Time for a little tutorial!

Wisdom begins in Wonder by Soraya for Carabelle Studio

Hellooooo! In honour of 'Scrap Ain et les autres' currently taking place I am really happy to be here to share a little mini tutorial using a fabulous new stamp by Soraya for Carabelle Studio, as well as some of my *new * stencil designs. I also want to show you my technique for using a narrow edge stencil to create a large A4 print.

I love Soraya's quirky and funky creations :-)

I used some colourful and bright gel plate prints, using my casual alcohol ink technique, and collaged them to create this effect on a page for my beloved junk journal:

First of all, let me show you how I made my gel plate prints. I wanted to use my *new* Bubble edge border stencil,  but I also wanted to make a full size print. Its it possible? Of course it is!

Firstly, I chose alcohol ink colours that I know blend well together without making mud - shades of red, pink and yellow are a harmonious combination, and also my 'go to' colours ;-)

(Please excuse the state of my gel plate. I do have a better looking one but this is my well used, well seasoned most loved one lol! And yes, they do get better with use I think).

I placed my stencil straight onto the plate. Because the gel plate is sticky it holds the stencil firmly in place....

Bubbles edge stencil by me!

...and casually threw a few drops of alcohol ink all the way down in all of the colours. Be careful not to add too much ink as you will flood it and lose the clarity of the print. Let it sit for a few moments. the ink will spread a little under the stencil - this is ok - it creates the design we want!

Remove the stencil  - AND HERE'S THE IMPORTANT BIT - blot the excess ink on a spare piece of card. Then place the stencil next to the first row of ink:

And repeat - repeat - repeat - all the way across the gel plate, blotting excess ink each time.

Hint: You can keep the blotted ink for another project!

Allow the alcohol ink to dry a little on the plate. It doesn't take long at all and it just needs to be touch dry, and then brayer a very thin layer of acrylic paint over the whole plate. This layer needs to be THIN, and you should be able to see the original design showing through:

While this layer of paint is WET, place a piece of card over the plate. I use Mondi Colour Copy 200 gsm - nothing special, just regular card, but it's nice and smooth. Give it a little while for the paint to transfer and then lift the whole thing. 

And voila! Here's my print! This actual print lifted EVERYTHING off my plate so there was nothing let at all. This technique allows me to use an edge border stencil to make a full size print! You could also do this with different stencils all on one print.

And here's how I put it together. 

I cut two contrasting prints - one slightly smaller than the other - to fit my junk journal, so that I can layer them one on top of the other allowing a border:

I then stamped 'Wisdom begins in Wonder' on contrasting prints and cut out the various elements of the design:

I pieced them together and glued in place, but note that I used the wing section twice to allow the wings to be 3-D. 3-D makes me happy. 

I layered the two pieces for my background allowing a small border all the way round, and added the image on top:

I decorated some areas of the design with Liquid Pearls by Ranger, carefully selecting areas to add small 3-D dots of colour. At this point I stick to the same colours to avoid my page becoming overly busy. I also tend to add colour tone-on-tone - red on red, black on black etc.

And of course to finish the whole thing off I added some stitching, just because ;-) And also white pen to add highlights and doodles. To tie the whole thing together I sponged a really small amount of black in the corners using  Geometric no.3  and also a few bottle lids. The black pulls the whole thing together I think.

I love this funky little design and I think it looks quite at home in my junk journal alongside other Carabelle designs.