2017 #17 White: Christmas Ornaments with Squiggly Minis {by Ingrid Vichova}

2017 Topic 17: Shades of White

Our bloggers seem to be loving the shade of white challenge, even if it does seem a tricky idea at first, they certainly get on a roll! Ingrid is giving paper clay a whirl in this post!!

Hi everyone, it's Ingrid with you today, and I'd like to share with you my take on the 'Shades of white' theme. At first, I thought, my Goodness! All these gorgeous Fresco paints and you want me to create something white?! And then I thought, why not! I like to challenge myself and in the end the biggest challenge of all was to take the photos of the all white thing. The creative part was super fun! I kid you not, it took me three days to get some decent shots. Even with my studio lights it is a challenge on a dark rainy day. 

I always think of how I can stretch my stash and how I can use it in other than the obvious ways. I have already done stamping in the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste so I wanted to push it even further. I got my paper clay out and it all went from there... 

I'm no expert on paper clay and I use it mostly with molds to make frames and other embellishments for my mixed media art. I never tried stamping on it before so this was more of an experiment. I knew I was going to stick to whites so I needed a bit of a contrast as well as to protect my stamp a bit so I used the Ranger, Wendi Vecchi, Archival Ink in Shadow Grey before stamping into the clay. Is that cheating?:) 

I highlighted with Snowflake paint and then it was too fiddly so switched to a white Sharpie. Is that cheating again?! :) I'm doing really well, apparently.. LOL! Guess what though, I discovered you can use the sharpie as a base for heat embossing so my raised areas were suddenly shiny! Ha! 

As you can see, I added more interest and sparkle to my background before I found these lovely berries and snowflakes. The music sheet was confiscated from my partner. He's a musician, but it's not like he needs it more than I do, right?  

I couldn't stop playing with the clay. The stamping into it became rather addictive. 

Squiggly Mini 26 (SM26)

Squiggly Mini 25 (SM25)

 Suddenly, I wasn't just making a wintery card with a cute clay cat embellishment. I made so many I turned them into some ornaments too. I stamped and cut them out and left them to dry. I came back and nearly keeled over! Not because they were so cute! Because they slightly curled. So, learn from y mistakes and put something over them to keep them flat. I have an obsession of solely decorating 'my' Christmas tree to nothing but a perfection. These, my dears, will be decorating my daughter's spare tree in their bedroom. LOL! But anyway... it's an idea that counts. 

And there you have it! Why not use your rubber stamps in new innovative ways! You could swap the clay for a lovely melted embossing powder to stamp in. It's the same process and it's quick too! Try it and make your own embellishments too! The best thing is that you have a vast number of fabulous stamps available from the PaperArtsy shop. You don't have to used the Squiggly Mini 26 or the Squiggly Mini 25 to create these fun embellishments and ornaments. Have a browse to see what catches your eye and treat yourself to an early Christmas pressie. Just don't tell your husband!:D 

Have fun and stay creative! 

Ingrid xxx 

Blog: Ingrid Kristina V Designs 
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I'm happy for you to get in touch, if you have any questions! 

Being challenged seems to always take you in an unexpected direction! This is fabulous Ingrid, and I'm fascinated by the Shadow Grey ink with the sharpie!! Awesome result! Thank you for such great exploration!

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The current topic link Topic 17: White will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, 26th November 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

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