Hi
Went for our flu jab, which was pretty rapid! In one door and out the other! Literally one minute from entry to exit. God bless the NHS. Then went for an early walk up on the forest with Dave, to clear the head. Got to keep it in the day, stop projecting. Serves no purpose.
I decided to clear up my art room when we got back; what a mess it was!
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Still hadn’t even cleared away the boxes of stuff from our mammoth birthday weekend a month ago. So thought that might be a smart thing to do. Good for the head, too. Time to reframe, recalibrate, rethink.
And then, I set to, with another demo for tomorrow’s Facebook LIVE TV show, using one of those lovely new Poppet Postcards. They are so cute! I don’t really do CUTE, but these are adorable.
Here’s where I thought of a neat way to make a mask. It’s obvious when you think about it, and most of us have got the gear to hand. But anyway, I’m doing it tomorrow, and I thought I’d share it here too.
Here’s the card we’re working towards…
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I needed a mask for the Postcard Poppet. The stamps don’t have masks either, but we know how to stamp an image onto copy paper, overlay masking material and cut out, right?
How to do that with the postcard though…you could paint it with liquid frisket. That works, but 1) it mucks up your paintbrush, and 2) we haven’t got any. So let’s work with what we’ve got!! Blank mask material
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..and Tracing Paper! Our daily staple in the SHAC!
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Here’s what to do:
- Cut a sheet of tracing paper into quarters
- Lay it over the postcard image. Or ANY IMAGE YOU WANT TO MAKE A MASK OF. Secure it with Low-tack masking tape.
- Trace round it with an 01 Micron art pen
- Cut a piece of blank material large enough to cover the traced image
- Peel and stick it over the traced image
- Cut out.
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When you look up really close here, you can see it’s not absolutely perfect. I could take more time, Or I could go to SpecSavers. But at this stage in my life, all I can say is:
That’ll do Donkey!!
It does the job for sure! And, with everything that’s going on in the world right now, I’m not about to sweat the small stuff! Moving on…
- Pick 3 Distress Oxide colours, and pat them onto the small round Backdrop stamp.
- Blend with a Spot-on Sponge
- Spritz with water
- Plant where you want it on the Postcard and press gently to distribute ink
- Lift, to reveal lovely orb in the background. Wipe wet ink off mask
- Peel mask to reveal clean poppet.
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Now to colour the Poppet, and make her pop. I used both Pergaliners and Polychromos. We have both options in stock. Perga Liners are a good price and do a great job. Polychromos are professional colouring pencils, deluxe and worth the investment if you love colouring in.
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We have some superb sticker booklets in our collection. The latest set is the Pinky Gray booklet. LOVE IT. Team these up with our Companion papers for a perfect finish. We have 4×4 inch double-sided and 8×8 inch single-sided.
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Assembly time…
Next time you’re in Smiths, look out for the packs of Marker pens. They do a pastel pack which are fabulous for edging toppers like this.
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Now when you look up close, that imperfect masking effort actually adds a quirky, screen printed effect. It ties into the whole whimsy, sketchy design. Well, that’s my argument, and I’m sticking to it!
The point is this: you can make a mask for absolutely ANY image – stamp, magazine, postcard – using tracing paper to transfer outline.
Paul has also done another blog, with all the actual POPPET products and beautiful samples from our oh- so-special Design Team. Let me find you the link..
.HERE.
Now that really IS a treat.
At 8am tomorrow, all the new show products will go LIVE on our website. Claritycrafts.com. So, all you early birds, head on over there and enjoy the additional discounts, introductory offers and all round good energy we are trying to rustle up.
Love always
Barb x x x