Mixed Media Card Challenge #10

Yes, yes, yes. Spring has sprung and the flowers in my yard are springing too! Yippie. And "Flowers" is the theme of April's challenge at The Mixed Media Card Challenge.

I got stuck on the "S" at the end of the theme word. This is what I've created. May look like one giant bloom up top, but take a closer look at the BG.

It might be easiest to explain what I did by showing you what I did.

Why didn't I think to photograph my starting point? You must use your imagination to remove a layer of gesso and then a layer of Dylusions red ink sprayed through Craft Emotions Folklore Flower stencil to get to it. I started with a piece of paper (from the creation of this card) which I had used to clean off my ARTplorations Bold Florals stencil that was covered with red and orange acrylic paints. I spritzed it with water, flipped it over and pressed it onto the paper creating a monoprint. (TIP: I keep a pad of paper handy just for this.)

If you look closely at the arrows in the photo, you can see the bits I tore off once I'd glued the piece of paper to my card front and ripped off the excess. I retrieved them from the bin for ya, cuz they show the original intensity of the monoprint. Since I'd used the stencil as a stamp, the blooms were white. There was a bit of ombre effect orange to red from top to bottom for the BG. Get the idea?

So on top of this monoprint I spritzed red ink through the Folklore Flower stencil. Was very dark and not detailled enough for my liking, so I slopped on a layer of gesso. You can see the smaller red blooms under the gesso in this photo, I think. And the bloom up top was die cut the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals from the paper I used to clean off the stencil after I'd spritzed the red ink ;)

I must admit, after inking and gessoing the original paper (read: photo with the arrows), I thought it was headed for the bin. But I decided to let it dry and see what happened. I kinda liked how sometimes your eye noticed the red Folklore Flowers (photo above) and other times you noticed the white Bold Florals (photo below).

So. What did I do to salvage this baby?  First the bloom. Die cut it from the white paper like I mentioned above, and also from the baby wipe I'd used to clean up the red spray ink (as well as the gold spray ink I lightly misted the bloom with)! Layered the die cuts, rounded some edges and added a flower brad center.

Then I sliced a Memory Box die cut (thanks Shirley B!) to use the "danke" to mimic a stem. And, well, stems have leaves, right? Considered stencilling or doodling one. But then applied some white glue and some of this stuff I picked up at the dollar store (TEDI, for German readers). Had no clue what would happen, but it appears to be a poor man's gold leaf! When it was dry I rubbed away the excess and had a leaf. That looks kinda like a bird. Oh well.

OK. I'm done. Tedious post, I know. Next time? More photos, less words. I promise. Thanks for coming by. I posted another mixed media project today if you're interested. Less words. More photos ;)

I'm pretty certain you'll be creating some cards with blooms on them this month. Why not give mixed media a try and join us at the MMCC? I've still so much to learn about mixed media! I'd love to see your creations.

Cuz I've used Dylusions ink, I'm joining A Sprinkle of Imagination's Anything Goes challenge!

And Artistic Inspirations #128 is Anything Goes with a twist of Flowers. I'm in! As well as at Creative Card Crew where #84 is Handmade Flowers. Yep! 

Have a great day!

CASEplorations April

If you're looking for my mixed media projects today, they're here and here.

Have you been fooled yet today?  It's CASEplorations time over at STAMPlorations today and that's no joke. We've got a bold and beautiful orange beauty up for the CASEing this month and you're going to love what the STAMPlorations gals have done with it. Check out the post here.

We're CASEing Kimberly Wiener of wienerhoneymooners. If you haven't visited her blog you definitely should. Kimberly is on multiple design teams and is constantly creating and sharing colorful, gorgeous, expressive cards for them. Check out this beauty we've chosen to CASE.

source: Kimberly Wiener

I've used one of the oldies but goodies from the Subway Art series, Mom Subway Art Builders #2 for a Mother's Day card. Or just to let Mom know she's a great lady.

Orange? Check. Blue? Check. Light and airy die cuts? Check. I used a spray of roses in the BG instead of a rabble of butterflies! But doesn't the blue ribbon kinda resemble a butterfly? And the circles on it mimic the water spots on Kim's Distress inked BG.

I added a strip of washi along the bottom of the tag to fill the empty space and chose gold/black striped from MME Nob Hill in a nod to the striped and gold ribbons Kim used as banners.

Remember, if you feel like CASEing this card, or any of the DT Inspiration Projects coming up during April, you can hook up your creations here.

I'm playing along at Cards and More (just ordered a Gelli plate from them!) where the theme of #129 is "Tag". And I'm hooking up at A Sprinkle of Imagination's Anything Goes challenge (you can get the washi tape there).

guest designing at card concept 32

Lucky me, joining the lovely and incredibly talented ladies at The Card Concept this month. And getting to play around in the Mixed Media category too!

If the inspiration photo for challenge #32 doesn't make you happy, don't know what will. For me, it evokes feelings of summer. Those blooms. The Ball jar. I can just feel the breeze coming in through an open window...

So how did I approach this Mixed Media-wise? Well wanting to use multiple mediums and techniques to create texture and dimension, first I stamped my card front with Stampendous Floral Tapestry. Then I watercolored a couple blooms with orange. (And later, cuz I'd forgotten it, a couple leaves with green. Consider that my pint. As in, gallon-quart-pint, remember that?)

Then I dabbed orange acrylic paint through a Craft Emotions Folklore Flowers stencil. BTW, anyone know a trick to get the dried paint off the stencil??? I waited too long and soap and water aren't working and the design is very delicate so I can't really scrub it!

Next I applied gesso over the front. Twice. I was going for a floral-wallpaper-in-Grandma's-house feel and I knew I needed it subdued in the center where my focal image was going to be...

Enter focal image. A NBUS Tim Holtz Bell Jar die. But first I applied alcohol inks to acetate - I forgot to snap the photo before I die cut so just placed them back into the remnants to show you. Die cut the bottoms from woodgrain PP.

So in case you didn't notice first time around, go back and check out the sweet cupcakes surreptitiously posing in the background of the inspiration photo... I had originally planned to house a nice big sentiment under the bell jar, but then STAMPlorations Sketched Cupcake came to mind and...

I heat embossed the image on white CS and turned it into a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting! Fussy cut it and adhered it to my card.  Popped the bell jar base up on foam adhesive, capturing the bottom edge of the acetate too. Created a tiny tag punched with a border punch to mimic a doily and stamped the sentiment onto it before attaching it to the acetate with twine. I used a bit more foam adhesive on the back of the tag to hold the tag in place and attach the top portion of acetate.

TIP: Adhering acetate with dimensional adhesive allows it to really add some WOW to your card but visible adhesive is a problem. Hide it behind other card elements!

Thanks mucho for coming by today. I'm so happy I could share my Mixed Media project with you.  Can't wait to share my next guest designer project with you on April 15th.  I hope you'll peruse the Card Concept DT's works of art. Don't you love to learn more about card styles with every new challenge?

If you stop by later today, I'll be sharing another Mixed Media project - more flowers...

I'm hooking this card up over at A Sprinkle of Imagination (I've used Sailboat Blue and Stream Alcohol inks) where it's an Anything Goes this time around. And I'm joining the fabulous fun at Darnell's NBUS #4 too.

ETA: Have you seen Virginia's new challenge? #14 Layers and Dimension. I'm in.

STAMPlorations sketch #21

Happy Friday!
Sketch #21 is up at STAMPlorations and it looks like this.

And, well, my card looks like this.

It's portrait, like the sketch. There are some lines on the bottom half. There's a sentiment running along the side. Sort of.

This was one of those "life of its own" projects. Ya know those kind? Remember the lime green tinted texture paste from Exploration STAMPlorations Day 4? Well the excess made its way onto a tag. Which evolved into a tag card using two alcohol-inked acetate daisies that I originally considered using on  Day 4's card! Somehow those "stems" on the tag reminded me of the lines on the bottom of Sketch 21 and thus the funky sentiment was born.

I'm actually pretty happy with the result and it's on its way to a dear friend who could use all the happy she can get.

The funky color combo from A Sprinkle of Imagination's monthly challenge was the inspiration behind this. I just love it.

BTW, the acetate is recycled packaging from my new corner chomper (yes, finally). And the "happy" was die cut from a kleenex box. Love that it's extra sturdy. If letters that skinny can possibly be sturdy...

Take a look at the gorgeous card our guest designer, Elaine, of Craft E Place made for us, as well as my teamies' creations. Then give this sketch a shot. There are prizes and a guest designer spot to be had ;)

Supplies:

Paper:  manila tag

Stamps: STAMPlorations, envelope BG Hero Arts

Ink : Alcohol inks, Versafine

Tools: die PTI

Other: texture paste, ribbon, acetate

exploration STAMPlorations sketched: daisy (Fusion, Sprinkle of Imagination, Time Out, SSS)

Have you seen the inspiration photo from A Sprinkle of Imagination?

"Ox blood red, regal purple, zest of lime" - reminds me of the colors I saw in the vineyards while harvesting Pinot Gris (on flat ground today, I'm happy to report). And to be truthful, the black and white were there too. In the form of mould that has to be snipped away from the good grapes before dropping them into the bucket. Eight people, eight hours, rain and shine. And even local TV. I'm pooped. But I've got a coolio card to share with you. And a story of how my cabeza works.

"Zest of lime". Made me think of Dylusions ink. And I was wondering how to create stems to turn the daisies into gerbera. Enter my SSS Wave stencil and clear texture paste, colored with a couple spritzers of ink.

I had heat embossed, watercolored and fussy cut the blooms. It was just a matter of bringing the blooms and stems together. Somehow.

Enter the current Fusion #25 challenge.

I'm gonna be daring and say I've fused photo and sketch!

Knew I wanted to use another of the cute sentiments from the Bloom Sketches: Daisy 1 on a die cut butterfly (from Clearly Besotted) but the finishing touch came about when I stamped a portion of the tail from PTI's  Happy Trails in red. Thanks for the idea, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!

And I'm playing with some great gals over at Time Out #15 where it's about stamping this time around.

Come back next Monday when the new STAMPlorations sketch goes live to see more purple and lime and another twist on these daisies.

Stop by tomorrow for more daisy action and the last day of my Exploration of the September STAMPlorations release. Remember, I will be drawing a winner (from all comments left on my Exploration posts this week) who will get one of the sets I've used.

Supplies :

Paper:  CS Bringmann, watercolor

Stamps: STAMPlorations, PTI

Ink :  Versafine, Hero Arts, Versamark

Tools: butterfly die Clearly Besotted, stencil SSS

Other:  white embossing powder. watercolors, texture paste

16 to go (card concept, make the day special, sprinkle of imagination, KIS)

I'm gettin' there. Only 16 more invites to make for our "161" party. And before you raise your eyebrows on this one... may I remind you that our last name is Fischer...

Ready for card #1? I started with the sketch at Make the Day Special challenge #3.

And because the challenge requires you to use stamps from a company the store carries (they carry all the good ones!) I started thinking about which stamps I could use. Because I was also challenging myself to create a nautical card for the challenge #12 at The Card Concept and the June challenge at A Sprinkle of Imagination

the little fishies from Fish More from WPlus9 sprang to mind . It's one of those never-thought-I-would-have-needed-but-love-to-use-it sets. Still remember our last name?... and this card was spawned (tee hee hee). I'm callin' this one Clean and Layered. Sorta.

I even used the dots from WPlus9's Fresh Cut Florals (I've yet to make a flower card with that thought-I-had-to-have-it-cuz-everyone-else-has-it set) to make some bubbles in the Distress Inked water. The images are heat embossed with glitter embossing powder. They look like real fish reflecting the sun. Cool! Took some artistic license with the banner/sentiment part of the sketch as I am restricted to using my Dieversions "party" die cut. Does it remind you of a life preserver? It should ;))

Which brings us to card #2. I'm callin' this one Clean and Simple. Actually this beaut by Julie E. brings us to card #2. Enter a white die cut. Which needs to rest upon something. Enter the life preserver. Floating in the ocean. Nuff said.

Hooking up at Keep it Simple - Splatters. Got the water spots on the first and the watercolor splatters on the second card.

Are you getting sick of me and this die cut yet? I had my moments today. But maybe that's because I made four more cards. Come back tomorrow to see 'em. Hint: Shirley B. made me do it...

And while I toil away at invitations, DD is baking a batch of these every day in an attempt to create the perfect macaroon.

Supplies for #1:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps: WPlus9 

Ink : Distress inks, Versamark

Tools: die Dieversions

Other: glitter embossing powder, crochet thread

Supplies for #2:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps:  

Ink : Distress inks

Tools: die Dieversions, circle dies MFT

Other: waterbrush

happy birthday, teamie! (AAA, sprinkle of imagination)

We're having another birthday party over at STAMPlorations.  Can you guess who it's for when you see this?

Image Source

OK, so imagine a luscious, satiny bow tied atop this cake. Or atop a card that rocks big, bold and beautiful colors.  Like B/W and hot pink? Getting any ideas? How about this...

Happy Birthday, dear Vicki!  This card of hers is the one I chose to CASE for our birthday celebration.  Alas, my journey took a few detours.  Interested? If not, just scroll down to my card ;))

So I'm thinkin' "black and white and hot pink with polka dots." Then I see this card Vicki posts and decide I have to incorporate the "gelatos, stamped and dry embossed" thing too. Hmmm - maybe some pieces die cut from a "techniqued" piece of CS, layered over something die cut from B/W PP??

At the same time I see the current challenge photo at A Sprinkle of Imagination and can't get it outta my head. Love that doodled feel... B/W, ya know?

Then enter AAA Cards. Have you heard about this new challenge blog?  Vicki introduced me to it. Clean and simple with some twists.  How fun.  And here is Linda B.'s card to be inspired by this week.

SOOOOO. See the subway art look of the sentiment on the inspiration card?  Ding, ding, ding... STAMPlorations SUBWAY ART: Dare blew into my mind.  And dots, lots of them.  But how to make the doodled flowers play a role too?? And of course a bow, cuz a Vicki-CASEd card must have one?? Well I veered off the big, bold and beautiful road and headed down the lotsa white space one. And this happened.

These are my wishes for you in your "new year", Vicki.  Hope you had a very happy birthday ;))

I'm hooking up to the two challenges which inspired me.  To clarify, at A Sprinkle of Imagination you are to use at least three of the colors.  I colored the centers of the black blooms lime green, but ya can't hardly see it in the photo :(   I'm also joining in at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where it's about "botanical bliss". I think Ashli's project over there inspired me a bit too ;)

Have a wunnerful weekend, all.

Supplies for image the impossible:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps:  flowers Hero Arts, sentiment STAMPlorations

Ink : Memento black

Tools: tag die Hero Arts, embossing folder Cuttlebug

Other: gelatos, colored pencil, twine

more butterflies and blooms (CASE, SSS, sprinkle of imagination)

Did you see my card yesterday?  Butterflies. (And a giveaway!)  Well with rabbles on the mind and this cool card of Wida's up at CASE Study...

... and a nudge from Tracey M. to use this PTI Cutting Garden bloom, this is what I came up with. 

Some stamping, heat embossing, dry embossing, washi taping, die cutting, splattering...

TIP: Best to do splattering before you've got your card done. Unfortunately, it dawned on me that splatters were one element of Wida's card that I wanted to CASE after I had everything else done. I had to fake them. Do I like my splatters? Nope. Do I like the two-toned embossing on the Ranunculus? Yep ;)

So with blooms on the mind as well as these challenges...

A Sprinkle of Imagination - May

and

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Botanical

I went on another adventure.  With gelatos.  Everyone makes them look so easy but they are definitely not my BFF. Watched this video and thought "looks easy enough." Ha! This is my salvaged card.

Heat embossed the CHF distressed diamonds BG. Knowing I wanted to stamp the CHF daisy, I applied gelatos in lime, turquoise, purple, orange and fuchsia roughly where the bloom would later be.  Spritzed with water.  Painted with a wet brush.  And the darn blue (around the lime center - nod to Darnell K.) just kept disappearing.  Crazy. 

Kept playing with it until I finally decided it was time to give up and just iron off the embossing.  I do like how the distressed nature of the stamp let some of the color through so that the emboss-remove diamonds were not totally white.

But then the next crazy.  Stamped the daisy with purple Adirondack ink. Didn't work. Is there such a thing as "gelato-resist"??? Dabbed it up as much as I could and restamped with orange StazOn. Couldn't see it well enough so I stamped it again with black StazOn.  Then added some more blue gelato where I wanted it to be. Nothing like force, eh? Geesh.

A heat embossed sentiment on vellum and a couple punched dragonflies decided to hop on board.

The purple layer behind the panel?  That was my stamping off of the daisy stamp after stamping it on the panel and before cleaning it ;)

Happy weekend.  I'll announce the winner of the STAMPlorations stamp set tomorrow, BTW.

Supplies for happy birthday A

Paper:  CS Bringmann, vellum, PP Pink Petticoat

Stamps:  PTI, sentiment STAMPlorations

Ink : Adirondack, Versamark

Tools: butterfly die Hero ARts, alpha die PTI

Other: Heidi Swapp spray ink, gold polka dot washi, white and gold embossing powder

Supplies for happy birthday

Paper:  watercolor paper, vellum, old book

Stamps: CHF, sentiment STAMPlorations

Ink : Versamark, StazOn

Tools: 

Other: gelatos

fully loaded thank you (CASOS, Catered Crop, Sprinkle of Imagination, Simply Create Too)

Are you blog hopped out yet?  I took a break yesterday to make a card for a few challenges.  A feat for moi, as you know I'm usually getting my card ready as the challenge doors close.  But mostly, this card was about the process.  Shirley B. has been creating beauties with her Gelli plate and I decided to give the monoprinting technique a go using a good ole acrylic block.

This is not for control freaks.  Once you smoosh that paper onto the paint there's no telling what you're going to get.  But I like that.  Although I am a control freak.  Hmmmm.

And you use up your stash of acrylic paint before it dries up.  Fabby, eh?  Anyhoo, I masked the spot for the sentiment, fearing stamping on paint wouldn't work well.  Smooshed the yellows. Stamped with pale sage which I brayered onto parts of a BG stamp.  Stamped the sentiment and then made a stencil with dies to make the arrows. Mixed a clear embossing paste with some purple paint for those.  I think doing that makes the paste a bit runnier, which may or may not be what you want! Ran a purple pigment ink pad around the edges.

This is a one-layer card.  But lotsa depth and interest happening there.  My let's-keep-it-mailable heart likes it.  Hope you do too.

I chose my colors, kinda, from the palette at A Sprinkle of Imagination - it's their first challenge.  I used ochre, a lighter yellow, pale sage and then purple (looking very dark in this photo) mixed into the modelling paste.

Over at CAS on Sunday#21 they're looking for one-layer wonders.  Wonder, nah.  One layer? Check.

And then we have a Thank You Kindly recipe swap going over at Catered Crop where I was lucky to be chosen for the Washi Tape challenge so I get to GD for this challenge.  Thanks Linda!

And... I'm not up this week at Simply Create Too, but Challenge #50 is "Give Thanks" so I'm adding my two cents.

Whew, thanks for looking.

Supplies for thank you:

Paper:  cardbase Bringmann

Stamps: BG Penny Black, sentiment PTI

Ink : Versafine, Aladine

Tools: corner rounder EKS, arrow dies Kesi Art

Other: acrylic block, acrylic paint, brayer