The Alphabet Challenge: G is for Grunge or Glitz

Good morning.  It's my turn to choose this week's challenge at The Alphabet Challenge.  This week's letter is G, and I have chosen the theme of Grunge or Glitz.  I was originally going to go with just Grunge, but I know it's not for everyone and I didn't want to put people off, so I thought I'd give people a choice of two completely contrasting styles.  It should make things interesting anyway!

I've chosen to go with Grunge.  I created the background of the card using Gelli Plate printing with acrylic paints.  This is a great, fun technique.  I added a layer of stamping using stamps by visible image and mounted my background on black card.

I then stamped the main image and the word "MUSIC" on a contrasting Gelli Plate background.  These stamps are also by Visible Image.  All of the stamping is done in black archival ink, which dries nicely on top of the acrylics.

I hope you can join us this week at The Alphabet Challenge.

Sian. xxx

Make My Monday : Use some Silver or Gold

Good morning!  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is to use some silver or gold on your project.  I've used a lot of silver, but sadly this does not show up too well in the picture. 

I decided to make a mixed media wall hanging.  Unfortunately I could not get a decent photo of the whole finished thing due to the awful weather we've been having, which has meant a lack of natural light, but I hope you can at least get an idea of what it looks like.

I've posted some close ups, and some work in progress pictures at the bottom.

I started with a  wooden heart, which I painted with white gesso and then a layer of  white acrylic paint.

Then I added some texture  using die cuts, corrugated card and some gel medium which I applied through a stencil to create the eggshell effect.  Then I gave everything another coat of white paint and added some blue while it was still wet.

Once that layer of paint was dry I added some silver paint around the edges and also some turquoise gilding wax.  I also added some silver sparkly embossing powder to the background, which I applied just by sprinkling and heating.

For the final part of my project I used some die cut butterflies and some paper flowers, which I painted to match the background.  then I added some of the silver embossing powder to the edges.  I used Versamark Ink on the edges of the flowers and the butterflies to pick up the powder and then heated it.

I stuck everything on, then added some beads to the centres of the flat flowers.  Then to finish off my project I added a loop at the top with some mixed fibres and then threaded some beads onto fibres which I hung from the bottom.

I hope you can join us this week at Make My Monday.

Sian. xx

Make My Monday: Anything but a Card

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is to make anything but a card.  This was a good opportunity for me, as I'd had a wooden house hanging around that I bought a few months ago, just waiting to be made into something.

The first thing I did was to paint the house inside and out.  I used acrylic paints for this in shades of blue, white and platinum.

Then I measured each compartment.  The writing in pencil in the middle of each section is the measurement in millimetres.

 used some acrylic texturising medium in the bottom of some of the sections to make them look more snowy.  There is a close up picture of this below.  I also used some texturising medium on the roof.

I painted over the textured areas in white acrylic and then gave the white painted areas on the front of the house another coat.

My next step was to add glitter, again to make everything look more snowy.

I found this whole process quite tedious as I am not a big fan of waiting for things to dry and unfortunately this part of the project included a lot of that!  I was however able to make some of things to put inside the house while I waited.

I also ended up with glitter all over me and all over the house.  I'm still finding it a week later.

The next step was to fill the house.  I used lots of different things for this - various die cut and wooden elements and things I made myself.  The snowman, trees and snowballs are all made out of air dry polymer clay and painted with acrylic.  This gave me something to do whilst waiting for paint, glue and texture mediums to dry, but then I had to wait for these to dry too!

The final thing for me to do was to add the die cut snowflakes to the front of the house.  I used various different snowflake dies and cut the snowflakes from white, blue and silver card, then glued them on.  I hope you can join us this week at Make My Monday. 

Sian.  xx

Make My Monday: Autumn Colours

Hello again.  Today I amm sharing my DT card for Make My Monday.  This week's challenge is to use autumn colours.  I have to admit, these are not my favourite colours and I find it quite hard to use them.  I am however pleased with how this one turned out.

I started by making a background using Distress inks and Distress Oxides.  I did this by first applying the Distress Inks on a craft mat and then pressing a piece of Kraft card down on top of the ink.  Then I dried the inks using a heat gun and repeated this step using the Distress Oxide.  I then splashed water onto the card and dried it with a heat gun, repeating this step until I was happy with the effect. 

I dried my card off, then ironed it between two Teflon Sheets to give a flat surface to stamp on.  Then I stamped the flowers in Versamark Ink and embossed them using Wow! black sparkle embossing powder.   The stamps are by Paperartsy and are some of my acquisitions from the Happy Stampers Festival in May (I'm going again in October and still haven't used everything I bought at the last one!)

I painted the stamped flowers with white gesso, then left my card to dry overnight (I hate this step because I'm very impatient).  The next day I coloured the flowers with Polychromos pencils, and layered my stamped image onto brown card and a Kraft 6x6 card blank.

I hope you can join in the fun at Make My Monday.

Sian.  xx

Messy Fun

Good morning!  This is a card I made using some stamps by Visible Image.  I was luck enough to win £40.00 to spend on their stamps in last month's challenge in the Visible Image Facebook Group, and these are some of the stamps I chose.

I created the background using Brushos and Distress Inks on bubble wrap.  Then I used acrylic paint which I added using various different size lids (form paint  and glue bottles, pens etc to create the rings.

I stamped the lightbulb onto a separate piece of card and cut it out.  I coloured it with Distress Inks and a Letraset Metallic Marker then added some Glossy Accents over the top.  I  also stamped the moth and cut it out and coloured with with Distress Inks.  Then I stamped the wings in Versamark onto Vellum and embossed them.  I coloured the back of the vellum with Polychromos pencils.  I layered the moth onto the card using foam pads.

I am really enjoying getting back into doing some messy stamping and mixed media stuff.  It's been a while!

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Guyz: Tag it

Good morning!  Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz is Tag it.

I created both the main background of my card and the tags with Kraft card using a mixture of acrylic paints, distress inks and stamping.  I started off with the acrylic paint, which is an off white shade.  I put paint on various objects such as bubble wrap and lids from glue and paints and stamped it onto the card, and also applied some paint through sequin waste.

I waited for the paint to dry (that was the hard part) and then blended distress inks onto the card and the tags, then I created a layer of stamping using coordinating distress inks.  Finally I stamped the main image onto the top tag using memento ink, which gives better coverage over the acrylic paint.

I matted and layered all of the elements onto blue card , punched holes in the tags and added eyelets, added some jute twine through the tops of the tags and then arranged everything on the card.  Finally, I cut the small stars from blue and Kraft card and arranged them and added them to the card.

I hope you can join us this week at Cardz 4 Guyz.

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Guyz: Love You!

Love is in the air once again today, this time at Cardz 4 Guyz where the theme is Love You!  I always find male Valentine's cards quite tricky because I don't want them to be too cute or soppy (most of the men I know wouldn't appreciate it!)  So I have tried to create a very masculine looking Valentine's card which nevertheless gets the message across.

I created this card using a variety of techniques (and no patterned paper - unusual for me!)  I started off using a Kraft card blank and created my bottom layer by applying Versamark ink through a stencil and then applying mica powders in various metallic shades.  Then I applied some more Versamark around the edges and embossed using Wow! embossing powders.

For the square in the middle I used a piece of black card which I dry embossed using an embossing folder and then wiped over a Versamark inkpad so that the ink was picked up by the raised areas.  Then I applied mica powers and embossed around the edges in the same way as the lower level . 

I die cut the heart and the squiggles using dies from the Entwined collection by Leonie Pujol and embossed them using different colours of Wow! embossing powder.  I wrapped some squiggles around the heart and stuck it into the middle of the card, then wrapped some of the squiggles around each other and attached them at the corners.  Finally I added the sentiment "I'm happiest when I'm with you" which is from a Tim Holtz Ideaology pad.

I look forward to seeing everyone's creations at this week's Cardz 4 Guyz challenge.

Sian.  xx

The Stamp Man ATC Swap

These are my ATCs for The Stamp Man ATC Swap.   Well, three of them are anyway.  I got a bit carried away and made a a couple of extras.  This month's theme is "wings".

Unfortunately the photos don't show up the shimmeriness (is that a word?)

I made the background using Starburst Sprays, with Papermania Vinyls as masks.

I then stamped the backgrounds in distress inks and the flowers in black archival ink.  I also stamped the dragonflies directly onto the ATCs because I am lazy and didn't want to cut out the legs. (Well, I tried, but they kept falling off!)

Next, I stamped the  dragonflies onto white card using black archival ink and coloured them with watercolour pencils.  I added highlights using white and glitter gel pens.  I stamped the wings separately onto some shimmery cellophane , cut them out and stuck them on.  I attached the dragonflies to the ATCs, curved the wings and put some foam pads under the wings for a 3D effect.

Blind Drawing!

Most of these are for a swap on ATCs for All hosted bt AnnD, but they are very addictive so I made a few extras.

The idea is to draw a face with your eyes closed and then to make it into a character.

I've added a bit about each character at the side as well.

The images are drawn using Promarkers and black artist pen, with a bit of white gel pen.

The backgrounds were created using collage, inks, acrylic paints and pens.

And Finally... a Bit of Love... or was it just the wine?

This one has a gesso resist and distress ink background.  The heart is cut from a book page and I've used ink and gesso to colour it, using sequin waste as a stencil.  I've added the swirls on the heart using white gel pen and have stitched around the edges of the ATC and the heart.  The word "Passion" is rubber stamped and the rest of the words are found poetry taken from a page of "David Copperfield"

A Bit More Weirdness

These are some more collage ATCs I've done.  I definitely don't think I can do collage without getting either silly or just plain weird!

A Bit of Sillyness...

...because I just can't help myself.  I can't seem to do collaged ATCs without getting silly.  I did these last night:

This one has a text background covered with gesso and ink, acrylic paint stamped with bubble wrap and rubber stamping. Collage using printed images and rubber stamped across the head, a bit of white gel pen and colouring with Promarkers.

This one has a background made from a vintage dress pattern (a bit lost under the layers) painted using watercolours, rubber stamped, with a collaged layer on top using printed images, acrylic paint, more rubber stamping and more collaged bits, with a bit of pen around the edges.

...and Some Red

These are all for a PIck a Theme swap on ATCs for All.  I started with similar backgrounds for all of them, created using inks, rubber stamping and acrylic paint, and then I did something different with each one.

The fish is painted in acrylic.

The bird and the branches are made using various pieces of printed paper, pieced together and shaded using coloured pencils. I've drawn the various bits using a PITT artist pen and accented with white gel pen.

For the kiss I have done a gel medium image transfer, added a definition from a dictionary and edged with acrylic paints and rubber stamping.

The rooster is done by piecing together pieces of printed paper in a similar way to the bird.  I've added shading using pens and pencil and a dictionary definition.

Finally I have done a zentangle style ATC using PITT artist pen and white gel pen (background as above) and have added a bit of Cosmic Shimmer glitter paint.

Some Orange...

For Cazro's colour swap on DoCrafts.

The top one is rubber stamped on a stamped, inked and acrylic paint background.

The middle one is stamped on a background made of various pieces of printed paper and inked.  I've added white gel pen to accent.

The bottom one is Grungeboard and Grungepaper on an inked and stamped background.

Mermaids

These are for a swap on ATCs for All.  I've drawn the mermaids using Promarkers, PITT Artist Pen, white gel pen and Sakura Stardust pens (although the shimmer unfortunately doesn't show up on the photos.

For the background, I've used tissue paper, Cosmic Shimmer Sprays and acrylic paint.