Hearts & Flowers

 Hi!  Time to celebrate Valentine's with some hearts and flowers!  The Funkie Junkie Inspiration Ave team is showing off their hearts and flowers.  I was inspired by the lovebirds again!  

The lovebirds look so sweet nestled inside of the card peeking out from a larger heart framed with all the little hearts!  

The background of everything is covered with a soft pattern made from the bouquet stencil and some clear embossing powder. 

The images were created by laying the stencil over white cardstock and sponging over the stencil with versamark watermark ink.  Then covering the ink with clear embossing powder and shaking off the excess.  Then heat up the embossing powder until it melts completely.  

After that The hearts and birds were cut from the embossed paper and the card base was formed from the embossed paper.  The heart was handdrawn and cut out from the center of the card front. 

The hearts were layered around the edges of cut out heart and the birds were placed inside.  The single pink heart was sprayed with mica stain spray and placed over their hearts. 

My first heart card started with texture paste and mica stain sprayed over the surface and it was striking but didn't pop with the smaller hearts so this card base will have to wait until I get additional coordinating hearts ready for it!

Next I played with many hearts sprayed in beautiful shiny mica stain sprays and paired them with a pink heart placed on the front of the card.

This was just a smattering of purple and yellow hearts over the pink heart and some sweet lovebirds paired with the hearts.

Three different cards all using the lovebirds and hearts for inspiration!  

Suzz

Products: 

• Sizzix Tim Holtz the Vault Lovebirds
• Ranger Seasonal Mica Stain Sprays #4#
• Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Bouquet
• Versamark Watermark Ink
• Ranger Clear Embossing Powder 
• Ranger Distress Oxide - Picked Raspberry
• Ranger Texture Paste Crackle Opaque
  

All about Love

Hello!  Happy belated Valentine's day!  I am posting about love today for the Funkie Junkie Boutique Inspiration Ave. 

I have the wonderful Tim Holtz Sizzix Stacked Tiles Hearts dies  and they were the inspiration for my art this time.

The inspiration was from over 30 hearts cut from white cardstock.  They were all cut out and then spritzed with a mix of pink, yellow, and cranberry mica stain sprays. 

They originally were sprayed a few at a time with different colors.  But then I thought wouldn't it be fun if I created a background by layering them onto a sheet of cardstock and spraying layers of colors.

That ended up looking like this.  Then I decided to add another layer of texture and used the Valentine's stencil and opaque distress paste to randomly apply words across the surface.  

After that dried, I laid the stencil back over the words and sponged with red distress ink over the letters.

I enjoyed using the hearts in a different way so I created a background using the dies as a mask and overlapped them on each other on a sheet of mixed media paper. 

I spritzed over the dies and captured the layered hearts on the background.  Before cleaning the inky spray off of the dies I laid another sheet of mixed media cardstock on top of the dies and picked up the reverse hearts.

After that I took some of the hearts and used another stencil to add a layer of opaque stars randomly over the hearts.  I let the past dry completely and then used the stencil again to sponge on the contrasting ink colors over the stars to make them pop. 

Using the hearts with various other pieces a few different Valentines cards were created.

Happy Hearts Day to you!

Suzz

Products: 

• Sizzix Chapter 1 Tim Holtz Stacked Tiles Hearts
• Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Valentine
• Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Sprakle
• Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Texture Fade Embossing Folder Dotted
• Ranger Seasonal Mica Stain Sprays #4
• Ranger Seasonal Halloween Distress Mica Stain Sprays #3
• Ranger Seasonal Distress Mica Stain Sprays #3
  
• Stampers Anonymous - Tiny Text Rubber Stamps
• Ranger Distress Ink Pad - Lumberjack Plaid
• Ranger Distress Ink Pad - Mustard Seed
• Ranger Distress Paste - Opaque
• Ranger Rock Candy Distress Glitter 
• Sizzix Tim Holtz Alphanumeric
  

Winter Blues

We have certainly having the winter blues!  The weather dumped about 8 inches of snow and then dropped to negative degrees temperature and now we are getting warmer! 

The extremely talented Kathy is hosting the challenge at the Frilly and Funkie this time around.  She challenges us with the "Winter Blues".   Here is how she describes the challenge:

"January is the longest winter month and lots of us get the "winter blues." Let's take the winter blues in a positive direction by creating a mostly monochromatic vintage or shabby chic project done up in shades of blue. You may use a bit of white, beige or grey for contrast, but I would like to see the blues to be front and center in this project."

I love a good monochromatic color scheme and blues are beautiful especially in the winter time!  I decided to create a vintage valentine montage with shades of blue.

 I was playing with my Distress Stain Sprays and salt.  I love how it pulls the ink into an intense color where the salt absorbs the color. 

I thought it would be interesting to create a shape with the salt and then add the color.  And this is where I ended up:

 How did I get there? 

1. Draw a heart.  Cut it out.  (Use a heavier piece of paper)
2. Place the heart onto a sheet of mixed media paper. 
3. Sprinkle table salt around the edges of the heart and onto the mixed media paper. (I made sure there was a pile of salt all around the edges.)
4. Arrange the salt to the outside edges of the heart onto the mixed media paper.  Smooth the salt to allow it to flare out towards the edges of the paper. 
5. After the salt is arranged to your liking.  Spray with your desired distress stain spray color.
6. At this point I realized the salt was absorbing the ink completely. (Which make sense. :) So I pushed it around and added some more salt.  
7. Let dry and then scrap off the salt. 

I think I would have only done a few things differently. I would have either:

• Sprayed the heart mask around the edges first with a pool of ink.  Added the salt while it was wet and let it dry. 

or

• Sprayed another sheet of paper and sprinkled the salt into it.  After it dries used that around the edges of the heart.  Re-activated the ink with spraying water or more distress ink. 

Things to try in the future. :)

Other pieces to this project included:

• Painting the metal gate
• Adding a touch of feather with the heart on her hat
• Sponging blue distress ink over the paper doll
• Painting the chain with white paint and sponging on some blue die ink and accenting my numbers with bits of chain

Come share your shades of blue with the team!  The winner will earn the chance of a guest spot at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. In addition, the Design Team will select three further outstanding entries and those creators will receive a Top Pick badge to display on their blogs!

 Thanks for hanging out with me!

Suzz

Products:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Botanical Layers	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Salty Ocean TSS42457	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Faded Jeans TSS42266	Ranger Archival Ink Pad - Cobalt	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Metal Gate
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ball Chain TH92675	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Dolls	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Dolls, Ancestors	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Merchant	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Valentine THS033
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Broken China TSS42174	Prima Art Extravagance: Texture Paste White Crackle 8.5 fl. oz.	KAISERCRAFT Pearls - Self Adhesive - Bliss	Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - White, 1oz Bottle	KAISERCRAFT Pearls - Self Adhesive - Champagne
Prima Marketing Vintage Lover Watercolor Pencils	Prima Watercolor Brush-Pen Set	Deep Ivory Mulberry Paper Aster Daisy Stem Flowers SAA-378	Heartfelt Bigz Die

Vintage Valentine

Hi!  Time for another wonderful challenge at Frilly and Funkie!  The Challenge this time around is hosted by the fabulous Maggi and she has aked us to share a Vintage Valentine.

"It's sweetheart time and what could be more fun than creating Valentine's for our loved ones? For this challenge we want to see vintage valentines in vintage colors like pinks, blues, purples. No bright red please. Show us your vintage side with vintage colors and images. If you need some inspiration, click here to link to a great vintage color palette."

 I started with a vintage heart tin.  I decided to layer in some images over a sweet piece of wallpaper.

I stamped the Elizabeth Barrett Brown poem over the background.  I then added the splattering of paint along with the fun couple  from the paper dolls.

I died the pearls, flowers and seam binding with pinks and brown hues using Ranger Distress Inks and Alcohol Ink (pearls).

I just layered in the image with foam squares and then added the flowers and ribbon.  

I then got inspired to create a farm-house inspired valentine. 

 I started with the fabulous Prima Farm-House Papers and used that to dig out my sentiment from the remnant rub-ons.  I took a little license with the sentiment to make it cow appropriate. :)

I hope you are feeling inspired to join in the fun at the challenge.  The winner will earn the chance of a Guest Designer spot here at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. In addition, the Design Team will select three further outstanding entries and those creators will receive a Top Pick badge to display on their blogs!

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Products:
 

Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink Pad - Potting Soil AID38979	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Worn Lipstick TIM21513	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Ground Espresso TIM43270	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Worn Wallpaper	Tim Holtz Ideaology Paper Dolls TH93555
KAISERCRAFT Pearls - Self Adhesive - Champagne	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - On The Farm	Ranger Archival Ink Pad - Jet Black AIP31468	Seam Binding	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Bouquet Findings
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Chitchat Stickers	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Chitchat Stickers TH92998	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Shell Pink TAL25436	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Spun Sugar TDF53286	Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - White, 1oz Bottle
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rub - Tiny Text	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adornments, Star Adornments