Let's Squash it - take three!

 I'm back with a final entry for Let's Squash It.... Nature and watercolour

Many of you know I have heaps of embossing folders.... but I couldn't not get a new 3D one from Altenew - Decroative Florals and it arrived yesterday.  I LOVE my folders and use them lots. 

I took a piece of watercolour paper and my folder.  I used some Ultramarine ink from Altenew to swip and blend onto my folder, spritzed with some water and ran it through my trusty Cuttlebug.  I then spaltter it with some of the blue ink watered down and some bronze Nuvo drops diluted.  I used some bronze metallic card stock to die cut the Slim Sentiments die.  I cut it into two sentiments as it is a really long die cut.  

At long last I am almost well again.  Still a slight cough rattling around my chest but definatly better.  I had my hearing tested today and although there is some slight loss of hearing in the high frequency range it's still in the acceptable range.  Just need to check again in a year.   And I've got my appointment for my first COVID injection - 12th July.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope the week is going well for you.  

My Favourite Colour scheme - Sweet Stampin' Challenge

Hi.  It's time for an new challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog... and our theme is "Favourite Colour Combination"

Anyone who follows me knows my favourite colour combo is PURPLE with PURPLE!!!!!  

Yes I love PURPLE

I recently took part in an Exploring Watercolour Mediums class.  One of the days was to use masks so that's what I did with the Nature Blossom stamps from Altenew.  I kept the masks in place while I use watercolour paints (Altenew 36 pan set) to make the background.  My card was some watercolour paper.  I used a different shade of purples to colour up the flowers.   I used one of my prestamped sentiment stipes and then to give a really awesome textured look, I spritzed the entire card generously with some Shimmer Sprtiz spray.  So amazing in real life.

So come and join us at Sweet Stampin' challenge blog this week with you favourite colour combos

I'm entering this into the Sparkle Challenge at The Flower Challenge. 

StampNation WCMD Challenge #3 - Land Challenge.

I had pre-prepared some of my WCMD challenges at StampNation, but not for all the challenges.  So I found some time this afternoon to have a play for one of the other challenges.

Challenge #3 is called "Land Challenge"

My inspiration was the pine trees in the lower right corner.  

I used a Color Layering Tree from Hero Arts.  Stamped in distress inks - Shabby Shutters, Evergreen Bough and Forest Moss.  I used an aqua brush to smooch the colours and then stamped the top layer a second time. The sentiment is a Kaisercraft one.   I added some fun foam behind the watercolour layer and added to a textured card - 

I'm off to have a look at all the challenges out there and see if I can get back into the craft room for some more play time.

Autumn cards...

It might be Spring where I live, but it's going to Fall/Autumn in the North Hemisphere and lots of the current challenges out there are all about moving from Summer to Fall. 

So I have two Fall/Autumn cards to share today.

First up is the card I sent to LaVon as part of the September CCC - Deborah is unwell and Gail is assisting her.  I used the sketch that Deborah had designed. 

The leaves are from an older Hero Arts set which I embossed and then coloured with watercolours, before fussy cutting.  The sentiment is from a freebie set.  Finished with some sequins.

My second card uses the same embossing folder

 This time I had done some watercolouring on the background before embossing.  The leaves were die cut from old book pages with Tattered Leaves die from Tim Holtz/Sizzix.  I used a variety of distress inks to sponge on them.  Sentiment is from a Winnie & Walter set.  

Although it's Spring here and Daylight Saving starts this weekend, it has been a bit wintery with some heavy rain and wind lately.  Hoping for some nicer weather coming.

Thanks for stopping by.  I really appreciated all of my visitors.

Beautiful Day flower

I have managed another quick card with the  Beautiful Day flower from Altenew.  The other day I picked up a set of watercolour paints - in the kids section at Kmart - for $3.  It has lovely pastel colours.  I thought that the colours would look good as a flower and I'm pleased to say they do!

 

 I die cut the leaves and flower and spritzed with Shimmer Mist.  It's hard to see on my photo but in real life it's very shimmery.   The PP is from a pack I also picked up at Kmart.  The stamped part of the sentiment is from Altenew's Label Love set and the die cut Friend is from CAS-ual Fridays. 

Entering into the Spray Mist and Splatter challenge at Virginia's View.    

Also the Photo Inspiration over at City Crafter Challenge.  The flowers inspired me with this one and the yellow stripes (my golden dots)

and Happy Birthday challenge at Crafting when we can. 

Poor little Archer has got a cold... he is not feeling very well at all.  Coughing and snuffling and very unhappy.  Hope he is better by tomorrow night when they all fly off to spend time in LA and San Diego.  11 hours on the plane with a grumpy baby isn't going to be fun!

Thanks for stopping by.

Let it Shine

I've recently taken a class at Altenew Academy.  It's called "Let it Shine" and the tutor was Carrisa Wiley.  I totally enjoyed the class... all about adding shine and glimmer to your cards. 

I manged to combine a couple of the class ideas in one card

I used a glittery embellishment that I made myself... the frame was made with some Scotch glitter washi tape die cut.  I drew around the inside of the die and added the tape around it and then did the die cut.  This left a lovely frame around the panel.  I then stamped the flowers - the big one is from "A Beautiful Day" and the little ones are from "Peony Scrolls" with Versamark onto watercolour card and white embossed.   I used an old Wink Of Stella pen filled with water to paint on Altenew inks.  Fussy cut and added to the frame.  The pink background card was embossed with a wood grain folder.  The whole panel was then added to a pale grey card base.  I love the shimmery glow of the flowers in real life.  My sentiment is from "Label Love" 

I was really pleased with my results with this card. 

Thanks for stopping by today.   Monday is a public holiday - ANZAC Day - celebrating our fallen soldiers from WWW1 in particular, but all other fallen soliders as well.   Hubby will be up for he Dawn Parade at our local Returned Servicemen Association memorial.

A good morning's work

Hi there,  Hope your weekend is going well.  This Sunday morning at 8.00am was the start of a 24hr Hero Arts Flickr Group 90 mins challenge.  As I was awake early with hubby leaving to go man his work's tent at the end of the "Round The Bays' fun run/walk, I got up.  Barb set the challenge "Create a card with an angle"  She shared some great inspiration.   I started creating and just kept on going!

In all three cards were made in less than 4 hrs
First one took one hour to make, photograph and post

Some new Hero Arts stamps arrived yesterday including this one called Antique Rose stem.  I white embossed it and then used Zig watercolour markers to colour.  Cut on the angle and added to a Hero Arts pink card base after using some bright pink card to mat.  The sentiment is from another new set, DC 182 Butterfly Pair

Next one took 55mins

This is a combination of older and new Hero Arts stamps.  The background is an older cling stamp, the sentiment from last year and the partial cut butterfly from the new DC 182 Butterfly Pair.  I used a Spellbinders die to cut the shape and my MISTI to help shape the sentiment. 

and finally I spend 20 mins on this last one

This one was inspired by Linda W's card in the Scramble.  I used a MFT stencil and some Squeezed Lemonade and Wild Honey distress inks and then stamped and embossed Hero Arts F6068 sentiment.  As my ink in the centre was still a little wet, the powder stuck.  Ended up look quite good.

I get my Hero Arts goodies from A2Z Scrapbooking.... and if you go there and buy, you can used my discount code  DAWN15 to get 15% off when you spend $25 or more (prior to packaging and postage)

Masked butterfly

Back again today to share a masked butterfly card I made for A2Z Scrapbooking.   I have really enjoyed doing some masking and inking with this one,

I started by cutting a mask with the Fancy Butterfly die (DI708) out of Masking paper and placed it onto some watercolour paper.  I used a small dauber to sponge on some Abandon Coral distress ink in the centre of the butterfly.  I then added some Mermaid Lagoon distress ink all around the rest of the card.  My leaves are an ancient Hero Arts stamp (CG288 - now discontinued)  First I spritzed with water and stamped onto the background.  This gives subtle marks.  I then used some dark green ink to randomly stamp the leaves around the butterfly.  My sentiment is from Your are my Happy ( CL923 ) from the new Valentine's collection.

I hope you take time to join our challenge this month  ( see here) with your cards that use some masking...

Remember if you are in need of any items from the a2z Scrapbooking store  you can use code Dawn15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. (before tax and shipping)  And don’t forget that we are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  Follow us on these different social media outlets so you won’t miss out on any fun promotions!

Watercoloured background scene

I have been taking this online card class.... and it's been very inspiring, but still quite daunting.  It's all about using your watercolour mediums to paint....

I decided to try out Day 3's scene painting.  I printed a Mo Manning Digital stamp onto my watercolour paper, masked it off and then went for it. 

I used some Molotow masking fluid to mask off the image before painting the background.  Well all I can say is I NEED much more practice.  I did some lifting of colour for my sky and grass.   I will trim it and add a sentiment to make a card. 

I hope to try some of the Expressive florals and leaves.  They look fun to try.  Just to find the time and enthusiasm.  It's too hot to do much at the moment.  

Thanks for stopping by.

playing with smooching...

I was playing around with some distress inks and my acrylic block the other day and made a couple of backgounds.  - one in blues and one in oranges.  And here's how they ended up

First up the blues with a bit of inspiration from Pinterest

 This is a slightly smaller card - 4' x 4 1/2"  Cut with some leather texture card.  I made a frame with Spellbinders square dies.  The black leaves are a CAS-ual Friday die and the the butterfly is an EK Success punch.  Added some gems and the sentiment from the matching CAS-ual Friday's stamp set.

and the orange one

This one used a black die cut I got from one of the ladies in my stamping group.  Not sure if it was a die or cut with an electronic cutter, but it was perfect as the focus against the orange background.  Once again I used a sentiment from the CAS-ual Friday stamp set with the same textured card stock.  

Not much crafting in the last couple of days... went to the Zoo yesterday and today did some shopping for paintbrushes for the upcoming Online Card Class - watercoloring intermediate techniques.  I found my tubes of paints so hope these will work.  Can't wait to start the classes.  

Got a wedding come up in the weekend.  My hubby's niece is getting married on Saturday in Hamilton.  Look out for the card I made for them... it's coming up soon.

Take care

Dawn

Peace Ornament

Hey there.  I'm a bit late sharing this card here, as it was on A2Z Scrapbooking yesterday. 

I started by adding some green and pink Zig markers and water to my watercolour paper.  Once it dried, I added the die cut ornament.  This is a Hero Arts Stamp and Die set.  I embossed the sentiment across the middle.   I finished off the rest of the sentiment with part of an older Hero Arts stamp.  Added a few sequins to finish off and all done.

I've entered this into the CASE this Sketch # 149

My weekend has been so busy... Sat I spend most of the day at Sandie's place stamping and talking with my group of friends.  I left a bit earlier than usual as we were heading of to the Fleetwood Mac concert being held in Auckland.  The weather was shite.... all misty rain and windy, but that did not deter from an excellent concert.  So worth it.  We had General Admission tickets, so standing on the field for 4 1/2 hrs.  The band played for 2 3/4 hrs non stop.  Simply amazing.  Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie still can sing beautifully and the guys on the guitars are still as incredible as they were in the 70's and 80's.  And of course Mick Fleetwood on drums was stunning.

Hope you weekend is as good as mine has been.

It's been a Tim weekend!

Yes I spend the weekend with Tim.... Tim Holtz stamps that is!  For some reason my cards over the past few days have all had Tim's stamps on them....

Firstly here is a Butterfly I painted last weekend and made up into card on Friday evening.

I was inspired by the blue brick background that I saw Kathy Racoosin do on one of her cards.  I used Zig Markers to colour the butterfly.  The sentiment from the same set as the butterfly and I embossed it in silver EP.

Next up is another image I watercoloured last weekend.

This is from the Tim Holtz Stamptember with Simon Says.  I started by using my Zig Markers to make a wash on the background.  Then stamped the image and then added some more intense markers on a few spots and some Glossy accents on a few parts as well.   This one was for hubby on his birthday on Friday.

And my last trio of cards uses Tim Holtz Crazy birds.... two for my twin great nephews who turn 9 on the 28th

The banner stamp is a new border stamp from Crea8tiv that I picked up at K-Mart the other day.  Stencil from MFT.  Winnie & Walter sentiment stamped in a Penny Black die cut speech bubble.

And this last one for a friend's Aunty.

Using sentiments from Kaisercraft and one from Montarga

thanks for sticking through this long post... As you can see I have had fun spending some time with Tim. 

Weekend colouring

We spent the weekend at our friend's place at Mangawhai Heads.  I took along some Copics, watercolour paint palette and my Zig Markers and spend some time colouring .. did a few stamped images, made some watercoloured backgrounds and generally had a fun few hours both Saturday and Sunday.

This evening I made up one of the watercolour panels with stamping and colouring into a card

The background was a colour wash of watercolour paints.  Once it dried, I stamped the Lily (from Stampendous) and then used my Zig Markers to colour the image.  I love how you can get such vibrant colours with using the markers with only a little water.   This card is for my NZ Technique swap... theme is Spring and technique is stitching.  My stitching is faux - I used a MFT die to cut out the panel and then used a silver gel pen to do some faux stitching along the die cut stitched line.  Added some texture with an embossing folder to my base card.  The sentiment is from Winnie & Walter. 

 These are a couple of the other bits of colouring I did.   Still to make up into cards.  The bottom one has had a few added bits of colour since I took the photo.  This will be hubby's birthday card for Friday.  

And I'm finishing with a picture I took of some visitors to the house on Sat evening.

Mama Duck and 11 midsized ducklings came waddling across the lawn to the window.  The ducklings then pecked on the window while Mama looked on.  She then called them and the waddled around the back of the house to the other ranch slider then off to the wetland beside the property.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Let it Snow

It's my day to share some inspiration over at A2Z Scrapbooking.  Our challenge is Shaker Card

Arlene and I had a similar idea.... trees and shaker cards for Christmas.


For my card, I have made it look like I was looking out the window at snow on my Christmas tree.  I have used the beautiful Color Layering Christmas Trees (currently out of stock in our Etsy store, but feel free to make a CUSTOM Order it in the Store. Just click on the REQUEST CUSTOM ORDER form on the store HOME Page!)    I used distress ink and some watercolour paper and stamped and painted my tree.  I added some Kindyglitz (similar to Stickles) to imitate snow as does my clear and white sequins in the shaker part of the card.

Remember if you are in need of any items from the a2z Scrapbooking store  you can use code Dawn15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. (before tax and shipping)  And don’t forget that we are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  Follow us on these different social media outlets so you won’t miss out on any fun promotions!

Nothing beats creating with friends.

That's for sure.   Our group has had a very busy winter and a number of us have been way, and simply been busy so today's gathering was the first for some time.  5 of us joined Lei at her house and spend a full day creating.  I got there at 10.00am and left at nearly 5.00pm.  Managed to get 6 cards done. as well as sharing an awesome lunch and lots of fabulous conversation. 

I have had lots of new stuff arrived this week... an order from Simon Says Stamp that included some Altenew stamps, some SSS dies and a stencil or two plus my StampNation Stamp of Approval set arrived.  It is totally full of goodness

Even with all this goodness, my brain was not working so I did some blog visiting and You Tube watching to get some ideas.  So today's cards are all CASE'd or inspired by others.

First up are two cards that are CASE'd from cards by Sandy Allnock.  She did an awesome video on using the Layering Christmas Trees from Hero Arts.  just click on her name to link through to see it. 

I used the same Hero Arts Layering Trees and the same Couture Creations Sentiment die on both cards. The tree was stamped with 4 shades of green distress ink and blended with water and a paint brush.  Lots of Liquid Pearls around the oval one as well as on the trees with red and gold stickles.

My next card was inspired by Catherine Pooler.

I did an twisted inlay die cut using Simon Says Stamp stitched dies, The sentiment die and word are from Winnie & Walter as are the sequin stamps.  The birthday is embossed on some adhesive backed vellum.

I had an awesome day and did get a couple more cards done.  Two are for design work so can't share yet.  And one is for a birthday on 9th September. 

Hope you have a great weekend and get some time to create like me. 

Texture challenge at A2Z

 If you're looking for my Die Cut Divas post it's HERE
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Hi there   New challenge up at A2Z today and I've got a card to share.  Our challenge is all about using Texture Paste....

I started by colouring my background with Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Markers.  I then added some Ranger Texture Paste through the Hero Arts Birds and Leaves
stencil.  The paste picked up some of the colours of the paint.  Added the Hero Arts sentiment (from this set) by white embossing on the black strip.  Added a variety of Pretty Pink Posh sequins and matted with blue and then onto a pale blue base.

Do come and join us at A2Z Scrapbooking and play with your texture paste and Hero Arts products.


Remember if you are in need of any items from the a2z Scrapbooking store  you can use code Dawn15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. (before tax and shipping)  And don’t forget that we are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  Follow us on these different social media outlets so you won’t miss out on any fun promotions! And look out for the latest release from Hero Arts... coming soon to A2Z.

Good Friends..

Here I am back to share another card for A2Z Scrapbooking.

Our challenge this month is Clean and Simple....Clean and Simple doesn't always mean lots of white space... how about a bit of soft colour!



I took the sentiment from this set.  and gold embossed it.  I then used my new Zig Clean  Colour Real Brush pens to add some soft watercolour to the background.   My butterflies are from this digi kit  I printed the butterfly twice onto some watercolour paper that had the same soft colours as my background.  I fussy cut and added them one on top of the other.  Finished with some bright pink gems.

Linking this to the "Make the sentiment the Star" at A blog Named Hero

Remember if you are in need of any items from the a2z Scrapbooking store  you can use code Dawn15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. (before tax and shipping)  And don’t forget that we are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  Follow us on these different social media outlets so you won’t miss out on any fun promotions!   Also, the a2z Store now has the 2015 Hero Arts release in stock. So now there’s even more reason to go shopping!!!!!!

More Watercolouring

 

I did some more watercolouring over the weekend for the Pretty Pink Posh blog hop.... You could enter up to three times. Here's one of them.  The last one will be included in my post of the 22nd of June...

 

I used a Hero Arts Night and Day Flowers stamp which I white embossed.  I then used my Derwent Inktense pencils to colour them.  A nice pale blue background wash finished with the Hero  Arts sentiment and some white enamel dots.  I added some black grosgrain ribbon.  If you are interested in any Hero Arts products do pop over to the Esty store for A2Z Scrapbooking and if you spend more than $25, use my code Dawn15 to receive a 15% discount (before shipping and taxes)

And here's a sneak peek of the last card

I'm racing at the moment to get all my DT work up to date for the next month.  In less than two weeks now I'll be heading off for three and a bit weeks holiday.  Another European Adventure for the Turley's.   We are heading to Prague to catch up with our friends ~ Michael and Yvonne ~ spending around 8 nights with them between Prague and Vienna.  We then leave them and head off for 2 nights in each of the following cities...Budapest, Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik.   On our way over we are spending a night in Singapore as we arrive in early (around 6.30am) and don't fly our till 11.00pm the next night.  We have a short lay-over in Zurich before Prague.  And two on the way home... short one in Frankfurt and then 7 hours in Shanghai.  Hoping to get into the city for a couple of hours.   That makes 9 countries in 23 days! 

thanks for stopping by. 😄

Watercolouring Wonders

Have you joined the watercolour trend yet?  I love watercolouring and have a number of different mediums... Derwent Inktense pencils, Kohi-i-noor paints, tubes of watercolour paints, Twinkling H2O's, Gelatos, Pearlescent paints, Distress Markers, Tombow markers.... and have order some of the Zig Clean Colour pens.... Yes I think you could say I love watercolouring.... So does Paulina from Pretty Pink Posh and she's having a Blog Hop

I have a few birthdays this month that I need to make a card for, and with heading on holiday on the 20th, some have to be made early.  Just the excuse I needed to pull out the watercolours and play along

This one was inspired by a card I saw from Carrisa ( a DT on Pretty Pink Posh)

I used a Derwent Inktense pencil to scribble onto my watercolour paper then used a wet paint brush to blend it out.  I used a couple of colours of pink and then used the end of the pencil to flick some splatters.  I die cut the rose (Couture Creations) from gold card, the Walter & Winnie Happy from black card and white embossed the sentiment (note to self: make sure it's straight!) I added some glossy accents to the die cut.  I used some Pretty Pink Posh sequins.  Actually, I don't have any black sequins so took some clear ones and used a Copic marker to colour.  Worked really well!  

Thanks Paulina for such a fun hop.  And to all those talented artists out there who have done videos and tutorials that I have avidly viewed.  You are all so awesome!

Coming up Roses

Today I'm sharing another card I made for Die Cut Divas. 


I coloured this in a few weeks ago while I was away.  I white embossed the roses from Hero Arts and used aqua crayons to watercolour them.  I die cut the watercolour panel with a Lil'Inkers die and layered onto some PP.  I finished it with some sequins and a die cut sentiment from Winnie & Walter.

Entering into the Embossing Challenge at A Blog Named Hero 

Thanks for stopping by.. and do come join us at Die Cut Divas