Colour Your World

Hi everyone!

Over at  Our Creative Corner there is a new challenge hosted this month by lovely Laurie!

Color Your World 

Here in the United States we are coming into spring - the season when nature comes

 forth with new life.

Soft green grasses grow in the fields and the trees bloom in glorious colors with the promise of fruit.

Tulips and daffodils emerge from the soil after a long winters nap.

The colors of spring, the sights and sounds of nature at this time of the year renews my soul.

In the spring time the colors of nature are different around the world.

For my challenge this month I want you to

Color Your World

For this challenge create a project with the colors of spring time where you live.

Show us what colors renew your soul

Oh, I was pleased with this!....I adore Spring and I knew exactly what to do. I wanted to use pale blue and green...the colour of sky and grass.

I had a piece of decorated card already sitting waiting to be used in a box that I put all items that fall in to the "That didn't work/to be used another time/what on earth was I thinking?!" category....

I liked what I had made, but it didn't work with the item I was making at the time - I was practicing the Tim Holtz technique of dabbing DI's over a stencil, spritzing with water and then printing onto card.

I had chosen a leaf stencil and using Peacock Feathers and Mown Lawn I made a print...it was lovely but was too bright and I lost interest at that point - so it got put away for another time...

And the time is now!....I got that bright blue and green print out of the box- it was perfect - but I didn't want to go that bright...I think of Spring as muted fresh colours, not 'I need dark glasses' colours...

No problem...a few spritzes of White Linen Dylusions spray (love this stuff!!!) works wonders...it was now very subtle, but the print effect was still there and it also now had the bonus of a chalky paint effect rather than the translucent ink effect

Now to get to work....

I stamped the background with some script, postmark and sewing stamps using Frayed Burlap DI. I then used a sanding block to take the colour off the edge of the card and leave a faded distressed look.

 I decided to use a frame and a photo from the Found Relative set.

 I got a die cut frame and covered it with Decoart Media Gold Acrylic paint. Then I covered it with Decoart One step Crackle glaze. When this was dry I covered it with Raw Umber Antiquing cream. When wiped away it revealed lovely dark crackles.

I then created the flowers...using die-cut flowers I dabbed the edges with Tumbled Glass DI and then spritzed them with White Linen Dylusions spray. I scrunched the flowers up while they were still wet and left them to dry before unraveling them. When dry and crumpled I dabbed then lightly with Frayed Burlap DI. I then constructed the flowers adding my most ornate gold buttons as flower centers. 

I used some ivory die cuts edged with Antique Linen DI and added a crystal bead to the center.

Various die-cut foliage was chosen and I dabbed it all with Peeled Paint DI and stuck it all around the frame

 I then chose to add the title of the challenge to the hanging. I put together the word 'Colour' from Ideology Label Letters and 'your world' came from Chit Chat stickers

I attached ivory coloured eyelets at the top of the hanging and threaded through white organza ribbon.....knotted at the back and leaving it trailing down the sides of the hanging...

And there are my colours of spring.....

Hope you like it!

 Why not come over to Our Creative Corner and see what everyone else has made?!

Join in the challenge this month and you could be the randomly selected winner of the $25 prize voucher that is being donated by our Sponsor this month 

Creative Embellishments

You could be our winner and be invited to appear as our Top Talent. 

You could be one of our Top 3 and be pinned onto the OCC Pinterest board!

     
Remember you gotta be in it to win it!

So come on over to Our Creative Corner and have some fun!

 Happy Crafting!

Laura

xxx

Wish upon a Star

Hi everyone!

   I am here to bring you another challenge from my brilliant OCC DT member Laurie. I was so proud when Laurie invited me to join her craft DT for this term on her FB challenge site. This month the challenge involves decorating a star and gems.....It was so much fun!

This is what you get in your 'Rising Star' Kit

You can purchase your star kit here

You can decorate it any way you wish!

I decided to make this for my daughter - her favorite style of the moment is fuchsia and black with bold patterns...so the colour choice had nothing to do with me at all....waaaayyyyyy out of my comfort zone here everyone!!!

 I started by painting the star with Decoart Fluid Acrylics in Carbon Black. I then painted some white card with Picked Raspberry Distress Stain. Then I got a floral/swirl stamp and using the Carbon Black paint I stamped over several sheets of bright pink stained card.

I then cut triangles the same size as the sides of the star. I inked the edges of the cut card with Black Soot DI to create some dark smudgy effects, and then began sticking them to the star.

When done I covered it with several layers of Decoart Ultra-Matte varnish (I love this!!! This is the first ever matt varnish I have used that has managed to live up to it's name! There is no sheen to this at all - Brilliant!)

Then I began to decorate the gems...I used Raspberry and Pitch Black Alcohol ink. I painted on several layers of ink.

I used Label Letters to form the words "Wish upon a star" and stuck them to various parts of the hanging.

I twisted some silver wire and twisted it round one of the gems

I used a fuchsia ribbon tied into a bow

 

And there is my pink and black star hanging...Hope you like it! 

Come over to Laurie Moore's 2015 Challenges on FB and join in the fun!

Hope to see you there!

Happy Crafting!

Laura 

xxx

Go to it!

Hello everyone!

 At Fashionable Stamping Challenges we are featuring as our challenge....

Use your favourite 'Go to' stamp 

I actually struggled to choose a stamp to use for this...mainly because my absolute favourite 'always go to' stamp is a script stamp...a wonderful stamp, but not very interesting on it's own!

I decided to focus on what stamp I would choose if I was sitting there with mojo taking a holiday (pretty much how I was feeling anyway!)....my answer was that I would probably go for a Gibson Girl stamp.............

So here we go....my very favourite Gibson Girl stamp and my 'absolute - must have - always go to' script stamp by Paperartsy - it is such a 'go to' stamp that I actually store it in a tray with my archival inks so that it is always to hand - I think I use it on nearly every project!

I started by swirling some Bundled Sage, Frayed Burlap and Picket Fence DP onto the craft mat with some Frayed Burlap and Bundled Sage DI as well. Spritzed with water and then swirled some card into the paint/ink mix.

I left the card to dry and stamped the Gibson Girl image onto card with Potting Soil Archival ink. I cut it into an oval shape and then dabbed around the edges with Vintage Photo DI.

I made a frame out of embossed card and painted it with Gold Decoart media fluid acrylic paint. I then covered this with a layer of Raw Umber fluid Acrylic paint to make it look tarnished.

By now the tag was dry so I used a lattice stencil and covered the tag with Bundled Sage DI and then dabbed around the edges with Vintage Photo DI.

I then used my favourite script stamp and stamped with Bundled Sage DI and Potting Soil Archival ink

I used the words 'timeless' and 'art' from the chit-chat stickers and they were edged with Vintage Photo DI

Lace was stuck to the bottom of the tag with some pearl beads

An ivory rose was dabbed with Vintage Photo DI and a die cut kraft leaf was dabbed with
Vintage Photo DI. I added some pearl pins as well...

A twine bow and loop finished off the tag

I would love it if you came over to see what the rest of the team have made to inspire you at Fashionable Stamping Challenges!

Remember we are a stamping challenge so please feature a stamped focal image on your creation.

  

You could be the winner of $20 to spend at Flonzcraft Stamps! And of course you could be picked as one of our Catwalk Spotlights!

Hope to see you there!


Happy Crafting!
Love from Laura xxx

Butterfly Moments

Hi everyone

     Today I would like to share with you a card I made - Yes, a card!!!

I don't make them very often at all  - I tend to get a bit stuck when making them, but this one was a dream to make....And today it is a card made with Nicecrane Designs images - I chose these beautiful butterfly images...

Colourful Spring Butterflies III

 I chose three butterflies with shades of blue and peach in their wings and this set the colour scheme...

First I dabbed some Weathered Wood and Picket Fence DP onto the craft mat and used a sponge to dab a mix of these paints onto a Tim Holtz Lattice Stencil. I then got some white card and pressed it down onto the stencil to get a reverse stencil print. 

When this was dry I covered the card with Weathered Wood, Tea Dye and Peacock Feathers DI.

I then stamped some text and script stamps using Weathered Wood DI and Potting Soil Archival ink

I stamped some butterfly and dragonfly images using Weathered Wood and Tea Dye DI

I stamped a butterfly quote onto white card, dabbed some Weathered Wood, Tea Dye and Peacock Feathers DI and edged it with Walnut Stain DI. I then layered it onto some more card covered with  Tea Dye DI

I cut the butterflies out and edged them with Walnut Stain very lightly - just to take away the white cut edges of the paper.

The antennae were too difficult to cut, so I replaced them with brown wire

So there is one of my (rare) cards....Hope you like it!

 Why not pop over to Nicecrane Designs and check out the images there...there are so many - Whatever your style of creating there will be something there you will LOVE! 

Happy Crafting!

Love from Laura xxx

Gear it up

Hello everyone!

Over at Sandee and amelie's steampunk challenge the challenge this month is -

Gear it up!
 Stamped, embossed, drawn, painted, real, die cut, chipboard, stencilled,....well, gears of any sort you can think of are what we want to see with any projects you can think of - and not only two or three added in a corner here and there for further embellishment! Gears should be one of the main parts of your creations

I didn't really know what direction to go in with this - it is pretty simple isn't it? Just add Gears - to anything...

But sometimes being given a free choice to go wherever you choose can be trickier than a very direct challenge. In the end I decided it would be more fun to sit and play - see what develops and go from there...

So I got a piece of card and I grabbed a gears stencil  (get the challenge requirement in right at the start!) I dabbed over the gears stencil with Picket Fence DP.

When this was dry I blended Frayed Burlap and Pumice Stone DI over the card.

Then I began to use some stamps from the Industrial Backgrounds Artistic Outpost set over the card using Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap DI.

I then used Coffee Archival ink on other stamps from the set - this time choosing the gears and a mechanical blueprint stamp.

A script stamp from Artistic Outpost French Flight set.

My favourite script stamp was stamped with Potting Soil Archival ink

So now the background was done....where to go with it now?

It was beginning to look very mechanical (of course!) and with the faded sepia look it was needing to be vintage...I was looking for a modern twist too....I was also now bringing in clocks as well as gears....finding a clock face in my metal collection and a clock sticker in the Salvage Stickers set....now I seemed to be looking at a Time Travel creation.....

Suddenly I remembered that I hadn't used any of the Found Relatives cards that I had been given at Christmas. Hunting through them I found the perfect photo. After cutting around the person and colouring the cut white edges with Frayed Burlap DI I stuck him onto the card....

    Now all that was needed was the collection of gears.....

  .....and a few metal corners....

..... and a final addition...the words from the chit chat stickers - "Voyage through time" stuck onto the clock and outlined with Pumice Stone Distress marker...

     Please come over and see what the rest of the team have made to inspire you!

       Hope you will come along and join in the fun!

Happy Crafting

Laura xxx