Halloween Humour

You know sometimes things are all so serious, and other times you just fancy something light hearted and humorous ... well I had such a feeling in connection to a Halloween creation ... See what I mean ? LOL

This postcard was so much fun to create, I gesso'd my mixed media paper, thick lumpy gesso at the top for some texture, then when it was dry (finger tapping waiting ... impatient etc LOL) I used dylusions sprays. I resized the the digi images from The Sailing Pineapple , witch legs and zentangle tree from the angle bird paradise set.  The images were colored with copics and prisma pencils. I added white detailing to the tree, then shading all around the images and background with a graphite pencil and blending stub. 'BEWARE' was cut out with a Sizzix alphabet die, the 'low flying witch' was stamped with an alphabet set in stazon.

Now that was fun. I have no idea if there is any significance or hidden meaning to the words, I really dont think there is ... other than I had a few hours of orange, green and purple escapism ....

Thanks for stopping by x

Stampin' Up! cards ...

Making cards for the technique classes I run. It feels like a long time since I have done this, I guess it was 4 months. Took me a while to get back into the swing of it, but so great to get together and craft with all those super eager crafters again.

Two cards we made, both focussing on emboss resist :

Firstly using the large background stamp, Swallowtail. The butterfly was embossed using clear embossing powder, then various colors sponged over the image. The excess ink wiped away with a kleenex. Its almost like magic how the butterfly appears when the color starts to be added, it suddenly pops :)

 I wanted to do something a bit different so the large butterfly actually flows over to the back of the regular 4.25 x 5.5" card. The sentiment is from a limited edition set called Good Greetings, and we used the word window and modern label punch, with an old olive bow :)

 The second card uses the Pleasant Poppies background stamp, and we embossed in white on crumb cake / kraft cardstock. The poppies are colored using  rich razzleberry Stampin' write marker. The poppies are die cut using the Bigz clear oval accent die, and a separate white piece die cut for the sentiment, which  is from the Blooming with Kindness stamp set.

 Some additional poppies are fussy cut and pop dotted in place. A couple of rhinestones added for bling and watered down white acrylic paint flicked on with a paint brush.

I have 8 people in each of my technique classes, and they all really enjoyed these cards x

I always make little thank you's, this months :

Monochromatic ...

What a fun challenge it is to make a monochromatic project. I just love these Chubby Mermaid images, from The Sailing Pineapple. This is 'Queen of Hearts' : 

I used all of my grey copics to color her.  It was in fact a grey-copics party (lol) and they all had fun, my warm, cold, tonal and neutral greys :) She was fussy cut after coloring. See how beautiful she is :

My background was made using torn pieces of grey paper, stuck down with gel medium. I roughly covered the whole 6 x 4.25 postcard in gel medium. I then colored molding paste with paynes grey acrylic paint, and applied it through a heart stencil. When it was dry I went over everything with a grey wash. Then outlined the hearts and edge with my inktense charcoal grey. 

I adhered Queen of Hearts with dimensionals, added my sentiment and it was done :) I was really happy with how it worked out. It is quite the challenge to work in one color/tone of color. It really makes you think.

Thanks for visiting :)

Nikki x

Sassy Studio atc

This weeks atc challenge at Wicked Wednesday is 'Support our Troops', sponsored by Sassy Studio. Look at this awesome image, in her desert camouflage, she is called Army Honey :)

I resized the image and printed it, I also printed the words. I searched online for free pointing finger images. Remember the 'We/ I Want You' posters ? I wanted to simulate that, in my own way :) I resized them and used them as my background. 

The camouflage outfit was made by again searching online for free patterns, resizing and printing. Army Honeys outfit was then paper pieced. I lightly sponged pink over the background and outfit. The rest of her, skin, hair and boots was colored with copics.

Thanks for visiting :)

Flip Flop Junkie

I made this cute card for The Sailing Pineapple challenge, My Favourite Things. 

I love the summer, when you can just get up and go, in flip flops and shorts etc. Winter is soooo much more complicated here in Canada ! As the summer comes to an end, thought I'd celebrate the freedom of the flip flop .... LOL

This is a mixed media project, the background is made with gelatos and white embossing for the spots and words. I wanted to give the flip flops an old and worn look, so I messily (is that a word ? LOL) gesso'd them first. When it was dry I colored them with gelatos, and lightly sanded them. You can see the texture of the gesso showing through. I used my inktense pencils to do the blue detailing, and pinched and scrunched up flowers for the fancy toe pieces. Adding glimmer brads. Here is a close up :

Thanks for stopping by :)

Altered Playing Card Week 3

Another fun challenge, my Week 3 altered playing cards :

The background of this grungey steam punk card was created with alcohol inks. The color was too dark so I ended up trying to lighten it with my blending solution and totally loved the effect, even more grungey and the gesso started to breakdown a little. The Cogs are from a die set by Memory Box. I die cut them with core'dinations cardstock and sanded them. I decided to incorporate the negative part of my die cut into the design too. I wrote the words 'space and time' and 'The World of imagination is boundless'. I don't do grunge, but I liked making this and was very happy with the result :)

 A fall theme here for my second playing card. The gesso is very textured in the background, and that really shows up when adding distress ink with the blending tool. I used yellow, orange, some brown and green. The bird is a die set from Marianne Design. I die cut it in three colors, brown, yellow and green. I sponged them in co-ordinating darker shades and then layered them onto the green image which I glued down first. Then I added the leaves at the top, a maple lead - gotta show a little Canadian eh ! Lol I did lots of highlighting in burgundy and black Faber Castell artist pitt pens and a white gel pen. I love the sketchy look and the detail added to the bird, it was silhouette previously. I wrote the word 'Fall'.

 I had lots of fun and am looking forward to Challenge number 4 :) Its certainly got me working outside of my normal style. Nikki x

Altered Playing Card week 2

I thought I would join this fun altered playing card challenge, hosted by the very talented Claudine Criner.

Week one was to gesso a full pack of 52 cards ...

Week two is create .... (hit week two link to be taken to Claudines related blog post)

Here is what I created from Claudines inspiration, two quite different pieces of art.

I did a close up of this nature one to show the texture of the gesso in the background. I did all sorts of different things with my gesso when prepping the 52 cardpack. For this one I smoothed and dabbed with my pallet knife. The dylusions sprays really shows the texture. For this card I used a wildflower stamp from a Blue Indigo stamp set which I embossed with clear embossing powder, and the words are from set JCS171 from Darcies. The butterfly is from a die from Cheery Lynn Designs, Exotic Butterfly Small. I would have used a solid butterfly but I liked how you can see through the wings to the dylusions ink below. I sponged the butterfly lightly with dylusions too.

For this altered playing card, I used dylusions for the background, then I used a fairy stamp by Stamping Bella. I colored her with copics, fussy cut her. Her hair was fun. I colored it brown, then put white gel pen squiggles into it. When it had dried I went over it again with copics, I love how it looks and its now textured. The hearts were punch from a retured Stampin'Up! heart punch and the circles from circle punches. I used the white gel pen to add doodling and the white embossed bubbles are from JOFY09 by PaperArtsy. I added a strip of torn pink wash beneath my fairy and then debated wording .... I decided on 'seek joy'. Its such a jolly, happy and carefree card, it just seemed to fit somehow.

 Looking forward to next weeks inspiration from Claudine, although everyones creations vary so much ... its fabulous to just be given an idea and then to develop it yourself/ in your own style :)

Thanks for visiting, please leave me a comment so I know you were here x

Stampotique 'Naughty' atc trade

Making atc's again (oooooooh how I love to make atc's). This time for the Stampotique atc trade I facilitate in the Stampotique facebook group. The title was 'Naughty'. Here is my atc and accompanying tag :)

 This, as you can see, is Minky Girl pole dancing ! LOL I used a sentiment from a Dylusions set - it was just perfect. I made a boo boo though ... I totally forgot to leave her unglued, so she could slide up and down the pole - doh ! I realised the day I mailed the atc's, to the Netherlands and UK. So sorry girls - it was meant to be interactive. Bit disappointing.

The tag features Molly, holding her 'admit one' ticket for the pole dancing show . lol

Thanks for stopping by x

Wonderful You

Recently I made a wedding card using pieces from Southern Ridge Trading chipboard set WDG-310, the female silhouette/bride and sentiment 'love'. The other pieces in the set are a male figure and hearts. So I thought I would utilize these other pieces for a simple anniversary or male appreciation card for my hubby - we are approaching our 16th year wedding anniversary :) 

The male figure is painted with black acrylic. His bow tie, buttons and the smallest heart from the set are painted in a burgundy acrylic paint. Glitter embossing powder was used for the Stampotique heart banner. The little 'you' is from a stamp set from Waltzing Mouse Stamps. 

The sentiment 'wonderful' is debossed using a Ranger folder and detail added with a geli roll clear glitter pen. I love the contrast of the subtle glitter with the strong red heart.

Thanks for visiting x

Stripes atc

What a cute image, this is Pip by A&T Designs/Emerald Faeries. I used her for my 'Stripes' themed atc at the Wicked Wednesday atc challenge blog :

She is colored with copics and prisma color pencils. The cloud patterned paper is from the Fun & Funky 6x6 paperpack by Donna Salazar Designs. I actually added a thin layer of watered down gesso over the cloud paper to tone it down a little ...  

I really wanted to show the water in all its gorgeous, fluid self, so I used liquid pearls in my favourite color platinum pearl. 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, please leave a comment if you feel so inclined :)

Nikki x

The Sailing Pineapple Blog Hop

If you find yourselves here, you have possibly come from Vikki's blog. Hope you had fun there .....

The title of this blog hop is Anything Goes, and I have used one of the stamps for sale through The Sailing Pineapple, by Mary Ellen Smith.

Such a cute image to work with, and perfect for a kids Birthday card.

The image is colored with copics, and I added sparkle to the cupcake. Every cupcake is deserving of some sort of sparkle in my opinion. Yum, looks good enough to eat ...

Before you carry on your journey by hopping over to Traceys blog, I will explain a few prizes you can win ...

By commenting on this blog post, you will be in the draw to win one of my favourite TSP images, Oscar the cat, so leave me a comment - good luck :)

There is also a $15 Store voucher for digital images, which will be randomly drawn from comments left on the Blog Hop post at The Sailing Pineapple Blog. 

All the winners will be announced on TSP Blog on October 5^th

Strutting Birthday card ...

Birthday card I made .... will be much appreciated I'm sure :) Love this image by Kraftin Kimmie Stamps.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day x

Thinking of you ...

Just a week ago, we lost a close family friend. I had made this card at a retreat, I liked it and was saving it for just the right occasion. I know she would have loved it x

Birthday cards - Stampotique style

Made a couple of these Birthday cards, and I loved personalising them. Used images from Stampotique, colored with copics, bit of glitter in the cake topping and some bling. What well deserving cupcake doesn't have bling. LOL

Birthday cake surprise

For a Birthday party recently, I did a simple and slightly alternative take on money in a card ... Used an image from The Sailing Pineapple, resized to accomodate the $.

It was a quandary how to attach the $, so I actually sewed loops and threaded the money in :)

Thanks for visiting :)

Favourite Color Combo - Wicked Wednesday challenge

The sponsor of this weeks Wicked Wednesday atc Challenge is All Dressed Up. I loved this Fairy Magic image, and here is my design team sample : The title of favourite color combo. I love pink with blue or green

She is colored with distress inks (salty ocean for the dress and ribbon), then I went over them with some co-ordinating blues and browns to add some depth and texture. Added a little white for highlights.

The wings and butterflies are colored with a little distress ink and then Tsukineko champagne mist. I love working with this, its so gorgeously transparent and shiny, and isn't too wet that it buckles the paper. 

I left one of the butterflies outside of the atc and gave it wire antennae. The background is sponged in victorian velvet, edged in salty ocean and mounted on navy blue card stock.

I loved the sentiment. The wording Fairy Magic is already part of the image, but I added 'Believe in'. We all need a little bit of belief in something magical, dont we ?

Also entering this project into :
Crafting at the Weekend - Anything goes
Digi Sketch Challenge -  Its a Girl Thing

Thanks for stopping by, Nikki x

Fall fun ...

I fell in love with this image, 'Rory collecting autumn leaves' by Lacy Sunshine / Heather Valentin. Isn't she just gorgeous x The leaves (NAT-393) from Southern Ridge Trading Company were the perfect compliment to this fall artist trading card.

Rory is colored with copics and fussy cut. I chose three leaves from the pack of 10 from Southern Ridge Trading Co, I sponged them lightly at the edge with walnut stain and drew in some light vein detail. 

The patterned paper is from a paper pack from Close to my Heart called Balloon Ride. I lightly sponged the edge and mounted it onto a co-ordinating blue.

I love making atc's and love the challenge of making them to a theme, I hope you can come and join us at Wicked Wednesday atc challenge blog :)

Nikki x