Glimmer of Light Mixed Media Canvas

***Warning*** Photo heavy post ahead so get your eyeballs ready for some visual happiness. 

 

 I had some messy fun in my studio and I can't wait to share the results with you all!

I've had this bright red canvas staring at me for quite some time. I've always thought it's just been too obnoxiously vibrant, but tonight I decided to conquer it. 

What better way to tone down the red than to cover it up? haha
I used a sheet of old, old music given to me by a bloggy friend and cut it into a face shape. 

I LOVE how easy it is to make emotive faces with the Face It! stamp set from Visible Image.  I stamped the closed eyes onto the sheet music. 

I used some Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks to add some colors to shading. 

Even though Scribble Sticks might not look like much when you scribble them on, as soon as water is added to them, they activate and make all kinds of gorgeousness. Around the edges of my face, I used some Faber Castell Gelatos to add depth and dimension.  I also stamped my background with some numbers from the Somewhere in Time stamp set to grunge it up a bit. 

I took some metal gears and transformed them with some Inka Gold metallic paste. 

I embossed a sentiment from the Glimmer of Light set. 

 

 I glued down the gears to the top of my gal's head, along with some turquoise gemstones and then sprinkled the whole dealio with some Picket Fence Distress Spray Stains. 

 

Pretty much in love with the way this turned out and no longer intimidated by all that red. 

I had to add the stripeys to the side to complete the whole shebang. 

Thanks for tuning in and have a very happy Saturday!

Rainbow Paintbrush Watercolor Card

Paint ALL the things!! I'm popping in with a quick post today to let you know I'm up on the STAMPlorations blog with a step-by-step for this card.

If you wanna know how to do stunning, easy-peasy watercolor that's actually semi-controllable, you're going to want to go check it out! Cheers!

Seize the Birthday Guest - Text Background

I'm kicking it old school with the ladies at Seize the Birthday challenge as their surprise party guest and I had so much fun playing along in their latest challenge.

I love a good card with an old-timey vintagey feel to it, so when I read that the new challenge was to use a text/script background I was all sorts of happy. 

I stamped some gorgeous poppies from a Penny Black stamp set and watercolored it in using some Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks. 

I used some black and tan damask paper as well as some vintagey text paper for my background.

My card was also inspired by the sketch challenge going on at The Paper Players right now. 

I'm also going to play along in:
Craft Rocket Challenges - Something beginning with "F" (flower)


There is some gorgeous inspiration up at the Seize the Birthday blog and you all should go check it out!! 

Growing in Unity + Card Concept + Prizes

Today, I'm combining both my Growing in Unity post PLUS announcing the return of The Card Concept Challenge! So ya'll get a double huzzah!!

My card today is brought to you by the new inspiration image up at The Card Concept challenge, which is back from its summer hiatus. 

Look at all that lovely texture, woodgrain, and pretty florals - there are so many different things you could be inspired by and we would LOVE to have you come play along. 

I guess this week I have been unintentionally exploring different watercoloring mediums. 

Yesterday, I showed you how to use traditional watercolors to make a splashy card and on Day 1 of my Growing in Unity posts, I showed you how to watercolor with Distress Inks. 

Today, I'm going to talk about my latest watercolor effect medium obsession: Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks.

People. People. 

If you want to talk about the easiest way to watercolor EVER,
These. Are. It.

Like their name implies, you just scribble around with them. Originally I thought these would be like gelatos or Tim Holtz Distress Crayons but they are far from it. The scribble stick is hardened and if I was going to compare it to anything, it would be a watercolor pencil (although these are MUCH more vibrant). 

Once you have a little bit of scribbled color down, take a damp brush and just pull out from the center of the color. Easy peasy gradient that looks oh-so-lovely! 

If you're wondering where that big ol' beautiful flower came from, it's a design by Donna Downey for Unity Stamp Company called Wild & Free. This set is PERFECT for dramatic cards and is large enough for mixed media canvases or art journaling, too! 

Once I had my poppy all watercolored, I added a teeny bit of texture to the center with some white acrylic paint. 

I wanted to incorporate the burlappy (that's a word if I say it is) texture from the inspiration photo, so I used some burlap cardstock from DCWV. I embossed a lovely sentiment from the same kit and viola! 

This card is also going to go play along at Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge and Artistic Inspirations Anything Goes Challenge. 

PSSSTTT... check out my followers section in my right sidebar. Do you see that I am only >>SIX<< bloggy friends away from hitting 300!? Can you help a girl out and help me hit that milestone? I'd be ever so obliged! I love making new bloggy friends!

Warm Coffee Card

It's Friday and that means it's time for coffee. Unlike the rest of the world, Mondays aren't usually when coffee is an absolute requirement. But Fridays.... Friday mornings always seem to kick me in the pants. Something about the last day of the week before freedom requires copious amounts of caffeine.

I stamped a row of super cute coffee cups from the brand new What's Brewing STAMPlorations stamp set.

PSSST - bloggy readers - if you're interested in anything from the STAMPlorations store, go look right now! Through today, July 7th, everything in the whole store is 15% off AND you can get an additional 20% off by using my personal discount code: STAMPGIRLBECCA.

I colored around my coffee cups with some Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks and used a watery brush to blend my colors together.

I chose my colors because the July theme for STAMPlorations is stamps and warm colors.

 

There is also a sketch to inspire you.

 

To play along in this challenge you can use ANY stamps from ANY company. Just choose the theme or the sketch to inspire your card, or use both!

 

Here's my completed design! I love how warm and inviting this feels. 

I hope you'll all consider playing along over at STAMPlorations Theme & Sketch challenge for a chance to win some pretty sweet prizes!

And Though She be But Little, She Is Fierce.

Hullo Ladies and Gents! 

Today, I'm sharing a design that I am pretty dang proud of. And it was all inspired by the latest inspiration up at the old Fusion Card Challenge.

 

Originally, I was a little bit stumped by this one. As you may have noticed, I'm a big fan of layers on my card so the sketch wasn't doing it for me, and I wasn't really sure how to interpret the inspiration image...

And then I got some new Dina Wakely Scribbly Girlies stamps in the mail and couldn't get this card idea out of my head: 

Isn't it very Banksy? I stamped my image and then created a grayish haze of a background using watercolor. I added a splash of yellow to her dress, and layered up the background using some DCWV papers, gemstones, and vellum. The butterfly is a leftover Post-It note mask from yesterday's card. Recycling at its finest!! 

I hope you'll come play along at Fusion! Can't wait to see what you create! 

I'm going to enter this at:
Take it Make It Craft Stamper Magazine Challenge - ATG
Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge - Layers

Mixed Media Card Challenge - Change

Sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifffffffffffffffffffffffff*
Ahhh do you smell that?
That my friends is the smell of 2017 air. The smell of fresh new beginnings. The smell of CHANGE!

Speaking of change, that's the theme for our very first challenge at the Mixed Media Card Challenge for 2017.

When reflecting on what I could do with the theme change, many things came up  - things like new chapters in life, changing colors, changing seasons... What I decided to do was start scrolling through my stamps to see if there were ones that inspired a mixed media piece about changing.

In doing so, I found a NBUS beautiful sentiment from Unity Stamp Co, and a only-used-once Stenciled Women by Dina Wakely stencil. Combined, I felt like the two really spoke to "change".

I also thought I could incorporate "change" into my mediums by using Ken Oliver ColorBurst watercolor crystals. I absolutely ADOOOOOORE these things, because you just sprinkle some onto your paper, spritz with water, and you get these vibrant color washes that are totally unique and stunning every time.

Next, I stamped some various shapes across my background in coordinating colors to create more dimension.

I used some Abandoned Coral Distress Paint to paint through the STAMPlorations Dots All Over Stencil.

Next, I sponged through the Dina Wakely stencil to create my focal image.