Art Journal Pages

It has been ages since I last played in my art journals so when the challenge on the X-Press It blog came up for February I thought of the perfect starter.  The challenge for February was to use masking tape on a project.  I didn’t have any of the X-Press It but had some Mask It film, so thought I would use that as well as some common painters tape.  I can’t draw so using masks to create a page base work well for me.

I started working on two sheets from an old dictionary and smooched on some paint using an old gift card.  On the second page I spread the paint a bit further with a a spray of water and used a baby wipe to spread the paint all over the page.

Using Cuttlebug dies, I die cut a flower shape mask and spritzed with some Radiant Rain and Glimmer Mist sprays.

Once dry I painted the flower with some gold ink, keeping in the lines left by the mask and added a bit of a stalk & grass.  The flower centre was drawn in with a white gel pen.

A quick outline of the stalk & petals and one of my favourite quotes and the page was done.

On the second page I sprinkled some silver Pearl Ex all over the wet centre of the misted  flower.  It dried onto the page and gave a beautiful sparkle.  I used the painters tape to mask off a flower stem and the white gel pen did a great job outlining the flower.

Some painted cardstock leaves and another quote and a second page was done.

Inkurable Holly Challenge

I couldn’t finish my week of intense blogging without sharing the cards I did for the December Inkurable Stampers challenge.  This month we were to create something using holly as a theme.  I thought it the perfect opportunity to use another of the Tim Holtz 12 tags techniques – embossing metal.  You can see his tag and instructions here.

I created two cards on the theme but will only enter the second one into the challenge.

I love how well the technique worked to give a glass-like effect!

The holly leaves were cut from alcohol inked glassine paper.  Tim demos the technique in the post here, relating to tag 7.  If you haven’t tried this stuff – buy some!  It is so easy to use.

I did a third card as well so have a look on my Flickr site for it.

Hero Arts Challenge

If you follow the Hero Arts blog you will know that they run regular challenges with lots of great prizes.  I haven’t entered for ages but I was inspired this month to create a flowery card matching the colour theme of pink, pool, green, neutral & white.

The flowers were coloured with pink & green shades of Smooch Inks and accented with a few tiny pearls.  The butterfly was coloured with Copics & coated with some Ranger crackle accents.  I loved how it softened the strong Copic colours.

A close up of the crackle effect.

Inkurable October Challenge

The challenges keep coming at Inkurable Stampers and this time we are to use orange, green and purple plus neutrals of white/black/brown if needed.

This colour palette is not one I use regularly so it was an interesting exercise. As I have a class coming up featuring the batik technique, I thought I would give that a go. It gave me a chance to use my new Darkroom Door Bold Blossoms set.

Essentially the batik technique tries to mimic the look of batik fabric – normally done with wax as a resist to the dyeing medium. In this technique, the image is stamped and embossed with clear ink/powder and the background is coloured with inks etc – on this card I used Distress Inks. Once happy with the result, the piece is covered with a bit of paper towel and ironed with a dry iron. The heat from the iron removes the embossing powder and leaves a lovely 'flat' image which leaves people guessing.

Inkurable September Challenge

This month the challenge at Inkurable Stampers is to produce an item which uses eyelets.
My card uses the Darkroom Door Christmas Reindeer stamps. These are one of my favourite Christmas sets to use.
The embossed panel was done using some Core'dinations cardstock which was sanded lightly after embossing.

August Inkurable Challenge

Sarah is back with challenges on the Inkurable blog.  This month we have a quick one based on a PageMaps sketch.  Check it out and upload your project by the end of August.

The pic worked out better than I expected – hubby is out with both the digi cameras so this was taken on my mobile. 

Paper is Basic Grey, punch is EK Success, stamp is Hero Arts and the diecut is Spellbinders.

Copic Oz Challenge #12

This month the challenge on Copic Oz is to create a project using Copics to colour the embellishments.  Easy!  I do this all the time.
I haven’t used my Magnolia stamps for a while and as I had a birthday card to make for a 4 year olds birthday I thought this image would be perfect.  I coloured her in pinks (R81/83/85) and also used two shades of pink with the airbrush to colour the flowers.  I was aiming for a light dusting of colour and they came up really well.  I also used Copic to colour the adhesive pearls as I didn’t quite have the right shade of green.
I know the card will be barely looked at by the birthday girl but her mum will appreciate the effort.


I am trying something different with this post to add a ‘Pin It’ button for Pinterest.  Please let me know if you try to pin the card image and it actually works.
Pin It

You Make Me Smile

I have been waiting to use this dear little girl again and the Inkurable Stampers challenge this month was a good opportunity.  The challenge for June was to use spots, dots & circles.   

I embossed the front using Sizzix Flourish & Dots embossing folder – it is perfect as a background and needs no further embellishment. This was layered with a darker colour cardstock and mounted onto a tent folded card base. The greeting is new one by Hero Arts and it has been layered over a scalloped die cut (Eyelet Circle by Spellbinders). The dear little girl is a My Favourite Things stamp and I have coloured her with Copics. Her top is paper pieced from some pattered paper. It went so well with the cardstock colours and the pattern was perfect.

Spread Your Wings

It is challenge time again and this month the challenge at Inkurable Stampers was to use paint!  I love playing with paint and what a better reason to use my newly purchased Viva Precious Metal Colour!

The card uses a 14 cm square white card base.  The strip on the left is punched with a Martha Steward punch.  The pale blue cardstock was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The circles were punched from scrap, the flourish ones were punched from some gorgeous embossed ‘wedding’ paper that I sponged with Distress ink to give a bit of colour.  The words are from Darkroom Door Love Birds set.

The birdcage is die cut from chipboard & painted with Viva Precious Metal Colour (cinnamon) and backed with a piece of textured velum.  The bird was painted with Distress Crackle Paint in broken china.  I rubbed the wing over with a bit of the matching ink before coating with Glossy Accents.  If you look closely the branch and the birds legs are painted two different browns in the Crackle Paint – I find it defines the legs a bit.

Bookmark Inspiration

The last month seems to have been so busy that I have barely had time to craft. I couldn't miss doing a bookmark for the latest Inkurable Stampers challenge though.  Make sure you have a look at Sarah’s blog this month – there is lots of inspiration.

My bookmark was created using plain white cardstock as a base.  I stamped it with the Darkroom Door Criss-Cross background stamp in pearlescent lime Brilliance ink.  The tag was then sponged with Adirondack dye ink – citrus, pool & lemonade.  The cool thing about the Brilliance ink is that it acts as a resist against the ink and the pearlescent effect shows through.  The quote is from Darkroom Door Art De Fleur Vol 1 set.

Then it was a simple matter to set an eyelet in the top, tie some ribbon and attach some lace down the left hand side.  The flower was made from some velvety leaves & layered Kaiser flowers.

I loved how the colours worked so well together – I hope you do too!

January Copic Oz Challenge

This month Copic Oz is running a Summertime challenge.  We are to use yellows and greens and create something Summery.
I chose to use this cute Magnolia image.
Colours used:
Hair/skin – E51, E33, YR14, YR24
Dress – BV02, Y02, Y04
Tulip/socks/bow – YG05, G07, Y17, Y35, Y38, YR16, YR68
Colourless blender was used with tip to tip colouring of the prune colour on the dress.
Embossing is done using a Cuttlebug Jamara plate & die cuts are Spellbinders.

One Layer Wonders

Happy New Year readers!  I hope the silly season has gone well for you.

I have been busy of late catching up on some crafting during the downtime that usually comes with Christmas.  It has been nice to play, especially as I couldn’t properly for a few months due to severe back pain.  All fixed now thank goodness!

Just before Christmas I started working on some one-layer wonders – the current challenge theme at Inkurable Stampers.  Here is the card I will send to Sarah.

I used the Darkroom Door Seashells stamp set from the Seaside Collection. Firstly the background was lightly sponged with tumbled glass distress ink.  The shells were then stamped with Versamark & embossed with clear powder.  The cardstock was again sponged with distress inks – this time using broken china & chipped sapphire as well as a bit of tumbled glass (don’t you love those names?).  Excess ink on the embossing was removed with a tissue.  The word was stamped on with black Brilliance & embossed with clear powder.  The small stars were highlighted with dots from a white gel pen.  The card was finished off with some webby stuff and a bit of recycled twine and then mounted onto a card base.

Here is a close up:

While I was on a roll I did another using the same technique and just the Nautilus shell. 

Copic Oz Challenge

Today is the last day for the current Copic Oz challenge and I finally found the time to finish my card.  It has been sitting all coloured on my desk all week but I couldn’t decide how to finish it.

The challenge was to create a card with feathering and this lovely stamp was certainly a challenge to feather! But it turned out how I planned so that was a bonus. Since the certification course I did back in June I have been working on mastering this technique and this stamp shows it off really well.

Here are the colours I used:

Just a few!

Stamps - Hero Arts, die cuts – Spellbinders

Special Treasures

I thought I would have a go at the sketch for the October challenge on Inkurable Stampers.  There is still time to enter – you have until midnight tomorrow night.

I stamped Darkroom Door butterflies all over a 9cm square piece of white cardstock and then coloured them with Copics.  I then cut the cardstock into four 4.5cm square pieces and arranged them over a lime piece of Bazzill.  The border was punched with one of the new EK Success large border punches, this was attached to the left hand side and layered with a bit of pink ribbon.  To complete the card, I stamped a Hero Arts greeting onto an oval and layered that over a Nestibility tag with foam tape.  A couple of pink pearls on the flourish ends completed the card.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Earlier I mentioned my spot as a guest designer at Inkurable Stampers, here are some images of the samples I created for the challenge this month.

Journey

This arch was a good opportunity to try a new technique – beeswax.  I was really happy with the results and the arch smells so good!

· The arch was hand drawn after looking at a few images online.  It is based on a template by Belinda Schneider but I changed the dimensions a bit.  All images were from Darkroom Door. 

· I started with a white cardstock arch.  The background was made by first stamping the French Script background with Versamark ink & clear embossing.

· The arch was lightly sponged with Distress Wild Honey & Barn Door inks and excess ink wiped from the embossing.  I dripped a bit of water onto parts of the arch and allowed them to dry.

· I stamped the cars from Vintage Automobiles and the words from Prague Vol 1 onto white tissue paper and cut images out roughly.  These were adhered to the arch with gel medium.  The tissue paper allowed me to alter the orientation of the top car.

· The gentleman is from the Photobooth Hats sheet and I used a grey pen to ink the edges so the white cut marks wouldn’t show.  He is also adhered with gel medium. 

· Once everything was dry I melted some beeswax and painted it all over the arch.  Additional heating smoothed the surface a bit.

The next is one I called Destination. 

I came across this sheet of Basic Grey patterned paper at my LSS this week and it became the perfect background.  Once again stamps are Darkroom Door.

· Cut arch from patterned paper and paint with white acrylic paint.  Allow paint to dry for a few minutes and remove parts using a baby wipe.  This will allow some parts of the design to show through more than others.  If you remove too much, just repeat the process until you get the required effect.

· Once dry, paint with Ranger Distress Crackle paint in Rock Candy.  Allow to dry and lightly sponge with Distress Frayed Burlap.  Check out the before & after pic to see the change painting & sponging makes to the paper.

· To highlight a couple of the cars, I used my Copics to go over two of the car images to deepen the colour and then applied a bit of glossy accents to make them pop.

· The border is punched and stamped with the border stamp from Ornate Elements with Distress Chipped Sapphire ink and then affixed to the bottom of the arch.

· The words are from Vintage Automobiles and die cut using a Spellbinders label die.  The diecut was then sponged lightly on the edges and towards the centre with Distress Chipped Sapphire ink, folded slightly and affixed at an angle over the border with foam tape under each side. 

If you aren’t too familiar with the technique of painting over patterned paper – give it a try.  This pic shows you the difference painting can make before & after.

Inkurable Stampers – Gothic Arch Guest Designer

It is with great pride that I can tell you that this month I am the guest designer for the gothic arch challenge on Inkurable Stampers!  Please visit Sarah’s blog and check out my interview and have a look at the samples.

Regular readers will know that I often participate in Sarah’s challenges, I always find them inspiring and the chance to win a prize is a great bonus.  This time around it was to make something totally different, a gothic arch.  A shape that many find inspiring but some find totally difficult :).  After this challenge I am in the first group.

The challenge this month is to create an arch with the theme ….

PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

Don’t forget to upload your arch to the Flickr group when you are done. 

I’ll be back later to give you another look at my arches – dinner is calling.

Copic Challenge – It’s All About Men

Copic Oz is running a challenge to create a Father’s Day card or masculine card.  As I rarely make male cards I thought I would give it a go.  It was the perfect opportunity to get my Tim Holtz stamps inky.

You might be wondering how the Copics were used?  The black images were stamped with black Momento ink directly over cardstock pre-coloured with Copics.  I also coloured in the Paris postage part of the main image with Copics.

For the strip along the left hand side I inked my stamp with 3 different Copic colours, spritzed the cardstock with Colourless Blender solution and stamped.  The blender solution reactivates the ink on the stamp and you have your image – much like the brushless watercolour technique using dye inkpads.  It takes a bit of practice but the results are worth it!

A close up of colouring the cardstock & stamping.  The foolproof way to get perfectly matching cardstock!

 

For the interested, here are the colours used:

It is a bit hard to see but the stamps are Tim Holtz Visual Artistry, French Market.  The embossing was done with a Cuttlebug plate.  

Caardvarks Challenge

I have been busily working on swaps and cards for upcoming classes lately but I found some time to do the Caardvarks challenge.  The challenge was to use Core'dinations cardstock on a monochromatic card.

Brushstrokes Challenge

 

I haven't shared the card I made for the Ranger September challenge. We had to use alcohol inks with a brush or marker instead of the usual applicator method.
For this card the background was made using alcohol inks in the traditional method. It was then overstamped with the gorgeous Hero Arts butterfly using archival ink. I filled in the spaces of the wings using alcohol ink & a fine brush. I have never tried using alcohol inks in this way and I was so impressed at how easy it was!

By the sea...

 

 

The challenge this month at Inkurable is to use the ocean or seaside as our inspiration. I came up with this noteblock, perfect for leaving at my front door with a pen at the ready!

I used a noteblock which I sponged all over with Adirondack dye inks. The stamps are a Stampington plate and I used a different shell stamp on each of the three sides. The word image was stamped in a paler colour. The base is mountboard, sponged with dye inks and embellished with some small shells and microbeads.