Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Guest Design

There's nothing better than the feeling of scrubbing off inky, messy hands after a good play session in the studio. 

I have the honor of being a guest designer this week over at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge. I happen to love this challenge because it's always anything goes as long as it's a mixed media project. 

One of my friends asked for a special commissioned card for his wife on their anniversary. 

I started with a piece of white background and stamped it with a text background stamp and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide. I spritzed with water and then added two drops of Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour Ink. 

Next, I added another layer of stamping with Visible Images Fibrionaci stamp, embossed in Speckled Egg Distress Glaze. 

I decided on the different elements I wanted to bring into my card - a peach frame that I covered with blue and gold InkaGold to antique it, and a white butterfly that I sprayed with Distress Spray Stain and then added Speckled Egg Distress Glaze before heat setting it (and almost starting it on fire. :o ) 

I started layering my card with Prima flowers, my frame and the butterfly, and then added little bits of ivory frantage around the edges before dusting it with some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Spray Stain. 

I added some romantic, gushy words to make it appropriately lovey-dovey for an anniversary and - I've got to say it turned out sooooo pretty. 

Thanks for popping by, and I hope you'll go get all inky and play along at Creative Artiste. 

Stenciled Backgrounds & Paper Pieced Flowers

Today, I'm up on the STAMPlorations Blog with a little tutorial on how to make this card.  

The tutorial has some super fun ways to use up leftovers by creating your own artsy patterned paper with stencils and Distress Oxide inks. 

Vibrant & fun! I would be remiss if I didn't mention where the inspiration from my card came from. The moment I laid eyes on the inspiration image for The Card Concept, I just knew I needed to dream up something. 

Thanks for popping by and go take a peek over at STAMPlorations! 

Making a Mess

Over at Shopping Our Stash they have a challenge going entitled “Make a Mess”. Basically I feel like that’s every single card I ever make. All I have to do is look sideways at a white space on a card and boom! an only smudge appears. It’s like being King Midas, but sadly nothing turns to gold- only to smudge. 

But this card upped the mess ante even for me! In my last blog post I shared a card using the dregs of a cleanup from a pretty horrendous spill of a brand spanking new bottle of Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide Spray Stain. I was going a splatter effect on a card so unscrewed the cap. Enter elbow and a giant spill. *facepalm*

What is a girl to do besides frantically mop up the mess? However, even if my card doesn’t win the competition, I’ve already won by creating some gorgeous backgrounds and a well-earned red stain on my craft table. 

But I didn’t want to rest on my accidental mess laurels for this challenge. Au contraire! I decided to pull out my messiest products and up the ante. 

For my  next act, I pulled out some Dreamweaver metallic gold embossing paste and slopped that through the STAMPlorations Dots All Over stencil. 

The texture! In case you’re wondering about the added colors, they are Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide and a gold shimmer by Heidi Swapp. 

Next up on the messy agenda, I scribbled some brown gelatos along the edges of the pieces I was going to use and smudged them to soften the lines with my fingers. 

Also, you can see I stamped an image over the background and used Distress Glaze. 

So let me talk about my focal bird. I’m ashamed to say I’ve probably had this Tim Holtz stamp set for close to 10 years and never used it. >insert head hanging here<  I knew I had to get messy with the bird, too, so he wouldn’t take a backseat to my background. We had a little messy experimental play together. 

I sprayed some Oxides and stains and dried them on a paper. Then I stamped a blue layer and brown layer of Distress Inks, and while the ink was still wet from stamping, I applied Distress Glaze over it. It gave it an antique glassy feel. 

I adore the way this card turned out and I think I’ve sufficiently risen to the Make a Mess challenge. To finish off my card, I mounted it to some Hambly patterned acetate. 

I’m also going link this up to the NBUS challenge, as I finally gave this 10-year-old bird some wings AND tried out Distress Glaze for the first time. 

This one is also going over to Creative Artiste’s Anything Mixed Media goes. 

Handmade Card for the Most Beautiful Person in the World

 Do you ever have that one friend who is basically the best? Who shows up for you? Who lends you all of her vast array of tools because you don't have a handy bone in your body? Who won't cry with you because she's too busy grabbing the tissues and a bottle of wine? 

Now. Do you have have a friend like that who ALSO has an amazing husband who commissions a birthday card for said friend? 

It's at that point you KNOW you have to pull out all the stops. I'll apologize in advance because I got completely swept up in the crafty process and did not stop to take photos along the way, but I'll explain what I've done. 

BACKGROUND: 
Created with the new Tim Holtz Cracked Campfire Distress Oxides. Process? Spill it all over your desk and then frantically mop it up (more about that in a blog post to come) This was the dregs of the dregs of the dregs of the cleanup process. Next, I stamped the flowers from STAMPlorations Dee's Artsy Impressions Wooded stamp set in the corners using the Tea Dye Distress Ink. I painted the flowers in with gesso to give them an antiqued feel and then painted around the edges of the flowers with Tea Dye for a shadowed effect.

FOCAL PANEL: 
Die cut the panel using the Spellbinders Labels 41 die set. Then I stamped the flowers using Tea Dye Distress Ink and watercolored them by smooshing some Cracked Campfire (blossoms) and Peeled Paint (Leaves) onto a pad then picking it up with a wet brush. The centers of the flowers have Antique Bronze Perfect Pearls, as well as seed beeds. I cut some of them out for dimension. The sentiment is from the STAMPlorations Big Grins by Becca Cruger Strong Women stamp set. 

P.S. - STAMPlorations clear stamps are all 25% off right now so... beeline for the store if you want to snag either of these sets. 

I love this sentiment. A) because I love books (even though I think Fitzgerald is the worst - fight me.) and B) because it's just the epitome of everything I wanted my friend to know, and I'm sure that her amazing husband feels about her. She truly is beautiful, so I'm chuffed with how this card came out. 

I'm linking this up to the following challenges:

Little Red Wagon: Nature, flora or fauna

Crafty Gals Corner: Fall Colors

Aud Sentiments: Anything Goes + a Sentiment

Inky Blue Blue Blueeee Butterflies

 A craft session isn't a craft session unless you leave with ink all over your hands and it looks like you have bruised your arm because stain has dyed your skin permanently blue, right? 

...just me? 

I love working with Color Burst powders, but unless you have a very gentle touch things can get messy quite fast. Warning from me to you: Do not squeeze the bottle EVER. Just a light side tap will do. 

I wanted to see how Distress Oxides would react with Color Burst powders, so I began by sponging some through a very well-loved, painted up stencil (STAMPlorations Dots All Over Stencil). 

Next, I firmly laid down another stencil (STAMPlorations Broken Glass) and painted it lightly with water, then added some powder to the water, then spritzed lightly with water again and spread with my paintbrush. 

I actually love the way the Distress Oxides come through. It's not quite the reaction I thought would happen (I expected slightly gray and chalky) but it's beautiful nonetheless. 

Sometimes my vintage stamps don't get enough love, as is the case with this beautiful butterfly, which is definitely one of my favorite stamps. I inherited it from my grandma's stamp collection when she passed away about 5 years ago. I ?think? it's vintage Hero Arts, but if anyone recognizes it, please let me know. 

Anyhow I stamped and colored a bunch of these, so you can see what some of the other Color Burst powders look like. 

After I fussy cut the butterflies (seriously I need one of those auto cutout machines) I layered with some black and white paper, as well as some vintage lace, also courtesy of my grandma's stash. I finished it off with a Tim Holtz sticker sentiment. 

I'm playing along in these challenges: 

Get Creative Challenges: Black and One other Color

Crafty Cardmakers: Things with Wings

Simon Says Stamp: Use your Favorite Stamp

Et voila! Thanks for stopping by! Leave me a comment and I'll make sure to return the favor. 

Sailing Away

Hello lovelies! 

Week four of social distancing. I'm doing far better than I was two weeks ago. No shower crying and TONS of house projects being done. 

I've loved seeing how all of my artist friends and cardmaking friends are chugging along in creative land and using this time to create beautiful things in the midst of chaos. 

And I love how all the crafting companies are coming together to build community. One such company is Paper Anthology. They're giving four challenge prompts per day and hosting nightly zoom calls! You can participate in some or all of their challenges. 

 

One of the challenges today especially caught my eye. Can you tell why? I dusted off my Distress Inks and even threw in a Distress Oxide and used the smooshing technique to create a watery background full of inky depth. 

After everything dried, I added in a little bit of Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain (don't mind the terribly messy bottle - inky fingers are a real thing). 

I stamped a ship from the STAMPlorations True North set in Blueprint Sketch. 

 One of the reasons I like Distress Inks so much is because you can use them in so many ways - like watercoloring! I just wet my brush and pulled in the blue stamped edges to add some shading. 

 Then I smooshed some Vintage Photo Distress Ink onto a craft mat and picked it up with my paintbrush to color in the woody part of the ship.

I made some waves using the STAMPlorations A Ton of Fun stamp set and then added sentiment to finish it all up.  

I'm hoping to join in one of the Zoom calls on Sunday so maybe I'll see some of your smiling faces there!

Wooded and Healing Herbs

There are two brand new stamp sets on the block and they are BEEEAUUUUUTIFUL!!! 

Over at STAMPlorations we're releasing Wooded and Healing Herbs, designed by Deepti! 

 

These stamp sets are so versatile and you can build your own little scene with them. I got to play around with Wooded and couldn't wait to make these two cards. 

For my first design, I used these dainty little flower sprays and paired them with branches. I "watercolored" with Distress Markers and, since I stamped the branches with Distress Inks, I just applied a little bit of water over the top to make them less of a perfect impression and let the colors bleed onto my paper. Teeny little pearls finished off this pretty, girly design. 

I'm going to add this card to the Watercooler Wednesday - Feminine challenge and Creative Inspirations Spring Greens challenge.

For my next design, I went with something a little more clean and simple because I wanted to play along in the Cardz 4 Guys Challenge. This design is a whole lot of versatile and perfectly masculine and earthy.  

I repeat stamped the wood circle rings with Distress Oxde inks, then spritzed liberally with water so it would bleed. I splattered it with some white Distress Spray stains and added some fussy cut leaves.


Make sure to go check out this special release and leave a comment on the STAMPlorations blog because you could win a $20 gift code to the STAMPlorations store!

Stenciling Techniques - Sanna Lippert New Release

It's a paaaaaarty! A new release party that is! Sanna Lipper, one of the fab-o designers at STAMPlorations has released a whole new line of stencils. And we got to have a crafty play. They are all so gorgeous and perfect for mixed media play.

Today I'm going to be showing you a cool stenciling technique using Distress Oxides. 

This technique is actually the reverse of stenciling because you're taking OFF the color with a stencil, instead of applying it. 

Step 1: Sponge on a healthy layer of Distress Oxide onto a dark piece of cardstock. Because oxides are highly pigmented, they are designed to sit on top of the dark color. I used Broken China Oxides over a navy blue paper. 

Step 2: Bust out your stencil and tape it down so it won't move. Dampen a piece of paper towel, using a small amount of water (you don't want it too wet or your cardstock will pill). Wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe. The color will start to lift right off.

Step 3: Remove stencil and oooh and aaaah... I love the pattern of this Cornflower stencil.

I also splattered it all over with Picket Fence Distress Spray Stains.

Next, I made a correlating embellishment - also with my stencil.

Check out all that texture! Basically I swiped a layer of texture paste through my stencil, then added a layer of blue embossing powder before heat setting.

I fussy cut it and BEHOLD!

Isn't it pretty? 

I also played around with Sanna's new Lupinus stencil, too.

This one is so pretty and would be perfect for either mixed media OR clean and simple cards. 

Pssst in honor of this new release, all ARTplorations stencils are 15% off. and you get a FREE stencil with every order. Plus you can use my code STAMPGIRLBECCA for an extra 20% off your order. :)

Now go get hopping and then get shopping. 

STAMPlorations Challenges are BACK!

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

You may have noticed over the summer that I took a little hiatus from regular blogging. That's because I was crazy busy with some of the art shows I'd signed up for, plus doing some community work. Stay tuned early next week and I'll share some of my summer hijinks with you. 

But for now, I'm here to tell you that STAMPlorations challenges are back, too! They also went on a little summer break. But now we've got a whole new crop of fresh challenges and great prizes. 

The sketch this month is:

And the theme this month is: 

You can play along with either the sketch or the them OR both! Options!

For my design, I decided to work with the theme. Believe it or not, we had our first snowfall last night and so I'm already wistful for Autumn. *sigh*

The first thing I did was to add a layer of prettiness to a sheet of mixed media paper. 

I used these Ken Oliver Color Burst Crystals and Liquid Metals to create a flowy, vibrant background. 

Over the top of that, I added a layer of Faber Castel Glitter Bead gel through the Botanical Lush stencil. Because let's be real here, everyone loves glitter. 

Once that dried, I speckled the background with green & red Distress Spray Stains. 

I double stamped a leaf from the Trendy Leaves stamp set, using Fired Brick Distress Ink and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide. 

Added a sentiment from the Buttercups & Butterflies stamp set, some ribbons, a little glue and BAM! One gorgeous Fall card. 

Pop on over to play along in the STAMPlorations theme & sketch challenge and to see all the other crafty inspiration. 

PSSStttt - if you're looking to add to your stamp collection, you can get 20% off anything in the STAMPstore using code STAMPGIRLBECCA