Life is Better with You Friend

Happy Spring to those readers that are from the northern hemisphere (and happy fall to those in the southern one)! I chose a bright cheery spring colour combo for today's colouring as I join in Day 20 of Kathy Raccosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge with another Angie Blom Digital Design stamp for this card. This time I used the Unicorn Love digital stamp laser printed on Strathmore 300 Series Smooth Bristol paper and watercolours. You can see my swatched watercolours combo on the bristol strip beside the finished card.

I started by using a Molotow masking fluid pen and covering all the little circles, dots and V hearts along with the single line curls in the mane. Next, using Mijello Mission Gold watercolours, I painted the top part of the background with Cobalt Turquoise. Once it was set but before it was dry, I placed the older Prima Jamie Dougherty Spark stencil over it and using a dampened papertowel, I removed some of the watercolour through the stencil to add some texture and interest to the background. While that area was drying, I turned to colouring the flowers on the unicorn's head. I used some already mixed greens from my Mijello Paint palette and used a watered down version of Bright Clear Violet for the first layer of the flowers and then added more concentrated touches. 


Next, I turned to the unicorn's body. I added in shading with a grey/graphite Stabilo All pencil and activated it with water. Then, I watered down some Vicki Boutin Iridescent CreativeFX glaze and painted the body with it to give it a pearlescent shine for some magical shimmer quality. The shading didn't show through enough in some areas so I added a touch of Indigo watercolour to the mix and then painted over the shaded areas to define them more. Next, I added some white watercolour to a bit of the iridescent glaze to lightened areas that I had left for highlights. It is really hard to show the shimmer in a photo but I tried angling the card as I was taking the photo to see if I could pick it up. If you look at the ears and carefully on the body, you might see it. 

Then, I coloured the grass. I started with a wash of Yellow Green and then added bits of Sap Green and Hooker's Green. While that was setting up, I erased the masking fluid from the single curl lines of the unicorn's mane. Next, I added the final green touches with a concentrated amount of Sap Green on the blades of grass and in the circles and leaves.

Next up was the mane. For pink, I used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker. I started by pre-wetting sections that I was going to work on with water. Then going in with the marker along the ends and using more water and a number two brush round brush to pull the colour up through the sections to create an ombre effect. While that was drying, I added some touches of pink to the background v hearts and iridescent glitter glue to the dots, circles and v hearts. Then, I erased the masking fluid on the mane and added the glitter glue there too. Next, I did the same to the grass and the unicorn's corn and set it aside to dry while I cut and folded the card base.

Now with the painting dry and complete, I die cut it with the Simon Says Stamp Wonky Rectangles die. To finish off the card, I adhered scrap cereal board to the back of the die cut panel and glued it onto a white cardbase that I sized to allow a 1/4 inch frame area. For the sentiment, I used the one that comes with the Fox and the Owl digital kit that I had laser printed on my initial bristol piece. I cut it out, cereal board backed it and adhered it to the card. I went over some of the lines with a Pigma Micron 005 black pen to darken them. Lastly, I punched out some mini butterflies from the scrap cast off areas from the die cut panel background and added two of them. Here is a another look at the finished card:

Supplies: 300 Series Smooth Bristol (Strathmore), white cardstock (Staples), unicorn and sentiment digital stamp (Angie Blom Digital Designs), Mission Gold watercolour paints (Mijello), pink Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker (Kuritake), grey/graphite All watercolour pencil (Stabilo), Vicki Boutin Iridescent CreativeFX Glaze (American Crafts), Jamie Dougherty Sparks stencil (Prima), Hologram Iridescent Glitter Glue (VivaDecor), Wonky Rectangles Wafer Die (Simon Says Stamp), butterflies punch (Martha Stewart), black 005 Pigma Micron pen (Sakura), Original Tacky Glue (Aleene's)

Design techniques, products used and colour inspirations came from various Simon Says Stamp challenges - Monday Challenge Blog's Stencil Fun challenge, the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge #145 Crazy for Coloring, and Simon Says Stamp IG Spring has Sprung challenge. Be sure to check each of the SSS challenges and Kathy's blog, FB or IG #thedailymarker30day for awesome eye candy and inspiration.

TTFN,

Bright and Cheerful Notebook

Hello crafty friends! Happy Sunday to you. It is a beautiful one in my neck of the woods this Canadian Civic Holiday long weekend and I want to share a little mixed media goodness with you.

Nothing like a challenge to get you to use crafty supplies. I finally got a chance to play with Vicki Boutin's Color Kaleidoscope collection which I used to alter the cover of a branded advertising swag notebook. My inspiration was Simon Says Stamp Monday - Bright and Cheerful Challenge. Vicki’s collection oozes that in spades hence that I chose to use it.

Courtesy of my insurance provider, the notebook started like this...

I began by dry brushing gesso on to it in three layers allowing time to dry in between which is when I was doing my fussy cutting of the stamped leaves and butterfly along with the distressing and sharpie inking the edges of the paper embellishments. Once the gesso was dry, I used Vicki's script stencil with texture paste and once that was dry, I added the gorgeous Juicy Pear green watercolour with her watercolour marker, spritzing it with water to make it run where I wanted and dabbing off areas that I wanted to lighten.

Once it was dry, I started to arrange the varies altered bits from the embellishments and sticker book when I decided I needed a banner strip. So I cut a piece of the Beyond Words patterned paper into a strip, banner cut the end and then spritzed it with water, crinkling it up to dry a bit. Once it was slightly damp, I straightened it out to my desired length and look before heat setting it with a heating tool. Once I was pleased with the arrangement, I adhered all the paper pieces, popping some up with bits of scrap cereal box cardboard as I went along. To finish it off and give it a touch of glitter, I used Vicki's Iridescent Glitter Texture Paste.

One of the things that I love about this collection is that the packaging is usable. Yeah for up-cycling! I couldn’t find a paper ephemera size butterfly in the size and colour that I wanted until I spied the one on the package as I was putting the pieces back in the package. It was just what I wanted so fussy cut it out. Ditto for wanting another orange flower. Again, I turned to the packaging to cut out the partial flower which works perfectly when tucked behind another layer.

Here's another look at the finished cover.

Supplies: Vicki Boutin Color Kaleidoscope [branch of leaves stamp, embellishments, sticker book, packaging, Beyond Words patterned paper], Vicki Boutin script stencil, Juicy Pear Watercolor marker, Iridescent Glitter Texture Paste (American Crafts), gesso (Golden), Texture Paste and Multi Medium Matte Glue (Ranger), Obsidian pigment ink (Altenew), black marker (Sharpie), white cardstock and OTIP notebook (Misc.)

Be sure to check out the Simon Says Stamp Monday Bright and Cheerful challenge's inspirational creations by the DT and other participants here.

TTFN,

Shine Brightly

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today, I have an upcyled mixed media tag that I made inspired by Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge - Use Something New and Bleeding Art's December - Shiny and Sparkly Challenge.

I live in a small town that just opened its first Starbucks over the Christmas break and my daughter and I went into the new store for Chia Lattes. I saved my cup and washed it out as I thought that I the design elements were perfect for fussy cutting; and that is what I did for this tag. I fussy cut out the pattern for the bottom of the tag and the stars. The other new to me items that I used on the tag were Emerald Creek's Fractured Ice embossing powder and Ice Resin Sterling German Glass.

Both the emboss powder and glass add the "shiny" part of the Bleeding Art Challenge component. For the "sparkly" part, I added Vicki Boutin Iridescent CreativFX glaze to Distress Clear Rock Candy Crackle paint for some subtle sparkly crackle texture and jewels to the centre of the stars.

The tag base was made by first adding colour with Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Broken China, Cracked Pistachio and Hickory Smoke. Once that was dry, I scraped on some Vaseline and heat embossed the Fractured Ice embossing powder. Next, I scraped on some more Vaseline which acted as a resist for when I added a watered down white acrylic wash. After letting the acrylic paint set up for a minute, I then wipe over it and it comes off of the resist areas revealing colour from the base and the emboss powdered areas. Using a clean paper towel, I completely removed and residual petroleum jelly and carefully heat evaporate the rest with a heat tool. Then, I mixed up a little Iridescent CreativFX with the Distress Clear Rock Candy crackle paint and painted sporadically around the tag with the mixture. I set it aside to dry and crackle and then coloured the Tim Holtz ribbon with a combination of Cracked Pistachio, Lucky and Hickory Smoke Distress Stain sprays. After the tag was dry, I matted it onto a piece of upcycled ceral box chipboard to help reshape it and distressed the edges. Now it was ready for the embellishing touches. I adhered the Starbucks cup stars and pattern segment along with a Jet Black Archival inked Tim Holtz Quote Chip piece. I finished it off by adhering the glass shards, jewels to the stars, and the crinkle ribbon to the top.

I really like how this turned out and have decided to keep it as a new bookmark for my reading pleasure. It always brings a smile to my face when I open up a book to one of my little pieces of art. Plus, I have a momento of a happy memory of time spent with my daughter sharing our love of Chia Lattes for our first visit to Starbucks when it first came to town.

You can check out the challenge details and other entrants creations here:


          




TTFN,

Art Journaling with Soul Journey - Inspired by Vicki

I have another art journal page today that I made with inspiration from Soul Journey 2018. If you are interested, you can find the art journaling group on Facebook and it is an extension of Art and Soul Studio. The year long event has an amazing line up of exceptional mixed media artists.

This page was inspired by Vicki Boutin. I started journaling in my 9" x 12" Strathmore 400 series Mixed Media Visual Journal using Vicki's script stencil and light green art crayon. Then, I used the two greens and the blue-green with the solid circle stamps to stamp my design. Next I used the burst stamp and rings with Cloudy Sky StazOn. I added some dots and line doodles before stenciling with the awesome Gold Glaze CreativFX. I watered some down and added some splatters. While that was drying, I coloured the watercolour stick butterflies and title. Once I added them to the page, I called it done.

Supplies: 400 Series Mixed Media Journal (Strathmore), Vicki Boutin Cool Art Crayons, circle stamps, stencils, watercolour stickers and CreativeFX Gold Glaze (American Crafts), Cloudy Sky StazOn (Tsukineko)

You can check out Vicki's video here and be inspired to create your own take on it.


TTFN,

Gilded Dogwood

Hello my crafty friends! Today, I am sharing a floral guilded crackled watercolour card on the Magenta Blog. This one has some great texture in real life.

Supplies: Dogwood stencil, Thanks sentiment stamp, Hot Pink, Rosebud, Grass Green, & Jade Nuance Powders (Magenta), Canson XL 140 lb cold press watercolour paper (Canson), Distress Rock Candy Crackle Paste (Ranger), Vicki Boutin CreativFX Gold Glaze (American Crafts), VersaMark (Tsukineko), gold embossing powder (Emerald Creek), Vellum (Dollarama), Ticket Punch (Stamping Up)

I started with a piece of 140 lb watercolour paper and added Tim Holtz Rock Candy Crackle Paste through the Dogwood stencil.

Once dry and crackled, I secured the stencil back in place on the panel and dry brushed some Vicki Boutin CreativFX Gold Glaze onto the crackle. 

Once dry, I watercolour painted the dogwood flowers with Hot Pink and Rosebud Nuance and the leaves with Grass Green and Jade Nuance. While it was drying, I heat emboss stamped the Thanks for everything you do sentiment with gold embossing powder on vellum and ticket punched the corners. I trimmed down the Dogwood panel and adhered it to a base card adding the sentiment with clear foam tape.

*****

Magenta products used:

TM245

MNU005

MNU017

MNU009

MNU004

07.837.H

TTFN,