CCM #228 Flowers

Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers today, hosted by Kim, is Flowers. A nice easy one as we all must have either heaps of flower embellishments or flower stamps!

I wanted to back the journal page I made last week as it was looking very messy in my journal so I made one from the same watercolor print paper as that one in order that I could glue it on the back of the existing one.

I actually started out quite arty with three different floral stamps which I masked and stamped up, and then masked all three up and overstamped with the background stamp, Stitched Mixed Media Background by Brigit Koopsen from Carabelle Studios. I stamped the background in Archival Ink Manganese Blue and then created some lovely puddles of colour using Aqua Flow pens from Tonic Studios and mopping them up. Sadly, the masks were not stuck down well and the inks all bled under them and actually created a muddy mess. I did, however, like the look of the rest of the background so I looked for a lovely big stamp to cover the original mess! Nil Desperandum as my Latin teacher used to say!

I decided on Tracy Evans Blossomed Numbers from Aall & Create and I stamped this out twice on the same watercolor print paper. I coloured both flowers with Inktense pencils and then cutting just the petals of one one I stuck the first one down and popped the spare petals underneath and between the petals of the full one.. I had to bulk it out as you could still see the mess beneath. Should have taken a photo but forgot.

I stencilled some glitter paste from Cosmic Shimmer through Lotza Dotz stencil from Aall & Create and the other stencil also from Aall is called Weathered Tiles. This one was also a disappointment. Having nearly broken my wrist getting the top off of a jar of Colourcraft Soft Relief Paste in Pearl (boy was that ever stuck fast), the darn stuff sort of melted into the background as it dried! I rescued it, I think, by going over the finished dried blobs with Pentart Metallic Wax paste in both a turquoise blue and soft lilac so that you could at least see there was detail there!

The sentiment I typed out and then just edged each word with black medium nib graphic pen dots.

Now, can some kind soul PLEASE point me in the direction of white paint, or a white marker, or even a white pencil which when applied DOES NOT take up the colour of the layer beneath it. I supposed I could seal it first with gel medium or similar, but honestly life is too short to fiddle around like that for a journal page!! So my ‘sort of’ white dots are from a combination of a white paint sharpie, a posca white pen and a white acrylic paint pen, none of which diddn’t just suck up the colour below. 

I am entering this into:-

Addicted to Stamps – #171 Anything But a Square
Allsorts Challenge – #508 Spring Flowers
Art Journal Journey – The Colour Yellow
Classic Design Team Challenge – Feb: #2 Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Craft Chall – #7 Anything Goes
Crafty Creations – #384 Anything Goes
Do-Al(l) Creative – #26 Mixed Media
Not Just Cards – Feb: Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Feb: All Things Bright And Beautiful
The Corrosive Challenge – #2 Feb: Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – #13 Anything Goes

DV #196 Sparkle And Shine

Our challenge today at Dream Valley and Sponsored by Oddball Art is Sparkle and Shine

I have used one of their images called Sally’s Stars Img 292 to create my journal page.

I printed her onto Talens Watercolor Print Paper – have to say I wasn’t a fan of this paper at first as I find that actually no matter what I use the Ecoline brush pens on I cannot seem to blend them without tearing up the paper, however, for this it proved perfect! It allows you to blend copics beautifully, plus it takes other wet media really well! Anyhow I digress.

After I printed her onto the Talens paper I reprinted her onto Eclipse Masking Tape, which I had first stuck to plain old printer copy paper, and cut out her main image and the stars, which I then stuck back over her to mask her out.

Then I had some fun with the Ecoline Liquid Watercolours. I painted the who thing with plain water and then dripped and dropped to my heart’s content!

After I let it dry I removed the mask. I did end up carefully adding some more to the left hand edge as I had not put enough down.

I coloured her in with my copics.

I made a star border from a Carabelle Studio die, by cutting some silver glittery card, which I then coloured with the same coloured copics I used to decorate the three stars in the image. The spare stars from inside the diecut were used to decorate down the right hand side of the paper. And I glossy accented the three main printed stars to provide the shine, whilst the glitter card provided the sparkle.

I finally cut this down to fit in my Dylusions Creative Flip Journal and rounded the edges with an Xcut corner rounder punch. I stuck the page into my journal with plain washi tape. I have a set from Dyan in three different sizes perfect for this or printing your own images on.

I enjoyed this because it meant I could add a digital image into my Journal without having to fussy cut it and add it to the page later. Now that I have seen how well it worked I will try it again. I will have to anyway as the backside of this sheet is MESSY and looks awful in the journal and I feel sure that anything I add to the other side may well show through on this side. So I will stick them both together to form a completely new page.

I am entering this into:-

A Inky Mess – #22 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Addicted to Stamps – #171 Anything But a Square
Alphabet Challenge – X is for Xtra Bling
Colour Crazy Challenge – #6 Anything Goes
Creative Artiste – #46 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Creative Playground – #2 Anything Goes
Do-Al(l) Creatives – #26 Mixed Media
Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge – Feb: Anything goes
Happy Little Stampers Dies – Feb: Anything Goes
Oddball Art Stamps – Feb: anything Goes
Polkadoodles – #7 Anything Goes
Your Next Stamp – #107 Die Cuts
Stamping Sensations – Feb: All Things Bright and Beautiful
We Love 2 Create – #2 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

CCM #227 Love, Love, Love

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Love.

I made my card for my Daughter and Son-in-Law’s Wedding Anniversary.

I started with a nice white sheet and coloured it up with Distress Oxides, adding some splatters of water and some pixie powders on the top. I used this to create the back mat and also the hearts and the background for the sentiment.

The hearts and sentiment, which I stamped and embossed with white ink and embossing powder are both from Wendy Vecchi’s Studio 490 Love to Make Art stamp set. Having stamped the hearts I fussy cut them and added them and the sentiment on foam pads.

The gorgeous diecut was also cut from the main sheet I created using a Tattered Lace die, Detailed Flourish D218.

I am entering this into::-

Artistic Stamper – Feb: Heart It
Card Mania – #113 Love Is In The Air
Catch The Bug – Love Is In The Air
Challenge Up Your Life – #105 Love
Ching-Chou Kuik – Feb: Love
Creatalicious – #156 Anything Goes with Option Love/Hearts
Creative Craft Cottage – #115 Valentines
Creative With Stamps – #35 Love
Daisy Chain Challenges – #27 Have a Heart
Dare2BArtzy – Feb: Love
Di’s Digi Challenge – All About Love
Die Cut Divas – Feb: Love Is In The Air
Digi Doodle Studios – #13 All About Love
Dragonfly Dreams – Include a Heart
International Heart & Soul – #51 Make Your Own Background
Lost Coast Portal – #69 Love and Hearts
SheepSki Designs – #23 All You Need Is Love
Sognando Scrap – #64 Love Is
Sweet Stampin’ – Valentines
We Love 2 Create – #2 Anything Mixed Media Goes