My Girl

This is my first DT piece as a new member of the Anything But a Card team.  I am so excited to have been asked to join the talented group of DT gals and love that there is such a wide range of projects created for each challenge.  Scrapbooking, altered art, canvases, bags, boxes  ... the list goes on and on! Why not take 5 minutes to check out the fantastic projects that have been made and see how inspirational they are!

So, I am continuing my scrapbooking journey of creating a blended style.  I chose to have a play with a box of gorgeous oil pastels I purchased some time back but hadn't really got to grips with.  They are so soft and creamy to work with that I can't believe I have had them languishing on a shelf for so long!

I used them to create my heart and blended them out with a sponge dabber before sealing them with Judikins micro glaze.

I cut the lacy edge with a Martha Stewart punch and mounted my photo onto that before blending it into the page with molding paste and vintage book pages.  Once dry, I spritzed it all over with Shimmerz Sea Foam and Chalkboard Peacock.    I used some liquid acrylic (Golden) to add finishing blends to the pasted area.

White acrylic painted through sequin waste added the textured dots and I stamped the hollyhocks (Donna Downey stamp) with black Archival. 


I stamped and cut out the dragonfly was stamped and colouring his body with Stewart Gill Byzantia paint which has the most gorgeous sheen.  I used a silver ice stickle for the wings.

The final touch was to tint some of the flowers to match the colour scheme and stamp my title.

I hope you are all finding time to complete all your crafty projects at this busy time of year.  I'm enjoying everyone's blogs and seeing all their gorgeous creations.  I'm nearly done now for 2012 as we about to leave for Christmas and New Year in the sunshine!  I hope to still pop by everyone's blogs whilst I sit with a pina colada (lol!) but I may not be able to leave feedback to please bear with me!!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and New Year and a big thank you to everyone who leaves me such kind and thoughtful feedback.  It means so much and inspires me to keep moving forward in my creative endeavours! xx

 

I am not who I was yesterday ...

I've just bought this absolutely gorgeous stamp by Phyllis Harris and am looking for any excuse to use it.  So, as I had to make a card for a friend's birthday, it seemed like a good excuse.

It's a really simple card - I embossed my little girl before swiping acrylic paint lightly across the card.  I then wiped it back off her with a baby wipe.

The edge of the card is embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Golden Sparkle which is another of my favourite things at the moment.  The sentiment is by Donna Downey and is stamped with StazOn onto a small metal tag.

The card looks really sweet in real life - something which doesn't really translate well in the photo.

So, that's it for cards.  They are not my favourite things to make and so extra coffee and chocolate has been consumed this afternoon to get me going!  Downside is that I'm going to have to work a bit harder at the gym tonight to make amends!!

Hope you are having a creative day wherever you are.  The weather here is doing its best to dash all creativity - it's dark grey, windy and wet!  Welcome to autumn in England!! x

Woodland Bird House

 

I bought this MDF birdhouse last week at The Big Stamp Show held at Alexandra Palace in London.  It is actually a money box with a slot in the roof, but as I have no use for that, I covered the slot when I made my new roof!

The roof is covered with Ten Second Studio metal which I have embossed and sanded.  I wanted to add a decorative roof edging so I used Art Parts by Studio 490 which I painted and stamped.

I altered the entire birdhouse to look like white peeling weathered wood and I stamped leaves and flowers in chalk ink using some gorgeous new stamps by Differentcolors who are based in The Netherlands.  A few Lost Coast butterflies finished the background.  The picket fence is an alterations die which I painted with dabbers in two shades.

The birds and branch are by Maya road.  I painted the branch with acrylic paint and covered the birds in old text before tinting them using distress markers.  I added a small crystal for an eye and part embossed the larger bird with some Golden Sparkle embossing powder by Cosmic Shimmer which I got at the Show.  The little nest is from The Range;  it came in a pack of 6 around Easter time and I tinted the eggs with alcohol ink.  The butterfly is a download from Divas D'Este.

The final addition was the sentiment which is a Unity Stamp by Donna Downey. 

On this side, I cut some tattered florals in grungeboard and coloured them with distress inks before overstamping them with patterns.  The stems are made from a coffee spatula (thanks to Costa Coffee!) which I tinted with Walnut Stain distress.

The bee is  Stampotique stamp by Jo Capper-Sandon.

For the other side I stamped and cut out a tree by Stampotique and sat my crows, also Stampotique, on its branches.

It was really fun making this house, which is for my new studio.  I'm entering it into 'Lots of Layers' challenge on Try it on Tuesday, into 'Birds, Butterflies & Bees' challenge with The Stamp Man and also Challenge 3 on Anything But a Card

Have a happy day ...  x

 

Birthday Wishes

I've had a great time making this card for a good friend of mine.  It's her birthday and I wanted to make a card more along the lines of art journalling.

I can't take the credit for the design as it was inspired by a photo of a canvas created by Donna Downey (wish I could dream up such fab ideas!) 

I started with a page torn from Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book which has great script and I added the photo of the girls which is one I have on my computer is one of my favourite images. 

I used gesso either 'neat' or diluted across my page in a very random way and them did the same with a turquiose acrylic paint (I used Lagoon by Dyan Reavely but any other would be fine).

I cut my bunting from a sheet of type canvas and punched eyelets into it with a Crop-o-Dile.  I then painted the flags a bit with white acrylic before threading them onto the string.

My flower is by Prima and I used white acrylic to give it a bit more punch and blend it into my layout.  The stalk is also string which I painted with Lime acrylic paint.

I'm really pleased with the end result and hope it is well received ...

Thanks Donna for inspiring me!  x