Rite of Spring

Today is such an exciting day for me, it has been so hard to keep quiet for the last few weeks but today I can announce I am now part of the Aurora Wings DT.  I have followed Mitzi Sato-Wiuff and her wonderful digital images since 2012 when I found them on a Google search, no doubt for fairies :) :) At that time I found 12 images for sale and bought them all.  They were certainly daunting  to colour with all the detail but were exactly what I was looking for.  When the Aurora Wings challenges started way back in March 2014 I managed start playing along with the challenges, my first entry was in the April Monochromatic challenge and since then I have played along with the Aurora Wings challenges whenever I have been able to.  Life was busy at the time (now hubby and I are newly retired) so I did not ever dare to apply to be on the DT, Mitzi's images deserve the best I can do and when work etc. have to take priority over colouring I could not commit to this.  I eventually plucked up the courage to apply during the last DT call but alas did not make the team.  Sad heart but I told myself, as I always do, everything happens for a reason and if something is meant to happen it will in its own time - and now it has happened :) :) :) Happy dancing here and so very proud to be part of this awesome DT, thank you Mitzi and Donna for having me xxx

So here is my first creation as part of the Aurora Wings DT :-

Aurora Wings

Challenge #69 - Anything Goes 

For this creation I have used a shadow box to make a picture for my Mum's 87th birthday.  She does not want anything bought so what can be better than to make up something that I know she will love in her favourite colours.  The image I chose to use was from the original 12 I purchased back in 2014 - Rite of Spring.

I printed the image as large as I could on A4 stamping card and used Distress Inks to colour the background.  The image was coloured with Prismacolour Pencils, purple and blue fine liner pens, Stickles and Liquid Pearls were used to add further detail and the bit of bling I love to add to these images.

With this being a shadow box I needed to add something in for foreground and that really had to be a spray of flowers.  Usually I make my flowers out of paper or light weight card but they never have that soft look real flowers have so this time I did a bit of research to see what other materials would work.  Hard to believe but it seems coffee filters were ideal so hubby when and got me some.  Bummer, he came back with brown ones and that was just no good.  All I had at hand in the house was kitchen towel so I opted to try that.  Not great as the flowers are very flimsy but a good experiment.  Each flower has 60 petals hahahaha, and after cutting I wet each petal and dipped in blue ink.

These flowers turned out much larger than I had anticipated so only needed one for the shadow box so decided to use the remaining two for a tag to go with the picture.  I also cut some rose leaves and coloured them in pinky purples to match the image and three peacock feathers, again coloured to match the image.  The tag was coloured using the same Distress Inks and I used a foiling die to add the Birthday Wishes sentiment in sky blue foil.  All done, now just to wrap this up and give it to my Mum on Wednesday when I see her :)

Items used :-

image - Rite of Spring by Mitzi Sato-Wiuff /Aurora Wings

colouring - Distress Inks, Prismacolour Pencils, fineliners

extra items - Stickles, Liquid Pearls, peacock feather die, leaves and flower die by Spellbinders

Aurora Wings Digital Images Store

I am entering this creation in the following challenges:-

• 613 Avenue Create - M (1st Sunday), 8E, Any Craft Accepted (check for recognition each week, top DT choices, winners, and crafter's voting by on-line community) - #211 (July) Anything Goes w/Optional Twist: Create your own Designer Paper
• Dare 2B Artzy Challenges - M, 1st Sunday, E3 - (July) Birthday
• Stamping Sensations - M, 3E, Winner + Top 3, must use stamp (no pre-colored digis) Stamp must be focal point of project – (July) In my Garden
• Allsorts  W,3E  - #476/477 - Flowers All Over
• Crafty Calendar M,3E July - Totally Girly
• Inkspirational 2W,C10  #165 - Birthday (W1 of 2)
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  #207 Flowers + A Sentiment  (W2 of 2)
• Addicted to Stamps and More - W, C10, #300 - Happy Birthday (Not quite a card but a gift and gift tag so hope that still qualifies)
• Craftaholics R Us - W, #28 - Turquoise
• Mod Squad Challenge-1W, 3E, F - Floral

Summer Fun

 International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over an join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #37
Summer Fun

This fortnights challenge theme has been chosen by DT sister Jeanette.  Summer Fun, so many thoughts so boats, the seaside, sun shining through trees, smelling beautiful flowers, where do I start.  I then end I used an old stamp set I have but never used and a very soft thoughtful card, just a handy one to keep in my box ready to be sent when needed. 

I used Distress Inks for the background and stamped the birds and sentiment with child in grey to keep a soft dreamy,  thoughtful look to the card.  The clouds were stamped and embossed for a bit of dimension along with a few waves on the water.  I thought of adding a boat in the background but really did not want to distract from the beautiful stamped image and sentiment so left that off.  

Challenges entered:-

• Scrap and Craft Inspiration M, 1st Sat. - July - Summer PRODUCTS USED -Double sided tape, strong, 9mm
• Crafty Catz - W, 3E – No. 424 - ANYTHING GOES WITH OPTION OF SUMMER FUN
• Through the Purple Haze M 1st Thurs, E3, C10 June - At The Beach
• That's Crafty! Challenge - M, 3E, 1st Wed of Month,C20, Close to Nature
• Tuesday Throwdown W - #399 - The Great Outdoors

Warmest Wishes

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 110
Christmas In July

Welcome back to the IKEsWORLD challenges :)  do pop on over to IKEsWORLD to join in the challenge, it is always so much fun and  Ike produces the most amazing stamps, everything from off the wall to cute and fluffy :) :) :)

Now if I am honest I don't know what mood I was in when I made this card, I don't do red very often and this card is SOOOOooo red lol and the thought of Christmas while it is only July, well no comment there :)  Anyway, a Christmas card or sorts has been created, I do like hot chocolate though and this awesome coffee cup image was perfect as the base for my Christmas hot chocolate.  I added some stamped holly around the rims of the cup and saucer and coloured the image with Promarkers.  After fussy cutting I placed the image on a die cut base and layered this onto red  shiny card.  I needed to add some foam to my chocolate so added some flower soft, nice bit of texture too.  The front of the card was finished with some pre cut holly leaves and red Stickle dots for the berries.  With such a 'loud' front to this card the inside looked very sad so I added a red die cut border to bring it to life.  I still had some red shiny paper left so added a section to the envelope and used my wee holly stamp to create a border.   I did have fun with this one and hopefully it will warm the heart of the recipient with being all red lol.

Ingredients:-

• image - I Luv Coffee, by IKEsART
• colouring medium - Promarkers
• other items - Border and holly die, holly stamp, glitter

I am entering this project into the following challenges:-

Mackintosh Rose

 International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over an join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #36
Art Nouveau

This fortnights challenge theme for our DT has been chosen by me :).  I have always loved the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles, colourful and makes great use of shape. I have chosen to use the Mackintosh Rose, a stylised rose that still holds popularity today.   My grandmother's maiden name was Mackintosh (another reason for choosing this rose to create with) and I hang on tightly to my Scottish routs.  Her father was from a small place called Boner Bridge just north of Inverness, a true highlander :) :) :) 

I started by using a die cutting design for the rose and and cut this out three times, once on black card for the background, once on silver mirror card which I then coloured loose sections with Promarkers and filled in the cut out sections of the black card with them.  The third cut was on acetate so I could make a stencil for the inside of the card.  I used black to cover the card base and then silver mirror card.  I then embossed the black die cut rose layer and embossed it with a Mackintosh Rose folder I have.  This was then attached to the mirror card layer and the areas filled in with the coloured rose sections to complete the design.  Finish off with a simple layered sentiment on the front and stencilled rose design done with Distress Inks completed the card.

Challenges entered:-

• Scrap and Craft Inspiration M, 1st Sat. - June - DIY Flowers
• A Vintage Journey - M - (First Friday of M) (Vintage) - JUNE - STENCIL IT
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  #206 Anything Goes + A Sentiment  (W1 of 2)
• Seize The Birthday 2W, 3E, C5  Birthday + Option Of Anything Goes (W1 of 2)
• Shopping Our Stash W, C13 - #359 - She's  A Crafting Machine (use a machine - Big Shot, sewing machine, xyron) - SILVER BULLET die cutter

Once Upon A Time with Autumn Mermaid

Such a special post for me as I am the Guest Designer for Aurora Wings Challenge #68, such a privilege.  Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity Mitzi and I hope I have done Autumn Mermaid justice :).

The theme for Challenge #68 is Once Upon A Time, and I have used the children's story "The Little Mermaid" as my inspiration.  You can read a summary of the story here.

I started by printing the image as large as I could on A4 paper and coloured here with Prismacolour pencils for this mixed media creation.  This beautiful mermaid was then fussy cut and set to one side while I tackled the background.  I used a canvas 20x50 c.m. and painted the background with acrylic paint, a first attempt for me (nothing like diving into the deep end lol).  Once painted and at a point I dared not play any more I used some gold stamping ink, a fish shoal stamp and small flower stamp to add some more detail.  When everything was dry I took the fussy cut Autumn Mermaid and sprayed the back with permanent adhesive and stuck her in place on the background.  Think I am going to keep this one but now I have to try and find a place to put her were I can enjoy looking at her :)

Close up of the Autumn Mermaid coloured image

Items used:-
Image:-          Aurora Wings Autumn Mermaid
Colouring:-    Prismacolour pencils, acrylic paints, gold stamp pad
other items:-  acrylic stamps, Stickles, adhesives and acrylic spray varnish

Challenges entered :-

• Crafting from the Heart - W, E3, F - #211 ANYTHING GOES
• Alphabet Challenge - 2W, 1E -  F FOR FISH (W2 of 2)
• Crafting-With-Friends - 2W, 3E - No.69 - ALWAYS ANYTHING GOES (W2 of 2)
• Creative Artiste Challenge - M, E3, C5 -JUNE- No. 39 -  ANYTHING MIXED MEDIA GOES
• Crafting With An Attitude M,1st Thurs,3E Always Anything Goes

Lloyd

I was asked to make a Father's Day card for a friend, that did not seem to be a problem until she added she wanted a Fresian horse on it.

Oh boy, that is not an image I have in my collection and knew what I was going to have to do next - go well out of my comfort zone lol.  I asked her to take a photo of the horse, Lloyd (Lloyd is deceased and the photo needed to be taken from another photo) and I would use that to try and draw one. 

As you can see the image was very dark and lacked detail unfortunately and not much time to get her to take another one so I decided to trace the horse outline and then scan my tracing so I could turn it into a digital stamp and do the resizing for the card before I printed it.  A lot of Google research so I could fill in the detail.  I coloured the image with Prismacolour pencils and the background is created with Distress Inks with some stamped trees.  The rosette is made from a die cut and the centre I foiled the text #1 DAD.  I finished off with simple mounting in black and then gold.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:-

• Daisy Chain Challenges (M, P5, E3) #20 - For the Boys/Men
• Paru's Card Making Challenge (M, P1, Cards/Tags only) June - Masculine
• Sweet Stampers (M, P10, E3, use stamp or digi) #21 - Animals
• Kitty Bee Designs - 2W,2E, C10 - No.120 - MASCULINE CARDS (W2 of 2)
• Simply Create Too - M - JUNE - No. 139 - FOR A MALE
• Sisterhood of Crafters - 2nd/4th Wed, 3E - Animals (W1 of 2)
• Cardz 4 Guyz 2W, 3E - #196 - Father's Day (week 2)
• Stinkin' Inkers - M, E3 - June - The Guys Have It
• Unicorn Challenge M, E3, No fully digital projects June - #33 - Masculine

Love is all around

 International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over an join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #35
Sentiment as the Main Focus

This fortnights challenge theme has been chosen by DT sister Christine,

Challenges entered:-

•