Texture and Some....

New crafting goodies arrived this week and had so much fun playing with them.

Here is my Tag......

The Tag was inspired by the challenge mood board over at 13@arts
My starting point was the vintage book pages, the door and the blue pattern.

I applied white gesso and strips from an old dictionary to the die cut tag.
White embossing paste and two stencils were used for the door and the tiles.
Lots of structure grit paste and crackle paste was scrapped on randomly.
I used white embossing paste through another stencil onto tissue for the sentiment.

Various inks, sprays and acrylic paints were used,
knocking them back with white heavy gesso.

Finishing off with splats and hi-lighting some of the texture with a hint of gold wax.

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

Hope you are all keeping well and safe?

Challenges I would love to enter.....

13 @rts - Mood Board

Guest Designer......

Thrilled and Delighted to be asked to Guest Design 

for this Fun yearly event, organised by the lovely Loll....

Loll is always inspiring, always so helpful and one of the nicest blog friends....

Hop across and join in the fun...
12 Tags Of Christmas...

Your tag must be a mixed media Christmas Tag.

Any style or any size, which includes stamping, plus two mixed media elements, 

which can be techniques or products.....

This is my Tag.....

The background has been sprayed with several colours of Lindy sprays 

and stamped with gold text.

I used a stencil for the two black poinsettia and black paste.

The large poinsettia has been stamped, heat embossed and water coloured.

After adding a lacquer to it, the colours re activated and
I had to use a cocktail stick to re emphasise the veins and expose 

the gold embossing.

This created a lovely texture and quite a life like poinsettia.....

Yey .....to Happy Accidents....

The edges of the tag have heat embossed frantage around them.

The centres of the flowers are green Novo drops.

Again ....re-activating the sprays, so they where done quite a few times!

In the end I used black acrylic on them first and then the drops,

which thankfully worked.

I finished with some splats and hi-lighting with a gold and sparkly pen and brush.

I had so much fun making this tag and learning about what re-actives with what....

Thank you so much Loll for the privilege of guesting today....

Come and join in the fun 

and be inspired by Loll and the other amazing guest designers.

Crafty Hugs xx

Challenges I would love to enter....

Country View Challenges - Stencils

Stamplorations - Anything Mixed Media - Except a card

Update....Top pick at Stamplorations....Thank you so much x

Happy Little Stampers - Christmas Challenge Anything goes with the twist of a Tag

Happy Little Stampers - Mixed Media - Tag

Delighted to have won with my tag....Thank you so much

Craft Stamper - Take it Make it Challenge - Anything Goes and you must use a stamp

MEMORIES.....

Today's Tag....

Inspired by the Challenge at PaperArtsy, which is Pearlescent....

It was good to be reminded about the more subtle tones of pearlescent....

The background of the tag has been stamped with versamark 

and brushed with several colours of pearlescent mica powders.

I had forgotten about using this technique 

and was reminded by the inspiration post by Hazel Agnew

The main die cut leaf has been stamped with Lindy sprays 

and the twine painted with mica paints.
The gold leaf has been stamped onto vellum and heat embossed.

I have also used mica powders on the die cut sentiment and leaves.
In places I 'lightly' mixed the mica powder and the glue so that it would add texture.

Loved how the mica powders looked on the kraft card......
Quite subtle....

Of course the photos do not show the subtle effect of the pearlescent 

or the true colours....

The photos make the tag look at a lot busier than it actually is....

Had fun making the tag and thank you so much for stopping by...

Crafty hugs

xx

Challenges I would like to enter.....
PaperArtsy - Challenge 15 - Pearlescent
Country View Challenges - Mixed Media with Autumnal Hues
Stamps and Stencils - The Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness and using a tag
A vintage Journey - Crazy for Autumn ColourThe colours of our Autumnal leaves are still fabulous around our home

Stamplorations - Tagplorations - All about Fall
Stamplorations - CutplorationsThe Die cut Tag and the background stamp are Stamplorations....Inspired by the Autumnal colours and the leaves

Hello.......

Today's tag was inspired by a colour challenge 

over at Rubber Dance....

I played with a couple of stencils, translucent paste 

and Brusho's for the background.

The sea horses have been stamped and water-coloured 

with zigs and hi-lighted with mica powders.

The shell has been stamped and sprinkled with Bistre powders.

The sand is paste, micro beads and coloured with Lindy powders.

The coral has been die cut from several colours of Brusho card.

The ribbon has also been coloured with Brusho's.

I had such fun playing with techniques and enjoyed making my tag.

I had a chuckle after I had finished, looking at the stenciled anchor, 

which looks like it is heading for the seahorse's head!!!!

Thank you for finding the time to stop by...I always appreciate it x

Crafty Hugs xx

Challenges I would love to enter my tag into....

Rubber Dance....   Colour Challenge - You don't have to use their products to enter

Stamplorations - Mixed Media - Anything goes but you must use a stencil

I have used two stencils for my background, the anchor and a circle one
Update..I got a Top Pick for my Tag...Thank you x

Design by Ryn - Anything Goes
Seahorse and shell stamps
Update ... I had a lucky win with my tag from Ryn...Thank you x

Mixed Media World - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Amazing inspiration from their blog
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Touchy Feely

Happy Thoughts........

Another fun couple of days creating a mixed media tag....

The inspiration for the colours is from The Rubber Dance Colour Challenge

 The background has been stenciled, stamped and splattered.

The main flowers have been stamped and smooshed with stains.

Instead of spraying with my trusty sprays, I poured some of the stains out,

 onto my craft mat, smooshed and played.

The flowers have been fussy cut.

The circles behind the flowers have been stamped and then die cut.

I finished off with hi-lighting with a white pen 

and stamping and embossing the sentiment.

I had so much fun creating this tag and lets just say it wasn't my first attempt!

The black splats did migrate, so that's something else I have learnt.

Learning all the time and loving it!

The stencil in the background and the sentiment stamp is from Stamplorations.

I have used The Textured Flowers and 

Round in Circles Stamp sets from Rubber Dance.

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

Crafty Hugs x

Challenges I would like to link up to...

 The Rubber Dance Colour Challenge - Magenta, Yellow and Turquoise Colours

You do not have to use their products to join in x
Thank you for The Shout Out x

Stamplorations - Mixed Media Challenge - Anything goes but you must use a stencil

I have used The Leaf Prints 2 Stencil but you can use any make of Stencil to Join in

Stamplorations - Cutplorations - Inspiration Photo - Garden Party

My Tag is all Flowery and Summery ...Thank You for the Win x

To join in you must use at least one of Stamplorations many products 

but you can use any brand of die cut

Winter......

Today's project is a Winter's Tag.......

The background has been blended with distress inks, sprayed and splattered.

The trees and branches have been stamped with grey ink.

I popped the stencil over the tag and sprayed with water to lift some of the ink.

I then further enhanced the 'stained glass' stencil with white pigment ink.

Lastly I scraped through clear paste to give a shiny effect of glass.

This photo shows some of the background detail better.

There's a lot happening in the background but my photos aren't really showing it.

The red cardinal was water-coloured in red (although it looks like pink!) 

and fussy cut.

The bough of the tree has white glue on it for snow and the bottom edge with 

frantage shabby white embossing powder.

The winter die cut has been raised up with foam and the ribbon died 

with the same distress ink colours.

The cardinal is actually inside looking out through the window....

Some crafty licence here I think!

Crafty Hugs x

Challenges I am linking the tag to....

Rubber Dance - Inspiration Photo and colours and I went with the optional twist of frosty winter...

The cardinal stamp is by Rubber Dance
Thank you so much for the Honorable Mention xxx

Stamplorations - Mixed Media - Anything goes using a stencil and not a card

The stencil is Stamplorations as is the sentiment die cut

Love...........

Guest Designer..........
I have just come back from a lovely holiday and I am so looking forward to catching up with visiting your fabulous blogs and admiring your wonderful inspiration x
The internet wasn't readily available, so please accept my apologies for not visiting sooner x

After winning The CAS Mix Up Challenge last month with this card 

I was kindly invited to be Guest Designer this month...

Wow ....what an Amazing opportunity!

The CAS Mix Up Challenge offers tons of inspiration and new techniques to try.

CAS, Mixed Media and Techniques all on one card......Fabulous!

The Team are so friendly and helpful  and I love entering the challenge because 

of the mixed genre's and techniques x

The Challenge this month is Stamping + Ghosting + Your Choice

You will find links on their blog to try out different Ghosting techniques....

This is my card.....

I started with blending several colours of distress inks quite liberally onto the card.

I layered the flower stencil onto the background and used water to lift the colour 

to produce a ghosting effect.

I used minimal water and a small sponge to lift the water to stop the water seeping underneath.

The flower was stamped over the ghosting effect, slightly off-set.

I used white gesso inside the stamped image and then painted with water- colours.

I have used black glossy embossing paste through the love sentiment stencil 

and die cut the rectangle with a stitch die. 

I finished with popping on a heart stencil and using a darker distress ink in the 

bottom right hand corner.

Thank you so much for the opportunity of guesting with you this month.

I love your fun, creative, inspirational and informative challenge.

Thank you for finding time to stop by...

Crafty Hugs xxx 

Geometric.....

Before I show you today's card I was thrilled and delighted to have won 

 at CASology with this card from yesterday...

I  have been lucky enough to have been selected as the Honourable Mention several times 

but never a win, so it's made my day and I thank the team for all the wonderful inspiration x

Anyway.....Today's card.....

I started by die cutting the geometric die out of foam as I wanted to use it as a stamp.

I hadn't done this before and I was super excited that it worked really well.

I used re-positionable spray on the foam and 

then stamped with versa mark and white embossing powder.

I had a fun time using my Gansai water-colours in rainbow colours.

I cut the flower die and used this as a stencil and scraped through black embossing paste.

The flower was die cut out of more water coloured card and popped on top of the black paste.

Some of the sentiments have been die cut and layered with foam 

or popped straight onto the card or stamped and raised onto foam.

I enjoyed mixing the sentiments and how they where used on the card.

I also enjoyed using a die as a stamp.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs x

Challenges I would like to enter.....

Seven Hills - Geometric Challenge

All the manufacturers of the dies, water-colours and Stamps are stocked by the store

City Crafter Challenge - It's All About.....'You'

I was struggling with a sentiment so the challenge helped me focus with one

Update...Spotlight Artist...Thank you so very much xx

Casual Fridays - Time to Color

Creative With Stamps Challenge 5- Geometric

Update....Honorable Mention...Thank you very much x

The Mixed Media Card Challenge - Rainbow

I have used rainbow colours