Category: Art and crafting styles

Halloween ATCs … #31productschallenge

Catherine

Today I have six ATCs to share with you which I made of over a few days at the beginning of the month for a swap but also as part of the #31productchallenge on Instagram that Birgit Koopsen is hosting. The idea is to use a different product every day for the challenge… so this was the first project I worked on for the challenge.

I started with the mini gelli plate and used distress oxides to create these backgrounds … I love this technique and it is so addictive once you get started! Hence the more than 6 backgrounds!

So day one was distress oxides.

Day two was versamark and clear embossing through stencils… ok that’s more than one product but you can’t clear emboss without versamark and I wanted to stencil not stamp! I did do 6 but only pictures of 4 of them here…

… next I wanted to add the black in and have the clear embossing as a resist. So I chose Versafine to add black in with the blending tool.

This resulted in some dramatic backgrounds and it was at this point I had cut the mountboard to the ATC size.

Next it was day 4 and I decided to grab my copper acrylic ink and use that…

I splashed some on the backgrounds of three and also cut and painted some dried baby wipe to add as a layer on these three cards.

Day five I added copper thread and the focal images for these three cards.

I love how these were coming together…

Day 6 I decided to grab a gel pen and do some doodling on these three cards and also added some to the other three backgrounds.

Day 7… time to work on the other three cards and this time I grabbed some different embossing powders…. white and green … so although I had used clear embossing earlier I decided these were used differently and are obviously coloured so they count as a different product!

And so this is the finished ATCs I made over the course of 7 days using a different product each day…

The photo above was taken with the flash on at night which shows some of the texture and shine… but the next one was in daylight and they look so much better in the real light.

Hope you enjoyed this walk through.

I’m still going with the challenge … and for the next project I used a couple of those backgrounds I made but for a different project.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Face themed twinchies

Catherine

So the artist trading coins swaps have all been posted off and I can now share the twinchies I made to accompany them! Last month I underestimated the number who would join in and had to make a few more last minute. This time I decided to go with 20! Spoiler alert it wasn’t enough!

I created a distress oxide panel and then cut it into 20 1.75inch squares. Then I used two Tim Holtz stamps to create the images.

I love that these stamps are the perfect size for this!

Once stamped I edged each one with the black soot ink to give it a finished appearance. Next I cut the twinchies from pink and blue cardstock so I could create 4 sets of 5.

I layered them up and then stamped the sentiment using alphas and cut each one out. I stuck them down and then edged the sentiment in black pen. Next I added black enamel dots on each one.

Love how these all look. And that they were quite simple to achieve.

I think using the different coloured cardstock also helped bring out the different colours of the ink in the background.

Now as I said above it turned out 20 was not enough…

… there were an amazing 25 artists joining me on the swap… the basket was full of lovely coins by the time I got to the end of the month…

… so another 5 twinchies had to be made …

I chose to use some scraps of backgrounds that were on my desk and the Badass artchick girl image to make the remaining 5 twinchies.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Eyes are the window to my soul postcard

Catherine

Today I have a strange one to share… a postcard that came from a playtime reorganising my inks!

I decided to check my Stampin Up inks as I hadn’t really been using them much so took a wood mounted stamp I got from James Sharpe Art and stamped it multiple times onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock using all of my yellow, orange, pink, red and purple inks.

This created a fab piece of inky patterned paper. I also added a few Timeless Textures splats too in purple. Then I roughly edged the panel.

Next I found a title for the card thinking of the eyes are the window to my soul….

I mounted it onto mountboard and a nice simple postcard was made for this month’s UK Stampers Forum swap.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Arty Session.. Paris

Catherine

So I didn’t want long to put some of the techniques that Karen Stamper shared at our class last weekend to use… I included them in this Paris based canvas session I did with my friends.

None of us finished our pieces completely as they need to dry before some of the finer details can be added but love how they all came out by the end of the session.

Mine is above. I love the drips and the metallic splatter I added. Definitely had a detour from Karen’s limited supplies as couldn’t resist using my Art Alchemy Sparks paints!

The pic of it in the daylight the next morning shows the colour better… it’s amazing the difference that natural light makes! (Depressing to think that days are getting shorter now as we head into autumn!)

Below are the pieces made by the others … Mara, Kathie and Eleanor.

Love how different they all look whilst keeping to similar ideas and the same theme.

Fast forward to the next night and I set about adding more details and definition… and ended up with a few more landmarks…

And then last night some more details added with embossing and an embossed Eiffel Tower. Calling it finished!

Need to get this in a frame and on the wall. Super super proud of this.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

In the city… concertina sketchbook class with Karen Stamper

Catherine

This weekend I had lots of fun with some of my raggy doll sisters in Solihull on a class with a talented artist Karen Stamper. And here is what I made… six pages in a concertina sketchbook…

I didn’t finish everything in the day … in fact that picture is about an hour before the end of the class when I was struggling a little…

I did manage a bit more but the pic only shows it when it is slightly folded.

And here are some once it wad back home with a few more bits added…

Loved the class and looking forward to doing more in the sketch book… so much so that the next six pages have been started….

I wonder how these pages will develop and if I will ever finish the others off?

Happy crafting!

Catherine

One sheet wonder playtime

Catherine

I decided to grab one of the many pieces of 12×12 papers that was reasonably neutral and make a one sheet wonder.

No idea where this paper came from originally but it is a marbled and mottled effect with blue, teal and pink tones. So I teamed it with aqua, pink and brown.

I will sort out the cut instructions and post these later.

I also grabbed some glimmer paper and foiled cardstock to add into the mix.

Then I started making the cards up. I decided to keep to a theme and used the Art deco style stamps which were a magazine freebie a long time ago.

So here are the seven cards I made.

Layered pieces with the different coloured cardstock and the silver glimmer paper and then fussy cut two of the stamped images. Coloured both of them using Inktense blocks and a waterbrush. Stamped the sentiment in versamark and used white embossing powder.

Heat embossed the main image onto the paper and also the same with the single rose image onto the back panel. Then added colour with the distress oxides to give more definition to the bird. Also stamped and embossed the sentiment and mounted that onto the brown card too. I love this bird image so much.

Most of the one sheet wonder templates have a diagonal cut in them. I balanced this one with the diecut in the background.

I love the copper foil background I added with the elegant embossing.

I edged the patterned paper with both the stamp and a line of white embossing, then added the sentiment in the same. Next I added the flower image with some copper thread to add texture.

I went with a brighter pink for this one and grabbed this hot pink doily. It worked with the colouring on the flowers.

This one I went with lots of edging in black pen to give each panel a distinct edge. I also embossed the white panel with the embossing folder.

This final one I embossed the patterned paper, adding versamark to the folder first and then adding some jade coloured powder and heating it. This created a fabulous texture.

I then coloured the cardstock underneath with the same embossing powder.

I am super happy with all of these. I still have a couple of pieces left but not quite worked out how to use them…

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Flowery cuties

Catherine

Today I have two card using floral papers from the Making Cards magazine stash along with cute card toppers from a different collection from Making Cards magazine.

I adore these floral papers. The colours are so vibrant and beautiful. I adore as well the cute little dog. I added glossy accents to the glasses to add shine and dimension.

Think they make a lovely combination even though they are different collections.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Googlie eyes and monster cards

Catherine

Some of these monsters and dinos were made for googlie eyes… so of course I had to add them.

Some, where the eyes were too big for my googlie eyes stickers I added glossy accents to the eyes instead to ensure they still had dimension and shine.

Love these fun cards using the Making Cards magazine collection from several months ago. I’m really enjoying working my way through the backlog of these collections.

Happy crafting!

Catherine