CAS Mix Up March Challenge....

I am so excited and thrilled to have been invited by Loll and Bonnie, 

to join their wonderful and extremely talented 

and creative design team at CAS Mix Up.....

I love mixing my medias, trying new techniques and trying to keep it CAS.

If you want to see how it's done, pop across and see the wonderful inspiration

and amazing creations from the design team......

The challenge for March is Acetate + Stamping + Your choice..

My choice is Alcohol Inks, heat embossing and die cutting

Here is my card.....

I stamped the flower image onto heat resistant acetate and heat embossed in gold.

On the reverse I have used several different colours of alcohol inks,

decanted onto a palette and a paintbrush,

working quickly, before the inks dried....

I initially tried 'colouring' with the alcohol inks on the front,

thinking they would stay inside the embossed lines...mine didn't....

I thought it looked better bleeding out of the lines on the reverse.

I die cut a frame and finished off with stamping the sentiment 

and popping it up onto foam for a little dimension.

I thought the sentiment says it all how I am feeling...

There are links to videos for more ideas and inspiration over at CAS Mix Up.

Come and join in the fun.

I am so looking forward to seeing your creations....

What a great day to be joining the team.

It's the second Birthday of this wonderful, fun and creative Challenge...

There are prizes....

Pop across and take a look.....  

Crafty Hugs xx

Challenges I would love to enter....

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes

Addicted To Stamps - Anything Goes

Smile.....

Here's today's cards...

Yes ....two cards on the same blog post for the Twofer Challenge.

Use the same die or stamp and make two cards for two different occasions....

The theme is Hearts.

I have used the same die cut heart 

and made two very different cards for two different occasions....

Please scroll down to see the shine on the Love card....

The Smile Card has the hidden heart die.

The flowers have been stamped, using The Ton flower stamp,
heat embossed with gold and water coloured.

The leaves have been coloured with pencils.

I have also used a stencil and gold embossing paste, splats and a die cut sentiment.

I am enjoying using coloured card stock for the background.

Thank you for the shout out...

The Love card....

For the heart die I have used Inka Gold, blobs of Inka and gloss varnish.

I have stamped and heat embossed in gold on the background, 

using a mixed media stamp.

The swirl flourish has been die cut out of cork and the edges hi-lighted in gold.

I used thick cork, which gave a great texture and dimension.

The delicate Love sentiment has been die cut and layered.

Thank you for the shout out...

This photo also shows the shine and texture of the die cut heart.....

I really enjoyed making the two cards.

Thank you so much for finding time to stop by,

I really do appreciate it....

Crafty Hugs

xx

Challenges I would love to enter.....

Card number one - The Smile Flower card.....
The Ton Challenge - February Challenge - Heart
The gorgeous flower stamp is by the Ton
CAS Water colour Challenge - Heart
Update...Outstanding Design shout out for my card....Thank you so much 

Card Number two - The Love Card.......
CAS Mix Up - Use Cork or Canvas or Felt, stamping and one other of your choice.
I have used cork, stamping, die cutting and heat embossing....
Update...Outstanding Design shout out for my card....Thank you so much 
That's Crafty I Heart You Challenge 
Stamplorations - February Challenge
Love theme ....
Memory Box Challenge is Hearts...The sentiment die is from Memory Box

 Twofer Challenge....Challenge #2 - Hearts

First ATC.......

Here is my First ATC.....

I must confess to knowing nothing about them....

I have learnt lots about them since.

The first thing I learnt was the size of them...only 2.5" x 3.5"...tiny...
My inspiration came from Alison Bomber's blog....

I gesso'd first, then added the strips of text, stencilled with embossing paste 

and then gesso again.

Finishing off with a clear crackle glaze in parts...

The crackle areas went pink, outwith the strips of text...

Learning all the time and now my colour for the ATC was born...

Sprayed and splattered a few sprays in coral, grey and silver.

The embossing paste I used has no resist, so took the colour well.

I knocked back the colours several times with gesso

but also didn't want to loose all of the shine from the sprays.

I also did some light stamping with grey archival ink.

I coated the flower head with triple thick gloss.

I had fun with the edges of the ATC...

I love frantage but didn't have the right colour,

so I made my own using UTEE, platinum embossing powder 

and Lindy's shiny coral embossing powder.

I loved the result and will do this again....

Splats where added with white acrylic paint.

The heating of the edges caused my triple thick gloss to bubble and melt.

Lots of melting on this ATC.....Some by accident!

Finishing off with the sentiment, using a sprayed piece of card and stamping.

I cannot believe one tiny ATC can use so many products!

And they are all not in the photo....

I learnt so much about different mediums, ATC's  and had a lot of fun.

Alison's Blog gave me the inspiration to try out different techniques with this amazing ATC.

As a result I bought some of the products and gave it a go!

Clearly I went in a different direction but that was not my intention....

It was how the products performed on my card stock etc.....

That is why I would like to enter the Melt It challenge over at The Vintage Journey

as I ended up Melting quite a bit!!!!

I am super grateful to Alison for inspiring me so much....

I think the sentiment says it all...

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs xx

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

A Vintage Journey - Melt It Challenge

I know it's just a little ATC but it's got quite a bit of melting x

PaperArtsy  challenge is ATCs

Craft Stamper - Take it Make It Challenge - Anything Goes

All About Winter.....

Today's Tag has been inspired by The TAGPlorations Challenge....

Here is my Tag....

This is the inspiration Photo....

The first thing I saw was two tags....

Then the beautiful colours and the contemporary trees on the tag on the left....

Next came the snow and the snowman on the tag on the right.....

The background has been blended with distress inks and a stencil for the snow.

The trees have also been stencilled with embossing paste.

I have used clear crackle and snow paste.

The die cut sentiment comes as 'Warm Winter Wishes' from Stamploraitons,

 which I have snipped and used individually.

The snowman comes in a larger size, 

also from Stamplorations but I have used the tiny one.

I also wanted to include the pretty light blue/jade on the tag on the left

so sprayed the snow with Lindy sprays to achieve this.

Crafty Hugs x

Challenges I would love to enter...

TAGplorations - Photo inspiration and the theme of All About Winter....

Update...Winner with this tag....thank you

Stamplorations Mixed Media Challenge - Anything but a card and you must use a stencil....

I have used the Christmas Tree 1 stencil by Sanna Lippert and also the dots all over,

both by Stamplorations

Stamplorations - Never ending - Anything Goes

Late........

Today's Card.......

I die cut a circle and went to work with acrylic paints, charcoal and water.

This is way out of my comfort zone but I enjoyed trying.

The background has been splattered with grey acrylic ink 

and a few dots of shiny silver stickles.

I finished off with two tiny tags and stamped the 'with love' text.

The background card is a soft grey, which I enjoyed using for a change.

Tried something new to me and enjoyed it.....

Crafty Hugs X

Challenges I would love to enter...

Stamplorations - CAS Challenge with the optional twist of silver....

Update...Winner...Thank you so much 

CASology - Cue word Late

CAS on Friday - Clean and Simple on Sunday - Use Color me pretty

Use Marker or Pencils - I have used charcoal pencils
Update....I was chosen as a top three with this card, Thank you very much

Just For You......

CAS Mix Up Challenge for this month is Cling Wrap...

I love learning new techniques and this is a great challenge to learn.
Update...Thrilled with the shout out for my card...Thank you x

I have had so much fun playing with different mediums, card stock etc

and now have tons of backgrounds to use at a later date.

This is my card......

For the wrap technique I have used Bistre powders in Noir, water and glossy card.

I also tried starch and the effects where great too.

Whilst I was at it I tried Brusho's, Infusions and Lindy magical powders...

All unique and great....

I used the die cut fern, as a stencil and popped through black crackle

and enhanced with white antiquing cream.

The effect was subtle and added another layer of texture and interest.

The die cut fern has been double heat embossed with silver embossing powder.

I have used a fussy edged rectangle die cut 

and stamped the sentiment in white.

Finishing off with silver embossing around the edge 

and a small die cut heart with heat embossed frantage.

I loved the effect of this unique and fun technique.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs

xx

Challenges I would love to enter....

CAS Mix Up Challenge for this month is Cling Wrap...

I have stamped and my choice is stencil, crackle, heat embossing die cutting and frantage
Update...Thrilled with the shout out for my card...Thank you x

Stamplorations CAS challenge - 

I have gone with the optional colour twist of Silver....

Craft Stamper - Anything goes

AAA Cards - The theme for the CAS style is Chilled...

I thought my background looked like cracked ice, cold,

chilled blue/black tones in colour and the cold silver...

CASology - Cue word is Glimmer

Feathers and Some....

Good to be back crafting after my bout of Flu....

Thank you so much for all your kind messages and get well wishes x

Thank you  Loll for the shout out on your blog today..Made My Day.....

I am sure you all know about the new challenge from the wonderful Darnell...

The Twofer Challenge .....with the theme of Feathers.

Make two cards, using the same stamp or die and for two different occasions.

These are my cards...

I have used the same die cut feather, one for a Thank you Card 

and one for an Encouragement Card.

You can do an style of card, so I have gone for mixing my medias....

I have used stencils, Lindy Magicals, Stamping and Die Cutting.

I have also used Crackling paste, which is a first for me.....

You get such fun and unpredictable results...love it....

The moodboard over at Mixed Media Place is fabulous..Take a look....

Certainly helped with me focusing on the colours, the texture of the tiles

and those fabulous feathers.

And...Thank you Cathy for the heads up...

The Second Card....

Gold embossing paste through a stencil, Lindy gold spray, 

Frantage, stamping, die cutting and treble heat embossing...

I had so much fun creating these cards and learnt lots along the way....

The gallery is looking absolutely amazing 

and with the wonderful and creative design team that Darnell has put together, 

this unique challenge is going to be a huge success....

Crafty Hugs x

Challenges I would like to enter...

The Twofer Challenge .....with the theme of Feathers
Thank you so much for The Honorable Mention...
I had lots of fun with your new challenge x

Card number one......

Mixed Media Place - Moodboard
I have used many Art Basic mediums to make this card
Mixed Media Monthly - Ring In The New
The crackle medium is a new product and a new technique for me.
Loved 'playing' with the crackle to find fun things to do with it.....