Woodland Eclipse

 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 #33
All About Boys or Men

This fortnights challenge them has been chosen by DT sister Sue, a super challenge theme as we all need to have some of the 'men' cards in our stash but they are often not the first we turn to to make when we feel creative.  I am rather lucky as it is my brothers birthday very soon and this was the perfect opportunity to make his card.

I have seen quite a few cards around recently using the eclipse method which I think looks to cool and uncluttered, with that in mind I thought I would try it our on my brother's card.  I first used Distress Oxides to create the background and then stamped a woodland scene using stamps from the Creative Stamper magazine.  Next came the tricky bit where it could so easily have all gone wrong.  i don't have the large letter dies so used my Silver Bullet and SCAL software to create the text and do the cutting.  Phew, I all lined up perfectly and I could breathe again lol.  To finish off the card I mounted the card front on black and then copper papers.  Back to the Distress Oxides and I used the colours of the card to colour both the card front blank and the inside of the card.

Challenges entered:-

• A Gem of a Challenge  2W   - #219 - It's A Man's World (cards for men and boys) (W1 of 2)
• Crafting with Dragonflies 2W,1E, No rude/sexy or Halloween/witch, cards only - #104 Birthday Card  (W1 of 2)
• Brown Sugar – M (First Friday of M), E2 - APRIL - No. 278 - MASCULINE OR FATHER'S DAY
• Fab 'n' Funky - W,1E, #391 - Garden or Outdoor
• Simon Says Wednesday - W, 5E -For the Boys

Time Machine

I just couldn't resist but make a steampunk card today, a far better idea than doing housework lol.

I started off distressing the background, oh how I love playing with these inks, so much fun.  I then embossed the background, a really bad idea as it made it impossible to stamp the sentiment directly onto the card as I had originally planned.  Oh well, lesson learnt.  I then used bronze guilders paste to life the embossed areas a bit more.  The stamp is Time Machine by Sheena Douglas which I stamped on card, coloured with Promarkers and then used the perfect partner die to cut it out.  Not very successful on that so a bit of trimming here and there was needed.  The sentiment which is part of the stamp pack was stamped onto a background which had the same treatment minus the embossing lol and attached to the card with foam tape. Once the creating was done I matted the card front onto black card and then the card base which I had covered with dull gold paper.

The inside of the card was finished off very simply with Distress Oxides.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great day :)

I am entering this card in the following challenges 

• Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - #109 - E is for Engineering
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  #202 Masculine + A Sentiment (W2 of 2)
• Fab 'n' Funky - W,1E, #390 - Wet or Dry Embossing
• I love Promarkers - 2W,3E Must use Promarkers, #358 - CAS (W1 of 2)
• Artistic Stampers (M, P1, E3, must use rubber stamp) May - Backgrounds

Stitchy Cats

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 108
Monochrome May

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 :) :) :)

For the Monochromatic challenge this month I have taken myself right out of my comfort zone by using yellow as my theme colour, I tend to head straight for blues and purples and avoid red, orange or yellow lol.  Somehow, yellow seemed to be the right colour for these adorable stitchy cats, just looking at the wonderful smily faces made me think of summer sun :) :) :)   The cats were coloured with Promarkers for a change, have not used them in a long time as have a passion for my pencils at the moment.  They were then fussy cut and added to the circle layer with foam tape.  I was a bit stuck on the background so designed a footprint stencil and cut it with my Silver Bullet, I also made the fish bone circle in the same way.  The background was coloured with Distress Inks in a couple of shades of yellow and then the paw prints and fish bones in a darker orangy yellow shade.  I kept the off cuts from the fish bones and coloured them with Promarkers and added them as an embellishment in the top right corner.  To finish off I added the sentiment and attached it with a couple of brads.  I had so much fun with the Distress Inks I decided to colour and stencil the envelope too hahahaha.

Ingredients:-

• image - Stitchy Cats, by IKEsART
• colouring medium - Promarkers
• other items - hand made stencils, Distress Inks, brads

I am entering this project into the following challenges:-

• Allsorts  W,3E  - #465 - All About Pets
• Di's Digis Designs 2W, 3E,SIO  Include an animal (W2 of 2)
• As You Like It Challenge 2W,E3  Favourite Animal (&why) (W1 of 2) - favourite animal - cats.  After many years overseas and not having a pet live in our home with us we are now retired and have completed our family with 2 Russian Blue kittens - bliss in our home now :) :) 
• Show us Your Pussies - M, Cat Only Challenge, April -  Furrything Goes

Magic Eye

 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 #32
Interactive
(add a spinner, wobble, make a waterfall card etc)

This fortnights challenge them has been chosen by DT sister CraftyGirl.  We all have fun with interactive cards, not only are they fun to make they are an interesting creation to give to the lucky recipient.  I decided to do something totally different and opted for a Magic Eye card.  Hubby has a program on his computer for making Magic Eye images so I set him to work and he came up with the image hidden below lol.

Magic Eye technique - Hold the centre of the printed image right up to your nose. It should be blurry. Focus as though you are looking through the image into the distance. Very slowly move the image away from your face until the 3 dimensional image appears.  I have done these for years so don't tend to bother with the hold near my nose these days.  I just have the image at arms length and stare lol.  Hope you can do this one, I promise it is not just a pattern, there really is an image hidden :)

A fun and different card to make but very quick lol so I decided to decorate the inside of the card and an envelope too (the inside is the same as the envelope with a simple layered border).  

Challenges entered:-

• 4 Crafty Chicks W #400 Less Is More (CAS)
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  #202 Masculine + A Sentiment (W1 of 2)
• Little Red Wagon - W, #443  Riding Along
• Always Fun Challenges - W, E3, Top 3 awarded - #55 CAS
• Crafty Cardmakers - 2W, C15 - #210 BIRTHDAYS (Week 1)

The image in the magic eye is of a speed boat and the sentiment Happy Birthday along the top of the card :) :) :) 

Ladybird

Just a quick post from me with a bag I created today using Ladybug Sprite by Aurora Wings, isn't she just adorable :) :) :).  The challenge this month over at Aurora Wings is Black & White (with or without a splash of color) and I had such fun this morning creating this.  My thoughts last night when I went to bed was for a totally different outcome, I still kept to the gift bag plan and the image was already printed out although not coloured but sometime during the night I must have thought that dismantling the bag and stamping a flower border would be fun and it still sounded like fun when I woke up.  The original plan was to have a lot more die cutting and no stamping lol.

To begin with I heated the bag up to soften the glue and then unassembled it without causing any damage.  Next I used a Sheena Douglas stamp and stamped the border all around the bottom edge.  One thing I had not thought about during all my excitement was the folds in the bag shape grrr, they did not want to stamp properly but although they are still noticeable they are not  immediately obvious.  Next problem was the type of paper the bag is made from, rather waxy and I kept getting ink where I did not want it.  As we all know, crafters are great at covering up mistakes lol, so I added a few butterflies and then used some black spray ink to add splattered background.  Kinda cool so i am a happy bunny.  I Ladybug image was printed twice (I wanted the wings from one of the images to be a second layer to the image to add a bit of dimension).  I coloured both sections with Prismacolour pencils which hubby has just treated me to, not sure what I think of them as I just love my Polychromes.  These pencils are very very soft and do give a beautiful smooth finish but I can't see them lasting very long!!!!!!  Colouring all done and time to fussy cut the lady bug and her wings.  The wings were attached with foam tape at the bottom edge and flat at the top edge so in reality you can see how they are lifting away from the coloured image, hard to show on the photo grrrr.  With the ladybug all ready she was glued to the bag.  Next I die cut a With Love sentiment and found some ribbon hiding at the bottom of my box which was perfect to make the bow.  I added the bow to a doily die cut and glued this to the bag handle with silicone glue.  Finally I added a tiny ladybug embellishment just above the bow.

Side view of bag showing stamped border all round.

Black medallion with bow and tine ladybird used to finish off the bag handle.

Close up of the coloured image, Ladybug Sprite, by Aurora Wings.

Challenges entered:-

• AuroraWings Challenge -  #66 BLACK OR WHITE (WITH OR WITHOUT A SPLASH OF COLOR) 
• Fussy and Fancy - 2W, E3, C10 - No. 210 - ADD A DIE CUT (W1 of 2)
• Cardz 4 Galz 2W,3E #69 Black & White +1 Bright Colour (W2 of 2)
• Sunny Day Crafting - W, #16 - Bugs and Insects
• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies (M, P1, E5, must have a critter) #13 - Anything Goes with a Critter
• ARTastic Challenge (M, P1, Winners P8, C0 except for sketch) April - Photo Inspiration + Black and White + one other colour *see below

Floral Birthday

 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 #31
Paper Piecing

This fortnights challenge them has been chosen by DT Maggie.  I know paper piecing has been around for ages but it is something I have never tried before so thank you Maggie for this awesome challenge theme, I had a ball.  I guess the reason I have not done it before is due to lack of stamps (I have a huge collection of digital but only recently started using rubber and cling more often).  I know our lovely printed craft paper can be used  in the printer but I find is a nuisance to have to use a new sheet each time and I hate that lol so don't do it hahaha. 

For my easel card I used a fusion stamp by Sheena Douglas which I thought would look really cool for paper piecing. The stamp is Folk Chrysanthemum Stamp.  2 types of purple patterned paper were use and one patterned green paper.  The background was created simply with distress inks and the same was used for the writing area on the card.  To finish off I added 3 mauve crystal gems and then decorated the envelope to match.  

Close up of the paper pieced flowers.

I have some lovely Birthday ribbon in cream and it holds the Promarker ink wonderfully retaining the text in a different tone.  I coloured the ribbon with a suitable green and added it to the inside of the card to help reinforce the height to hold the card shape when opened.

Challenges entered:-

• Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper (M, P1) April - Anything Goes with Patterned Paper
• Paru's Card Making Challenge (M, P1, Cards/Tags only) April - Flowers
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  #201 Happy Birthday (W1 of 2)
• Paper Shelter Challenge - W, 3E, SIO - Flowers

Photo Inspiration - Spring

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 107
Photo Inspiration - Spring

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 :) :) :)

My final canvas for a while (need to buy some more hahaha), it has been a super fun journey creating the canvas creations so will have to do some more.

This forthnights challenge at IKEsWORLD is Photo Inspiration - Spring and I have used one of my all time favourite digi's - Spring Fairy, she is so full of movement and beautifully proportioned I keep coming back to her.

I used a 20cm x 20cm canvas for this creation.  The background was created digitally using a photo, the Spring Fairy image and the sentiment and printed.  I then used Pan Pastels to soften the background image some more and coloured the image with Polychromes.  With the colouring done I trimmed and stuck the paper to the canvas using a permanent adhesive spray.  I tried using SN glitter pens for the leaves but did not like how that turned out so went over them with my go to Stickles.  For the flowers I used a very small flower die to create all 50+ of them hahah, each was then finished with some purple Stickles and a tiny orange seed bead.  My grandson, who is 8, rather liked this canvas so I offered it to him, his reply was ' it is a bit girly for my bedroom' hahahaha so I get to keep it myself :)

Ingredients:-

• image - Spring Fairy, by IKEsART
• colouring medium - Polychromes, Pan Pastels
• other items - 20 x 20 canvass, die cut flowers, Stickles, seed beads.

I am entering this project into the following challenges:-

• Artistic Inspirations - 2W, E3, F - #197 ANYTHING GOES   (Week 1)
• Colouring in Scrapland - M 1st Monday, E2, winner + Top 3, No digital coloring, must have a hand-colored image -  ANYTHING GOES / SPRING
• Incy Wincy Designs - 1st & 3rd Monday, 5E -  NATURE AND ALL ITS BEAUTY (Week 1)
• 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) - #208 (April) Anything Goes w/Optional Twist: Vellum
• The Corrosive Challenges - M, 3E - Always Anything Goes
• We Love 2 Create  - 2W (ends Tuesday) - Always Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
• Brown Sugar – M (First Friday of M), E2 - March - No. 276 - SPRING OR EASTER
• Fussy and Fancy - 2W, E3, C10 - No. 208 - SPRING FLOWERS (W2 of 2)
• Di's Digis Designs 2W, 3E,SIO  Spring Flowers (W2 of 2)
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  #200 Easter Or Spring Sentiment (W1 of 2)
• Star Stampz Challenge 2W,3E,SIO  Throw On The Flowers (W1 of 2)