Thursday, July 24, 2014

Colored Pencil Stencil Thank You

"We cannot, without becoming cats, perfectly understand the cat mind."
                                                           -----Saint George Mivart

 Hi, Friends.....

What????  Another post so soon?  I haven't even been to bed since my last one!!!  Ha.  I will be sorry in the morning when a little 3 year old is ready to get up and I am not!!!  But I threw caution to the wind and tried out this MFP Tutorial Time Challenge of stenciling with colored pencils.  They included a wonderful tutorial which I took a few liberties with, but I think my entry will still qualify.

I was so excited to get to use this stencil I had won from ArtistCellar.  It's a portion of the Flower Garden stencil in Tam's Whimsy Series by Tamara LaporteLOVE this set!!!  (Thanks, Tam and ArtistCellar!!!!) 

I wanted to keep this card fairly simple, but I did dress up the flowers just a tiny bit.  I used a sequin on the daisy-ish one and a dot of gold gel pen on the stamens of the other flower.

The hardest part of this card was finding my edge punch!!!  How can I lose something that big????  I found it, finally.  It's a Martha Stewart one that hubby found on clearance and bought for me as a surprise.  I hardly ever use it (and feel terribly guilty because I don't!), but this gave me a good excuse!  Yay!!!  

Okay, that's all.  As always, thank you so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your comments and emails.....which I will answer in the morning...which is when all of you will be reading this anyway!  :)

Have a lovely rest of the week!!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenge:
1.  MFP Speedy TV Tutorial Time Challenge #110 - Stenciling with Colored Pencils

10 comments:

  1. This card could not be prettier thanks for sharing at MFP..........Lis

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    1. Thank you, Lis!! I wasn't totally satisfied with my coloring of the stenciled areas, but it was okay for a first try on it. I did like how the daisy-looking one turned out. :)

      <3
      Janis

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  2. I like your stencils and colors! Very cool design on this. I have got to get more stencils. Hugz!

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    1. Thanks so much!!! I need to use my stencils more. I have won 3 complete sets (4 each) from Artistcellar, but have only used them a handful of times! Thanks for the encouragement!!!

      <3
      Janis

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  3. very pretty Janis!!
    I never think to use my stencils...thanks for the inspiration!
    have a great weekend! :)

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    1. I'm the same way, Maria. I definitely need to grab them more often!! They are such fun to use. Thanks for your sweet comment!!

      <3
      Janis

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  4. Oooh, love how you used the stencil and so glad you found your edge punch! I have a whole collection of border punches that I use a lot but have to say that seeing your card motivated me to use a border punch on a card that I made this morning for my grand-daughter's birthday. So thank you for that!! Those little details on the stenciled flowers add such a difference and make an already adorable card even more special. May I ask you how you adhered the sequin? I am still nervous about using sequins on cards out of fear of them falling off.

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    1. Thank you so much, Karen!! How fun for your GD to get a card from Grandma!!

      I am kind of an adhesive junkie! Whenever I see someone recommend an adhesive......I run to Joann.com (my go-to craft supply store online and brick and mortar!) to see if they carry it. Then if they do, I put it on my wishlist to wait for it to come on a half-price sale. Yes, I am cheap!!! Ha!

      So this is what I have discovered about adhesives: what works for a particular application in one part of the country does not necessarily work the best in a different part.....it has a lot to do with humidity. Idaho humidity is fairly low....around 30% relative humidity. So some glues dry out and lose their stickiness for me. These same glues might absorb too much water in humid areas and lose their stick there! So with that in mind, what I used for sticking my sequins was TomBow Aqua Mono Liquid Glue. I sometimes use Glue Dots, but they don't always stay on. The Tombow Aqua has generally been quite reliable, but not 100%. I also have used Tombow multi mono liquid glue with fairly good success, but I don't like the texture of the bit that I always get on my fingers. :& I am still searching for the ideal adhesive!!! Ha.

      Thanks for your kind words and your question. I would love to hear from others what they like for adhering sequins, too!

      <3
      Janis

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    2. Thanks for the tip on adhesives. I don't like to use glue dots for tiny embellishments either because I seem to make more of a mess than it's worth. I have a terrible time adhering buttons too...and end up just avoiding them. Too bad, because I have a TON of buttons!

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    3. With buttons, I have very good success with my all around favorite liquid glue: Alene's Jewel-It. A good glob of this has always kept my buttons buttoned. (The two times I have ever used buttons. Ha....not really! I have used them at least 4 times!!! lol....) Since it is liquid and it requires a good bit to secure the button down, though, it does tend to buckle the paper a bit. But as long as there are a couple layers of paper in the place I am gluing the button, it seems to work fine.

      Actually, for a very long time, I used Jewel-It for nearly all my paper gluing, too. I was careful not to use too much so it wouldn't buckle. It dries flexible, so things don't pop off when the card is opened or flexed.....or worse, the entire card come apart!!! (Yes, that really has happened!!!) Regular white glue tends to dry out too much here in Idaho and loses its grip. It still has its place, but Jewel-It was my mainstay.

      Now that I have a lot of different adhesives (wet and dry), I use tape runners, etc for most of my paper adhesive needs. But I have all of them at my fingertips (and a lot of them ON my fingertips!) for whatever application I have at hand.

      <3
      Janis

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THANK YOU so much for taking the time to leave a comment. Your kind words encourage me so very much!!!

Have a lovely day!
<3
Janis