Faking It

Good morning stampers

What a busy day yesterday. I had two classes at the craft shop, both very well attended which is always nice.

There was a delivery from one of our suppliers with lots of lovely stash which I shall be having a proper look at tomorrow when I go in.......and I shall probably come home with half if not all of my wages in a carrier bag rather than in my purse as usual.

Hubby had to take the car to be fixed as it was making a funny noise which turned out to be the wheel bearings and while he was waiting for it to be done he decided we would have a new car........a brand new car that nobody else has ever driven so we are quite excited. We should get it in about three weeks. I don't know why I get so excited......I don't even drive....lol!!

Still I do get to travel in it lots when I go away to do my demonstrating.

Right so....what have I got to show you today?

I thought you might like to see some stamping onto a different medium so all of the cards today have used fun foam.....also known as craft foam or funky foam.

It comes in a very wide range of colours but I only usually use either black or brown and I buy A4 sheets as that size is easiest for me to store but it does come in bigger sheets. It's cheap at around 50p for an A4 sheet and you can use one sheet for quite a few projects.

Whatever finish you are going to apply the basic stamping technique is the same.

You will need a stamp that has some detail in it such as the ones used in the sample.

So first you need to cut a piece of the foam slightly larger than the stamp you are using.

Take a heat gun and heat the piece of foam.....if it curls turn it over and heat again until it flattens.

You will see the surface change slightly as the foam heats and once you think it's ready, quickly place your stamp onto it and press very firmly, gently rocking the stamp to all four corners to make sure you get the full impression.If you are not happy with your stamped image don't worry........just reheat the foam to remove the image and start again.

If you look at the samples you will see a slight ridge around the outside of the images where I have cut around the edges. If you cut directly around the stamped image you get a very flat looking piece so always cut just outside the ridge which is caused by the stamp being pushed into the hot foam.

The simplest and quickest way to colour the finished pieces is to use Rub On Waxes.

These are just applied with the pad of your finger, just skimming over the surface so that the wax hits the raised areas. Leave to dry and then gently buff with a soft cloth.

The knight has been stamped onto brown foam and then had copper and bronze waxes applied to give an antiqued look.The Love image has been stamped onto black foam and been finshed with a white wax to give a faux stone look.

The pear has been finished with an antique gold.

There is another technique for colouring but I am going to cover that another time for two reasons, 1) it is a much lengthier process and I don't want to bore you to death in one posting.......and 2) I can't find my pictures.....lol!!! It does help if you have pictures to show doesn't it?

I'll love you and leave you with that then........if you made it this far without falling asleep you get a gold star!!!

Happy Stamping

Bye for now

Sheila-x-