Featured Friday!!! Dawn Turley~

Happy Friday! I hope you've all had a better week than I did. The plague struck and I've been swallowing shards of glass for the last two days. Eeek!

I'm sorry I didn't post the winner of my first giveaway yesterday, but see the above reason. I plum forgot! After a little drawing and a tabletop drum roll...the winner is.... Donna of Yellow Dog Greetings. Donna, please email me at bexcruger @ gmail dot com with your address. \

And now that business is all done, time for the party! This week's featured designer is:

Dawn Turley of Dawn's World. I "met" Dawn through the Card Chain Challenge, a monthly international card exchage. A resident of New Zealand, Dawn is a whiz with Distress Inks and markers (can you see why I like her yet?). Her designs ooze with bold color and clean lines. But why tell you about her when she can do so much better herself?

Here's seven things to know about Dawn:

1. How did you start stamping?

I started stamping in 2008 when another lady and I reached for a stamping magazine at the same time... she asked me if I stamped and when I said no I just liked looking at the magazines... she invited me to come along to a stamp group at a local stamp store that was on the next day... so I went and as they say.... the rest is history. I was hooked in a BIG way. 

2. What types of things inspire you?

This is hard... all sorts of things inspire me. Some times colours or sketches inspire me and I love visiting other blogs to get inspirations. And who can resist Pinterest! So much there to inspire there.

 

3. What would you say is your stamping aesthetic?

I'm a CAS stamper. Much as I love looking at vintage and Shabby Chic, I struggle with this genre. I like a few embellishments but like a clean style the most.

 

4. If you were stranded on a deserted island, what one crafting supply would you have to bring?

Only one? Minimum - stamps,inks, Copics, heck just let me take everything and I'll be happy stranded on that island for a very long time! No one to interrupt me!

 

5. Favorite card making challenges to participate in?

I'm on a few challenge blogs - Die Cut Divas, Southern Girls Challenge Creative Craft Cottage but a few of the other's I like to enter are:

City Crafter challenge

Crafting when you can

Penny Black and More Challenge


There're so many fun challenges out there and I often have a bit of fun entering into others.

 

6. Fill in the blank: The one thing new stampers should know is __________.

Just have Fun and try out lots of techniques. Don't over-analyse what you are doing.

 

7. What's your best organization tip for crafting supplies?

Organising your craft supplies? What's that? I'm such a messy crafter I have stuff all over the place. I try to keep things organised but I get distracted creating and forget to put things away.

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I'd have to agree with her on number 7! My craft room is about as messy as my designs! I was so excited when Dawn agreed to be featured and she chose this card for me to case:

The Original

Look at all those beautiful messy splatters! Like I said, she's a master of bold colors and this card is no exception. I loved the way it looks like she's double stamped the image in multiple colors before blending. And the way it's all set a little off kilter? Fab-o!

My CASE Card

I saved the off-kilter design and went for slightly larger splatters in shades of pinky-purples. I used STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches set to stamp that gorgeous daisy and colored it in bold, rich shades. I backed the image using a chocolate paper with shimmery strips of raspberry. I finished it off with some enamel dots from Doodlebug Designs. Dawn's design sure was an inspiration!

Dawn's CASE Card

Dawn used her design to create this gorgeous Christmas card! Look at all those beautiful splatters! They look like twinkling lights and give this card such a festive feel! I love the scale of her sentiment. To learn more about how she created this card, see Dawn's blog. 

BLOG CANDY ALERT!!

That's right! I'm having another little giveaway. Mostly just to say thank you to all of you who've left me kind comments and given me encouragement along the way. If you'd like to be in the running for the prize, here's how:

Leave me a comment below - 1 entry

Leave Dawn a comment on her blog - 1 entry

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm sending my CASE card over to these challenges:

STAMPlorations - Stamps and Layers

STAMPlorations - Anything Goes

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - T is for Thanks

Craft Hoarders Anonymous - For all that you do, Thank you

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to follow my blog to see if you've won! The winner will be announced next week. 

Perfect Pearls and Distress Inks, Great Watercolor Effect

I think it's best to start this blog out with the aftermath:

Things got a little messy in the creation of this card... My hand and my crafting mat (which was cleaned up before I took the picture) suffered the consequences.

The challenge over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday blog was to use a watercolor technique. What's that SSS? You want me to pull out my Distress Inks? Ok... if you twist my arm. 

Have you seen those images with the melted crayons and the umbrella people kissing under them? My intention was to try to recreate that using stamps and Distress Inks instead of melted wax. 

Here's my background image:

To achieve this effect, I first dipped the page into a mixture of Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood, and Chipped Sapphire. I dried with a heat tool, then stamped my umbrella man in black archival ink and masked the image so the "raindrops" wouldn't get near it. To create the raindrops, I squished Chipped Sapphire onto a craft mat, spritzed generously with water, and then used a paintbrush to fling it over the card. I then squished Broken China onto the mat and added some Perfect Pearls "Perfect Pearl" before flinging that onto the card with a paintbrush. I think it turned out super neat! 

I brushed the edges with more Chipped Sapphire and adhered the image. Then I embossed the sentiment in blue onto a tag, attached some ribbon and put the whole thing together.


 The whole card is made using Tim Holtz's "Life's Possibilities" set. The challenge at Create Something Catchy is to only use one stamp set, and I wanted to play along.

Creative Craft Cottage has a bingo card going on, and since I used ribbon, tag, and pearls (Perfect Pearls anyway), I can play along!

Last, but not least, I'm sending this over to Addicted to Stamps and More's "Anything Goes" challenge. I just LOVE the shimmer and shine of this in real life. 

I adore your comments - they seriously make my day! Leave me a few lines so I know you were here and I can visit your blogs, too!

Paint Splatter Distress Ink Technique

Do you ever have one of those days where you walk into your crafting room, inhale the fumes of magic, and create the perfect card in like 10 minutes? Almost never for me, but apparently tonight was the night! 

I guess that's what you get from having some great inspiration. I stopped by the Fusion challenge this week and was immediately inspired to play along with this:

I decided to use both sketch and the image because I just received the most amazing sunflower stamp from STAMPlorations Blooms and Sketches set and haven't gotten the chance to show it off yet. Since they are having a new "Anything Goes" challenge that's a never-ending chance to win great prizes, I'm so happy that Fusion gave me a chance to ink it up. 

Distress splatter painting makes any card feel graphic and interesting, and I chose to incorporate that technique in my background. To achieve the technique, first create a base. I started by rubbing a paper with some Old Paper Distress Ink and embossed a saying from Tim Holtz's "The Journey" set. 

To get the splatter effect, squish some Distress Inks onto a craft mat and spray generously with water. I used Bundled Sage and Wild Honey.  Take a paintbrush and dip in the water and then flick the brush above the paper. (Make sure you're prepared to get some paint outside the edges!!) In order to achieve a really nice splatter effect, flick your brush from different angles and sides of the paper. 

My paintbrush apparently had some blue perfect pearls on it, and so a happy accident was formed. The tones from the blue mixed with some of the wild honey and just added another color to love.

To finish the card, I used some burlap I won from Simon Says Stamp's October blog hop. WOOHOO! I really like the effect. They also sent me some washi tape, which I'd never used before but now am in love with. I always thought it was kind of silly to tape up your card, but it just creates an amazing texture. 

I colored the flower with Spectrum Noir Markers and added some tiny little wooden hearts. 

All in all, I completely love the way this card turned out. I did a little happy dance and forced my boyfriend to ooh and aaah over it. :)

I'm also going to enter Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

 

All your comments are very much appreciated and loved!