Watercolor For Cardmakers Intermediate Day Four - Lost and Found Details

This was a hard one, I made some mistakes and learnt some lessons along the way :) I mixed my own custom colour here using Windsor & Newton Cotman Intense Blue and Brushos in yellow and orange. I should have just mixed a dark mix and split in parts to make lighter washes but it didn't quite work out so I had to do a lot of fiddling but I got there in the end :) This one's on Arches 300gsm Cold Pressed paper.

I only had enough time for one technique from day 4 so far but I will come back to them. Day 5 and six are amazing techniques, again possibly only one from each lol...
Purple

Stretch Your Stamps 2 Ombre Effects

Onto day 2 of Stretch Your Stamps 2 at Online Card Classes and today we are doing a little ombre. I used watercolour for this but you can use any colour medium. I used Windsor & Newton Cotman watercolours in turquoise. The background stamp is from Fiskars, white embossing powder from Hero Arts, a Spellbinders die cut in my Ebosser and the sentiment is from Kaisercraft.
Happy Scrappin'
Purple

Gel Medium + Glitter + Distress Stains = A Lot Of Fun!

Warning: Very Messy!

 I have a few techniques I want to try with Gel Medium. So I bought some Liquitex Gel Medium (my local spotlight just started carrying Liquitex!) and my first technique was with glitter. My friend walked into a thrift shop here and found a bunch of glossy photo paper someone had gotten rid of. I don't know why but I decided it would be perfect to try this on lol.

I taped the photo paper to my craft sheet with repositional tape and then taped the stencil in place with florist tape. I used a 12" Crafter's Workshop Daisy Cluster stencil used a blob of the gel medium. You can spread it with a craft trowel, an old credit card or any other scraper type thing you have. Make sure you get in all the small spaces and then remove stencil carefully and clean immediately with water., otherwise the gel stays there forever, then I sprinkled glitter all over the gel and set it aside to dry.

For the sentiment I used a KaiserCraft stencil I had gotten a long time ago called party time. This time I used regular card stock and repeated the steps above after die cutting a Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Oval to fit over the words.

 On another piece of photo paper I grabbed a bunch of colours of distress stains (from the new 12) and splattered them on the paper. I then used the movers and shapers butterflies as well as an ittty bitty Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Butterfly to die cut the splatter paper (I tried using normal paper but it was too washed out compared to the vibrant photo paper).

When the gel medium is dry I used a paintbrush to remove the excess glitter (if you don't do this your stains end up caked with glitter! (you will still have some but not as much as if you use the brush). At this point you have to work quickly because the photo paper absorbs the colour really fast so if you want the colours to blend a bit I recommend starting in one spot and doing adjacent gaps. I used distress stains to add the colour by gently dabbing over the area I wanted a particular colour.  Once I had coloured it all I began to dry it. It looks like a mess but once dry you can dampen some paper towel and remove the excess stain from the glitter.

I used a plain white cs base to best show off the colours and adhered the flowered photo paper with double sided tape. The butterflies are glued down with glossy accents and the oval with a combo of foam tape and glossy to help it adhere to the glitter. I  have to say the colours are even more vibrant in real life lol. Hard to get accurate pictures of it with all the sparkling! What little girl wouldn't love this :)
Happy Scrappin'
Purple

I am entering this at:
Crafting By Designs - Anything Goes
Love to Create Challenge - All That Glitters
One Stop Craft Challenge - For The Kids
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything Goes
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

My First Sketch Challenge

I used Distress Markers to colour my Image from The Greeting Farm set Later Sk8er. I used Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Forest Moss, Tattered Rose, Barn Door, Fired Brick and finally Faded Jeans. I scribbled them on my Ranger Craft Sheet and used the Tim Holtz Waterbrush to paint colour my image. Then I used Distress inks in peeled paint, forest moss, tumbled glass and broken china to create a borer around the card with my ink blending tool. Note to self . . .  Clean the mat before changing colours . . . I have a greenish sky!

I am trying to make this card for a challenge that finishes in a few hours . . . Nothing like a last minute try haha. Having fun trying to pick papers as I went for a boy card and most of my stuff is girly lol. Hmm wonder where my black and white KaiserCraft paper stack is. I could colour some of them to match :) Or leave it plain lol.

I am blogging as I go, can you tell? Lol. And darn it have lost a sentiment stamp amidst my chaos! A Ha! it fell in my tool bag lol. I have used Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Squares to make all my mats for the squares, the rectangles I cut myself. I have been making this card for hours lol. I am using green too, which is not a colour I usually rush to.

I don't have a pair of label dies that were small enough for this project so I paired a Lifestyle Crafts die (top) with a Tim Holtz Sizzix Mover and Shaper Label (bottom). The dies don't match perfectly but they still look good together. They are still a bit larger than I wanted so I am going to use foam tape on the image so I can tuck the labels under it a little.

I worked out where I wanted the sentiment in relation to the image and made a mark with a random marker so I could realign it once I had the double sided tape on.

The stamp set came with a star as well so I am going to add a few stars on two of the corners. All the stamping has been done with Ranger Archival in Jet Black. I used the Tonic Tim Holtz edge distresser on all the dark green mats. The cardstock used is from Bazzil.

This is the first time I have followed a sketch so I have stuck as close as possible for my first time.
Happy Scrappin'
Purple

I am entering this at;
One Stop Craft Challenge - Sketch
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything Goes
Crafting By Designs  - Anything Goes
One Stop Craft Challenge - For the Kids

Washi Tape Card and Vintage Ladies

Hi

Quick stop by to show you a couple more cards I have made recently.

The first has a Washi tape boarder. I recently bought a 10 pack of Washi tape from Sawyer's Place and wanted to make a card with it. I chose the plain dark blue and edged a white card base with it and built my card up from there.

The circle stamp is from kaisercraft Madame Boutique as is the background vine stamp. I grabbed the thinking of you from a random stamp set. Can't remember which off the top of my head and cut it with a lifestyle crafts oval die. I used tumbled glass and broken china distress inks. The flower is an I am roses flower edged with distress stain and spritzed with home made glimmer mist.

This next card is for my mum for her birthday. I just love the vinatgey feel of this card. I started with the pp from the Prima Romantique 6x6 pad and worked from there.

The stamp is from a huge See Dee's Box Set that was bought a good while ago. It almost perfectly matches the pp right down to the hat. I coloured the stamp with Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers. After I stamped her I used my finger to push the colour around. I added some burgundy ribbon and stamped the sentiment with the same marker as my ladies dress. I cut the sentiment with a Lifestyle Crafts Labels die and adhered it with foam tape for dimension. I then coloured an I Am Roses rose with the Big Brush Marker and spritzed with home made glimmer mist (need to work quickly before the marker dries).

Hope you like my cards :) I totally love my Prima Lady card!
Happy Scrappin'
Purple

Entered at
Just Keep on Creating - anything goes

Papermania Midnight Fairytale Card

I recently saw these fairy stamps and fell in instant love with them! They are so pretty and great for colouring in with my Faber Castell Markers. they are Papermania Midnight Fairytale clear acrylic stamps.

I first stamped my image with Timber Brown Stazon. I chose brown as it softens into the image more, it's a  less harsh look in my opinion.

I then coloured the image with both Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens and Big Brush Markers. I used a couple of techniques. First I straight coloured my image. For some reason I always start with the skin. I used the artist pen for this. I found that if I did a small section then pulled/blended the colour down I ended up with less streaks.

Once I coloured all the skin and it was dry I then went back with the same colour and added shadows with the same marker.i used my finger to again pull the colour and blend it in. I worked in very small sections so the colour was still very wet when I blended. Her face is a little dark because I went over it two times. But it was late and this was my umpteenth go at colouring her in.

Because the dress is a large area I used a big brush marker for this section to minimise streaking, again blending as I went. I added shadows and the flower details with the same maker.

The rest is done with the pitt artist pens as most is fine detail work and my hands are just not steady enough to
colour these with the big brush markers.

The technique I used on her wings was to go over the stamped lines with my chosen colour one line at a time, then pull the colour down into the wings. This gives a nice translucent effect. After I fussy cut my fairy out I used home made glimmer glaze over the wings ( Reeves Iridescent medium, spritz of water, multi-medium gloss, spun sugar reinker).

On a white cs base I added polka dot paper from the KaiserCarft 6" Candly Lane stack. I then used a lovely floral stripe paper from the Authentique uncommon 6" stack that I had cut with my Lifestyle Crafts largest nesting frames die. I used foam tape to add my fairy onto this.

I then grabbed some I Am Roses flowers and coloured them with the two main shades of Faber castell markers I had used. I worked quickly, one flower at a time, to colour the edges and then mist with home made pearl mist (pearl ex on macro pearl, micro pearl and pearl white, water and a few drops of glossy accents).

I added my flowers to the card with glossy accents. I used the stems from some of the flowers to make twizzles to finish off the card.

Hope you like my card. thanks for looking :)
Happy Scrappin'
Purple

Girls Birthday Card with KaiserCraft Candy Lane

I hope you like pink lol. My daughters fave colour is pink. We are going to her friends birthday tomorrow and   my 8 year old dd wanted to make her a card just from her :). So I was thinking the Authentique Uncommon pad. My dd saw the Kaiser Candy Lane and we were off and running lol.

We used the largest Lifestyle Crafts Blossom die to cut the card base. As you can see in the pic we folded the card base and hung a petal over the edge of the fold to create and opening card. Around this dd blended Worn Lipstick Distress Ink.

She then chose the orange with pink foil paper for the next layer cut with the next size down Blossom die. On top of this we layered another pp with cupcakes and cherries on it. Out of the teapot pp we used a punch to cut some butterflies and stuck them around the outside of the circle with matte accents.

With a green flowered pp we cut a small circle and she Chose the Happy Birthday sticker to go on top. The sticker in the middle of the middle butterfly was originally on the circle but it fell off and got lost for a bit so dd decided on some pink hearts instead :) (I found it and stuck it in the middle of the pink butterfly)

We put the circle on the card to see how it looked and didn't like it. We cut a plain circle and the butterfly circle from Spellbinders. Of course after we embossed the butterflies with the tan mat dd had to have the butterfly circle as her mat. She inked the edges with more worn lipstick and then stuck the pp circle on top. She then used some foam tape to lift it off the page a little and front of card was done :)

A coordinating stack, a few stickers and dies make for a quick and easy card :). Not bad for an 8 yr old at all...
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Scrappin'
Purple
PS here are a few pics dd took :)

Purple Rain

Another day another journal page :) I started this one with a ceramcoat gesso background as the page before has sharpie on it that of course bled through.

I wanted to see what I could do with distress inks on gesso and still retain the colour. The colours came out muted but that's a lot to do with the technique. I covered the whole page with milled lavender first. I then used a makeup sponge to add seedless preserves around the edges. Using the same sponge I moved the colour around and pulled it towards the centre. I  repeated with dusty concord. I then repeated again with seedless preserves and dusty concord. Make sure it dries well before you do anything else as the colour wipes right off when wet.

Now if I was smart I would have used a fixative spray at this point lol. Anyhoo next time! I used a purple pitt Big Brush Marker to add some raindrops all over the page.

 I had a piece of cs that I had stamped off on with a fiskars cherry blossom background stamp. I had used some Windsor & Newton watercolour paints and shimmer spray to see how the cs would look and it looked pretty lol and because the cherry blossoms and been stamped with distress they ran a little.

So I took the cs and stamped my Blockheads Stamps faerie on it. I spritzed this with even more shimmer mist to make it run and bleed a little to fit in with the raining theme. I grabbed a tag from my KaiserCraft Magic Happens tags and stamped the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous sentiment near the flourish. I trimmed a little off the other end as it was too long. Again I spritzed with shimmer and let the words run a little.

I used a large Bella fabric flower and a smaller Prima daisy in the centre of this. both folded over. In hindsight I probably should have just cut them so they layered flatter. I used foam tape to tape my fairy down and pop her off the page a little, securing the tag behind her.

Then came the hard part. Well not hard just the bit that took the most time... I got my bling on and blinged over 150 1.5mm rhinestones all over the page with Multi-Medium Matte... Best glue ever! To make even more glistening raindrops.

If you have any questions about the techniques I will do my best to answer :)
Happy Scrappin'
Purple

P.S Wouldn't this make an adorable card? I am going to make one for a girl's birthday this weekend :)

Just got some new loot :)

Exciting!!! lol

Anna's Craft Cupboard is having a sale :) So I did a little shopping and today it came :)

What did I buy lol...
 I bought paper stacks :) Five of them ... lol I bought Cosmo Cricket Clementine and Odds & Ends 6x6 stacks. Looking at them they are the perfect style and colour to make my mum a present :) Very vintagey and in her colours too :) I was making a present for her last year that was a bit of a challenge... Her fave Colours were red, aqua and blue. Not a scheme I am overly familiar with...

I also got three KaiserCraft stacks. Lullaby, So adorable. Candy Lane. Wow I liked more in it than I thought I would :) I bought it to make things to sell with... lol Last but definitely not least Pink Gelato. Wow I am blown away by this stack. Seeing it online I was very ho hum... Wasn't sure if I liked it or not so I grabbed it thinking at least I could make things to sell with it... But it is absolutely gorgeous! So pretty. Swoon! I also got a couple of the 12x12 sheets :)

I picked up some bargain packs of Basic Grey Brads. Um all I can say is I like to have a large variety of colours... *blush* Sweet Threads, Hello Luscious and Lauderdale.

Three gorgeous mini Prima stamps. Butterfly, Alla Prima and Romantique. The best value alpha sticker book ever! 2147 stickers on seven 6x12 sheets jam packed on edge to edge! The Girls Paperie Jubilee set. Four sheets are alphabets the rest words, borders and tags. Totally awesome! The bottom ones are not yellow, that's just how the pic looks on the back of the pack lol.

I allso grabbed a couple of December 25th pages and sticker collection, a couple of pink gelato. Some Jubilee from the girls paperie, and a couple of the Pink Paislee Butterfly papers I have been trying to get forever! Really want the 6x6 pad but hard to find lol.

Soooooo I finished sorting all my stamps, wowzer it only took two days :). So Now I think it just might be time to have some fun!!!! A reward for all that work :). I will see what I can come up with and get back to you later. Bye for now....

Hapy Scrappin'

Purple

Ok More Art Journalling Bursting Forth

So wow this is my fourth post today :)... I blogged the other week about showing some friends new techniques that they were not aware of or needed a refresher on. Most of it was to do with distress inks. But one was the toilet paper technique I saw on Creative Jump Start. Yes I have Truly Been Jump Started! lol...

So one of the main aims of my journal is to have a lot of the techniques I know or am learning in the one place as a point of reference. So I took my toilet paper piece I created that day and added it to my art journal! :)

I used Toilet paper 8 sheets To make the centre piece
Clock Texture Fade For the centre piece
Home made glimmer mist using Color Wash & Pearl Ex to spray both the centre piece and the background.
KaiserCraft Black & White Timeless For the clock
Lifestyle Craft Circle Die For the clock
Chipboard from a cereal box to make the clock sturdier and foam tape to add dimension.
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamp To stamp the background with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink
A sharpie to write the words.
Brads for the clock centres and a clock charm and some chain to finish it off.

As I already had  the toilet paper centre it really only took me 20 minutes or so to complete my page. Am really getting into this art journalling now it seems :)

Thanks for looking
Purple

Creative Jump Start and a Pretty Layout!

Hi Everyone :) Hope you all had lovely holidays!

Today I want to share two things. An inspiring video a day called Creative Jump Start and a layout.

What is Creative Jump Start? Well it's an inspirational video a day on how other artists get their minds flowing. Some share a cool technique, others just give advice, some do both :). The advice so far has been brilliant and I have learnt a new super cool technique with toilet paper! Yes you heard right TOILET PAPER. Not used of course!!!! lol...

I am a bit behind in watching the vids and I missed the first day because I enrolled late, however I worked out how to watch the first vid. Nathalie also sent out an email telling you how to watch what you have missed so if you need it feel free to drop me a line with your email addy and I will gladly forward it to you :)

Onto my layout. Ok this is the first layout for 2012 for me. I didn't do very many at all last year. I mostly made cards and altered notebooks for people and watched a lot of youtube tutorials :) lol. So I gave myself a challenge and made myself follow through.

You know all those gorgeous pages you see with pretty papers and a gazillion flowers? Mine never look like that! lol. Last year I decided to do an order at I Am Roses with the thought in mind of prettying up my style some. Or more importantly trying to find my style.

I went  to classes for a few years with a bunch of friends and the lovely lady that taught us was a friend as well. There came a time however when it was time to move on from the classes and find my own feet and my own style instead of borrowing someone elses. By the end of these classes I was changing up the pages quite a lot and adding and subtracting elements to suit my taste. I have not been going to classes for two years now though and it's time to sit myself down and get the creating on paper!

The Challenge!


I challenged myself to try to create in my own style one of those pretty pretty pages you see everywhere right now! I love pretty papers, flowers butterflies, general girly girlness.
So from start to finish I created. It took me quite a few days of work but in the end I got there :) The tag on the layout contains hidden journalling on the back  about the pictures :)

Please ignore the end of the tool in the picture! It's only there to stop my page falling lol. 


All my flowers started white and are from KaiserCraft and The bulk of them are I am Roses. They are painted with my home made version of glimmer glaze. The white ones have been misted with home made pearl mist. The twizzles are the stems from the flowers. The leaves are another I am roses flat white flower coloured with distress stain and home made glaze and then cut into five leaves.


The background papers are from the Prima Fairy Flora 6x6 paper pad as I don't have any 12x12 prima :( All cardstock is from a Cre8tiv card stack from my local Kmart. The orange coloured papers are from the Magic Happens 6x6 stack from KaiserCraft


All the stamping was done with Tim Holtz stamps and adirondack paint dabbers in pearl and white. The hat pin was made by me using a headpin, swarovski crystals (I bought cheap on ebay) and some chain.


Have to say I am pretty I'm pressed with myself :) lol I didn't think I would make myself finish it. I usually just procrastinate and keep moving everything around! If you have any questions please feel free to ask :)


So please let me know what you think :)
Happy Scrappin'
Purple