Bereavement card ...

I dont really 'enjoy' making bereavement cards. But what I do like, because I am a card maker and crafter, I like to be able to spend time contemplating and creating something special for a family, to put my time, efforts and thoughts for them into something beautiful. 

Wings atc

Wings was an interesting atc title, its so easy to think birds, butterflies, dragon flies etc. My mind wandered to fairies and Peter Pan. Tinkerbell being the ultimate in cool fairy :) I recently acquired a Stamping Bella stamp set, The Pixies set A. A set of 4 and they are soooo cute. 

My atc : 

I am just loving Victoria Velvet distress ink at the moment, everything I make seems to be pink ... LOL. 

I used Tsukineko all purpose ink on the wand and wings, when I tilted the atc to catch the light, you can see the shine :

Thanks for visiting :)

Beautiful Blooms

This week the challenge on the Wicked Wednesday atc blog is Beautiful Blooms, sponsored by DRS Designs. The digital images are so gorgeous, I had fun with this one, daffodil frame :

I have done a technique here called stained glass window, but boy is it difficult to photograph ! I printed the image onto card stock and onto velum. Then I cut out the middle section of the frame out on the card stock copy, leaving some of the leaves and a petal and butterfly that were flowing to the outside of the frame. I then colored the back side of the velum with colored markers. When you hold this to the light the color on the back of the velum shows through, like a stained glass window :) I attached the cardstock and velum together.

I colored the frame with markers and lightly distressed the edge of the frame. I stamped and white embossed the wording, and added a little white detail around the flowers and on the butterfly with my uniball signo white gel pen.

Here is a picture with light behind the atc :

You can see how the image sort of glows, but the front of the atc is dark ... hmm hard to photograph.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave me a comment x
Nikki

Pink, black and kraft

The challenge at The Sailing Pineapple Blog was pink, black and kraft. This is a postcard, the image by Lizzy Love/Oddball Arts is 3.25" high. Isn't she gorgeous xxx

She is stamped onto Ranger Speciality Stamping paper and colored with distress inks using cut n' dry nibs. The ground was made by adding Ranger gluestick through a stencil and smushing it around a bit (yes, smushing, a very technical term... lol). Then when I sponged the back ground with my favourite color distress ink, Victorian Velvet. The color adheres to the glued part different, giving a totally awesome ground effect. 

I masked off the image and stamped a word stamp across the background, then cut some bunting/banners and added them, with the wording 'Bookclub Party'. The idea for that wording came from how possessively she is holding onto her book, with all the bunting - must be a party :)

Thanks for stopping by, Nikki x

Wedding Card

I dont seem to make many wedding cards these days, so was a bit rusty in the romance department... lol. I remembered a while ago seeing a card with the collar cut out, so decided to try that as a wedding card. I used a couple of pieces of chipboard from the fantastic set by Southern Ridge Trading Company, WDG-310. It was the perfect size for a standard 4.25 x 5" card.

The dress and sentiment were painted with off white acrylic paint, then I added some shading and dimension using a grey Faber Castell artist pitt pen. Everything was then embossed with a thick layer of clear embossing powder, it is now lovely and shiny.

The bouquet was made using various Prima flowers and other embellishments from my stash. I loved the end result, it was simply and classical. 

Thanks for visiting, hope you found some inspiration here, Nikki x

Back to school ....

Time for Tea sponsored this weeks atc challenge at Wicked Wednesday, the topic being : Back to school. We have teachers job action here in B.C., Canada at the moment so I am wondering if the kids will in fact return to school early September. We'll have to wait and see ....

My atc for this weeks challenge :

The digital stamp is called 'Apple for the Teacher', and she was a pleasure to work with. I paper pieced the dress and colored the rest of her with copics. After I paper pieced the dress, I actually added a layer of gel medium, and when it was dry I added some shading to the skirt with my green Faber Castell artist pit pen :) Lots of fussy cutting here, I think I must like it !

I loved the tight rope idea, and it was what sprung to mind as soon as I saw the image. I made the posts and drew the wood grain on. I added Close to My Heart square metal-looking embellishments to the posts - they were perfect for the job. I thought the wording was fun : 'What easy way?' means that sometimes we just take the most difficult route, I dont know why, we just do :)

Thanks for visiting, hope you found some inspiration here :)
Nikki x

Molly makes her debut ...

My most recent Stampotique purchase is Molly, isn't she fabulous .... She made her debut on a tag :

I painted white cardstock with black gesso and then stamped Molly and embossed with clear embossing powder. I love the grainy look on the solid parts of the image, the wings etc. I colored Molly and the Dylusions wording with perfect pearls. She is so lovely and shiny :

The background was made with Paper Artsy Chalk Acrylics - I really like them. Need to get some new colors actually as everything I have made recently is these lovely pastels :)

Hope you found some inspiration here. Thanks for visiting, please leave me a comment x

Black & White

The title was black & white for the Stampotique atc trade on facebook, and my first thought was black & white tv. And you know when you just have to go with your gut feeling ..... so I did :

I stamped the background onto the Ranger speciality stamping paper after having stamped off a few times and then swiped across with a credit card with black ink on it. I wanted to get that sort of distorted grainy look of the old black & white tv screens. I stamped Minky girl onto the background, coloring her body with grey pen. I stamped her face separately on white and paper pieced it on. The knock knock was stamped with an alphabet set I have, and embossed.

I cut the wooden framed tv from a paper pack and with my craft knife and cut out the centre, the tv screen part. I added a layer of transparency, a couple of brads for the control knobs and popped it up :)

I always decorate the back of my atcs to. I figure that if I spent that long on the front, I may as well do justice to the back : 

Thanks for stopping by, please leave me a comment / some love .... Nikki x

Swim thank you's ..

I made three thank you cards for swim coaches featuring an adorable Viva Las Vegas Stamp :

I stamped and black embossed the swimmer, and using a mask I sponged the glossy cardstockwith distress ink and flicked water onto it. Left it for about 10 seconds and dabbed the water and ink away. The image is colored with copics, and I hand cut the swim caps. The water was die cut with a border die and the sentiment embossed on it. 

The masking of the image looked like this : More fussy cutting ... love it... weird I know .... lol

I scored the card 3/4 of an inch either side of the central fold and punched out a thin strip, to accommodate a gift card as a thank you gift.

Fun !

Thanks for stopping by :)

Nikki x

We all screamed for ice cream ...

Great challenge on the Wicked Wednesday atc challenge blog, sponsored by Sami Stamps. Title is Something Sweet. Here is my dt creation. I am also entering this into the Sami Stamps challenge, link here :  Sami Stamps

The ice cream is meant to be dripping and creating a bit of a sea... did you get that ? LOL I used acetate as my atc base, so behind the Sami Stamps image is clear. Hopefully it added to my ice cream sea a little more :)

The pink and blue background is something I found in my stash. It came as a gift from someone in the Stampotique atc trade I facilitate, there were a few different atc sized backgrounds actually, but this one inspired my ice cream creation :) I think it looks like bubble gum flavour - what do you think ?

The Sami Stamps image was resized in MS word, printed, colored with copics and fussy cut.

I paper pieced the ice cream in the cone by printing the image onto cheap printer paper, adhering (using temporary tape) the patterned paper over the area I wanted to be printed, in this case the ice cream. Then ran through my printer again. The ice cream prints in the same place, but this time onto my patterned paper :)

 I then cut if out and glued it over the top of my copics colored image.

It was a fun image to work with, here is a pic of the whole Sami Stamps image I used and the end result :)

Thanks for visiting, Nikki x

Flip Flop ...

Made a postcard for the summer challenge at The Sailing Pineapple blog this week :

The background was made by coloring various colors of Paper Artsy chalk acrylics randomly. When it dried I covered the whole thing in paynes grey acrylic paint. I splashed water onto it, waited until the unwatered grey was dry and used a baby wipe to remove the watered parts. The water stops the paint from drying ... Thanks Andy Skinner for that technique :)

I printed the flip flops on my printer, colored them with inktense pencils, embossed them in clear powder and cut them out. Flowers and brads were added.

I used individual letter stamps to stamp the sentiment, cut it out and doodled around them words to match the doodled edge of the flip flops.

This is another page in my optimist / positive affirmation book :) 

Thanks for visiting, please leave me a comment :)

Nikki x

SDC159 : Bows : Stampotique Designers Challenge

I haven't joined in the Designers Challenge for a while, but bows and ribbon what a wonderful idea. I loved Jackie's intro to ribbon on the challenge blog, and it inspired me to play. Here is my easel card, featuring the adorable Agatha Star. Less the stars this time though, she is making wishes with dandelion seed heads.

I love to use acetate, so stamped my Hero Arts dandelion type of flowers on the acetate and the card base, and wrapped and adhered the ribbon, like so :

Agatha Star was stamped and colored with a combination of copics and inktense pencils. She was die cut and the edges lightly sponged. I intentionally removed the star and added a dandelion seed, and a few to the acetate too.

The easel card is made by folding the front of the card in half and adhering a sheet, in this case the acetate sheet, to the front. You can more easily see in these pics :

I loved making this project, as much as I love bright colors, its so nice to work in subtles sometimes.

Just found out, chosen in the Stampotique top 3 this week - happy happy joy joy .... :)

Thanks for stopping by. Nikki x

Feel the Love .....

I came across this quote by Pamela White, and it just struck a chord with me. We should love who and what we are. We can be so down on ourselves, lets give a little praise and love instead. 

"Theres nothing more dangerous than a lack of self love. 

So put your hand on your heart and feel the love"

My 4 page journal spread features Pondering Petunia from Dylusions, Paper Artsy 'Smell the Flowers' stamp set and chipboard heart frame HRT-076 from Southern Ridge Trading Company. I actually used my dylusions shaped stamping block as a guide to cut the middle page of the spread down, as seen in the pics below :

The wording of the quote goes across three pages : 

I really liked this chipboard heart frame,  HRT-076

And look how flippin' awesome Pondering Petunia looks. I colored her with inktense pencils and then added pink flowery washi tape to her dress. The hat is made from Dylusions set, doodle. Then I colored them with inktense, added a layer of the same washi tape. Cut them out, edged with black sharpie and intertwined them. I think THAT is an awesome hat :)

My background was made by adding various colors of acrylic paint to the page, then covering in a solid layer of titanium white. Whilst the paint was still wet I flicked water onto it, which prevented those sections from drying. Then when the rest of the white was dry, I removed the water and wet paint with kitchen paper. I saw a similar technique in an Andy Skinner video on you tube.

I love this Paper Artsy flowers cling stamp set, called 'smell the flowers', I have coveted it for a long long time .... Finally it is mine, all mine (insert maniacal laugh here .... LOL). I stamped them in coffee archival ink and colored them with my gelatos. A strip of the pink flowery washi was added to make the ground :)

It was fun and so therapeutic making this page, and I used all my favorite colors :). Hope you find some positive inspiration here :) Nikki x

Wicked Wednesday atc challenge blog news ....

How exciting, and how totally suited to me .... I was invited to join the design team at Wicked Wednesday atc challenge blog. I just know I will LOVE it here, there is a weekly sponsored challenge. So I will get to create with a whole range of different and fabulous images. So excited .... The other dt members are so talented, it will keep me on my toes !

The first challenge was sponsored by Delicious Darkness, and the title was Leo (astrological / zodiac sign). The Delicious Darkness images are so OMG gorgeous, check it out : http://deliciousdarkness2.blogspot.co.uk/. There is also http://deliciousdoodles.blogspot.ca/ for your not-so-dark crafting needs .... LOL.

Here is my first dt sample : drum roll ......

You can check out the challenge and the other dt samples here :
http://wickedwednesdayatc.blogspot.ca/2014/08/wicked-wednesday-atc-challenge-148-leo.html

So, how did I transform this fab digital leo image into him tearing his way out .... I did step by step shots :

I started by resizing the image in microsoft word, to be slightly smaller than an atc. I printed it and cut it out. I then added a layer of gel medium. I did this because I knew I wanted to use a glue layer and didn't want the paper to be too porous, or destroy the image if something stuck where is shouldn't have .... Plus it gave the image a sort of eerie feel and a great texture.

 I then used regular printer paper, colored it with iced spruce distress ink, crumpled it up and inked the creases.

 Look how cool it looks close up :

 I then added a layer of gel medium around the edges of my printed image, where I wanted the paper to stick, and started tearing the paper from the inside out to the glued edge. I inked the inside white paper with iced spruce and crumpled and glued it down to get the look I wanted. I left the bottom claws free of glue, cut them out and popped them over the top of the torn paper - it really adds to the drama of the image tearing through the paper .....

 Then I painted some of the detail in the face and hands in victorian velvet distress ink. I colored a strip of cardstock with this ink and stamped some of the words from the new Dina Wakeley stamp set, cut them out and sponged the edges in iced spruce. The words were added to the atc.

I loved making this atc, thanks for visiting, please leave me a comment and follow my blog .... Nikki x

TSP 14, Bingo Challenge

Well I have to admit that I have never done a bingo challenge before, but I liked it .... The Sailing Pineapple hallenge this week :)

Here are my atc's :

I resized the flower image for atc's, printed them and colored with my inktense and prisma pencils. I printed additional flowers and popped those up to add dimension. The little bee is a sticker and I added splatters to the background and co-ordinating patterned paper.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment :)

Summer lovin' atc

So the topic of this months local atc trade was Summer Lovin'. What sprung to mind immediately was the movie : Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.

So I made a mixed media background and gel medium image transfer. Now that was fun ! I wrote a couple of lines from the song 'Summer Lovin' along the profile of the images. And tadaarr ... finished.

 This was my background made with acrylic paints. I did a whole 8.5x11" sheet so have extra for other projects. I love doing that and its amazing how often these cut off pieces come in handy. Also it means I am doing it more randomly. Often if I am working in a set area, I seem to make everything fit, so its all matchy-matchy ! LOL Since mixed media arrived in my life, I don't like doing that.

 I found this free image online, resized it in word and printed on my ink jet printer. I fussy cut the images out.

Then I added a layer of gel medium to my image (not my background as I wanted to write on the background later). I firmly adhered my images to the background, using a brayer. If you miss even a little spot, there is no glue for the image to adhere to and you will have holes in your image. Sometimes you may actually want that though. Then I waited patiently (finger tapping, tap, tap, tap) until it all dried. When it was dry I took a damp cloth and started to rub away the backing paper.

You have to be careful, its very easy to wreck the image, especially as more of the paper is removed. The last layer of paper from the image can be removed very carefully with a wet finger.

And for the back of my atc, the T-Birds car, tire marks and my favourite line from the movie ...

Hope you find some inspiration and please leave me a comment x