Monday, July 28, 2014

Loving Distress Inks and Texture and Dimension

G'day

Recently I have been enjoying creating with distress inks (spiced marmalade and broken china), a beautiful combination and blending of two colors. Before and still like the combo of wild honey and red barn which blend to create orange, just beautiful. Also the lovely combo of harmony of dusty concord and broken china.

At the moment I like exploring with the stanly knife, to create dimension and lift on images. I do not currently posses The Dimensional Cutting Pad designed by Tim Holtz, one of many creations on my list of collections to buy.

I am also liking my embossing folders again, which I have not used in a while. On this card I embossed the two panels together, so the texture is on the butterflies and the flower.

Here is my card.

I used a wheat stencil and sponged with spiced marmalade and broken china, spritzed with water and placed down on watercolor paper. Very light but not distinct on the pattern. So I sponged/squished spiced marmalade and broken china on my craft mat, spritzed with water and placed the panel down and lift off, then dried with heat again, did that again another two times to achieve the look I wanted.

I then stamped the butterflies and flower in archival ink coffee and with stanly knife cut the pieces so they would lift and pop of the page. Added some holographic glitter paint and jewels for some bling. The sentiment i used the rolling technique with the two distress ink colors.

On the inside I stamped the three words and used the rolling technique on the butterfly and stamped it off three times.

Here is the panel after water coloring it with spiced marmalade and broken china. I spritzed with water on an angle from the side and heat dried, love the water effect on this, beautiful

Here is the panel with the full embossed area using cuttlebug leaves embossing folder.

Inks Used: distress inks - spiced marmalade, broken china. archival ink - coffee

Stamps Used: stamplorations - artful butterflies. fiskars - friendly flowers

Glitter Paint - by Mont Marte - holographic

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges :-

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday challenge - Emboss it

STAMPlorations - July challenge - stamps and glitter

Inkspirational Challenges - #61 word prompt splash

STAMPlorations - bi weekly sketch #16

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for stopping by andHave a Fantastic Day

Cheers MOnika

 

Thursday, July 24, 2014

More Butterflies

G'Day

My gosh, what is it with butterflies, I cannot seem to shake them off.

Here is my tag panel.

 


 

 

I created a bit of mixed media tag with distress inks (broken china, spiced marmalade) and embossed the tag with cuttlebug fern embossing folder.

I stamped butterflies (STAMPlorations - artful flutters, sentiment from same set) in Versafine onyx black and used a stanly knife to cut around the wings only so I could fold the wings up for effect and dimension.

 

 

I seen this technique on you tube by Tim Holtz design and use of The Dimensional Cutting Pad that is specific to keeping the centre so the wings could be folded up.

I used design paper with beautiful flowers under the wings.

 

 

Pasted the tag onto brown texture paper and then black texture paper. Added some plaster tape for some grid and texture and sponged with spiced marmalade and broken china.

Added some brads for a metal look and bling, glitter for some sparkle.

 

 

The tag I made a while ago when I was in a frenzy using the combo broken china and spiced marmalade. Not sure what to do with it so I set it aside until now. I think it is alright, a bit dark and I wish the butterflies were placed a bit differently, but hey who's perfect, first time using stanly knife. Hubby said it was very creative. I guess when you stare at it for a couple of days you begin to doubt the looks. I thought I would be honest. After all it is handmade, nothing is perfect. That's what I love about handmade, the project will always a bit of you in there, no matter what. So pardon the wonky work.

 

I would like to enter my tag into following challenges :-

The Mixed Media Card Challenge - Touch of Nature option Tag

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday challenge - Emboss it

 

Monday, July 21, 2014

Top Pick Twice AWSOME

G'day

wow. got a surprise today. I knew one of the challenges, Stamplorations Blog (biweekly sketch #15) finished up and the winners and top picks were to be chosen today and i just remembered to check and to my surprise i was chosen as a top pick.  how awesome. so happy.  Thank you so much Monika (design team member) for picking my card.  I love what you said about my card.

here was my card entry and the badge i got.  here is the post about my card.




I keep forgetting to post about my other Top Pick by the Stamplorations Blog.

While almost recovering from my cold/flu I spotted that my project panel entry was choosen as top pick.  That really cheered me up on the day.  Great suprise for me. Unexpected.

Thank you so much Debra (design team member) for choosing my panel as one of the Top Picks for Biweekly Sketch #14

Here is my entry and the banner i got.  here is the post on how i created this project.




How cool, just now I realized that I got top pick for two in a row bi-weekly sketches (sketch #14 & #15), awesome. 

It is so good to have a good long break from crafting, refreshes your mind and you are able to create more productive projects.  I just love being inspired by YouTube videos and all the challenge blogs that I find along the way.

I would like to thank all of you who comment on my posts and appreciate my creativity.  I enjoy reading each of your thoughts and welcome any ideas you have.


Thank you for stopping by
cya for now MOnika

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Leafs and More Leafs

G'day

Bummer, just missed out on an entry for die cuts at Virgina's View Challenge Blog.  I made the card before the due date but hubby was home so I did not get a chance to photograph my card and enter.  But I will surf the net and see if there are other challenges using die cuts, leaves, nature etc.

I do not own many die cuts. I have circles, squares, scalloped circles and leafs.  I wish I had more, so many beautiful die cuts out there, especially from Tim Holtz that have matching stamps and stamps that have matching embossing folders, wow, awesome.  I wish I was rich !.

Anyways here is my card.
Click photo for details.



I found inspiration for the inlaid die cut, on Virgina's post Demystifying Die Cuts.  I am also still liking the two combination colors of distress inks broken china and spiced marmalade which I maintained throughout my card.

I used broken china and spiced marmalade on the craft sheet, spritzed with water to create background on watercolor paper, die cut the leaves and pasted onto black textured paper.  I die cut more leafs and stuck them together to create dimension and lift and sponged around them with broken china and stuck them back into the background (inlaid die cuts).  I created another panel with designer paper for added look and background


 
The sentiment I stamped using the rolling technique with broken china and spiced marmalade.


At the end I used copper/gold glitter paint (by Mont Marte) to highlight the edges of the leafs and black borders.

Angled to show the glitter.  Click photo to view details.


On the inside I used the cut out part of the leafs (stencil) and sponged with broken china and spiced marmalade with another sentiment from the same set of rubber stamps. (I made a boo boo on the top left corner with stamping, tried to fix it but made it blah, but I like the rest of it.  I am human after all and am allowed some botch ups.  I will keep this one for myself!!!).



Gosh, just loving those distress inks and how they react with water.  Must try with distress paints, I have broken china and wild honey.  I wonder if they with create the same combo.  Must try for my next project.

Inks Used : Ranger Distress Inks - broken china,spiced marmalade
Stamps Used : Fiskars - Road Trip

I would like to enter my card in the following challenges :-

Addicted to Stamps and More! - challenge #104 CAS

A Girl Who Crafts - July Anything Goes

The Mixed Media Card Challenge Blog - Touch of Nature

Crafty Girls Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative Moments - Anything Goes

STAMPlorations Blog - July challenge : Stamps & Glitter

Crafting by Designs - Use a Sentiment Challenge

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge Blog - Anything Goes



Cheers and Thank You for all your thoughts and for Stopping By
MoNika

Monday, July 14, 2014

distress Inks background

G'day

Long time no see my craft room....busy being unwell...yucky winters cold fault, four hours helping hubby with his car and bang, a cold, a cough and a fever all at once....blah....but I managed to crochet a bit, after a week or so, must love the body, takes only two weeks to heal with aid of natural wonders....worked on my snoppy blanket...much fun...my first graph-afghan...anyways.

I am in my craft room today, Tim Holtz's ideas running through my mind, I have been surfing the net, especially the YouTube and found few techniques using distress inks, my favorite to work with.

I made one technique with sponging up an embossing folder (cuttlebug happy birthday, using the recessed side), I used faded jeans and dusty concord and wild honey....turned out ok, but got stuck on what to do next, did not really like what I had.

So I went onto another technique using distress inks that Tim suggested worked well together, spiced marmalade and broken china.

 

Here is the card i came up with using a challenge as an inspiration. Click images for detail and clarity.

 

 

The Back and the Inside



I sponged the two colors onto the craft sheet, spritz with water and place water colored paper down and squish a bit, then dry with heat gun, place paper down again but pick up and repeat, then spritz water to let the colors flow a bit, then dry and finally another place down and pick up and dry. Tim says three layers are good.

Stuck the panel onto my base card and stamped the two sentiments with spiced marmalade and broken china, using the rolling technique.


I then ran the whole card through the cuttlebug butterfly swirls embossing folder for a different look, maintaining the emboss image on the front, inside and the back.

I die cut the frill circle and sponged with spiced marmalade while in the die, too strong color so I used water brush to fluid it out, took the circle out of the die and sponged around with broken china. I then stamped the butterfly in coffee ink and stamped and cut out another butterfly and water colored with spiced marmalade and broken china, for that dimensional look and pained with glitter and jewel for some sparkle.

I maintained the two distress ink colors throughout the whole design and I love how it all co ordinates, beautiful combo and makes a bit of green too.


Inks Used :
* distress inks by Tim Holtz and Ranger - spiced marmalade,broken china
* ranger archival inks - coffee

Stamps Used :
* stamplorations - artful flutters

Glitter :
* Mont Marte - glitter paint crystal blue


I would like to enter my card in the following challenges :-

STAMPlorations - July challenge - stamps and glitter

STAMPlorations - biweekly sketch #15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virgina's View - challenge #5 Die Cut

Addicted to CAS - challenge #42 sky

Crafting at the Weekend - challenge #3 anything goes

Sisters of Craft - July anything goes

Inkspirational - challenge #60 Photo inspiration

The Mixed Media Card Challenge - #1 Touch of Nature

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Emboss it


Thanks for stopping by
MoNika