Sorry this one is a little longer than a month, but I hope you will agree that it's worth waiting for. We were waiting for the new sets to arrive and enough time for us to play with them....Hooray!!!!!..... Play time..

I have been playing with this technique for a few months now.Some thing I thought up  while doing a few magazine articals and projects but have been frustrated not having the right sort and kind of images to work with ...but now... here is our selection of images that work... set 1 is the first set so that means more to come.... right lets get going......

I'm not going to give you step by step guide to make the cards, I'll show you how to make your shadow stamp and how to make masks and give you some ways to create stunning backgrounds, and using the new set of stamps,once you have had a play around then you will see how the cards are done by looking at some of the samples here, then you will be able to create your own designs .....

Project ....Shadow Stamping..

Card 1

  

you will need;

Butterfly Kisses   Shadow set 1..(New Design)

assorted ink pads, in the following project we used..Adirondack, Distress ink pads and Versa magic tear drop ink pads,Use what you have in your stash you will be ammazed what results you have with limited stock of colours..

Funky foam...doesn't matter what colour you have...

Kling on...this is usually used for mounting rubber stamps for the use with Acyrilic blocks..but is fantastic for shadow stamping..( we are doing a pack =1 sheet funky foam +1 sheet Kling on for £4.00 see the main web site in bits and bobs.)if it's not there yet ....just ask when you ring in...

assorted sizes of Acrylic Blocks.

Stippling brushes and or foam Cut and Dry,

Rough paper,

Deckle edge scissors...

paper for making masks

assorted ribbons, wires

card stock various colours....it's always best to match your ink pads first then you don't have to rumage to deep to find Just the right colour...

Step 1

Stick your funky foam to the Kling on..the easiest way... is too peel back about 1 1/2  inches of the kling on away from the sticky side and attach the funky foam flat wise now slowly pull back the cover and pressing the foam all the way across......Now when you cut your shadow stamps they will kling to the blocks..

using your deckle edge scissors cut assorted sizes of squares and oblongs..to suit,  ie, 1 x 1, 1 1/2 x 1 1/2, etc (before i start i like to cut the larger sizes to fit the cards I'm going to use.)

Step 2

 fig (a) open and full mask

make some masks with paper to use with your shadow stamps to do this  place the seleted shadow stamp on acrylic block and ink the very edges of your shadow stamp, now stamp onto thin paper and cut using same scissors for foam around image this is a mask, do a few of the same size for each shadow  stamp.. now do the same, but cut out the inner area leaving a 1 inch border this we will call an open mask

Step 3

before you begin to start on your cards play with these different ways of creating the backgrounds masking etc....

1)Stamp shadow image then add mask over and stamp image to the side. when you remove the mask the last image you stamped looks as though it's behind the first, place the open mask over the top image and stamp say the iris in the square using the same ink pad and then to add depth ink and stamp the splatter over the fist image . this will give a look of ageing paper now mask the two squares and stamp the swirls top right and bottom left..when you remove the masks the swirls look like they are behind the squares....see diagram below.....

    Stamp image              mask 1st  image and stamp 2nd image        cover with open mask and stamp iris in square and splatter

     mask again and stamp swirls.    

           swirls appear to be behind the main image when the masks are removed.

          continue to build images this way.

practice on rough paper different layouts..keep the ones you like to use on cards......try different colours combinations and second stampings  ie ink image..stamp on rough paper then on your art work . this will give you a softer lighter colour....hence shadow stamping.

Using these simple techniques you can now create many  stunning cards here are a few more.some of these samples have glossy accents on to highlight the flowers etc some sprinkled with glitter while wet to give a different sparkley look....add wire and ribbons to finish

Card 2

 Adirondack  Denim  Versa magic olive & gingerbread

 

  Distress dusty concord       Adirondack Denim

here are some tags/ book marks  .

 

  ..Try doing the envlopes to match the cards

,,

...      

We will be demoing these cards and techniques at Harrogate, NEC Birmingham, and Ally Pally so come along and have a look, We look forward to meeting some of you...soon.

                                                          Jayne & Alison

Project for January 2010....

Make a calendar with  a Bind it tool, beer mats...

and Our butterfly stamps, Penny Black transparancies ,Twelve days of Christmas,

you will need

PB 12 days of christmas code PB30 016.

Assorted penny Black transparent stamps.from the range.

Assorted  butterfly stamps codes BK 1049D, Heart butterfly,BK2045D Little Tiffany Flitter and BK2044F Tiffany Flitter,

Vellum

White card stock.

White Shrink Plastic,

Black  Stazon

white  detail embossing powder.

watercolour pencils ,

water brush,

assorted ribbons to match,

calender kit   ( can be obtained through us price £3.50) or

Grey board cut to size.

assorted papers to cover grey board ( we used Kay and co)

Bind it tool .

white 5/8 white wires.

assorted embellishments to suit.

12 months of the year...from 12 days of christmas...

12 Days of christmas   PB 30 016

Upright Calender kit, or cut your own base 10.5 x 23.5 . score in half then score opp side 2cm up each side and 6 x 9.5 x 14 grey board pieces.

paint ( such as dabbers or lumiere)

watercolour pencils

water brush med

6cm scallop rectangle nestabilities

calender tabs  ( if you buy the kits there is one in each kit. )

embellishments; flowers, crystal punched hearts, buttons,spotty ribbon,Brads,

assorted papers to match your colour wave

step by Steps

1) Cover your  6 pieces of 9.5 x14 grey board with your selected papers, I choose to mix and match the papers and using ribbon to hide all joins,  remember to start and finish the ribbon in the center of your piece you will hide this join later with your main image.

2) Once dry sand all edges. sponge or stipple to suit. With paint or dabbers cover the outer grey board  pre-cut to size and take care to cover edges and creases. once dry decorate if desired by randomly stamping some background images.

3) Now with the bind it tool punch a set of holes along top edge in the middle, this will give you six holes, punch corresponding holes to the base aswell.

4) At this point you need to punch out and diecut all main image and scalloped border mats to match the colours on each mat to go with the month of the year and mat and layer each calender month tab to match..Stamp the main image on white card stock, I then used a 2inch punc and punched out the images sometimes i turned to create a diamond effect then colour images with watercolour pencils ( see samples below.these pictures can be used as a guide) this does take a little time but once you have done one you can then follow suit for the others.While you are doing this ,it is a good thing to remember that you don't want to use anything too thick for any layers as this will get too heavy and The calender may flop over.

5) Once you have coloured and embelished each side, align the months in sequence, ie jan next facing feb,etc hang on the wires starting with jan lastly place on the base folded on the wires and close with the bind it.add ribbons to the top of the wires.

               

           

          

the 12 months as a guide

Here are some other Calenders we have done

This one was done using our butterflies, but the calender base was longways the kit can be bought through us ask for the landscape kit. The papers used here were Kay and co small 6x6 pack. All the butterflies that werent shrunk were embossed with white detail e/p amd coloured with water colour pencils. the flowers were from hero arts and crystals were Heidi Swapp.Instead of using ribbons I have used an assortment of the border punches for the overlay of papers.When colouring the vellum I suggest you colour on the reverse and highlight on the front

Here are some of the pages (When i finsh this one i will post all of the pages.)

   BK 1049D       

      BK2045D         

Dog calender

This calender was done using a mix of all transparencies and small Penny Black  dog stamps and beer mats, for my son. The only thing I did differently with this one as I was using beer mats  and the calender tabs were too big so stick all the months onto a4 piece of card and scan and shrink by 83 % or 78% then print onto 160gsm card these then mat and layer  these then were the right size for the pages.

These are great fun to do especially if you are stuck in doors, snowed in or just want to do a project for something  to get those creative juices flowing...

All the stamps used in this project are avaliable on this site  and too the water brush and watercolour pencils. if you have a problem let us know we are always happy to help

Have fun see you next month

                                                        Jayne

-x-

Santa's collage December '09 project of the Month

You will need 

St Nick collage stamp set

Adirondack denim ink pad

Acrylic Block

Cream and navy card stock

Cut n dry Foam and or stippling brushes.

Fine Glitter.

Glue pen (we used tombow)

Navy and cream ribbon

Wire to match.

Small navy crystals

Step by step guide

1) Stamp St Nick on to cream card with adirondac denimink pad. Trim and stipple edges.with brushes or cut n dry foam.

2) Using the same ink pad randomly stamp over a square 6x6 cream card  with the snow flakes from  the set and the florish fronds (BK 1052MD ) as shown on the sample and allow to dry, again stipple over the edges to soften the edges

3) Mount the image panel on cream card trim with 5mm border, mount again onto navy card and rip along bottom edge.

4) Stamp greeting on spare cream card and trim,stipple and sponge as before allow all pieces to dry between each stage. mount as before with main image then add navy crystals to the corners.

5) Tie bow, thread wire tthrough back of bow. prick two holes at the bottom of panel. now thread wire through holes cross over and thread back to the front of the panel, now you can curl the wire. this will firmly secure the wire and bow to the panel. now stick panel to the card as shown on sample..

6) To finish add a little glue to high light  the snow flakes on the panel and on the back ground and then add glitter to that area and tap off.

Here are a few more samples using the same method .All of the stamps used in these samples are in the Penny Black area under Project of the month..to find St Nick stamp set go to all products and look in the clear to you and collage section.

  3054K Xmas light and 3508K Winter Bough.

 3054K Xmas light , 3508K Winter Bough. Adirondack cranberry ink pad

  3503J Cardinals and  3508 K Winter Bough.

3503J Cardinals and 3239K Winter Scroll

 3037K Holly and Globe and 3508K Winter Bough

 as above

 3057K Leaping Deer and 3508K Winter Bough

 as above

3994K needles and cones  and 3239K Winter Scroll

3994K Needles and Cones and 3239K  Winter Scroll . Adirondack lettuce ink pad,

there are so many different combinations to try have fun....

Jayne