Mini Brayer Tutorial

I've had quite a lot of comments asking me how I made my less is more card this week, well more specifically how I created a mirror image of the cats.  It's actually quite an easy technique - all you need is a brayer and a steady hand.

First apply ink to your image and ensure its on a stable surface.  You need to use a very fresh ink pad so the ink stays wet a while.

Starting just off your image (left or right depending on which hand is your preference - I'm right handed so work right to left) in one smooth movement roll your brayer over the stamp while the ink is still very wet.  This should give you a perfect image of your stamp on your brayer.

Again, in one full and smooth movement, roll the brayer with the stamped image in one direction (doesn't matter which) onto your cardstock.  What I would say is that it's a bit tricky to get it where you want it, so always start with your "mirror" image first and add the normal one after.  It's quite tricky on a one layer card - you may need to "trim" to fit the space you wanted (here I used a full sheet of A4 folded in half and cut it to size after - quite a bit of wastage so perhaps a better technique on a layer you can cut out (or perhaps someone else knows a trick I'm missing for getting the brayer lined up where you want it!)

Now add your "normal" image where ever you want it - as the ink transferred from the brayer will be lighter, its best to take off the excess ink from your stamp before stamping it out - I forgot here so you can see my normal image is much stronger than the mirror.

Decorate, add your sentiment - et voila - mirror image - in the words of the meercat "simples".

I expect to see lots of mirror images from the LIMettes now!

Tara x

Seeing Double

Another quick post today as I'm still not feeling in full fettle but I did feel up to a little crafting this morning and it is LIMday afterall ;-)

Their challenge this week is a one layer card with a "double" image on it - so basically two of anything.  I've promised to make some cards for my local Cats Protection League which is where I got my cat from, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to start.

The image I've used is actually a single cat, so to get double I used my brayer to get a mirror image so the tail is on the opposite side.  I added a little colour with pencils and blended it with blending stumps and sansoder.  Finished with a little greeting in red to match their handsome bow ties.  The stamp is by personal impressions.

Catch you all later hopefully x

OLW - Cats n Dogs

Well in my case it's just a cat!  I seem to be running last minute for all my challenge entries this week - am posting this one whilst finishing my lunch at work - even with an extra day off this weekend I still have loads to do....

Anyhow - the challenge this week at One Layer Wednesday was to make a one layer card featuring a cat or a dog.  I decided to use an old stampendous wood mounted stamp, but I think this image is available as a cling now if you're prefer the more space saving style of stamp.  I love this image - I have a couple of friends who would rather have dessert, first, middle and last at any meal!  Simply stamped and coloured with pencils with a little glaze on the balloon.

Right, that's it - short and sweet from me today but I'll be back just after midnight with the new challenge for St Luke's Charity Card Challenge

Craftilicious x

Less is More week 17

Good morning LIMettes - hope you're having a happy-crafty start to your B/H weekend.  I can't believe its week 17 over at LIM already?  I missed the first challenge but have been playing since week 2 and can't believe I've been doing it for 16 weeks......

This weeks' challenge is a recipe and can be found here http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/05/week-17-recipe-pick-square.html

I decided to play with my kitty inchies and selected the central square and used 4 inchies to create the central image so I'm kind of literally interpreting the whole sketch.  I have the doggy version of these too but I went for the kitty version in honour of my Lottie who is often a cantankerous beast but has been very lovely and cuddly for the last couple of days - she always looks cute whilst asleep....

I just lined the stamps up on my gridded block (great for getting things straight without a stamp-amajig) stamped in cocoa then matted and layered in browns and golds.  Going for the central image is a total wimp out for me - I am obsessed with symmetry so I am GOING to make myself do another card shortly and pick an asymmetric square design.

See you later....
Craftilicious x