Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Guest Design

There's nothing better than the feeling of scrubbing off inky, messy hands after a good play session in the studio. 

I have the honor of being a guest designer this week over at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge. I happen to love this challenge because it's always anything goes as long as it's a mixed media project. 

One of my friends asked for a special commissioned card for his wife on their anniversary. 

I started with a piece of white background and stamped it with a text background stamp and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide. I spritzed with water and then added two drops of Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour Ink. 

Next, I added another layer of stamping with Visible Images Fibrionaci stamp, embossed in Speckled Egg Distress Glaze. 

I decided on the different elements I wanted to bring into my card - a peach frame that I covered with blue and gold InkaGold to antique it, and a white butterfly that I sprayed with Distress Spray Stain and then added Speckled Egg Distress Glaze before heat setting it (and almost starting it on fire. :o ) 

I started layering my card with Prima flowers, my frame and the butterfly, and then added little bits of ivory frantage around the edges before dusting it with some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Spray Stain. 

I added some romantic, gushy words to make it appropriately lovey-dovey for an anniversary and - I've got to say it turned out sooooo pretty. 

Thanks for popping by, and I hope you'll go get all inky and play along at Creative Artiste. 

Stenciled Backgrounds & Paper Pieced Flowers

Today, I'm up on the STAMPlorations Blog with a little tutorial on how to make this card.  

The tutorial has some super fun ways to use up leftovers by creating your own artsy patterned paper with stencils and Distress Oxide inks. 

Vibrant & fun! I would be remiss if I didn't mention where the inspiration from my card came from. The moment I laid eyes on the inspiration image for The Card Concept, I just knew I needed to dream up something. 

Thanks for popping by and go take a peek over at STAMPlorations! 

Making a Mess

Over at Shopping Our Stash they have a challenge going entitled “Make a Mess”. Basically I feel like that’s every single card I ever make. All I have to do is look sideways at a white space on a card and boom! an only smudge appears. It’s like being King Midas, but sadly nothing turns to gold- only to smudge. 

But this card upped the mess ante even for me! In my last blog post I shared a card using the dregs of a cleanup from a pretty horrendous spill of a brand spanking new bottle of Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide Spray Stain. I was going a splatter effect on a card so unscrewed the cap. Enter elbow and a giant spill. *facepalm*

What is a girl to do besides frantically mop up the mess? However, even if my card doesn’t win the competition, I’ve already won by creating some gorgeous backgrounds and a well-earned red stain on my craft table. 

But I didn’t want to rest on my accidental mess laurels for this challenge. Au contraire! I decided to pull out my messiest products and up the ante. 

For my  next act, I pulled out some Dreamweaver metallic gold embossing paste and slopped that through the STAMPlorations Dots All Over stencil. 

The texture! In case you’re wondering about the added colors, they are Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide and a gold shimmer by Heidi Swapp. 

Next up on the messy agenda, I scribbled some brown gelatos along the edges of the pieces I was going to use and smudged them to soften the lines with my fingers. 

Also, you can see I stamped an image over the background and used Distress Glaze. 

So let me talk about my focal bird. I’m ashamed to say I’ve probably had this Tim Holtz stamp set for close to 10 years and never used it. >insert head hanging here<  I knew I had to get messy with the bird, too, so he wouldn’t take a backseat to my background. We had a little messy experimental play together. 

I sprayed some Oxides and stains and dried them on a paper. Then I stamped a blue layer and brown layer of Distress Inks, and while the ink was still wet from stamping, I applied Distress Glaze over it. It gave it an antique glassy feel. 

I adore the way this card turned out and I think I’ve sufficiently risen to the Make a Mess challenge. To finish off my card, I mounted it to some Hambly patterned acetate. 

I’m also going link this up to the NBUS challenge, as I finally gave this 10-year-old bird some wings AND tried out Distress Glaze for the first time. 

This one is also going over to Creative Artiste’s Anything Mixed Media goes. 

Mixed Media Distress Spray Stain Card

If there ever comes a time when I can't spend my Friday nights in my studio with my one true love (aka Distress products), I don't want to live on this earth anymore. 

 
This week, I had a chance to play with some of the latest stamps released by Visible Image.

When I saw the new Organics set, I knew I had to have it for my very own. When it comes to the perfect artsy stamps for mixed media backgrounds, this is it folks!

I stamped it on a white sheet of heavyweight cardstock and then I spritzed it with some Blueprint Sketch Distress Spray Stain. 

To messy things up just a little bit further, I used some picket fence Distress Spray stain and flicked it onto the card using the end of the open cap.

(Pro tip. You may want to tighten your cap all the way instead of just setting it gently back in the bottle and then tapping the whole thing with your elbow and then spending the next 10 minutes cleaning up stain from your table. Don't ask me how I know.) 

I used one of the eye handprints from the In Your Hands set, embossing it in black and fussy cutting and then added two circle cutouts, with a stamped sentiment from the same set to complete my look. 

Add caption

Love how this turned out, and it definitely wasn't too time intensive to make. I can see me using this design for graduation cards or when one of my friends might be going through a tough time. 

Thanks for joining me today! Pop up to the Visible Image Blog to check out some more inspiration.

Dance Yourself Clean Handmade Card

Happy Saturday, friends! I'm popping in to share a card I just created for Visible Image. I was really really excited to get the Born to Perform set because I don't have any stamps for dancing or performing arts and this set is super unique and artsy. 

One of the techniques I like to use from time-to-time is to use my ink pad directly to press ink on to my paper. In this case, I used Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide.

Next, I spritzed the ink with water to let it bleed and soften the hard edges. 

I stamped a series of words to create a graffiti-like effect in the background. 

On the bottom layer of my card base, I added a little bit of stamped grunge with the Universal stamp set. 

I added some hand-drawn stitching, washi tap and black gemstones, along with a stamped ballet dancer to finish off the design. 

I hope you all like it!

Elegant Poinsettia Stamped Christmas Card

Hello Ladies and Gents,
It's getting sooooo close to Christmas! Anyone else still working on cards? Anyone else trying to decide if they are actually going to address all those envelopes to people this year even though you've made a bunch of cards?

Sigh* sigh*

Alas, my mantle is getting full of Christmas cards and I would feel mighty guilty not returning some joy. I have weekend plans, yo! 

Anyhow, I'm popping in to share a reminder that STAMPlorations is smack dab in the middle of the December Theme & Sketch challenge, which has lots of prizes up for grabs.

For my card, I decided to use the theme, along with a very loose version of the sketch. 

I cut a background using the Stitched Snow Hills CUTplorations dies and then spritzed it with water, then Barn Door Distress Spray Stain.

Next, I used some InkaGold and liberally wet my paintbrush to create some gold splatters in the background. 

I used some decoupage to add lots of chunky gold glitter. I embossed a very merry sentiment (Merry and Bright Typografia) and then added in some elegant poinsettias to complete the look. 

Taaaadaaaa! Now to go address some cards. 

PS! If you want anything in the STAMPloraitons store, definitely give yourself a little giftie because you can use code STAMPGIRLBECCA to get 20% off anything in the STAMPstore.

Distress Oxides + InkaGold + Autumn Leaves - Oh My!

Inky goodness happened in my studio earlier this week thanks to a super fantastic inspiration image from the Fusion Card Challenge. I almost couldn't wait to share it with you all because I squealed all over the place when I finished it.

The gorgeous inspiration image I referenced is this one from Fusion:

 

I just loved that blue bokeh background. If you have never played along at Fusion, you can choose either the inspiration image OR the sketch OR mash 'em together and create "Fusion" in your design.

For my card I chose to use both the sketch and inspiration image, because I'm an overachiever like that. 

I made my leaves by using the STAMPlorations Trendy Leaves stamp set. I love these artsy leaves, and I double stamped them, once with the solid base and then again in a different color with the text overlays. 

 I used a variety of red, yellow, and orange Distress Ink and Distress Oxides. 

 

 Then I splattered them with a coppery InkaGold and water slush.

I used a combo of blue Distress Inks and Distress Oxides along with the Distress Ink Double Dipping Technique to create a background filled with depth and vibrant color. 

As you can see, I also sprinkled the background with InkaGold. Oooo

I put it all together, along with some gemstone embellishments and funky bits and bobs. Charming, nontraditional Fall! All in one little card. 

I'm also going to join the fun of playing along in some bloggy challenges. 

Shopping Our Stash has a theme called "That's Sketchy" this week and wants you to choose a sketch challenge to play along with (I'm obviously using Fusion). 

Country View Crafts has a challenge all about Mixed Media with Autumnal Hues. 

I hope you all consider joining us for Fusion this fortnight!

Card Concept - White Pumpkin

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! 

At least over at The Card Concept it is, anyways. We've unrolled a new challenge with a nontraditional, but still very cozy take on Fall! 

When I first saw this image, I new right away that I wanted to pull out my Wendy Vecchi Sunburst Stencil to mimic that rusty little pinwheel wall hanging thing-a-ma-bob (I'm pretty sure that's the technical decorator's name for it). 

Speaking of non-traditional, I was really wishing that I had some metallic silver embossing paste and then I remembered I had some Nuvo enamel drop stuff. I squeezed a bunch of it into my stencil opening and then sccchmeeeared it all around with a palette knife. 

Over the top of that, I added some Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain and then I dried it with a heat tool. Because I heat dried it, it began to crackle and crinkle and bubble and create all sorts of yummy textures. 

I stamped a pumpkin from the STAMPlorations Holiday Expressions: Thankful for Autumn stamp set and colored it in using a white gel pen. For my leaves, I used some Forest Moss Distress Oxide Inks and a damp paintbrush. 

Put it all together and what do you get?
A graphic, funky nontraditional Fall card. 

This card is going to play along in the following challenges: 

Addicted to Stamps and More: Make Your Mark

The Card Concept is such a great challenge because our designers all work in different styles. While I used a Mixed Media style f, there's a whole gallery of inspiration ranging from Clean and Simple to Shabby Chic. Go check it out and play along with us! 

Coffee Lover's Blog Hop - Day 1!

>insert music notes here<

It's the most wonderful tiiiiiime of the year!

>end music notes< 

I know you all didn't come here to get some Christmas songs stuck in your head, but that's just a little bit of a side bonus of knowing me (you're welcome).

 

If you're in the cardmaking blogosphere at all today, you're going to quickly realize that it's been taken over by caffeine-crazed dynamos who love to bust out those stamping blocks and make some cards. The brainchild of the ever fabulous Amy Tsurata and Chaitali Narla -  it's the Fall Coffee Lover's Blog Hop! 

 

To celebrate fall, my card features all the warm, rich reds, oranges and yellows of the season. I created my background using the Distress Ink Double Dipping technique. 

I stamped some leaves from the STAMPlorations Trendy Leaves stamp set in the background. 

And you can see I also brought them into the foreground too! My big ol' coffee mug is from the STAMPlorations Sketchy Coffee Cups.

PSSTTTT - if you are looking for some new coffee stamps, you can get 20% off in the STAMPlorations store by using code STAMPGIRLBECCA at checkout. 

Now don't let me keep you! Go check out the rest of the hop and make sure to stop by all of our AMAZING sponsors for the Fall Coffee Lover's Blog Hop. 

If you want to win one of a ka-bajillion prizes (I may be exaggerating a little, but it's close) go link up a Fall-themed coffee/tea/cocoa card. Do it! Right now! Why are are still reading this? You should be linking up a coffee card!