Guest Designer Tracy Ware~Stencil It May~Mixed Media Play!

Hey guys!  It’s Tracy here, hoping everyone is doing well and staying healthy … and sane!  To be honest, some days are the greatest having my husband and youngest daughter home, and other days it’s quite distracting.  I have been getting a bunch of crafting done, and that’s really to maintain my own sanity!

Our May Challenge on the Blank Page Muse Blog is “Stencil It.”  I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and give mixed media a whirl.  Woooo, I tend to overthink it!  Anyone else experience that?  Sometimes I do it with my regular cards too, so I wasn’t surprised.  Well let’s take a look at my project.

I’ve been watching some videos lately, and got out my Distress Spray Stains and Distress Oxide Sprays and went to town on some mixed media paper.  I chose mixed media paper because it can tolerate a good deal of water without warping.  I don’t have too many colors of sprays, so I just worked with what I had.

Once my backgrounds were to my liking and dry, I applied some texture paste through a stencil over my ink.  Because the texture paste has water in it, the paste reacted with my already inked background and took on the color of the layer beneath, hence the greenish, yellowy colors.  I actually wasn’t sure what was going to happen since I don’t work with sprays and pastes very much.  I ultimately liked the outcome so I just went with it.

Since I had the stencil and texture paste out, I went ahead and added paste to a few backgrounds for later use.  Such a time saver!

While my texture paste was drying, I moved on to the focal elements of my card.  This flower is from the Scribble and Scratch Mixed Media Set 2, and these cute little bees are from the Heart of Nature Butterflies Bees Set.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to use both bees, but I went ahead and stamped both of them, along with the flower and clear embossed them.

I used Copic markers to add color to my images, and did a little bit of shading using colored pencils.

I also wasn’t sure if I wanted to use a yellow flower or a blue flower, so I went back and stamped another one and colored it.  It’s nice to have options!!  I colored those tiny open spaces from the scribbles with a Copic multiliner pen.  I also added some yellow Nuvo Drops to the middle of the flowers for interest, as well as texture.

Now that my cute little bees were colored, I remembered that I had some acetate wings.  I added those to my bees for even more interest!

I used dye ink to add some various stamps to the background of my card panel.  Among the stamps used were the Bubble Wrap and Sequin Waste Texture Art stamps, which can be seen in the top right and left corners.  I also used some Distress Crayons around the stenciled areas. Once all the background stamping was complete, I adhered the bee using foam tape for dimension.  Yes, I decided to use only one bee, but both flowers!!  The blue flower is glued directly onto the card panel, while the yellow flower was adhered using foam tape.  Very textural and dimensional!

I added a tiny sentiment to the panel as well as some additional color with Copic markers.  When complete, I mounted my card panel on to a black panel.

I hope you guys enjoyed the project.  Even though this style is way out of my comfort zone, I like it!  Maybe that’s because I don’t have to be so perfect in the design.  You just do what you like and not be so critical of yourself.  Gosh gracious, I am so very critical of myself and my work.  Thanks so much for hanging out with me on the Blank Page Muse Blog.  Hop over to Instagram and join us there too!  Be sure to tag us #blankpagemuse and #blankpagemuseblog so that we can see your awesome projects!  You can also find me over on Instagram @redsas.

Our June Challenge is going to feature an inspiration board!  Can’t wait to see what Kim has in store for us!  I hope you join us next month as well.

Until next time, stay awesome!

Tracy

Supplies Used:

Scribble and Scratch Mixed Media Set 2

Heart of Nature Butterflies Bees Set

Bubble Wrap and Sequin Waste Texture Art

Strathmore Mixed Media Paper

Distress Spray Stains from Ranger Ink and Tim Holtz

Distress Oxide Spray from Ranger Ink and Tim Holtz

Texture Paste from Ranger Ink

Number Stencil from Ranger Ink and Dyan Reaveley

Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink from Tsukineko

WOW Embossing Pad

Clear Embossing Powder from Ranger Ink

Copic Markers

Copic Multiliner (.3)

Prismacolor Colored Pencils

Nuvo Drops from Tonic Studios

Neenah Solar White 110lb Cardstock

Distress Crayons from Ranger Ink and Tim Holtz

Transparent Wings from Tim Holtz Idea-ology

Small Talk Stickers from Tim Holtz Idea-ology

Text Stamp from A Stamp In The Hand (background)

Tiny Squares from Rubbermoon (background)

Black 110lb Cardstock from Recollections

Lineco Neutral PH Liquid Adhesive

Foam Tape

Misti from My Sweet Petuna

Guest Designer Tracy Ware~ Sunflowers & Stencils!

Hi Blank Page Muse fans!  

How’s everyone doing?  How’s everyone holding up during this unprecedented time?  I will admit that I’m an introvert, so being at home has been great for me!  Our May challenge is Stencil It!.  So let’s take a look at my project.

So for my Sparkle and Shine, I opted to go with DecoFoil Metallix through a stencil.  It gives it great texture, and I love texture!

My main focal point of this card is a beautiful Sunflower Blossom.  I stamped the image with dye ink, and I colored the flower with Copic markers and Copic fine detail black markers.

When I was ready to assemble my card, I decided that I would like some black leaves.  I know this type of leaf is not a sunflower leaf, but that’s the beauty of art!  You can make it what you want it to be!

I glued the black leaves to the card panel while holding the sunflower in place so that I could get the leaf placement correct.

I used foam tape for the Sunflower Blossom to give it some dimension.  I hardly ever make cards 

without sentiments, so this was a challenge for me.  But leaving the sentiment off lends itself to using this 

card for whatever occasion might pop up.  I’m trying to make more “art” related cards without 

sentiments to add to my stash.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this project!  Thanks for joining me on the Blank Page Muse blog.  

Follow Blank Page Muse on Instagram, and tag us #blankpagemuse and #blankpagemuseblog. 

 You can also find me on Instagram.  

Until next time, stay awesome!

Supplies Used:

Sunflower Blossom from Blank Page Muse designed by Pam Bray

Momenta Tuxedo Black Dye Ink

Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock

Miss Ink stencil

Decofoil Metallix gel from Thermoweb

Black cardstock 110lb

Copic markers

Leaf Canopy from Altenew

Lineco Neutral PH liquid adhesive

Foam tape

Guest Designer Tracy Ware Crafty Blocks~Anything But a Card Challenge

Hey Blank Page Muse fans!  Tracy here with our March challenge, 

which is "Anything But A Card." 

 I’m going to be honest here any say that this one scared me a little.  Why? 

 Because I always tend to stick with cards.  

With a card, I know the size of my canvas and I don’t feel overwhelmed 

with something other than those 

four by five inches!  So let’s get in to it!

For my project that was not a card, I chose to do wooden blocks.  

I happen to remember that I had these three blocks in a box in my craft room, 

so I dug them out and got to work

I really had fun making this project and have already started another set!

You can find these blocks in different sizes at your local craft store in their wooden section.  

These blocks measure two inches.  

To begin, I rubbed the edges of the blocks with a Distress Oxide Ink, 

only because I didn’t want to see

 the raw edges of the wood.  You don’t have to use Distress Oxide ink.  

You can use whatever you happen to have on hand.

  Dye ink or even cheap acrylic paint would work well too. 

 These were taking a little while to dry, so I did use my heat tool on them to speed up

 that drying time.

Next, I cut some strips of cardstock down to two inches and did some ink blending 

with Distress Oxide inks.  

I’ve been in a green and blue mood lately, so that’s what I chose. 

 Choose any colors that make you happy or colors that go with a scheme that

 you might have in mind for your own blocks. 

 I spritzed my strips with some water to activate the ink and get those cool spots.

Now comes the fun part!  

I trimmed my strips of cardstock down to squares that are just under two inches each.  

I cut them that way so that the cardstock wouldn’t hang over the edges of the blocks.

I then stamped my squares with all sorts of fun images in dye ink from Blank Page Muse  

I even did some doodling and added more color in some areas, 

as well as stamped some cute little inspirational phrases.  

Some of the stamps that I used are from the Dandelion Wishes with Butterflies set, 

a few stamps from the Scribble & Scratch Mixed Media Set 2,

 the Butterfly Art Stamp, 

the Flower & Leaves Border,

 and the Diamond Repeating Pattern Background stamp.

Once all of my squares were stamped,

 I adhered them to the blocks with liquid glue and cleaned up around the edges 

where some glue oozed out.

Another view of the blocks.  This really was a fun project and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  

For the phrases, I just used a tiny alphabet set that 

I found at the local craft store and stamped those in dye ink as well.

  I like the idea of having a fun inspirational quote here and there on the blocks.

Once my blocks were complete, I painted them with a matte gel medium on each side

 just to keep the Distress Oxide inks from smearing, smudging or bleeding.

Another view of the blocks with different sides displayed.  

They look great stacked this way, or even all three stacked on top of each other.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this project!  I know that I certainly have. 

 As I mentioned earlier, I have already started on another set of six blocks which are 3 1/2”

 that I’ll display in my craft room!  They already look so cool and they aren’t even finished!  

Thanks for joining me on the Blank Page Muse Blog today. 

 If you decide to make any blocks or any other project for this challenge, I would love to see them! 

 Follow Blank Page Muse on Instagram, and tag us using #blankpagemuse and #blankpagemuseblog.  

You can tag me and find me on Instagram here.  Stop by and say hi.

There’s still time to join us for this March challenge," Anything But A Card."  Get those stamps out!

Until next time, stay awesome!

Supplies Used:

Blank Page Muse Dandelion Wishes with Butterflies Art Rubber Stamp

Blank Page Muse Scribble & Scratch Mixed Media Set 2 Art Rubber Stamp

Blank Page Muse Butterfly Art Rubber Stamp

Blank Page Muse Flower & Leaves Border Art Rubber Stamp

Blank Page Muse Diamond Repeating Pattern Background Stamp

Wooden Blocks

Distress Oxide inks from Ranger Ink

Neenah 110lb Solar White Cardstock

Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink

Studio G Alphabet Set

Lineco Neutral PH liquid adhesive

Golden Matte Gel Medium