Mandala Media Mashup

     Three cards from one use of the media plate makes best use of time and ink. John Next Door has some new dies coming out this week, I have used the mandala die, a media plate and some Craft Artist inks for these.

     To start I die cut a mandala from thin card to use as a stencil, you can cut out the layers of this mandala but I chose to skip the inner solid dies for a 'doily' effect.

     Using the circular media plate I placed the stencil on the plate and added ink using a hard brayer. I closed the stamp press upside down so the stencil didn't fall off, then turned it over and pressed gently over the plate. The first impression was patchy but once stamped again without the stencil in place it fills in the missing areas and looks much better.

    

     I used the media plate twice to make two images, one for this post and one for John to use on Hochanda.

     So then I had two circular images, an inked mandala and a brayer clean off scrap. This is something I probably wouldn't have thought of without both John and Eileen mentioning how useful your run off scraps can be.

    

     For this one I used the same inks and a blending brush to add colour to the edge of the image panel. I then stamped an old Woodware seed head in black, along with a simple birthday greeting.

     To pick out the black and ground the seed heads I matted with a thin black layer before going on a white 6x6 card blank.

     

     This one was a small piece of white card that I pressed the stencil on to to get the ink off, then I cut up the stencil and glued it on to the corners of the white square.

     Just the word 'smile' in black was enough for this one, a thin black mat to frame it and then on to a 4x4 card blank.

     

     The run off card I used was from a small stash of scraps, I cut a 3inch square from it. It looked like a snow scene so I stamped it with some trees and a few deer in black, then flicked a white Posca pen over it for light snowfall.

     Again I have used a black mat layer to frame the image before gluing it to another 4x4 card blank.

     Now I have a birthday card, a general use card and a Christmas card all from one session with the media plate. I also have a whole bundle of run off scraps from the printing plate comparisons made in the previous post, so there will be lots of small cards in my stash this year.

I would like to enter these cards in the following challenges:

AAA Birthday - Use A Stencil

Simon Says Stamp Weds - Make Your Own Background

Happy Little Stampers Stencil - Anything Using A Stencil

Love To Craft - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampers -#52 Snow / Winter

Addicted To Stamps and More - Christmas

The Holly and Ivy - Anything Christmas     Top 5

A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes