DV #179 Summer Colours

Our challenge today at Dream Valley is Summer Colours. We are sponsored by Star Stampz.

At the time I was preparing this post it feels like Winter still here in Hampshire and I still have my heating on in early May!!!! Anyhow, hopefully by the time this is published it will be feeling at least like Spring.

EDIT; Spring has finally sprung!!! Thank goodness.

As soon as I saw this image I imagined her floating away over a rainbow, and I had just the perfect die to match my thoughts. I diecut the colours of the rainbow with Sue Wilson’s You are my Sunshine rainbow die and the Sun is also from Sue’s Rain or Shine, part of the same Necessities collection. The clouds are from Memory Box. The sentiment I printed myself and the background paper is from Wild Rose Studio from their Blackberry Lane pad.

The image was coloured with a combination of Copics for the hair and skin and Zig Clean Colour Brush pens. Unfortunately I went over the balloons with some varnish in a pen and it bled the colour of the orange balloon onto the tip of the green one! I guess because the colours are water based it shifted. And after all that there isn’t even any ‘wet look/shine’ from the varnish which is what I was trying to achieve!

I am entering this into:-

A Perfect Time to Craft - #5 Anything Goes
Crafting With Friends - #67 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore - May: Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper - May. Anything goes with Patterned Paper
Creative Craft Cottage - #107 Dies and/or Punches
Fab ‘n Funky - #393 Garden Or Outdoors
Happy Little Stamper - May: Anything Goes With Dies
Jo’s Scrap Shack - #233 Anything Goes
Love to Craft - #22 May: Anything Goes
Pause, Dream, Enjoy - #19 Anything Goes
Tic, Tac, Toe - #46 Centre Line - Scene, Red, Something Digital

CCM #211 No Patterned Paper

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is No Patterned Paper. Please stop by the team’s blogs and leave them some love.

I started with a blank A3 white card which I created an approx A5 landscape card blank from. I stencilled onto that from an Imagination Crafts A4 stencil called Distressed Letter using Wilted Violet, Shaded Lilac, Broken China and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxides. The blue/green frame is an Intricutz die, cut out of mirri card.

The feathers were a lot of fun to create. They are from Chocolate Baroque from their I shall Be Your Wings stamp sheet. There are several different styles and sizes of feathers and these two are sort of zentangled. I wanted to use the Colourcraft Soft Relief paste to make some textural feathers, but I wanted them to be multicoloured instead of the plain pearl of the paste, so before applying the paste I spritzed each stamp with water and then added some pixie powders. At this stage the stamps were very wet and I wasn’t sure that the paste would ever dry applying it to wet stamps so I mopped a little of the coloured water up with kitchen roll. In hindsight it might have been better to have made a paint from the powders and applied that as it would not have been so wet I think.

Anyhow I then added the paste with a palette knife, spread reasonably thinly and left to dry. Because it’s so hot at the moment it was dry in about 12 hours, but I’m guessing it would normally take closer to 48 hours. At that stage you bend the stamp a little and peel off the set paste and this is what I got.

As you can see, at this stage they were very pale and there were some areas where there was no colour at all. Whilst the paste was drying a lot of the colour leeched right through to the reverse side, the non patterned side of the paste feathers. So as I had wanted them to be much brighter I used my versamark pen and instead added some Cosmic Shimmer sparkle pigments in similar shades to the Pixie Powders I used to start with.

This is what they looked like after - I forgot to take a pic until they were on the card!

As you can see, they were now much, much brighter, much more what I was after.

The final part of the card is a sentiment, ‘A Heart Without Dreams is like a Bird without feathers’ from the same stamp sheet which I stamped with Kaleidacolor Riviera inkpad.

The feathers and sentiment were backed with foam tape to give them a little height.

I am entering this into:-

A Inky Mess - #20 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Artistic Inspirations - #199 Anything Goes
Calling All Sistahs - #12 Encouragement Card
Classic Design Team - #25 Open Challenge
Creatalicious Challenges - #138 Anything Goes, Option Add a Sentiment
Create and Inspire - #73 Anything Goes, Option use a stencil
Creative Artiste - #38 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Heartful Stamping - #38 Anything Goes + a Stamp
Just For Fun Rubber Stamps - May: Use More Than One Stamp
Polkadoodles - #18 Anything Goes
Quick Quotes - #87 Add A 3D element (feathers are VERY dimensional)
Stamping Sensations - May: Close to Nature
Stamps & Stencils - Let’s Fake It (clearly my feathers are not real!)
Use Your Stuff - #310 Mood Board (Bottom Left bird, or rather his feathers!)
We Love 2 Create - #8 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

DV #178 Ribbon and/or Lace

Our challenge at Dream Valley today is to use ribbon and/or lace on your project. We are sponsored by Sheepski Designs and I have used their lovely image Perfect Pointe for my card.

I printed her onto some lightweight card and coloured her in with a combination of Copics, and Ecoline waterbrush pens.

I matted the diecut image onto Sue Wilson’s Poppy diecut which I cut from some lovely handmade paper which I have had in my stash for at least 15 years!! That in turn was matted onto some other handmade paper in complimentary colour to the ones in the image. Then the whole lot was matted onto some card and I can’t remember where that came from! The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards’ Year of Sentiments diecut pad, and I edged it with tiny coloured resin flowers. The lace ribbon was white, but I coloured it with the same Ecoline pen I used in the image, and then threaded through some blue satin ribbon.

I am entering this into:-

Artistic Inspirations - #199 Anything Goes
Back To Basics - #1 Matting and Layering
Creates and Makes - #21 Anything Goes
Dare2BArtzy - April: Pastel Colours
Fussy and Fancy - #210 Add A Diecut
Stamping Sensations - April: One for the Girls
Star Stampz - Hand Coloured Image
The Paper Shelter - #336 Die Cuts

CCM #210 Birthdays

Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers today, hosted by me, is Birthdays. I chose the theme because today is my Sister’s Birthday. I won’t divulge her age, but she’s older than me….. in your face Sis!!! LOL - All the while we were growing up she used to say ‘when your as old as me’ as a way to prevent me doing something I wanted to do…. and naturally bragging about her seniority, well then you get over a certain age and you would kill to be the younger one. I created my own card blank with the Tonic dies, Bowscale. The matting and layering levels were various purple cardstock in my stash, but the background layer is from Heartfelt Creations’ Sugar Hollow collection paper pad.

The focal point is one of the stamps and dies, which I cut and coloured with copics. The sentiment comes from Craftwork Cards preprinted and die cut sentiments, and the flowers are also from Heartfelt Creations, Ariana Blooms. The corner die, again from Heartfelt is Fleur Borders and Pockets dies. I added glitter accents to all the flowers, including the blossom in the tree.

The little owls in this set are so cute, and the stamps match the dies so well.

I am entering this into:-

Always Happy Birthday - April
Aud Sentiments - #201 Happy Birthday
CCC Digi Creations - #91 Include An Animal
Craft Rocket - #47 Flowers
Crafting With Dragonflies - #102 Cards Using Dies and/or Punches
Crafty Friends - #82 Flowers
Di’s Digi Challenge - Include an Animals
Fashionable Stamping - #134 Animals
Fussy and Fancy - #210 Add a Die Cut
Sieze The Birthday - Vibrant Colours (opted to just go birthday)
Simon Says Stamp Weds Chall - Sparkle and Shine
Simply Create Too - #137 Use Die Cuts
The Paper Shelter - #335 A Birthday Card
Try It On Tuesday - Nature’s Beauty

DV #177 2 Or More Buttons

Our challenge at Dream Valley this week is to use 2 or more buttons in your project. We are sponsored by All Dressed Up and I have used one of their older designs ‘Love to Shop Girl 1’, which I coloured with copics.

I made my tag background by covering a manilla number 8 tag in patterned paper, you can just see it through the next layer. The next layer was made from some tissue type paper that came as a protective layer with some clothes. I do have rice paper, but thought I would try an experiment to see if stuff I would normally discard would work as well! This was the mopping up from another project that consisted of blues and pinks, which I put to one side to possibly use later. This paper seems considerably more fragile and prone to tearing than rice paper does, but once dried it did ‘firm up’ I applied it over my patterned paper layer with pva glue.

After it dried I stencilled the word Perfect and the stars and distressed harlequins with three shades of Pentart glitter pastes. I inked around the edges of my tag with Broken China oxide. The buttons, and ribbon bits that I stapled on, came from my stash, as did the dazzler flower and the thread I used in my buttons.

I fussy cut the image and popped her on with some foam tape.

This is the packing tissue before, and what was left after I took out the piece I used on the tag. As you can see, it’s not as strong and does tear easily, so maybe mop up in layers and let it dry out a little in between.

  

I am entering this into:-

A Inky Mess - #19 Anything Mixed Media Goes
All Dressed Up - #80 Anything Goes
Altered Eclectics - April: Anything Mixed Media Goes
Artistic Inspirations - #198 Anything Goes
Crafting By Designs - Elegant Ladies
Create and Inspire - #73 Anything Goes, Option use stencils
Creative Artiste - #37 Anything Mixed Media Goes
My Creative Scoop Color Inspiration Monthly - Anything Hand Coloured Goes
Naughty or Nice - #50 Use a Past Theme I chose #19 Ribbon
Simon Says Wednesday - Add Some Texture
Stamping Sensations - April: One for the Girls
We Love 2 Create - #7 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

CCM #209 Water

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Water. Do please pop by the blog as there are a lovely wide variety of interpretations of the theme by the DT.

I went for an underwater theme for my card. I started with the background to the scene by stamping Whimsical Waves from My Favorite Things in versamark and embossing with White detail powder onto a watercolour card. Then I just liberally applied various colours of Zig Clean Color Brush Pens and a couple of the blues from the Ecoline Watercolour Brush pens and then spritzed with water. I did add some extra colour directly to certain areas after it was dry in order to give some more depth and shade. I then went over the whole background with the clear overlay sparkle pen.

The three main embellishments are all Katy Sue Designs moulds filled with Paper clay and then coloured with Spectrum Sparkle pens. The jellyfish and most of the seaweed are dies from Magnolia and the other dies are from Marianne. The little shells at the bottom, the paper surrounding the scene and sentiments are from Heartfelt Creations’ Under the Sea collection.

A close up of the scene taken with the flash to show all the sparkle that sadly the camera doesn’t pick up properly with no flash:

The scene was intended to look like a Porthole and I even had a large acetate covering for it that came from a pack of giant crumpets!! Waste not, want not. Sadly in the event it was really too deep and would have made it too front heavy for a card. It might have worked on a canvas but I still think it was too deep, so good idea, but practically not suitable. If the crumpet packaging had been used it would have obscured the waist end of the mermaid’s tail, but because I had already stuck the embellishments down before I realised the packaging wouldn’t work now there is a dip showing in the tai.l. It was meant to look like a mermaid swimming past the porthole and all you can see is her tail. I am bemused as to why it’s shaped like it is anyhow I would have thought a flat finished waist area would have been more practical, and if I had realised sooner I would have trimmed it up to fit against the black frame.

You can see what I mean in this pic@

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critters - #13 Anything Goes with a Critter
A Inky Mess - #19 Anything Mixed Media Goes
CCC Digi Creations - #91 Include An Animal
Craftaholics R Us - #14 Birthday Cards
Crafter’s Castle - #4 Anything Goes, Option Dimensional
Creative Artiste - #37 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Fussy and Fancy - #209 Add a Sentiment
Love To Craft - #21 April: Anything Goes
Love to Create - #7 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
Naughty or Nice - #50 So Long and Thanks for All the Fish (with a title like that and my project, how could I resist!) July 2014 Mixed Media
Papercraft Business Challenge - #5 Anything Goes, Option Birthday
Sheepski Designs - #13 Animal Magic
Simon Says Wednesday - Birthday
Simply Create Too - #137 Use Diecuts
That’s Crafty - Going Round In Circles
The House That Stamps Built - DCC44 All Creatures Great and Small

 

Delicious Doodles April Guest Spot

I was thrilled to be offered a guest spot on Delicious Doodles for April. Stupidly I didn’t read my email properly and created something that did not have a Delicious Doodles image on it! Annoying, as Teri is a very talented designer and I actually have lots of her images. Anyhow, the challenge is Anything But Square.

My non square card was made for my beautiful Niece Madi’s birthday. I wanted it to be bright and colourful as she had a hard year last year after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Several rounds of chemo, surgery and radio therapy followed, and she was so positive throughout. Anyhow I am waffling now, sorry.

My card base and mats and layers were made with Sue Wilson’s Octagon dies, the layer with the circular holes is from the Classic Adorned Octagons and the base and top layer, and indeed the birthday sentiment layer are all from the Double Stitched Octagons.

The Sunflower diecuts are from Spellbinders Stephanie Low’s Cool Vibes Sunflower collection which are stamps and matching die sets. I was drawn to this set because of the beauty of the flower but also it has a sentiment ‘Radiate Positive Vibes’ because of Madi’s condition. She radiated positive vibes throughout. However, this was for her birthday so I didn’t want to ‘remind’ her of her recent past and stuck with the traditional Happy Birthday sentiment instead.

The feathers are a Spellbinder die from way back, sorry I don’t recall the name.

I coloured the flowers with a combination of Zig Clean Color brush pens and Ecoline watercolour brush pens. I also splashed the background with the pens. The feathers were cut from the Ink Away clean up cloth I used to mop up the spills from the various watercolours and then left to dry on the radiator before cutting out. It gives them a lovely ethereal feel. The final addition is a bunch of Card Candi.

I am entering this into:-

A Gem of a Challenge - #216 Female Birthday with a Sentiment
Always Fun - #52 Happy Birthday
Always Happy Birthday - Birthday
C.R.A.F.T. - #461 Shaped Card, not Rectangular or Square
Di’s Digi Challenge - Spring Flowers
DL. Art Thankful Thursday - #225 Flowers
Seize the Birthday - Birds (Birthday with option of Birds, do feathers count, as without birds there would be no feathers!)
Star Stampz Challenge - Throw on the Flowers
The Sisterhood of Crafters - Spring Flowers
Whoopsi Daisy - Anything Goes with Option of Flowers