And now for something a little different....

Hello!

Lou here,back on Moody Monday ;-)

Today's piece is something a little different to do with your stamps. Needlework. Stamps make PERFECT templates for a whole host of craft with fabric,one of which is mixed media embroidery.

For this piece,I used the inimitable Smeared Ink Elementals 'Water Goddess' stamp (Currently in the sale-wahoo!)

After choosing your fabric (mine is a very hard to photograph without those annoying lines piece of vintage silk),ink up your chosen stamp (remember-simple lines are better!) and brayer the fabric onto the inked stamp. Place your fabric in an embroidery hoop. I was always going to leave mine in the hoop,so you may want to paint the hoop,or make sure you use one nice enough to leave attached! 

Next select your threads. I chose to do this piece with as much texture as I could,so chose as many different blue embroidery floss as I could find,plus bits of thin ribbon,some netting and beads. 

I used a split stitch for the majority of this,simply because it creates a nice solid textured line,splitting off two strands from the palest blue floss to outline her face. And a simple running stitch with metallic blue floss for the frame box.

Her hair was just plain fun! Just go to town on bits like this. I used random thread,ribbon and the netting and interspersed it with seed beads

Aaah,yes, the back. The utterly terrifying spaghetti junction of loose threads!

 To finish this piece,I cut the excess base fabric very closely to the hoop and drew around the hoop onto a piece of thick felt and cut it out. Using a strong quick glue suitable for fabric (I used Glossy Accents),glue the trimmed fabric to the hoop,so it wont pull through and escape,then add a little more to the wooden hoop and fix the felt pad on,like the lid of a pie. If you want to hang your piece up,add a bit of ribbon,lace or trim in between the felt and the hoop. 

It is a lovely thing to pootle along with in the evenings,adding more and more and watching it grow into a piece you feel is finished.

I hope you have enjoyed that rather long winded tute! Now go see which stamps would make for nice needle work ;-)

Lou

Smeared Ink tag

Today I have a tag to share with you using stamps from 2 Smeared Ink sheets - "As Death" and "Holy City".

Now, I realise these may not be everyone's cup of tea but the world would be a boring place if we all liked the same thing wouldn't it?!

I coloured my tag (made using a thick watercolour paper) using Derwent Artbars which I blended and then used a grey inkpad to stamp the graveyard scene on the tag. I used distress embossing powder around the edges.

I then stamped the church steeple using black ink on to watercolour paper and used the Artbars again but this time as watercolour paints to colour the stamping before cutting out and sticking with foam pads on to the tag.

The saying was also stamped on watercolour paper and given a light watercolour wash over.

Thanks for visiting!
Jo

Egg nog anyone?

Hi everyone, it's Emily here today

I have some Christmas cards to share with you using the Smeared Ink, Occasions Li'l Grumpies stamp set,I LOVE this stamp set!

 I am not very good at making lots of cards the same, 4 is probably about my limit.  I used Lawn Fawn Fa La La 6" by6" paper to give them a bit of individuality.

A close up of the Grumpie - these are so great to colour.  I kept him fairly neutral using the copic warm greys so that the hat would realy stand out.

The greeting is from the same stamp sheet and says 'tis the season for lots of eggnog'

Thanks for dropping in

Emily

Holy City

I've used another Smeared Ink stamp from the Holy City sheet available in the shop here to make a card to share with you today.

I tried to keep the colours subdued but not too dark:

Materials used:

Papermania card, MAMBI paper, Papermania paper
Smeared Ink stamp (as above), black Archival ink, Prismacolor pencils
Prima flowers, flower centre and lace
vintage buttons.


Thanks for visiting!
Jo xx

Smeared Ink tag

After sharing a Smeared Ink card last week, this week I've made a tag using a stamp each from the "Holy City" and "As Death" sets available in the shop here.

I stamped the church image on to watercolour paper using Archival ink and then used Derwent Inktense pencils to add colour before using a water brush over them. I then stamped the quote from the As Death set on to another piece of watercolour paper before adding a colour pencil wash over the top.

Materials used:

watercolour paper, Papermania papers

Smeared Ink stamps (as above), black Archival ink, Derwent Inktense pencils

Prima lace

crinkled silk ribbon, ribbon charm, brooch back, beads, black fineliner pen.

As always, thanks for visiting!

Jo xx

As Death

Have you seen the fab Smeared ink stamps in the shop? I used a stamp from the "As Death" set for my card today:

I stamped the image on to a piece of lightly patterned Prima papers and then layered various papers and then sewed them leaving the loose threads showing. To embellish I sewed on some green lace and then added a glass vialed bottle with into which I poured some green glitter:

Materials used:

Papermill cardstock, Prima Printery papers

Smeared Ink stamp (as above), black Archival ink

lace, metal clip, Lakeland glitter, glass bottle.

Thanks for visiting!

Jo xx

Wazzup!!

Wazzup!!  That's What this adorable Li'l Grumpy wants to know, he's from the Li'l Grumpies set of stamps by Smeared Ink. The Li'l Grumpy is stamped with a multicoloured dye ink pad, I then blended the image with a blender pen before heat embossing with clear embossing powder.  I inked up an embossing folder with the same ink, put a piece of white card stock in it, and ran it through my machine, I gave this a quick blend before heating embossing it.  I cleaned my embossing folder before embossing some purple coredinations card.  I then die cut my images, punched some circles out of the card scraps, and then played around with my layers until i was happy with the layout.

I hope this Li'l Grumpy has made you smile today!
Suzi

Have a ball!

So it's nearly Christmas, so that makes it Party Season too.  So I decided to make a winter inspired party card using one of the Lil' Grumpies by Smeared Ink.  I love Smeared Ink stamps, something a little different to mainstream images, but always fun to work with; real quality unmounted red rubber deep-etched images trim and slap on an acrylic block.

I used a card blank, patterened paper, scalloped border die-cut and chipboard tag all from Issue 37 of Let's Make Cards.  Not a magazine i get that often, but the quality of items with it are always quite good.  I stamped my Lil' Grumpy onto white cardstock with Black Memento Ink, and coloured with Promarkers.  I then cut this out and layered it onto a scallop oval die-cut.  To add a little texture to my card, I added some scraps of sequin waste in the background.   To finish it off I added some purple irridescent foam snowflakes, which i added gems too, along with a few gems scattered over my card.

I hope you like it, Thanks for looking
Suzi