Winter has Set In

Winter has begun here in Geelong, apparently it is the coldest start to winter since 1949. Gee thanks mother nature, when will summer be back. This cold, wet and rainy weather is the perfect time to spend in my space.

With all this time spent in my creative space I am quick of the mark this month and have created a card to enter into the June Challenge over on the ARTastic Challenge Blog. The art work they have used this month is by  Luka Va titled 'Bird King'

Along with using the art as inspiration you must also include wood veneer and/or birds. Not only was I able to find a bird within my stash but it was made out of wood veneer, could not have more perfect. Now what to do with it. 

The humming bird on the left is what it originally looked like and the one on the right is what I did to it. I pulled out my gelatos and started experimenting. I first used 2 different browns and it just didn't look right, so I added gold to the mixed and still I wasn't thrilled with the look. My next move was a bold one, I found my blueberry gelato and started to colour. The result is this gorgeous teal colour. 

The colours of the art work that stood out to me were the orange of the beak, aqua on the wings and the teal of one of the small birds. The other elements that stood out to me was the wood grain in the back ground and the triangles on the chest of the large bird.

I used all of these elements and turned them into the card below.

Products Used - Dylusions Paint (Vibrant Turquoise & Squeezed Orange), Faber-Castell Gelatos (Chocolate, Cinnamon, Gold Champagne & Blueberry), Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen (Cold Grey) Stampin' Up Ink (Smoky Slate), Stampin' Up Stamp (Hardwood), Stampin' Up Cardstock (Whisper White) Texture Paste, Mixed Media Paper, MME Cut &Paste Enamel Dots.

Happy Creating

Love You To The Moon

There is nothing like leaving it to the last couple of days to enter a challenge, but here I am doing it.

I am entering the current challenge (May) at ARTastic Challenge Blog. For the challenges they provided a piece of art to be used as inspiration and this month it is from Sarah Beetson titled - Return of The Young Prince. The required criteria is that you must use Stars.

I loved the blue of the background and the Prince's eyes, they are what stood out to me most along with the oh so colourful stars. Below is the card that I created using the piece of art as inspiration.

Every night when I kiss my daughter good night I always tell her that I love you to the moon and beyond and she always answers the same

Products Used:

• Stampin' Up Star Stencil
• Texture Paste
• Blue Water Colour Paint
• Sand paper
• Big Brush Pen
• Indigo Blue Mega-Flakes
• Mixed Media Paper
• Stampin' Up Black Cardstock
• White POSCA Paint Pen
• Stampin' Up Stars Framelits Dies

Happy Creating.

Leave Room In Your Garden

The challenge this month at Let's Get Arty is using ACME Label Maker. All you need to do is create a label in ACME Label Maker and attach it to your design. I had a little fun playing with all the different fonts and colours.

For this challenge I combined my two loves of card making and mixed media.

 

I started with a piece of mixed media paper that I had coated with gesso and then I added skelton leaves. Over the top of that I put a piece of tissue paper. When going through my scrap tissue paper box I found this pattern piece. I had planned on adding just plain white but decided on the patterned on as it added another layer and dimension to the card.

 

Next I added a very thin layer of gesso which I put on with my finger, I love getting my fingers messy, they always seem to have some sort of mixed media product on them. To add some colour to the background i pulled out my water colour paints. The last two things I did was draw around the leaves with my POSCA paint pen and used my head gun to create bubbles.

Leave room in your garden for the fairies to dance is the quote I used. I created the label in the ACME Label Maker and I use the Bertinelli font, white lettering and Sienna as the background.

I really love this card and loved using all my new Prima products that I recently purchased.

Happy Creating

Playing Around

I had this idea in my head that I wanted to do but first I thought it would be a good idea to trial it first. Did it work how I wanted it to? No where close, but I am reasonable happy with the canvas. It's not something that I have done before. And it's probably not something I will do again. I am glad that I gave it ago though.

I always say to myself that Art is an adventure and you never know where you are going to end up, just enjoy the journey along the way.

Products used: 10 x 9.5 cm canvas, watercolour paints, gesso, texture paste, Faber-Castel Pitt Pens

Happy Creating

Wings

The current challenge on The Mixed Media Card Challenge blog is 'Wings' and you have the option of adding foil.

I am the first to admit that I am addicted to butterflies so when in my blog travels I came I across this challenge I knew I could not go past it. The other reason why I could not go past this challenge was because card making is my first love and mixed media is my second so all round this challenge was screaming my name.

When creating I always save the left over bits, I started with a small bowl and it has now grown into a draw. I am one of those people who cannot throw anything out because you never know how useful it will be in the future. Now that my draw is almost full, I have been trying to use these left over bits. The background on this card was created by using pre-cut strips of paper. The strips are from where I was cutting card inserts down to size. Seems appropriate for them to go back onto a card. I then used my Derwent Inktense Blocks to colour the background

Just recently I purchased the Butterflies Thinlits Dies from Stampin' Up and this was the perfect excuse to use it, not that I really need an excuse. In my paper scrap draw (yes I have one of them too, for plain cardstock and patterned) I found the perfect size piece of paper to use.

Using the option of adding foil to my card I used a new product from IndigoBlu called Mega-Flake and changed my black butterfly into a gorgeous metallic one.

 

While searching in my scrap draw for the strips of paper I also came across some aqua colour hexagons and some aqua coloured thread. I pulled them out and decided that that is what I would used to embellish my background. I knew this wouldn't be enough for the card so I went into my chipboard stash and found my diamond UmWowStudio chipboard. I love how the diamonds are all different sizes. The last thing I wanted to add was some sort of material. I found some natural fibre tulle cut a small piece which I then proceed to distress, so it didn't look so new.

The background needed something more so I used my Stampin' Up Off The Grid Stamp and when that was dry with my white pen I drew down the right hand side of my vertical strips of paper. It's all about layering and creating texture.

The order that everything went down is hexagons first, then the tulle and then the tread. This is where I hit a snag, I had to seek advice from a friend as I had no idea how to put the thread down without it looking messy. Her response was "It's meant to be messy". I struggled with this but I think I managed to get it right although the more I look at my card I am thinking it maybe could have done with a little more. Next came the placement of the diamonds. Over all of this I splattered white ink. The last layer of my card is my butterfly.

Happy Creating

Where Flowers Bloom

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a friends place for a creative play. I had no idea what to take so I did ask for some advice from a group on fb and the suggestions were fantastic but I still was confused. In the end I took pre gessoed timber boards, most of my stencils (and I have quite a few), gesso, a few stamps, heat gun, printed tissue paper, embossing powder and my gel medium.

I really had no plans of what I was going to create. In the end started creating a back ground and an idea started forming in my head.

This was the background I created at my friend's place and below is the finished piece.

Happy Creating

May Challenge at Off The Rails Scrapbooking

Does the mood board above make you want to create? I know it did with me. I love the fact that with mood boards/colour palettes, you don't have to been inspired by everything on it. Take the things that inspire you and run with it.

This month I used the colours, the timber and the saying to create my art journal page. We are our own worst critics and the saying reminds us that there is enough people out there criticising what we do that we don't need to do it to ourselves.

If you would like to see what other members of the Design Team at Off The Rails Scrapbooking create please click HERE.

Happy Creating