Black Magic Embossing Folder

Evening All,

Well I made it through my first day back at work........... just. I must confess that I have worn my splint for most of it, and my hand does ache a bit, but it's hardly surprising after 3 weeks off work.

It has been lovely to see how many people have missed me, particularly one of the girls who can now go back to her usual evening shifts instead of covering my stupidly early ones. 

The amazing Maker Mania 3 finished last night, so here are a couple more cards that I made for Janice and Andy using the Black Magic technique, this time using the 3D embossing folder from the kit.

I coated the inside of the folder with white ink and then placed a piece of black cardstock inside before running it through an embossing machine.

After that I coloured over the white images with my watercolour pencils. Any type of pencil seems to work although the colours are stronger with some types. Just give it a go with whatever you have.

With this second card I embossed another piece of black cardstock using the white ink pad only this time using the other side of the folder. 

I coloured and fussy cut the floral images and then layered them over a further piece of black cardstock which had been embossed inside the folder and then gently coloured with the gilding wax that was also part of the pack.

I am really pleased with how these turned out, particularly the first one which I think was probably one of my favourite samples from those that I did.

I definitely need an early night tonight, I didn't sleep very well last night and it's going to be a very long week lol.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Maker Mania Black Magic.

Evening All,

I was lucky enough to be involved in a fabulous crafty extravaganza this weekend. Maker Mania 3.

To be honest I hadn't really heard of it until my wonderful crafty mates Janice and Andy from SirStampalot in Peterboro contacted me and asked if I could help out with some samples for them. 

From what I could make out the event is held on Facebook where local stores across America, Canada and the UK join together to share crafting ideas with Makers of all kinds. Once you have purchased your kit which contains ,amongst other things, papers, stamps, dies and an embossing folder, you are given access to a private Facebook group where each of the participating stores showcase tips, tricks, techniques, ideas and inspiration using the supplies from the kit.

Janice asked if I would help out with some samples using the stamp set and embossing folder.

The floral stamp set is actually a rather nice layering set.

As luck would have it I had just done a class on the Black Magic technique which gave me the first of several ideas.

I managed to catch Janice's presentation when I got back from class this afternoon. She was incredible. It was a bit like speed crafting, and I have never seen anyone talk so quickly, but she managed to share loads of tips and ideas including this particular technique.

It was wonderful to be involved, especially as they are actually the only UK store this year, but who knows what might happen next year.

I will try and share some more of my samples over the next few days, in the mean time it's off to bed for me.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Hugs Kimx

Black Magic Masterboard

Hi All,

Another slow but productive day in the craft room.

As you know I am still on a mission to use up bits and pieces from my craft room, so I want to try and keep on top of the classes now that they are back on.

Thankfully I had several stamped pieces in a folder from a previous class on the Black Magic technique, so I was able to do colouring during class, rather than stamping out loads more pieces that never get finished.

One of the things that I found, along with a few previously finished cards, was a whole sheet of stamped images just waiting to be coloured in.

Having finished the colouring in class, I decided to chop the panel up to make several different cards.

I even used up some of the scraps along with a small square die for this card,

and this one.

I even managed to use up a piece of embossed cardstock in the background to this card.

These last couple of cards were made using a couple of precoloured pieces that I found in the box.

I do love this technique, and as several of the ladies couldn't make the first class, I am sure that we will be repeating it at some stage.

For the moment it's back to working on something a little bit hush hush for Janice and Andy.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Black Magic Flowers

Evening  Everyone,

We had a lovely day in class yesterday, but who knew how long it would take to finish anything off when you have one hand in a splint!!

Colouring yesterday was quite therapeutic, and not too bad to do since I'm right handed, but mounting bits up today seems to have taken forever. These cards were made using one of Jane's fabulous Bold Blooms designs for Woodware.

Once again the image has been stamped on dark card using a white ink pad, and then coloured over with Spectrum Noir colouring pencils.

Same stamp and technique, only this time I used watercolour pencils. I thought that I would try blending the colours with a waterbrush once I had finished colouring the image in. It gives a slightly different look to that of the Spectrum Noir pencils.

Need to rest my arm now, then maybe I can do a little bit more tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Hugs Kimx

A Little Bit of Normal

Evening,

What a lovely day it has been. I don't care about the weather, it has been so wonderful to sit and craft with friends for the first time in over a year. We last got together on 14th Match 2020!!!!

We have spent the day colouring using the Black Magic Technique.

The technique involves stamping with white ink onto dark, or kraft card and then coloring over the top of the image with colouring pencils.

I trimmed this panel down and added twine and faux stitching before layering it onto a piece of embossed card.

I used the same image here stamped onto a panel of three colours of card stock.

I used plain old watercolour pencils here, but we also had Spectrum Noir pencils to play with.

It is amazing how everyone concentrates while they are colouring. There were several periods of quiet amongst all the talking. 

It's a shame that not everyone could come to class today, but it was lovely to get back to a little bit of normal, and there is always another class in a fortnight...........................everything crossed.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Hugs Kimx 

A Helping Hand with Homework

Evening,

A few weeks ago I gave the 'Crafties' a couple of stamp sets each as their next lockdown challenge.

I don't know if any of them have managed to do anything with them yet, so I thought that I would post a couple of cards using one of them to help them along with their homework.

This first card was made by stamping in white pigment ink onto black card stock and then colouring over the top with coloured pencils. It is often referred to as the Black Magic Technique.

This card has been stamped and embossed in gold

with a few finishing touches of glitter glue.

This final card uses second generation stamping which is why the image is so pale.

I added clear embossing powder to the image as well as a stamped sentiment.

I hope that the Girls feel suitably inspired. Perhaps we should make this the first class out of lockdown. Hopefully we aren't too far away from that now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

They call it Black Magic

 Afternoon,

One of the advantages to travelling on the train at the weekend, apart from my Costa Coffee treat that is, is that I get to catch up on some crafty Youtube clips.

This time I was reminded of the Black Magic Technique by another crafty favourite of mine Gina K Designs. It is something that I first did many years ago at the Craft Barn with the lovely ladies from Magenta stamps and of course, you guessed it, I still have some pieces in my bits box that need finishing off lol.

You need a nice solid image for this technique,

and Magenta have some real beauties.

You need to stamp the image on to dark cardstock using a white ink pad. Any dark colour will do, but black is certainly very striking.

The idea is then to colour over the stamped image using colouring pencils.

A waxy type of pencil seems to work best, but give it a try with whatever you have. What have you got to lose?

These little square stamps are perfect for this technique

as they are not very big so they don't take too long to achieve a beautifully coloured panel.

Any solid stamped image will work as with this lovely Woodware image designed by Jane Gill.

As you can see it is possible to get some quite nice shading to your colouring, and of course the black card shows the images off beautifully.

This is a lovely big background stamp that I found in my stash. I think that I might add a die cut 

sentiment to this before I send it to anyone.

I wonder what technique I will be reminded of next time I delve in to Youtube. There are so many fabulous clips available, and the best bit is that the little ones love to watch them with me, in fact they often ask to watch Jennifer when I am there for my babysitting weekend.

It rather made her Mum and I laugh as Emma uttered WOW when she saw some heat embossing being done on the screen. That is exactly what we both said the first time we saw it done, and it is still WOW after 25 years of playing.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx