Category: Art and crafting styles

The theme over at my Artist Trading Coins swap group (over on Facebook for UK swappers only because of the postage) is “Let it shine”.

I decided to have a play with the Pebeo fantasy paints and create a fab set of backgrounds… I forgot how fab these paints were to play with!

So first layer went down and I left them to do their thing…

And then I added some more colour …

And this time left them overnight … well actually for two nights as that’s when I got back to playing with them.

Love how the elements I added later have some dimension to them and have a more defined shape than their background… So how to finish them off?

Well started with a star stamp… And embossed it on each in a different colour… Then went to town with posca pens and dots!

And used Art by Marlene stickers for the sentiments.

Love love love the finish of these Prisme Pebeo fantasy paints. And enjoyed making these shiny coins so much!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I had to use one of the Art by Marlene chubby chicks for the diet themed postcard I made for a swap.

First I added distress ink and some splatters as a background along with the distress resist spray to protect some of it before adding more splashes, this time adding some shimmery watercolour paints and art alchemy sparks paints.

Then I added some of the Art by Marlene collage paper and one of the die cuts over the top.

Then I added some of the stickers onto card and added a frame around each using the shimmer watercolour paint.

Love how this came out… And strictly speaking not against my current WW plan … which is not a starvation diet and encourages living a full life.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Last in our current round of bunting for UK stampers forum and there is an Anything Goes theme this month.

I started with a watercolour background and a bit of random stamping and then added some papers and edged them with Inktense pencil. Next I added some texture through a stencil.

This made me go for an underwater theme…

I chose to stamp the mermaid from Magical Days onto some glossy cardstock I had added distress oxides to. Then I die cut it out.

Next I found a die cut in the stash as a gift with a swap that worked perfectly… I heat embossed it and then added some bubble stamping on the background.

Next I adhered everything and then stamped and embossed a sentiment from another stamp set.

I then added some silver posca pen dots to frame the bunting.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have two ATCs I made for the positive quotes/Affirmations themed swap for this month over at Artful ATCs Facebook group.

I went for two very different styles.

The one on the left I used a patterned paper that really appealed to me with all the envelopes and travel themes and did some ripping and inking . I then chose a sticker from the Art by Marlene pack to add to it.

The other I used the Beautiful You stamps adding light colour with distress inks and embossing the sentiment on to the top.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I made a postcard at the weekend using Art by Marlene collage papers and a Gorjuss stamp which I’m sharing here today…

Just love the bright and cheery papers and decided after making the background that they would work perfectly for paper piecing the Gorjuss Girl.

I coloured her and the bunny in with promarkers and then added the dress and tights using the papers.

I added more pattern to the green panel with some more stamping and then added some doodling with my white posca pen and black spectrum noir sparkle pen.

Then I used the Art by Marlene sticker and added it to cardstock adding a shimmery watercolour border before cutting it out and adhering it all.

Super happy with this and the sparkly features.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have a swap I made where the theme was Frosty for the nine inchies.

I started with a piece of 3×3 watercolour and added distress oxides and then added the stamping using white embossing.

Next I stamped a snowman three times onto shrink plastic, cut them out and shrank them. They make such cute embellishments. I also die cut two snowflakes and shrank them too.

I found a cute tree button and threaded it through with some twine. I then stamped trees onto two of the inchies and the sentiment/title onto the other one.

I then used another panel and added the same distress oxides onto that and temporarily adhered the inchies onto this, along with the label.

Hopefully the recipient likes my frosty inchies.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I am back to working in my journal just for me… And my page transformed quite a bit from the start to the end.

It wasn’t a clean page I started with as there was already a fair amount of wipe off on the page. I added a little bit of stamping and some masking tape onto it and then some modelling paste through a stencil. The picture above is whilst I waited for it to dry.

Next I added distress stain, lots of it!

And left it to dry… after a couple of hours it was almost dry… (yes it was that much distress stain)…

I decided to work with the pink paint that was peeking through the stain and I added more stain in the picked raspberry just in a few spots…

The next morning it was completely dry so I carried on playing.

I decided to create some large pink flowers so painted some pink patterned paper with neon pink paint that was translucent so showed the patterned through and then stamped and cut out the big Jofy flowers.

I added some stems for the flowers using a white posca pen and then glued down the flower heads.

I decided they needed to be bolder so took a dark brown Pitt big brush pen and added definition and shading.

I carried on doodling using both the Pitt pen and a white posca paint pen.

Then worked on the background a bit more with some more stamping in paint and doodling with the pens.

The sentiment I created using stickers and alpha stamps and this brought it all together… And this next one shows the page in the light.

When I started I had no plan… certainly no idea pink flowers would be the final result. But so happy with this bold and funky finished page.

Happy crafting

Catherine

Howdy readers…

This week we have a technique based challenge over at Back to Basics and Beyond … salt technique.

I haven’t used salt with my watercolours as a background very often so it was fun to experiment and ended up with three panels…

I cut them down and used each in a different way. One I used an indigo Blu stamp set and heat embossed the fish and the sentiment.

I then added a little more colour onto the fish using distress oxide and my waterbrush.

Then I added layers under the panel in contrasting colours including the ribbon and the pearls.

Now the second card I kept quite simple with a silhouette stamp and added gold edging and some patterned paper and then sequins to finish.

Then the final one I used as a piece of actual patterned paper.

I added the stamped image and some other layers of patterned paper. I added the kraft tag to balance the kraft in the coffee cup colouring.

Love all three of these cards… And love being reminded of what a lovely effect the addition of salt is to the watercolour background.

Can’t wait to see how everyone else used the salt technique in their creations! Here is the blog.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Today I have some bunting to share which is for the UK stampers forum swap. The theme for this swap is Monochrome, so I went for the turquoise colours as my monochrome.

I stamped the beach hut from Marlene using the archival inks and then used distress crayons to watercolour the image. I also added some ink blending round the edge and a little bit of stamping to provide some texture. I then splattered the art alchemy sparks paints to give it some shimmer. Next I added the hand stamped sentiment and edged it with some Inktense.

I love this image and the gentle finish this bunting had.

It’s been a fun swap to get involved in and I’ve loved creating the flags and receiving some fun bunting in return.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

I decided to join in on a map twinchies swap where the rule was to make 4 twinchies with a map theme.

I have quite a lot of old atlas pages in my stash so used some snippets of those as the starting point cutting each to 1.75″ square as I wanted to mount them with a frame.

Then I added a thin layer of gesso and then distress oxides in aged mahogany, vintage photo and walnut stain.

Next I took a stencil and sprayed the distress resist through the stencil and this creates an interesting texture and meant when I added more oxide it created pattern too as it resisted the colour where the spray was.

Then I added some sepia archival to the edge of each panel.

Next for the mounts I created a panel with alcohol inks and the mixative to create a shiny and metallic red and brown background and cut that into 2″ squares.

I mounted the map pieces onto the alcohol ink background twinchies.

Next to choose my images for my twinchies… I chose a Creative Stamping magazine travel themed stamp set.

After stamping I used my Prismacolour to add colour to them…

Then I did some fussy cutting…

Then I added the compass image onto each of the map pieces…

And arranged the pieces I had as focal images to check I was happy with them before adhering them and in the case of the signpost snipping off the extra bit.

I decided that the words needed some more emphasis so tool leftover of the alcohol ink panel and mounted them onto this and then jobs a good’un!!!

Super happy with my map themed twinchies… And hope the recipient likes them too!

Happy crafting!

Catherine