Looking forward to 2017

For my design team make at The Lost Coast Portal to Creativities and their new 'Anything Goes' challenge, I have made an art journal page ... 2016 was not a good year for many people, and I don't know about you but I sure am looking forward to ringing in a New Year :

The stamps I used are, Back view of woman, spray webbing background stamp and Old typewriter alphabet SOTA. 

Happy New Year, I hope its a good one for you, Nikki x

Christmas Gift Tag

The challenge at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity is entitled 'Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas'. Lost Coast Designs and Carmens Veranda have some awesome and unique Christmas images. Check them out :)

Here I have used the awesome Snowman image from Carmen's Veranda.  What I liked most about him is that he is over 4" high and easy to colour and fussy cut, great for lots of Christmas gift giving.

I also used the snowman to make an ATC. In this monochromatic ATC I would like to acknowledge that not everybody has a great time during the festive season. It fills some with dread and sadness. Its not always jolly :(  The blue also is for the cold and icy snowman.

This background of the ATC is made with paint chips that I cut up, edged with blue gelli roll pen and clear embossed. I used the same Snowman image as above and edged the ATC in brown ink. Words are typed on my typewriter. I used a die for the icicles at the top.

Thanks for stopping by x

Jester ATCs

Today I want to share some Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) I made using the Jester Square from Carmen's Veranda. There is a Hip to be Square challenge at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity, daily inspiration .. check it out :)

The wording 'Cracking Up' (as in laughing uncontrollably) accompanies the jester - well at least I hope he's funny, being such a great court entertainer.

So many techniques in these three little 2.5" x 3.5" ATCs. The background is sprayed with Lindys Stamp Gang sprays, then I stamped in a combination of black and brown archival ink. Some images I then colored with markers, and black and white gel pen highlights. I then added a layer of crystal effects, followed by a layer of crackle glaze. When it was dry what I ended up with were really deep, large cracks :

The letters were die cut, sponged with distress ink and glued on. I added layers of card stock and knotted twine. To emphasize the humorous side of this ATC, I added a Ranger Embellishment and I wrote LOL (laugh out loud) on a circle then added crystal effects to the hole. I like how it stands up prominently.

The three ATC's were all slightly different, which is your favourite ?

Thanks for stopping by x

Unrequited Love ATC

There are a few things going on over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity today, there is our new challenge which is to use something see-through (like acetate) and the Skellie-Fest. I have created an ATC that fits both of the these challenges/events.

Here is my make, an ATC featuring the awesome Winged Skeleton from Carmen's Veranda : 

For my main focal image, I stamped the winged skeleton onto the acetate in black versamark and embossed it in clear powder. I then coloured the back of the image with alcohol markers. I went around the edge in dark grey and added the punched out red hearts. 

Here is a close up : 

There are so many layers here .... The base is a playing card with acrylic paint in black and red. Then I added some white splodges of paint. Next I added a layer of vellum with butterflies on it. Then finally I added the top layer which is acetate. I made the frame from stamping the Swirls and Dots border from Lost Coast Designs onto black card stock and embossing it in a pewter colour. I then cut it down and distressed it and made it into a thin edge border. Finally adding brads and sentiment. I had a happy accident with the sentiment. I typed the words 'unrequited love' on my type writer and when I came to add some of the pewter embossing powder around the sentiment, it also adhered to the typed letters so I was able to embossed them in a matching colour.

Here is a pic of the light catching the front of the ATC, you can more clearly see the detail, layers and texture : 

You know, I'm not really into skeletons etc, but I sure do enjoy creating with them.

Thanks for stopping by x

Blogiversary giveaway

Its been a full year since The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity launched. Wow, time has flown .. along with a multitude of challenges and events. Its been fun and lots of people have played and won ... more every month in fact. To celebrate this awesomness there is a celebration and giveaway, check out the blog HERE

Diamonds ATC

Today I would like to share an ATC with you today, featuring the gorgeous gal Manga Goth Dots from Lost Coast Designs. 

This was made for the challenge at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity to add a splash of neon or bright colour. I think the pink is pretty bright here, it makes the flowers in her hair appear even bigger !

This gorgeous gal is coloured with copics and gelli roll pen for her dress. I wanted to give it a PVC, leather sort of look. She is pretty sassy wouldn't you agree? Hence the words from the song 'Single Ladies' by Beyonce :

"If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it"

See the bling on her finger ? Looks like someone 'liked it' ! LOL

For the background I have used two background stamps. Firstly I stamped Grunge Black Swirl from Carmen's Veranda in a taupe color. Then I stamped the Fourth Dimension stamp from Lost Coast Designs in peacock feathers distress ink and embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder.  I don't normally use much bling, but really thought this ATC was calling out for it. 

Finally I added a few more gems to the background, the words which I typed on my typewriter and I edged the ATC in black ink.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave me a comment if you feel so inclined :)

Have a lovely day, Nikki x

Flora and Fluffy Tails

Our Spring / Easter themed event over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity is Flora and Fluffy Tails.

Here is my mail art creation, using the fabulous nuance powders to create a colourful background. These powders are so highly pigmented and fun to work with :

The mail art features two stamps, Rabbit with Flowers and Doodle Flowers background from Lost Coast Designs. 

The flowers are stamped with green distress ink, then the rabbit with versamark and then embossed with a chocolate coloured embossing powder. Unfortunately you lose some of the detail in the rabbit by embossing like this, if you go and look at the actual image HERE, you will see the gorgeous flower pattern in his fur. But I was going with shiny chocolate bunny sort of Easter rabbit look :)

I added dots to the centre of the flowers and outlined some of the rabbit detail with white shapie paint pen, and doodled around the edge of the mail art and on the velum address label. 

Here is a close up, see how vibrant those colours are and how cute the bunny is:)

Hop on over, LOL no pun intended, to the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity for more inspiration :)

We're not in Kansas anymore

A fun event hosted at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity, We're not in Kansas anymore.
Lovers of The Wizard of Oz, you will enjoy seeing the makes by the DT I'm sure :)

Here is my make and at the end of this post is a link to all the other DT makes.

Who is my fave character in the Wizard of Oz ? Dorothy ? Tin man ? The Wizard ? I dont know ... so many to choose from. But there is one group of critters who don't get much airtime, so I decided to honour them .... The Flying Monkeys. Here is my ATC : 

This is one of the monkeys from Three Monkeys by Lost Coast Designs. This one is the speak-no-evil. Its open to interpretation obviously, but I personally think he's laughing about all this freaking people out business ... LOL.  He is stamped in Memento black ink and coloured with copics and gel pen. I fussy cut him.

The tremendously large and imposing wings (arent they gorgeous) are from Carmen's Veranda. I stamped them onto velum with stazon and clear embossed them. I coloured them white using a faber castell artist pitt pen, then turned them over, to get this more subtle look. I fussy cut them. And glued them to the monkey.

The background was painted with acrylic paint, then I added white lines and dots, and edged it in white. I glued on the flying money and cut off the section of wing that overhung the ATC. Finally I typed the words on my typewriter.

Hope you will pop over to the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity to see the other makes, and visit Lost Coast Designs or Carmen's Veranda online stores :)

But before you rush over to the store .. check out the rest of the inspiration from the Design Team : 

An InLinkz Link-up

Lost Coast Designs / Carmen's Veranda News ...

We have news ... a new Facebook group, which can be accessed HERE, and also a Design Team call ... Check out all the details HERE.

Hope to see more of you and your creations / love for Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda :)

Monkey cards

I have mentioned before that this year I plan to make more cards for Birthdays etc. I know its expensive to mail, but there is something very satisfying and pleasing about getting actual snail mail.

Here are some cards I made, with mixed media backgrounds using the fabulous monkey face stamp from Carmen's Veranda. I dont know if you know ... I LOVE monkeys. 

Thanks for stopping by x

Eenie Meenie Minie Mo Pocket Letter

So many people have been making these pocket letters, I thought it might be fun to have a go. This is the challenge over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity. If you like to make pocket letters, please come and link up to our challenge and be in the chance of winning a shopping spree at Lost Coast Designs or Carmen's Veranda.

As I see it there are two ways to make a pocket letter, to make 9 individual ATC's, or to make one large picture and cut down to 9 3.5" x 2.5" ATCs. I liked the idea of continuous colour and pattern for this skull themed make.

My pocket letter featuring sugar skulls from Lost Coast Designs

I know sugar skulls are traditionally associated with Day of the Dead, but I liked the idea of using them in the Valentines month and Eenie Meenie Minie Mo - well maybe that's how some of us choose a partner ? LOL. 

The background is neocolor II's, then I used the negative of a die cut and sponged through it in grey ink, like you would a stencil. I stamped some other random things lightly in the background and added modelling paste through a stencil. I sponged the edge with grey ink, then cut my sheet into none 2.5 x 3.5" ATC's. 

The sugar skulls were stamped and embossed and colored with prisma color pencils. I used the three small skulls across the top, and the larger black nose sugar skull for the bottom one. I fussy cut them, die cut my letters and bats, then glued everything together. The bats eyes are glittered.

Close up :

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found some inspiration here, Nikki x

Lots more inspiration over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity.

Love themed atcs

I am taking part in a love themed atc trade, normally I make three the same, but this month I have been influenced by Julie Steed ... So here's my atcs :

First is inspired by last weeks wanderlust class, which was about zentangle and abstract doodling. This heart is cross hatched, I used a Faber Castell artist Pitt pen and graphite pencil with a blending stub :

                                              

The second is using an image, Lil Love from Vera Lane Studios. She is printed and coloured with copics and I added highlights and details in her hair using a sharpie white acrylic paint pen. 

It is a painted background and I added molding paste through a stencil. When it was dry, I put the stencil back on and used versa mark with white embossing powder to make the swirls stand out more and add some texture/dimension.

Final details included a bit of washi, some hearts and words typed on my typewriter, a little blue edging. I don't know about you, but the words of this Justin Bieber song keep playing in my mind ... Yours now too .... Lol

                                              

This third atc features the image, Two Monkeys, from Carmen's Veranda, with a painted and stencilled background. The hearts are punched and coloured, the other words typed on my typewriter. 

                                               

Finally this is an atc using a vintage nude stamp from Paper Artsy, this has been the cause of great amusement. It's stamped, decopauged, fussy cut, coloured with copics, prismas, sponged in brown and blue embossing powder. I loved adding the hair, isn't she a doll :

                            

Valentines Day Event

We are having a fabulous Valentines event at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity, there will be lots of inspiration and love sharing with the varied and gorgeous images from Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda. 

Here is my make :

I had this idea in mind for a while, to use the backside of a wooden canvas for my make :
"The Human Heart'.

Amongst my favourite colors are pink and grey, and in this there is also a hint of blue.  I wanted the main focus of this piece to be the blood red heart, so I kept the other elements subtle and co-ordinating. The skeleton stamp I have used is Winged Skeleton from Carmen's Veranda. Yes I fussy cut it, and sponged it in gray and pink ink. The wings were stamps separately on velum, fussy cut and added for dimension.
Here is a closer look :

To do the background I painted the canvas in pale blue, grey and white acrylic paint. Then I added strips of printed paper to the background and around the edges. I swiped my grey stamp pad across it, then I stamped the Grunge Black Swirl stamp from Carmen's Veranda onto the background in pink and then added clear embossing powder to it all and heat set.  I dripped watered-down grey acrylic paint down the background of the canvas.

I then started work on the border. I stamped the Swirls and Dots border from Lost Coast Designs around the border in grey ink. Then I used a stencil and molding pasts around the edges of the canvas, coloring it with pink ink.  

While everything was drying I stamped the Roses image, which is a stamp by Lost Coast Designs and fussy cut it. I stamped it in gray and sponged in gray and pink distress ink.

The words were added using two alphabets by Lost Coast Designs, Old Typewrite Alphabet SOTA was used for 'The Human' and 'Heart' was done using Licence Plate Alphabet Set. I colored the cardstock with blue acrylic paint, then stamped in grey archival ink. I smudged the ink when  wet and added white splatters and cut them out. I also distressed the edges :

And another pic of the finished canvas. You can see I added pink tissue paper and white cotton thread behind the main elements, it added a more feminine touch.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your time here and found some inspiration x

A Carmen's Veranda Christmas

Over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity we are having a Carmen's Veranda Christmas. Here is my make for Day 2 : 

I have made this ATC, using two stamps from Carmen's Veranda, Elf and Christmas Lights. 

See the look on the little elfs face ? SO I have titled this ATC : Oh Joy !

The first thing I did to make my background was apply glue stick through a star stencil. When that had dried I sprayed the background with Lindys Stamp Gang Starburst sprays and let it dry. The Christmas lights were stamped in Stazon, then I added liquid pearls to the bulbs. See how some cracked over the glue stars - I liked that. Some of the cream lights also absorbed the colour from the sprays, which was unexpected and welcomed. You see, there are no mistakes with mixed media techniques, only pleasant and unexpected surprises. LOL. I added a little micro bead to the base of each light.

The elf was stamped in memento ink, and coloured with copics, see how cute he is in this close up:

The final step was to add a couple of thin strips of glitter, I do like a little bling on Christmas projects. The word Joy was die cut from a Tim Holtz word set. The elf was popped up on pop dots. And the ATC front matted onto black card stock.

A fun little ATC for sure :) Thanks for stopping by, and why not pop over to the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity for some more Christmas inspiration x

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

There is a new Facebook Christmas themed challenge for Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda.

Here is my make, featuring the Snowman from Carmen's Veranda :

The snowman was stamped in grey memento ink, and the edges sponged.

I colored the scarf separately, it was stamped in orange and fussy cut.

I used a stencil by Tim Holtz and molding paste to add some swirls to the snowman, then added Art Sugar by Prima whilst the paste was still wet. 

The background is made by running the tag through the big shot with a snowflake embossing folder, then colorized it with dylusions sprays. Inka gold was added to the raised parts of the snowflakes when dry, and finally, a sentiment, rhinestones and co-ordinating colored ribbon added.

Thanks for stopping by, please check our the challenge and the other DT's inspiration on our facebook pages :) 

Mail Art Today

The new challenge at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity is Mail Art. I quite like mail art, it definitely makes you think about the placing of images, address, stamps etc. I have used my all time favorite stamp .. this is THE stamp that inspired me to want to be involved in this design team.

For this standard 5.5" x 4.25" mail art envelope I have used one of the mini flying ladies from Lost Coast Designs. Isn't she just wonderful, here is a close up of her :

I stamped the lady onto my envelope then again onto a post it note. I fussy cut the post it and used this as a mask so I could color the background. I also used a small playing card to mask the area for the address. Using a playing card for this is a tip I learned from fellow DT member Tera Callihan. I colored the background with peacock feathers distress ink and a round blending tool. I used a circular motion, and really liked how it worked out :

I left the masks in place and stamped with the background stamp postcard background from Carmen's Veranda in spiced marmalade and peacock feathers. Then to make the black bubble strip I used Circle Frame, by Lost Coast Designs.

I removed the masks and added the lettering using Lost Coast Designs Old Typewriter Alphabet SOTA. 

Hope you found some inspiration here, pop over to the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity for more inspiration and to enter our challenge. You do not need to use LCD or CV images, but if you do you increase your chances of a win :)

Trick or Treat

This is my second make for the 31 Days Of Halloween, which is taking place over at the Smeared Ink blog, sponsored by Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda. You can check out the Design Teams daily inspiration at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity.

Here is my make, featuring Carmen's Veranda stamps Large People Skull and Grunge white swirl background. I also used the Old Typewriter Alphabet from Lost Coast Designs :

The skull image is so great. I stamped it onto glossy card stock in black versamark and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then added more definition to the shaded parts of the image using grey distress ink and a cut n dry pen nib.

I really love the grunge backgrounds, they are so versatile. I used the white one here stamped over a distress ink background and acrylic splatters. The words are white heat embossed.

The 'Trick or Treat' amused me, both words are pretty relevent to this image ... LOL. Love the sexual innuendo :)

Thanks for stopping by x

Everything Dances

Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda are sponsoring Smeared Ink's 31 Days of Halloween. Every day for the duration of the event, fabulous Halloween inspired art will be shared by the Design Team at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity.

For today, here is my make :

For this standard sized card I have used the larger skeleton from Dancing Skeletons. I stamped the skeleton in memento black and added depth and shading with copics, cool greys. I outlined the image in black and fussy cut it.

The background was so fun .... I got the idea for the background behind the skeleton from a Youtuber Shana Conroy, a video entitled Dreams. Basically I painted the background with black gesso, then sprayed dylusions sprays and let it dry. I then splashed watered down white gesso onto the background, put a layer of paper on top and pulled it off. Because dylusions sprays react with water, they started to color the white gesso. I let it dry. Doesn't it look awesome, a perfect backdrop for the skeleton - thanks Shana :)

I layered this card, matting the black with distressed yellow card stock, and I stamped Carmen Veranda's grunge black swirl background onto the card base which I had first colored with distress inks.

The finishing touch was the words, which I typed on my typewriter. Cut them out and edged in black. I love Maya Angelou, and this quote from her suited this project perfectly I think.

Here is a closer look at the card :

I really enjoyed making this card ... so I decided to make a few artist trading cards too :

I used the exact same techniques and stamps, except for the stamping on the blue background. I used the same grunge black swirl, but this time I used the new ATC sized one. How great to have a smaller version for ATC's. The grunge backgrounds are really great, and there are a whole host of ATC background stamps available at Lost Coast Designs.

The words were quite amusing for one of the ATC's. Who remembers the hit from 1993, "Boom! Shake the Room"? Quite amusing the link the old-school hip-hop with the dancing skeleton.

Hope you found some inspiration here and please pop over to The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity and Smeared Ink to see the other gorgeous pieces :) 

Single Layer Card

The current challenge over at the Lost Coast Portal for Creativity is to make a Single Layer Project.

I have used Carmen's Veranda Birds Background stamp to make this card.

This Carmen's Veranda background stamp is gorgeous and actually bigger than an average card front. I made a standard 4.25" x 5.5" card. 

The background is sprayed with Dylusions, then I stamped the image with archival ink. I then spent some time using a paint brush to color the image, with various inks and stains. I love coloring, and can see the fascination with coloring books, its just so relaxing and therapeutic.

Here is my work in progress :

To finish off, I added some dark brown and white gel pen detail and accents. My final touch was to sponge on some yellow distress ink to tone it down a little, and I matted and mounted the card front.

Hope you found some inspiration here, and perhaps you will come and join the challenge to make a single layer project, there are two days left to join us. It can be tricky to not add layers and embellish a card, but I think this image is gorgeous enough without. 

Reminder that you can use any images you want to join the challenge at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity, but if you use Lost Coast Designs or Carmen's Veranda images you get a double entry to win the prize.

Hope to see you there x

Insanity Strolls Through .....

Today I am sharing a fun make with you that you might have seen in the August Circles Challenge on the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity. This is the new image : Ballerina with Fish from Carmen's Veranda. How great and original is he :)

The circles were punched out of thick card stock and added to the postcard. I then used my new Dylusions paints to finger paint the background. I stamped and clear embossed the Whitecaps Background stamp from Lost Coast Designs to add some watery texture around the fish - you can just see it in the pic. I mean, the fish may be on a leash, but he still needs to be able to breath - right ! LOL

The Ballerinas dress is colored with distress inks and blending stubbs. The skin and hat are colored with my copics. I fussy cut the image and clear embossed it.

I used my fine liner with fluid white arylic paint to add the detail and dots around the circles to accentuate them, then I glued my ballerina on top, going around him with grey inktense pencil and shadowed the ground where he is standing.

I printed the wording from my computer, cut them out and added to my circles with co-ordinating finger painting. Doesn't the wording work perfectly with the image :

"Insanity does not run in my family.

It strolls though."

Can you think of any other great quotes to accompany this image ? Please share if you do ...

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you found some inspiration here, Nikki :)