Friday, February 27, 2015

House ATC

For the Mixed Media ATC group I am part of, the challenge was houses. Now my mind could have gone to home and a lovely twee little homestead, but no .... Off I go to outhouses ! LOL I love this stamp from Impression Obsession called His and hers, and use it at every opportunity :
Hahahahahaha did you fall off your seat in shock and laughter ? I know it amused me greatly :) I freely admit at this point to having a weird sort of toilet humour !

The background is done with Lindy's Stamp Gang starburst sprays, with some white acrylic and dry wall tape added. See the white bottom right ? Thats toilet paper ... True ! LOL

The outhouse is colored using Neocolor II's and kroma crackle added to the door, and a brad for the handle. I added a layer of acrylic ground for pastels and sanded it a little to get a rough and distressed look. I wrote the sentiment and outlined the house in white gel pen and mounted the finished front onto white card stock.

 I made four of these ATC's in total and they are all slightly different. On some I added tissue paper for the flowers at the side of the door. I really liked how the colors worked this and the rough and distressed feel against the smooth and shiny background. L:ots of contrast :)

Thanks for stopping by x

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Some Elephant Love

You know how sometimes you see or read something that inspires you to create. This happened to me when I saw a picture of an elephant online with the caption : 
'No-one in the world needs an Elephant tusk but an Elephant'. 

 This is my creation featuring this imposing and wonderful animal, The Elephant from Safari Set by Lost Coast Designs.
The background is done with alcohol ink on acetate, then I stamped the elephant and individual letters with archival ink. When it was dry I removed the archival ink with paper towel and it removed the alcohol ink as well. Isn't that an effective technique.

The ground is made from torn and layered book paper. The acetate is mounted on pale ivory cardstock. 

A close up of the elephant. Note that he is in a hat, I love that and see many used for this wonderful set, both serious and fun.
The elephant is a very symbolic animal and very proud. Its an honour to use an image in my work.
Thanks for stopping by x

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Cute Creatures

Woot woot its Wednesday, time for a new challenge at Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge blog. The sponsor this week is 2 Cute Ink, and the ATC title is Cute Creatures. 
This is Country Pig Couple
I printed the images a few times, resizing one pig to be larger. I fussy cut them and colored with copics.
The background was created with Neocolor II's and white ink through a stencil. I used torn washi tape strips for the ground and the words were generated from my PC. 

I was laughing at why I thought fussy cutting 5 little pigs would be a good idea. But you know when you just get an idea in your head ? I am a completer-finisher, so saw this ATC through to the end :) I like how it turned out, and its perfect for the Cute Creatures title :)

Thanks for stopping by x

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

SCACD Brave Hearts and Eclectic 2 Rubber Stamp Release

SCACD celebrates today the two recently released NEW exclusive rubber stamp sets. They are the Brave Hearts ( a group of 4 empowered gals) as well as Eclectic Collection 2 (a combo of six steampunk and ethereal stamps). With the Eclectic 2 collection if you buy the entire set you get 4 FREE date stamp words. SCACD Artist Carmen Medlin and Susana collaborated on the images and we are so happy to be showcasing them to you now :D



Now available for purchase in the USA HERE for the Brave Hearts and Eclectic 2 sets.


Our International Friends can purchase SCACD rubber stamps at Quixotic Paperie HERE



SCACD Digital images for USA and International can always be found HERE 


I love taking part in these SCACD events and my creation for this release uses the super new bee ware image. This gorgeous little steam punk guy is available as a digital stamp and rubber stamp - which is awesome. I made an Artist Trading Card, with lots of embellishments :


You should be going next to Crystal if you are lost then head back to the SCACD Store Blog HERE 

Monday, February 23, 2015

Happy UnBirthday

Stampotique challenge this week, #183 is to make an unbirthday card. Hmmmm, I have never received or given one but I put my thinking cap on and decided on something very un-Birthday-ish, perhaps a Birthday cake with Stanpotique legs instead of candles. LOL :

I used mostly stamps by Daniel Torrente.
 Loving the glittery icing, yum, wish it was real, I could eat it to celebrate my unbirthday today. LOL

Thanks for stopping by x

Friday, February 20, 2015

Dragon themed projects

I am a keen dragon boater and this year I was tasked with making thank you cards for our coaches, steers etc. I saw this awesome 9x12" stencil from Stencil Girl Products. 

These are the four cards I made. They are all 5x7" and used a variety of techniques and substances :

This one is a stamped background in distress ink, then I used peacock feathers distress ink through the stencil. I then added some white craft ink and outlined the dragon in black :
 This is white molding paste on a black card stock through the stencil. When it was dry I put the stencil back in place and added versamark, then shabby pink Stampendous embossing enamel, which I heat set. Its so glittery and I love the texture.
 The marbled background on this card is created with the shaving foam technique. When it was dry I used the stencil with Wendy Vecchi's translucent embossing paste.
 For this dragon card I painted the background with acrylic paint, then I mixed up some thick gloss medium with acrylic paint. I added some brown distress ink and rubbed away at it a little to give this grunge/distressed look.
And the final project is actually a wooden canvas. This is the team motivational saying from the 2014 season, what our steer's man would say to us just before a race. In other words, bring it girls !
 Here is a close up of the head. I used Lindys Stamp Gang starburst sprays in the background and then with the stencil I used Wendy Vecchi crackled texture paste. I love the texture I created with the pallet knife and all the little cracks. I colored this with wild honey and vintage photo distress stain.
Thanks for stopping by x

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Fishing Fun ATC

Making an ATC for Wicked Wednesday this week using this cute image from Squigglefly called 'A good catch Max'. The sentiment is from the same company too. I paired the image with the perfect heart from Southern Ridge Trading Company. This is one of the hearts I cut off from the border strip BOR-150 :
 The heart is gesso'd and painted with acrylic paint, the sentiment added to it.
The boy and sky are colored with copics, the sky I pounced with blending solution on a blending tool. The water is glittery wrapping paper scrunched up, and I made a hook out of wire :)

Thanks for stopping by x

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Gnarly Dude

The Mixed Media ATC trade this month was entitled Tags, so an ATC with a tag. I thought I would double tag it - a tag on a tag, get it ? LOL  I used Twinkie from Stampotique for this project, because he is after all, one Gnarly Dude !  Although he is a little bit naughty to be doing graffiti ! LOL
First I painted the background messily (is that a word ? LOL) in a few colors :
Then I colored molding paste with brown acrylic paint and used a brick stencil, adding glass glitter when it was wet. Twinkie was stamped, colored with copics and fussy cut. The Gnarly tag took me ages, I was googling graffiti tags, its harder to do that it looks you know ! LOL But it turned out ok. The Dude are die cut letters from the same painted card stock as above.

Have a gnarly day x

Simplicity

Today I would like to share an art journal page I created, using Cityscape and the Licence Plate alphabet from Lost Coast Designs.
I really enjoyed the play on words here with simpli .... 'city'. The thought behind this page is that life is so busy, over populated and we are over stimulated, its good to go back to the simple things in life and enjoy them :)

My page is also simply constructed, I masked and stamped the cityscape in the three colors, overlapping them slightly. I used yellow ink as a sort of watercolor wash effect for the sky. The page is edged in brown distress ink. I created an additional page just like this one and stamped my individual letters and cut them out. They are also lightly sponged around the edge in brown distress ink.
Thanks for stopping by :)

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Fairy Happy Birthday ATC

This weeks sponsor at Wicked Wednesday is Kith and Kin, I have used the image called Rory Fairy, with the sentiment also from Kith and Kin. I colored this with copics : 
I actually reversed Rory Fairy because I wanted to add the sentiment over the top of the image,  I printed it on velum card stock. The flower and rhinestones are by Prima.

Thanks for stopping by, why not op on over and check out the inspiration at Wicked Wednesday :)

Friday, February 6, 2015

Love is all around ...

I made some ATC's for a new Mixed Media trade group I joined. This is my first trade, and I had that  nervous butterflies in my stomach sort of feeling. LOL. I hope my trade partners like their ATC's. 
The title of this trade is Arrows, but with Valentines just around the corner, I thought I would include that element too :) The hearts are actually from set HRT-078 from Southern Ridge Trading. I loved how intricate and different they are. I gesso'd them, painted with acrylics and then UTEE'd them. I love the glossy and hard finish, as you can see clearer in this pic :
My initial thinking for this ATC was on a much broader scale, hence the newsprint background. I wanted to say "Contrary to what the media would have us believe ..... Love is all around". I can explain that now on my blog, although it isn't necessarily apparent from looking at the ATC's. So much bad news all the time in the media, but what isn't reported is the good deeds, the love, friendship and goodwill the world over. I wanted to celebrate this more positive aspect of life :)

Always for an ATC trade I make one for myself and the others are traded, in this case three will be mailed. But which one to keep ? Decisions, decisions ... Decided to keep this one :
Thanks for stopping by, Nikki x


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Bookworm ATC

The Wicked Wednesday challenge this week is 'Bookworm' or 'Things with Wings'. 
I am an avid reader, so this Bindie image by A&T Emerald Faeries called out for me ..... 
Here is my creation :
Bindie is colored with copics, and I added a layer of wink of stella pen - love that thing ! I wanted to capture the magic of reading, of delving into new and interesting worlds, hence my interesting and magical background. The background is alcohol inks on acetate, which I added a text script to in brown archival ink and mounted onto an embossed sheet of pale blue card stock.

That was a really enjoyable project, I love it when things come together just how you pictured them in your head :)  Thanks for stopping by x


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

We Can Can dance ...

The new challenge on the Lost Coasters Review is 'Girls, Girls, Girls'. So funny that this title also prompted Yvonne, another dt member, to use the same image, Showgirls. My postcard :
The curtains are made from crumpled Tim Holtz tissue paper. I colored them with Neocolor II crayons, then lightly sponged with red distress ink to highlight the creases and texture. I made the tie backs from crumpled cardstock. The girls are stamped three times. The first time in elderberry memento ink and clear embossed. Then I masked the girls faces and stamped two more times slightly to the left side. I wanted to get the feeling of motion and shadows from the spot lights, because lets be realistic, can can girls don't keep still on stage :) I was fortunate enough to see a live show in Dawson City in The Yukon, Canada a few years ago - it was mesmerizing. 

The girls are colored with copics and Faber Castell artist pitt pens used to create depth around the curtains and for the floor.

The post card went live yesterday as part of our challenge, go and check it out. But I wanted to share more detail and how I created it for my dt blog post today :)
Thanks for stopping by x

Monday, February 2, 2015

Altered Playing Card Week 19

Oh my, I am on a roll ... only a week behind in this Altered Playing Card Challenge.

Here are my Week 19, Steam Punk APC's : 
 This first APC uses a Tim Holtz embossing folder on black cardstock, then I went over the raised areas with a silver gelato and rubbed all over with my finger. I added the Steam Punk train stamp across the bottom with versamark, and embossed that in silver embossing power. Did the same for the cogs too, used a cling set by Prima. The little wind up bird is from the same Prima set, I stamped him in stazon on water color paper and colored him with inktense pencils and fussy cut him. The wheel he is standing on is from a Memory Box cog die set. I liked 'Enjoy the Ride' as the little bird is walking around and around on the cog :)
 I was having a lot of fun with this APC, when I first started it and added the mesh tape and some ink it looked really really awful. An 'Oh no' moment for sure ... LOL. So I added some white acrylic, some washi (to co-ordinate with my snail) and a couple of cogs from the Memory Box cog die set. This wonderful snail is an Eclectica individual stamp from Paper Artsy, EM04. How fab is that, a steam punk snail ! He is colored with inktense pencils and india ink. 
For the wording I wanted to mention travelling as the snail is moving slowly forward ... But I liked the idea of incorporating a little Hash House Harriers humour.  Hash House Harrier groups are all over the world, especially active in expat communities. They are a social network, they describe themselves as a drinking group with a running problem. LOL I was fortunate enough to be a Hasher while I lived in Hong Kong, a few years ago now .... The combination of snail and a running chant was amusing to me :) 
But then 'on' ,,,,, (pause) ...... 'on' .... can also indicate a slow rate of movement.
Oooh a double word play, love it ....
Thanks for stopping by x

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Altered Playing Card Week 18

Flowers is this weeks theme at the Altered Playing Card Challenge, week 18 :
For this APC I smushed my card through vibrant red, green and blue acrylic, then stamped the flowers from a Paper Artsy flower set, fussy cut them and added the sentiment.
Firstly, can you believe I used the same paint as for the APC above ? The addition of white made all the different in muting the tones. For this APC I used a flower from a retired Stampin' Up! set. When I had smushed my card through the paint for the background I smushed another pice through, then stamped the flowers in black and fussy cut them. I love that the colors all co-ordinate that bit better :)
 Thanks for stopping by x


Hedgehog Banner

I made this banner for a friends sons bedroom door :
The banner is made with a Waltzing Mouse Stamps banner set and Spellbinders dies.


Jesse is a big Hedgehog fan, so I used these gorgeous little guys from  Miss Rach, colored with copics :