Let It Go.....

Inspiration for today's card came from the Copper Tree behind our house.

Although.... we still have magnificent  red's, yellows and orange colours 

on our Autumnal trees it's the Copper one that inspired me.

For the background I have used Lindy sprays in copper 

and brown colours with mica, which of course are not showing up well.

I used several different stencils for the layering effect on the background.

The main leaves have been heat embossing in gold.

Finishing off with stamping the sentiment and a few splats.

The distress inks and the oxides covered the background sprays really well.

The CAS Watercolour Challenge this month is celebrating their 1st Birthday....

Happy First Birthday and Thank you for the fun and inspirational Challenges.

Their theme is Fall Leaves.....

The CAS Mix Up Challenge is Stamping, Layering Stencils 

and my choice is splats, sprays and heat embossing.

Both great challenges, with very creative, friendly and inspirational design teams...

I enjoyed playing with stencils, sprays and splats and of course getting inky.

The challenge for me is to use mix media...which I love and keeping it CAS.

If you want to see how to do it fabulously well then pop across to the challenges x

Thank you so much for finding time to stop by...I really do appreciate it.

Crafty Hugs x

Challenges I would love to enter.....

The CAS Watercolour Challenge - Fall leaves

The CAS Mix Up Challenge  - is Stamping, Layering Stencils 

and my choice is splats, sprays and heat embossing.

Update...Thrilled to have been chosen as an Outstanding design...Thank you 

Double'D' Challenge - Leave it to me

The mood board had brown leaves on it, very much like ones in my garden.

Stamplorations - Sketch and Theme Challenge - I have gone with the theme

The Sentiment stamp is Stamplorations 

Thrilled to have been chosen as a winner for my card...Thank you x

More Glitter and Feathers....

Today's' card has been inspired by The Paper Artsy Challenge - Glitter

I have got so much glitter around my study, 

after yesterdays tag that I thought I would keep going....

They have such inspirational blog posts, for many different ways of using glitter...

I was inspired from the introduction post of the glorious feathers 

from Anabela Piersol

Messy but a fun way to add glitter to those fabulous real feathers.

Another inspirational post was from Raquel Burillo   (photo below)

and the many ways of applying glitter.

I have used dry glitter rubbed onto double sided tape 

and a line of stickles on the left of the card, which I haven't used in years.

The real feathers have been painted with starlight topaz paint.

Such a glorious colour of Mica, gold, brown and topaz...stunning in real life.

My intention was to paint the middle feather on the card 

and then pull it off gently and use as a sort of stencil/mask....

The feather was having none of it and stuck fast!!!

Who knew the feather would stick so well without glue?

I applied the dry, sand coloured glitter on the left hand feather with wet glue.

Finishing off with a stamped sentiment in gold heat embossing and brown ink.

More glorious glittery mess around my studio.....

I really don't know why I don't use glitter more often, as in real life it is so very pretty.....maybe I'll use the dry glitter sparingly....

but all the other ways of adding glitter I'm in!!!

Thank you for finding time to stop by...

I wanted to say a Big Thank you for all the very kind 

and very generous comments you continue to leave me...

Crafty Hugs xx

Challenges I would like to enter.......

Paper Artsy Challenge - Glitter.....

Anabela Piersol

Raquel Burillo

The Paper Artsy Challenge - Glitter

Glitter and some....

I am not a fan of dry glitter, too messy for me

but the Paper Artsy Challenge this fortnight is glitter,

so I made this tag to celebrate lots of different types of glitter.

The blog has amazing and very creative projects, using all types of glitter.

One in particular that inspired me was Raquel Burillo and her many uses...

I had forgotten about glass glitter, Frantage glitter and stickles.

I have used all of these on the tag along with glue and dry glitter.

I have also used sprays, paste, stencilling and stamping for the background

and die cutting for the sentiment with heat embossing. 

The three feathers are real......Found on my walks.

These have been painted with mica and topaz paint, liquid gold leaf 

and glue with dry taupe coloured glitter.

For the edges of the ribbon I have used glitter gel.

So messy, such fun, over the top and so blingy.....

The photos do not show the pretty colours of the paint, the mica or the glitter.

In real life the colours are topaz, brown, sand/taupe and a few shades of gold.

Every time I take a photo they look different and not true colours.

Now my dry glitter is out 

I might as well continue with the mess and fun........

Thank you so much for finding time to stop by.

I really do appreciate it.

Crafty Hugs xx

Challenges I would like to enter....

Paper Artsy Challenge - Glitter.....Many types and many uses 
Creative Artiste - Anything Mixed Media goes
I have used Lindy sprays, stencilling and stamping for the background.
Frantage heat embossing, glass glitter, mica paints, dry glitter, glitter gel medium, die cutting and liquid gold leaf.
Happy Little Stampers - Christmas Challenge 
Anything Goes without the optional twist of a silhouette

Stamplorations - Mixed Media 
Anything but a card and you must use a stencil...I have used a stencil and 3D gel on the background and the die cut sentiment is by Stamplorations 
Thrilled to have been chosen as a Winner x

Metallic ......

I have been having fun with my Alcohol Inks.....

This is my card.....

I have been inspired by several of the posts on the PaperArtsy Blog...

Lin Brown and how she used aluminium foil and Alcohol inks

to make stunning flowers

Debs Who reminded us to dig out some older stamps and to use them 

Also to try and stamp onto foil and then to colour

For the die cut rectangle I used aluminium foil, a stencil and a pokey tool 

to get some texture.

I then played with lots of colours of alcohol inks and gold.

The gold really does shine and the inks fall into the indentations.

The fun PaperArtsy stamps have also been stamped onto metal foil 

and using the same technique to get some texture.

I used slightly different colours of Alcohol inks to get a slight contrast.

The flowers where fussing cut out.

I re-stamped the flowers onto the card base and heat embossed in gold.

The metal flowers have been slightly raised to give further dimension.

I had fun with this card and the technique...........

Thank you so much for finding time to stop by, I really do appreciate it.

Crafty Hugs

x

I wanted to pop this photo on to show you that I tried the technique on kitchen foil 

and it worked beautifully too....

Because I wanted to use a pokey too etc it wasn't going to work this time 

but it is in my box to use at a later date!

Challenges I would love to enter.....

The Paper Players - Autumn Floral

Country View Challenges - Mixed Media with Autumnal Hues

Such fabulous inspiration on their blog.......

Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge - Heavy Metal

PaperArtsy - Topic 13 - Metallics

Watercolour Wash......

After more than several attempts, this is today's card.....

I am a techniques girl and love to learn new ones.

One of my favourite challenges to do this is...

CAS Mix Up - this months challenge is Watercolour Wash.

Very new to me.....

They always have great inspiration from their talented design team 

and videos links to inspire you further.

I started with masking and a watercolour wash using a few colours

from Kuretake Gansai Tambi water colours.

The flowers have been stamped in black ink and 

the bottom half in grey ink with white ink on top.

Not CAS enough so I over-stamped and heat embossed in white.

This gave me a fun shadow effect.

I die cut the rectangles and popped some up onto foam tape at different levels.

 The sentiment has been stamped with grey ink also.

I loved the challenge to push me into trying watercolour washes, 

instead of blending inks, brusho's or sprays.

Seven Hills Craft Blog Challenge this month is 

Spotlight it so I will be popping my card over there too.

The lovely Darnell has started her NBUS Challenge today #12. 

I have never used this old flower stamp before, 

so I shall popping my card into the challenge....

Crafty Hugs xx

Challenges I would like to enter......

CAS Mix Up -  Watercolour Wash.

Watercoluring using Kuretake Gansai Tambi water colours for the watercolour wash.

The flowers and sentiment have been stamped and my choice is die cutting of the rectangles.

Seven Hills Craft Blog Challenge - Spotlight it

The product I have used form the store is Kuretake Gansai Tambi glorious water colours. Versamark ink pad and Altenew Mini Cube inks-rocks collection

Darnell - NBUS Challenge #12.  - Anything goes using never before used schtuff

Chill.......

Hope all is well with you?

It's been awhile but here is today's card....

I love joining in the CAS Watercolour Challenge and their theme this month is...

It's not that I have not been thinking what to do all month but where does time go?

I was inspired by the colours over at Inspired By All The Little Things....

The glorious copper and the beautiful aqua

I needed a Masculine Birthday card....

I have used Brusho's for the background as my watercolour.

I die cut the Man silhouette to use as a stencil.

I mixed translucent paste with dark pigment powders to pop through the stencil.

As they where Lindy powders and often contain 'other' colours 

it looks like the man has a tie, squiffy around his neck!

The stencil work on the left has been done with coloured paste, 

copper paste and copper embossing powder.

I finished off with stamping and heat embossing the sentiment in copper.

I enjoyed the using the techniques on this card 

and challenging myself with the two challenges.

Thank you so much for finding time to stop by....

Crafty Hugs x

Challenge I would like to pop my card across too....

CAS Watercolour Challenge - Brusho's as my water colour and stencil and paste for my silhouette 

Update...Thrilled to have been chosen as an outstanding design for this card...I loved the challenge x

Inspired By All The Little Things - Loved the colour of the copper and the aqua 

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - Penny's Masculine anything goes

Update- I was lucky to get a win with this card-Thank you so much for choosing me as your your watercooler rockstar this week x

Wine Cork.....

Today's card is inspired by.......

Less is More Challenge to use a real object 

and CAS-ual Fridays - Colour challenge of Kraft and white

Whilst drinking a glass of wine my real object came to me....

Use a cork....

Most wine comes with screw tops, so I went on the hunt for a cork.

I found one in our memory box from many years ago, so the idea

of making a Christmas card for DH was born....

The background has been done with alcohol inks, blending solution 

and blowing with a straw to get the basic shape and spikes of the tree,.

I finished off with die cutting the 'Merry' sentiment, 

which was a fun reference to 'drinking' the Wine.

Between the smell of the inks and blowing with the straw 

I didn't need to drink wine, as I was quiet light headed anyway!

Fun card to make, with a memory for us both x

Thank you for finding time to stop by, I really do appreciate it.

Crafty Hugs xx

Challenges I would love to enter......

Less is More Challenge to use a real object 

CAS-ual Fridays - Colour challenge of Kraft and white
Update...Delighted to have been chosen as a contender for this card...Thank you