Hero Arts Glitter and Butterfly

It's my day over at A2Z Scrapbooking and I have a butterfly card to share.  Our challenge this month is Anything Goes.... always a great way to highlight your Hero Arts stamps, dies, stencils, inks etc.

 I love this big Hero Arts Butterfly Fancy die and I made it my focal point.  I used Distress Inks in Broken China and Worn Lipstick to colour some watercolour paper and then diecut the butterfly.

The background was a piece of paper I had on hand - made with Gelatos and some water spritzing.  I decided that the panel needed a bit of a lift, so I took the Asian Flower Stencil and some Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Kiss and added some to the corner.  The Glitter Kiss is really pretty and I loved the way it caught on the edge of the flowers.

I finished by adding a sentiment from the Colour Layering Poppy stamp set.

Do come and join us at A2Z Scrapbooking for our challenge this month.

White on White...... and a few bright colours

Sharing today some of my weekend cards..... first up is the card I made for the Altenew monthly challenge

 The theme is White on White focus point.  

I used an embossing folder and an Inside Out Diffuser to make my background.   I then used Altenew inks in the Warm Gray shades - Morning Frost, Moon Rock and Evening Gray to stamp the flowers and leaves (from a Freebie called Christmas Rose) and the sentiment in the Lava Rock.   I added some extra dots in a gray Metallic gel pen.  

And now for a couple of more colourful cards.

This is using Catherine Pooler inks and stamps.  The banners are from one of latest stamp sets from the Naturally Inspired box paired with a sentiment from an earlier SOA box.   

and here are two I made using Gelatos.  There is a Masterclass over at StampNation -Creative Mediums for Card Making- by Faber Castel.  The first video was about using Gelatos.  I have had mine since 2012 - but don't use them nearly enough.   

For the first one I used watercolour card and spread a variety of Gelato colours.  I blended with a damp baby wipe.  Once I laid the stencil over it, I used the baby wipe to remove some of the Gelatos, leaving the bold colours beneath.   I used the feather from the SOA box with three CP inks (thanks to MISTI for doing my blending) and fussy cut.  I also added a die cut BEST cut from some more Gelatos on watercolour paper.  To make it stand out, I off set it against a black die cut. 

And the second one, used the left over Gelatos on the stencil, which was spritzed and laid onto the watercolour card.   This gives a much more subtle background.   I added a flourish down one side and after colouring some yellow and orange Gelatos onto card and punched some butterflies.   The sentiment is from Kaisercraft.  

I also managed a couple more cards for some upcoming design work so all in all... a very creative weekend. 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting me.

Stenciled Backgrounds at Die Cut Divas

Today over at Die Cut Divas,  Arlene show cased a couple of projects I did with a Dreamweaver stencil.  This month, Dreamweavers are our sponsors and they very generously provided the Design Team with some stencils to work with.  One of mine was a Damask Background.  (LJ 907 Damask)

 

Here is the card I made

 I started with a piece of watercolour paper which I distressed with inks.  I laid the stencil on and then used some Festive Berries ink over it.  I used a long rectangle die from Spellbinders to cut it.  I tied around a ribbon and added to a blue card.  I used a Fiskars scallop edge punch and added some red card behind.   I stamped the sentiment onto some sticky back vellum cut with a Die-namics die.

My second piece is a bookmark.  This one came about as it was my first attempt at stenciling with paints.... it did not come off as well as I wanted, but I manage to selvage a piece to make this

The background was made with Gelatos and then the stencil was done with Black acrylic paint.  My sentiment is from Hero Arts and once again, I cut with a Die-Namics banner die and edged with a Copic marker to give the illusion that it is matted. 

Thanks again to Dreamweaver's for sponsoring us at Die Cut Divas.

Art Journalling

Yes, I have ventured into the area of Art Journalling.  I've seen many of my friends online doing some incredible pages.  As this is a bit outside my comfort zone, it will be a challenge.  I have already shared my front cover (here)

Today I will share my first page and a double spread I have done.

First my opening page

This page uses Gelatos, Perfect pearls mist, crackle paint, inks, distress stains, a wax paper die of a heart, black pen and stamps from Kaisercraft and Studio G.  This is symbolic of my journey and growth in this medium.

My double page next is something entirely different.  At present at work, things are a bit stressful and I feel like I'm juggling numerous different tasks.  We are implementing Active Operations Management and having to do lots of manual counting and recording as well as learning to do new tasks within our area.  So I have this painting done by my son when he was in primary school ( about 9yrs old) and it is up on the wall of my craft room.  It is a circus scene

Kieran's Painting

 

I basically copied his painting

I don't have a lot of acrylic paints so made do with what I had.  Lots of blue, some stamping and adding the tickets.  The die cut letters are a Docrafts  Xcut die.  I added white pen to the little holes in the die cuts.   Yes, my life feels like a circus at times!  I couldn't believe how therapeutic it was to make this page.  It took a couple of evenings as waiting for the paint to dry takes time.    

Now one of my online friends makes beautiful pages in her journal.  Isha has shown one here on her blog and she also has a fabulous give away, courtesy of Design Memory Craft. 

 Who wouldn't love to win this pack.  I know I would!  So hop over to her blog and see how you could have a chance too.

Enjoy your weekend all.  We have family coming to visit and watch the All Blacks versus the Pumas (Argentina) tonight. I'm supposed to be doing the vacuuming and making up the beds ~ just taking a break!!!!!  Still plenty of time till they arrive.

Sparkle.........

I recently won some Gelatos over at Nancy's blog but have been a bit scared to use them... really 'cause I have no real idea how to use them.  Late this afternoon after a day of cleaning out my pantry I thought I'd give them a try.  I also have seen Nancy and Lin use a masking technique that was shown here by Nichole Heady and wanted to try it out.

So I decided to try my sentiment on an angle for a bit of a change.  I stamped it first, made a space by ruling a line above and below and then masked with Post-It notes.  I then coloured my stamp with the Gelatos.  I spritzed it with some water and then stamped it onto the masked card.  The darker colours of blue and green showed up better than the paler blue and green.  I wasn't sure if I had done this right, but after a bit of a look-see on You-Tube I found I had.  Anyhow despite the paler bits I think it looks a bit like Batik and I like how it turned out.  Added a few gems for a bit more sparkle.

And just to show I did do some work today....

Emptied out each shelf, washed it and repacked.   Got the lower shelf and 4 other shelves done... just left the highest top shelf as hubby was out this afternoon and I need his height to take all the bits and pieces off it.

Well, that the first day of the weekend almost done.  I'm off to bed to read some more.  I've just downloaded "The Hunger Games" onto my new Kindle Touch and have started the first book.  Starting to get interesting.  Very pleased with this new e-book.  Easier to use than my old Kobo with a better battery life.  Hopefully it won't die after one year!

Have a great weekend

Dawn