Our house .... postcard

This month I am taking part in a houses postcard trade, and here is my make. Inspired by two things, one of my fave bands, Madness, and art I made in a class with Dyan Reaveley recently : 

The postcard is 4x6" and the background is made in the class with Dyan. I also used the mixed media die to cut out some hexagons.  I have used various techniques with stencils and Dylusions sprays, including ghosting. 

The house is a retired stamp set from Close to My Heart. I stamped it onto a mixed media background I had made and fussy cut it, I cut out the little round window and used a circle punch to cut the windows in the house. I used clear plastic and drew in the panes. 

The door is from the same CTMH set, I stamped it onto yellow card and clear embossed it. Adding a little white detail. The flowers are punched from the same papers as the background with circle punches and glued into place.  I added a little green foliage.

The words are stamped and I also used the little alpha stickers from Ranger.

Its a very bright and cheerful make, I like how it came out :)

Thanks for stopping by x

Feel the Love .....

I came across this quote by Pamela White, and it just struck a chord with me. We should love who and what we are. We can be so down on ourselves, lets give a little praise and love instead. 

"Theres nothing more dangerous than a lack of self love. 

So put your hand on your heart and feel the love"

My 4 page journal spread features Pondering Petunia from Dylusions, Paper Artsy 'Smell the Flowers' stamp set and chipboard heart frame HRT-076 from Southern Ridge Trading Company. I actually used my dylusions shaped stamping block as a guide to cut the middle page of the spread down, as seen in the pics below :

The wording of the quote goes across three pages : 

I really liked this chipboard heart frame,  HRT-076

And look how flippin' awesome Pondering Petunia looks. I colored her with inktense pencils and then added pink flowery washi tape to her dress. The hat is made from Dylusions set, doodle. Then I colored them with inktense, added a layer of the same washi tape. Cut them out, edged with black sharpie and intertwined them. I think THAT is an awesome hat :)

My background was made by adding various colors of acrylic paint to the page, then covering in a solid layer of titanium white. Whilst the paint was still wet I flicked water onto it, which prevented those sections from drying. Then when the rest of the white was dry, I removed the water and wet paint with kitchen paper. I saw a similar technique in an Andy Skinner video on you tube.

I love this Paper Artsy flowers cling stamp set, called 'smell the flowers', I have coveted it for a long long time .... Finally it is mine, all mine (insert maniacal laugh here .... LOL). I stamped them in coffee archival ink and colored them with my gelatos. A strip of the pink flowery washi was added to make the ground :)

It was fun and so therapeutic making this page, and I used all my favorite colors :). Hope you find some positive inspiration here :) Nikki x

'Under the sea' atc

I had sooooo much fun making this atc. And yes, incase you are wondering, the fish is farting ... hence the brown bubbles. LOL It amused me greatly.

 And then I had to show my enjoyment of this atc by making the fish 'laugh out loud' on the back of the atc.

To make this atc I adhered some predominately green patterned paper to the atc, torn into seaweed shapes. I then used my gelatos for the background, adding some pen squiggles and translucent molding paste - my new pet squeeze ! The fish by Dylusions was stamped, colored with gelatos and cut out. The bubbles are also from the same stamp set and have been colored brown with my india ink pens, with a little hint of white. I glued it all together, with a sentiment from a digital set by The Sailing Pineapple. Then I doodled  around the edge and taadaaaar .... a farting fish .... LOL

Never a dull moment around here ... I tell ya ..... Have a fun day everyone x

Personalised Birthday

One of the fun things about being a crafter is being able to personalise cards and other projects for gifts. A friend asked me to make a special art card for a male relative. He is apparently a 'man about town', quite chic and arty. We discussed the card and decided on a layout scraplifted from an atc I had made.

The resulting card is :

The male image actually came out really well. I sprayed the background with Dylusions sprays on a good quality, flat water color paper. I also sprayed one of the Dylusions stencils, Bert, with similar colors. I then lifted the inked Bert stencil and laid it wet side down on top of the sprayed background. I pressed it and then lifted the stencil from right to left. Some of the ink ink lifted and pooled on the left side, giving dimension and interest to my male image. I know, wonderful eh ! lol Took ages to dry by the way and I didn't use a heat tool incase the ink ran.

The letters are die cut from a pti alphabet set, the 50 is from a Tim Holtz die. The rest is doodled, hand written words etc.

The recipient was over the moon, he loved it. R E S U L T ....... lol

Thanks for stopping by :)

Fun tag

Have I told anyone recently how much I love Dyan Reveley stamps ? No.... well, I do ! I loved how this tag turned out, and the sentiment is just perfect :

Grad !

My friends beautiful and stylish daughter just graduated, so what better stamp set to use for a card than Dylusions couture set.

Dylusions sprays made the background, then I paper pieced the dress, accenting it with white gelato. The black strip is stamped with a graduation cap from a Waltzing Mouse Stamps set, as is the congratulations.

I dont get much opportunity to make girls cards, and really appreciate when I do :-)

IN LOVE with stamp set - help !

I had seen a few samples using Dyan Reaveley's new couture stamps, and I thought they looked ok, maybe I'd tack them onto the end of my (extensive) wish list ! But then ...... I happened to spot them in a craft store ...... So I bought them ...... and haven't stopped using them since ! lol It was a pleasant surprise actually, as this really isn't my style.

They are fantastic to work with, I was doubtful I would like silicone stamps - but I do, I do ! The best thing about them is how well you can paper piece them. I had so much fun selecting papers and then highlighting and shading with my gelatos. The hats are so much fun.

The background was gesso'd and then painted with acrylic paints and a baby wipe. I stamped randomly with a background stamp, using molding paste with a stencil and a edge stamp I picked up on sale - woo hooo :-)

The meaning behind the page is about being anonymous, unknown and unacknowledged. We all feel like this sometimes, but at the moment, thats me in the grey dress with her back to you. I just want to be left alone.

Someone said I always put so much significance and hidden meaning into my pages, I guess I do, but isn't that the point of crafting in a book that is meant for you, its a way to sort your feeling and emotions and represent them in a meaningful way to you. It very personal and captures a moment in time, same as a photo, or a smell.