Paperartsy challenge … and for ATC’S sake … 38 – 43 !!!

It’s been a while since I managed to do a Paperartsy challenge … but I kept seeing amazing art both on the blog and from my friend Hazel who has made three different projects already (all of which are stunning) so I had to join in. 

Last night was the night to get in the zone and do this! The first DT project by Corrie I loved and although my make was nothing like hers it still inspired me to get my colour going! 

The first challenge for 2017 is a colour scheme… pink and orange! Lovely and bright and zingy.  Of course in keeping with this year’s challenge I had to make some ATC’S.  

So I grabbed some paper which I got in the sale at M & S as part of a stationery kit… and went to town with abandoned coral and carved pumpkin distress stains. I didn’t bother going to the edges as I knew that on this 8 x 8 paper I wouldn’t be using it all.

Next I grabbed some neon pink paint. This is DoCrafts fabric paint but I use it quite often on my papercrafts and never on fabric! I grabbed a stencil and added some onto the background but the paint is translucent so barely visible. So then I got out some gesso and an open design stencil so I could provide a base for the pink paint. 

That’s better.. more stencilling and stamping with bottle tops and credit cards and all that remained was some speckles! For this I used the metallic paints from Finnabair to also add a bit of a sheen. 

So I then cut up the pieces into ATC size and added stickers that were included in the stationery kit.

Right onto the focal images.  I wanted to keep them all in one theme and happen to have very recently bought some stamps that I knew would work perfectly… these Tim Holtz Runway ones… stamped in archival onto white cardstock and loosely coloured with the distress stains… perfect. 

I cut them out with a reasonable border and then adhered them to the backgrounds.  They are slightly larger than the atcs so they did loose legs etc… and in one case the dog! 

Then I decided to trim them down and add them to a cardstock base that I cut out of the postcards from the same kit… they had cute postcard style cards and they were perfectly 2 atcs for each… so I did half on the kraft side and half on the white. Oh I and so edged each of the panels with ink before sticking it down. 

Next up… doodling. A bit of doodling and outlining and then some stickers for sentiments. 

And here they are… gorgeous even if I say so myself! I also added a little bit of enamel accents on each just to add a little more texture. 

And here they all are in close up…

So that’s another six atcs made towards my challenge… I am way ahead of schedule (16 ahead already) and really enjoying this challenge.  I also love joining in with the Paperartsy gang for the pink and orange challenge… I do realise that I didn’t use any PA products this time … but I have an idea for another project using these colours and PA products so if idea get a chance in the next couple of days I will be back with that one too.  

In the meantime check out the Paperartsy blog and all the fab inspiration.  

Happy crafting! 

Cafe cards… 35, 36 and 37

Hello there… another few atcs to share today that are part of the weekly challenge Marta sets up in Maremis Creative cafe fb group.  

These are the cards for weeks 2, 3 and 4…

Week 2 was bubbles… so bubble printing and doodling and quote about bubbles… perfect.  Then added the sparkly domes too. 

Week 3 was coffee… of course I had to use the perfect blend stamps… plus some beads and thread to add texture.

Week 4 was Dragonfly… the feature came from Awesomely Artistic and this was added to a pretty pastel background card to which I added the quote from Darcy’s stamps.  

Love how different these look and grateful for the inspiration in the fb group. 

Happy crafting ! 

Catherine 

PATWITS circle journal… Marie’s journal pages

It’s been an age since I shared a circle journal page … so glad I can share this one. This is a really special one as although it’s a PATWITS circle journal… it is for one of my raggy doll sisters! The lovely Marie made a fab circle journal for us all to work in and the instructions were to do both sides of the page…. so here is my first side. I used a lot of different book print papers to add texture and pattern and then a mix of coral and autumn fire and terracotta and chalk fresco finish paint to do the background with some flicks of Bora Bora too. Then some iridescent medium through a heart stencil and lots of Darcy heart stamping and embossing. Then doodling and outlining and inking. The big heart I also gave a coat of the opal magic paint. Then found the he perfect quote for the page for Marie. 

Next is the reverse and this time I went a little different.  

I decided to do an ombre type background with the paints and then use the Lynne Perrella stamps as the main feature. I then grabbed the Darcy sentiment and some of the bits and pieces from the Artful Days goodie box to finish off. 

Love how incredibly different both sides are and that they both started with similar colours but went pastel for one and rich for the other. 

Hopefully Marie will like it too. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

An Artful Days goodie box card

Just a little card I made using some Artful Days goodie box pieces of loveliness! 

So so easy to put together as Julie has taken all the hard work out of it in putting together pieces that match already. 

A simple bit of assembling and then adding some shading with Inktense pencil and jobs a good’un!

I can’t recommend these boxes enough in terms of variety and value for money. They are so fab! I have so much stash left from the December box and so many ideas on how to use it but so little time! Lol! 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 


A little framed canvas 

Well I have something a bit different to share tonight…. a canvas I made and framed… not an ATC in sight! 

This is how I started.  A 3×3 canvas board which I gessoed and then added the time Holtz tissue paper to it. All the goodies I used (except gelatos) are from the Artful days goodie box from December.  

To this I added gelatos in a mixture of lime and yellow.  I then used a stencil and baby wipe to remove some colour. 

Then I went to town on embellishments from the Artful Days goodie box… 

Once I had layered them up I adhered them and added the whole piece to some dark brown cardstock so I could frame it in the box frame I had to hand. 

I also added a sentiment from the Tim Holtz stickers I had in the stash. 

How lovely is this? And super simple to make. Loved playing with the goodies and creating this piece to go on the craft room wall. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

For ATC’S sake… 33 and 34

Hello there… another couple of ATC’S made…. this time using the first prompt from the 52 week art challenge I am following… the prompt was plants. 

I took some scratch paper and doodled my plants. 

These then became my atcs! I love the splashes of lime green that the paper already had. It worked perfectly with the plant theme. 

Simple but good to do a little sketching and incorporate it into my challenge. 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

For ATC’S sake … 32

One more ATC this morning…. managed to get myself a little bit ahead on the challenge…

This started as a piece of cardstock I covered in black gesso and added texture paste through a stencil.

I then added the paint on the top added and built up the little cluster of textures and layers. 

So there we go… 32 ATC’S made since 1st Jan and only 333 to go!!! Wonder when I will get bored of these mini pieces of art?

Happy crafting!

For ATC’S sake …  30 & 31

Time for another couple of ATC’s for the challenge…

And here was the process… 

Scratch paper with pink paints both pale and bright. then some stamping and some texture paste through a stencil. 

Then some scraps of Gelli printed paper layered up and some lovely chipboard butterflies and little bits of sheet music.   Of course then some doodling with black and metallic gel pens.

Cute and a bit grungey all in one, well two, pieces of art. So another two towards the pile! 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine 

For ATC’S sake … 28 & 29

Today there are a few blog posts to get through… the first of which is this about two ATC’S I made for the challenge…

They started off as a distress ink background I made a while ago with some stamps and blending of inks. Next I added some distress crayons and then removed a bit of the colour again with a baby wipe through a stencil.  

I then stamped using White acrylic both some little bits of texture and the main flower image. Next I added colour and shading using Inktense pencils and pen for doodling. 

Then I chose my sentiments and went for a different look for each of them.

Love both of these. 

Please pop back later to see the other posts I also have in store for you! 

Happy crafting! 

Catherine