Mushroom magic

Hi there
Whilst waiting 3 hours for my computer to update my iPhone I thought it was a good chance to crack on with my Craft Barn calendar challenge for September.  The theme this month is brown trees/leaves.  The mushrooms and leaves were stamped and embossed in white (with a little bit of masking).  The Brusho was applied a little at a time by wetting the area and sprinkling a colour on.  While wet the colour can be moved around or lifted off with a paper towel.  The mushroom stalks and shadows were added with Promarkers.

The good news is we seem to be set for a few days of sunshine so we can enjoy the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

Materials used:

Dylusions stamps: doodle parts, further around the edge

Stampendous embossing powder: detail white opaque

Brusho: light brown, crimson, lemon, gamboge

Distress Ink: clear embossing 

Promarkers: burnt sienna, oatmeal, satin

Gelli plate soup

Hi
On the very last day of my long summer holiday I finally had time to revisit the fabulous Journal Soup 2 tutorials by Kate Crane.   I had an enormous amount of fun getting messy with the Gelli plate and returned to work with paint encrusted fingers and nails.

People who know me will no doubt agree that I can't follow instructions without making my own changes and this was no different!  I chose the option of stamping on tissue paper, not to avoid mistakes, but because it allowed me to paint colour on to the back.  The result is that my creations are probably not as bold as Kate's.  I blended some Stabilo All pencil with water around the images to create a faint shadow.  I also used Fresco Finish Chalk Paint which dries quite quickly and so the background colours are not as blended.  Overall I was fairly pleased with the results and would definitely use the techniques again.

Materials used:

Gelli Plate

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk paints

The Crafters Workshop stencil: mini circle explosion

Stampers Anonymous: stuff to say

PaperArtsy: EDY05

Pam Carriker stamp: Ophelia

Katzelkraft: KTZ118, Chatool KTZ63

Kaisercraft Clear Stamps: edges, film edges

black and white gel pen, Stabilo All pencil

Leave a trail

The August issue of Craft Stamper features a free camper van stamp...very handy when you know someone with a camper van with a birthday coming up in September!

The sunshine was created using Brusho through a stencil and blotting to get second and third generation images.  The road was added using distress ink through the same stencil.  The van is decoupaged and the windscreen is cut out so that the background shows through.  The IndigoBlu sentiment is one of my favourites and I've used it many times before.


I can't decide whether I like the top card best with the stronger colours or the bottom one with the van coloured in more traditional colours.  It might depend on if you're a VW purist...what do you think?

Materials used:

IndigoBlu: Grand Tour III sentiment

PaperArtsy: EDY10 flying birds

Kaisercraft texture clear stamps: chevron, edges

The Crafters Workshop: mini sunburst mask 

Brusho: scarlet, ornage, yellow, lemon

Ranger Archival Ink: jet black 

Distress Ink: faded jeans

Promarkers: ice grey 2, capri blue, sky blue, orange

Adorned and adored

Last year I treated myself to the extra large bottle of Dior's J'adore just so that I could have the marvellous gift box with the magnetic clip!  Finally I have had time to work on it just in time for a friend's birthday.  Inspired by the work of Giovanna Zara and her blog, Scrap in Progress, I set to.  The first stage was sticking on die cuts and embellishments, giving it all a coat of gesso and then using Dylusions ink sprays to create a coloured base.

I added a little yellow and orange paint to the base layer and the box was dry brushed with white paint to knock the colours back a bit and create some highlights.  I used Viva Decor Maya Gold paints to bring out the letters and using a sponge, added a slight shimmer over the whole box.  Further highlights were added with gilding waxes. Et voilà!

 

Materials used: 

various die cuts and embellishments

Ranger Multi Medium: matte

Dylusions Ink Sprays: funky fuchsia, post box red, squeezed orange

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint: yellow submarine, autumn fire, snowflake

Viva Decor Maya Gold; magenta, lilac

Treasure Gold: white fire

Creative Expressions Metallic Gilding Wax: patina

In the Pink

This month's theme on The Craft Barn calendar challenge is Pink and Butterflies.  I layered die cuts to make the background then painted over with Maya Gold paint, adding detail with Treasure Gold and white paint pen.  The paint is so metallic and glossy it's hard to capture how rich the colours really are.

Materials used:

Viva Maya Gold: magenta, turquoise, lilac

Treasure Gold: white fire

Spellbinders die: flying beauties

assorted die cuts

white paint pen

wire and gems

Coming up roses

I'm not usually a big one for die cutting as the main focus of a card, but recently I bought some bargain dies and thought I'd see what I could come up with.  First a watercoloured background using Spectrum Noir Aqua markers.

Then colouring the die cut roses and the border.  I layered up the roses as I didn't really want the gaps.

 Then put it all together with a bit of background stamping...

...maybe more experimentation needed!

As it does feature colouring I'll enter it in to The Craft Barn weekly challenge using colouring / pens.

Materials used:

Spectrum Noir Aqua markers

Sizzix dies: rose vine,  Marrakesh tile

PaperArtsy: EDY10 bird stamp

free sentiment stamp

Who Me?

A quickie for the weekly challenge over at The Craft Barn, where the theme is Pens!  I stamped the main image and masked it using masking fluid.  The background is created with Distress Ink and the hearts and spirals were stamped on top.  The masking fluid was gently rolled off and the images coloured with Promarkers.

Sorry for the fuzzy photo I couldn't get the camera to not focus on the button...need a camera tutorial...happy to get any tips...

Materials used:

Doo Lally Pip/Lindsay Mason stamp:  cute as a button

various background stamps

Ranger Distress Ink

Letraset Promarkers

Memento Ink: tuxedo black

ribbon and button