Playing with Mixed Media!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I've been having a blast playing around with map and atlas images and some of the new mixed media "toys" that I got for Christmas.  Truth be told, I had made my friend a gift using a frame from Michaels, and loved the way it turned out so much that I went right back to get one for myself (at 50% off, too)!

I don't have many decorations for Valentine's Day so I made a colorful collage that started with a black and white map of Italy and some "love" designer paper.  I used water-based paints, inks and sprays to add bright pink and vivid orange, then layered stamps and inks, stencils and whipped spackle.  If you look closely, you can see the Italy label in the upper corner, and the faint array of cities hidden under the layers of color and texture.  

Beautiful bright pink jewels lead the eye through the details of the collage, swirling around the word Italy in the upper right corner, framing the sentiments and pink enamel heart that form the focal point of the piece.  A little smudged ink helps them to stand out from the busy-ness of the background.  

I love that the map and mosaic patterns of this piece remind me of our trip last year, reminiscent of the tiles of so many of the streets and structures we visited.  The frame that I gave my friend held two collage pieces that formed the front and back covers of a suspended photo album, and I'm tempted to do the same, although I think this will most likely become another one of those decor items with interchangeable inserts for each holiday to go along with my library card drawer.  I'd love that!

New Club Set!

It's the first of December! Can you believe it?!  The first means a new release...here's a deep red Valentine using hearts2love, the new club set from the {stamps} of Life.  A little bit of his and hers love talk!

The birds were stamped with Memento ink, colored with Copic markers, cut/embossed with a nestabilities heart and scalloped heart mat, then given a little of PKGlitz sparkle!  They are nestled among the branches of some Basic Grey Indian Summer designer paper, with a little tulle and paper flower, a sheer black bow and some sexy black lace!

ihp DT Challenge

It's time for our i {heart} papers design team challenge, and this month we're featuring two My Mind's Eye kits, Love Me Do (are you singing The Beatles?!) and Be Loved, both perfect for Valentine's Day.

One of the fun things about stamping is how individual each card is...I love that variety and have been really enjoying exploring the clean and simple style lately. This card is definitely a quick and easy layout with only a few layers and very little coloring. I dressed it up a little bit by sponging the edges with distress ink...it would have been even faster to make had I chosen to skip the sponging.

I stamped the cupcake image (from Our Craft Lounge's set Sweet on You) once on ivory card stock and once on a strip of designer paper, then colored with Copics, cut the image out and adhered it with dimensionals. The sentiment snuggled right in around the image. A bit of shading with some warm gray Copic markers helped visually pop the cupcake off of those vertical stripes. I framed the edges of that panel with a narrow strip of vertical stripes accented with a row of rhinestones. The finishing touch was a little bow of red glimmer ribbon.

Be sure to check out the creations made by our very talented ihp Design Team! You're sure to find inspiration here!

Amber
Carolyn
Cathleen
Gretchen
Kate
Kendra
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Merry
Tracy

I'd like to close with a special thank-you for Kate, the owner of i {heart} papers...because of my distractedness and busyness as of late (I am not blonde...heheh, I sure hope I am not yet senile!), she had to jump through many hoops so that I would be able to play along today! Thanks so much Kate! You're the best! I appreciate your hard work so much! Can't wait to see you again in January!

Always

The Burned Batik technique (for the VSN Challenge, Hunk of Burning Love) was a new one for me! I would like to try it again when I have more options in colors of ink! The stamp set I used is called Always Heart, a Hero Arts set from i {heart} papers. After stamping in Versamark and embossing with a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of clear EP and Iridescent Ice, I sponged on Elegant Eggplant and Real Red craft inks, then dabbed on some metallic pastes in gold, bronze, and burgundy for some shimmer, which of course, doesn't show up in this picture. These ribbons are from a stash from years of crafting (I'm grateful to say the pile is diminishing!) and the beads on the heart pin were some left over from confirmation class two years ago when the two girls I mentored made beaded bookmarks. A simple layout...it is hard to do much in 45 minutes when you're focusing on a new technique!