... smell the flowers

Oh my goodness, look at the cuteness of this new set from Vera Lane Studio, a raccoon family... LOVE. You will find them in the Vera lane Studio etsy store.

I have made a page in my small art journal, with a brayered acrylic paint background using the baby raccoon, isn't he adorable :

The other images I used include flowers from Queenie and the hat is actually the roof of a bird house from the Birdy set.

The raccoon is coloured with copics and prisma color pencils, and fussy cut. The hat and flowers are coloured and fussy cut, then all added into the background. You will note that the hat actually lifts up and I did a little journaling there, its all about putting yourself out there and not missing lifes opportunities. The words are typed on my typewriter. 

See how his hat lifts up :

Check out the other fabulous critters in the Vera Lane etsy store :)

Sweet 16

Its my nephews 16th Birthday, so I have made this card featuring one of Tims awesome birds. I actually used my dies too, they cut so close to the image and I was able to layer the eyes, beak and wing. I don't always get the dies to accompany stamps, but I think in this case it was well worth it.

The bird is stamped on mixed media paper and coloured with water colour powders and an aqua painter brush. I made and wrote on his hat, and the background is scrap paper from other arylic paint and stencil projects. The words are from a sentiment set by Ranger also. And the ribbon from my stash. The card front is matted onto a white card base.

Thanks for stopping by x

Sing ...

Today I want to share another page in my mini art journal, this is created using the fabulous new Woodland props set from Vera Lane Studio, look at these great and versatile images :

Here is my make, a happy little bird, singing for the beauty and wonder of its life :

The background is an acrylic wash. I resized and layered the trees and bird in word. Printed them and coloured the trees with watercolour. Then when it was dry I used my Faber Castell Artist Pitt pens to add all the coloured detail to trees and grass. I also used prisma colour pencil and sharpie white acrylic paint pen. The bird was coloured with copics and the yellow boots have a layer of diamond glaze on them. Everything was fussy cut and glued into place. I printed the bird twice and coloured and fussy cut the wing, using a dimensional to pop it up for extra dimension.

 A close up :

The letters are typed on my typewriter and cut out individually. The musical notes are stickers.

The final step was to edge the page with black lines and squiggles. 

I love working with digital images you can change the size, shape, reverse them, layer them etc. They are so versatile. If you are wondering how, just check out some of Vera Lane Studio videos on you tube HERE.

Thanks for stopping by, have a glorious day x

Poe Appreciation Day

In 2016 the Mayor of Baltimore declared Edgar Allan Poe's Birthday, January 19th as an official city- wide Poe Appreciation Day. At the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity we thought we'd join the fun with a 5-day progressive blog hop.

Here is my card for the hop, featuring one of the new and fabulous stamps released today, this a new zentangle raven from Lost Coast Designs, dressed smartly in his hat and heading to the party : 

The raven is stamped and coloured with copics, then I fussy cut him and added a hat with a pom pom. 

The background is made using nuance powders and the new zentangle feathers stamps. 

To get the effect above I sprinkled some different colours of  nuance powders onto my craft mat, spritzed it with water and then stamped into it and onto the water colour paper. I love the colour variations. Water soluble powders are so versatile. I lightly sponged the outside of the card with black ink.

The words 'Its a Party!' are from the Party Words set.

I hope you are enjoying the hop, and perhaps feel inspired to add your own creation :)

Read more about the bop, and the new release from Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda :

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for stopping by, Nikki x

Aud Creatures

Oh my ... the new release from Lost Coast Designs is so cool, I am loving these new Aud Creatures.

But of all of them, this is my fave, how cool is he, featured in my card :

The awesome Aud dude is coloured with copics, prisma color pencil and gel pen, then fussy cut. There is actually a little detail from his cape that I removed because I thought the background was too fussy for it.

For the background I used some card stock that already had some colour on it from a previous project, then I added more acrylic paint with a brayer. I stamped in the background with co-ordinating colours using images from the Leonardo accessories set. Finally adding some washi strips, and the words which were typed on my typewriter.

Thanks for stopping by x

Wild and Free

Today I am sharing a card I made using the new release from Vera Lane Studio, The Woodland Collection set of images called Foxes. 

Fox is coloured with copic and gel pen. And fussy cut. The background is made with moulding paste, acrylic paint and a heart stencil. I typed the words directly onto the background with my typewriter. The cloud is from another set by Vera Lane Studio, in fact there are lots of clouds and other elements included in all the sets.

A close up of the fox : 

Thanks for stopping by x

Puppy Love

There is a fun ATC trade at the Vera Lane Studio facebook group called All Creatures Great and Small. Here is my ATC, featuring the gorgeous pooch from the Hope and Honey set, and the heart border from the Veras borders set.  You can find the Vera Lane images at etsy HERE. 

Here is mu ATC for the trade :

 The dog is sitting in the hearts, I loved that, and this was done by layering the images in word, so I was able to size them properly and avoid some fussy cutting. I used copics, gel pen and some neon pens from Staedtler. I added diamond glaze to a few elements.  The background is moulding paste, colourised with water colour paint. I added a couple of layers of washi to the ground, typed the words on my typewriter and matted the background into red card stock.

I just love this little pooch, here's a close up : 

Do you remember that old song ... And they called it puppy love .... It wasn't exactly aimed at an actual puppy LOL. But I thought it worked perfectly.

Thanks for stopping by xxx

I have also entered this ATC into Wicked Wednesdays cats or dogs challenge :)

Looking forward to 2017

For my design team make at The Lost Coast Portal to Creativities and their new 'Anything Goes' challenge, I have made an art journal page ... 2016 was not a good year for many people, and I don't know about you but I sure am looking forward to ringing in a New Year :

The stamps I used are, Back view of woman, spray webbing background stamp and Old typewriter alphabet SOTA. 

Happy New Year, I hope its a good one for you, Nikki x

2017 Resolutions

Today I wanted to share with you the New Years resolutions that Agnes Rose is making for 2017. She has a wealth of life experience, and her resolutions are both down to earth and achievable :

Images are all from Vera Lane Studio. Agnes Rose and her dog Chew are from the Agnes Rose set, the hat and words by Emerson are from a set called Hope and Honey, and the doodle border they are standing on is from Vera's borders. I just love how you can take different pieces from different sets and mix them up. That's one of the funnest thing about digital images, especially images from Vera Lane Studio :)

The digital images were sized in MS word, printed, coloured with copics and gel pen and fussy cut. Agnes Rose and the dog were put together in word, they are in fact two separate images. 

The background is made with my gelli plate® and a numbers stencil. I used my date stamp to randomly add 2017 on the background and the black numbers are from Label letters by Tim Holtz idea-ology. 

Every day the new Design Team at Vera Lane Studio will be posting their gorgeous makes, and there will be regular new releases. Check out the BLOG and Facebook page :)

This year I have decided work in a 3.5 x 5" journal, slightly bigger than an ATC. Its a Strathmore Visual Journal. I am really enjoying the size, and it will be great to keep my fave makes/saying/meaningful stuff in a book rather than the clear baseball card holders.

Thanks for stopping by, and good luck with your NY resolutions, I never stick to mine. lol 

Happy New Year.