them with the StazOn Black ink.

I wanted to have a small punch of red on this canvas, like the others.  With that in mind I drizzled Lady Bug red "irRESISTibles" on the tops of the roses and let it dry.  I glued the gears and cogs on with a strong adhesive then added Distress Stickles into the open areas of the cogs.

The finished canvas is now ready to be adhered to the burlap canvas.  I trimmed the threads to the desired length and it is done.  Now I have a completed set of these Steampunked Hearts!

Thanks for joining me today, I have had a lot of fun working on this series with these stencils.  Next week I will share some more stenciling ideas with you.  I hope to see you next Tuesday, take care!  Hugs~ Renee xx

Sacred Hearts Stencil Canvas Series~Spirit

I am continuing to work on my heart stenciled canvases.  This one is called "Spirit".  This collection of heart stencils is made by Artistcellar and has a Steampunk flavor to it so it lends itself well to this project.  This is the finished canvas, there is a tutorial following if you would like to see how it was made.

To begin I have cut a piece of 6" by 6" watercolor paper, applied a thin layer of gesso to it and allowed it to dry.  When the paper is dry I applied Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo and Broken China to the panel and blended the colors with a baby wipe.

I laid the stencil called "Spirit" on top of the panel and started making an outline of the parts of the stencil with a Stabilo All pencil, this will provide shading later.

Now that my pencil marks are in place I began applying the Broken China DI with an applicator through the stencil.  This activates the Stabilo pencil and changes the color to a gray blue shade.

I sewed a little here and there around the edges of the canvas, leaving the threads long for now, I'll trim them later.

I added some stamping with Memento London Fog ink and StazOn Jet Black ink.  I applied water to the edges of the panel to break them down and age them.  Then I used a distressing tool to tear the edges and then inked them with the StazOn Black ink.

I wanted to have a small punch of red on this canvas, like the others.  With that in mind I drizzled Lady Bug red "irRESISTibles" across the top and let it dry.  I glued the gears and cogs on with a strong adhesive then added Distress Stickles into the open areas of the cogs.  A tiny rhinestone was glued onto the dove.

The finished canvas is now ready to be adhered to the burlap canvas.  I trimmed the threads to the desired length and it is done.  Three canvases down and one to go!

Thanks for joining me today, I have had a lot of fun working on this series.   I hope to see you next Tuesday when I will share more stenciling ideas with Artistcellar stencils. .  Talk to you soon ~ Renee xx

Artistcellar Sacred Heart Series Stencils on canvas

Today I am using the Sacred Heart Series of Artistcellar stencils again.  I have decided to do a series of canvases on water color paper and then attach each of  the panels onto a small 6" by 6" burlap canvas.  There are four stencils in the Sacred Hearts Series, the one I'm using today is called "Sacred".  This is the finished canvas, if you would like to see how I made it I've included a tutorial.  It might be a good time for you to grab an appropriate beverage and get comfy there are quite a few photos in this process.

To begin with I cut a piece of 6" by 6" water color paper from a piece that had been stamped off on previously and applied a light coat of gesso to the paper.  Next I applied Distress Inks in Scattered Straw and Tumbled Glass colors and wiped them with a baby wipe until the colors were blended.  When the ink was dry I laid the stencil on top of the paper and outlined the stencil with my Stabilo All pencil.  This creates shading when it reacts with the Distress Inks.  Using an applicator I applied Tumbled Glass ink to emphasize the heart and the rays.

I decided to use Delicata gold for the crown.  The stamp shown here is from IndigoBlu, it is a crackle design that I rolled in Vintage Photo Distress Ink and applied randomly to the canvas.  When all the inks were dry I sewed the edges on my sewing machine using a straight stitch and a zig zag stitch.  The edges of the panel were inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I wanted the edges of the panel to be more pliable so I used my water brush on the back of the canvas to soften the edges of the paper.  To distress them further I used Tim Holtz's distress tool which breaks the paper down even further.  I inked the ragged edges with Water Can Archival Ink.

Now I wanted a little color so I brought in my "irRESISTible" Pico marker in Morocco which I applied to the crown.  I used my Pico marker in Silver to outline the heart and give it a melted metal look.  The three heart shaped rhinestones were glued on with 3-in-1 adhesive as were the Sprocket Gears.  I felt like the gears gave it almost a Steampunk flavor.

At this point I glued the panel to the burlap canvas but I felt it needed a few more embellishments.

I added a few more gears, stamped a few more times and it was finished!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I hope to see you again next Tuesday for stenciling ideas.  Take care~  Hugs, Renee xx

CS Challenge for September::Stamping on Tissue Paper

This month's challenge from the Crafter Stamper magazine is Stamping on Tissue paper.  My project involves both tracing an image on the tissue paper and then stamping on it later.  I wanted to try the technique in my pursuit of drawing faces so I traced a photograph that I have of my daughter.  The portrait became an art journal for her.  If you'd like to see how this evolved you can read the tutorial below.

This did start out as an experiment.  I wanted to do a portrait based on a traced image from a photo.  Here is the photo I used.

I placed a piece of tissue paper on top of the photo and lightly traced it with an Aquaellable Stabilo pencil.

After the image was traced I used Pan Pastels to color it in.  Keep in mind these will be blended later.

After the colors were blended to my satisfaction I cut out the image and glued it onto a piece of what I call "junk paper".  I do most of my work on a sheet of 140# water color paper.  These papers sit in a pile when they are covered with paint, ink and stamping.  They don't look like much until I unify the colors with a stencil and some white gesso.  In this case I did additional stamping of some Dina Wakley grungy hearts and then glued the image onto the paper with Mod Podge.  I purposely scrunched the tissue paper so it wouldn't look perfectly smooth.

I sewed some additional texture onto the page with my sewing machine and let some of the threads dangle.  I also made some lines with a credit card and some black gesso.

When this was dry I folded it in half and simply sewed it together with some pages in the middle for my daughter, Holland, to draw on.  There are 6 pages inside with gesso on them, primed and ready to go.

Now I added the stamping on top of the tissue paper.

The outside of the art journal

More stamping on top of the tissue paper with StazOn Jet Black permanent ink and stamps from Dina Wakley and Stampers Anonymous.  Now the journal is finished, it just needs some artwork inside.

The back of the journal

I hope you will rise to the challenge this month at the Craft Stamper website.  It is easy to upload your projects and there are some really nice prizes to win!  I'll post another stamped tissue paper project next week in case you can stop by.  As always, thanks for the visit.  Please leave a comment if you have time I'd love to hear from you.  Hugs~ Renee xx

All Occasion Stenciled Card

It is Tuesday so I'll be sharing some stenciling ideas today with you using Artistcellar stencils.  I wanted to make some heart cards with my new Dina Wakley stamps and I thought it would look great to showcase them on some stenciled paper.  Here is the first one that I did.  If you keep reading you can see the short tutorial on how I achieved it.

I started with a sheet of 140# water color paper.  I used gesso with TCW's Bubble Doily stencil to begin with then  I added one of my Aristcellar Quasicrystals stencils called Penrose into the stencil mixture.  When the gesso was dry I sprayed Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise and Fresh Lime through another stencil called Chevron.  I blotted off the excess inks with a roll of paper towels.

I cut the base for the card to measure 5" by 7" then I cut another section to measure 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" to make some ATCs at the same time.  The first ATC I made had a lot of gesso on it so I stamped a large heart using Jet Black StazOn ink.  The heart is from Dina Wakley's new collection called "Collaged Hearts".  I stamped it directly onto the dry gesso.  The ATC was mounted on to a piece of black card stock.

I wasn't totally happy with the result so I stamped the heart again on a piece of acetate and allowed it to dry.  When it was dry I cut it out and glued it directly on top of the first stamped heart.  I allowed it to overlap on the right side of the ATC.  Now it pops a little more.

To finish it off I pulled out my Pocket Stencils Creative Words for an inspirational word.  Believe.  We all need to believe, some times more than others.  I used Midnight Blue StazOn ink and a cosmetic sponge to add my word to the card.

Ink the edges with the Midnight Blue ink before gluing it to a black mat, then the panel is attached to a white blank greeting card.  This is the first in a series of inspirational word/heart cards, more to follow.  I'll just keep mixing it up with different words, colors and stencils using the same process.

There is no limit as to how many stencils you can use when creating your cards and back grounds.  I love all the texture my cards and other projects have when they're done.  You just want to run your fingers over the nubby surface!  I invite you to get out your stencils and just go for it, have fun.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I always appreciate your visits.  Next Tuesday I'll have more stenciling projects to share with you.  In the meantime, take care.  Stay cool.  Hugs ~ Renee xxx

Aristcellar Sacred Hearts Stencil Series

It's Tuesday again, which means I will be sharing a project created with Artistcellar Sacred Hearts stencils.  I thought it would be fun to do a wall hanging with a flying heart, something with a Steampunk flavor to it.  Here is the finished project and I will follow that with a short tutorial if you are interested in seeing the process behind it.

 I started with a 6" by 6" piece of 140# watercolor paper.  Then I taped the stencil down on top of the paper on my craft sheet.  The outline was done with a magic pencil, an Aquarellable Stabilo pencil that can be activated with water.  After I laid down the dark lines I applied Pan Pastels to the heart and around the edges of the paper.  Leaving the stencil in place I stamped the new LUV heart from Stampendous through the stencil onto the heart.

I used StazOn Jet Black permanent ink to stamp a "stitched" border around the edges using an old Stampers Anonymous stamp that I picked up for $1 somewhere.  That didn't seem like enough stitching so I used my sewing machine to stitch around the borders and around the heart too.  Some of the threads were left hanging to give it a grunge feel.  I gave it a little pop of color with Smooch inks using the Berry Punch color.

I dipped the edges of the watercolor paper in water to make them more pliable, then I inked them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and blended the ink to distress it.  I rolled and folded the edges of the paper to make it more interesting.  At this point I glued the canvas to the burlap covered 6" by 6" canvas that I got on sale at Michael's last week.  Red line tape works the best for this, I tried other glues but the tape really holds it in place.  I have a drawer full of knobs that I have purchased over the years so I attached a brushed bronze one to the top with a screw, that way I have something to attach ribbons to.

To bring in the Steampunk look I decided to glue on some Idea-ology metal cogs.  I had some lovely wings in my stash that my daughter made for me with clay.  She was going to throw them out because she burned them a little but I told her I liked the burn marks.  It saves me time so I don't have to ink the to simulate burned wings.  The red line tape holds the wings perfectly in place on either side of the heart.

I tied some ribbons on the top and Voila!  Fini!  I can use this as a wall hanging or set it on a stack of books on my bookshelf.  Either way it was fun to make, wouldn't it be a cute series of hearts using all four heart stencils?  There were four burlap covered canvases in that pack.......we'll see.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I love it when you leave a comment.  Talk to you soon~Renee