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

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