Blatant Bragging!!!

I just needed to share this - I am SO proud to have been honoured on these wonderful challenge blogs this month. A much needed confidence boost :).

Top 3 June 2015 - Anything Goes

Top Pick June 2015 - It's Summer Challenge

Top 3 June 2015 - Lots of Layers Challenge

Designer Spotlight June 2015 - Stamp and Mist

Top 3 June 2015 - Out to Sea Challenge

Top 3 June 2015 - Makes Me Smile Challenge

For a Special Friend

Today I am sharing a little gift I made for a friend who has been having a rough time and needed some cheering up! She loves blue so the colour scheme was a no-brainer! I think she liked it - anyway it raised a smile so that's all that matters.

I am entering my make into a couple of challenges as well:

Love to Create: Anything Mixed Media

That Craft Place: Anything Goes Mixed Media

Here's a few 'in progress' pics to give you an idea how I created this - by the way the wooden heart was from the wedding section at Hobbycraft and was very inexpensive.

Here's the heart in the planning stage - I've already used texture paste to create a raised pattern using a Tim Holtz stencil. I added my items with Soft Matte Gel (Prima) and left to dry.

Next a coat of white gesso then a coat of Broken China Distress Paint. I then added a further dry brushing of white gesso.

Add a sprinkling here and there with ColourArte Primary Elements pigment powders to create depth of colour. I spritzed them with water and heat dried before adding yet more gesso highlights. My final layer is a swipe here and there of Treasure Gold in Pewter.

And to finish, the addition of a Tim Holtz word plaque (I worked some white paint and Primary Elements into the recessed words), some seam binding dyed with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and piece of similarly dyed lace to hang.

Hope you like - thanks again for popping in to see me! 

Watch out for some blog candy coming soon ;)

Lots of love,

Katy x

Guest Designer - A Sprinkle of Imagination

Super delighted to be guest designer again for A Sprinkle of Imagination today. I used gorgeous Finnabair stamps, available from their shop.

Hop on over to the Sprinkle of Imagination blog for all the info on this piece, I'll be guesting again towards the end of the month - can't wait!

Katy x

Rubber Dance Romance

Another romance-themed make from me today. No idea what has gotten into me -  I think it must be weather! I've created a card for a change; not something I make all that often. I used lots of layers and a vintage style.

1 My background is Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Abandoned Coral Distress Inks, overstamped with the Rubber Dance Flourishes background. Finally I added splats of Picket Fence (white) Distress Stain Spray.

2 The next layer is book page topped with a piece of vellum stamped and embossed in white using Rubber Dance's Lace background and trimmed with pinking shears.

3 My stamped image is called Retro Couple (one of my faves) and is stamped with Archival Potting Shed and loosely colour with dabs of Distress Ink (Worn Lipstick, Tea Dye, Walnut Stain).

4 Finally to embellish I used paper flowers, metal embellies and a stamped quote from the Rubber Dance set Collage Elements 2.

Hope you like my card - thanks for visiting me today!

Katy x

I used these awesome Rubber Dance stamps:

Retro Couple

Collage Elements 2

Lace

Flourishes

ColourArte DT Submission

Well, here goes nothing! I am nervously entering the DT race for ColourArte - home of gorgeous products like Silks, Twinkling H20s and Radiant Rain. Who wouldn't want to work with those heh? If you are not familiar with their products then they are well worth investigating! You can find a ton of inspiration and information on the ColourArte blog.

I chose to make a mixed media piece for my submission focusing on a few different ways to use Primary Elements Artist Pigment powders - these are SO concentrated and vibrant - I love them. I was obviously feeling romantic when I was creating this as it's very girly for me! However, although there is plenty of sparkle I've tried to keep it elegant - the effect of mica and natural minerals (as in the Primary Elements) is so much more subtle than glitter I think.

So without further ado it's onto my tutorial - there are lots of elements to my piece so hopefully there's a technique or tip here for everyone to enjoy :).

Step-by-step Tutorial:

1 Use your substrate to cut a piece of thick watercolour paper to fit.

2 Using pearlescent embossing paste and a stencil. add some texture to the background. Let dry.

3 Get your Primary Elements jars open and ready. Spritz the paper with water. Use a dry, soft paintbrush to flick some of the Summer Breeze colour into the water.

4 Continue adding the other colours in the Primary Elements Beach Glass set with the dry brush.

5 Spritz again with water. Keep adding small areas of colour and blotting some areas until you are happy with the result.

6 On the finished piece the colours are blended. (NB: Primary Elements are not permanent and can rub off, so at this point treat with a spray acrylic sealant).

7 Once the sealant is dry, add some splatters of white paint using an old toothbrush. Add mica flakes all around the edge for some vintage sparkle.

8 Mix some Moss Green Silks Acrylic Glaze with a little Meridian Blue Primary Elements to create a teal shade. Paint some die cut swirls then emboss using an embossing folder. When dry, highlight with Heavenly White Twinkling H20s.

9 Mix Summer Breeze Primary Elements with water and use a large soft brush to colour some plain white flowers (a soft brush helps to push the colour into all the recesses). Add touches of Meridian Blue here and there while still wet. Seal the Primary Elements as before.

10 As in Step 9 paint two wood hearts with water mixed with Hopeful Honeysuckle Primary Elements, seal, and add some stamping with white paint and a background stamp.

11 Mix some Bronze Medallion Twinkling H20s with a little Gel Medium - this will make the H20s stick to a non-porous substrate.

12 Use the H20 mix from Step 11 to add some highlights to the metal elements of the design.

13 Paint a chipboard frame white. My frame has some tiny areas of blue where my brush picked up some stray Primary Elements from the desk (I am SO messy!). I thought it looked cool so I left it like that.

14 Add some white paint to the other metal pieces, working it into the recesses and wiping off the excess paint with a dry cloth.

15 Finally, glue your paper heart to the substrate and arrange the elements on your background until you like the layout. Stick with 3D gel glue like Pinflair or a silicone glue. Other than the items in the steps, I also added sequins, pearls and a tiny vial (Idea-ology) full of mica flakes. Finally, a piece of lace ribbon glued to the reverse forms a hanger.

ColourArte products used:

Primary Elements Set: Beach Glass (containing colours Meridian Blue, Summer Breeze, Hopeful Honeysuckle)

Twinkling H20s 6 Piece Mini Jar Set: Precious Metals

Silks Acrylic Glaze: Moss Green

Thanks so much for visiting me - wish me lots of luck!!!!

Katy xxx

Mixing It Up

I love collage-style creations and I've used this layering technique a few times on journal pages. Today I decided to go 3D and have a go at the technique with bulkier embellishments on a mini canvas. One thing I love about this technique is you can use up some really old ugly stash and you can't tell - the brads and flower I used were really hideous colours but you'd never know. Frugal makes me feel good :).

I love a good challenge as you know so am entering this for:

- Love to Create: Anything Mixed Media

- Frilly and Funkie: Something to Say (as my focal point is the wording here)

The background is layers of die cuts, ribbon, string and so on, then a layer of metal pieces and finally some more 3D elements. I covered the whole lot with white gesso before spraying with Distress Spray Stains and then (after drying) adding areas of deeper colour with Silks Acrylic Glazes. The stamped quote is from one of Finnabair's stamp sets from Prima.

It's finished off with my usual go-to Treasure Gold (White Fire) - I seem to be slightly obsessed with it....

Not too shabby for a first go and it matches my craft room decor beautifully. It's positioned right in from of my desk so I can always see those brief but inspiring words when I work.

Thanks for popping over peeps!

Katy x

July Rubber Dance Challenge

Blimey it's July already - where on earth did half a year go??? On the plus side, another month means another challenge over at the Rubber Dance Blog with a gorgeous bundle of Rubber Dance Stamps up for grabs!!

Our colour scheme this month is soft and vintage and the (optional) theme is Travel & Vacation.

For my contribution this time around, I created a card, taking inspiration from the moodboard. I used lace in my piece which is sprayed with Antique Linen Distress Spray Stain. I used flowers in shades of blue and kraft card which is quite close to the cinnamon colour.

I aged my postcard by scrunching it and dog-earing the corners before adding a little bit of ink, The Rubber Dance stamps are stamped in Sepia and Cornflower Blue Archival Inks. Hope I have captured a vintage feel.

Thanks for popping by :)

Good luck in the challenge.

Katy x

I used these gorgeous Rubber Dance stamps:

ATC Backgrounds 2

Travel

Vintage Birds

Vintage Postcard