Saturday 23 July 2016

#140 LOC

Hi all! Well that fortnight went super quickly! It's now officially Schools out for Summer here, and we're nearing August at an alarming speed - soon be Halloween!! Let's hope we get some summer first though, please!!!

On to my next DT project for Left of Center Creative Challenges  #140 - LOC


Our sponsor this week is Shadow Clocksy - the talented Jessi Scobee has a dark, goth, grunge, horror style that is fantastic to work with. Because our theme this week is LOC, I chose an Anime (Chibi) image to work from this time. This one is called Trixie, and you can find her successor over on Etsy called Trixie V2.

 I decided to colour her in using my Promarkers. Her hair is a cascade of waves which was a great challenge to get dimension and depth as well as light into - it was enjoyable colouring her in. I used 3 yellows for her trousers, 3 pinks for her top and 3 oranges for her hair. I used Wink of Stella in Clear over her eyes, boots, highlights in her hair and the bear on her hair bow.

To coordinate with the colours used on Trixie I found some lovely Mixed Media paper from Paper Lozzy, I tore this into the right size to fit on my Kraft card base, and inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Old Paper.  It needed something else, so using another digital paper pack from Paper Lozzy called Dark Grunge, I tore two pieces to go top and bottom of the base paper. I used Tim Holtz Distress Crayon to darken the edges.

I used a variety of stamps to to add further interest on the background paper, including a retired Stampin Up set with dots and circles, a vine stamp and Denim Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Stamps. I also used the Denim Backgrounder in dark yellow on Trixie's trousers to create more texture.

Once happy with the background, I fussy cut Trixie out and placed her off to the left on the card, to leave room for a quote or sentiment. To ground her, I used a brown Distress Crayon by and under her boots. I used a pale cream Distress Crayon to go round her to further ground her onto the background. Once happy with the background and Trixie, I chose a quote stamp from the same retired Stampin Up set that the dots and circles stamp came from - I don't know the name of the set, sorry. I used Stazon in Black Soot to stamp the quote.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:



Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle xxx



Friday 22 July 2016

Challenge Winner

I had a lovely surprise browsing the blog challenges I've entered my projects on. I have won two more prizes!

Firstly, I won $15 of digi stamps for Challenge #66 - Be Independent over at Ike'sworld Challenges. Thank you Suzy and the DT!

I also was in the Top 5 for June over at Altered Eclectics - thank you Elaine and the DT who chose mine. 


I was surprised and thrilled to have won three times with my very first art journal page, and it's given me the confidence to carry on with my own style of work. I feel rather silly having had my mixed media pad for quite a long while before getting the courage to actually do a page - now you can't stop me!!

Next post will be my project piece for the coming week's Left of Center Creative Challenge #140 - I do hope you come along and join in.

Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Michelle xxx

Friday 15 July 2016

Fantasy Crafters Challenge #1

Hi all, at last the exciting new challenge blog Fantasy Crafters Challenge has started, and here's my DT inspirational project for it. The theme is Anything Goes as long as it's fantasy related.

For my project I used Darcy who is part of the Flights of Fantasy range by Crafters Companion. I coloured her with my Promarkers, added Cosmic Shimmer wax in Blossom to her wings. For the background I used purple blue and pink with Distress Markers, then used my water brush to mix and merge to create a fantasy background. Once dry I added some white spots to depict glow worms/fairies and cut it to size to fit on my card base.

I used some coloured card from The Works cut to size to mat the background on and fussy cut the fairy out and glued to the background. The happy birthday die was in my stash. I used Wink of Stella along the veins of the wings and along some strands of hair, inside of flowers and on the Happy Birthday die. I used my white pen to highlight strands of hair and along the wings. 

I felt it needed something else, so got out my Petaloo Penny Lane Garden Collection Daisies in Antique Rose and coloured three of them to coordinate with the colour scheme. The fourth I left original colour and placed over the die cut.

This card is also being entered in the following challenges:
Get Creative Challenges - #43 Celebrations
A Bit More Time to Craft - #24 Anything Goes


Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle xx

Monday 11 July 2016

New Design Team Member

I'm excited to announce that I've been asked to join another Design Team for Fantasy Crafters Challenge Blog that starts up on the 15th July. I do hope you'll pop across to join in with the fun!! The first challenge is Anything Goes as long as it's fantasy related and us as DT have free reign on what we use for the challenge, so that will be lovely and refreshing to choose outside of the confines of a sponsor every so often. I do like to work with sponsors too, and the plan is to have one every other challenge, so I'll still get my digi stamp fix from all the wonderfully talented digi designers out there.

Saturday 9 July 2016

Left of Centre Challenge #138 - Animals

Here we are again - those 2 weeks flew by didn't they? I'm back with my next project for Left of Center Creative Challenges.

This week's challenge requires an animal to feature and our sponsor for this week is Delicious Doodles.

  
I chose the blue tit from the lovely digi stamps available. I have a big reason for choosing it. I had a family of blue tits with a huge batch of eggs in a nesting box on my front porch, and someone knocked the box down, destroying half and then came and stole the rest. So- upset and angry about that, I thought that I'd transfer that into my art, and came up with this. It's premise is that nature is never ending and perseveres regardless - whilst humanity is a small blip on the conscious of the world. 


I found the perfect paper for a wonderful 
background at Paper Lozzy on the gorgeous paper pack Mixed Media, it had the right colours that would coordinate with the coloured image.
I used Promarkers to colour the bird and branch, layering up colours from pale to bright yellow, cool grey, and three shades of blue plus black. The branch is a mix of cool grey and two different browns.

The MDF pieces for the nest and the skull with roses are from a wonderful lady called Jac and her company is called Things to Alter. I left the nest as it came, such wonderful detail. With the skull, covered it with Liquitex Heavy White Gesso and used my finger to rub it over the area, then a baby wipe to take off some of the thickness so the details still show. I added a bit more gesso on a baby wipe after it dried to whiten it up a bit more. Once dried, I used Promarkers to colour the skull, teeth, and the roses. I used my finger to blend the colours together on the roses, and added deeper colour to the cracks and crevices in the skull.

I ripped the A4 printed background around the edges to give it an aged look, and used a deep pink ink around the edge to take away any white. Once stuck down, I added some Liquitex Heavy White Gesso in places with an old credit card. Once dry, I used a brown Promarker to add a trunk along the left hand side of the page. I added the nest so it would be in the background for perspective and placed the coloured and fussy cut bird slightly staggered and down from it. To fill in the area between the trunk,  bird and nest I used Petaloo Botanical Mini flowers in Pink. The skull was placed at the bottom and a shadow added with brown Promarker.

The two layered die cut pieces of card in deep orange canvas effect and plain white are from my stash, as is the stamp I used for the quote.

I hope you like my latest project. Don't forget to pop along from 8pm Saturday 9th July for challenge #138 - Animals. I look forward to seeing your makes.

I will also be submitting this project into the following challenges:





Thanks for coming by.

Michelle xxxx

Tuesday 5 July 2016

Vintage Pastel Shabby Chic

For my first DT project of the month for More Mixed Media Challenge, I've created a card. The theme was pastel, and well, I'm not really a pastel sort of person- although I do like to see what others make with those colours, just not something I do myself very often. I decided to challenge myself and go with something more vintage and shabby chic looking. It's a look I like but haven't really attempted myself to any degree of success.



I started out choosing some papers and decided on Websters Pages - Petite Papers in a peachy pink and a green blue. I ripped these and started adding to a Kraft card base. I started with the corners, using the more decorative parts of the peachy pink papers with floral detail to frame the card. I ripped the green blue and did the opposite corners, then alternated the papers until the entire front had been covered. I used Deco Art Matt Medium to glue and seal the papers. I added Liquitex Heavy White Gesso over the top in a thin layer with a credit card in the middle and spread some across to touch the outer areas. Whilst this dried I found the focal point for my card.

I had bought some beautiful papers from a scrapbooking website from a new product line by 49 and Market. I had fallen in love with these. It's called Vintage Artistry and is beautiful. I fussy cut two butterflies, fern and some postage/book keeping empherema images from one of the papers and then from the other I cut two beautiful flower bunches. I got my Stampin Up mini inks out and using a couple of mail style stamps, I stamped out a few times these images around the edge. I used the two colours - Certainly Celery and Pale Plum, to edge the backing papers, as well as stamp the images. I edged the empherema in Distress Ink - Old Paper. Before sticking it all down, I needed something extra, and found some white mesh type material someone had given me. I cut a rough square of it and using the ink pads I'd edged the papers with, I coloured the material to match the other elements. I roughed the edges of the empherema to look old, rolling and ripping and inking to give it an aged look. Once they were layered, I added the mesh, then the bunches of flowers I blended together, and added the fern at the bottom to hide the bottom of the stems. The butterflies were glued just on the bodies so they had dimension, and the word 'FLY' was stamped using a little alphabet stamp set by See D's I bought ages ago. It's a great font and I didn't want anything fussy or large - there wasn't space anyway even if I did!!

I hope you like my latest make. It's part of the DT inspiration for this month's challenge over at More Mixed Media Challenge - Anything Goes Optional Pastel. I hope we see you there!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:



Michelle xx

Best Technique Winner


 Thank you so much to those who chose my design, it means a lot to me.

Special thanks to Fiona and Ike. Fiona for inviting me to be DT on her challenge blog - A Inky Mess, and to Ike of Ike's Art, who inspired me so much with her beautiful digital stamp Robot #1. I so love working on sponsor's digis and bringing them to life, and it was a pleasure to work on this particular one.

Here is the project I won with again for those who may have missed it:


Smiling big time here - so rewarding to be chosen, especially on a DT specific challenge with such high standards of entries.

See you next time with my next DT project.

Michelle xx