Holiday Hues

It is time for the new challenge at Frilly and Funkie and Pamellia is our hostess this time.  She is calling it Holiday Hues and describes it this way:

" Make a shabby chic or vintage project using your favourite holiday colour palette for whatever holiday you choose."

Since I realized at the last minute that I had one more card to give out, I decided to stick with a Christmas card in red and gold, which are the colours I decorate my tree and house in every year.  The papers I decided to use are a vintage red and not the usual bright Christmas red.

The background papers are all from A Christmas Carol by Graphic 45.  The vintage image was a freebie from Linda Coughlin.  all the papers were distressed with my distressing tool and some were popped up with foam dots to add some depth.

The snowflakes were cut using the Tim Holtz Paper Snowflakes die set from some card stock scraps.  They were then painted with Champagne Gold Metallic paint from Deco Art.  Pearls were added to a couple and a button from my stash was added to the third.

I dyed some seam binding with Ages Mahogany and Fired Brick Distress Ink and made a loopy bow that was tied with some burlap string that held some little bells.  The bow was layered on top of some cream coloured woven jute ribbon.

The word "joy" is another laser cut from my husband and I used the same Distress Inks to colour it.  I added a little row of pearls to finish the card off.

I hope as you get back into your craft room after all the festivities of the past while, that you will join us for this challenge. 

I am going to enter this in the following challenges:

A Vintage Journey - Vintage Christmas
Dragon's Lair Designs - Vintage Christmas
Sparkles Forum Challenges - Your Favourite Christmas Colours
Through the Purple Haze  - Christmas
My Time to Craft  - Last Minute Christmas Makes
Fussy and Fancy - Happy Holidays
As You Like It - Favorite Christmas Colors and Why - red & gold because they are traditional

The following products used in the creation of this card came from The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Inspiration Post for Stamps and Stencils

Today I am presenting an inspiration post at Stamps and Stencils and here is a sneak peek at what I am doing.  To find out what this is, how I made it and how I used it pop over to Stamps and Stencils and get all the details.

Mixed Media Christmas Card

The December challenge starts today at Anything But Cute and Niki is our hostess this time.  She is calling it You've Got Happy Mail.

She describes the challenge this way:

"We all like Happy Mail right? That feeling of being spoiled rotten when you receive a handmade card from someone is better than being wrapped up in a soft blanket near a fire, sipping on a hot latte. So, for this challenge I would love to see your mixed media Christmas cards, tags, ATC's or whatever papercraft you are mailing to a friend! Just make sure they are inspired by the spirit of the season!"

I love this theme and was especially happy to know that I could meet my commitments as a Design Team member and add to my stash of cards for family and friends.

The vintage image that I found somewhere online became the driving force behind this card design.  I used a piece of card stock to make the background.  First I covered it with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and then I took my natural sea sponge and dabbed on some Antelope Brown and Silver Moss Ink from FW.

The snowflakes are from a Recollections set and are stamped on a piece of transparency with Adirondack Snow Cap Ink, covered with Recollections Snow Embossing Powder and carefully heated.  If you wave your heat tool over the embossing powder and don't get too close, you will not melt your transparency.

Next I die cut some pine branches from Impressions Obsession and inked them with Evergreen Bough and Forest Moss DI.

The poinsettia was cut from a Marianne Creatables die and painted with Pearl White Metallic acrylic paint from Deco Art.   The petals were shaped and layered and then some little white beads were added to the centre.

I added a row of lace from my stash across the bottom and then added my vintage Santa image.  I dyed some seam binding with a mixture of Forest Moss, Evergreen Bough and Peeled Paint DI and made a loopy bow that I tied with a piece of burlap string.  I rubbed a little charm with some Renaissance Treasure Gold wax paste and hung it from the burlap string.

Then I used my fingers to dab some Golden Light Molding Paste on the Merry Christmas, which was cut from mat board by my husband on his laser cutter.  Once it was dry, I coated it with some Stardust Stickles.

This challenge runs until January 4th so I hope you will join us with your mixed media happy mail.

I am going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Cardz 4 Galz - Vintage Christmas
Scrap and Craft - Christmas Cards
Time Out Challenges - Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies
Stampavie and More - Shabby or Vintage
The Crafty Addicts - Anything Goes/Celebration
A Snowflake's Promise - Winter/Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - Embossing
Always Playing with Paper - Make a Non-Traditional Christmas Card
Craft-Dee Bowz - Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow
Glitter N' Sparkle - Include a Bow

Grungy Tree

The new challenge starts today at Stamps and Stencils and Julia is our hostess and she is calling the theme Grungy Christmas.  She describes it this way:

"I love Christmas but I'm a little shy when it comes to the bling, glitter and tinsel bit. We'd like to see you step away from the normal Christmas colours and create a mixed media piece which has a real touch of grunge. Think alternative colours, layers, antiquing and all things which are not pristine red and green! Remember to add in some stamping or stenciling too!"

This is also my first challenge as a new member of the Stamps and Stencils team and it tested me - a lot.  First of all, grungy doesn't really fit my tree and home decor, which are in beautiful sparkly red and gold with a few touches of white.  Then I had a couple of fails along the way, which I will tell you about as I go along but I did discover that I am not a quitter and you might learn from my mistakes.

I started with a 7" x 9" flat canvas from the dollar store.  The next step was to lay out all the elements I had collected to make my tree, which I love by the way.  I have used some wooden bits and pieces cut for me by husband on his new laser cutter, gears, buttons, screws, charms, electronic parts (also provided by husband), nuts, washers, flowers, soda pop pull tabs, etc.

Once I had a design I was happy with I took a photo of it with my phone.  Why you ask - because I never seem to remember where I intended to put things when I take them off to get ready to glue them on and of course then nothing fits so the photo solves that problem.

I took everything off and gave the canvas a coat of Liquitex Gesso.  Then I added a layer of crumpled tissue paper with Mod Podge.  The next step was to use some Golden Light Molding Paste through a snowflake stencil.

Then I glued all my bits and pieces down with Liquitex Matte Super Heavy Gel.  I covered everything with another coat of Gesso followed by a coat of Champagne Gold Metallic acrylic paint from Deco Art.  Since Julia doesn't want traditional red on our projects, I added some coppery highlights with some Rose Quartz Treasure Gold wax paste.

So now here is where the first fail comes in.  Despite the fact the texture snowflakes in the background looked OK before I started to paint, they didn't show through with all the gold paint.  Since I could see them (barely), I laid the stencil over them and added some silver metallic paint but they didn't take the paint evenly.  Since this is a stamping and stenciling challenge blog and I couldn't see my stenciling, I decided to go to bed and sleep on it.

When I got up in the morning, I made the decision to take whole background off.  I grabbed an X-Acto Knife and very carefully made a cut all the way around the tree because remember, I love the tree.  Then I proceeded to take off the tissue paper and was happy to discover that it was almost like rubber from the Mod Podge and I was able to peel it off in sections - whew.

Now I had a white background that still had a bit of texture so I painted it with some Bleached Sand acrylic paint from Deco Art using a tiny brush to get next to the tree elements.  Then I covered the tree with a paper triangle and splattered some Gun Metal Grey Metallic paint from Folk Art and some of the Champagne Gold on the background.

The next step was to stamp snowflakes from a Recollections set randomly over the background using a Versamark embossing pad and then covering them with Stampendous Detail Gold embossing powder and heating them. 

Then I decided it needed some snow so I took a palette knife and spread some of the Golden Paste on it and when it was dry, I painted it with Pearl White Metallic acrylic paint from Deco Art.  I decided to have more snowflakes on the ground so they were stamped onto card stock and fussy cut.

So this was the next fail because after I took a photo of it I looked at it online and it didn't really make me happy - in truth it made me downright grumpy.  I slept on it for many more nights and then decided the background was still not right so I came up with version 3.  It is a good thing I still like the tree or by now this would be resting in the circular file marked "G".

I painted the whole background with Liquitex Black Gesso and then took a sea sponge and dabbed on some Deco Art Gun Metal Metallic acrylic paint.  Then I took some Wendy Vecchi Crackle Texture Paste and did the snowflakes through that same Mini Snowflakes stencil from The Crafter's Workshop.

Now I think I have a grungy tree with all its eclectic bits and pieces and I have a grungy background with grungy cracked snowflakes so I have decided to quit here and call this my Night Tree.

I am going to enter this canvas in the following challenges:

Mixed Media World - Anything Goes
Altered Eclectics  - 25 Days to Christmas

Ye Olde English Christmas Card

The new challenge starts today at Frilly and Funkie and Nancy, our hostess this time is calling it Tis the Season.

"Create a vintage or shabby chic holiday themed project - whatever winter holiday you celebrate!"

I recently picked up the Graphic 45 paper pad from The Funkie Junkie Boutique called A Christmas Carol along with a smaller pad of coordinating papers so I decided to use them to make a card for this challenge and add it to my stash for this year.  I must say that this went together pretty quickly with very few steps.

As always, time is running short so I know that soon I will be making a series of mass-produced cards.  One of these days I will learn to start in January and set a monthly goal for myself - maybe in 2016.

I chose 4 papers and used one for a background, one for a panel and 2 for tags.  All the papers and images have been inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I dyed some seam binding with a mixture of Aged Mahogany and Fired Brick Distress Ink and added it to the top of one tag along with some fibre from my stash.  I added a button with some burlap string to the other tag.

Then I set about fussy cutting two copies of the tickets in the upper left corner and popped them up with foam dots.  The other images were all fussy cut and added.  To finish off the card I added the mini poinsettias from my stash and some Kaisercraft green pearls.

I am going to enter this card in the following challenges:

A Snowflake's Promise - Anything Goes with a winter or Christmas theme
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes with a twist of Christmas
Get Creative Challenges - Holidays
Card and Scrap - Anything Goes
My Sheri Crafts - Christmas Spirit

The following products used in the creation of this card came from The Funkie Junkie Boutique: