Dream Valley 91 Lace and Ribbon

Our challenge at Dream Valley is Lace and Ribbon, and we have a mystery prize?

Please pop on over and have a look as the team have created some gorgeous designs, AND we are also running a DT call.

I started with the Justrite Elegant Fronds background stamp, which I stamped with versamark and embossed with white detail powder. I can see this stamp becoming a firm favourite. I then rubbed in the four Tropical Gelatos and blended them in. The versamark acted as a resist so after rubbing it left the gelatos in the background only. I diecut two borders from Our Daily Bread and threaded purple chiffon ribbon through the edges and used them to square the background up a little. The fence is from JoyCrafts. The branch is from Memory Box and the bird and birdbox are from Marianne.

I stamped my Prima Doll onto plain white cardstock and coloured her in with copics. I glittered up her bow, top of her dress, hem of her dress and buttons on her shoe with glitter glue. I made the skirt part of her dress from a piece of scallop edged lace and I stitched it in place as I found that even Cosmic Shimmer glue didn’t want to hold the pleats in place.

I twisted some of the purple chiffon ribbon to form a lead to her toy bird on wheels. I also glittered the wheels of the toy, and glazed her shoes, but that sadly isn’t showing up here too well. A few gems for the flowers on the branch finished it off.

I am entering this into the following:-

A Creative Need – Sept: Textures and/or patterns
Always Something Creative – #83 Children
Bunny Zoe – Sept: Lace
Creative Corner – Favourite colours
Lia Stampz – #73 Lavender and Lace (hope you didn’t mean monochromatic lavender, but just that there is some on the card!)
Miriam’s Crafting Blog – #16 Kids
Outlawz PAM – Use a Die Or Punch
Penny’s Challenge – #195 Embossing Wet or Dry
PPinkydolls – #3 Anything Goes or Make it Girly
Scrapyland – #2 Heat Embossing
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Stamps and Stencils
Stamplorations – Sept: Stamps and Markers
Stamps & Fun = Creativity – #217 Selfmade Background

CCM 123 Ribbons/Lace and Pearls

Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers today is Ribbons/Lace and Pearls.

I printed some paper from a set call Sweet Forget Me Nots. The image is Sarah Kay, coloured with my copics and the diecuts are all from Joycrafts. I nearly went and purchased the one at the top twice by mistake. Wandering around blogland a week or so back I spotted it in use and decided I had to have it. So over to IconUK I trotted and put it into my basket and then something made me go and check my order history and sure enough I had ordered it (Joy Crafts Flourishes Border) six months ago at the same time as I ordered the lovely rectangle which came with the corner here and one other corner (Joy Crafts Flourishes Rectangle and Corners). Whoops, nearly an expensive mistake! The flowers are Sweetheart Blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts, and the lace was in my stash and I coloured it with a couple of the colours I used on the image. Pearls were already mauve and in my stash.

I am entering this into:-

Bunny Zoe Crafts – Sept: Lace
Cards and Scrap – #82 Everything Is Allowed
Cuttlebug Mania – Anything Die Cut
Die Cut Divas – Sept: New Things (my flowers)
Ecclectic Ellapu – Sept: Purple Team: Ladies Birthday
OSAAT – #219 Anything Goes With a Die
Paradise of Stamps – #2 Anything Goes
The Cheerful Stampad – #95 Birthday Card
The Sailing Pineapple – #17 Use A Die Cut
Through The Craft Room Door – Anything Goes

ABC T Tic, Tac, Toe

We have a Tic, Tac, Toe challenge for you this time at ABC. You must pick a line either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, and use the things in that line in your project.

I went with the diagonal top left to bottom right, Stitching, Sentiment, and Lace

My background is a gorgeous Justrite stamp, stamped with brilliance ink in three colours. The die is Spellbinders Tranquil Moments, and the sentiment was from Stamp It Australia (I think!). Flowers were from Wild Orchid Crafts, one of our sponsors, and also from my stash. Our other Sponsor is StampArt Design by Kathryne.

I am entering this into:-

Bearly Mine – Sept: Autumnal Colour Challenge
Die Cut Divas – Sept: New Things (Just Rite Elegant Fronds Stamp)
Cuttlebug Mania – Anything Die Cut
Dies R Us – #10 Fall Festival
Oldie But Goodie – Autumn ( my oldie is the orange punched leaves!)
Mema’s Crafts – Sept: Color Fall Challenge
OSAAT – #219 Anything Goes With a Die
PDE Linky Party – Stitching Real or Faux
Seema Crafts – Autumn Is Coming
Stempelgarten – #29 Autumn
Whimsie Doodles – Sept: Autumnal Colours

The Mirror Crack’d - 01 Anything Goes

I have a brand new blog launched just yesterday for all your mixed media/altered art style challenges. There is a fantastic global team of very talented ladies and we can be found at The Mirror Crack’d.

Our very first challenge is nice and easy and is an Anything Goes challenge. So as long as it isn’t wholly digital, or a card, and is mixed media or altered art we would love to see it.

I have never made anything like this myself, as I am a bit too regimented with how I create. I struggle with things that aren’t uniform and symetrical so whilst the new blog will be challenging all sorts of people (I hope) it will also be challenging me too!

Anyhow here is my very first project, which I hope you will enjoy.

It’s a place mat! And it started life looking like this

Ugly looking isn’t it! I was after something I could practice on that wouldn’t cost a fortune, like canvasses or art journals and I spotted a whole big box of these down the local recycling centre. £2 for 40 of the large mats, 30 slightly smaller and around 20 coasters ….. not bad eh??

However they do require some work to make them ready for creating with. As I could well imagine paint etc. not wanting to stick to that shiny surface, so I set too with my little Black and Decker sander (boy was that messy) and removed the patterned layer, and white layer beneath to reveal the mdf or ply (not sure which) base.

 

After it was prepared I applied a couple of layers of gesso and left it to dry out fully.

The next step was to colour it with gelatos, apply a few random stamped images, and also stencil the text about ‘best friends’.

As you can see, I intended this to be a portrait design, but in the event it ended up as a landscape one instead, so the text was on it’s side.

I had to emboss the stamped images too, for some reason the Distress Ink just didn’t want to dry against the gelatoed background. I also used a damask stencil and wiped away some of the gelatos to reveal the white gesso underneath.

I could see that nothing was gonna stay put so I gave it a good spray with inkjet fixative before going onto the next process.

I stamped up and coloured in all these fabulous Doo Lally Pip images from Lindsay Mason, in bright shades of copics and then glued them on with mod podge. I also created the sentiment on my pc and stuck that down too, but it didn’t look finished. I have to admit to being scared I would completely ruin it if I went any further. Normally with a card it wouldn’t worry me, but it did take me a long time sanding down the place mat to start with and I didn’t want to waste all that effort, but I bravely went on after some encouragement from my team!

And this is what I finished up with….. I added some glitter glue to their clothes, I darkened some highlights with Faber Castell Big Brush Pens, applied some areas of texture paste, some in gold pearl, some in white, some with the same damask stencil I used to remove the gelatos earlier and some random stencils from Tim Holtz and other people. The texture paste in white ended up flattening down a bit when it dried, which was not the look I was going for so those areas I went over with the big brush pens and then rubbed the ink off before it fully dried, so there is just a hint of the colour.

I also added a few little stamped insects. It’s not exactly a work of art, but for my first attempt and bearing in mind how buttoned up I normally am, I was quite pleased with it. I do hope as the blog evolves so will my crafting!

Anyhow please come and see what the rest of the team have created, I promise you it’s not as poor as my effort, and if you are so inclined then why not join in the fun and enter something of your own?

I’m going to risk embarrassment and enter my efforts here:-

Altered Eclectics – Sept: Anything Goes
Art By Miran – #14 Anything Goes
CMD challenge – Everything Including Copics was used
Copic Marker Europe – #13 Anything Goes with Copics
Crafting By Designs – Sept: Anything Goes
Dragons Lair Design – Anything but a Card
Moo-Mania & More – Recycle something
Rhedd’s Creative Spirit – Sept: Anything altered art Goes
Scrapper’s Delight – #29 Anything Goes Twist New Beginnings…… first challenge on my new blog?
Simon Says Stamp – Sept: Stamp It and Blog Hop

CCM 122 Make an Impression

It’s a new challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers today and we would like to see you Make an Impression, or in other words emboss something! Dry embossing only please, not stamped and embossed with powder.

I started with an image from Fitztown from their Fae range and coloured her with Copics and Prisma pencils for highlights. I also added a little glamour dust to areas of her wings and the hem of her dress.

My background is an embossing folder. After embossing it I highlighted the paisley’s with a sakura stardust pen, to match the gorgeous purple mirri card surrounding the background, and creating the mat and the sentiment. The diecuts are from Joycraft (the background mat) and Britannia (the sentiment), Marianne, the diecuts in the floral corner. The flowers, feathers and curling ribbon were all in my stash.

I am entering this into:-

4 Crafty Chicks – #209 Something Old, Something New (the flowers-old, the image-new)
Come and Get It Challenges – Things With Wings
Copic Markers Europe – Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts – #52 Whimsical Wings
Fitztown – #51 Fantasy
Red Rubber Inspirationals – #135 Stay Focused on Stamping: Anything Goes
Robyn’s Fetish – #227 Use a Digi
Southern Girls – It’s All About the Texture
Sweet Stampin’ – Embossing
We Do Doobadoo – #13 Add Textures

Lexi’s Creations 124 Sparkle and Shine

Hi and welcome to another Lexi’s Creations challenge. We are inviting you to Sparkle and Shine for this one. We are sponsored by Fairy Dust Crafts.

I have used a stamp from a new company, Scrap Berry, which was ridiculously cheap! The set came with the image and a couple of sentiments too. It’s called Wonderful Day and for such a cheap stamp, it stamped beautifully. I coloured it with copics, and then cut it out.

I have followed a sketch from CAS.

My papers are from Bo Bunny’s Zip-A-Dee-Doodle’s pad. I put the sentiment paper through a swiss dots embossing folder before layering it up with the zig zag paper, then I sprayed the whole lot with Crafters Companion’s Spray and Sparkle and to make sure it was sparkling I also added glamour dust on top.

I am entering this into:-

Brown Sugar – #109 Anything Goes
CAS Colours and Sketches – #89 Sketch
Creative Corner – Anything Goes
Fresh Brewed Designs – August 2 Glitter Galore
Frosted Designs – Break Out The Stamps
Hiding in my Craftroom – #163 Freestyle
Just Us Girls – #256 Wildcard
Little Miss Muffett – #93 Blues and Greens
Little Red Wagon – #252 Girl Power
Suzy Bee’s Bloomin Challenge – #44 Anything Goes