Textures Florals

Morning everyone, it's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts where this week Lorraine is our host with the theme of Add some Texture along with the usual the A/G option. This months fabulous bundle of prizes come from Stamp Addicts, Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, Ruth Hamilton Dedsign, AALL and Create and Craft Stash.

It's a rather long post so a cuppa or glass dependent on time of day might be called for!!

A heads up for the AALL and Create fans out there, lots of new goodies coming next week to celebrate their 7th Birthday with a preview show on C&C at 12 noon Monday 16th where you can see all the new stamps from Antour, Tracy, Bipasha and Janet.

My texture above comes in the form of acrylic and gesso on the Gelli Plate background which does have lots of texture but not really evident on the photo. Then a bit of a play on words with Textured Florals from AALL and Create which were stamped onto inked offcuts and cut out. Two white circles with some stamping and a little Birdie along with a couple of sentiments and splats of white Posca.

Electronic die cutting machines (yes a sort of review): In my experience most have a down side, with my Switch it's the plates which warp quickly, expensive to replace (a year in and on my third set) and intricate dies usually need two runs through. The Big Shot is great and replaced it last year after ten years, but the size can be restrictive.  

But, the new Pro Cut A4 electronic machine which landed in my craft room recently thanks to Highlight Crafts seems to be the exception and so far I'm really impressed. I've only ever said that once before and that was my e.bosser which expired least year after more than ten years of good service, sadly no longer available.

I left it a while to see how the Pro Cut performed before I gave it the thumbs up (or down) but so far would recommend and the price is competitive as well, plus it's shape is far more compact than the Switch which is a bulky piece of kit. I don't know the secret with the plates on the Pro Cut but they are still as flat as new after some really heavy work. And a big bonus everything cuts perfectly, detailed dies as well with just one run through.

So now I'm able to cut collections so much quicker with two on the go at once......well that's the plan, so long as I'm quick enough to keep up with them. All I have to remember is to put the dies the right way up and not cut through the magnetic shim......yes done that already, I used to do the same with the e.bosser, the Switch doesn't have one and that just might be the difference in performance.

I've been pretty under pressure with TV samples the last few weeks and not much time to play, so this was a nice diversion. I saw a link on a blog which in turn sent me to YouTube and then another and typically I can no longer find it, but think I got the gist of the technique.

Basically you 'splodge'.... technical term......colour onto watercolour card which is first spritzed with water as this helps the ink distribute and beak down the fibres. The videos I watched used distress re-inkers, I only have two colours, a green and pink so added some yellow Dylusions, but probably not enough contrast of colour. Once dry you ink the debossed side (indents, I always get this one confused) of an embossing folder with Versafine Clair nocturne, place the coloured side facing the black ink and run through a die cutter. I did a re-ink of black and ran through a second time. I then made a second one using the same folder, will share next week. 

Then remembered I had several colours of Oxide mica sprays and the one below was used for that, however it was much harder to get a solid back finish as the mica spreads, but still quite effective.

Have a good weekend all.

 

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