Pinch and a punch for the first of the month ......

Happy August folks!

What happened to July??

Sorry I've been AWOL, things are a little busy around here.  It's the school summer holidays so I've been spending my time with the little man ....... it's been Pokemon, puzzles and ice cream sundaes (yum!)
We're off into town again later and Grandad is coming this time ........ no doubt a visit to the toy shop will be on the list .... and maybe lunch somewhere nice.

Before we dash off though, and before it gets even crazier around here with the start of all this month's blog challenges, how about a sneaky look at some of the new designs coming soon from Sweet Poppy Stencils.  It's not been all play, I have spent some time working in the old craft room ...... things to do, deadlines to meet and all that!  

Lucy is back on our TV screens this month with some brand new stencil designs and ..... some fab new products too.  Shimmer paints that are just gorgeous ....... you'll want all the colours, I do!   A brand new crackle paint system ...... that's next on my to do list!  And some great little cement stones in two different sizes ..... perfect for adding texture to your projects.  Everything is on the website right now so if you can't wait until the TV show get it all now!

I managed to play with a few of the new stencils ........ how about the new Boozy Bubbles.  A really useful design I think, perfect for any celebration

Use the stencil as is or ....... why not mask off part of the design.  Use just the glasses for wedding cards, anniversary designs or cards to those special friends ....

Here I've simply used glossy white stencil paste with a sprinkling of fine gold glitter.

A simple die cut word ......

and a stamped greeting to finish off ......

The bottle is great too ...... 21st Birthdays, again weddings, anniversaries, New Year cards even, or just when you want to say Well Done You!

White paste again and the glitters ......

And a little kraft tag added, stamped with a greeting ..... easy!

There's some new inspirational word stencils too ....... these are a fab size, perfect for canvases or journaling

One of them is Dream

I've used it here on a small canvas ......

I painted the canvas first using various colours of acrylic paint ......

I then stencilled some detail onto the background using the Sweet Poppy Wild Flowers  (one of my favourite designs)

The word was then stencilled using Black Archival Ink applied with a sponge ......

The butterflies were stamped directly onto the canvas, and again onto some cardstock coloured with co-ordinating Distress Inks.  These I then fussy cut and attached over the top of the ones stamped onto the canvas.
Stamping the butterflies onto the canvas meant that I had the detail of the antenna ..... no need to fussy cut them ...... stamping them onto coloured cardstock meant that I didn't need a perfect image on the canvas which can sometimes be hard to achieve because of the textured surface, and if it's a stretched box canvas like the one above it's even harder to stamp onto because the canvas can actually move.

I added touches of fine crystal glitter to the butterflies and splattered some white paint onto the background

And to finish off I added some dots of gold paint here and there for a touch of shimmer

Don't think that the inspirational word stencils are just for canvases or larger projects .... they're perfect for using on your cards too ......

There's that Wild Flowers stencil again, on a simple inked background.

And I've used the word down the side of the card ......

This time I mixed the Glossy White Paste with one of the Sweet Poppy mica powders to get a matching colour to the inks I'd used.

I think there's six words in all ....... Dream, Hope, Create, Believe, Inspire and Respect. Which one's your favourite?

Thanks for popping by ...... the sun is shining here so I think lunch down by the quay sounds like a plan. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio until next time