Mixed Media Card with Washi - STAMPlorations June Challenge

This may be my favorite card I've ever made. Yes. That is a big statement. 

The challenge going on over at STAMPlorations is Stamps and Washi Tape. 

For some reason, washi always makes me think messy mixed media... oh darn... I HATE that. *Snicker*

First, I applied a layer of gesso to a piece of deep red card stock, let it dry, and then sprayed it with a concentrated burst of Festive Berries and Black Soot Distress Inks. 

Once that was dry, I added some layers of black and white washi tape, and some grungy stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set. 

I added a black doily, some more grunge around the edges and one of the birds from 

SmallBirds - The Bee's Knees. To give the bird a more charcoally effect, I used Faber Castell Artist Pens and smudged as I went along the lines.  I also drew some sketchy circles using the same pens. 

Yeah - pretty much in love. 

This card is going over to the following challenges: 

Mixed Media Card Challenge - Collage

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!) (I'm choosing birds of a feather)

Quoth the Raven - Picture Inspiration

Make sure to play along over at STAMPlorations!! You have until the end of the month and we've got great prizes, along with some awesome guest designers, including Rahmat Gouse and Carol Dunham!

Thanks for taking the time to pop by! 

Summertime Fun - Crafty Gals Corner

Summer. In my neck of the woods, that time of the year lasts for exactly the blink of an eye. And yet, that one blink of a second is the most glorious, sushiney, warmth-filled moment of bliss. 

Over at Crafty Gals Corner, we are celebrating summer with cards! Since one of my favorite symbols of summer is the monarch butterfly, that's what I chose to focus on this week. 

I got to use a gorgeous digi stamp from Eureka Stamps called Butterfly and Sunflower. I paired it with a color scheme I hadn't used before - Orange, yellow, and blue. I thought it looked really summery but then I showed it to my boyfriend for the post-make assessment and he said "Wow. Very Autumny." *Facepalm* Well.... I tried! Haha

I used this awesome sketch from The Challenge

to inspire my layout. 

And the color challenge from ColorQ

I'm also entering it into:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Make your Mark

  So come and get summery with us this week at Crafty Gals Corner. 

We have an awesome prize for you: 

Eureka Stamps

Prize: 3 Digital Images

Thanks for popping by!

Fashionable Card - STAMPlorations Sketch Challenge

Well this post is going to be a little quick and dirty which is waaaaaay off base for me. But it's been a long weekend and I'm just barely skipping in with my newest card for the 

STAMPlorations Sketch challenge. 

Isn't this lady funky funky cool? She's the hip chick from the CityGirl stamp set designed by Shirley Bampton. STAMPlorations has added two new stamp designers this year and Shirley specializes in sketchy whimsical designs with her line, The Bee's Knees.

Here's the sketch:

This sketch was slightly different than my normal style because there was a lot of white space. But hey - when given white space, you can always splash it up, right? Which is exactly what I did! I made a colorful strip by using some gelatos and then stamped some city names into it. Then I splashed around onto the white space. 

I paper pieced CityGirl's trench coat using some paper from the DCWV Haute Pink paper pack. All in all I think it's graphic and wicked cool. I'm pleased.

I'm sending this over to the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create - ATG with Subway Art option
Just Us Girls - Paper Piecing


The STAMPlorations sketch challenge runs for the ENTIRE MONTH! Woohooo! So make sure you play along because we've got some FAB-o prizes to give away AND you could win a guest design spot, too!

Bokeh Effect Card - Anything Goes Eclectic Ellapu

Over at Eclectic Ellapu we're having an Anything Goes challenge. Which are my favorite kind of challenges because I just get to let my creativity run.. or get stuck... it really depends on the day, doesn't it?

I decided to play around with a bokeh technique. It's not a technique that I've done before EVER. So I decided to take of my scaredy pants and give it a try. I recently got the ARTplorations Oh My Stars! stencil and I wanted to try to create a galaxy type feel.

The first thing I did was to smoosh Spun Sugar, Pink Raspberry, and Stormy Sky Distress Inks onto a craft mat and spritz with water. Then I dipped my paper into the mixture.

Doing this creates a really cool watercolor-esque inky background. I like to dip my card stock, dry it, dip it again, and maybe repeat up to 3 times to get a real depth of inky layers. 

Next, I used my stencil and sponged white ink. 

If you haven't done a bokeh effect before (and I'm assuming everyone else in the crafty world has and I'm just behind the times) the trick is to do varying intensities of the white and layer. Some of the stars I just sponged very lightly, some I sponged at medium intensity, and some I laid it on thick. 

That's a shot in process. I also sprayed some White Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain onto the background to give it more of that galaxy feel. 

Lastly, I added a matching sentiment (which says Reach for the Stars but I embossed it in silver and it was being a photographic nightmare) and some hanging stars, along with a little sequin dazzlement. 

I'm pretty pleased with my first bokeh attempt! The Eclectic Ellapu challenge runs all month long, so come show us what you've got!

Mixed Media Art Journal Page - Crafty Gals Corner

Today is Wednesday! I'm sure you already knew that, but did you ALSO know that today is the start of the new challenge over at Crafty Gals Corner? Maybe you did, but did you ALSO ALSO know that our theme of the week is Critters? Doubt it.

For my critter this week, I chose to focus on the beloved butterfly:

This one happens to be from the oh-so-rare species of Herous Artsus, commonly known as Hero Arts. I just got this stamp set and I really like it because it's layerable, so I just stamped in 3 different tones of orange, did a little snipping, and VOILA! A butterfly appeared!

But even more important than the butterfly, this fairy wood sprite from Sweet Pea Stamps (called Fairy Princess of Autumn) called my name.

It took me a good long while to get her all colored up with my Spectrum Noir Markers and I had to use all sorts of shades of colors!

You can see that I made her wings a little bit shimmery and that was done by painting over them with a very thing layer of Perfect Pearls after I'd colored them. 

I thought this fairy was so wistful, and it had been a while since I'd worked on my art journal, so I found one of my poems that I thought matched her expression quite well. It's called Between Seasons. 

You don't have to read the poem, but the last time I posted an art journal page without including an easy-to-read close up, I got some guff. As I am a generally guff-avoidant person, I am posting it. 

To lay a base for my card, I scribbled on some gelatos and spritzed with water until the drips started rolling down my paper. 

I added some brown lacy washi and some colors of orange washi to create a focal corner in the right and then put all the elements together. 

I'm pretty chuffed with how it all turned out. I now have three of my poems in my art journal/book of artsy poetry. I can't wait until it's done! I think it's going to make a pretty cool coffee table discussion piece. 

I'm going to send this work on over to the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Anything Goes

One Sweet Challenge - Things with Wings

As for you fine folks, if you use a critter - whether it be a butterfly, a bear, a puppy, a cat or any of the other kabajillion species, link it up over at Crafty Gals Corner for your chance to win:

Sweet Pea Stamps

Prize: $20 Gift Certificate

Now that's a prize! Thanks for popping by! Follow my blog or leave me a comment and I'll do my utmost to return the favor!

 

Stencils and Gelatos - STAMPlorations Blog Hop Day 2

After yesterday's white-on-white card was done I sighed, oohed and aaahed a little bit, and then immediately needed to shake that CAS off by getting messy. 

So, I had to pull out my gelatos, naturally!

Today marks day 2 of the STAMPlorations stencil hop. All of our design team will be sharing super-fandiddlytastic ways to use those plastic slabs effectively. 

There are TONS of fabulous prizes! Over 10 of them... which gives you some pretty good odds of winning something new for your crafty stash. 

And now, back to my card. As I said, I busted out the gelatos for this little number. Gelatos are a sort of like a watercolor crayon... They are waxy and you can scribble them directly onto the paper. I wrote a full tutorial on some ways to use gelatos >>here<< if you want some more information. 

If you haven't used Gelatos yet I'm going to give you some advice:

1) You will be addicted. You will be in love. You will feel feelings you've never felt before and then spend your entire craft allowance (and then some) to purchase as many of these fabulous waxy sticks as you can. So be prepared.

2) In the words of Nike, Just Do It. Seriously. You won't regret it! Probably. 

I started out by using the ARTplorations Shower of Flutters Stencil. This is actually a mask, not a stencil, which just means that it will leave the negative image instead of the positive image on the card.

I used some washi tape to stick down the mask so it wasn't going anywhere and then I used Old Paper Distress Inks and began sponging. I added a heavier layer of ink in the upper left corner and then gradually reduced the amount as I was going to the right to give it an ombre feel. 

When I was good and finished, I removed the mask and started scribbling on some gelatos to the white butterfly spaces. 

Please pardon my messy mat! Such is the life of a mixed media card maker - those things never come clean! I applied gelatos, but left a tiny bit of white space around the edges. After it was scribbled on, I used a baby wipe to wet down my fingers and gave them a good smudge, which helps to blend the colors and give it a smooth look. 

Then I used the butterfly stamps from the Trendy Butterflies set to stamp over some of the butterflies with white pigment ink. The Trendy Butterflies set is actually made to pair perfectly with this stencil - how neat is that?!?!

For my final step, I outlined some of the butterflies and added trailing white dots in the edges with Claudine Hellmuth's Studio mini applicator in white acrylic. Then I stamped a sentiment from the STAMPlorations Fond Expressions set.

All in all, I'm drooling over this one and I feel more like my normal self! 

I'm going to link it up with the following challenges:

Cupcake Inspirations - Bugs and Butterflies

Friday Mashup - Create a card with butterflies or use inspiration image

As for you crafty peeps - head on over to STAMPlorations! Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here.

Thanks for popping by! Follow my blog and leave me a comment and I will do my utmost to come peek in on you, too!

Stencils and Embossing Paste - STAMPlorations Blog Hop

Whoa. You guys. You guys. YOU. GUYS! You are not going to believe just how incredibly clean this card I'm about to spring on you is. Not only is it clean, it is PURE white (unlike my heart). Somebody better take my temperature because this card is the antithesis of what I normally design. 

But before I jump right in, I should tell you that STAMPlorations is kicking of another stencil hop. Our hop will be filled with techniques and tricks you can do with stencils and, of course, there are TONS OF PRIZES up for grabs! 

Plus, at the end of the hop, we'll ask you to link up your stencil creations for even MORE chances to win. 

For my card, I busted out some texture and then added a little more texture. 

First, I used the ARTplorations stencil: Christmas Reindeer and a little bit of embossing paste. 

If you've never used embossing paste (also known as texture paste, or whipped spackle) it's a really great way to add texture and dimension to your projects with relatively little mess. It's got the consistency of shaving cream and comes in many different colors. You can also use things like gelatos or reinkers to color the white paste. 

Smooth it on your stencil and make sure to scrape the paste flat, then return any excess to the jar. 

As I warned you, I decided to go white on white on white for a crisp, clean look. 

If you squint your eyes hard enough, you'll be able to see that my deer head looks extra textured. That's because I added some glittery white flocking to it, to give it a little sparkle and some extra glamor. 

I'm going to send this card on over to the following competitions:

AAA - For the guys (CAS)

Cardz 4 Guyz - World Wildlife

Addicted to CAS - Animal

As for you, check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here.

We're giving away more than 10 prizes during the hop!! That's a crazy good chance to win!

And in case you thought my mind was permanently CAS broken, stop by again for day 2 of the hop tomorrow, where I'll be getting all sorts of messy with gelatos and stencils. Thanks for popping by!