Winter

 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 and join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #100
Winter

This fortnights challenge 'Winter' has been chosen by CraftyGirl.  I don't know about you but there are two colours that make me think of Winter - grey (in all shades) and ice blue.  Just thinking about these colours immediately conjure up grey bleak days with the occasional and welcome relief of icy blue skies - can you tell I don't like winter which if I had my wish would be spent hibernating until spring/summer comes along lol.

I created the background using Distress Oxides and then stamped the brilliant stamp from the November/December issue of Creative Stamper along with one of the sentiments that came with the magazine too.  All this card needed was the addition of a black border and three snowflakes to complete my Winter themed card.

I am entering this card in the following challenges : 

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Thank You

Come and join us at I ❤️Promarkers, our challenge theme is

'Thank You'

I had do much fun creating this card.  The image is one I have had for several years and use so often but I usually colour it in pinks or purples, just loving the look of it with these aqua tones this time.  The image was coloured with Promarkers and I used a printable digital paper for the base layer which I added a digital lace doily to.  A simple Thank You sentiment and 3 half cut gems were the finishing touches.  You can find the IKEsART image 'Blossom' here - digi

and the sponsor for this challenge is IKEsART with $15 prize to spend in the store

I am entering this card in the following challenges : -

Anything Goes with an option of Friends /Friendship

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 140
Anything Goes with an option of Friends /Friendship

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 :) :) :) 

Happy New Year folks, let us hope 2021 is one to remember for all the right reasons :).  What a great theme to kick off the new year - ATG with the option of Friends/Friendship - friends are the greatest blessing in life and I just love chatting with my friends with a good cup of coffee.  For this challenge I used one of the coffee images from I LUV COFFEE set of 4 - choosing the take-away coffee holder. If it was real, I would be enjoying this coffee with my friend in a nice quiet place preferably surrounded by trees and maybe if I was lucky, a small brook bubbling close by.  Ahhhhh - I have just whisked myself off to heaven ROFL.

I am entering this card into the following challenges :

Landscapes

 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 and join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #99
Landscape

Happy New Year everybody,  fingers crossed 2021 is a year to remember for all the right reasons :) :) :) This fortnights challenge 'Landscape' has been chosen by Josephine.  I am still on my learning journey with the laser etcher/cutter and tried something new for this challenge.  So far a fair few boxes have been made in my house and lots of etching done but for this one I decided to try and colour the image with Promarkers.  Really was a bit of trial and error as the inks bleed into the grain of the wood so you don't have much control so with just a bit of extra time taken and a light hand I managed to stay within the etched lines pretty well I think lol.  Next I diluted some Crafter's Companion tint with 70% to make a very light coloured wash which I then used to dye the box - aiming for a very watery distressed feel.  Once completed, sanded and varnished I added the wee knob made from a paper rolled bead which I filed down on one side to give a larger area to glue to the box.  To cover the hole left at the top of the bead I added a small flower bead which I attached with a toothpick through the hole then the excess on the top cut off and sanded down.   The image used is Room with a View by Just Inklined.

I am entering this box in the following challenges : 

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Digi Doodles Studios

Come and join us at I ❤️Promarkers is

 'Anything Goes'

and the sponsor for this challenge is Digi Doodle Studios with $15 gift certificate for the Store 

This is our last challenge of 2020 at I ❤️Promarkers so I could not resist a Christmas card from us all in this fabulous DT, a great bunch of ladies with the most awesome leader - thank you Ginny for all you do.

For my card I printed and masked the image Orzus-Gifts by Digi Doodles.  I used Distress Inks for the background, white embossing powder for the snow ground and snowflakes.  The image was then coloured with Promarkers and the sentiment stamped in black ink.  I scanned the DP I wanted to use so I could make the images smaller and once printed cut the triangles for the tree (not easy to get the trimming done for the one to be placed beside the image and make it look like it was behind the colouring lol).  Forest Green paper was used to do the die cutting and image mount and then this was all placed on top of my card base which I covered with the original paper which I scanned earlier for one of the trees.  All a bit of a kerfuffle but I did have fun and enjoyed the challenge :)

Take care folks and we will see you all next year.  Stay warm and safe.  Hugs Mimi xxxxx

I am entering this card in the following challenge : -

Santa's Mail Box

 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 #98
Anything Goes with a Bow

This fortnights challenge 'Anything Goes with a Bow' has been chosen by CraftyGirl.

What an epic project this has been.  I have struggled for ages thinking what to do with a bow on it and I really did not feel like making a Christmas card as they are something I don't tend to give out these days.  In all the years I have been on design teams I have never missed a challenge but I was very close to missing this one - the stress was not worth it.  Then last week I was asked to make a Santa Mail box for the Morrisons supermarket in our area and it all fell into place - gold bows on the reindeer.  Sorted and 2 birds with one stone so to speak.  The Mail Box was designed by hubby and me and then I sorted all the graphics.  It was then the super big job of cutting the wood and elements with the laser, sanding, painting varnishing etc.  Three days in the assembly and I finished this 2 days before it was collected by Morrisons ready to go in their store tomorrow (yes, I am writing this post before the post date lol).  To show the size of the box I have taken a photo of my coffee cup beside it, the biggest thing I have made to date and took 10 600mm x 400mm sheets of 3mm birch laser ply to complete it.  The box is double thickness so in effect 2 boxes were made.

 I am entering this card in the following challenges : 

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Mother

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 139
Xmas

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 :) :) :)

WOW - December already, where has 2020 gone too.  It has certainly been a strange, hard and life changing year so fingers crossed 2021 is much calmer.  Anyway folks, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  This is the last Ike's World challenge for this year'

For my card I used the image 'Mother', an adorable realistic image of mother and baby that just seeps emotion.  The papers used are Gelli printed and perfect for working with this image on a digital level.  I spent a day a while ago using up lots of A4 paper that I had printed recipes on for attempting to make dinner. The ones that we suitable to be eaten were then transferred to my laptop and instead of throwing all the papers away I raked out the acrylic paint and had a ball lol.  I was so pleased with how they turned out I then scanned them all so I would have a digital version too.  I created the card in Photoshop using several overlay techniques to get the effect I wanted - the image to be clearly visible but at the same time be part of the background.  In the end I added an oil painting effect to the image to give it a different texture.

IKEsART is having a sale throughout December with a massive 60% off - time to grab some awesome digital images folks :) 

IKEsART

I am entering this project into the following challenges:-