Challenge #51 Make Your Own Background

 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 #51
Make Your Own Background

This fortnights challenge of Make Your Own Background has been chosen by Josephine.  I had so many ideas for this fab challenge but settled on doing something totally different for me.  Texture is a big part of my crafting but this time I decided on no texture lol.  Some years ago I started making a couple of art journals for my daughters, they don't know about them and although it sounds a bit morbid these are something I want to leave for my precious babies to be found as I pass to the next life.  With that being said I should add there is no hurry to finish them lol and they have been tucked away at the back of my shelf for a long time now.

My youngest daughter loves her VW van and she and her partner are constantly fitting it out to make it more comfortable for their trips away.  This summer they toured Europe in it with their two dogs as travel companions.  When I saw the Sheena Douglas VW stencil I just had to have it and this journal page was the perfect place to use it.  For the background I used Distress Oxides to try and create a land and water effect and then used silicone stamps from one of the the Creative Stamping sets which had a map background stamp, great sentiment, travel visa stamps and the signpost.  Very random stamping as I was not in the mood to think to far ahead with this creation, just let it develop in the way it chose to go.  For the VW van I used the Sheena Douglas stencil and Pan Pastels, black first and then silver which does not really show up here but when you move the page around it catches the light in different ways giving a great effect.

Challenges entered:-

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Challenge #50 Choose A Movie

 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 #50
Choose A Movie

This fortnights challenge of Choose A Movie has been chosen by Hazel.  For my DT creation I have created a tag and used the movie theme 'Peter Rabbit'.

I have had a book of Beatrix Potter decoupage sheets for many years so what could be more perfect to use here.  It is so much fun using up bits and bobs one has and in ones stash for ages and this gift tag really has been one of those creations I could do that with.  The white embossed paper is from scrap sample paper pad I must of had for at least ten year.  The papers inside are awesome which is why I never seem to use them and also they are small sheets too.  Using a highly textured white sheet I cut my tag shape which I then mounted on green and trimmed round the edges.  It has been such a long time since I did any decoupage so throughly enjoyed doing this Peter Rabbit sheet, and although Jemima is there and not in the film I used to be called Jemima Puddle Duck when I was a wee kid many moons ago.  To finish off the tag I added an eyelet, ribbon and a metal brad tag which I removed the metal fasteners from the back.  The metal tags brads were bought in a sale many years ago, a bit of a mistake as I think over the years I have only used a couple of them. To the metal brad tag I added the Happy Birthday sentiment using peel off sticker.

Challenges entered:-

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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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Dachshund

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 116
Animals

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 :) :) :)

What a lovely challenge to begin the year, animals, mans best friends :)  For this card I used Ike's image DACHSHUND.  I have always loved this image but only used it a couple of times as I don't know anybody with a dachshund lol.  The creation of this card was a wee bit different.  I used a famous painting for the background!!! and then modified it a bit with blurring techniques in Photoshop.  Next I added the dachshund image and printed using acetate.  The image was then coloured from behind so the card top has a wonderful shiny layer.  The colouring of the image was far from easy, using several brown shades of my Promarkers but I couldn't get any depth of colour so I then added some Tim Holtz Distress Oxides applied with a paint brush to create the shadows, not a great success but the overall card turned out OK.  Once the colouring was done I mounted it on my matting and added a copper Thinking of You peel off sentiment.

Ingredients:-

• image - DACHSHUND by IKEsART
• colouring medium - Promarkers, Distress Oxides and digital background
• other items - acetate and peel off stickers

I am entering this project into the following challenges:-

Challenge #49 Add Some Sparkle

 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
Add Some Sparkle

This fortnights challenge has been chosen my Maggie and what a super choice for us over the Christmas period for our challenge and for us to get another Christmas card made lol.

Oh dear, not good.  I tend to make my creations quite a while in advance of challenges so if I need a break then it is never a problem, commitments are covered and I can have a couple of weeks off with no problems. Alas this has just hit me really hard as I have just placed the card image on this blog post and it is the card I made for my Mum who passed to the next world a couple of months ago.  I know she would have loved this card, she was my greatest admirer but now I think I will have to put it in a memory box along with her birthday card with I used in a challenge a few months ago even though her birthday is not until July next year.

OK enough - have to move on.  I used green hammer card and foil embossed the arches then embossed the card with a frame embossing folder the used a Sheena Douglas gold glitter pen to pick up some of the embossed areas.  Next I spatted some gold paint onto the card to give it a bit of a distressed look.  Time to put the base to one side and move onto the holly and bow.  For the bow I stamped a pre designed bow stamp with wee holly on it by Sue Wilson I think using the same green card and a gold stamp pad.  I then cut the bow out, sprayed it with water on the back and shaped it using a pencil before gluing the sections together, these were then put to one side to dry.  Next was the holly using a Sheena Douglas die, the die does have a matching stamp but I don't have that.  Using white card and then a selection of green inks I coloured the sections on both the front and back so they were quite wet.  These were then scrunched up then un-scrunched and shaped and put to one side to dry for a day or two.  When totally dry and holding their shape properly I was ready to move on.  Firstly I sprayed all the holly leaves with several layers of Crafter's Companion Spray and Shine, a lovely light weight varnish which gives a fabulous shine. The green card base was matted onto gold mirror card, the holly was then glued in place with silicon glue then the bow was added and finally to finish off the holly I used red flat backed pearls for the berries.  A simple sentiment tag was cut and the text added using gold peel off stickers.  I made four of this card to give to family members and have to admit, I had a ball, it was a lovely card to make with several techniques.  My sparkle which would normally be with glitter :) this time was with the gold mirror card and the Spray and Shine, not quite sparkle but the effect is similar when the elements catch the light which is what I was aiming for.

Challenges entered:-

• Crafty Calendar M,3E December -  It's Christmas Time
• Crafty Friends Challenge 2W, 3E,  - #98 - Christmas (W2 of 2)
• Hiding in my Craft Room W,1E - #382 -  o TBA
• Inkspirational 2W,C10  #175 - Anything Christmas Goes (W2 of 2)
• Winter Wonderland - M, 3E, must be Christmas – DEC   ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  #219 Anything Goes + A Sentiment (W1 of 2)
• Moving along with the Times 2W,3E #86 Anything Christmas (W1 of 2)
• Through the Purple Haze M 1st Thurs, E3, C10 Dec- 'tis The Season
• Crafty Gals Corner  2W, E2, #180 - Anything Christmas (W1 of 2)

Hunky Potter

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 115
Christmas Time

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 youngest daughter is HP mad, even at the age of 36 she can't get enough - of HP that is hahaha.  She is also not into frills or lace or I suspect the types of cards I like making but I know she loves the effort that goes into them.  Anyway this year I went pleading to Ike to help me out with an HP based image so I could use it on Nicole's Christmas card this year and WOW, Ike, you smashed the idea with the wonderful HUNKY POTTER image.  I think this is one card my daughter is really going to love although her other half won't as she is into VW's :) :) Thanks Ike for helping me out, you know how much I appreciate what you do xxx

I created the card by first using a starry sky background to which I then placed the Hunky Potter image removing the white background. I also removed some text which Ike had on the image as I wanted the area left blank.  I then used the same starry sky to create the sentiment tag and added the text personalising it for Nicole and Meesh.  The colouring was done with Prismacolour pencils and Promarkers with the addition of gold and bronze pens here and there.  Once all the colouring was done I cut the sections out and matted both the coloured image and the sentiment topper onto silver card ready for adding to my card blank.  The sentiment topper was added with foam tape for extra dimension.

Ingredients:-

• image - HUNKY POTTER by IKEsART
• colouring medium - Prismacolour pencils, Promarkers and digital background

I am entering this project into the following challenges:-

• Dream Valley Challenges - 2W, 3E, C10 - #192 CHRISTMAS
• Crafting With An Attitude M,1st Thurs,3E Always Anything Goes
• A Gem of a Challenge  2W   - #232 - Anything Goes (W2 of 2)
• Allsorts  W,3E  - #496 - Fairies, Fantasy & Magical
• Inkspirational 2W,C10  #175 - Anything Christmas Goes (W1 of 2)
• The Fairy and The Unicorn M, 1st Sat, E3, Mythical and Mystical - December - Anything Goes -  optional theme: Christmas

Gone Crackers

Aurora Wings

Holiday Spirit #74 - Holiday Spirit

Time for a new challenge at Aurora Wings and this month we know you will be in the Holiday Spirit with Christmas just round the corner.

Oh so much fun with this challenge.  I try to make my own crackers each Christmas to give to family either with their gift in the post of with us at lunch time, which ever fits and this was the perfect theme for my crackers this year.  I decided to use 9 of the Christmas Sprites Mitzi has over at the Aurora Wings store, they are just darlings to adorn the crackers aren't they :) :) :) I started by hunting for a cracker die cut template and found a great in Monica's Craft Room which is what I have used.  Monica is a very generous designer who has lots of free cutting files on her site so thank you so very much Monica, you are a superstar.  I made the crackers as big as I could with the template, each on fitting onto a piece of A4 card (similar size to letter) and used cream linen card.  Next I coloured 18 white doilies with gold paint and let them dry while I sorted the printing of the images, adding the sentiment along with the recipients name, sorting the correct size to fit my chosen gold die cut which they will be placed on etc..  Each of the Aurora Wings sprites was coloured using Promarkers in reds and greens (and brown for the reindeer guy) and then it was out with green, gold and red Stickles, I so love my Stickles lol.  With all the colouring done I assembled the crackers, mounted the toppers and used remnants of gold lace stuff to tie the two end sections.  There is no bang in these crackers so you just remove one of the ties and open the cracker box to reveal a wee gift, shhhhhhh don't tell, but this year they will be filled with Ferrero Rocher chocolates, partly because they have gold wrappers but mainly because they are yummy.

and here are some clearer pics of each of the crackers

I will let you into a little secret now, one I feel really bad about.  After all my planning and making sure I had things correct ready for the production line I must have lost the plot.  I had a cracker for everybody and two spare so I decided my lovely fur baby cats could have one each, they won't be getting Ferrero Rocher in theirs but probably a nice salmon stick.  Anyway, back to my little secret.  Crackers made and time to photography, still I did not see the problem.  Then to edit the photos and what do I notice, I have not made a cracker for my best friend, my hubby - how on earth did I make such a huge error and with the crackers having names on I could not hide this from him.  Yep, I feel bad.  Alan's response was he was not bothered (he is not a fan of Christmas) so I think I will buy him a whole box of Ferrero Rocher to say sorry and I know there are to many in a box to fit into a cracker hahaha.  

Items Used:-
Images:- 

• Aurora Wings Store Wine Sprite   Poinsettia Sprite  Holly Sprite  Mistletoe Sprite  Garland Sprite  Christmas Cactus Sprite   Christmas Tree Sprite   Winter Sprite   Reindeer Sprite

• Etsy Store   Wine Sprite  Poinsettia Sprite   Holly Sprite   Mistletoe Sprite   Garland Sprite    Christmas Cactus Sprite   Christmas Tree Sprite    Winter Sprite   Reindeer Sprite

• Die Cut - Monica's Craft Room
• Colouring :- gold paint, Promarkers
• Other items:- Stickles, doilies, gold lace 

Aurora Wings Digital Images Store

I am entering this creation in the following challenges:-

• Christmas with the Cuties - M last Monday, 3E, must be cute Christmas - #22 ANYTHING BUT A CARD (WEEK 2)
• Crafty Cardmakers - 2W, C15 - #223 ANYTHING BUT A CARD (Week 2)
• Dragonfly Journeys - 2W, monthly Nov & Dec, E5 - #130 Handmade Holiday Magic (deadline December 31)
• Crafty Calendar M,3E December -  It's Christmas Time
• Inkspirational 2W,C10  #175 - Anything Christmas Goes (W1 of 2)
• ABC Christmas Challenge M, 1st Wed,- W for Wishes/X for Xmas
• Christmas at Sweet Stampin' M, 2nd Wed, 2E, Anything Goes Christmas
• I love Promarkers  2W,3E Must use Promarkers, #369 - Anything Goes/Option  of Christmas (W1 of 2)