A recycled canvas plus snippets ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  I’ve another couple of new Followers, hello and welcome to Lesley and Ameera Crafts, I hope you like what you see and if you ever have any questions leave me a comment and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I possibly can. 

This month seems to have shot by!  I know I’m not blogging as often as I thought I would but I’m not worried about that especially as I am having so much fun just playing with loads of lovely old and new stash! 

Here is the canvas …

  

This is a 5" x 7" canvas 

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

Country View Challenge Anything Goes

Inspiration Journal Challenge Spring Blooms

Mixed Media World Challenge #1 Anything Goes

Pan Pastel Challenge #7 Spring Colours

Pixie’s Playground Challenge #170 snippets

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge Pastels

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

That’s Crafty Challenge Gold & Silver 

The Artistic Stamper Challenge Spring is Coming

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Birds of a Feather

WOW Embossing Powder Challenge Spring

I do have step by step photographs of what I did and how I did it.  If you would like to see let me know and I will do a mini step by step on a blog page above.

When I created the first canvas I was pleased that I had finally managed to get up the courage to create something that wasn’t a card lol!  I actually used one of my favourite stamp sets on that canvas too.  I coloured the canvas with inks and then stamped and heat embossed directly onto it with Sheena’s corner stamp.  I don’t think I’d do that again as it was a nightmare to get a solid stamped image and it’s been a nightmare to get rid of that lol!  Thank goodness for DecoArt white gesso!

This is one of the projects that I have been working on for a while and I finally managed to finish and photograph it yesterday which is why I can now share it with you.  Once again it’s been a learning experience and there are techniques and products I would use and do again but of course there are always things I would never do again!

I like this, yes it is shabby style, but I love the beautiful soft spring colour scheme with punches of richer colours here and there because it was needed.  I love the texture I was able to achieve although I don’t think I’d use the mesh in the same way next time.  Live and learn and much fun I’m having doing so too!  I hope you all like it too and I hope to be back in a couple of days with another creation to share.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do coming Easter weekend ttfn Karen x

Tools:
Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Memory Box dies: Cherry Blossom; Bare Branch

Marianne Designs Creatable: LR016 Chinese Rolled Rose dies (leaves)

Claritystamp Ltd: mini Hummingbird stamp

Tando Creative: Sequin Waste mask

Martha Stewart mold

Heat gun; palette knife; paint brushes; pot of water

Stash:

Card/Paper/Fabric

The Works 5” x 7” canvas

White mesh fabric from local store

Hobbycraft store: Fimo Air Dry Light Clay

Snippets Crafters Companion A4 Card: Kraft; Centura Pearl Snow White Accents

Colours

That’s Crafty online shop - DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid: primary magenta

That’s Crafty online shop - DecoArt Americana Satin Acrylic Paints: turquoise waters; vanilla shake

WOW EP: WS07 Metallic Rich Gold embossing glitter

The Works Crawford & Black acrylic paints: copper; gold; and silver

Spectrum Noir Aquatints: basic primary set to colour the jigsaw pieces

H20 paints to colour the centre of the cherry blossom flowers

Adhesives & Mediums

That’s Crafty online shop - DecoArt: white gesso

Maimeri modelling medium

Maimeri Glossy Gel

Versamark IP

Embellishments

Dutch Doobadoo: Soft Board Jigsaw Pieces

A card created with many different products ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  Once I finished some projects over the weekend I had a little mixed media fluid on my craft mat on my desk and some cream pearl card that I recently found and here is what I whipped up …

  

A 150mm square card and great for posting

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

Crafty Individuals Challenge: The Animal World

(use one CI stamp/product: I use one of 3 CI stamp sets I have)

Lisa B Designs Spring Water Colours

Mixed Media World Challenge #1 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge Pastels

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

The Artistic Stamper Challenge Spring is Coming

Recently I found a pile of cream coloured pearl card squares and I was scratching my head for a moment as I don’t use that card colour.  A light bulb went off and I think they are the left over’s from my cousins wedding stationery.  They've been in my stash for five or six year’s lol!  So rather than waste my mixed media fluid I grabbed a stencil and foam and added the fluid through the stencil until it was used up.  Once dry I added a thin layer of Pebeo Matt Medium over the mixed media fluid because I was worried it might bleed out.

I also found some Kanban printed card that once again I can’t remember so I’m guessing that I am getting through a lot of old stash as well as working on new techniques and mixed media projects.  Other than Christmas cards too so I am working very hard to use that up as well! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do this week  ttfn Karen x

Tools:

Crafty Individuals Elements A6 Plate stamp set: CI-234 Bird, Branches & Cages

Retro Café Art Gallery: small Heart Tree stencil

Craft mat; spray bottle of water; paint brushes

Stash:

Card Paper:  cream pearl card #; Kanban card #

Colours:

DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid: burnt umber; primary magenta

Old ink pads: used as watercolours for the background/scene

green and brown felt tip pens

Glues: foam pads

# VOS + 8 years minimum

For the Christmas present box ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend was great and your week has started well.  Last week I got another of my Imagination Crafts MDF Frame and Charm packs out to decorate because I love them and enjoy altering them a lot.  Here is the finished project … 

It's a 150mm square MDF board

I just realised not stamping!

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge F for Frosty
Darnell’s NBUS Challenge #4: I’ve had these plaques for at least three years!

DL Art March Thankful Thursday Challenge Anything Goes

Imagination Crafts Challenge: Anything Goes

Scribble & Scrap Challenge #41 Always Anything Goes

I wanted to try something different with one of my Imagination Crafts MDF Frame and Charm packs which contain:

150mm MDF square charm pack, the MDF shapes pop out of it;

150mm MDF frame with a square (50mm) aperture which pops out;

150mm MDF square backing piece; and

43mm square piece.

It’s already good value but I wanted to use in the best and frugal way lol!  I’ve hung onto the 150mm square MDF charm piece and I have used it as a stencil for this project.

I painted the 150mm square MDF piece with the MDF Baltic Blue paint which just happened to be ideal for the project I have been thinking about doing for the last week or two.  I put to one side to dry and added another layer of the paint, IC’s MDF paint does dry quickly so I only had to wait about 15 minutes before adding the second coat of paint.  I had other projects I needed to do and I didn’t have the time to do more until the next day.

I attached one piece of ombré satin ribbon with masking tape and put a couple of dots of Collall Tacky Glue underneath to make sure it stuck. 

On my craft mat I mixed Turquoise Satin and Blue Brocade Silkie paints with Diamond Sparkle Medium.  I attached the MDF charm stencil with Washi tape and I used a stencil brush through the stencil.  I covered the bottom of the first ribbon with it and filled the rest of the bauble with the sparkly paint paste. 

I left it to dry thoroughly (overnight) before moving onto the second bauble and ribbon.  Once all of the baubles were dry I tied some tiny ribbon bows and attached them to hide the top of the ribbon and used a piece of foam to add Diamond Sparkle Medium around the edges of the 150mm square MDF plaque.  It took a little time but I think it was worth it and I’m pretty sure my mum will love it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do this week  ttfn Karen x

                     

Tools:

Imagination Crafts stencil/charm holder; paint brushes; pot of water; pallette knife; foam

Stash:

Imagination Crafts: 010 Dove MDF Frame and Charm set

Colours

Imagination Crafts: MDF Baltic Blue paint

Imagination Crafts: Turquoise Satin and Blue Brocade Silkies

Imagination Crafts: Diamond Sparkle Medium

Glues:

Washi tape

Collall Tacky Glue

Embellishments:

Blue Ombré ribbon from the stash I won from Hazel, at least two years ago

Christmas Card Club #7 Mo's Choice Feature a Critter/s ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend is going well.  It was nice and sunny for a change this morning although the wind was blowing a holey!

This fortnight has shot by and I have been busy creating things for challenges and other secret squirrel stuff lol!  I made the time yesterday to whip up a Christmas card because it’s our lovely Mo’s choice this fortnight and we were challenged to feature a critter or more.  I used a snippet of Centura Pearl Snow White to create the topper/stamped panel, snippets of white and cream card to die cut the deer’s which I watercoloured with an old ink pad.  I created the background with my torn paper masks, Pan Pastels, Visible Image trees and winter tree stamp set, and old Adirondack ink pads.  It was a quick creation which looks good and is great for posting.  I’m going to spend some time whipping up some Pan Pastel winter landscapes ready for stamping so that I have a pile of snowy scenes ready and waiting – they are one of my favourites to create.  So here is my latest Christmas card …

One more created & great for posting 

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge F for Frosty

Allsorts Challenge #304 Feature a Creature

Country View Challenge Anything Goes

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Challenge #222 Stick It Any Way

DL Art March Thankful Thursday Challenge Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly Challenge A Cut Above: die cutting

Pixie’s Playground Challenge #170 snippets

Scribble & Scrap Challenge #41 Always Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations Challenge One for the Guys

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do next week ttfn Karen x

Tools:

Visible Image: winter tree stamp; fir tree stamp set

Cuttlebug die cutting machine; Memory Box deer die

Paper Masks; Pan Pastel Sofft Tools; paintbrushes; pot of water

Stash:

Card Paper: Kanban card #; snippet Crafter’s Companion Centura Pearl snow white accents card; snippet DP matt #; snippets of white and cream card for die cutting

Colours: Pan Pastels; SU grunge/vintage colour mini ink pads #

Adirondack IP’s:

Glues: Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue

# VOS: + 8 years minimum no idea if still available to purchase

  

March Rudolph Day ...

Hello lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well, it’s nearly the weekend.  I’ve a couple of new followers to welcome today, hello and welcome to Neets B and Kevin, I hope you like what you see and if you ever have any questions please leave me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can if possible.

Before I share my card I want to thank everyone who left such positive and lovely comments on my very basic doodles – I was terrified about sharing them because I’m no fine artist but I love to doodle! 

I will be sharing more doodles and other stuff in future because I think I’m over the fear/terror of sharing my doodles with you and because I won an awesome step by step drawing book from Unruly PaperArts in January and I’m a bit obsessed with that right now.  Oh yes it’s so much fun and I’m feeling very blessed because of that lol!

Today I have a Christmas card to share with and here it is …

  

Another A6 card ready to go 

Got to use up old stash and some snippets too!

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Card Challenge CHNC221 Christmas Song:

The Christmas Song aka Baubles 
Crafty Hazel’s Patterned Paper Challenge Anything Goes

DL Art March Thankful Thursday Challenge Anything Goes

Imagination Crafts Challenge: Anything Goes

Pixie’s Playground Challenge #169 Snippets

Scrappy Mo’s Rudolph Day Challenge March

I need more Imagination Crafts stencils and Silkies paints because I love them and they’re great for creating quick Christmas cards and even though I’m on a different journey right now we’ll still need them, lol!  Last year I ended up rushing because mum wanted/needed more cards so I had to give her some of the ones I had made for us, she’s done that to me in the past, this year she is finally retiring from work so I hope she won’t need as many and that means December will be a lot less stressful.  I’m hoping that when December does arrive all I’ll have to worry about is approximately six special cards – I had the regular sized ones made and ready to write until mum pinched them lol!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do over the weekend ttfn Karen x

Tools:

Imagination Crafts Christmas Holly Stencil

Ranger Cut N Dry Ink blending foam

Stash:

Card/Paper:

Crafters Companion: A4 Centura Snow White Accent snippet for panel; A4 Kraft for base

QVC UK: Imaginations Paper set (an American company) #

Colours:

Imagination Crafts Silkies Sunshine Satin and Turquoise Satin

Embellishments:

Imaginations Set as above Bubble Sticker #

The Ribbon Girl Pleated Ribbon

Glues:

Double sided tape; masking tape

#VOS: mum purchased it from QVC for me at least five years old and possibly a lot more older than that

  

Waffle and my doodles, I'm very nervous ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well – Happy Hump Day everyone!  When I first set up this new blog I typed a post as to the why’s and what I wanted to achieve. 

So here is what I am doing when I’m not blogging and please remember that until January 2015 I had not picked up a pencil and doodled for more than twenty years …

 

I have always drawn these shaped flowers, like a snowdrop, and the leaf on the LHS 

I've always loved owls and doodled them for years

I definitely prefer the whimsical and it's improving each time

I do love Clarice Cliff pottery but sadly own none!

I am sure I've seen a stamp or stamps like this before lol!

At school I attended art classes but when my family left London I ended up in a different school which meant I could not carry on with my arts because I had to do a science (a complete waste of time for me and the teacher) but I was able to continue my O Level Sewing Skills which I loved.

When DH and I got married he knew I was an avid crafter and I did a lot of sewing back then.  I was working full time in London and by the time I got home and we had dinner and all the other stuff there wasn’t much time for artsy pursuits.  

I was hurt in a car accident and looked around for a hobby to fill the days and went back to sewing and doing a little doodling when I could.  Then I was in a second car accident and we moved here a few months after.  

I was able to find a local weekly course that was art and watercolour class.  I was never 100% happy with my drawings and paintings and I was unsure of myself.  Card making started to take off in the UK and I thought stamping would satisfy the craftsy side of my personality, having created/made stuff on an off all my life.

Over the last year I started to want to do more and wishing so hard that I had kept up with some of my studies, courses and practising those art skills.  So I've been doodling a little, especially flowers and leaves since before Christmas.  I know I need a lot of practise.  But it is loads of fun and I’m actually enjoying it, which I really did not expect to happen.  Personally I think it’s the lovely Sarn’s fault lol!  Sharing your awesome tangles with us made something in my brain click lol!

Hopefully I will have more time to practise my doodles and sketching when I feel able and if I can improve my decorative painting well enough I will definitely try to create my tribute to Clarice Cliff as I love her bold use of colour.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do this week  ttfn Karen x

Stash:

Card Paper: a very old blank notepad #

Pencils, charcoal and other #

# VOS + 10 years old

Another MM bird Tag ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend was good and your week has started well.  Today I have another MM Arch to share with you and here is how I coloured the original arch and created the coloured card that I stamped and embossed the bird onto …

The dried arch was a little too orange in colour so I grabbed the pink paint and added a light wash of colour that I darkened as I went further down the page.  Once dry I wanted a bling arch so I added Dreamweaver gold embossing paste through my Sequin Waste stencil (Tando).  I then left it overnight to make sure it was dry before moving onto the next steps.

I stamped the bird cage onto some recycled white tissue paper and blast it before adhering it to the arch with the Maimeri medium.

A final look!

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

Crafty Individuals Challenge: The Animal World

(use one CI stamp/product: I use one of 3 CI stamp sets I have)
Frilly & Funkie Challenge Bring On The Bling: plenty on this cute creation

Pan Pastel Challenge #6 Alter It: cereal boxes and tissue paper

Tando Creative Challenge Colour Pallette

That’s Crafty Challenge Wings & Things

I’m having lots of fun learning MM basics and techniques from Roni but this arch is about me and the fun I’m having finding out what I like, what works well for me and what doesn’t.   When I was halfway through this project I was not 100% happy.  So I went back and played more but using colours, stamps and embellishments that I really like and love.  A fabulous bonus is that I used some very old stash too!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do this week  ttfn Karen x

Tools:

Crafty Individuals stamp set: Elements A6 Plate CI-234 Birds, Branches & Cage stamp set

Inspiration Journal On-Line shop: Dina Wakley Scribbly Bird stamp set (thank you Darnell)

Tando Creative: Sequin Waste stencil (thank you Tando Creative Challenge)

Martha Stewart butterfly mould (thank you DH)

Heat gun; pallette knife; pot of water; paintbrushes

Stash:

Card Paper:

Cereal Box card

Tissue paper from a parcel

Page from an old journal I am recycling, see here for the full post and pictures of before #

Colours:

That’s Crafty DecoArt Americana Multi Surface Satin Acrylic paint: deep turquoise; turquoise waters; vanilla shake; flamingo

That’s Crafty DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid: raw umber

The Works Crawford & Black acrylic paints: ultra marine; brown; copper; rose; white

Ranger Perfect Pearls Pigment Powders: perfect bronze; perfect gold; copper; forever violet; perfect pearl #

Gold Dreamweaver Embossing Paste #

Embellishments:

Cotton lace #; pink grosgrain ribbon

Butterfly created with Fimo Air Dry Light Paper Clay

Glues:

Double sided tape; foam pads; Stix 2 Hot Glue Gun (thank you Brenda)

Other:  Maimeri Gloss Gel (thank you Pan Pastel Challenge)

# VOS + 5 years minimum

Mixed Media Kingfisher Arch ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week was good and your weekend has had a good start.  Oh my goodness I picked up a lot of new Followers over the last week or so!  I want to welcome the following lovely ladies:

my lovely sister from another mother Helen

my lovely friends: Di (aka Pixie’s Snippets Challenge); Kate, Rocky, the very talented Debs (aka Zodiac Challenge), Annie, Eileen, Julie Ann, AJ Bodine 

my American friend: Darnell,

my new friends: Maryvonne, Ursula, and BSL 60 

I have another mixed media experiment to share with you today.  Am I making you all aware of how fun and enjoyment I am having right now lol?  I have quite a few projects on the go because of how long it talks the acrylic paint to dry.  I’ve tried drying the paint slowly with my heat gun but no matter what I do it bubbles, lol, so I’m taking my time and enjoying every step and process.  Today I’ve another arch to share with you and here it is …

The finished arch 

  

From left hand side was the first go which I wasn't happy with so out came the gesso again!

A final look - love the texture I achieved in the foreground!

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

Inspired by Stamping Customer Gallery March  

Rubber Dance Stamps Challenge Colour Pallette: lime; orange & yellow 

 That’s Crafty Challenge Wings & Things

The Artistic Stamper Challenge Spring is Coming

The Craft Barn 2016 Calendar Challenge: March yellow and a rabbit/s

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Birds of a Feather

When I first started this journey I followed Ink Stain Roni’s step by step blog posts and I was terrified.  I know, I know it’s dumb but I really was terrified that I’d make something ugly or too primitive.  You told me to believe in myself, to trust and to experiment, to not worry what others thought.  You reminded me that this is about my journey and not care what others say or don’t say.  Thank you so much for that! 

I’ve still much to learn and a lot more to improve on but today’s arch was created because I wanted to create it.  I wanted to see what I would create with recycled card, recycled tissue paper, acrylic paints, a stamp, die cuts and really old flowers. 

Below are the step by steps of how I created this I’m trying to make my posts with a lot less waffle but I really do struggle to do that!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do this weekend  ttfn Karen x

Tools:

Inspired by Stamping: Australian Nature 1 stamp set

Cuttlebug die cutting machine; Memory Box branch die

Pot of water; spray bottle of water; paintbrushes

Stash:

Card Paper: recycled cereal box to create arch; snippets white tissue paper to cover arch; snippets white card to stamp onto; snippets for die cutting

Colours: DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid: brown

DecoArt Americana Satin Finish Paints: vanilla shake; turquoise waters

Pebeo Acrylic Paints: green; white; yellow

Ranger Perfect Pearls: copper/rust shades were used to colour the kingfisher #

Felt tip markers/pens

Embellishments: Yellow flowers #

Glues: Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue

# VOS + 5 years – not sure if still available to buy and I have no idea where the flowers came from

I’ve used this beautiful stamp on my card art creations and I can remember stamping and colouring him six or more times before creating one that I was happy to use on one of my cards.  That obsession I had to stamp and colour him/it ‘perfectly’ and that wasn’t good for me, so this time I did not allow myself to repeatedly stamp and colour until my kingfisher was as near to perfect as he could be. 

If he was not quite right I knew I could add more paint, colour, pen until I was happy with him and that’s exactly what I finally managed to do this time.

I cut up a cereal box to so that I could recycle it and created an arch, which I coloured with white acrylic paint and once dry I added a couple of layers of tissue paper and glue and allowed it to dry naturally.

When I went back to it I was happy to see that there was a textured surface so I started to paint grass, clouds and sky.  Again I left it to whilst I grabbed three card snippets to die cut the branch from.  I glued them together and painted a deep rich brown. 

I stamped and coloured the kingfisher onto white paper snippet in very soft colours before fussy cutting him and placing him on the arch.  

He looked okay but I wasn’t completely happy.  The arch was bland and I wanted much more oomph of colour and texture.  I had used green acrylic paint for the grass and it too looked very flat or dull. 

So I grabbed more colours of acrylic paint to make the kingfisher much richer in colour (BTW I ‘Googled’ photographs of Australian kingfishers and they are much the same as other kingfishers - many different colours).   I added more colour and detail to the beautiful stamped kingfisher.

Next I covered the grass with white acrylic before adding some yellow and two different shades of green.  I was able to add much more colour and texture the second time around and I was happy with the look. 

I may be wrong about this but I think the arch has much more depth because of using richer colours and this time I deliberately kept texture in the grass by not blending the colour out – I kept the strokes in some places and I think because of that the landscape looks much better.

A sparkly gift for our box of gifts ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week was good and your weekend has started well.  Sadly I’ve not been able to sort through as much stash as I hoped this week but I’m trying to console myself with the fact that any sorting helps in the long run.

Earlier this week my embossing buddy ran out so I had to plead, um have a word with DH and was told to get one and and spend enough to get free the P&P.  I ordered an embossing buddy, a pot of IC MDF paint and an IC panel stencil from a website on Wednesday afternoon it arrived Thursday morning – yay!   Because of that I finally finished one of my projects earlier than I expected and I photographed them last night – yippee!  

So today I have a ‘thing’ to share with you.  I’m trying to create one or two ‘things’ every month and once they are made put them in a box so that we have special gifts for a birthday or Christmas.  We’re hoping that by beginning of December this year they’ll be lovely hand created gifts for family and/or friends. 

Anyways here is the really pretty ‘thing’ I created, and I think, that DH is going to try and steal because he likes it so much …

 

I used two layers of the MDF paint 

Such a pretty outcome - very happy with it!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

Bunny Zoe Crafts Challenge: Spring Colours

Country View Challenge Anything Goes

Dream It Up Challenge March into Spring

Eclectic Ellapu Challenge Anything Goes

Imagination Crafts Challenge: Anything Goes

(all products from Imagination Crafts)

Inspiration Journal Challenge Spring Blooms

Mema’s Crafts Challenge March Anything Goes

Scrap & Craft Challenge #5 Flowers

Scribble & Scrap Challenge #40 Anything Goes

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope to visit you all soon.  I also hope you get time to do what you love to do this weekend ttfn Karen x

Tools:

Imagination Crafts Woodland Flower Panel Stencil

Ranger Cut N Dry Foam Pad; paint brushes; pot of water

Stash:

Imagination Crafts:  MDF Frame & Charm set

Imagination Crafts Silkies paint: turquoise satin; sunshine satin; firecracker satin; pearl satin;

Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium: Diamond

Imagination Crafts MDF Paint: Baltic Blue

Glue: masking tape

A recycled zodiac inspired journal page ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend was good and your week has started well.  Debs at Lylac Sparkles is hosting a monthly mixed media challenge about the signs of the Zodiac.  There are lots of already documented mixed media techniques I want to try and I wanted to have a play session with some ideas of my own and I’ve some ideas of my own that I wanted to try out too.  There are quite a few recycling challenges at the moment and pairing those with the Zodiac challenge piqued my interest.  Here is the finished journal page …

An A4'ish page  

The first attempt that I didn't like 

A final look at the finished page.

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

Country View Challenge Anything Goes

Lylac Sparkle Zodiac Challenge Pisces

Mixed Media World Challenge #1 Anything Goes

Our Creative Corner Challenge Junk In Our Trunk: I'm recycling card

PaperArtsy Challenge 2015 Topic #5 Deconstruction * see below

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge: Inspired by Animals

 * whilst moving and re-organising my craft room I came across a bound folder I created years ago.  It’s about 20cm x 25cm.  It was created with Bazzill card, We Are Memory Keepers DP’s and Craftwork Cards chipboard.  I knew I wouldn’t use it for what I originally created it for so I decided to take it apart and recycle all of it which means it is perfect to enter into the recycling challenges at PaperArtsy and Our Creative Corner along with some other challenges – yippee!!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do this week  ttfn Karen x

Tools:

Lisa B Designs Online Shop: Cardio Majestix Oriental Blossom stamp set

Inspired by Stamping online shop: Little Flowers stamp set

Clarity Stamp Ltd: seahorse; small and large tropical fish; tropical fish

Paintbrushes; pot of water; spray water bottle with

Stash:

Card Paper: recycled Bazzill card; A4 Crafters Companion black card

Glues: Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue

Colours:

Ranger Adirondack IP: Denim

Ranger: Distress IPs: faded jeans; pine needles

Ranger Perfect Pearls: perfect copper; perfect bronze; forever green; sunflower sparkles; perfect pearl

That’s Crafty Online Shop: DecoArt Americana Multi Surface Satin Acrylic paint: deep turquoise; turquoise waters; vanilla shake; flamingo

The Works: white acrylic paint

Sakura: opaque white gel pen

Spring Colours with a Mixed Media Arch ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week was good and you have awesome plans for the weekend.  Today I have a mixed media arch to share with you and here it is …

 

Very much my style of mixed media 

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

Artist Trading Post Challenge Mixed Media Spring

Inspired by Stamping Challenge #91

I used three of the colours and I watercoloured the orchids

Our Creative Corner Challenge Junk In Our Trunk:

much to my lovely DH’s horror I'm recycling cereal box packaging and other stuff!

PaperArtsy Challenge 2015 Topic #5 Deconstruction * see below

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge B is for Butterflies & Blooms

That’s Crafty Challenge Wings & Things

* The topic about PaperArtsy Topic #5 is Deconstruction.  I read the post carefully as I’ve never heard of the word before the challenge started.  Once again I’ve used empty cereal box packaging to cut out into an arch.  I followed Ink Stain Roni’s tutorial for creating the background for her June calendar page.  I followed the step by steps to create the background but then I switched to my style of adding decorative details and decorations to this page.  I wanted to use lovely soft warm spring colours as well as lace, ribbon and roses.  I used the small butterfly and gorgeous orchid stamp from one of my Inspired by Stamping stamp sets.  Throwing in some lace and ribbon I created a really feminine piece, which fits me and my style perfectly lol!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do over the weekend ttfn Karen x

Tools:

Cuttlebug Die Cutting machine

Spellbinders Large Classic Circle & Large Scalloped Circle Die sets

Inspired by Stampin: Australian Nature 1 stamp set

Paintbrushes; pot of water; spray bottle with water

Stash:

Card Paper: snippets of white card for stamping onto and green pearl paper to create a mat; recycled cereal box to create the arch; ‘free’ DP/PP’s from magazines

Colours: Felt tip pens for stamping the orchid, Vintage DP for stamping the butterfly; felt tips for colouring the butterfly

That’s Crafty Shop: DecoArt Americana Multi Surface Satin Acrylic Paint: vanilla shake; flamingo; turquoise waters

Embellishments: WOC mini roses; grosgrain ribbon # ; cotton lace #

Glues: Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue; double sided tape

# VOS + 5 years minimum

March Tag #1 ...

Hello lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week has been good.  I’m not sure quite how my week disappeared so quickly lol!  I’ve been busy sorting my stash and trying to arrange my workroom into some semblance of order.  Once I’ve sorted, shrank and recycled the stash I intend to start on sorting and shrinking my clear, rubber and wood mounted stamps.  I tried to make some time to play and experiment mixed media techniques too and today I’ve my first calendar page to share with you and here it is …

 

So much fun with stamps, ink, paint and moulds - yipee!!!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges:

Artist Trading Post Challenge Mixed Media Spring

Inspiration Journal Challenge Spring Blooms

Mixed Media World Challenge #1 Anything Goes

PaperArtsy Challenge 2015 Topic #5 Deconstruction * see below

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge B is for Bird & Bunnies

The Craft Barn 2016 Calendar Challenge: March yellow and a rabbit/s

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Birds of a Feather

* The topic about PaperArtsy Topic #5 is Deconstruction.  I read the post carefully as I’ve never heard of that word.  Whilst reading the post and looking at Julie-Ann’s project I started to get rather excited, lol!  

Last week I kept an empty cereal box for recycling.  The card is thicker and perfect for learning new techniques especially as I am heavy handed with water, inks and paints.  I’m also using them for 2016 mixed media calendar pages – they stand up to taking a lot of media and heavy embellishments.  I’m excited about learning Mixed Media and pushing myself to try different techniques and different materials.  I am extremely grateful to Roni, Mo, and Debs and other mixed media artists for sharing their creations, awesome encouragement and sharing tips and techniques with me – I am forever grateful.

  

A couple of weeks DH had to go into Waitrose to get milk and bread and whilst we were in there a box of table embellishments caught my eye.  I got into trouble for putting them in the shopping basket!  He thought I wanted them to decorate the dining table with, lol!  He should know by now that they were meant for my creations and the above challenges lol!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do this weekend  ttfn Karen x

Tools:

Sheena Douglass A5 A Little Bit Scenic Silhouette Grasses stamp set

Martha Stewart Silicone Bird & Branch moulds

Paintbrushes; pot of water

Stash:

Card Paper: recycled cereal box card to make the arch

Colours: Ranger Archival IP: Library Green; DIP: Scattered Straw

Pebeo Acrylic paint: blue & white

DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid: brown; buff

Embellishments: Waitrose felt bunny rabbit; yellow flowers #

Glues: Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue

Other: Martha Stewart brown air dry clay

# very old stash at least eight years old and no idea where I purchased them originally