Welcome to a new week .......

Happy Monday ......

I hope you had a lovely weekend.

We're at the beginning of a new week, and looking at the diary it's going to be a busy one ...... you'll be fed up of me by Friday! 

I'm starting the week with a little bit of inspiration for October's Simply Sweet Poppy Facebook Challenge

The theme is an easy one this month ....... Flowers and Blooms.  The difficult part is going to be deciding which one of the gorgeous Sweet Poppy floral stencils to use. 

 

I dug deep into my box and came up with this little beauty ....... Poppy Circle

I'd forgotten just how pretty this stencil is.  And I know I say this a lot but, change the colour of the ink  you use and you change the whole look of the results ......  the flowers don't always have to be poppies.

I did keep mine red this time though.   Using a sponge and Distress Inks I applied the colours through the stencil building up the depth of colour gradually ..... you can see that I went off the edge of my card with the circle just to give it a different look.

I also inked more of the larger flower heads onto snippets of white card. and fussy cut them so that I could layer them up and add a touch of dimension.

I stamped my sentiment in the centre of the circle ...... heat embossing part of it in gold

A few gold ink splatters onto the background, and I also added some pretty sequins to give things a little sparkle and shine

And I finished by adding those layers to some of the flowers

My second piece is something I made a few years ago, and I still have it hanging in my craft room.  

If you've been reading my blog for a while you might have seen this before ........ if not here's the original post (WOW!  I didn't think it was so long ago!)  As I still love this stencil and it fits the challenge perfectly, I thought I would share it again.

It started out as one of my samples for a workshop that I did using Brushos ....... those little pots of pigment that work their magic when mixed with water and other mediums, along with the gorgeous Sweet Poppy Stencil ..... Black Orchid.

I taped the stencil over a piece of white cardstock in the usual way then I sprinkled the Brusho pigments where I wanted the colour.  These powders go a long way so you only need a tiny amount.  The more powder you use, the more intense the colour will be.

You could spritz with water at this stage, to activate the pigments, just be careful not to add too much or it will seep under the stencil and you won't get a crisp image.

I used a Gel Medium instead, through the stencil in the same way you would use a texture paste.  The gel activates the pigments and spreads the colour ..... magic!  Set it aside to dry ....... and clean any excess off your stencil straight away ..... a gel medium is like a glue so you don't want it drying on your stencil.

The finished effect will be slightly raised, and depending on your gel medium you could have a gloss or a matt finish.

For something a little different I mounted the finished card onto a canvas.

The challenge is open until October 29th so you've lots of time to play along.

Please do read the rules though, especially the one about using ONLY Sweet Poppy Stencils on your designs ...... we don't like it when we have to disqualify entries because they've got other branded stencils on there.

You can use stamps though to accent your designs BUT, the stencil MUST be the main focal point.

I look forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.

I said it was going to be a busy week, Lucy is back on the TV!!

Two shows on Thursday this week, with a fabulous mix of gorgeous stencils ...... here's a little look at some of what's going to be on there

Cheerio until next time .....

Products used:

Card

Stencils: Poppy Circle (Sweet Poppy)

Stamps: A6 stamp set - Smile (Sweet Poppy); it's your birthday stamp from my stash

Inks: Distress Inks - Candid Apple, Barn Door, Gathered Twigs, Victorian Velvet; Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Versamark ink;

Others: Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder (WOW!); Sequins from my stash

Canvas

Stencils: Black Orchid (Sweet Poppy Stencils)

Inks: Brusho Pigment Powders

Others: Golden Gel Medium (Matt Finish); Black Stencil Paste (Sweet Poppy); Black Gesso