Pop-up Unicorn

I've been playing along with Kathy Racoosin of The Daily Marker for the 30 Day Colouring Challenge and wanted to put some of my pieces together on a card. This is one of my favourite types of card. I love pop-ups, how they change from the flat 2D envelope form to their glorious 3D box shape. I've watercoloured all the stamps, shapes and diecuts with distress markers and heat embossed Elodie and the number two in gold. Acetate strips anchor all the elements in place and provide a little movement to the card.

A special card for a special niece to celebrate her 2nd birthday. Here's hoping her birthday is all rainbows and unicorns! 

Challenges:

Moving Along with the Times #53: Add a Number [2]

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Stamp It

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Stamp It

Tic Tac Toe Challenge TTTC014: Acetate, Dimension, Gold [Column 1]

Unicorn Blog Challenge #25: Birthday

Supplies:
Distress Markers
Gold Embossing Powder

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever After; The Greeting Farm Magical Friends; Paper Smooches Spectrum; Concord & 9th Sophisticated Script; Papermania Numbers
Dies: Tim Holtz Handwritten Celebrate; Lawn Fawn Hearts; Spellbinders Stars
Gold Pen, Stickles

Warmer Inky Dylusions

Decided to change my colour palette to warmer tones and to try for a cosmic magical background. This background started life like the last two, but I remembered to use my blender tool with the paint and stencils this time!

Lots of splatters of Dylusions white linen ink and some Heidi Swap Gold Spray, doodling with a white paint pen and black ink pen and some distress inking and crayoning to finish the background. 

I topped this card off with a watercoloured little unicorn from The Greeting Farm stamps.

Hope your day has a bit of magic!

Challenges:

Craft Rocket Challenge #40: Animal Kingdom

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Splatter It

Unicorn Challenge #24: Mythical & Magical

Supplies:

Distress Ink
Distress Crayons
Distress Paint
Dylusions Sprays

Heidi Swapp Gold
Primary Elements Powder
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Year Two; The Greeting Farm Magical Friends
Stencils: THMS070; Dylusions Large Arrow Border; Finnabair Alpha, Dots&Stripes
Paint Pen, Black Ink Pen, Graphite Pencil

Inking Dylusions

Local Craft Clubs are a great way to give yourself the time, opportunity and encouragement to get crafty. One of the girls was in a Dylusions mood, so I tried to put into practice what I had learned from Dyan Reaveley. However as our time was nearly up and the raffle was ongoing I rushed it a bit. Making the best of it, I decided my arrows were meant to be in the foreground and the thicker than required application of distress paint through the stencil was the desired effect. 

I started this background in the same way as my last project, but then hand splattered some water and with a splatter brush straight from the bottle some Dylusions white linen ink. I stamped the Cat and Pigeons in jet black archival ink and watercoloured with distress crayons. In order to get truer colours, I removed some of the background ink with a waterbrush first. 

When I got home I finished by doodling with a white paint pen and a black ink pen and edged the card with distress crayon and distress ink. Never one to know when to stop, I felt the card needed something else so stencilled stars with hickory smoke distress ink.

Another fun inky time was had, but I did have some cleaning up to do. Thankfully the inks and paints were all water based so a quick wipe and the club didn't lose their damage deposit!

Happy Inking! 

Challenges: 

Craft Rocket Challenge #40: Animal Kingdom

Moving Along with the Times Challenge #51:Things That Fly

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Splatter It
The Artistic Stamper Creative Challenge: August Anything Goes

Tic Tac Toe Challenge #tttc009 (diagonal: one layer, distress inks, all things round- lots of dots & spots)

Supplies:
Archival Ink Jet Black

Distress Inks

Distress Crayons
Distress Paint
Dylusions Sprays
Primary Elements Powder
Stamps: Dylusions Cat Among the Pigeons, Lawn Fawn Year Two
Stencils: THMS070; Dylusions Large Arrow Border; Finnabair Stars, Dots&Stripes
Paint Pen, Ink Pen

Dimensional Background Inking

After a little sabbatical from the blog I'm hoping to jump back in. While I was absent I was immersing myself in all thing Tim Holtz and Dyan Reaveley. So I thought I would start off with some layered mixed media backgrounds. Once I started it was difficult to know when to stop layering- its such messy fun! I took Dyan's advice and had extra card available to soak up the extra ink. I now have a few backgrounds already started for another project. Time efficient and a great idea.

Here's how I went about it:

I chose some cool coloured spray inks and liberally covered the cardstock, mopped up the excess ink with kitchen roll and an extra piece of card. Some stencilling and ghosting with water then stencilling with distress paint. this is now at about 5 layers. The paint dried quickly enough and I could move on to the next step.

I embossed a piece of the background with my favourite Tim Holtz embossing folder (well one of my many favourites!) and then trimmed it to size.

Next I used distress crayons to highlight the lovely embossed texture, but I couldn't stop there and added crackle medium on top.  This also acted as a glue for the diecut happy birthday.After leaving it overnight to dry I used a white picket fence distress crayon to emphasise the cracked surface.

For the little robot I created an alcohol ink background and heat embossed the Lawn Fawn stamp with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. A white linen Dylusions spray splattered kraft card base adds the finishing detail.

Another look at the finished card:

This card came together quite quickly and I was happy to leave the crackle medium to dry over time as I love the result which is subtly different to other crackling products. Cleaning up the excess ink with extra cardstock also means you get more pieces to play with at a later date. I've used a simple diecut sentiment and the little robot for a masculine industrial feel.

Any queries let me know. Hope you can find some time to play too.

Challenges:
CAS Mix Up August Challenge: Stamping + Alcohol Inks + Your Choice (embossing)
Muse Challenge #227: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Splatter It
Stamps & Stencils Challenge: Technique School

Supplies:
Alcohol Inks: Citrus, Mushroom, Patina, Pool, Purple Twilight, Silver Mixative
Distress Embossing Ink
Distress Crackle Medium
Distress Crayons
Distress Paint
Dylusions Sprays
Primary Elements Powder
Embossing Powder: Ranger Liquid Platinum
Embossing Folder: TH Riveted Metal
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Beep Boop Birthday
Dies: TH Handwritten Celebrate
Stencils: THMS070; Dylusions Large Arrow Border; Finnabair Harlequin, Stars, Dots&Stripes
Paint Pen

Panda Birthday

I love this panda from Mama Elephant and just had to use him to play along with Can You Case It Colour Challenge. The black and the yellow are obvious, the grey is the panda shading and hopefully the rosy cheeks are allowed. A little watercolouring with distress crayons for the CASology cue card and who doesn't love to celebrate with Simon Says Stamp!

Challenges:

Can You Case It Colour Challenge #131: Colour Challenge
CASology Cue Card Week 209: Watercolour [Honorable Mention]
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Celebrate

Supplies

Stamps: Mama Elephant Pandamonium, Starry Night

Dies, stencils et al: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles

Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper: White & black card

Highlights: Posca white pen, stickles, wink of stella

Colouring: Distress Crayons

CAS No Line Bunny

I've been busy this month playing along on Instagram with Kathy Racoosin of The Daily Marker for the 30 Day Colouring Challenge. Thought it was time I blogged one of the cards as it is Day 26 already and I'll hopefully get time to do a review of the finished pieces at some stage. This is my first time trying no line colouring, though I think the rabbit has changed shape a little bit! 

I've used the CAS(E) this sketch #183 and my background is all about colour for Virginia's View Challenge #22.

Challenges:

CAS(E) this sketch #183

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge Day 26

Virginia's View Challenge #22: All About Colors

Supplies

Stamps: Mama Elephant Up and Away, Starry Night

Dies, stencils et al: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles

Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black, Memento Desert Sand

Paper: White card

Highlights: Posca white pen

Colouring: Promarkers & Distress Crayons

Have fun and enjoy the colouring!

Distressed Frog Prince

I love these old patterned papers from Lawn Fawn and had scraps left over from an old project, so here they are with a new lease of life. All they needed was some distress inking around the edges and some faux stitching.

Distress inking the lily pad has created great texture and colour with distress stickles adding to the lily's sparkle and the ink colours the stickles.

Challenges:

CAS(E) this sketch #178

Lawnscaping Challenge #132: Distress Maniacs [distress inks] [Honorable Gnome]
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Use Patterned Papers

Supplies

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever After, Birthday Tags

Dies & stencils et al: Spellbinders Nestabilities Ovals, Xcut Heart dies, Daisy punches

Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, Squeezed Lemonade

Paper: White card from stash, Lawn Fawn Bright Side Petite Paper Pack

Highlights: Stickles, googly eyes, Posca white pen

Colouring: Promarkers & Distress inks

Hope you've enjoyed your visit!

Birthday Snap

A fun colour spectrum birthday card inspired by the Fusion Card Challenge. I've used the picture for my rainbow colours and the sketch has been stretched a little! I've coloured the images and background strips with promarkers.

I love adding notes with a sharpie just like you would to a real polaroid.

Challenges:

Fusion Card Challenge: April Showers [Honorable Mention]

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Make It Girlie

Supplies

Stamps: Paper Smooches We Totally click, Good Gab, Sentiment Sampler, Lawn Fawn Birthday Tags, Mama Elephant Balloon Et CeteraPaper Smooches Polaroid Dies.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Love Letter, Distress Ink Broken China, Tumbled Glass

Paper: White card from stash

Highlights: wink of stella, stickles, glossy acents, crackle accents, yellow sharpie.

Colouring: ProMarkers & FlexMarkers

Spray Sparkle Tweet

More mixed media fun! I love building up these mini card canvases and I love using the elements I've coloured for The Daily Marker's 30 Day Colouring Challenge. This just brings a smile to my face, the fun of making it and all the sparkle and glitter.

I started out by stencilling embossing paste, letting it dry, adding lace and thread then letting it dry. Then lots of spraying, sticking, stamping and letting it dry. I also added some distress ink to the edges of my diecuts and the card background. All the waiting to dry fits perfectly into family life as I'm usually called away from my crafting to my main taxiing duties!

Now for the sparkle, lots of glittery Stickles, Wink of Stella, embossing powder, beads and microbeads, plus all the shimmer from the sprays.

Challenges:

Craft for the Craft: Something to Make you Smile

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Spritz and Spray

The Mixed Media Card Challenge #20: Red with Option of Hearts

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #21: Glitter

Supplies

Stamps: Ranger Dina Wakley Scribble Birds, Prima Finnabair Honey Comb, Lawn Fawn Blissful Botanicals 
Dies & Stencils etc: Lawn Fawn Blissful Botanicals, Stitched Hearts, Stitched Rectangles Lawn Cuts, Create a Smile Swirly stencil

Ink:  Ranger Archival Ink Potting Soil, Distress Ink Fossilized Amber, Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Abandoned Coral, Ground Espresso, Twisted Citron, Spiced Marmalade, 

Paper: White & watercolour Card from stash

Highlights: stickles, translucent embossing paste, glitter, beads, micro beads, white gesso, glossy accent, lace, sequins, Artista clay, Verigris embossing powder, thread.  

Colouring: Dylusions Postbox Red, Lemon Zest, White Linen, Cut Grass, LuminArte Ginger Peach, Doughlas Fir, Bolivian Blue, Rich Cobalt, Plumeria, Heidi Swapp Gold, Glimmer Mist Iridescent Gold, Electric Blue,  
Distress Markers: 

Happy 2nd Birthday to Craft for the Craic, thanks for the great challenges and all the DT inspiration!
Hope you've enjoyed your visit and you've seen something to make you smile.