Mixed Media Craziness!

Afternoon!

I spent a good part of my day creating this card. I love Mixed Media but the time it takes....ugh. I was hoping for a different look to what I have acheived but I'm not too unhappy.

Supplies: 

Mixed Media Paper. Cover lightly with gesso

Texture paste and stencil

Dylusions ink sprays

Ink Dabber

Distress Crackle Paint

HLS Butterfly Birthday

HLS Everyday Sentiments

HLS Butterfly Dies

HLS Mini Mister

            

I would like to link up to these challenges -

Thanks so much for popping by today :)

Mixed Media Canvas - No stamps

Hi there everyone.

I made a quick tutorial on how to create a Mixed Media Canvas. Enjoy!

HLS Mixed Media Challenge - Anything Goes {I chose to Finger Paint!}

Hi there! Over at Happy Little Stampers this month we have our new Mixed Media challenge up and running. I'm not on the DT for this challenge but decided I wanted to play along and just spread the word about the challenge.

I got down and dirty today!

I created a canvas using Oil Pastels and my fingers :). What no stamps??

I started with applying gesso to the surface of my canvas. I scribbled my oil pastels around and blended with wet fingers. I kept repeating that until I was happy with the coverage and the colours.

I gave it all a quick dry off with my heat gun. Using black, I started to draw the circles for my flowers, then the stems and lastly the leaves.

I coloured in all the circles and leaves and with a wet finger I went around the outlines of everything just to soften it up.

I used a stencil and archival ink for the background texture.

Just to define things more I used a white gel pen as an outline. 

Lastly I sprayed the whole thing with a gloss sealer.

I have never attempted this sort of mixed media before so I was very happy with the result.

I am going to link up at

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes

Thanks for popping in today xx

Happy Little Stampers December Christmas Challenge

Hello! Are you ready for a new Christmas challenge? Over at Happy Little Stampers our new challenge has just gone live. Time for you to get those last minute cards done and we have plenty of inspiration for you!

That's right - we would like you to use at least one star on your project. 

Here is my card -

I used a mixed media strip of paper. I slapped some texture paste through a memory box stencil (Stars Starry Nights). Once dry, I sprinkled red brushos all over and misted with water. Because of the white texture paste, the colour seemed to go pink but I really liked it.

When it was completely dry (again), I placed the stencil back on top and sponged gold ink over the stars. 

The sentiment (HLS Mixed Christmas Sentiments) was embossed in gold on vellum. I tore the edge of the vellum for interest. This sentiment embossed like a dream.

If you play along this month, you have the chance to win a stamp set from Happy Little Stampers!

Pop on over to the challenge blog where you will find amazing inspiration from the designers!


I would like to enter my card into the following challenges -



Karleigh Sue Challenge - Anything Goes with a twist of Non-traditional Xmas colours
AAA Cards - Anything Goes Clean and Simple

Thanks so much for looking xx

STAMPlorations Sketch #19 {Happy Birthday Nonni}

Hi there everyone, today is the start of a brand new sketch challenge over at STAMPlorations. 

My card is also a belated birthday card for fellow teamie, Nonni! Sandie organised a surprise birthday linky party for Nonni but I was away from home and couldn't get something in on time. So, sorry it is late but HAPPY BIRTHDAY Nonni!

Firstly, here is the sketch (which I rotated)

and here is my DT card -

Nonni loves flowers and I was so lucky to receive my brand new release stamps for STAMPlorations in time to make up this card using the new Bloom Sketches: Daisy 2 set.

I started with a piece of watercolour card and stamped my Daisy and masking as I went. Then I used Distress Inks, water and a paint brush to colour them. Once dry, I masked them again and brushed ink on for the background. I used a stencil (a gift from my good friend Loll) and then stamped the sentiment. The last thing to do was flick white and blue ink/paint over the finished panel.

My main inspiration for this card is the wonderful Shery (owner of STAMPlorations). While I was away from home, I was able to watch her video tutorials. I still have much to learn but I was really happy with how this turned out. Thanks Shery!!!

Have you seen the new release pre-sale? You should check it out because up until the 5th of September you can get 29% off the entire bundle!

More details HERE

I can't wait to see what you come up with using our sketch!

Thanks so much for looking xx

Summer Flowers with Inspired by Stamping

Hi everyone! How are you all today? 

I am going to share with you a card today that combines two wonderful sets from Inspired by Stamping.

Summer Flowers and the Newly Released Summer Fun

I started off by creating my background using Distress Inks directly onto an acrylic block, spritzing them with water and pressing the block onto my cardstock. A piece of paper towel was used to pat the colour. I sped up the drying process by using my heat gun.

I am really happy with how my background colours worked out. It is obviously very random so it is always cool to see how it ends up.

Here is a close up of the flowers (from the Summer Flowers set). They have been heat embossed with white powder.

I stamped the hello from the Summer Fun set. How awesome is it that these sets combine so beautifully!

The finishing touch for this card was adding the three little pearls to the top right hand corner.

I hope you have been enjoying the New Release sets from Inspired by Stamping. I know I have!!

Thanks so much for looking xx

Mixed Media with Inspired by Stamping

Hi everyone! I'm so glad you could join me today.

I would like to share a card with you that I have made using one of my favourite stamps available at Inspired by Stamping. I have used many techniques for this card and can't wait to share them with you.

Firstly,  created my background. I used distress inks straight onto an acrylic block and then sprtized them with water. I randomly placed them onto my cardstock and then used some paper towel to pat the colour. To speed up the drying process I ran my heat gun over the finished cardstock.

Using the Summer Fun stamp set (New Release), I stamped the umbrella and two sentiments with Versamark and heat embossed using white powder. 

Next I used the wave stamp and used a couple of different colours and repeated my stamping.

Then I used a couple of stencils. One I sponged ink over and the next I used a Gloss Gel medium over the stencil to create texture.

The final touch was having fun by taking a wet paintbrush and added a bit of reinker to it and splattering ink everywhere!

The whole panel was then attached with strips of foam tape.

There you have it! A mixed media card which was lots of fun to make!

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges -

613 Avenue Create - I have used the option for Sights/Sounds/Smells or Tastes of Summer

Thanks so much for looking xx

STAMPlorations Sketch #16

Hi everyone! How are you all today? Up for some crafting I hope!

We have a new challenge starting over at STAMPlorations. It is this awesome sketch that you will need to draw inspiration from -

As you look at this sketch, it may be a little hard to see but there is a light grey panel behind the circles and sentiment. You may find this part of the sketch hard to see in my card but it is there if you look closely.

Here is my card -

I must admit I was a bit liberal with my interpretation of that panel alone. I tried not to sponge ink into an area to help define it. That is the beauty of interpretation. You do not have to keep to the sketch to the exact shape etc but we must be able to recognise the sketch!

To start with I tore up pieces of First Edition DSP (SU!). I applied glue liberally to my panel with a paintbrush and started placing the torn bits at random. Once they were in place, I gave them another wash of glue. 

Once that was all dry, I sponged Distress Ink's over my panel. I chopped a doily in half and sponged ink onto the halves and glued them onto the panel. 

I used some DP from an old paper pad that I have to die cut three circles. Two were used to stamp directly onto and the third I popped up a fussy cut butterfly.

The sentiment was last (I love this sentiment!!). 

I got very messy and inky with the card and loved every minute of it.

I used the following STAMPlorations stamp sets - VIGNETTE: Artful Flutters and Sentiment Builders: Celebrate

I hope you will find time to play along this fortnight.


UPDATE: I thought I may have overdone my quota of entries over at MMCC but thanks to Deepti and Loll, they have persuaded me to enter this card too. This will be my 5th entry{insert sheepish grin}.

Thanks so much for looking xx

Inspired by Stamping - Spring Lilacs

Hi there everyone! How are you today? I am so much better and have just about got over my bronchitis. 

Today I am going to share with you the beautiful Spring Lilacs set from Inspired by Stamping. 

I decided I wanted to incorporate a tag onto my card which is something I haven't done before. I'm liking all these 'firsts' that I am attempting :)

Here is my card -

The first thing I did was use distress inks on the tag. The tag has a glossy finish so it was hard to stamp on it and get it to dry. In the end I smudged everything with my finger and it looked great!

Once my tag was completed, I looked at designing the rest of my card. I have embossed the bottom panel and then used distress inks around the edges. I cut a smaller panel and used distress ink on that as well. I then layed a doily over the top of the panel with die cut leaves. The tag has been placed on top with foam tape.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges

(yes! It is me again. This is my 4th entry into this challenge. They can't keep me away!)

PDE Linky Party (this is my 2nd entry) - Tags
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - For the Birds

Thanks so much for looking xx

Happy Birthday Monika!!

Today is Monika's birthday. Monika is one of my designers at ATSM and we are also team mates at STAMPlorations. Monika is one of the few lucky ladies that got to meet me in April.... oh! whoops! I was one lucky lady to meet Monika back in April while I was in London. We had lunch at St. Martin's in the Field - the Cafe in the Crypt! 

I was so appreciative of Monika's efforts - she left at some stupid hour of the morning (like 6am or something) and it took her a number of hours to get there (that's ok, Monika, it only took me like 23 hours to get to you, but you can have your day in the spotlight.. it IS your birthday. Sigh). 

All jokes aside Happy Birthday Monika! I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Here is a card that I have made using my Mixed Media goodies (again).

The day I started making this card I received a parcel of goodies that I had ordered (for my birthday). I got a heap of Distress Inks and some Memento Inks. 

The base card was coloured using my alcohol inks again. I then sponged over my Fading Dots stencil. The 'bubble' stencil you see was on that I received from Loll for my birthday! I used texture paste with this one. 

I sponged three different DI's onto cardstock ( Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans & Broken China) and then stamped my butterflies and punched them out. I doubled them up with little foam squares.

Once the texture paste was dry I used the same bubble stencil and sponged over it with Memento Peanut Brittle. 

Then with my Celebrate sentiment from STAMPlorations (Sentiment Builders - Celebrate), I stamped it three times in different colours.

Lastly I sponged a bit of white ink back over the texture paste to give it some more dimension.

Well, I hope you like my card Monika! Have a wonderful day and I hope you are spoilt rotten! xx

I would also like to add my card into the following challenges -

(my third entry - I'm a little addicted to this Mixed Media stuff...)

Eclectic Ellapu - Birthday with a Butterfly

The Sailing Pineapple - Nature Calls

Thanks so much for looking xx

Mixed Media Tag

Hi everyone! I would like to share a tag with you. It's the first ever tag I have made. I don't have any tag dies or ready made tags, so I cut my own. Loll was very lovely in letting me know the dimensions that she uses (she is always so generous and sharing). I decided to make my first one a little bigger than usual just so I could get the 'feel' of what I was doing.

Here it is -

Let me tell you how this was done. 

The base was cut to 16cm x 8cm. I dropped some different alcohol inks onto a transparency and added a bit of alcohol blending fluid. I moved the sheet around to get a blobby mess and then pressed my cardstock on top.. (I have used this technique before but usually use glossy cardstock). I then inked up a background stamp (En Francais) with Sahara Sand (SU!) and pressed it straight over the top. 

Out came the texture paste again! This time I used a stencil that the amazing Loll sent me for my birthday (one of three!). I love the effect it has given this tag.

Here you can see the script stamp a little better.

I created another blobby mess with my alcohol inks so I could stamp my butterflies onto it. These butterflies are from the SU! Papillon Potpourri set. The have co-ordinating punches too.

I used a brush to flick some ink all over the tag. 

I then used the sentiments from the Artful Flutters (STAMPlorations) set to finish it off.

I used a hole punch for the top and added the black ribbon.

I didn't 'edge' the corners. I liked the rectangle look for this one. 

I would like to enter my tag into the following challenges -

Melonheadz - Tag or Bookmark

Thanks so much for looking xx