Blog Hop with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer & the Crafter's Workshop

First, a little business...our Challenge Winner for our Under the Sea challenge is all the way from the Netherlands...Miranda from ‘Mir’acle Art Inspirations. Congrats Miranda!

And now for today's fun...in March we began manufacturing a line of stamps that coordinate with stencils from The Crafter's Workshop. Designed by the unbelievably creative Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, these six stamp sets are designed as such:

Each stamp set works independently.
Each stencil works independently.
Each stencil has a matching stamp set. Each stamp set a matching
stencil. And they work together.

This is way out of my comfort zone, but I thought I'd play along to challenge myself. Stencils obviously lend themselves to being used with paint, and when paint is involved anything goes. I played around sponging backgrounds with some pearlescent acrylic paint. I decided to really just play with them and see where it took me. Ultimately I sponged and layered a bunch of different designs on a big sheet of watercolor paper and then cropped out the bits that I liked. I kept my card designs simple to really feature the designs and did a little bit of a closeup that shows the pearlescence better.

Today the IO design team and Julie are doing a blog hop. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is giving away an entire set of stencils and stamps to one lucky commenter!  So check out everyone's blog for more ideas using these fun new products:

 Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Jeanne Streiff

Daniela Dobson

Laura Fulcher

Vicki Garrett

Jenny Gropp

Dina Kowal

Julie Koerber

The lovely and talented Jeanne Streiff created a little photo tutorial of the stenciling process and I will include it below as well.

The stamps and stencils are available at many of our retailers across the country and overseas.  We will also be releasing several new designs at the Craft & Hobby Association show in July.

 

Tuesday T&T Butterfly Treasure And More Fun This Thursday!

This is a really quick 4.25"X5.5" card.  The reason is because everything I needed was already done.  I had stamped the butterfly background eons ago and then set it aside.  Do you have set asides?  ;-)  Below is how I did it.

1.  The background was created using the Mega Mount^TM and Cover-A-Card^TM Doodle Flowers inked with Brilliance Galaxy Gold.  After stamping I heated it with a heat gun.  Heating it actually causes the Galaxy Gold to rise giving it a 'real' embossed look.  You can feel it with your fingers.  I painted the rest with Twinkling H2O's.  You can use dye ink pads, markers, etc.

*  I always replace the backing that came with the stamp after I clean it.  It preserves the cling effect on the backside.

2.  I ran one of my embossing folders through the Cuttlebug to use as a background. 

3.  The butterfly with both wings from the Butterflies Die set were put through the Cuttlebug twice with the Doodle Flowers background.

4.  I wanted a reversed one-winged butterfly so I turned the paper over and put it through by cutting from the back side.

5.  The embossed cardstock was mounted to the apricot colored background.  I used a dye marker to fill in around the embossed area to give it a tooled look.

6.  Next the dkdesigns sentiment, Precious Treasure, was stamped using StazOn Iris.  Stamping it first allowed me to see how much room it would take before placing the butterflies.

7.  The butterflies were place next.   Then a strip of ribbon, from Michaels $1 bin, was added across the middle, followed by a bow done with the Bow-Easy.

8.  I used glue dots to attach the centers and 3D pop-dots under the wings.  The pearls were placed next.  Viva Decor White pearls and Yellow Quartz glitter pen were used here and there.  Liquid Pearls and Stickles, etc. could also be used.

9.  When the glitter and pearls were dry, the cardfront was mounted to a 4.25"X11" folded piece of white cardstock.

And the card at the top is the result.  Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did making it!!  The supplies are below.  :-)  When you are done there, check out the news about Thursday's Blog Hop below that!

SUPPLIES:

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Design Team Blog Hop with Crafters Workshop

Thursday, June14

Check out the Hop this Thursday to see what both DT's are doing with the IO Balzer Design Stamps, and what fun they are when used with Crafters Workshop Stencils/Templates.   Go HERE to see a sneak peek of what IO DT member, Daniela Dobson used to create the beautiful card below.

Below are the stamps and also in the Online Store. 

Thanks for stopping by to look and share!  Mitra will be with you here on Thursday!!!

 

 Shirley

 

New Stamps that Coordinate with Stencils!

In March we began working with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and the Crafter's Workshop to produce stamp sets to coordinate with their line of stencils. We sold out of the first batch immediately and just recently got a larger order in. Check out Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Blog post where she shows all kinds of ideas for combining these two products.  Super cool!!!

There are 6 different stamps/stamp sets to choose from and she shows all of them used separately and together. Great inspiration for a neat new combination of products!

You can purchase the stamps at local stores and on our website and go to The Crafter's Workshop for the stencils.