Reminiscing ...

I wanted to share with you an 4.25" x 5.5" card I made using a stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps!, this adorable angel pigs stamp, which contains two pigs. Seriously how adorable are they :)

 I think the pigs are looking very thoughtful, sitting up there in the clouds with their angel status ....  reminiscing perhaps about the past, about the days of rolling, frolicking and cavorting in the mud. Here is a close up of one of the piggies, so you can see how I reached my conclusion : 

The background is stenciled and I used water soluble powders to colour it. The clouds are hand cut and I used a cloud die. I lightly sponged the edges in gray and layered them. The pigs are stamped in black ink and coloured with copics. I fussy cut them and cut off the wings. Then I stamped the pigs again in grey ink, fussy cut and glittered them. I attached and glued everything together.

I thought this might be a great card for sending to someone to let them know you are thinking of them, they are certainly unique and memorable images :)

Thanks for stopping by, Nikki x

If you haven't been to the Viva Las VegaStamps! blog before, there is so much inspiration there, check it out ... HERE 

Sunny from Vera Lane Studios

One of the new releases from Vera Lane Studios, isnt she gorgeous. This is Sunny :

The background is created with a stencil and molding paste, then I used nuance water soluble powders. Sunny and the sun are coloured with copics and nuance powders. 

She looked like she is walking on a tight rope to me, with her arms outstretched :)

Puppy card

Seriously, how cute is this new digital image set from Vera Lane Studios, Rescue Puppies : 

 I made a card : 

A relative recently adopted a shar pei cross from a shelter, and it looks sooo much little this little guy here, I sent this off to her. Its such a perfect sentiment don't you think :)

The background is patterned paper, with gesso and doodling. The words are printed them matted onto the pink paper co-ordinating with the ground the dog is standing on and the card base. The dog is coloured with copics and clear embossed. 

Thanks for stopping by x

Lots of Glitter ATC Challenge

Glitter is definitely not my go to thing, which is why its so awesome to do challenges, to move outside of your comfort zone and use other supplies, colours, images etc etc.

This week at Wicked Wednesday the challenge is 'Lots of Glitter', sponsored by Concetta Kilmer.

I have used this Wise Owl image, since I liked the contrast of the golden shimmery moon with the dark background, the night sky :) 

The image is coloured with copics and I added some sharpie white paint pen starts to her hair and highlights on the owl. I also coloured a portion of her dress and the moon with my clear wink of stella pen. The shimmer is gorgeous.

For the background I used black cardstock and drew some stars with a white sharpie paint pen, then I added a layer of versamark and embossed it with iridescent ice embossing powder. Doesn't it look gorgeous and glittery.

The Shine On was typed on my type writer and coloured the same blue as the dress :) 

Thanks for stopping by 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 :)

Kids Birthday Cards

I made this card using the cute pig, Piggy Heart from Miss Rach :

April Birthday Cards

I have a few close friends with April birthdays, I made a few cards.

First using the April birthday set, Hello April from Vera Lane Studios :

The second using a Bloobel image, Bekkah Bloom : 

Star Wars ATC

Sassy Studio are sponsoring Wicked Wednesday Challenge this week and I have used this cute little droid : Space Droid Honey : 

The droid is coloured with copics and clear embossed. The background is sponged with distress ink and water splashed onto it. I typed the words on my typewriter :)

Please come and join us for this Star Wars themed challenge :)

May the Force be with you !

Cat Themed Card

I made a card with the new digi set from Vera Lane Studios, Cats and Crocks ; 

The images were resized in word, printed on my inkjet printer and coloured with copics. I pounced the cat image with blending solution and foam to get the mottled, textured look. I also used white sharpie paint pen for the white detail. I fussy cut the images. Do you like his stripy socks ?

Whilst I was colouring the cat I used every colour on a piece of kraft card stock for the background, using different shapes and designs, I was free and just randomly scribbled. That was kind of the lesson in Wanderlust last week, although they did much more layers and used paint. I wanted the freedom of just creating a co-ordinated background that I did not over think.

The bowls were stacked, the cat and words added. Final touch was a white scribbly border and some white dots.

Thanks for stopping by xxx

Personalized coffee sleeve

I took part in a personalized coffee cup sleeve trade as part of an awesome trading group I am in.

My partner, Chris received the sleeve this week, so I can blog it now :

Here are pics of the front and back, celebrating the name Chris :)

                                    

And this is the gorgeous personalized sleeve and card I received from Julia. I love green, is invariably creeps into my projects so I just love the greens she has used and the images. Including the real coffee beans - how clever :) 

Spring Sunshine

Its getting warmer here where I live ... spring is definitely upon us, so what a great challenge 'Spring Sunshine'. This weeks sponsor is Star Stampz. Meet their cute image Spring Sunshine :

She was so adorable, I decided to just spend an hour or so relaxing and colouring her with copics, gel pen and white sharpie paint pen dots and highlights. 

I sponged around her with yellow distress ink and matted the ATC onto matching red card stock :)

Have yourself a lovely day x

Spring tags

I made a couple of spring themed tags using the new set, Hello Spring from Vera Lane Studios :

The background is distress inks. The image and flower and ground coloured with copics. 

A close up of the little cute bunny, who is clear embossed, with small clear glitter shaped added to the flower centre and to the background with glue dots. And yes, he has different coloured eyes .. mostly because that fascinates me when I see people with different coloured eyes.

The two tags together : The one on the right is for a spring themed trade at the Vera Lane Studios Facebook group :

Thanks so much for stopping by x

Eat My Dust

How exciting, my very first post as part of the Viva Las VegaStamps! Design Team. Check out the post on their blog HERE.

I have made a 4"x6" postcard featuring one of the newest additions to my VLVS addiction, erm ... I mean collection ! LOL. 

I enjoyed coloring Lady on Scooter, with copics and metallic pencil, isn't she great. I sure hope I am still scootering at her age!

The wording 'Eat my Dust' is to demonstrate just how fast she is actually going ...  

Can you see the determination on her face :

For the background I wanted to do something in stark contrast to her somewhat conservative demeanor so I went for a northern lights mystical sort of background, with lots of space dust :)

I used mixed media card stock and painted it with black gesso, then sponged on white actylic paint. When that was dry I sponged over the white with alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue. Adding color on top of white always makes it appear more obvious and vibrant. I splatted water down white acrylic for my stars :

 Now to really highlight this gorgeous gal. I used my 4" round gelli® plate with green acrylic and a stencil, then I stamped this onto my background and rolled off some of the excess paint on the roller to make the ground and added a little green into the sky :

This green whimsical moon-like sphere was perfect to highlight the focal image. I adhered my image to the postcard with miracle tape. Finally I added the wording 'East my dust' with letter stickers.

Thanks for stopping by, Nikki x

Lets get this party started !

There is a new Challenge at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity : Lets Party !

I have made this card, featuring Party Girl from Lost Coast Designs : 

Party Girl was stamped in elderberry memento ink, coloured with copics and white gel pen highlights added,  and I fussy cut her.

For the green in the background I used a gelli print background, then inked up the Sunflower Background from Lost Coast Designs in green ink. Without putting the stamp onto a block I rolled sections of it here and there on the background. I also stamped the sunflower onto another piece of white card stock, then punched this into shapes : the circles and scalloped strip you can see. I sponged a little of the elderberry ink onto them and glued them down. Finally adding some lines with an old credit card and ink.

The words were stamped on my typewriter and the card front matted and glued together.

I really like the contrast here of the elderberry and green, and she is such a great image to work with.

And there's plenty more where she came from .... Check out the other inspiration at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity or the wonderful, varied and unique images at Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda.

Thanks for stopping by x

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

Green and Gold ATC Challenge

Its a colour challenge over at Wicked Wednesday today, green and gold.

It is actually our 200th challenge, a cause for celebration :)

We are sponsored by Sami Stamps, and I have used this image Leprechaun Cutie 2 : 

He's so tall and slim, it was harder to fit him onto the ATC, if you can imagine this little card is only 3.5" tall. But I wanted to use the whole image, so here he is. The image is coloured with distress ink and copics, then fussy cut.

The background is green acrylic paint then I used a circle and dot stencil with moulding paste. I added some splashes of white paint, some think lines of colour with prisma pensils to give a rainbow sort of effect in the background. Then I used gold lumiere paint to add gold to the dots making up the ground. Hey, it could be gold coins, who know ? 

Finally I cut the green background down so I could mount it onto the gold card stock and add the word LUCKY.

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope to see you over at Wicked Wednesday blog or our facebook group sometime :)

Viva Las Vegas Stamps - Whoot whoot

I am thrilled to announce that I will be joining the awesomely talented Design Team over at Viva Las Vegas Stamps. This will be a very exciting and fun venture ....

Check out the announcement Here on the VLVS blog 

If you aren't familiar with their stamps, you should go and check it out, there are thousands of images, suitable for absolutely any tastes. And if you ever visit Las Vegas you should pop into the bricks and mortar store. I just love them and am looking forward to the months of creating ahead...

I love how DeeDee (DT lead) described me, totally summed me up where I have been trying to define myself for years : Her style is fun and whimsical with a touch of hilarity. 

I have played many times at the VLVS blog challenges. It is my fave type of challenge actually, a monthly inspiration board, HERE is the link to March's, and there are also trades in the facebook group, Viva Las VegaStamps Groupies. As well as lots of awesome inspiration at both :)

Let the fun begin and hope to see you there x

Snips and snails ...

Lovely new set from Vera lane studios ... My three sons 

I made 3 atcs, one featuring each of the images in the set, the first :

He's coloured with copics and the sun is from the Thinking of you set. I used a gelli® print background and typed the words on my typewriter. I did faux stitching to simulate the Suns rays :)  

The second atc features this curly haired little dude, isn't he cute : 

He is coloured with copics and gel pen. The background is acrylic paint with a roller and distress ink, with white embossing powder. The sentiment was typed on my typewriter. That poem has always baffled me, but thinking back to when it was written, to the days when little boys had more freedom to chase and catch frogs ad snails and just be boys, it makes sense :)

The final atc features the younger looking little boy :

I coloured him with copics and used the words that are included in the set, cutting them into individual letters. The background is a gelli® print and I punched stars out of the same print and glued them down. I matted the atc onto plain white card stock. 

Thanks for stopping by x

Fish Fingers and Custard anyone ?

I bought one of the fab Dr Who plate from Viva Las Vegas stamps a while ago (#925). I just love it ... I can actually make it fit any occasion ! Here I have used fish fingers and custard.

I decided to make a surprise ATC for a friend, she is a BIG Dr Who fan, and especially of Matt Smith as the Dr. In one of his earlier episodes he ate fish fingers and custard - not to everybody's taste I imagine ... a little bit like art ! 

My ATC : 

The background is made with dylusions sprays and acrylic paint. I die cut the picture frame using a Spellbinders die and painted this with gold lumiere paint. Its very shimmery in real life.

For the fish fingers, I put molding paste onto a piece of card stock with a pallet knife and made the texture bumpy. When it was dry I painted it with acrylic paints, then stamped the image with stazon ink and fussy cut them. Don't they look kinda real ! The bowl was stamped on acetate with stazon ink and fussy cut, the custard is yellow card stock. This was all glued together and added to the ATC. Finally I put micro beads below the bowl for some added dimension, and wrote the words with a gel pen :)

I sure hope my friend likes it :)

Pay-It forward share .. with Vera Lane Studios

I am having such a great time colouring the images from Vera Lane Studios, both the older sets and also there are so many new releases, you should check out the etsy store or the facebook group, such a great source of inspiration...

I have begun a pay-it forward art share in the facebook group. How it will work is that people comment on this photo by the end of Sunday 6th March 2016, then I will randomly select a winner and mail the ATC to them.  On receiving it, they will do the same : post a pic of their Vera Lane Studios make in the Facebook group, randomly select a winner and mail their make.  And we will go on and on from there. This will hopefully become a beautiful art chain.

I love to share my makes, both trading and via art abandoment, and loved this idea of a pay-it forward art challenge :) 

Here is my ATC, using the new March Birthday set. Don't you just LOVE the sheep : 

The background determined the colour scheme for this ATC, it is a gelli® print I made with sublte hues, purple, payne's grey and a hint of orange. I printed the images, coloured them with prisma colour pencils, copics and white sharpie paint pen details. I fussy cut them, and cut around her arm so it appears she is holding or petting the sheep. I punched out flower shapes from co-orindating card stock and from a spare piece of the gelli® print and added white centres. The ATC was matted onto white card stock.

Have a lovely day x

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 :)

Friends ATCs

I took part in a 'friends' themed ATC trade. Here are my makes, featuring the awesome image from Art Impressions. They have the most awesome people stamps :

I am really diggin' purple at the moment, especially this bright Dylusions purple acrylic paint. The images are stamped in memento ink and coloured with copics. The hats are from Lost Coast Designs. Everything is fussy cut and glued onto the background.

I had fun looking for the quotes, so many funny sayings I found in google. These were my faves, I think they summarise the friendship experience pretty well :)

Hope my swap partners like them :) 

Thanks for stopping by x

'Girly' ATC

Wicked Wednesdays challenge this week is to make a 'girly' ATC. The sponsor is the awesome SLS Lines. I have used Cute Goth girl with Teddy :

The background is a patterned butterfly paper. The image is coloured with copics, sharpie white acrylic pen and Faber Castell artist pitt pen. I fussy cut and clear embossed her, and typed the words on my typewriter. Isn't she cute :) And that song will be playing in my head for the rest of today, maybe yours too ? LOL

SLS Lines have an inspired by movie/book/song challenge on their blog HERE ... so I will be entering this for sure :)

Thanks for visiting x