Whatcha Doing Wednesday? 20th Oct TICC

 Whatcha Doing Wednesday?

I thought it might be a good idea to start doing a regular mid week blog spot where we can look in more detail at different projects and techniques, perhaps recreate any samples or go through new projects step by step so that you can either craft along with me or take away the ideas here and do your own version.

We could have a product focus, looking at all the ways certain items can be used or concentrate on individual stamp sets and what they can be used for! Add all your comments and suggestion as to what 

you would like to see here in the box below or on the Crafting with the Isobel Collection Facebook group

To start us off this week i though we could start using the ever so popular Vintage Christmas stamp set

 

You can get yours here and don't forgot the wonderful Sophy Haes as offered us a very generous 10% discount on three or more items while you are there, just go to checkout and use the code MEMBERS10OFF to take advantage

Today i am using some Tando grey board to create a set of ATC’s or Artist Trading Cards with a Christmassy theme, Tando greyboard is exceptional quality, you can literally throw anything at it and is brilliant value for money. You can get yours here

First i based coated all three of my cards in decortart Americana chalky paint in “refreshing” as i wanted a light minty background for stamping on to

I left these to dry then stamped my images from the Vintage Christmas stamp set using versafine claire in twilight, first the reindeers pulling the sleigh across the first two cards, making sure they butted up to each other so that there was no break between the stamped images. 

I followed this with the “you're on Samta’s good list” sentiment on card number one and the Christmas tree itself on the third card, i then carefully used the fern branch freehand to frame the outer edges

I knew i wanted to creat a muted look for the final effect, the idea i had in my head was to create the impression that you were looking through the net curtains at the night sky just as Santa flew past. To do this i intended to use gel medium through a stencil, therefore it was important to think about my colouring medium before applying as anything water based was likely to run when gel medium was applied

I therefore opted to add a little colour using alcohol makers knowing these would dry permanent

Once the colour had been applied i used the snow flake stencil which is available here

 And spread gel medium through it using a palette knife, my advice is, do one card at a time rather than trying to spread across all three together, lift off carefully and neaten edges with your finger or the edge of the palette knife. You can always tape your stencil down before you start if it makes you feel more comfortable

Dont worry if some of your snowflakes obscure your stamping, it will dry clear. Once dry i spritzed with a pearl glitter spray to give that net curtain feel. My final touch was to edge the outer of all my cards to bring them altogether, a further finishing touch would be to lightly touch the raised snowflakes with some gold or silver gilding wax

 And there we are, a simple set if atc’s using the Vintage Christmas Stamp set, hope you enjoyed this little make, i would love to see your versions using this stamp set over on the Crafting with the Isobel Craft Collection face book group x x