Lotus Mermaid

Oh how I loved colouring this image. Lotus Mermaid by Aurora Wings although it did take me two goes lol.  The first time I coloured the image I created the background with Pan Pastels but really was not happy with the end result so with a heavy heart and no time to think I screwed it up and put it in the bin.  Back to the drawing board and I opted to go for a digital background.

The image is originally created as a rectangle but I love squares so I took a couple of the flowers and copied them then moved them to a different location using Photoshop (the 2 on the right side of the image).  I then printed the image at 20% opacity as I wanted a no line technique, not something I do very often but I rather fancied the challenge this time, talk about making life hard hahaha.  The image was then coloured with Copics, about 42 different colours by the time I had finished and then to sharpen some of the hard lines I used PrismaColour pencils.  To finish off I used a blending stamp and stamped around the edge in black and a bit of silver, added liquid pearls to the head dress and the ears and some mica flakes also on the head dress.  Now I will let you know I hated that too but I had come so far and did not have the heart to bin the colouring a second time.  I used my usual Rangers Liquid Pearls but they are getting a bit old and grungy, think they are heading for the bin and need to be replaced and some Papermania new ones which were dreadful, they looked like plastic.  So, holding my breath it was out with my craft knife to try and pick them all off.  Thankfully I got most of them off without damaging the colouring, I think I must have help there from another dimension :) and I ended up using lots of tiny flat back pearls I have instead, much happier with the result.  Instead of a sentiment I opted to used a metal heart with the word Love in it which I have had for donkeys years and covered the loop for hanging it with a large flat back pearl.  To mat the card base I used water effect vellum and matted the image first with black then a metallic peach paper, simple but all that was needed.

Challenges entered : -

• The Fairy and The Unicorn M, 1st Sat, E3, Mythical and Mystical - October - Anything Fantasy Goes
•  Inkspirational 2W,C10  #197 - Photo Inspiration* (W2 of 2)
• Alphabet Challenge - 2W, 1E -  O IS FOR ONE WORD SENTIMENT (W1 of 2) 
• Brown Sugar – M (First Friday of M), E2 - Oct  No. 294 -  ANYTHING GOES (Ends Oct  29th)
• Just Add Ink – W - No. 477 - ADD H ELEMENT TO YOUR PROJECT HEART

Moonlight Cat

 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 #69
Halloween

This fortnights challenge 'Halloween' has been chosen by our DT sister CraftyGirl.  I have to admit I just don't get Halloween at all - I do understand the old meaning of Halloween or All Hallows' Eve and that makes sense to me, a time to think about those who have passed although I think about those who have passed that I know quite regularly not just on one eve of the year.  But - where did the giving of sweets and dressing up in costumes come from, why would a human try to emulate a departed spirit who would have no need for food anyway.  Yep, I am a party pooper but when something makes little sense other than commercialism I see no reason to partake.  I wonder how many kids, if asked what Halloween was, would answer 'ooooooo free sweets'.  I always used to keep a bowl of fruit ready for trick or treaters, they were not impressed and actually did not even want sweets, they wanted money!!!!!!!  Right, enough party pooping and although I found this a really hard card to make I have tried my very best lol.  I used Distress Oxides to create the sky and stamped a tree trunk, leafy tree top and witch.  I then die cut the fence, flower border and cat.  The cat was attached with foam tape for a bit of dimension.  I mounted the image layer onto silver and then black and placed this on my card blank which I covered with mulberry paper.

Challenges entered:-

• Crafty Calendar M,3E  October - Autumn Colors/Halloween
• Crafty Catz - W, 3E - No.478 -  ANYTHING GOES WITH OPTION THE WITCHING HOUR 
• Mod Squad W, 3E, F - Add a Moon
• Show us Your Pussies - M, Cat Only Challenge-  October - Meow-loween or Furrything Goes
• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies (M, P1, E5, must have a critter) #31 - Anything Goes with a Critter
• Animal Friends Challenge (M, P1, E3, must have an animal) #79 - Cats

Comfy Caterpillar

  The image used for this card is Comfy Caterpillar by Dr. Digi House of Stamps.  I used a digital background which was free and just so perfect for this card and the sentiment I wanted to use (naughty I know lol).  The sentiment was created digitally and I filled the font with a tile pattern I made to represent the toadstool.  I also printed the backing paper with the same tiled pattern.  Comfy Caterpillar was printed and fussy cut before colouring him with Copics.  I printed some extra grass area from the background paper and cut that out so I could place it in front of the Comfy Caterpillar who was attached to the card with foam tape for a bit extra dimension to this card.

I am entering this card in the following challenges : -

• 
  

Two Fat Boys

Time to share another Dr. Digi card.  This week I have used the image Two Fat Boys.  I had so many ideas for this card but it took me 3 goes to end up with a result I liked - oh how I love a challenge.  In the end it was hubby who came to the rescue with the sentiment, think this is the first time he has come up with something as normally I get - 'can't help' hahaha.  So many bikers want a Harley but with being British I am support British made and suggesting a Triumph would be a good choice, especially as the Harley here has broken down and one fat boy has had to get his spanner out to fix the problem hahaha.

The background is a free digital creation and I placed the fat boys on top before printing.  I coloured the image mainly with Copics then used a black Prismacolour to darken the black areas.  For the bike I used grey Copics then coloured over with a silver Prismacolour so in the light you get a feel of shiny chrome.  Next was a rummage amongst my dies for a spanner which I knew I had but it was a bit big for the card so next was the charms box to see what was lurking in there - lucky find the perfect spanner which I attached to the card with some black chain fed through an eyelet :)

I am entering this card in the following challenges : -

• Creative Craft Cottage Challenges (M, P7, F, E3) #122 - For the men in your life
• Allsorts  W,3E  - #539 - From Boys to Men
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  Must include a sentiment #236 Anything Goes +A Sentiment (W2 of 2) 

Autumn or Halloween

The challenge this fortnight at I ❤️Promarkers is

 'Autumn / Halloween'

and the sponsor for this challenge is Bugaboo Stamps with $12 gift code for the Store 

For my design creation I have used the Bugaboo image Frame it JJ Call Me A Witch  A fun card to make and a fun image to colour too.  I added the background behind the image digitally before printing then coloured the image with my Promarkers.  Lots of colouring with stickles added a lovely bit of sparkle to the image.

  Next I backed my card base with orange paper and stamped the bats and webs using Memento Black.  Not quite done yet I then mounted my coloured image on gold card but that is not showing well in the picture (the embellishment got in the way of decent scanning grrrr).  Some time ago I bough some gauze but boy, could I remember when I put it, 2 days of hunting and just as I was about to give up I found it , that was a sigh of relief as I could not think what else to give a delicate spider web feel.  Lots of the woven strings were pulled out of the gauze then I dipped it in black ink and hung it on the hedge outside to dry hahaha.  The metal embellishment was silver but I coloured that with a black Promarker and then added an orange gem to the centre.  To finish off, some google eyes were added to the spider in the bottom right hand corner.

I am entering this card into the following challenges : -

• Crafty Cardmakers  (2W, C15) #242 ADD A CRITTER (Week 1) 
• 
  

Peace

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 125
Jaffa Colour Palette

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 :) :) :)

Oh what a blast making this card, alcohol inks are such amazing fun, same sort of fun as using a gelli plate lol - a chance not to over plan, to create on the hop, just go with the flow - freedom :) :)

This is not a favourite colour palette along with the pinks and reds ( I am in my happy place with blues, purples greens etc) but I just how this turned out.  I have had some alcohol inks for a few weeks now and been playing with them using photo paper (Yupo is soooooo expensive) but last week I decided after all the play I was now ready to invest in the recommended paper without fear of wasting it.  Was there a difference in the paper, yes, much more time to create and far better blending and oooooooo I am in love (again).  I used two browns, a peachy colour and an orange and blobbed them all over the paper. It was then out with isopropyl alcohol (cheaper than blending fluid and works fine for paper creations although I am not sure it works as well as the real stuff on ceramics). Lots of blowing to move the mix around, a bit more ink here and there and then the hard part, deciding when to stop.  I then put this to one side for a while to make sure it was dry before dotting more blending fluid using a skewer to make the small dots.  I did try stamping a couple of birds using Lift Off but either I need to practice that a lot more or I was not overly impressed, too early yet to make my mind up.  For the image I used Ike's Peace Dove, OK, I hear you saying a strange choice of image for this colour theme but I have a reason.  My youngest daughter in in South Sudan at the moment with the UN (British Army stuff) and she was also born in Kenya so I wanted to send her a card in her care package and this is it.  The colours are to represent the land, the beautiful sunrises and sunsets and although a bit gruesome the bloodshed that has gone on within the beautiful, magical continent for far too long. The peace dove represents the wish for peace, the wish for the abundant corrupted humans that steal from their own people on such high levels, the learning that war in the name of religion is repulsive and so wrong - no God could ever think this is what is wanted - it is just the greed and power of man saying it - could all find the true meaning of love, harmony, PEACE.  As I cut the design separating the dove from the peace sign I could not cut the leaves so chopped them off completely and added a branch of gold bead flowers to replace them.  The peace sign was stuck flat onto the alcohol marker background and the dove added with foam tape for added dimension.  Oh forget to add, the dove was coloured with Promarkers lol.

Ingredients:-

• image - Peace Dove by IKEsART (freebie)
• colouring medium - Alcohol inks and Promarkers
• other items - gold bead flowers

I am entering this project into the following challenges:-

• Dream Valley Challenges  (2W, 3E, C10) #210 THINGS WITH WINGS (WEEK 2) 
• Make My Monday  (2W, Top 3, 3E) #106 AUTUMN COLORS (Week 1) 
• Crafty Gals Corner  M, 2nd W, E3, #199 - Fall colors

All Tagged Up

 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 #68
Tags

This fortnights challenge Tags has been chosen by me, I haven't done much with tags for such a long time and thought this would be a fun way to use up a few scraps.

We all know what brain freeze is like, well my froze completely making these, totally my fault as so little planning, all I knew was I wanted to play with some foiling. I love my TODO for foiling but for the life of me I can't stop the dies from slipping when using it. I have tried taping them, tried also with washi tape, tried with double sided tape on the back but nothing is easy and more bother than it is worth.  The dies are all magnetic but it appears my TODO plate which I just assumed was otherwise not much point having magnetic dies is not.  Anyway, for this reason my TODO has not been used much but sits there looking very pretty.  I now have a magnetic sheet of steel, only 5mm thick coming via good old Amazon so once cut will give that a go and see if it solves my problem.  Back to the tags, with not being able to ensure the dies don't move the tags seemed like a great plan, the foiling can go over the edge or be squint to its heart delight and I would not care lol.  After choosing my coloured card I set to with the foiling and then looked at what had been created - rubbish, the foiling was super cool but the tags were 'flat', no character at all.  I left my craft room with my brain freeze, consoled myself with yet another cup of coffee, had a shower, made dinner, had more coffee, watched TV, sorted next years card schedule and then went to bed, still with brain freeze regarding the tags.  A new day and a new idea, lift the flat card with Distress Oxides, brill that worked but I still did not like the tags, I could not think what to put on them, should I stamp some words, should I mount them on a contrasting card, should I put them in the bin and cry.  And then, oh yes, a bit 'THEN' I remembered Natasha, my daughter, in the Range the other day was nosing through the cheap £1:00 box with mini dies in looking for Birthday etc for me when she found a fairy - would that fairy which ended up in my basket work - I think she looks awesome on the tags :) :).  Next a small With Love die cut with black card like the fairy and just the right size.  Back to the tags, I used some Crafter's Companion Spray and Shine, mounted them on black card and then added white card behind ready to be written on.  At last, the final hurdles, attach the fairies and text then add the ribbons. All done, after what I thought would be a lovely quick project my head is 'nipped' but I do love how they have turned out.

Challenges entered:-

• Die Cuttin' Divas W, must include a Die-cut - #439 - Tags
• The Fairy and The Unicorn M, 1st Sat, E3, Mythical and Mystical - September - Anything Fantasy Goes
• Everybody-Art-Challenge 2W - #454 - Use Dies (week 1)
• Dream Valley Challenges  (2W, 3E, C10) #210 THINGS WITH WINGS (WEEK 1)