Hair Do

A fun little ATC, made for the 'Hair Do' challenge at Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge blog.

The image is Airy Fairy from SLS Lines, coloured with copics, nuance powders and neon staedtler pens. I used diamond glaze on the multi coloured bubbles around her. 

Thanks for stopping by x

You are Beautiful

I am up on the Viva Las VegaStamps! blog today, sharing a postcard I made featuring the beautiful Whimsical Ladies Face with Tears : 

Firstly I used a blue painted piece of card to make my background. I added red, yellow and white acrylic paint and a brayer and my fingers. Then I stamped her and clear embossed her. I used color pencils to make the face area lighter, and added color to her lips, white acrylic to the highlight in her eye : 

The scrap paper that I used to clean my brayer was then used to make the flowers, since obviously the colors are already the same : 

I used a die by Tim Holtz Alterations to cut the flowers, then I layers them and lightly sponged the edges in blue :

I added color co-ordinating brads and layered the flowers and glued them in place around the face : 

A close up of her face : 

Final step was to add some black and white splatters and the wording, which is embossed in white : 

Stamps used :

Whimsical Face with Tears 19773

You are Beautiful 19832

Hope you found some inspiration here :) Nikki x

Whimsical Birds and other awesome new releases

There is an awesome new release at Lost Coast Designs, which includes whimsical birds,  zentangled images and more. Check out all the stamps HERE.

We are having an event at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity to celebrate the new release.

For my card I have used this darling whimsical bird, her name is Ruthie :

Ruthie is stamped in brown memento ink and colored with alcohol markers, prisma color pencils and gel pen. I added diamond glaze to her eye, then fussy cut her. 

For the background I put overlapping strips of distress ink onto my craft mat, in blues and green, spritzed it with water and placed the card front down into it. What a cool and easy background it makes. The water diffuses any clear lines between the colours.

I then inked up background stamp Sunflower in the matching green of the ground and stamped it over the green. I have used this sunflower stamp quite a lot, I really like it. I also lightly stamped Misc Words in the background. I reinked and stamped it onto white card stock and cut out some words I thought would best describe Ruthie. These were edged with matching distress ink colours.

I added Ruthie to my card front with dimensions, and using a charcoal pencil and blending stub I added some shading behind Ruthie. Finally I added the words and matted the card front onto a white 4.25" x 5.5" card.

Isn't she gorgeous. Why not check out the daily inspiration from the design team and see many other  Lost Coast Designs stamps brought to life ...

Thanks for stopping by, Nikki x

Water ATC

This weeks challenge from Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge blog is Water, sponsored by The East Wind.

Here is my ATC, coloured with distress inks, acrylic paints, prisma colour pencils and gel pen : 

Thanks for stopping by x

Sofishticated

What a hilarious new set from Vera Lane Studios, Sakana. I made a card featuring her, although had to couple her with an image from another Vera Lane Studios set, Ocean 11 : 

Isn't Sakana awesome ! I coloured her with copics, gel pen and distress ink. Then fussy cut her and tied bakers twine bows in her hair. The fish is coloured the same way. But I also used a micron pen to add tiny little scales to his face. Looks so effective doesn't it.

The background is a Gelli® print, then I added some additional teal with a catalyst tool. And matted this onto a white card base.

I just love this colour combination. One thing I have learned in my experimentation and exploration of arts, crafts and mixed media is to not be afraid of colour. Yes I look at the colour wheel ... get a little guidance but then I go for it. Whats the worst that can happen, its just paper - right :)

Have a wonderful day x

Rock and Roll

This weeks challenge at Wicked Wednesday is Rock and Roll, sponsored by A Random Fan. I have used this cute little image, Rock my World : 

Image is coloured with copics. The background is Dylusions sprays, music washi, white doodling and some red splatters. The words are typed on my typewriter.

Thanks for stopping by x

Mystery ATC

Today I am sharing an ATC I made for this months challenge at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity. I recently bought Yupo paper and just had to play with alcohol inks on it. I thought the bright vibrant colors and patterns worked really well with this quirky image from Lost Coast Designs. This is one of the Mini flying ladies : 

 

Look at the yummy background : 

I stamped one of the stamps from the ATC borders set onto this scrumptiously rich background and clear embossed it. Then I cut it to size. I stamped the Mini flying lady on to this paper too, and clear embossed and fussy cut her. I added white details and the word is from the awesome set, Misc words. If you haven't checked out Misc words yet, you should.

There is more ATC inspiration at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity, and there will be a second inspiration post on 15th ....

Thanks for stopping by x

Be Prepared Mail Art

Today I am sharing some art mail I made for Viva Las VegaStamps! Mail Art Monday :)

Mostly the cards I make are 5.5" x 4.25", so I have used an envelope for that size card. I think in this case the envelope may well outshine the content :

The focal image is Whimsical Gas Mask Guy. I stamped him onto tissue paper and embossed the image. I then painted the back of the tissue paper, to emphasise his jacket and match the color scheme.

The envelope has a Gelli® print background, acrylic paint and stencils. I wanted to get a really vibrant and contrasting color scheme. I used the Writing Chevron stamp to bring my border color into the body of the envelope. There is space for the address in the centre and the stamp top right.

The letters I cut from magazines and glued into place. 

To me this guy, donning his gas mask looks like he is ready for all eventualities !

Mail art is lots of fun to make, and there is weekly inspiration at the Viva Las VegaStamps! blog and facebook group. You should check it out.

Nikki x

Magical

An ATC challenge in a trade group I am in was Circles. I was debating what to use, but then I got the most wonderful mail from a friend in the UK. It was a random act of kindness, some beautiful Lavinia Stamps and a hand made card. The sentiment and generosity was very touching. I have always loved the Lavinia Stamps, the magical images and faeries. So had to use them ASAP. I made these ATC's for the Circles challenge :

Lots of embossing on a Dylusions sprayed background. I love that they are dark and mysterious looking.

Hope my swap partners enjoy them :)