acrylic paint

Believe In Yourself

Hello again. I have created a card for one of my friends going through some tough stuff at the moment, and decided to use patterned paper from my stash:

I wanted to create a Z fold card for the current challenge at Die Cut Divas, together with the theme of ‘bees’ from Double D challenge.

I knew I had some honeycomb/bee papers from 49 & Market somewhere, and I hunted them out, picked several of the papers and decided which ones I wanted.

I created the Z fold using an A2 card base, matted one piece on the inside, and another piece to the front narrower panel, also covering the rear of that folded piece.

I used the ‘Honey Bees’ die set from The Greetery to create the three bees – all coming from the same die set. The yellow part of the bees is from a previously created panel – ink smooshing, acrylic paint splattering, and I think there was even some water droplets thrown in for good measure. I liked the almost honey-like colour on the panel.

The black stripes of the main bee were cut at the same time, from the same yellow piece, and coloured with a W9 Copic marker – not black – as I wanted the legs and antennae to look a little warmer, and stand out from the black hexagon.

The black hexagon piece is from the same patterned paper pack, but onto that I also used some Distress paste – the translucent paste – and a Simon says Stamp honeycomb stencil to create a little more detail and interest behind the bee, scraped through quite haphazardly.

The wings for all three bees were die cut from vellum, and all the layers attached. I had to wait until the following day for the paste to dry, but then it was putting everything together to make the card you see.

I added the sentiment strip, layered with a piece of black for stability.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Double D Challenge – use bees and/or the word happy

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Die Cut Divas – die cutting and Z fold card

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Love Those Patterned Papers – patterned papers option of summertime

ABC Christmas Challenge – C & D

Hello there. The ABC Christmas Challenge has started their second challenge of the year. The letters are ‘C’ and ‘D’ and we have chosen the themes of:

C is for Cute

and/or

D is for Die Cuts

Here is my card which incorporates both of the challenge themes:

This was another mixed media card and using some products received as part of the Gummiapan Advent Calendar. I just loved the gnome feeding the reindeer, and as I already had the trees from a previous order, I thought they would work to create a scene.

I started with the background, and used a Pinkfresh hot foil plate to create an imprint in the card. I then used Distress Oxide inks to swipe across the back of the card so the details would remain white as they were deeper. I added some water – not too much as this was normal card not water-colour card – then when dry I splattered on some gold and white acrylic paint.

For the main images, I did use water-colour card stock and my Zig water-colour markers – something I haven’t used for a while.

The images were die cut then water-coloured, gluing together once dry. The gold stars were painted using my gold marker.

I cut the snow bank free hand and attached before adding the images.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/festive creations following one of both of our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Love To Craft – anything goes

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Cut It Up – die cuts – and this certainly makes me smile

Creative Fingers – anything goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

A Birthday Vase

Hello again. More creating in my craft room and this time I created this card:

I was inspired by the mood board at Just Add Ink and the vase of red flowers that was in their picture. Funnily enough, one of the die sets from the Spellbinders Advent Calendar was this vase with some flowers, so I used that die set, and some of the flowers from another day in the Advent Calendar – as well as the sentiment banner.

I first created the background by dry embossing a hot foil plate from Crafty Meraki ‘Loopy Hearts’. I like how the hearts are there in the background – I used the debossed side – and give a subtle texture. Onto that panel I splattered some gold acrylic paint to bring in some of the gold from the mood board.

The wooden shelf piece is a die which embosses wood grain into the die cut, and I used a light brown card stock.

The vase was die cut from grey – I was tempted to add texture of a pattern but I went without – let the flowers and the background take centre stage.

I then used Spellbinders green card stock, and some red card stock from Heffy Doodle for the leaves, stems, and the flowers. These were layered as needed, and the centre of the flowers were die cut with Pinkfresh Studio gold glitter card stock.

I always die cut more than I think I need so I can play around with the design.

The wood grain strip was adhered with glue, then the vase adhered with 3D foam pieces at the edges and the flower placement began. Glue was added to the bottom of the stems, but I added small pieces of 3D foam to the flower heads themselves.

I had extra gold glitter circles from die cutting the flowers centres, so I used them as glittery accents instead of gems of sequins – waste not, want not…..

The sentiment and banner are also from the Advent Calendar, die cut in the same red card stock with a gold layer behind to shine through the letters.

I don’t really like to use glitter itself, but I am a great fan of glittery card stock, preferably gold – and this glittery card stock from Pinkfresh Studio is one of the most sparkly – and doesn’t shed…..such a bonus!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

As You Like It – gold, silver or glitter and why – nope, no glitter, not for me – too messy

Just Add Ink – mood board

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Crafty Catz – anything goes – option of anything for presents not taken

AAA Birthday – birthday with layers

Guest Designer Creative Artiste Mixed Media

Hello there. I was thoroughly pleased and excited to be offered a chance to be Guest Designer at the new Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge, when THIS card was chosen as winner by their Design Team.

The theme is always ‘anything goes mixed media’. Here is my creation:

I started by creating the background by using a snowflake stencil from Funky Fossil and Distress Texture paste in ‘Sparkle’. This set off to one side to dry and I then moved to creating some panels with Colorsparx watercolour powders in red and green – these were then set to dry, and for the other foliage, I created some panels using Distress Inks and Distress Mica sprays.

I already had an ink smooshed panel of lighter brown and dark splatters which I dug out ready to use.

Once all the panels were dry, I used Tim Holtz ‘Holiday Brushstroke 3‘ die set for the poinsettia and leaves, Spellbinders gold card stock for the centre of the poinsettia, and Sizzix ‘Buds and Branches‘ for the other foliage. The layers of the poinsettia glued together, and the edges with a Brutus Monroe Tricolour ink pad for more shadow.

The snowflake panel a was adhered to a square card base, and the floral and foliage images around to my satisfaction then attached with either 3D foam pieces or glue.

Some snow effect was added splattering Liquitex acrylic iridescent ink in white and gold, a foiled sentiment attached, and then some Pinkfresh Studio ombre glitter drops – I do like sparkly gems.

I absolutely loved creating this project. Mixed media is quite scary for me, but I have found that if I just go with my gut – it usually turns out reasonably good.

I hope you can have a go yourself and join the challenge this time round. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Try It In Tuesday – traditional Christmas

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Crafty Gals Corner – anything goes – option of three or more layers taken

Beautiful Blossoms – florals

Love To Craft – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner I Spy – something for Christmas

Stencilled Bauble

Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the letter ‘R’, and Veronika has chosen the theme of:

R is for Round

Here is my card:

I used the Bibi Cameron ‘Snowflakes Ornament’ stencil set from Spellbinders.

The stencils were used direct onto the card base, and Pinkfresh Studio inks. There are several layers to each stencil, for different parts of the bauble. There are actually two bauble sizes, and I chose to do the largest.

Once the bauble was stencilled, I then used the mask over it and splattered with silver sparkle acrylic paint, and then again with one of the blue inks used for the stencilling.

The sentiment is foiled using a Lawn Fawn hot foil set, then die cut with the matching die and attached with wet glue. I then added some clear gems for a little more interest.

I hope you can come and join us following our theme. I shall be entering the following challenges:

12 Months of Christmas Link Up – Christmas, option of stitched up not taken

Stencil Fun – use stencils, option of sparkle or shine taken

Everybody Art Challenge – blue tones

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – anything goes, option of blue Christmas taken

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner I Spy – something for Christmas

Flowers, Hares, and a Bird

Hello everyone. Whilst I was watching the England football this evening, I decided to create something using techniques and mediums I rarely – if at all – use. Like most of us, I have them, but am unsure of how to use them, so today I just went with it to create this collage mixed media panel:

The starting off point was the image in the centre. This is actually a layering washi tape from ‘AALL and Create’. I have never seen these before, and one of my go-to shops showcased them recently – so I bought a few different ones to try.

This is the ‘Sunflower and Hares’ washi, and I layered it onto some Distress Kraft Heavy stock and cut it down into a square.

Now to play with ‘stuff’…..I took a spare piece of white card stock and some Tim Holtz papers and went to town. Using the vintage collage medium to give a sepia tone, I created layers on the background.

I then took an Indigo Blu red rubber stamp and Archival ink to stamp partial images over the dried collage. I created a brown stencil paste using Altenew embossing paste and brown Impasto acrylic paint, a Tim Holtz stencil, and added detail to the background.

When the paste had dried, I took some gold wax and rubbed it over the top – I wanted some vintage yellow to somewhat match the sunflowers.

I then added some green die cut leaves I had laying around on my desk, covered them with the vintage distress collage medium to tone down the green a little,

Once all that was dry, I added the square with the images with the other collage medium, then found some light brown paper flowers, adding some of the gold wax to the petals, and stuck them down as you see.

As I was putting some of the papers away, a strip dropped out ‘Made in England‘ so I added that to the bottom.

Here are the products I used, and you can see the roll of washi tape off to the side:

All-in-all, a fun but messy creation. I still have no idea what I’m doing – but I did enjoy the process.

Here is a picture of the washi tape just attached to white card stock and the image the four layers create, ready for making into a card:

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More – make your mark

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Inkspirational – stencils – option to use paste taken

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge – anything goes mixed media

Triple B – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Holly and Berries

Happy New Year to you all. The ABC Christmas Challenge has started with their Christmas themed challenges. The first is A – anything goes Christmas, B – Berries. Here is my card:

So – pink………I know – but I love the way this looks…… I am not a pink girl in general, but I just thought I’d try this out.

The pink background is dry embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder, then splattered with white and silver acrylic shimmer paint. Whilst this was drying, I die cut a previously created panel of green mica spray with the Hero Arts holly dies.

The holly was layered onto the pink background using glue for the bottom sprig, and 3D foam for the uppermost sprig.

For the berries, I chose some red sequins.

So many shimmer and shine elements, and then I added a foiled greeting strip too…

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/festive creations following out themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Inspiration – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Daisy Chain – no designer paper

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Mix It Up Challenge – anything goes – option of mixed media taken – acrylic paint, foiling, mica sprays

Leafy Birthday

I decided to put one of my gel plate backgrounds to use with this card:

The background was created using acrylic paints and a leaf stencil, onto which I also sprayed some Distress mica stain, add some dribbles of water, held the paper up to allow some drippage, and then let it dry.