At The Hop!

Greetings!  Welcome to my blog and my leg of the Tattered Lace Blog Hop.  As you probably will have gathered by now, we are showcasing our favourite products from Tattered Lace and mine just happens to be.... the Screen Sensation!  I am so excited to be sharing this project I made using the new Screen Sensation tool... so I won't waffle on alarmingly, I will just dive right in and share photo's and wordage with you:

I had a 12" square canvas lurking in my Room of Stash that I wanted to make into some wall art.  Along came the Screen Sensation and this project popped into my head as soon as I saw the Butterflies screen.  I started by printing the Butterflies using a mixture of White and Harbour Blue ink onto Prepared for Print cardstock.  Once the butterflies had dried, I then used the Antique Script screen, printing in Black ink right over the top of the butterflies.  I love this overlaying technique!

I then used the same mix of inks I had used for the original print of the butterflies but added some Copper and Black inks in dots along to the top of the screen.  As the inks pull over the screen, they give the most amazing marbled effect... almost like a faux verdigris... lush!!

Once the butterflies had dried, I cut them all out and edged them with Rare Earth Pitch Black ink so the wings had definition and I also flipped them over and popped black into onto the backs of their wings.

I painted the edge of the canvas in black and smudged more of the Pitch Black ink around the edges of the canvas just to add a dusty effect... I wanted a more grungy look to the overall finish of the piece, by adding smudges of ink, this is the perfect way to achieve this effect.   I then glued each butterfly over its counterpart on the base print, adding a little black pearl to the body to finish.

By now you should have visited each leg of the hop... here's a list to make sure  you haven't missed anyone out - you will need to visit everyone as there will be questions and a prize of a £50 crafty voucher on the final leg.  You should have started HERE on the Tattered Lace Facebook Page, just click on each name and you will be whisked off to each leg of the hop: 

Lou Collins 
Gwen Fletcher
Debbie Bradley  
Corrine Robinson 

Thanks for taking part, your final hop leg can be found by clicking HERE.... good luck, thanks for looking and have fun!  
TTFN
Hels x

A Kaliedoscope of Butterflies...

...did you know that a "kaliedoscope" is actually the collective noun for a group of butterflies?  I am a mine of useful information you know ;O))   Anyways.  I am back today with another project I have made using the Screen Sensation.  Actually, this is the very first thing I made and I am rather fond of it... I love the verdigris effect I achieved by simply mixing a few inks on the screen as the squeegee pulled them over.

This is a shadowbox that I had kicking around and decided to use my prints in it.  I printed the Bespattered screen onto cardstock using a mixture of Harbour Blue and White ink combined with a smidge of Copper ink.   Once dried, I then popped the Antique Script screen into the Screen Sensation and printed the script in black ink.  It makes for a pretty cool background, doesn't it?

I then printed the Kaliedoscope screen using the same verdigris colours... dotting the different colours along the top of the screen before printing means a more random print so the butterflies all look sooo pretty.

The butterflies were cut out, edged with black ink to make them pop.  I stamped a word and then assembled the whole thing together... oh and the shadowbox?  Coloured with the Black ink I used for the script print... it is such a lovely smooth ink and permanent once dried, it seemed fitting to use the inks for everything I did.

Please do excuse the naff photography... my break away from blogging did not, in any way, improve my photographic prowess! 

That's all from me for today... have a grand day and thanks for looking!  TTFN

Hels x

Owl Be There For You....

Goooodly Morning!  I know, don't faint... tis I, the Waffler... the very naughty and most absent of Wafflers at that!  Apologies, hoooge apologies for being absent... yet again!  I know I promised that I would start to waffle more regularly but then "this" happened, then "that"happened, then it was Christmas, then it was January and of course, I had man flu (a most severe attack if ever there was one!) and finally, I am more or less back on an even keel so I decided that I would get my feather duster out, sweep away the cobwebs that had grown over my blog and start as I mean to go on... I am a-scheduling, I am!   So!  News!  You may have seen me pop up ont tellybox last week with a brand new and very innovative tool from the home of Tattered Lace, the Screen Sensation.  If you missed it, fear not, I shall be back on Create & Craft soon with more deliciousness using the Screen Sensation... but if you follow this link, you will be able to see more about this fabulous invention from Stephanie Weightman and her clever team on the Screen Sensation Facebook page.  Seriously, it is not often that a product comes along that gets me pant-wettingly excited... but this?  I love it MORE than I love my Melting Pot. Yup... THAT much!!!  Very, very, very lots!!!

So, imagine screen printing. At home. Messy? Cumbersome screen? Difficult to use?  NOPE! Not any more.  The Screen Sensation allows you to change the screens! Yes!!!!! Hurrah!!!  There are 19 different screens to chose from... at the moment... as there are new ones coming soon (teehee)  There are geometric patterns, designer style patterns which are perfect for printing onto fabric, nature, butterflies... and Wisdom the Owl.  I know I should not have a favourite but I do.  Although, that said, Kaliedoscope the Butterflies are also my favourite as are Silhouette Stems but we won't dwell on that right?

The top photo shows Wisdom printed with Raspberry and Peach Amber inks. Simple, pop the ink on, squeegee over, lift the lid, et-voila!  A perfect print!  I've printed Wisdom onto cardstock but this ink goes onto ANY surface, it's water based, drain safe, non toxic so cleaning the screen is a doddle, pop it into the sink, cold water to clean it and then let it air dry. Super simples!   Once I had printed Wisdom a few times with the Raspberry and Peach Amber, I decided to add a smidge of Blue ink.  The photo above is Wisdom after the first squeegee through with the blue.  This next photo is the second run through, you can see that each print is going to be totally unique and if you click on the photo's you will be able to see the marbling of the ink as it passed over the screen.  Did I tell you I LOVE THIS PRODUCT???  Hmmm, if there was a word bigger than LOVE... I would use it!!!  Ok... I am being clever... LOVE!!!

Anyways.  I am so very honoured to be able to demonstrate the Screen Sensation alongside the wonderfully clever and talented Sarah Payne, who will be demonstrating the way to use the screen on fabrics.  I have even got over my inherant fear of all things material and printed directly onto a calico apron.  Hey!  It was so easy I actually did think about getting yonder sewing machine out from under the eons of dust and setting it up.  Then I remembered I can't even thread the beast and that actually, I can use the Screen Sensation on any surface at all so I went and did some canvassy stuff instead.  I shall share some more photo's of my makes in a few days.... in the meantime... thanks for looking... sorry for being away for soooo long... I am back, I am promising I will be more regular with my wafflings and hey... it's good to be waffling again! 

TTFN

Hels x