Inkoid Goodies

Just over a week ago, a happy parcel of DT lushness arrived. The brief was to make anything other than a card (just because Sheena already has enough card samples) using the stamps and paints provided. We've all risen to the challenge and come up with very different work using the same ingredients.

My first piece is a canvas - the background is DI, stamped with Sheena's crackle stamp (fantastic stamp) and spritzed with a mix of Luminarte Primary Elements (PE) from the fairytale set. I then mixed some PE with clear texture paste and applied it through a stencil. The violets were stamped on a book page and coloured with PE mixed with glaze and water. Finally I used the last of my PE spritz to colour the ribbon.

Whilst I waited for my paints to dry on the first project, I started playing with shrink plastic. I used the violet stamp once again - this is a lovely big stamp, perfect for colouring in after shrinking. My first attempts were disappointing, I think due to the size of the piece I was shrinking, they kept turning out less than perfectly shaped, so in the end I used a spellbinders die and shrank the pieces in the oven. I think using the oven is key to a good finish. I coloured the image with PE mixed with glossy accents, then applied book paper. I also shrank and painted a bee and put them, together with a brass leaf, onto a swivel clasp. To make the charm into a more finished gift piece, I made a tag. Book paper coloured with inks and stamped with the crackle and border stamps.

My third piece turned out exactly as it was in my head! I cut the mountboard and die cut the top and bottom with a Tim Holtz on the edge die. I made a glaze with each of the three PR colours mixed with matt medium. I applied plenty of medium and then covered them all in crumpled clingfilm until they were almost dry. I used various stamps over my base glaze, then added decoupaged flowers coloured with a PE and glossy accents mix.

My final piece almost didn't make it - I had an idea how it would look, but the idea didn't quite make it to my hands, so I gave up, then felt guilty, disassembled it and started again! The base had gone fine - that's a mix of PE and rock candy crackle, the cracks are highlighted with vintage photo and gold rub n buff. The rest just went wrong on the first attempt, the flowers were too dark and got lost on the base, and my first bee was on Clearly for Art film and was barely visible. I remade the flowers and this time kept the colours light, limiting the darker glaze to the trumpet, the bee is card coloured with alcohol markers. I glazed the flowers and bee with glossy accents - a little too much GA because it took forever to dry. Sorry about the photo quality on the last one, I was in a rush for the courier to pick them up, and I couldn't get a shot without glare.

Sheena will be demoing on Create and Craft on Tuesday 16th July at 1pm and 6pm, so tune in to see what the rest of the DT have been up to.