Butterfly and flowers

 Have you seen all the gorgeous gap cards that have been created for the current Butterfly Challenge? My attempt to make one just didn't come together, it wasn't the direction my mojo was heading this week, so instead I've gone with a couple of colours from the challenge wheel - geranium and granny Smith. 

The background paper is one of the papers from the Indigo Blu magazine kit. I stamped and heat embossed the floral stamp from the kit onto the paper and also onto white card, then coloured the flowers with a watercolour marker pen, fussy cut them and applied them over the ones on the background. The butterfly is die cut with a Spellbinders die and the sentiment is cut from another of the papers in the kit. 

I am sharing this with 

Allsorts Challenge - Beautiful Blooms  

Butterfly Challenge - G for Gap 

The Flower Challenge - Embossing, heat or dry  

Green Mandala

 Just before Christmas (after I'd packed away all my craft stuff to make room for the family get-together that never was!) I received a gift of a "Mandala colour blending kit" and I've only just found the time and mojo to play with it. 

The kit consists of a selection of pre-printed mandalas, 3 Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend markers and two different thicknesses of black fineliner. There is an instruction booklet showing you how to use the three colours of one pen to create the illusion of dimension on one of the mandalas, and this is my first attempt. The fineliners are to darken and thicken the printed lines in the more shaded areas. 

Once I'd completed the colouring, I cut out the mandala and stuck it to a card, then found a curved sentiment that had just the right curvature and stamped it above the mandala. 

I am sharing this with 

Passion for Markers  - Anything Goes 

Up up and away.

 Well, I stayed away from my beloved Indigo Blu magazine kit for a few weeks but it's lured me back in.... 

I love the vintage balloon stamp and it's perfect for making masculine cards. This time I stamped and coloured it and then cut it out leaving a narrow border and layered it with black. I used a blue distressed paper from the kit for the background, stamping some of the smaller images randomly over it, and again layered it with black. Then I cut the compass and sentiment from another of the papers and layered them too with black. I stuck the compass to the card then used foam pads to attach the balloon and sentiment. 

I am sharing this with

Watercooler Wednesday - Anything goes with a masculine twist 

Tea time take 2

 So, while I was making the card I shared earlier, my mind kept wandering to all the tea-related images included in the beautiful "Winnie in Wonderland" CD from Polkadoodles. I imagine they are inspired by the Mad Hatter's tea party. 

I printed a design sheet and a couple of background papers, then had a lovely time distressing, layering and fussy cutting to create this large 8" square card. 

I am sharing this with 

Shopping Our Stash - I need a cup of coffee  

CD Sunday Plus - anything goes 

Tea time take 1

 A few months ago, a friend passed on a pre-loved die to me - she'd not managed to come up with many ways to use it, and now I'm having the same problem. 

It's quite a big die - on a 6" square card it doesn't leave much room for anything else. To show it off here, I've simply cut it in white, then picked a piece of Hunkydory card which must be at least 15 years old, as it has the look of steam swirling from the teacup. 

Now, what else can I do with it? I could colour the die cut and use it on a plainer background, or perhaps on a lace doiley to give an afternoon tea look. I could snip the elements apart to remove the constraint I feel the shape and size of the image causes. 

I wonder if inking the raised surfaces of the die in brown and then cutting cream card would give the look of a faux woodcut? I think I'll try that next. 

Watch this space - and I'd love your ideas, or links  to things you've made or seen using it! 

I am sharing this with 

Little Red Wagin - Die-ing to get Crafty  

Shopping Our Stash - I need a Cup of Coffee (I know this is tea - blame Chris!) 

OMG an ATC!

 It's years, absolutely YEARS since I made an ATC, they just don't really come into my skillset at all. But Edna has asked us to make ATCs, and what Edna asks for, Edna (usually) gets. 

How can something so tiny take so much time and patience? Not really knowing where to start, I drew inspiration from the amazing You Tube artist Shanouki  who is really inspiring me to try Mixed Media art. 

First I chose a selection of tiny vaguely co-ordinating snippets, tore the edges and stuck them to my ATC, then painted over it all with a thin layer of gesso. Then I punched a circle from a contrasting snippet, stuck it down and drew around the edge with a watercolour pencil, and pulled some of the colour out onto the background with a wet brush. Next I used the same pencil to doodle round the edge. I'd intended leaving it dry, as normal doodling, but I didn't like what I'd doodled so I used the wet brush to change it into a border. 

I added a sentiment - it's from one of Ranger's Tim Holtz snarky pads, snipped apart and outlined. Then I stamped and coloured the wine bottle and glass and added them to the circular spotlight. 

I am sharing this with 

Cardz 4 Galz - Coffee, wine or cocktails  

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - A is for ATC 

Pot of cacti

 Today I've been playing for the first time with a set of stamps I got for Christmas. It's a HunkyDory set called Prickly Plants and comes with a large mix-and-match selection of pots and succulents to play with.

I used lots of masking to stamp the plant-filled pot then coloured it with Promarkers. I added one of the sentiments from the stamp set and edged the topper panel with terracotta ink. 

My favourite colour combo is terracotta and green - our bedroom and en suite are decorated in those colours and if I had my way, the whole house would be! They are my favourite colours to wear too. So I know these stamps will see a lot of use. 

I am sharing this with

Allsorts Challenge - Something New  (the stamps) 

Passion for Markers - (only just noticed we can use any brand of marker now!) - Favourite Colour Combo 

Pearly Sparkles - Something beginning with P (plants, pot and prickles!)