Bibi Cameron : aWhale Tail DIY stencil

Simon Says Stamp Hey Bestie and Love You More Release Blog Hop- Day 2

January 11, 2020

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hey Bestie and Love You More Blog hop by Simon Says Stamp!

There are so many beautiful papercraft supplies in this release but the new Peony Bouquet stencil is a must-have.

I couldn't stop using it!! I wanted to try different ink qualities and color combos to see how they look and I filmed the process!

If you don't fancy long videos you can watch a 3-minutes video here to see how I made this cards.

Painting Through Stencils

Using the stencil as you see in my video above was very relaxing.

At some stage, I felt I was painting through the stencil so although we are not really painting there is still an artistic and creative process in which we shape the gorgeous stenciled flowers with a brush and ink.

So that's why I dared to call my video painting through stencils... although technically we just might be doing ink blending.

Top Tips

You can use any ink to create these backgrounds.
It is essential to use makeup - brushes for a smooth ink application.
Start working from the lightest to darkest ink colors.
Do not cover a layer of color with others, instead allow each ink color to be seen in the final result.
For smaller areas, you can use small brushes and for larger areas, you can use larger brushes but of course, you can work with what you have.

Distress Inks

The first inks I tried were Distress inks Oxide and traditional. This seems to be always the first choice!

These inks are great for ink blending. They are the smoothest inks and easy to apply on smooth cardstock. I love to use them on Smooth Strathmore Bristol paper and I even like the ivory color of the paper as it also looks like cotton paper or watercolor paper.

Distress Inks dry fast and they are waterbased so you can also apply different coloring techniques with them achieving lose watercolor looks and vibrant colors.

Ink Colours -Flowers | Antique Linen ( Traditional), Salty Ocean (Oxide), Blueprint Sketch (Oxide).
Ink Colour -Leaves | Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn.

Paper | ARCHES cold press watercolor paper, Tonic Ivory White Card Blanks - Imperial Blue Mirror Glossy Card.

Ink Colours -Flowers | Shaded Lilac (Oxide), Seedless Preserve ( Oxide) , Dusty Concord (oxide), Dusty Concord ( Traditional).
Ink Colour -Leaves | Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn.

Paper | Bristol, Purple Mist Mirror Satin Card, Tonic Ivory White Card Blanks.

Simon Says Stamp Die Inks

I really love the look and feel of stenciled images using Simon Says Stamp dye inks.

The inks produce a velveted look hard to describe but very unique and pretty.

Although these inks are not as easy to blend as distress inks you can still achieve smooth transitions using makeup brushes.

The only tip I might share here is that would be great to tap the brush on a glass mat or over the stencil before applying the brush on the paper to avoid patches of ink as the first load of the ink will be discharged directly from the brush on a specific area of the paper and depending the ink color you are using the patches can be more noticeable but hey! sometimes the patches are nice too and intentional.

Ink Colours -Flowers | Cotton Candy, Pink Apple, Apricot.
Ink Colour- Leaves | Green Apple, Sunshine.
Paper | Bristol, Tonic Ivory White Card Blanks .

Ink Colour - Flowers | Duckling, Sunshine, Apricot.
Ink Colour -Leaves | Green Apple, Sunshine.
Paper | Bristol, Tonic Ivory White Card Blanks.

Spectrum Noir Harmony Opaque Inks

Several months go I received a couple of testers of the new Spectrum Noir opaque inks. I guess these inks will be available everywhere soon! I hope so.

So Peony Bouquet stencil was the perfect crafty supply to give them a try.

These inks are creamy and when applying them on the paper you will feel like if you were applying clear sticky ink but these inks are loaded with colour.

You can use them on dark paper too!

They are slow drying so they are designed to do embossing as well.

So I made a couple of panels with this bold inks also to share bold sentiments from Miss You Missi, the stamp set is so gorgeous.

Ink | Spectrum Noir Harmony Opaque Blues and Purples
Paper | Bristol, Tonic Ivory White Card Blanks.

Ink | Spectrum Noir Harmony Opaque
Paper | Bristol, Tonic Ivory White Card Blanks

Bonus Project

The size is up to you

I used some of the panes I didn't use for this blog post to try the new Nested Tags die set included in this release.

Last Christmas I made the tags here and these die set will be an awesome replacement for the die set I used and that has been retired from the market.

So although these tags are super simple I really wanted to share the extra idea.

You can make projects in any size using this beautiful stencil.

Blog Hop

The next in the hop is the super talented Gayatri Murali. Make sure to keep hopping to see what everyone is making!

Simon Says Stamp Blog
Debby Hughes
Laura Bassen
Yana Smakula
Yoonsun Hur
Amanda Korotkova
Amy Rysavy
Bibi Cameron You are here!!
Gayatri Murali
Marge Yoon
Vicky Papaioannou
Emma Williams
Crystal Thompson
Preeti Chandran

For more inspiration visit the Day 1 of the hop here and the Hey Bestie and/or Love You More galleries.

Giveaway

Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop from the blog comment section.

Winner will be chosen over the weekend and post on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday, the 15th of January.

Make sure to check to visit the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday to check if you are a happy winner!

That's all for today.
Happy crafting!

Supplies List

Just a note to let you know that when you buy through the links in my blog I get a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Thanks for your support!

aWhale Tail DIY stencil Nautical Stamps Ocean Themed Cards Rest & Refresh release Simon Says Stamp! stencils

Rest and Refresh Release Blog Hop Details - Day 2 GIVEAWAY

June 08, 2019

Hi everyone, welcome to my blog and to Rest and Refresh blog hop + giveaway to celebrate a new Simon Says Stamp release!

I love the warmth of the beach and all related to it make me happy.

So for today, I'm featuring the coolest little images from Your Light stamp set and I made 4 cards in different sizes between 7"x5" inches and 5"x5" inches.

Explore the whole release here!

Watch 4- minutes video to see the technique and products in action

Your Light stamp set is a nautical - ocean themed stamp set and it includes 24 individual stamps.

A boat, a lighthouse, a buoy, an anchor, clouds, a crab, fishes, birds, a lobster, starfish, a jellyfish, light rays plus seven (7) sentiments perfect to create encouragement cards.

Some of the images in this stamp set are tiny... aren't they gorgeous?

I think they are fabulous to make little scenes inside masked silhouettes or a frame.

So I made my own super duper easy ocean-themed masks/stencils using printer paper, a pencil, a craft knife and Tim Holtz snips.

I then placed the mask/stencil on a piece of watercolour paper and I applied Distress Inks using a blending tool and Nuvo Sponges to create the silhouette.

Once this was done I sprayed water over the stencilled image to create a distressed look and white speckles.

I then left the mask on the watercolour paper and I stamped the images using Versafine Onix ink.

To apply colours I used water-based markers ( Zigs and Arteza).

TOP TIP: Apply a tiny amount of the marker inks on the images and then spread the colour over the images I used a water brush.

For the whale tail cards, I used a mix of Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress Oxide Inks and to add darker areas in one of the cards I also used Black Sooth and Chipped Sapphire Tradicional Distress Inks.

As I wanted to give you extra ideas, I searched online for seahorses and ocean themed silhouettes. I found many available for free.

I then download the images and I set my printer paper to 8x5 inches and 6x4 inches.

I then created the masks out of the printed images.

I used Worn Lipstick, Shaded Lilac and Fossilize Amber Distress Oxide ink for these cards.

To finish ...

I applied Nuvo Glitter Gloss Pen over the images but I also splattered the shimmer from the pen.
I placed the negative mask over the images and then I splattered over the panel distress inks mixed with water and the ink of Nuvo Aqua Flow pens navy blue, lilac and yellow.
For two of my cards today, I heat embossed sentiments on black cardstock using Simon Says Stamp Clear Ink and Nuvo Fine Detail white embossing powder.
For the other cards, I stamped the sentiments using Simon Says Stamp black ink directly on the watercoloured panel.
I embellished using Simon Says sequins Marina.

Giveaway

Leave a comment for your chance to win a $25 USD voucher to spend on the Simon Says Stamp Shop.
Winners will be chosen over the weekend and post on our Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday, the 12th of June.