Love the life you have ....

It's taken a few days to put this one together. I did the background a couple of days ago, with Kitsch Flamingo and Broken China Distress Oxides, sprayed with Imagination Crafts Fuchsia Mixed Media and Silver Shake and Gilt.

I then found the text in my box of random things, and had already planned on using the Creative Expressions Stamps to Die For - Butterfly Meadow. However, for the third time, I have not managed to get a good impression in this art journal, leaving me having to try to sharpen it up with a fine-liner. Am going to have a think about this for the next one. Will probably stamp it separately on my stamping platform and glue in. 

To even up the blackness, I used Black Soot Distress Oxide with a few different Imagination Crafts Texture stamps to create a black edging all round.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

If nothing changed ....

I really enjoyed working in my new Arteza journal yesterday. The process felt more comfortable for me, and I like the end result. I know that, sometimes, you need to go outside your comfort zone, but for now I am happy doing what I know and love.

Today, I chose to use brighter colours - but stuck to two. I wanted to include sprays as well as inks today, so pulled out all my Imagination Crafts Mixed Media sprays. Sad to say that some of the bottles were clogged - but a bit of flushing with hot water seems to have sorted them out. In the end, I chose to use yellow and green. To go with this, I used Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Cracked Pistachio and Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxides. After inking the background, I added the sprays over the top.

For more texture, I used Sara Signature Flutterby stamps - Scripture and Textured Elements - with Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink. The wording (which unfortunately is a little blurred) is from the Fly Away stamps, while the large butterfly is the Botanical Butterfly stamp - both stamped in Versafine Onyx black. I used my watercolour tin to colour the butterfly.

 Happy crafting.
Cxxx
  

Pause, Relax, Unwind

I have recently been trying out art journaling as a way to just create and try to unwind. I started with Everything Art's 5 day re-boot. I enjoyed having a go, so signed up for their 100 small steps. I have completed a few of the days, but have come to the realisation that I am not enjoying the process at all, and that the journaling side is really not for me. I also was falling out of love with my spiral bound journal, as I just wanted to cover the whole page with colour - and that was virtually impossible. It also meant that the two pages did not flow together. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE the Pink Pig journals, and have invested in both an A4 and A3 version so that I have scope for much larger areas - but, for this, I wanted something fairly compact and not spiral bound. I have ended up with Arteza's 14cm square (roughly 5 1/2 inches) watercolour sketchbooks. The paper is 230gsm - and seems plenty heavy enough for what I want to do.

Rather than trying to follow a prompt - which I think was another thing I was struggling with - I decided on a colour palette, and just spent some time looking through my stamping stash to see what jumped out. I ended up with the mandala - Spectrum Noir Colorista Background 3 stamp - texture stamps from Crafter's Companion Textures collection, and words from Crafter's Companion Destinations.

I used Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Ground Espresso Distress Oxides for the background. I stamped the mandala with Harmony Waterproof Ink in Pebble (was meant to be Rustic Brown but picked up the wrong one). It didn't stamp very well, so I went over it with a brown Sharpie. I then painted it using my ancient watercolour tin. 

I have to admit to being happier with the outcome of this than perhaps I was with previous pages. We'll have to see how it goes - and whether I can follow my own advice to pause, relax and unwind. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Say it with flowers!

 It's been over a month since I posted - lots been going on and just didn't get round to it.

Today I am sharing the little flower boxes I made for my colleagues in my teaching bubble, using Crafter's Companion dies and Florist box template.

I have made flowers before - and they are on my blog from early last year - but I tried some new flower dies this time. All of them are from Crafter's Companion Spring Foam Flower collection. I also used my old travel iron along with the CC Petal Distress Tool set. The flower foam is a mix of Foamiroan and CC. 

Because I wanted to put them in the Florist Box (CC template from the same collection), I wanted a solid "stem". I created the flowers in pretty much the same was as last time (see my post from last year) although I didn't bother with ink or with the ball tool. To add a stem, I used Oasis green Hobby Wire, and used hot glue to attach it to the white ends of the stamens that had been pulled through.

I then used Florist tape (I got this from Amazon), to wrap the wire from the bottom, up to the flower.

  

  

I had four flower boxes to make, so used four different dies: Vibrant Dianthus (dark purple), Elegant Ranunculus (lavender), Pretty Peony (yellow) and Wild Poppy (orange). These sets come with 2 or 3 dies for the smaller petals, and with 3 templates for the larger petals. This is OK - but I think I would have been happy to pay more to have the larger dies for speed. The all have foliage dies too, but I feel that they are really only suitable if you are using the smaller petals. You can see from the pictures below that the poppy leaf is fine, but the others barely show (and not at all in the case of the ranunculus). I used several layers of each size for the larger flowers (mostly 3 - but sometimes 2).

  

 

I then created boxes for each, using the Florist Box template and Core'dinations card. I wrapped each one with Baker's twine (this is from Creative Expressions and has been in my stash for a very long time). I lost the piece of paper I wrote all my notes on - but I vaguely recall I used 50" of twine for each. Sounds a lot, so I may be remembering that incorrectly. I used red liner tape to wrap this around the box. 

  

I used an additional piece - this one I recall as being around 17" - to wrap round, and tie in a knot at the front.

I had some leaf and alphabet charms to add on. Unfortunately, the hole in the leaf charm was too small for the twine, so I added some thread, and tied a leaf to each side of the knot.

   

I then threaded the alphabet charm onto one piece of the twine, knotted it on and tied a bow.

  

I used tissue paper to "stuff" into the boxes and then pushed the flowers in. 

 

 

I am really pleased at how these turned out. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxxx

A Lovely Day

Today's card was for my lovely sister-in-law's birthday.  I used Hunkydory Peony Dreams - A Lovely Day for both the topper and patterned card. To that, I added some pink Core'dinations card and silver mirror card, cut with Crafter's Companion Stitched Squares and Inverted Stitched Lace Scalloped Squares.  I love this palette of pink and blue!! 

Happy crafting!!
Cxx

Retro Ride

Today's share is the 30th birthday card I made  for my stepson's recent 30th birthday.

The topper is from Hunkydory's Pick 'n' Mix - A Retro Ride, teamed with gold mirror card, Kanban textured blue mirror card, blue Core'dinations and a piece of digi printed paper. I also used Crafter's Companion Stitched Edge square dies and First Edition Number dies. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Art Reboot #5 Natural things

Today's prompt was to use natural things in your journal - either to stick in, or to make marks.

I had a mosey round my garden and picked some raggedy old pansies, a geranium flower and a lavender stalk. I also picked up some dead leaves, a crumbling piece of stick and a feather.

I covered the pages of the journal with paper - I am definitely preferring having something other than white to work on, and added a couple of pieces of paper.

I stuck the petals and crumbled leaves on, and used the stick and feather to paint with. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxx