ISO a feather!

Gosh Seize the Birthday's latest topper is a bit of a hard one, to use a feather on a birthday card! 

Personally I think of feathers with dream catchers and slightly bohemian, I had to search really hard to find a feather in my stash. And yes I could have just used a bird I'm sure but the challenge topper was feather. I found 2; the one I used and a really large Lavinia feather. I decided to go with the AALL and Create stamp set Butterfly Effect #990 and attempt to make a mixed media card .

Below is my second go at creating what I had envisaged. I started of with my background but the first time I added the feather first then masked it and realised when I went to "pop it into the watering can" I should have masked the watering can which is why attempt 2 is posted. I actually think now I would stamp the watering can then mask it totally before creating the background. 

To create the background I swiped Lost Shadow ink vertically and then ink blended Spun Sugar through the stencil. I have stamped off the wee words in the set at least 3x in Morning Mist and Saltwater Taffy ink.

It's very subtle but I have added gold pigment ink to the edge plus splattered some Gold Wink of Stella wee droplets around as well as adding some gold highlights to the butterfly and feather with the brush as well. I have used my Distress watercolor pencils to colour up the images and then fussy cut out (or should that be fussy cussed whilst cutting them out).

Supply List:

Stamps: Butterfly Effect #990 (AALL), Watering Can #437 (AALL), Notes of Nature (SU!)

Versafine Clair Ink: Acorn, Morning Mist
Distress Oxides (RNG): Spun Sugar, Saltwater Taffy, Lost Shadow, Hickory Smoke, Scorched Timber
Distress Water Pencils (RNG): Worn Lipstick, Abandoned Coral, Twisted Citron. Mermaid Lagoon, Hickory Smoke, Lost Shadow

Paper: Smooth and Multifarious (LAV), Honeysuckle (C9), Neenah Solar White #110

Other: Glory stencil (LAV), Gold Wink of Stella glitter brush, Masking Magic (GKD), Golden Glitz pigment ink (Delicata - Tsunikedo), Pixie Dust: Ombre glitter drops (PFS), A2 Layers die (WF), 2mm square foam (SP), clear embossing power

Challenges: STB#294

Well that's my idea of using a feather on a card - hide it in the watering can behind the wee bunch of "lupins" ;) 

I did have a lot of fun creating my card and my crafty space looks like a bomb has been released, so a "good challenge" to play along with.

✿Karen✿

I did it my way Jenn!

To be honest I can't believe I managed to do it again, yes I got my orientation wrong for another mixed media card with Jenn Shurkus, I'm not trying to do it different but I keep making the same mistake. This card maybe is even more complex than the last card I managed to do "my way" which you can see HERE.

I might start off with the supplies for this card; again we are using our exclusive stamp set from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous curated from many sets and maybe resized by Jenn as well which has been created for this event as an exclusive stamp set. It's a red rubber stamp set and perfect for doing the mixed media techniques Jenn loves doing.

• Distress Paints: Saltwater Taffy, Salvaged Patina
• Distress Watercolor Pencils: Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold, Saltwater Taffy, Scorched Timber
• Distress Rock Candy glitter (RNG)
• Waves stencil (NN) and Slippery When Wet Lunar paste (RNG)
• Crunchy Leaf Ink (LF) - waterproof and alcohol proof
• Distress Watercolor paper (RNG) and mister bottle

To create our background we dipped the first 3 watercolor pencils (as listed above and in that order one at a time)  in our tub of water, rubbed onto a plastic bag, misted and  smooched on the card with the bag in a U position. Dried with a heat tool and move onto next colour. After drying we could also add more colour if we felt we needed it.

We then used the Scorched Timber and moistened and rubbed over the "script" stamp. Misted very lightly and stamped.

The stamped image Explore, Dream, Discover  was created  with the stamp on a block and we have used  the Distress paints. We added a tiny drop to our work surface (glass or craft mat) and then using our fingers we rubbed lightly over the stamp, stamped in the middle of card stock, reinked up again with our finger and stamped either side. 

At this stage the A2 Panel was cut down to 4" x 4-3/4" and the plan was to have it at the top of the card above a small left over Lunar Paste wave we'd created from another card (which hasn't been revealed or finished by me as yet). The waves were coloured in with the Squeezed Lemonade and Saltwater Taffy Distress pencils and also trimmed to be 4" wide. Both panels were splattered with the 2 paints.

This is where I go wrong again! I added the wave to the bottom of the A2 Card leaving small "equal" border and then added the background panel on top of it lining it all up on the side and leaving small white border at the top. When I go to next stage I can see I've got it wrong but it's too late, ca la vie, it still looks fab

The shell stamp was added directly to the base as well as a small piece of extra watercolor paper with Crunchy Leaf ink. We have used our paintbrushes to just paint on the lines the Salvaged Patina paint.  We added Rock Candy glitter to the white parts of the shell and I used my Glossy Accents instead of Collage Medium which is why it's so lumpy, it's still cool and my way again!

I seemed to have had more white space at top and bottom so ended up using all 3 words to fill in some of it, Jenn only added one word for her card. Also I prefer to use 1mm foam squares/strips, I know Jenn uses 2mm.  A few gold glimmer drops from Pinkfresh Studio and viola done. It's hard to believe we are 2/3rd of the way through this Virtual event around 8 hour mark and no Copic Colouring as yet and still 2 more mixed media cards to come. They certainly take longer to create but a lot of fun. 

✿Karen✿

Going nautical with Jenn

I'm slowly working away at my Art Retreat box from Jenn Shurkus. This box is different than other boxes I've received in the past as more mixed media focused so working with Distress Watercolor Pencils, stencil paste and now Distress Paint which I have never used before today.

Again we were so lucky to get an exclusive stamp set curated for the event from Stampers Anonymous and Tim Holtz, the set contains 12 stamps which have been selected from various sets and resized for what Jenn planned to do. 

For this card we were working with 4 of the stamps in the set. 

We started off with a base of watercolour paper and smooshed some Salvaged Patina Distress watercolor pencil to "centre" of an A2 panel, dried it with heat tool and then splattered Walnut Stain paint in a diagonal, then used our dirty water in our cup to splatter on same diagonal before drying with a heat tool. 

We then applied a wettened Pumice Stone distress watercolor pencil directly to the script/ledger stamp and spritzed lightly with water if not wet enough and stamped on the LHS (yes LHS), restamped without recolouring or wetting below first stamp impression. Dry again with heat tool.

This is where I managed to swap the orientation of my paper and when I used my Saltwater Taffy pencil and stamped it 4x I stamped it  with the script ledger on RHS. Then we did the same thing with the row of numbers using Uncharted Mariner pencil, the first impression and wettest one is top RHS, and then restamped bottom LHS.

The anchor was painted with Uncharted Mariner, Jenn's reasoning for using paint was that it was opaque and would sit on top of what we had created underneath. We then coloured in the holes of the anchor with white paint (Spellbinder's Splatter White) and when dried filled in with Distress Collage Medium and then sprinkled with Distress Rock Candy.

The wordfetti is an emboss resist - white embossed image and then the card coloured in with the paint left over on our work space. This was when I realised my anchor was upside down compared to Jenn's card but truly it doesn't matter and I added my wordfetti strips on the LHS in the "white space".

 When everything was dry we chopped 1/8" of all for sides and then mounted on an A2 card base where we had lightly ink blended Uncharted Mariner Distress ink. I've added a few Champagne glitter drops from Pinkfresh Studio.

Well writing it down here there were a lot of steps maybe this is why I am slowly working my way through the kit but again really enjoying the process and letting go as you don't know what will happen or even if you will stamp the right way up ;)

Thanks for popping in and I should have more to share real soon as the cards are coming together really fast now as so much prep already done, so that's a wrap for card 13 from this box.
✿Karen✿

Another art journal page

I've just completed what looked like on paper to be the prettiest page for our art journals with Hero Arts Mixed Media stamp-a-long. I was in a bind whether to do it or should I wait and buy some reactive inks to do it but decided to just do it with my Distress Inks and then decide whether I should outlay some more cents/dollars.

Well I was really pleasantly surprised my page turned out so brilliantly. This was the first page we taped down to help prevent warping but it made the first step white embossing the Rough Dots Bold Prints (HA) slightly interesting as obviously we also stamped on the tape with the stamp and embossing ink but it meant we just had to brush it off before heat setting it. I also worked on a bigger piece of watercolour card stock so I had lots of room to trim to size at the end. This class was taught by Channin Pelletier.

After this stage we swiped our ink pads and then misted them all wet and blew with an air blaster or a straw. 

When dry we stamped in a waterproof black ink the Encouragement Sentiment Strips stamp (HA). Allow to dry naturally or heat lightly with a heat tool and check dry by placing scrap of paper over and rubbing lightly to see if any black ink on scratch paper.

Let dry then apply some Hero Paste through the Stacked Circles stencil (HA), let dry then re-swipe with same ink pads, re-mist and blow again to fill in all the gaps. 

Allow to dry again and I added a wee touch of Gold Hero Wax to some of the stenciling. A die-cut word and a sentiment strip, plus a few drops of Hero White Pearls to finish off. I was lazy and used one word die-cut, Channin had a sentence plus I placed my sentiment strip where I had a straight line from my random stamp of rough dots.

I used the following distress inks; first swipe, Kitsch Flamingo, Saltwater Taffy, Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon. I changed the 2 blues for the 2nd swipe as I thought they were too "greeny-blue" and used Salvaged Patina and Salty Ocean instead and that looked so much brighter even if they were on top of the other blue approximately. I think Channin's panel is brighter than mine so if possible I'll get some reactive inks when I can afford them PLUS the biggie question I also need to find somewhere to store them. I tried a friends when I was working out what supplies I should buy for my add-ons. I could see/feel how well they blended and how fantastically they reacted with water. They are a bit like Distress Oxides without the chalkiness but I decided that I could live without them in my stash for the moment.

✿ Karen ✿

A beautiful page by Jessica for Hero Arts

This was the 4th page for my art journal from Hero Art's Mixed Media Stamp a Long. This class was taught by Jessica Frost-Ballas. Jessica's "official" photograph you see online is quite serious; doing a live class with her she is a lot of fun, she loves splatter but she is also very precise. Thankfully she went over the size of the page we were supposed to be doing and OMG I had it slightly wrong, so if you're doing the online class and reading this the correct dimensions for the "homemade" accordion journal are: covers; 5" x 7" with the inside pages; 4-7/8" x 6-7/8"

This means our mats if we use one should be no bigger than 4-3/4" x 6-3/4" so we can close our accordions nicely. Therefore our base card should be 4-3/4" x 6-3/4" if no mat or 4-1/2" x 6-1/2" if we have a tiny mat.

I "heard" the page size and thought that was the size for the paper we are working on. I have cut slivers of 2 of my 3 completed pages and my first page is now the cover and it has the words Create on it, so that should be perfect in all honesty. I only matted it as it was quite warped with the techniques I had done on it.

But back to the "beautiful" card with Jessica:

I have to be honest I wasn't really that sure I liked this page looking at the images and the prep before watching the class video.  I'm still a little bit undecided but I learnt quite a few different ideas and there is really a lot I like about this page. I wish I had more coloured sprays and kicking myself after completing the page I actually do have the purple and gold spray which I thought I bought but couldn't find. Jess used on her page four two-tone sprays Spring Green, Ocean Blue, Fuchsia and Royal Purple; all with gold as the 2nd tone. I did not like the Ocean Blue flowers at all on her card to me they jarred and didn't go with the other colours. So I used Spring Green and Fuchsia happily enough, then thought I would use my only other 2 sprays I own; apart from black, white and shimmer ones, which are Lavinia Golden Temple (in the picture above it's the flower between the 2 fuchsia flowers and is golden with almost a copper mica) and Izink Gold Mine dye spray (Aladine) - it's the very motley gold flower above the sentiment and then I hated it so much on the bigger flower I sprayed on some Ocean Blue, which I think made it worse. I'm not liking the Izink spray at all when applied directly to card stock. I used both these sprays at SENZ making my fab AALL and Create card and the sprays were great used through a stencil on an ink blended background (you can check out the yellow card HERE).

What I liked about this project was actually working on Charcoal card stock, we used Charcoal and black ink to darken 2 opposite corners. We then stamped the Positive Script Bold Print with firstly the black ink, then we made a puddle of a few drops of  White Glimmer Metallic ink and a drop of two of water and used this for stamping with the same stamp set (we stamped off once onto scrap paper before stamping on our card panel). Left over metallic white was splattered randomly around. Jessica's tips for splattering were (a) the harder the tap, the bigger the splat; (b) a bigger brush makes a bigger splat and  (c) your paintbrush needs to be moist with water already otherwise what you're trying to splat just gets absorbed into the brush. 

We then used our finger tips to rub some Glitter Paste around the edges, I probably didn't add enough but there's some between the 2 gold patches on the RHS and it looks fab IRL. We also finger dabbed what was quite a lot of Gold Hero wax for me around the edges plus also made a wee pool of it too by adding some to a few drops of water on our craft mat. I actually thought this was looking pretty damn amazing at this stage after my initial reluctance to do this project.

Then it's really just a matter of arranging your flowers from the Beautiful Day bundle we had coloured up with our sprays. Jessica's placement was different the 2nd time around so it's about placement with the background you have achieved. She also discussed about making triangles with our flower colours plus having odd numbers when planning where are flowers were placed. I also added some Gold Hero Pearls to my flower centres.

I think I would be happier with my efforts if the flowers with the Goldmine Izink spray wasn't on my project page, but overall I was really pleasantly surprised how fun this was and it has a lot of wow. Only 2 more projects to share I am very thankful Hero Arts has started up the Facebook group page and the weekly inspiration. I am hanging out till my discount code I get from SCT big box event I can use in the Hero Arts shop as my wish list is growing and no one down under seems to sell much Hero Arts  which is a shame as the kiwi dollar is not very strong at the moment and US shipping kills me and my craft budget when we sink too low:(

They also have planned a Stamp a Long for their Holiday catalogue which I am really tempted to do as I have loved, loved this event but I have my SCT big box event coming up real soon plus my Pinkfresh Studio and The Stamp Market combined Holiday event so my plate is full, as is my craft room shelves. So guess I'll just work on getting some more mixed media products for the moment when I can use my discount code. Hopefully it covers the shipping.

Thanks for popping in and I hope you do Have A Beautiful Day!

✿ Karen ✿

Technique Tuesday #3

I actually had a really loved "mixed media" weekend as I ended up KReating 3 things and all 3 had different mediums other than ink on them!

Today is the day Hero Arts share on their Facebook page new inspiration for the week at Monday noon kiwi time (8pm EST Sunday), it's a great way to enjoy my lunch.

Our challenge after last week was to use a paper towel on our project either but using it to apply texture or even incorporating it into our project.

I wanted to choose a different colour combo than my 2 previous cards so decided let's go blue this week. I received as part of my Stamp-a-long bundle from Hero Arts an Ocean Blue + Gold  two-tone metallic spray. That name made me think of the sea so I started off stamping a vortex of fishes in Twilight ink onto Distress White Watercolour paper (smooth side). The vortex was too big for my card in all honesty so stamped to one side then I thought ohh I can add my glitter paste that I wanted to press my paper towel in too for the challenge through a stencil. I used a Fish Net stencil from Waffle Flower. I have to admit once done I was thinking ohh maybe that wasn't nice putting a net around them but was hoping I'd find a sentiment that I could use to "free the fishes". I then set aside to dry.

When it was dry I grabbed my two-tone spray and was thinking wonder what I can use with it when I remembered this mystery "nail-polish bottle" of Turquoise Silk Liquid ink (iridescent) I received in My Monthly Hero kit in May 2017. The nail polish applicator always confused me but I just used it to paint the colour on at the top of my now dry stenciling and misted downwards over the fish net with my Mista bottle. I then sprayed in my splat box the left hand side with the two-tone spray and let dry.

It was very blue at this stage so decided I needed a Jenn Shurkus mermaid to brighten it up plus I have been really wanting to play with my new mermaid set from MFT stamps.

I then added one of the sentiments from the Vortex of Fishes stamp set which says "meet me by the sea for that's where i shall be" in silver pigment ink randomly alone the left hand side. One of the coolest technique Jessica Frost Ballas shared in the Mixed Media Stamp-a-Long was stamping into White Glimmer Metallic ink, stamping off once on scrap and I added some "bubbles" from a very, very old SU! set called Timeless Textures which I have never used but never retired as it's a bit like the Mixed Textures set I received in my box from Hero Arts so many versatile stamps in the set for adding texture.

I love how the "bubbles" look on the LHS.

I stamped and embossed a  sentiment in fine silver detail from another MFT set on Dragonfruit card stock. My wee mermaid is E00/02, RV02/04/06/09 and BG10/32/13 (lightest >> darkest).

Supply List:

Hero Arts: Glitter Hero Paste, Ocean Blue + Gold two-tone metallic spray, White glimmer metallic ink,

Turquoise Silk Liquid ink (iridescent) 

Stamps: Vortex of Fishes (PF), Mermaid for Each Other (MFT), Oceans of Fun (MFT), Timeless Textures (SU!)

Ink: Versafine Clair Twilight, Silver pigment (Encore)

Paper: Neenah Solar White #110, Distress White Watercolor (RNG), Dragonfruit (C9), Xpress IT blending

Other: Fish Net stencil (WF), Copic markers, Distress Collage Medium Matte (RNG), Distress Rock Candy (RNG), detail silver embossing powder
 

Well I had no real idea where that card came from but it all started off with Technique Tuesday and my Ocean Blue and Gold spray and I love it! Thanks for popping in.
✿ Karen ✿

Technique Tuesday #2

This week's technique that Libby from Hero Arts shared was stamping directly into paste with a red rubber stamp. You can re-watch that video HERE. We have been challenged by Hero Arts to do one thing in Mixed Media that scares us. I have to admit stamping a stamp into paste scares me a lot, so much so when I had a go I actually used an old background stamp I own called Lines Background (HA) which has been in my collection forever.

My next dilemma was I don't own any coloured pastes, Libby was  using a gold paste that looked magical. So I made my own by adding to a small amount of Hero Paste 1 drop of Ocean Blue and 1 drop of Daffodil Watercolor inks (both HA), it was too blue for me so I added 1 more drop of Daffodil and now it was too minty green but I could see my paste was getting watery looking so thought, oh well let's work with that.

I spread it over part of an A2 panel of Heavyweight cardstock (RNG) and then stamped my stamp in it, I think my layer of paste was too thick as it just showed mainly texture not the pattern but there was quite a bit of paste still on my stamp so I thought lets not waste it and stamped bottom RH corner and then top LH corner and I really liked the look of that impression. My image is upside down below so the first stamp off is showing in the image as top LH corner.

At this stage I was trying to think what to do with "the mess" but left it to dry overnight. I decided to persevere and not start again and sprayed my background 3-4x with Hero Arts Two Tone spray : Spring Green and Gold. When that dried I added some script text from Mixed Textures stamp set (HA) using Warm Buff ink (PFS). I have also added some gold Hero Wax to the raised bits using my ring finger. Most of it gets covered up but you can see it peeking out in places.

I decided to add a largish flower and thought I would use Flowers in Bloom (MFT) which has a coordinating die. Looking at the colour wheel the colour directly opposite to yellow-green is red violet. 

Off to my source of all things Copic I used Kit and Clowder's weekly blends to get some red violet combos. Alyce had 5 on her site and I settled on no. 3 which she calls Razzmataz RV69/19/04. I also used Lawn Fawn's Jellyfish ink to do a no-line colouring look.

I splattered some White gold Metallic ink, added some Cork Hero Pearls and a few Encouragement Sentiment Strips (HA) I have inked the edges using Concord and 9th Dragonfruit ink to finish off

It's hard to imagine that my card started off as a blob of minty green paste with TEXTURE but it truly is so pretty, vibrant and positive at the same time, even my partner called it a "work of art".

Follow your Passion

It was definitely time to play with my Hero Arts Mixed Media Stamp a Long class and supplies. This fab page was taught by Nichol Spohr who is a creator that for a long time seemed to fly under the radar. I think she is fab so I was really excited to see she was one of the tutors for the recent Hero Arts class. I loved the pace of her class she could keep up with her in the 90 minutes including the drying time. All the products used are Hero Arts apart from a few which have the company abbreviation in brackets.

This page started off with us painting the background which is just Neenah #110 with Rose Gold Glimmer Metallic ink. It was part of our homework but it was great to do it with Nichol as she just added a few drops to her craft mat and then used a DRY flat brush to paint in both directions. I had my 3/4" brush from my Nuvo pack and it worked fine, it didn't really matter if there were a few brushstrokes, it became part of the final texture or hidden by the rest of the process.

The background then has the fab Positive Script stamped on with a brown ink. Then a thin layer of Hero Paste has been added through the Stacked Circle stencil and allowed to dry. When dry gold Hero Wax has been added with our ring finger. This was the tip of this class!!! Don't use your index finger to add the gold wax use a non-dominant finger. It made a huge difference to the lightness of your touch.

The flowers come from the Beautiful Day bundle. I don't own any Hero Art inks apart from a few grays (they have great grays). So I used my Nectar (C9) and Gathered Twigs (PFS) to ink blend my flowers and leaves and again stamped the tiny word script from Mixed Textures stamp set. Sentiments come from the Encouragement Sentiment Strips stampset and I have used my Tattered Rose distress ink (RNG). I've also splattered the background with White Metallic Glimmer ink and then a few drops of Cork Hero Pearls to middle of the flowers to finish off.

I wish my photo could reflect how fab and shiny and pretty this is in real life but it is a stunning page and yes the sentiment strip "Follow Your Passion" was a great affirmation in the middle of the page, along with the other sentiment strips too.

This was a fab class and so many cool techniques you could use on a card too. Time to go work on my next Technique Tuesday card for Hero Arts which is not going so fab. But hopefully will look pretty when finished.

✿ Karen ✿

Technique Tuesday with Hero Arts

Hero Arts have started up a Facebook group following on from the very successful Mixed Media Stamp-a-long and as promised they delivered with the first FREE technique class. Lydia one of our teachers from the event was first up and OMG I loved her card and the fact you didn't need a stencil she just worked with her palate knife and some corrugated cardboard from an old box. She also used  Hero Arts Neon Watercolors which looked so amazingly vibrant. 

I wanted to have a go at her technique straight away but Hero Arts made sure I definitely did it by starting a Technique Tuesday challenge. This week after Lydia's technique we were challenged to create a project with texture, so in all honesty I cased what she did using my supplies from the Stamp A Long I had ordered and I was thinking I needed the Neon but loved how my background came out with the supplies I had.

Hero Art Supplies:

Stamp: Beautiful Day bundle, Mixed Textures

Liquid Watercolors: Pink, Dandelion

Other: Fuchsia and Gold Two-Tone Metallic Spray, Gold Hero Wax, Rose Gold and White Glimmer Metallics, Hero Paste, Gold Hero Pearls, metal palate knife

Other Supplies:
Paper: Distress Watercolor (RNG), Melon Mambo (SU!), Neenah White #110

Ink: Warm Buff (PFS), Doe (PFS), Gathered Twigs (PFS), Catching Rays (CP), do-si-do (CP), Pucker Up (CP), Versamark, Versafine Acorn

Other: Alabaster white EP (BM),  A2 Layers dies (WF), low tack tape (CTMH), stamping foam squares (SP)

Lydia started off her card by adding a strip of post-it note tape (1" wide), I used my low tack tape from CTMH (3/4") - this is to protect where the stamped sentiment is glued in on some clean card stock.

With a palate knife add a layer of Hero Paste and add texture with the back of your palate knife , she also added texture with some corrugated cardboard.

It important to remove the low tack tape now so it doesn't get cemented to the card. Also another great tip she shared was to lightly mist the back of the card to help with the warping. At this stage leave to air dry and go wash up palate knife and seal pot of paste. I left mine drying when I went out for lunch and gave it a quick blast with my Ranger Heat Tool on my return. Adding the Watercolor Liquids you add drops and then mist to make it go in the direction you want.

Looking at my card I loved the orange colour that I created with the Dandelion and the Fuchsia spray.

I have white embossed the flower and leaves from the Beautiful Day bundle and ink blended colours to work with the background. I have also added some small script words from the Mixed Textures stamp (this is my 3rd page technique for the flowers for my Art Journal which I haven't KReated yet).

Splattered the glimmer metallics and a wee bit of Gathered Twigs ink and used my finger to add a bit of gold wax plus some gold pearls to finish off.

I then used my A2 layer dies to mat up plus it tidies up the edges. Well I loved this technique and the bright Mixed Media card. And look there's "hardly any brown" to be seen.

I hope you all have a beautiful day, its a bit gloomy and wet here in Hamilton today, so it might be snuggle up with a book beside the fire kind of day.

✿ Karen ✿

Inspiring page by Mindy for Hero Arts

The 2nd page for my HA Mixed Media : Stamp-A-Long was taught by Mindy Eggen. This was definitely in my comfort zone and we played with the HA Flower and Swirl transfers. When I saw them in my kit I thought they look childish but I LOVE THEM and want to order more, they are just so cool.

For this page we used 3 brown inks starting off with our lightest brown inks and blending from the edge to the middle, repeating with next darkest ink but not blending as far in and then lastly the darkest just around the edge. We've also added a blue-green ink top RHS and bottom LH corner to make a "patina" look. More stamping in our MISTI with the Mixed Textures stamp set (HA), first time with the lighter ink then adding a tad darker ink which we have blended out the edge with a blending brush and re-stamping. We added our transfers next in a "U" pattern, then splattered with Rose Gold and White glimmer metallic inks mixed with water and also made a wash by smooshing our darkest brown ink and mixing with a few drops of water. I think I would do this step before the transfers as I don't like the splatters on my pretty transfers.

We've then added a white Fancy Circle die-cut (HA) and I love the pop of white, plus added a stack of letters which have had the blue-green ink added to the bottom of the letter. I love this alphabet die set from Hero Arts called Luggage Lowercase Alphabet. 

One of the cool stamp sets we also received in the kit bundle was Encouragement Sentiment Strips which I also love but am thankful there are so many sentiments as it's just about impossible no matter how much I rub my embossing bag/tool over the black cardstock to not get white embossed bits you don't want. One of Mindy's suggestion was to use a black sharpie pen and draw over them or use a tool pick and scratch it off. But I had so much choice which sentiment to use and to be honest they're all pretty fab I just chose a "cleanish" one. The stamp set has a matching die which I don't own but is top of wish list. 

I've used my Pinkfresh Studio inks as I had 3 browns that blend but I really like the look of the 3 Hero Arts browns Mindy used they have more yellow in them and her card looks almost yellow in the middle with a brown edge. She used Sand, Caramel and Cup O Joe inks. 

This is a cool technique and would look fab on a card too and yes you have inspired me Mindy!

✿ Karen ✿

Time to get inky!!

It's been while since I've had to have a bucket to throw in my stencils etc. whilst playing with mixed media but looks like doing the "Mixed Media with Hero Arts : Stamp-Along" I surely need my bucket of water again and my black apron.

This was a virtual event I saw and thought that sounds interesting and it was only $30 USD for the six projects being taught. Then I saw Hero Arts had also released quite a few products that were definitely really versatile for mixed media etc and we were working with them so it didn't take too much to twist my arm to sign up plus buy the corresponding bundle. One of the cool things is that are pages we are creating are going to be added to a "handmade" accordion book/journal but I think this will be a great recollection of the inky fun that awaits. The first project was taught by Lydia Fiedler and was titled Create.

I originally did my homework on my Bristol Strathmore smooth card stock as I didn't own any hot-pressed watercolour paper but I do now (Lavinia) and wow it is smooth. Above is Lavinia on the left which will go in my accordion journal and the Bristol on the right. I think the Bristol Smooth I was supposed to use was Bristol Smooth Watercolor NOT Bristol Smooth Strathmore.

Our homework was to taco stamp the 2 script stamps from the Mixed Textures stamp set (HA) or another scripty stamp onto a slightly smaller piece than a 5" x 7". This is what my homework looked like before it and my fingers got inky.

I really like this set is truly is versatile I feel I have a few sets I can declutter as this set has it all, I especially like the look of the 2 brushstroke stamps. 

So I have taco stamped using just my fingers to hold the stamp (which is folded like a taco) with Versafine black ink and then I have used a Tim Holtz stencil Faded Dots to randomly add some Hero Arts glitter paste through and allow to dry over night. Lydia used dry wall tape to add her glitter paste through. After this point all the products are Hero Arts but I'm sure you have similar products in your stash.

Once the panel was dry overnight or in my case 3 weeks later; the next step was to mist the back of our panel once. Then add drops of Liquid Ocean Blue watercolor and using our mister bottle directly to the ink; get it to run. Leaving some area dry for the drops of Liquid Terracotta watercolor. I have also spritzed with a toothbrush some Terracotta watercolour. Dry with a heat tool then I sprayed Blue/Gold Two-tone spray through a Stacked Circles stencil. Again dry with heat tool then I have added some dots of white pigment ink with HA Rough Dots (red background stamp) plus Gold Hero wax has been added lightly to some areas. One of the things in our kit was Flowers & Swirls Hero Transfers and I love them and their abstractedness, they also are a pop of black. Our last instruction was to die-cut out the word create, saving all the bits PLUS die-cut it out 3x from white card stock and stack it up.

What follows is me playing; I have distressed the edges and used a gold ink pad from my stash. I have lightly inked up the distressed edge as I felt that worked well with the gold Hero Wax. I also mounted on a 5" x 7" white card base for adding to my journal when I have coloured the ribbon on it.

I really like the word popped up like this even if I maybe a bit crooked in my die-cutting;) 

This is what I received in my Stamp Along Bundle I bought for the event. I also bought a few Liquid watercolors as they were not included and a couple of other two tone sprays which are not photographed.

The bundle looked so versatile and really a lot of product for the cost also the shipping costs were low in comparison to other kits I have ordered for events.  I would do more virtual kits but the shipping costs nearly doubles the cost, shipping with Hero Arts was approximately $25USD and I got it in a week. This is the the cheapest I have ever paid for a reasonable size box plus the speed of receiving it was surprising!!

Hero Arts has started a Facebook group for Mixed Media and they are promising weekly tutorials for FREE the first one is tonight at midnight. Click HERE if you would like to join in with the fun.

✿ Karen ✿

SENZ 2023 - mixed media cards with Beata and Create day 1

SENZ is the longest running local crafting show and I have attended every year since I discovered my love of stamping, in the early days I was part of my SU! team's stand but lately I have just been an attendee and I love to take classes with Create as they normally push me outside my comfort zone and have dabbled in all sorts of fun inky techniques over the years with Fiona Caldwell and her team.

I am rapt with how my TWO mixed media classes with Beata Higham turned out. I'll just blog about the first class on Friday I took as that is wordy enough but all 4 cards are collaged below.

The first class we ink blended a background and then using stencils we added or removed colour.

I used my own inks so my colourings maybe different but similar to how Beate demonstrated her cards.

This was the first project taught and I was very pleased we were using one of the AALL and Create stamp sets I picked up last year Friendship Florals #648. The Script stamp (Indigo Blue) is an old one from my stash, other stamps are Wild Summer Flowers (Lavinia) and Wreath Flourish Left or Right (Lavinia). I have blended the background with 2 of my Catherine Pooler inks Catching Rays and Do-Si-Do. We have sprayed a Divine stencil (Lavinia) with a shimmer spray - I think I used Golden Temple Mysticals (Lavinia) and then turned the stencil over "stamped" the lower RHS corner. The other 2 places the stencil is used I have ink blended through more pink ink on the pink background and the yellow ink on the pink background. Otherwise various texture stamps have been randomly stamped at the top with Morning Mist Versafine ink. The large sunflower has been cut out twice and ink-blended. White details have been added with a white Posca gel pen 0.7mm or white embossed. This card is very bright and cheery IRL.

The second project we ink blended a background using Distress Oxides (Bundled Sage and Shaded Lilac), this time I have used Leaf Trails stencil (Lavinia) and spritzed with water, turned over and stamped the background to remove the colour. We have then stamped the Violet #574 (AALL) directly to the background and to another piece of card. The leaves and violets have been fussy cut out and coloured with Distress Water Color pencils (Peeled Paint and Shaded Lilac). The background stamping was with Versafine Morning Mist again using Miniatures #756 (AALL), the butterfly comes from Spread Your Wings #729 (AALL). I'm not sure where the sentiments come from but the AALL and Create stamps are full of sentiments, we were given the strips as part of our kit . I have added dots with my white Nuvo at home I should have just made them on my silica mat as the ones I did on it were perfect, I have also splattered with Copic White ink.

I'll be back to share more of the fab cards I made at SENZ shortly.

✿ Karen ✿