Balloon celebrations, fresco finish paints, Paperartsy, Googlies

Happy birthday to my best friend

Friday was my best friends birthday but I didn’t get to pass her card to her until last night so I can finally share it with you! 

I chose to do an arty mixed media card for her as I wanted to use stars as the main feature and this picture from some giftwrap I saved…. this is so us! 

My friends thing is stars so hence the stars and she also likes purple… so that was the decision made! 

In this close up hopefully you can see the iridescent medium stars I added for additional texture.  

Happy crafting ! 

Catherine 

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Balloon celebrations, Canvas and Mixed Media art, Darcy, fresco finish paints, Paperartsy, Masks/Stencils, Treasure Gold

Art journalling session : wishes

I’m back in the craft room! Don’t get me wrong I will miss my parents but so glad to get my space back.

Tonight it is time for another art journalling session with my friends and the theme for tonight is wishes!

I have a spread in my Dylusions journal as inspiration for the gang.

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First a page with some wiped off stencilled dots and then smudges of paint.  A bit of washi tape and then some texture paste through a stencil.

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Then more paint added.

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Now some stamped flowers from Darcy and plenty of dandelion seeds… I added more stamping patterns to add more texture into the background.

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I stamped the title and then added some doodles and some more paint…

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… I thought the coral helped it pop!

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Finally I added some gilding wax to the texture paste numbers.  It adds a special touch to the page having the shine and gleam.

Love this page and really pleased with how it came out.  Hope the gang find something in this they can create from!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Balloon, Balloon celebrations, Butterfly, Happy Thing, Life... but not as we know it, Papillion Potpourri, Use them or Lose them

Two sheet wonder

Firstly I have to start with a grumble. Depression sucks. People (myself included before I suffered from it) think it is sadness or unhappiness. It really isn’t that. It’s more that for me it is numbness, or emptiness, combined with despair and isolation. I can be surrounded by people who love me and I love back but feel so alone. It really is horrible. Then the anxiety kicks in and it’s like everything is there at once and you just want quiet in your head but you can’t find it. Sorry to put this in the blog but I think if this helps one person understand another’s troubles or helps another person to identify this in themselves and get help then it’s worth it!

I’ve been back to the doctors this morning. We’ve decided on an increase in medication to go alongside the other things I am trying and I need to increase my exercise (from almost nothing to something routine). I have managed a small walk to and from the shop but after only 5 hours sleep I am now shattered and heading back to bed. Not sure I will get round to any crafting so glad I have a project I can blog about already completed…

Yes as part of the yet of Use them or lose them I have another one sheet wonder (using two sheets of dsp). 

I started with some sketches from Freshly Made sketches …  number 1 to 18 to be precise and after roughly cutting cardstock and paper to size I then started teaming up brads as embellishments, black paper as the consistent matting and then card blanks… three different kinds in total.

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This is then how I left them… waiting for the right opportunity to add feature stamps and sentiments. 

A few weeks later I grabbed some coordinating cardstock scraps and black paper and the sentiment dies…
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And had a big old die cutting session. Didn’t end up doing the button dies for this project.

Next I took all the smaller cards and started assembling them with the die cut sentiment and in some cases a stamped image (or three!). Some I had added paper flowers to already so they didn’t need the stamped images and because of the jazzy backgrounds I didn’t want to overdo it!

These I will share today… the others tomorrow!

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Love how these all turned out… and how different they are because of the jazzy paper I probably wouldn’t have used for this type of project normally.

Pop back tomorrow to see how I finished the other cards from this two sheet wonder!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Balloon celebrations, Brushos, Canvas and Mixed Media art, Gelatos, Faber Castell, Masks/Stencils

Mixed media card class

I decided that alongside the usual art journalling sessions with the gang I would also do some mixed media card classes so that they could use the techniques we’ve built up in the past 12 months to create some cards too.

This month I used the Stampin Up Balloon Celebrations set… yes I am all about this set at the moment!  Two different classes in one week… I must be mad!

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This is a gelatos based card.  A few gelatos used to create the background, blending with my fingers.  Then a stencil over the top and a baby wipe to remove some colour.  I had also placed a post it note as a mask first so that some of it remained white. 

I removed the post it note and used the gelatos on the stamps and then stamped those randomly.  I love these random stamps in the set.  Perfect for creating backgrounds.

I also used gelatos to stamp the balloons.  Because the stamps are solid though you don’t get the best stamped image, but it picks up the colouring pattern which I quite liked. 

A couple of the gelatos I used were metallic too, so there is some shine to them.  I also added some stickles dots to add the bling.

The sentiment I used a SU marker to ink up so I could have the sentiment on top of each other rather than in a line.
I also did a bit of fun for the envelope…

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Post it notes are perfect for this so you can maintain a clean space for the name and address but jazz it up for the postbox appeal!

Next card…

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This is a very grungey card!  I used paint brayered onto it keeping it fairly dry so it picked up the texture of the cardstock.  For this and gelatos I used Acrylic paper rather than smooth cardstock.  It was perfect for this card in particular. 

I stamped using paint too, and added lines using the edge of the acrylic block. 
I did the same for the smaller piece of cardstock, and then edged it with the blue paint to make it stand out. The larger piece I edged with Sepia Archival ink.

I stamped the balloons onto another scrap of acrylic using the paint and then once they were dry I punched them out.  I affixed the twine before adding the balloons.  The sentiment was stamped and edged with the Sepia archival ink.

Love this grungey look… a bit more masculine than the others. I also played on the envelope adding a border to the base…

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The next card I grabbed my favourite media… Brushos of course!

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I used the brushos (scarlet red, cobalt blue, lemon, sea green) direct onto the craft mat in a line and then sprayed water.  They puddled nicely and then I used an embossing folder to stamp the zig zag.  I set the piece aside to dry then put another piece of cardstock into the ink puddles.  Again I set that aside to dry. 

I got my larger piece of cardstock out next and added some taps of Brushos around the edge (the same colours)and then added some sprays of water to activate the crystals.  This then created the bottom layer.  All of the three pieces then had to dry.

Once they were dry I stamped the ribbons for the balloons and the stars onto the zig zag piece.  Next I punched the balloons out of the multi coloured smaller piece. I then stamped the outlines… easy to do with photopolymer stamps.

I layered the balloons onto the ribbons and then added the seniment and edged each piece with black ink.

Again a few dots of stickles finished it off…. and did a quick envelope… bit of doodling!
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Final card… This time distress stains and distress micro glaze used to make the background.
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I used water through the stencil to create the pattern and then once it was dry I stamped the dandelion seeds in archival ink. Quite a simple one to make but I think quite effective!

Once again, stickles are dotted around to add that bit of sparkle.
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This is the envelope where I used the same technique but on a small patch in the corner.

So here are my cards for class… well to be fair none of my classes are really classes, more that they are relaxing fun time with friends… just what I needed.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Balloon, Balloon celebrations, Masks/Stencils, Ribbons

Artifartiness sessions with friends

My ‘non – crafting’ friends are coming to play with ink and stamps on Monday … although I am not sure they can be called non – crafting anymore!

Here are the cards we are making.

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All of them are using the Balloon Celebrations SU set of stamps but a few different techniques going on…

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This is plenty of fun with a circle stencil to create the central part and stencil brushes to keep the finish soft.

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This is the simple stamp and colour in one!

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This is using Distress micro glaze as a resist with distress inks, distress stains and water.

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This is traditional distress ink and blending with water through a stencil to lift some colour.

So four different cards using some different techniques.  I also did a bit of envelope and inside card stamping too.

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Can’t wait to see what my friends create.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

Balloon, Balloon celebrations

Playing with balloon celebrations

Hello folks!

I got this new stamp set (Balloon celebrations) courtesy of my friend Helen who is a SU demo which has a coordinating punch.  I love it!

This is my first real play with it though.

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These were simple cards made in an hour trying out the different stamps. Particularly like the last one and the one without the balloon best.  Might just have to use these a lot in the next few weeks!

Entering this into the Fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.co.uk where the theme is Something New.
Also entering it into the Anything Goes challenge at abc-challenge.
And finally also entering it into Cute Card Thursday something new challenge as I am using new stamps!

Happy crafting!

Catherine