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

Week 4 Summer of Creativity

Archival resist technique on glossy paper for Week 4 of the Summer of Creative Chemistry. Having lots of fun with this one and it's my first time using glossy paper. The background is stamped with archival ink and coloured with distress inks. The main image is stamped with Jet Black archival ink and I've used the mini ink blender to stamp distress ink over the blocks for a touch of colour. If you look closely you can even see some faux second generation stamping around the top edge.

Don't look too closely or you'll see my fingerprints, where my heat gun missed a tiny bit of the ink and I promptly put my finger there. Advisory: make sure you fully heat set!

Challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Add Some Shimmer
Virginia's View Challenge #22: All About Colours

Supplies

Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Childhood Blueprint, Prima Finnabair Honey Comb, Vintage Vanity Notes, Harlequin

Dies & Stencils etc: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles

Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black, Forget-Me-Not, Tea Rose, Buttercup, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber, Mermaid Lagoon, Ground Espresso, Hickory Smoke

Paper: Gloss & black card from stash

Highlights: Stickles, glossy accents

 

 

Hope you had fun and see you again soon.

 

 

Week 3 Summer of Creative Chemistry

Week 3 of Summer of Creative Chemistry and time for Perfect Distress! I love this shiny stamping technique. I wanted the distress ink to wick and colour the teddy in, so I didn't dry those bits immediately. Here's a close up of the perfect pearls just after application.

 And a final close up of all that shimmer!

Challenges:

Craft for the Craic June Challenge: Something Masculine

CASology Cue Card: Masculine

Lawnscaping Challenge #132: Distress Maniacs
Summer of Creative Chemistry Week 3: Perfect Pearls & Distress Inks 

Supplies

Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Childhood Blueprint, Lawn Fawn Birthday Tags, Sally's ABCs

Dies & Stencils etc: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles

Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber, Ground Espresso, Hickory Smoke, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen

Paper: White & kraft card from stash

Highlights: Perfect Pearls, Posca white pen

Colouring: Distress Markers Picked Raspberry, Frayed Burlap

Hope enjoyed your visit and see you again soon.

Week 2 Summer of Creative Chemistry

Week 2 and stamping with stains. I started out using the marbled stains technique to create the background, layering up the colours until I achieved something I thought would work. This technique has been on my to do list since I first watched the video, but I've just been brave enough to give it a go! Why did I wait?! It's so much fun!

Stage two was stamping with picket fence distress stain and then archival ink.

Stage three distress inking and colouring the piggy bank with distress markers.

Some more stain for a quick pop of colour.

Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #197: Make Your Mark [Distress markers, white pen, graphite pencil, inks & stains]

Stamping Sensations June Challenge: Feature A Creature  [pig] 

Summer of Creative Chemistry Week 2: Stamping with stains

Virginia's View Challenge #22 Summer Challenge: All About Colour [Layers of background colour stains, ink blending, distress marker colouring/highlighting ]

Supplies

Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Childhood Blueprint

Dies & Stencils etc: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles

Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Distress Stains Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry, Picket Fence, Ripe Persimmon, Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Black Soot

Paper: White & black card from stash

Highlights: Stickles, Heidi Swapp Gold, Posca white pen, graphite pencil

Colouring: Distress Markers Picket Fence, Picked Raspberry, Black Soot, Frayed Burlap, Squeezed Lemonade

Hope you had fun and see you again soon.

Week 1 Summer of Creative Chemistry

I decided to take up the Creative Chemistry Challenge this summer. I've used the 2015 colours for this blended spritz and flick background.  In order to let the background take centre stage, I've kept it very CAS with some simple stamping and negative diecutting. 

This anniversary card has a masculine recipient in mind, but I'd love to get it too! Adding the darker distress ink around the panel intensify the colours and highlight the stitched border.

Challenges:

CAS Mix Up June Challenge [Stamping + Diecuts + Sponging]
CASology Cue Card: CAS

Craft for the Craic: Something Masculine

Summer of Creative Chemistry Challenge 1 [5 colours of distress ink]

Supplies

Stamps: Paper Smooches Good Gab

Dies & Stencils etc: Lawn Fawn Cole's ABCs, Stitched Rectangles

Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Cracked Pistachio, Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon, Twisted Citron, Ground Espresso

Paper: White card from stash

Highlights: Stickles

Hope you had a fun visit and see you again soon.