Guest Design Team at Fussy & Fancy Challenge #184 Embellish It ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week was a good one, nearly the weekend. If all goes to plan this post should go live whilst I'm only half awake, lol. My Indigo Blu butterfly card was the lucky pick to be Guest Designer Team at Fussy & Fancy Challenge #180 Fussy & Fancy challenge so I am on their blog today, yipee, thank you so much, I am honoured and chuffed! Here is the project I created for the current Fussy and Fancy Challenge #184 Embellish It Challenge …

This is a 125mm square chipboard circle

I didn't have to worry about the depth!

Lots of lovely details

A final look

Luckily for me this also fits these Challenges

 A Vintage Journey Challenge 

All Aboard for the Birthday Challenge Celebration

Country View Crafts Challenge Inspired by Tim Holtz

Deep Ocean Challenge Flowers Everywhere

Emerald Creek Dares Challenge Splatters

  Mixed Media World Challenge 

MMW#23 AG optional twist mood board: 

I was inspired by the cold of the blue

 

Stamplorations Stamps Mixed Media Challenge

I used another chipboard circle to adhere strips of book paper onto using matt medium. When dry I added a layer of white gesso using a brayer, to get some texture. When dry I used my Lace Tim Holtz layering stencil and added texture paste through the stencil approximately in the centre of the circle. I left to dry and the next day I dripped alcohol inks onto the circle, adding splashes of alcohol ink blending fluid to encourage the colours to move and blend.  I wanted the colours to look much more blended this time so I used more AI and more ink blending solution.

As the challenge is to 'Embellish It' I was able to use a lot of my embellishment stash. I got to play with my lovely mixed media supplies with chipboard, texture paste and colour lol! I have an inkling that this chipboard circle will be picked by my sister in law to be when I share these with family. I end up making more than I expect to especially these sort of projects so family gets to pick if they want anything from the pile I create every couple of months.

I really hope you'll pop on over to see what the lovely Designers have created, they are a mega talented lot and I am so honoured to have been ask to play along with them. 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 soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stencil:

Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: Lace

Miscellaneous:

Palette knife

Supplies

Card Paper:

Chipboard circle

Old book pages

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Ranger AI's: Stonewashed; Wild Plum; Eggplant

Distress inks: Dusty Concord; Worn Lipstick

Embellishments:

Craftwork Cards: various flowers

Wild Orchid Crafts: lilies

Glitter

Ribbon from my stash

Adhesives/Mediums:

Pebeo matt medium

Maimeri Texture Paste

The Works: white gesso

Collall all purpose glue

March Rudolph Day ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well. I had to figure out when I could schedule today's post, lol. I already have scheduled posts but I have been so creative this month that its going to be a very busy end of month, very unusual lol! Anyway here is the card I have created for some of the current challenges as well as for our box of Christmas cards …

A nice large card, for a change, lol!

It has some depth, but I couldn't add too much because of postage costs, boo!

All the yummy details

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Christmas at Sweet Stampin’ Challenge March Anything Goes 
Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge #326 Anything Goes

Scrapy Land Challenge #62 Favourite Holiday: Christmas

I used Crafters Companion, Sizzix & Whimsy Stamps dies

Scrappy Mo’s Rudolph Day Challenge
Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

I have to put my hands up and say that I am not sure if I like this Christmas card or not, lol! It was one of my experimental sessions with Distress inks, Spectrum Aqua and Sparkle and the fabric. Whilst I am completely happy with the stamped, distressed pieces, die cuts, texture paste and colours used.

I've just realised that it's the fabric that I'm not sure that I like or not. It's a mesh and I deliberately purchased half a metre to experiment with but, as I said, I'm not sure it has worked, lol, nothing like typing it out and then having a doh response in your brain lol!

However I love this Great Impressions stamp, my Sheena Douglass snowflake stamps, the colours and the little stencil I made myself I absolutely love! In fairness blue and white for Christmas cards is my all time favourite colour mix for Christmas, always has been and will probably always will be.

A quick heads that some of you might like is that Whimsy Stamps have started to have challenges again and that makes me so happy! Enough for now as I have stuff to do in the Craft Room, still so much to sort and to get it exactly how I want but I am making progress, just very slow progress, grr. 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 soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Great Impressions 8162 Elegant Berry stamp

Sheena Douglass A5 A Little Bit Scenic Ornate Snowflakes stamp set

Stencil:

I created my own using an old original Sizzix die

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Tim Holtz Mixed Media 1 die set

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Contemporary Christmas Merry Christmas die

Whimsy Stamps Layered Snowflake die

Sizzix Original green die Snowflake

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI

Ranger ink blending tool and foam

Paintbrushes & water pot

Acetate (to scribble & drip pens onto)

Supplies

Card Paper:

Sheena Douglass white stamping card

20cm square Card

Snippets: 300gsm white card; blue textured card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Aqua pens: primary

Sprectrum Noir Sparkle Holiday set

Tumbled Glass & Faded Jeans Distress IP

Ranger Archival Cobalt IP

Embellishments:

Mesh fabric

Adhesives/Mediums:

Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste

Collall all purpose glue; Double sided tape; Fun foam

March final sketch ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well, happy hump day! Before I forget I just wanted to take a minute to welcome some new followers! Yay!!! I love me new followers and my older followers too lol! So Chris, Diane, Enfys and Ingrid welcome ladies, I am honoured you are following me!

Today I was so desperate to enter the Spectrum Noir March Challenge a final time that I had to photograph this card whilst the glue on the flowers was still wet lol! Fabulous sketch my lovely friend Tracy came up and I just tweaked it a little bit because it just fit perfectly this way. Anyway here is my card …

It's a 148mm square card

I will have to make a box for posting this one

All the yummy details

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Butterfly Challenge #75 Repeat and the colour Night Sky

I repeat stamped the flowers & repeat die cut butterflies & flowers

I used a gorgeous deep blue Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen on the butterfly & sentiment

Cards und More Challenge #10 Anything Goes with Sentiment/s

Deep Ocean Challenge Flowers Everywhere

Die Cuttin’ Divas Challenge #310 Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge Things with Wings

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes
 Spectrum Noir Facebook Challenge:

I was inspired by the sketch and the photograph
The Ribbon Girl Challenge March Any Image 

That’s Crafty Challenge Bling it Up

Whimsy Stamps Challenge Anything Goes

I used my Spectrum Aqua pens to ink up Sheena's Daisy stamp and I stamped it three times onto a piece of card. I die cut the banner next and then used a clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen to drag the yellow into the centre of the images. I used a damp paintbrush to drag the green out from the stamping. The stamped flowers are beautiful and twinkle beautifully when you move the card around. I scribbled a blue Aqua pen onto a piece of acetate and then coloured the background with a light blue wash.

The flowers were die cut from blue pearl card snippets using a beautiful new flower die. It's a Sara Davies one and this is the first time it's come out to play, lol, I purchased several of Sara's flower dies when Crafters Companion had their sales in January, too good a deal not to and I really love the end result with these new flower dies. The foliage was cut using other dies and snippets of card coloured with AquaTints. The butterfly die is also a new one, purchased just before Christmas, another deal, and I'm only just starting to play with this one. I die cut the butterflies from snippets of white card or patterned paper, each butterfly is made up of two layers. The deep blue one was coloured with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens.

The sentiment is an old early win from the Snippets Playground Challenge and it gets used a lot. It too was cut from white card and coloured with Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen. Some matting and layering plus ribbon and I'm really happy with the end result. 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 soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Sheena Douglass A Little Bit Sketchy Poppies & Daisies set

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Crafters Companion Sara Davies English Country Garden: Floral duo

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Floral collection: In Bloom

Tutti Designs 214 die: Stitched Nesting Banners

Memory Box Cheviot Butterfly die

Whimsy Stamps Sentimentables Dies: Birthday set

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; heat tool; paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Sheena Douglass white stamping card

300 gsm card

Snippets: patterned paper; white stamping card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir Aqua: Primary; Nature

Spectrum Noir Sparkle Holiday Pen set

Embellishments:

Ribbon from my stash

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue

Double sided tape

Fun foam

March Mixed Media #3 Tag ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well. Before I get to my next project I just wanted to thank you. You have left such awesome comments for me this month and I seriously really appreciate that. I've always felt a little bit under experienced or more likely lacking skills with mixed media. This month I've felt a little less like that, thank goodness, and I now feel a little more experienced and comfortable with my mixed media skills. There are some peeps in particular that always cheer me on, I know who you are and you know that too, lol, but it's been your belief in me that has kept me going: so to many of my lovely followers I want to send a big sloppy thank you! If I could I would purchase you all a lovely bouquet of flowers and send you a card too, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

This month something set my imagination on fire and it is probably all the fabulous ideas for challenges that all of the talented Design Team persons have come up with. I've loved playing with many different products, trying new and old techniques to create in the mixed media style. I'm about to share a tag that has the most distressing/distressed/shabby look to it, love all the layers, the textures, everything, lol, and here it is …

I love playing with my chubby tags and inks and paints

There are so many layers on this

All the yummy details

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

 A Vintage Journey Challenge 

All Aboard for the Birthday Challenge Celebration 

Happy Birthday AVJ this one is especially for you!

Country View Crafts Challenge Inspired by Tim Holtz 
I was so inspired this month using lots of different techniques, layers of colour, layers of product, layers of texture and distressing of everything!
Die Cuttin’ Divas Challenge #310 Anything Goes

Emerald Creek Dares Challenge Splatters
Love to Create Challenge #6 Anything Goes

 Mixed Media World Challenge 

MMW#23 MM Anything Goes: I was inspired by the Design Team projects. they way they use many layers of texture and many layers of colour: it fires my imagination!

 Stamplorations Stamps Mixed Media Challenge

Try It On Tuesday Challenge Botanical: thank you Chris!

The sheer amount of products that I used as well as stamps and dies is amazing. The fact that I created this and am happy with the end result is also amazing to me. I tell you one thing though I loved doing it, loved having many different products out and just going with the flow. New and old products as well as new and old tools and I feel I can finally say that I understand what this mixed media phrase means, well hopefully lol!

I created this chubby tag by using a piece of Sheena stamping card and Distress re-inkers to colour the tag. I dried it with my heat tool and attached a stencil with Washi tape and I put a lot of DecoArt crackle paste on, a lot of it. I left that to dry overnight before moving on to the next step. The background was a little brighter than I what I hoped for so I created an acrylic paint white wash and brushed that over the whole thing. Once dry I used some wax to add colour to the crackles.

The trees were stamped with wood mounted stamps that I won from my blog friend and very talented artist Brenda: thank you huni, it feels good to use them again. 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 soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamps:

Art Impressions tree stamp

Hobby Art mini landscape stamp

Clarity Stamp clock stamp

Stencil:

Tando Creative: Random Circles

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine Issue #11 Autumn

Miscellaneous Tools:

Paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette; palette knife

Supplies

Card Paper:

Sheena Douglass white stamping card

Snippets: Sheena Douglass white stamping card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Rusty Hinge Distress IP

Sepia Archival IP

Brown & Green Brusho Watercolour Crystals

Various Watercolour/Felt Tip Markers

Rub on waxes

Adhesives/Mediums:

DecoArt Crackle Paste

Washi Tape (for attaching the stencil)

Collall all purpose glue

Double sided tape

Fun foam

Vintage style? ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week has started well. I’ve been playing with new stamps, well they are sort of new, I won them before Christmas but I'm only just getting around to using them and now I have I want to use them again and again, lol, and here is the end result …

An A6 card

This one may have to be delivered by hand

All the yummy details

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Cards und More Challenge #10 Anything Goes with Sentiment/s

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge #12 Anything Goes

Country View Crafts Challenge Inspired by Tim Holtz:

use of the inks, the layers of colour, the different textures

Deep Ocean Challenge Flowers Everywhere

Rubber Dance Art Stamps Challenge Spring theme 
I've created a vintage style spring inspired romantic card and I used colours, flowers and ribbon to achieve that

The Corrosive Challenge March Anything Goes

The Ribbon Girl Challenge March Any Image

I have a thing about postcard stamps, well about lots of stamps but particularly postcard stamps. I love them and need more! I knew that before I picked these beautiful stamps from Rubber Dance Art Stamps, aka Bibi. I adore postcard stamps like this because they help me to create something vintage style. When I got my box of not yet used stamps out I went straight for this one. And because I'm still trying to channel my inner Tim Holtz I thought the postcard would work beautifully with a Distress ink style background. I coloured this background using my Brusho Crystals, bands of blue, red and yellow and once dry I used another Rubber Dance Art stamp, the mesh, with my new white Distress ink. It's ended up giving the background wonderful depth and gorgeous texture!

Once I had my background piece ready I moved onto the postcard stamp. I stamped it three times onto snippets of Sheena stamping card using a Distress ink pad and then I very lightly sprayed it to make the ink blur. Once they were dry I used a piece of ribbon to make them look like they were kept tied up in a bundle. I used my Distress re-inkers to colour the blooms and then I squished them, lol, to make them a little flatter. I stamped the Love using a black Versafine ink pad and started playing around with the layout.

I attached the background panel to my Kraft card at an angle and then realised that the love would also be at an angle but I didn't mind that lol! I wanted a little of shimmer and shine so I grabbed my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen in gold and gently dripped little dots of gold over the postcards, the background and the Kraft card. 

I added gems that are champagne coloured to finish off and I got to say this is one of my favourite cards this month just because I managed to use darker colours and browns to give it a vintage vibe yet I still love the end result.  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 soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Rubber Dance Art Stamps: love; mesh; Vintage Postcard stamp

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; heat tool; paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

300 gsm card

Kraft card

Snippets: Sheena Douglass white stamping card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Brusho watercolour crystals: turquoise; rose red; yellow

White and Vintage Photo Distress ink pads

Gold Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen

Embellishments:

Ribbon from my stash

Blossoms from Country View Crafts

Champagne gems from The Works

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue

Double sided tape

Fun foam