Distress oxides

Cherish The Season

Hello everyone. I am back from my short jaunt to Tenerife for some sun and quality time with hubby. The weather here in the UK is gorgeous and yet here I am posting a Christmas card for the new challenge at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge.

I certainly had some messy fun creating this card.

The cute ice skating deer is from Gummiapan, stamped and black heat embossed, then water-coloured, and die cut with the matching die.

The background blue panel was created by ink smooshing Distress Inks, and cut slightly smaller than an A2 card base, then adhered with glue, saving a border to place at the feet of the deer to represent some ice….

The background to the scene was also ink smooshing, but with Distress Oxides this time round, die cut with an arch die, and adhered to the blue panel.

I added the blue ‘ice’ strip at the bottom, then used Gummiapan tree dies and die cut from other previously created ink smooshing panels, slotting them into the background.

The deer was added, then the foiled sentiment.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations – the theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’ xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Die Cut Divas – die cutting and water-colouring

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

12 Months of Christmas link-up – Christmas – option of blue and gold not taken

Aud Sentiments – water-colouring and/or Spring and a sentiment

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Owl I Want For Christmas

Hello once again. You may be pleased to know that the card I am sharing today does not contain washi tape – no washi tape – none, at all, anywhere…….

I decided to break out the Copics and create this mixed media CAS kinda card:

I was inspired by one if the challenges below to create a Christmas card featuring owls. I searched the Color My Life app – fabulous cataloguing system if you don’t have one – and this cute stamp and die set from Clearly Besotted popped up. Bingo. Perfect for what I wanted.

I started by stamping the images in Gina K Amalgam ink, and heat setting before colouring using my Copics. Once coloured, I used the matching dies to cut them out.

The background is a landscape card base, and onto that I adhered a blue strip for the night sky. This strip was created by ink blending two Distress Oxide blue tones, then I used Liquitex white acrylic paint to create the splatters.

This was put aside to dry whilst I stamped the image – also from the same stamp set – directly onto the card base, ensuring it would be just below the blue strip.

Before adhering the cute little owls, I did die cut another blank one to layer behind for a little more stability, and then glued directly down onto the blue piece.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

12 Months of Christmas link up – Christmas with option of owls taken

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

Daisy Chain Challenge – animals

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Die Cut Divas – die cuts and critters – real or imaginary

Creative Artiste Mixed Media – anything goes mixed media

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

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

We’ve Got Chemistry….

Hello everyone. There is a new challenge just started at Cardz 4 Galz, and Dawn has chosen the theme of

‘Inspired by a book’

Here is my card:

I was inspired by the book ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde‘ by Robert Louis Stevenson. I had just received these products from Spellbinders for the propagation virtual class. I felt the test tubes and test tube stand were perfect.

The background is a previously created panel using water and alcohol inks. here is my original post using this technique.

For this background I also used an embossing folder to create a bubble effect/

The stand was die cut and assembled, and I did use some grey Distress inks to darken some of the angles.

The test tubes and markings were die cut, and I also found some ink smooshed and splattered backgrounds in yellow, green and pink which I thought would look good to depict that a chemical reactions were happening in them.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations inspired by a book. xx

I shall be entering the following challenegs:

Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge – anything goes mixed media (inks, oxides, alcohol inks, white acrylic paint)

Cup Cake Inspirations – anything goes

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Addicted To Stamps and More – make your mark

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of sports not taken

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Christmas Cityscape

Hello everyone. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge. Debbie is the host, and she has chosen the theme of ‘cityscape‘. Here is my card:

I started with the background by ink blending Distress Oxides onto a white panel. I kept the lighter blue on the centre portion, then the darker blue, then finally the black.

I then used the houses part of the stencil, beginning with the Shaded Lilac for the houses at the rear, more heavy handed for the centre row of houses, then black for the front houses. I also note that the background blue altered the lilac to some degree – but I am liking the effect.

I also used the stencil on top of the front row of houses and Simon Hurley Lunar Paste for the lights in the windows of the houses. I then set this aside to dry, before I went over the background with a glitter paste to create the snow flurry.

Once all was dry, I cut this panel down, glued onto a white card base, then added the foiled sentiment.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘cityscape’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Girlz Creative Christmas – Christmas and based on a Christmas Song – ‘Silent Night’

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

My Time To Craft Christmas – Christmas and Snowflakes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Ellibelle’s Corner Eye Spy – Sparkle and Shine

Sunflowers For A friend

Hello again. I have a card to share from a very messy play time:

I first created the background panel by using stencil and grit paste onto water-colour card, so I could set that aside and let it dry.

I then ink smooshed some brown and orange Distress Inks onto different Distress White Heavystock panels and set those aside to dry.

I then found a piece of yellow and green paper, created during a gel plate session using either water-colours or acrylic paint (I can’t remember which), so I used that panel to die cut the flowers, and layered with another white die cut piece of card to add some stability.

Once dry, I die cut the layers from Honey Bee Stamps ‘Lovely Layers Sunflower‘, placing my dies where I wanted to add to get some white areas, solid areas, and some splattering from the ink smooshing.

The brown centres were die cut from some grey ink smooshing, but they were too grey, so I added some ink blending with brown Distress Oxides.

The next thing to do was stick everything down – I had forgotten what to use to glue things down onto the grit paste. My normal wet glue didn’t work, and I couldn’t find my gel medium – I must have a few containers stored ‘safely’ somewhere – so I used glossy accents….that seemed to have done the trick.

I then added the foiled sentiment and some gold facetted gems, stuck down with a drop of glossy accents.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – stencil fun

FarmQuest Challenge – sunflowers

My Time To Craft – In The Garden

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Die Cut Divas – layered die cuts or layer die cuts

Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge – anything goes mixed media – use at least three mediums

Messy Play Poinsettia

Hello once again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge – anything goes Christmas/Festive. Here is my card:

I used a few techniques for this image, having a little messy playtime in my craft room.

The background to the poinsettia is from a Distress Oxide ink smooshing session. I seem to have a lot of inky backgrounds from playing around with the inks and oxides which I must try and use at some point….

Onto the ink smooshed background, I stamped the Tim Holtz poinsettia image. This was stamped in embossing ink, then I added pinches of Distress embossing powder onto the image (a technique I’ve wanted to try since seeing Tim Holtz demonstrate it) using a red and a green embossing powder, then heat setting.

I added a gold layer then as I felt the panel was looking quite vintage, I placed onto a Kraft card base.

The foiled sentiment was added as you see.

I hope you can come and join us. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

Most Magical Time Of The Year – anything goes Halloween or Christmas

Creative Artiste Mixed Media – anything goes mixed media

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

12 Months Of Christmas – anything goes Christmas – option of stars not taken

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

It’s Your Bird-day

Some messy in smooshing play this morning with Distress Oxides and Distress Sprays, in order to create this card:

I used the two pink Distress Oxides you see in the picture to create two panels from which I die cut the Simon Says Stamp bird. I layered the darker and the lighter pink to create some dimension.

The background is a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder, which I cut down and layered with a black panel.

The branch is die cut from an ink smooshed panel too – using Rusty Hinge Distress Ink – and the green branches are from yet another ink sprayed panel using Rustic Wilderness. The branches are from Gummiapan and Charlie and Paulchen.

The sentiment is from the Spellbinders Advent Calendar from last year, a debossed sentiment, which is difficult to see in the photo – better in real life – but here is a close up:

I’m trying out a way of photographing my cards to try and make them appear better. The card is raised on a Distress Ink pad to create some shadow, and I have added three of the items I used to make to card – a triangle as it were…I’m not sure if I’ve got the hang of it yet, but I’ll keep trying…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – pink, rust, green

Festive Friday – three items from the list – bird, birthday sentiment, embossing folder

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Cut It Up – die cuts and something starting with ‘B’ – bird, branch

X is for ‘XOXOXO’

Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the letter ‘X’, Dawn is hosting, and we want to see your ‘XOXOXO – Hugs and Kisses’ cards. Here is my card:

Onto a Distress white heavy-stock panel I ink blended some pink Distress Oxides – I find I can blend them better than the inks – then splattered with metallic acrylic paints in gold and silver.

I took another white panel and ran through through s Spellbinders embossing folder, adhered it to a card base.

Once the ink blended and splattered panel was dry, I used a Time For Tea designs ‘Stitched Hearts’ cover die – I think you can just make out the stitched hearts around the pink edges – and also used inner rectangle to cut out the middle.

Out of that pink cut-out piece, I die cut two hearts and added them to the card as you see, and also cut out the x’s and the o’s, after putting the strip onto double-sided sticky tape, then adding them to another white strip – trying very hard to keep them aligned……

I hope you can come and join us. I’m looking forward to your take on the theme. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Inspiration Station – photo inspiration – inspired by love and hearts

Here is a place to start – anything goes – option to pick a palette not taken

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Crafty Gals Corner – add a heart

Papercraft Challenge – hearts

CAS – Circles

Hello there. I was lucky enough to be chosen as the winner for AAA Cards Challenge in January 2023 with this card here – and so was invited to be Guest Designer for an upcoming challenge. I accepted of course……

The theme is ‘Circles’, and it must be CAS. Here is my card:

This is the third card I made – the theme was a real struggle for me. I went through the CML app and searched ‘circle’, looked through what came up, and came across this stamp set from Uniko which I haven’t used in absolutely ages…..

Onto a white card base, I first stamped the sentiment – a CAS sentiment – then took my newly delivered ‘Lost Shadow’ Distress Oxide ink, and my ‘Salvaged Patina’ Distress Oxide ink, and stamped what you see here. I used two of the smaller stamps in the Uniko set, and I did use my Misti when stamping.

Even though Distress Oxides stamp better than the inks – I still feel a second or even a third stamping gets a better impression.

I am loving the ‘distressed’ look of the stamps, and when I first stamped them I thought they were faulty – but no – just the way they are.

The teal and grey are also a good match for each other.

I hope you can come and join in the AAA card challenge with ‘CAS and Circles’ as the theme – I hope to see you in the gallery over there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks – CAS

Crafty Catz – anything goes – option black, grey and one colour – black, grey, teal