Out of this world

Guess what Santa bought me, an early present as I have so wanted this stamp set from Altenew called To the Moon for ages. I bought my set from Simon Says Stamp but you can buy directly from Altenew as well as it is often out of stock at SSS so it must be popular. If you're like me & go wow I want that moon, also look at buying Altenew's Shadow Play stamp set as well as it really co-ordinates with the moon.

 It is a really cool moon with 3 different moon stamps. I used Hero Arts Shadow inks for all the 3 steps. The solid base was silver, the 2nd  layer of moon I used soft granite & the 3rd layer I used charcoal (mid-tone). Having the 3 stamps/layers makes a really realistic moon. I then used a circle dye to cut out the moon, unfortunately my closest circle was a little bit smaller than the moon which is 2", so another thing to add to the wish list.

 I coloured in my night sky using Ranger Distress inks with their mini ink blending tool. I started off with Seedless Preserves, then Salty Ocean, then Peacock Feathers, followed by Broken China. At this stage it didn't look dark enough so I also added some Black Soot to the top as well. I then quickly dried before adding a background of tiny stars using Hero Arts Tiny Star Background and Stampin' Up! Illuminate ink.

The greeting is white embossed & used Greetings of the Season (Stampin' Up! - now retired). I thought the saying was perfect. I've added in a few silver glimmer stars which I made using the Confetti Stars Border punch from Stampin' Up!.

The base card is Midnight Muse (SU!) as I felt it blended the best with the night sky I had KReated.

I'll leave you today with one cool tip for storing the right foam circle for your distress ink (or any ink for that matter), place a grip spot on the base so when you're finished with the foam pad you can add it to the grip spot.

✿ Karen ✿

Clocks & Time Art Journal Page

Hi everyone, time is surely zooming along fast at the moment but I still took some time out to play with this month's theme for the Create Art Journal group this week. We meet monthly & I'm sure there is room to join us next year if you are interested - contact Fiona via the Create website.

I must admit I was really excited with the theme as I had clock stamps & clock stencils so was rearing to go.

I really liked this page HERE and wanted to use the same technique of applying the spray directly to the page with a rounded brush as opposed to "spraying" and I wanted to make a bright and cheery page.

I prepared my page with white gesso before starting & then used a variety of materials which I adhered down with Multi Medium Matte (Ranger). I used scraps of muslin, white tissue paper I had stamped with clocks & a white scallop die cut. When dry I added some modelling paste though my clock stencils.

When that was all dry it was time to have fun adding the spray dye directly to the page with a rounded brush. It was interesting to see how the colours blended in places and how the intense the colour is when it reacts with the muslin. I noted also that Dylusion sprays do not like "mixing" with other dyes & that created some interesting effects/resists.

When all the colours were dry I still felt it lacked a bit of pop so added some more stenciling with a black modelling paste (which was homemade using my black licorice Gelato mixed with the modelling paste), some stamped clock images plus a few black Roman numerals.

On the whole I'm happy with my page & the only thing I was unhappy with was the "turquoise" colour - so maybe one colour too many to the mix!

Recipe:
Stamps: Clockworks, Artifacts - both Stampin' Up! - the 2nd one is long time retired.
Ink: Ranger Black Archival
Stencils: Clockwork (Tim Holtz), Mini Time Travel (TCW)
Cutting Dies: Striped Scallop Thinlits (SU!), Timeless Type Alphabet Junior Sizzlits (SU!/Sizzix) - the latter is also long time retired.
Dylusions Ink Sprays: Vibrant Turquoise, Lemon Zest, After Midnight (purple one), Funky Fuchsia
Lindys Stamp Gang spray: A Bit o' Bubbly (Starburst)
Gelato: Black Licorice
Other: White gesso, modelling paste, matte multi medium, tissue paper, muslin, white & black cardstock, no. 5 round brush


✿ Karen ✿

Another art journal page - loving this colour combo

Which is denim blue, gold & teal blue. The sprays are all Lindy's stamp gang & rather than spraying we used a rounded end brush to apply the colours where we wanted exactly. I especially liked that I could fill in some of the window frames with the gold.

The background was prepared with gesso first, then some tissue wrap paper from Tim Holtz was stuck down with gel medium (you can stamp on plain tissue paper for the same effect), also muslin, some shattered windows cut out bits & we stenciled on some round dots using modelling paste & a round stencil.

Then it was play time adding the colours with the rounded brush. I really loved how the different textures changed & alterered the colours, the muslin bits are very vibrant. I also splashed the denim colour with my brush at the end. My final step was to add the black thinlit words (which are also part of the Tim Holtz collection). The black words actually pop. In real life we have a lot of iridescence happening as Lindy's Stamp Gangs sprays have a lot of oomph.

Well I enjoyed creating this page with Fiona Caldwell from Create at our monthly art journal classes & am going to try & reKReate this on a canvas.

November's theme is time & clocks so that should be a lot of fun.


✿ Karen ✿

Faux metal Christmas

This is the technique that my friend Donna Griffiths shared with Judy & I, at our bring a card project-to-share get together last week.

We basically made an 8-layer thick aluminium foil approximately a tad bigger than the embossing folder & then ran it through our Big Shots, trimmed the edges & attached it to the card. Embellished with a few coloured rhinestones & a few flowers to make it Christmasy.

This was really quick & easy & so effective as it's so shimmery & pretty in real life. I have to say I do like quick & easy when it comes to making Christmas cards.

The words come from the Petite Pairs stamp set (Stampin' Up!).

Thanks Donna I loved the project you shared.

✿ Karen ✿

Something Scary Art Journal page

This month's theme started off as Halloween but was changed to "Something Scary". To be honest both themes were making me go eek how do I do that?

Thinking about what I found scary I realised that they were my fears, most of them come from childhood & most of them were passed onto me from my mum & her fears.

I wanted my background to be dark & actually am very happy how the page turned out. I used a mixture of sprays, some were homemade using 3-4 drops of re-inkers & 70% iso-proponal in a small mist vial.

Recipe:
Stamps: Free style alphabet by Tia Bennett (Autumn Leaves).
Re-inkers: Early Espresso (SU!), Elegant Eggplant (SU!)
Sprays: Black Smooch Spritz (SU!), Cherry Blossom Walnut ink (Tsukineko), Bronze Glimmer mist (Tattered Angels)
Stencils: Mini Believe Script (TCW), Trees (ImagineIf)
Other: Hazelnut Adirondack acrylic paint dabber (Ranger), gold metallic marker pen, Versafine black ink, clear embossing powder

I love how the branch of the tree looks like lightning & must admit I loved how the hazelnut acrylic paint was so coppery & shimmery

Non-traditional & easy Christmas card.

I might be the last person in the land to try or spy the Bokeh technique but when I saw it I suggested to my friends that are SU! demos they run it as a class & I'm very glad Sally rose to the challenge.

We created this really effective one for Christmas plus a happy Daffodil Delight & Melon Mambo combo as a thank you card. Both are fab, thanks Sally. This combo is Bermuda Bay & Night of Navy.

Our only comments as a group after we created the cards was that the words need to be embossed with coloured ink (black etc) otherwise the bits that touch the craft white "bubbles" disappear into the ink.

Girlfriends...

Isn't this such a fabulous sentiment for me :) Those that know me well, know I like a wine or 2 (or 3)!

This was my fabulous birthday card from my bestest stamping buddy Judy Beetson.

The stamp set is by Art Impressions & rightfully named Girlfriend.

Just a quick post today as I'm mid-way through my night shift & feeling the effects of the changeover to daylight saving in New Zealand.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Art Journal - Spring Part 2

After my "vibrant" pages yesterday you'll be happy to know today's post is much more subtle & impressionist. At our Art Journal Group meeting @ Create HQ Fiona Caldwell shared her Spring page & then we all had a go at re-creating it using Magicals from Lindy's Stamp Gang.

I was really happy how my page turned out. The page also has been sprayed with this fabulous Sheer Shimmer Spritz by Imagine Crafts which I adore. It's even more sparkly in real life.

The Magical colours I have used if I recall correctly are Luscious Lemon, Tibetan Poppy Teal, Red Hot Poker Orange, Lucky Sharmrock Green and Poppin' Pink. Well it's a month till next Art Journal reveal so we'll be back tomorrow with more cards.

The fabulous stamps are from Indigo Blu: Juliet & Wild Meadows

Art Journal - Spring

Well the monthly challenge thrown down by Fiona from Create was to create a Spring page in our art journal. I did warn you yesterday to bring your dark glasses - many thanks to Julia from the Art Journal Group who kindly told me my page was vibrant. So as this is all totally new to me I have recorded the steps along the way to share with you all.

When I thought what Spring meant to me (apart from wee lambs, daffodils) it was blue sky, green leaves, butterflies & flowers.

Here's a picture of Rusty back in the garden after being locked up in the garage all winter & yes Spring has arrived in Auckland.

I started my page by tearing some of this luscious Tim Holtz Melange tissue wrap paper, adhering a few pieces randomly with 3D Gloss Gel medium. What I have learnt is you always have to have torn edges on the tissue if you're going to do this - no straight lines.

I then shaved off some Lime & Margarita mix gelatos with my palette knife & mixed them with the 3D Gloss Gel medium, and using my fingers hand-painted/blended over the base of the 2 pages, and I repeated the process for the "sky" using Snow Cone & Cotton Candy gelatos.

Then I went off to the hairdresser & let it all dry. When I returned I had a fun time mixing up a mixture of gelatos with Whipped Spackle this time as I wanted a thicker layer & used a palette knife to apply through a Dylusions Flower Medley (small) stencil. I tried originally to apply the gelatos directly through the stencil but that didn't really work. Some of the colours I used were Lemon, Tangerine, Bubble Gum, Passionfruit, Lavender, & the same 2 greens as the background for the leaves with the flowers but more Lime this time.

I was very afraid removing the stencil that it would be a big gluggy mess but it all looked pretty good & I cleaned up the bits that had escaped where I didn't want them with a wet cotton bud or my finger again.

As I had plenty of time I left it to dry overnight naturally but you can speed up the process for any of these steps with a heat gun.

Next day; time for leaves this time I used Green Tea & the Lime gelato but I think I added a bit too much Green Tea when it dried it was darker than I was aiming for & the Mini Climbing Vine is from TCW (The Crafers Workshop). I used my jar of Modelling Paste as I wanted to see which one I preferred to work with. In my opinion the Whipped Speckle was lighter & easier to work with & certainly gave more texture but the Modelling Paste seemed to be easier to "stencil" with as it was firmer.

When this layer was dry I tried using my fan brush to splatter a wee bit of white gesso that I had mixed with some water as I was thinking it really was looking too bright. But I'm not a very good splatterer (yet).

 I also stamped out the word spring using Tidy Alphabets (from Stampin' Up! - retired a very long time ago). I inked the letters up with Tim Holtz distress inks as the distress ink colours seemed to work best with my page. Colours used from L>R: Peacock Feathers, Squeezed Lemonade, Pickled Raspberry, Milled Lavender, Twisted Citron, Abandoned Coral, Dried Marigold.

I then stamped the saying from Butterfly Basics (Stampin' Up!) multiple times in Wild Honey ink & cut them out individually & the wee butterfly from the set is stamped in Pickled Raspberry & then punched out with it's corresponding punch. It's also had a wee wash with a Zig Wink of Stella pen  to make sparkly & adhered with a wee bit of  thin 3D foam tape (which I got from CTMH). I am enjoying having a thin bit of foam for some projects when you don't want things raised too high.

I think this saying is really appropriate for "Spring" : There is nothing in the caterpillar that tells you it is going to be a butterfly.

Well that certainly was a long INKredible Journey, I sure had a lot of fun creating the page, our next challenge for October is "Something Scary" so I can assure you it won't be vibrant.

If you've read to the end of this journey thanks for staying & sharing it with me.

Lots of Butterflies

As tomorrow is my reveal day for my Spring art journal page & one of the main elements on my page are butterflies I thought I'd share today a few beautiful butterfly cards I have KReated or been the lucky recipient of.

This is card I made at a class with Debbie Lamb, it's been awhile back since I made it, so I'll outline the main components of the card which are all Stampin' Up! but you'd have to contact Debbie directly if you want the finer details or my guesses are wrong.

Stamp sets: Watercolor Wings, Butterfly Basics, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink (my best guess): Soft Sky, Soft Suede
Paper (my best guess): Vanilla, Soft Sky, Sahara Sand, Vellum card stock.
Dies: Bold Butterfly framelits, Butterflies thinlits
Embossing folders: Decorative Dots, Brick Wall
Other: Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Rhinestone basic jewels

The next fab butterfly card Rachael Knight taught me at a Creative Inkers Team Extravaganza. This one has a little twist to it, it's a corner flip card. I must admit my corner flip is a little messy but it is still very pretty & I do love the colours & that scrummy new Fluttering embossing folder. And yes all components are Stampin' Up!

Stamp set: Watercolor Wings
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Watermelon Wonder, Mint Macaroon, Tip Top Taupe
Paper: Whisper White, Tip Top Taupe, Blushing Bride
Dies: Bold Butterfly framelits
Embossing folder: Fluttering
Punches: Washi Label, Itty Bitty Accents
Other: Happy Patterns decorative mask, Gold metallic thread, Rhinestone basic jewels, dimensionals

Last but not least is my birthday card I received from Debbie Lamb this year which I loved.

As I'm not a "pink-gal" I'm not even going to try to guess what colour it is but she has used Butterfly Basics stamp set & it's matching Butterflies thinlits (all SU!).

Warning tomorrow's butterfly reveal will be nothing like this - bring your dark glasses!

Trina's Christmas Tags

I spent a fabulous Sunday last week making Christmas tags with Trina McClune from Trina McClune Designs using the new Prima Victorian Christmas range, fab paper, fab flowers, fab holly - so much fabulous-ness looks like I am giving 5 presents to myself this year so I can keep them all for me, but I do intend to make more tags to share with other family & friends.

I'm sure you can contact Trina directly to purchase any of the range plus if you are very quick she still has a few kits left for $40 which has everything you need plus more plus FULL illustrated instructions "how-to-do-it" - if you want to see Trina's efforts or to purchase the excess kits click HERE.

The tags have a few wee tricks like places to insert gift cards, double tags with magnets & other surprises for the lucky recipients.

This is the tag with the wee opening behind the "border punch vanilla-piece" for the gift card.

This is one of my favourites - how clever is this to make a wreath with wee flowers punched out of the fab designer paper - love it!

This is the double tag with magnet closure so somewhere inside to write something special for a loved one!

This was probably my favourite tag - how clever is this & so effective.

Last but not least a lovely embossed tag & the embossing folder is available at The Warehouse for a whole $8 & is Heart Ease Words (Couture Creations).

Aren't the beads on the tags a really special touch, many thanks Trina for some fun ideas & to Denise for organising our play afternoon.

Art Journalling 101

Or in my case 001!! I spent a fabulous weekend early in September with the very talented Limor Webber from Canada learning to paint like an artist & created 2 fab canvases & a scrapbook page which in my eyes is like a work of art. Then came Sunday & art journalling class - to put it mildly I absolutely sucked at it.

To create the pages we sprayed with the new Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays colours; neon grafitti & something that sounded like diva-something colour but they were very luscious, vibrant & the Starburst ones were very sparkly! Step (2) dry with our heat guns; (3) then free-hand cutting in a pattern (waves in my case), (4) followed by random stamping & (5)sticking back down  & (6) then we had to scribble with a journalling pen & a white Signo gel pen to make it pop.

These are the only 2 pages I am happy to share as I liked them a lot, my ability to art journal went downhill rapidly after this. So I was really pleased when  Fiona Caldwell suggested we meet once a month for a show n' tell as I have heaps of room to improve so I can graduate up to 101.

This month's theme is SPRING & the big reveal is on Monday - so I made a nice wee space in the garage this morning as this mixed media stuff is real messy & started on my Spring page (even if I say so myself my double page is looking fab!!). As you can see in my wee tray I don't really have that many supplies yet!

 So tune back in on Tuesday for the Spring-page reveal.

Inky wishes

Absolutely loving the Sleigh Ride Edgelits

Hi all its been awhile again since I last blogged but I have been crafting a lot so I have good intentions to blog at least once a week going forward, I'm going to attempt to blog every day for the next week & share some KReations to get my blogging mojo back!!

This is the fab card Sally Williams taught us to launch the new holiday catalogue for Stampin' Up!

It was really quick & easy & I think really effective - just what you need when you want to mass produce a few Christmas Cards.

Nothing tricky about the card but the snow is created by rubbing a white craft ink lightly over the embossed piece.

Under the houses we've used a post it note & lightly sponged a bit of Soft Sky ink to create snow drifts.

Sally used Dazzling Diamonds on her card for a real glittery look on top of her snow drifts but I am in love with one of my recent non-SU! purchases; which is a clear Zig Wink of Stella Brush marker which leaves a very faint sparkling effect, which is really pretty in real life. So all products in the recipe below are Stampin' Up! apart from the Zig brush pen which I purchased from Create

Recipe:
Stamp set: Embellished Ornaments ( Christmas word - as well as gorgeous ornaments, gorgeous font)
Ink: Night of Navy, Soft Sky (for sponging the snow drifts), Whisper White Craft
Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy
Dies: Oval framelits, Christmas Greetings thinlits, Sleigh Ride edgelits
Embossing Folder: Softly Falling
Other: Clear Zig Wink of Stella Brush marker

Ruby truly is Gorjuss

Well it's been a very long time since I've blogged, let's see if I can remember how to do it!! As some of you may be aware I am no longer a Stampin' Up! demonstrator but I still love their products and will still share my love of them (of course).

I've started a new role at work, after 39 years working days, I've moved to the graveyard shift at the hospital which means I now have a lot more ME time to craft etc.

My dear friend Judy kept me true to my words to get together each week and bring along a project to share. I must admit I went eek when she rang this week but when I thought about it, it really was time to use one of those stamp sets I imported some time last year with her from Simon Says Stamps.

Some of you may know I love/adore Kristina Werner and this card is cased from her but as I don't have that many Ranger distress inks; so my colours are similar but different. But I am still very happy how my  Gorguss ™ Ruby turned out, she really is gorgeous!

Stamp sets: Ruby (Gorjuss), Handwritten Borders (Simon Says Stamp).
Card: Ranger Watercolour (white base), Neenah Solar White.
Inks: Stazon Black, Versamark (for embossing), various Ranger distress inks & markers (rusty hinges, fired brick, walnut stain, vintage photo, scattered straw, wild honey, frayed burlap, peacock feathers, pickled raspberry).
Other: White embossing powder, Zig water brushes, Dazzling diamonds, sticky foam tape, heart punch (Stampin' Up!), heat gun, Signo Uniball white gel pen.

I have to say using watercolour paper & Ranger distress inks & water is a very fast & forgiving way to watercolour.