Grad !

My friends beautiful and stylish daughter just graduated, so what better stamp set to use for a card than Dylusions couture set.

Dylusions sprays made the background, then I paper pieced the dress, accenting it with white gelato. The black strip is stamped with a graduation cap from a Waltzing Mouse Stamps set, as is the congratulations.

I dont get much opportunity to make girls cards, and really appreciate when I do :-)

Flowery thinking of you

I was inspired to make this card, from a card made by Vickypgr on Youtube. She is really creative, if you wanted to check her out.

I made this card for one of my neighbours who is going through some stuff right now, she is a a wonderful gardener and there is always something in bloom in her garden.

I used a retired Stampin' Up! set called 'In Full Bloom'. I stamped the flowers onto the card and also onto scrap white cardstock. I then colored them all with my beloved copics and layered them, curling the top flowers and adding pop dots for more dimension. Doesn't it look just wonderful, so vibrant and cheery. That is a strip covered in washi tape across the middle. I would love to tell you what company makes that tape, but the names are on the packaging of washi tape, so once you discard that, you have no idea where they came from. The sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse Stamps.

Hope your day is cheery and colorful :-)

Teachers Thank You Cards

Thanking my teachers with homemade cards.

I like doing shaped cards and Spellbinders Nestabilites are perfect for that. I used some Graphic 45 patterned cardstock, Stampin' Up! real red cardstock, ink and flower ribbon. The Eiffel Tower and semtiment are both from Waltzing Mouse Stamps sets.

I recently purchased a Marianne bird die, and it was itching to be used, so I created this thank you card. Isn't that bird with the branch and leaves just adorable :-) The cardbase was naturals white Stampin' Up! cardstock, the doily is the PTI parisian doily, the sentiment and die co-ordinating stamp are from Waltzing Mouse and the flowers are from the Tim Holtz tattered flowers die. The background stamp is a retired Stampin' Up! stamp, which I stamped in versamark and then colored with perfect pearls - in real life it was a much more subtle shimmer than it appears in this photo.

Anyway, the teachers appreciated the cards, so I was happy.

Have a great day, thanks for visiting.

Mixed Media - How are you ?

I always held the belief that a scrapbook page should be done in a day, I often worked away at one page until it was done, and only then did I begin another. THEN I discovered the wonderful world of mixed media. The main issue being drying time. Yes, I can dry it with my heat tool, but I found it heats up my other pages too and whatever is on the back of the page - which I do not necessarily want. So I am enjoying not rushing, just taking my time and keeping coming back to work on a page.

My pages seem to have so many deep meanings, I want to capture my inner thoughts and feelings, things that are special or have some significance to me. Through my art journalling I can right injustices, record my memories, express myself in a way that is deep and meaningful to me.

This page is my first venture into collage. I am inspired by the work by Sandra Van Den Bogaard and others, not that I could ever produce work as wonderful as that, but what I like about mixed media is that it is so personal. So long as I like it, thats all that matters. There is no right or wrong, nice or not nice, its a totally subjective experience. I am never afraid to try new things : if it doesn't work out, then that ok, I learned something. Experimentation is soooo exciting :-)

What I wanted to portray in this page is that sometimes people are not ok ! When passing by some people and they ask you 'How are you?', they sometimes dont even pause in their stride to wait for your response. The expected response is 'good', but what if you're not ? Do you stop them and say. "Well actually, I'm having a bit of a hard time at the moment.....etc". No, you dont do that. We conceal how we feel, being dishonest with ourselves really - hence the Pinocchio nose and the little sapling growing there. It may seem to be a negative message, but its not really, its capturing reality, an everyday occurrence.

The background was sprayed with dylusions sprays, the collage was made from magazine cut outs. It takes ages looking through magazines for just the right images, then piecing them together and embellishing them with pens, crowns, eyes etc ! I think I found the perfect pair for this pages deep message. The words were stamped with an alphabet stamp, then written over with platinum liquid pearls, highlighted in black and then white pen. The edging was done with Hero Arts edge set, and the thought bubbles were using an old Stampin' Up! set.

I enjoyed the challenge of collage and will definitely be venturing here again.

Thanks for visiting, hope you found some inspiration :-)

Mixed Media Layouts - Hawaii

Since starting on this whole mixed media journey, I have really neglected some of my card making and scrapbooking supplies. Whilst some will lend themselves to mixed media, others will not. So I had to go shopping for more stuff, it was terrible, really terrible ...... as you can imagine ! LOL

I love this moleskin watercolor paper journal, the quality of the book and the shape of the pages are really amazing for some pages.

For this page I really wanted to capture the Hawaiin theme. Whenever I am in an uncomfortable position - like the dentists chair, this is the place I escape to. I can feel the breeze and so vividly remember how relaxed and content I felt, with a beautiful blue sky and ocean view.

I used my dylusions sprays as the base, then some shimmer paint with a stencil. The gesso with the same stencil and orange dylusions spray. There is so much interest and texture in the background, I love it. Then everything else was layered on top, orchids from a WMS set, stamped and colored with copics, leaves are from a hero arts set. I stamped some waves from the WMS set Free Spirits in versamark across the bottom and embossed them in clear powder. It really emphasised the blue. I doodled around the edges, colored the pattern with black marker and orange gelato, and journalled around the edgs. I highlighted the inside of the doodle with blue gelato. The image of me was printed, fussy cut and adhered with gel medium, then the outline done in Faber Castell white india ink. The lettering is from 3 sets, 'Going to' is from and old See-D's alphabet stamp set. 'MY' is from a PTI alphabet die set, and 'Happy Place' is die cut using Tim Holtz alphabet set.

I really enjoy this page, I feel its emphasized and reinforced the significance of this time and place to me. I hope you can find some inspiration to capture your favorite time or place. Thanks for visiting :-)

Kids cards

I love making cards for kids, its so much fun. It bring out my inner child I think ! lol

This was for a boys birthday. I havent used my Sizzix film strip die for ages, but its so great to frame and image. I stamped all those crazy animals and monsters and colored with my copics. I have recently sorted all my stamps into categories, 'nature', 'backgrounds', 'sentiments' etc. The largest by far is my 'animals' box ! lol.

This card is for a nature/bug party and the accompanying gift is butterfly solar lights for the garden - how fantastic is that :-) I'm sure the Birthday girl will love it.

The rose red SU cardstock was the basis for this card because I wanted the jar to stand out. I stamped the jar, from the SU set Perfectly Preserved, in white stazon onto a window sheet and die cut it. The effect is that the butterflies are flying out of the jar. But you got that - right :-)

The butterflies are from two SU stamp sets : Kindness Matters and Papillon Porpourri. I stamped them, colored them with SU markers and then clear embossed them to make them shiny. It really makes the colors pop.

The grass is from a My Favourite Things die, and some gorgeous washi tape brings all the colors together - wish the name of the company was on these rolls of tape !

Hope you like it, thanks for visiting and have a great weekend x