Cats and Dogs

 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 #49
Cats and/or Dogs

For my design team creation I have used a red rubber stamp which I must have had for about 10 years and never used.  Why some may ask lol.  I bought a bunch of rubber stamp sheets which were on offer with some great images but my stamping technique was useless and I never got good results until I bought a stamping platform about 18 months ago, what a difference that has made.  For my card I stamped the image and stamped a mask for it.  Using three colours of ink I randomly stamped the corner of the card base and the image layer with a stamp from the Sheena Douglas of Crafter's Companion Textures set.  Next I coloured the image with Promarkers.  Finally I stamped the Birthday greeting on some spare card.  The card topper and the sentiment were layers onto black paper, then a light turquoise paper and finally a second black paper.  Once all the sections were complete I assembled the card.  Hope you like it :)

Challenges entered:-

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Gelli Printed Doily Pillow Box

Ahhh, something a little different from me today :) I was recently a winner of the Challenge Up Your Life challenge with a suitcase box I made and today I am a very honoured to be a Guest Designer for their new challenge 'Doily'

I have so fallen in love with Gelli Printing and could not resist using this technique to make yet another box, this time a Pillow Box.

I started by making my background for both the box and accessories I wanted to use.  I first placed a layer of pearl paint which does not really show here but has a lovely sheen (where you are seeing the white areas).  Next I used turquoise paint and doilies and then the final layer was mauve paint which I sprayed with water to thin and dabbed some off before adding a wavy pattern.  I had thought I would use the left over small doilies but in the end gave up on that idea hahaha.

Next I used the Pillow Box pattern and cut out with my die cutter.  I am finding it great Gelli Printing my backgrounds on card and then using this with my die cutters, saves getting messy backgrounds :).  Using the spare background I made I cut a doily using a Sizzix die.  Onto the sentiment which is from Fiskars Make A Wish and a Spellbinder Triple Tear Doily die.  The sentiment was attached to the Sizzix doily with double layers of foam tape.  Still with background paper to spare I used the the Creative Expressions die to make my bow and the ribbon.  I coloured the back of the bow with gold paint and mounted the ribbon section on gold paper.  Finally I added some gold Mica chips on the right hand side of the box.

Now every wee box should have a gift in it so I raked out my cold enamelling kit and a copper heart blank.  Using colours to match my box I set to work.  The finishing touch was a silver flower I made from silver metal clay ages ago and was a bit of a disaster so sat around doing nothing.  The silver did not go with my box so I coloured it with gold paint.

And there we have it, my box and pendant and lots of fun this afternoon.  Thank you Challenge Up Your Life for the change be part of your DT this week :)

items used:-

• gelli plate
• Folk Art acrylic paints
• light weight card
• Dies :- Sizzix Doily, Spellbinders Triple Tear Doily and Creative Expressions Bow
• Fiskars sentiment stamp 'Make A Wish' set
• gold paper and pen
• paper cake doilies
• brads
• copper heart blank
• cold enamelling powders
• silver metal clay

I am entering this project into the following challenges

• Creative Artiste Challenge - M, E3, C5 - September - Anything Mixed Media
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  #163 Anything Goes + A Sentiment (W1 of 2)
• Crafty Sentiment Designs W, 1E, SIO - Lots of Layers
• Sparkle N Sprinkle - M, E3, all crafts - (August) Anything Goes: use loose glitter, embossing powder and/or flocking
• Just Keep on Creating - Sept