Spring Has Sprung Floral Canvas

Happy Spring crafty peeps! I hope you are having glorious weather today!

WOW! I have been honored by the gals at Our Creative Corner to be spotlighted as a winner for today's Top Talent Thursday because I've won a few of their challenges (See my side bar if you want to know which ones.). They've asked me to make a little something that they will showcase on their blog today, as well as take part in a brief question and answer session...that was the scary part. You will need to visit their blog to see what they wanted to know, but here is my project and a step out for it. I thought something Spring-y was appropriate, and I've included some "Tattered Florals", so I am submitting this to Tim's challenge as well.

 

I added Claudine Hellmuth Gesso esso to the round canvas first, adding texture, but I wish I wouldn't have, because I had problems later on with my Dylusions color really staying and popping like it should. Live and learn.

Using Wendy's Leaves and some Ranger Acrylic Paint Dabbers in Stream and Citrus, I stenciled away.

More stenciling again, but this time with Wendy's Embossing Paste and Flowers. I love this stuff! 

More Embossing Paste and more Florals, but this time with Claudine Hellmuth's flowers.

Spring is a little windy, so I stenciled in some gusts with The Crafter's Workshop Mini Capricious and Pearl Paint Dabber.

I love using Tim's new Distress Paints over Wendy's Paste. With a paint brush it's very easy, and because of the sponginess of the Paste excepting the paint so well you just don't have to be so precise, and I like that. PLUS, it's my new favorite technique...it's acts as a resist to Dyan's Dylusions Ink Sprays! Love that!

Now comes the mess and the fun...Dylusions. But, like I said above, I should not have given this gesso and my color would have adhered better. I had to spray many times. You can see the resist though.

I added some Wendy stamps with Archival to a few places among the grasses.

I stamped one of my favorite quotes onto tissue paper from Stamper's Anonymous. I adhered it the canvas with Glue N Seal, and it sort of made an inky mess, but I think I like it.

Tim's Tattered Florals Die from Sizzix was my very first die. I've used it more than any other, and it has made countless gifts...countless! So I love that he used it for this challenge. I also love that he came out with a Tattered Flower Garland Sizzlet Die last year that coordinates with this. All the Tattered Florals are on here but in mini size and with holes in the centers and leaves as well. I decided to use this too. I die cut several of each die using Tim's Melange Tissue Wrap.

I had just cleaned up my table, so in an effort to keep it that way I misted my inks onto the Tattered Florals on the paper towels. Yes, I can be lazy! I did save the towels though. I stacked these up and made a bouquet and added them to my canvas. Now I have a great 3D look.

Finding some goodies from my stash from The Girls Paperie, I used Watermelon Alcohol Ink to color them up and give them some detail a bit and used them as centers on a few of the flowers. I did some doodling on the canvas with a white pen as well.

I thought this needed a little something else, so I stamped a bee using Mustard Seed Distress Paint and Pearl Paint Dabber. I dried that and stamped it again in Jet Black Archival. I added Crackle Accents over the top. While that dried I stamped the Numbers from the same set in Snow Cap Pigment and then Aquamarine Archival on top of that. While you can see it fine in person, I just couldn't get it to show in the photographs.

 

I thought I'd see what it looked like outside while enjoying a gorgeous Spring like day. It was perfect outside. I needed a swim suit,. ice cold drink, and lounge chair!

This is Lucy, who enjoyed the sun with me as I photographed away. She is the 4th child for sure!

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Under The Sea & Into A Cup!

Happy Monday Crafters! March can often be a very wet month with rain pouring down regularly, so we at Simon Says Stamp & Show thought, "Why not talk about WATER this week in our challenge?" You could literally use water, perhaps with some distress products for a cool effect on your project. You could use watercolor paper, watercolor pens, water brushes with distress markers, or use water and paint to make your own color wash. Not feeling the water? How about something with an ocean or tropical inspiration? Perhaps put a scrapbook layout together with those Caribbean photos, or decorate a frame to give to your friend just back from a cruise. The possibilities are endless with H2O in mind, and your hands might even stay a little cleaner this week!

 

 

I purposely bought these Dyan stamps because they reminded me of my crazy baby boy who is always into some type of mischief and is often a little on the dirty side, God bless him!

I traced the old insert onto a piece of vellum and cut it out.

I started to stamp the Dyan Sea images I wanted to use onto the vellum to create a sea scene using Jet Black Archival.

I had to make lots of masks of the images, so I just used post it notes to help me.

When I finished stamping all the images, I started to color in everything using Dyan's Ink Sprays inside of Ranger's Inkssentials Water Brushes. I also added the perfect sentiment!

I adhered the edges of the scene together using Glossy Accents, and used it as well to adhere the edges of the plastic pieces of the cup.

Looks like he likes the cup! Oh he is so cute despite the mischief, dirt, and grime!!!!

We all need water to live, but do we need it to craft?  I say yes, and especially this week to give you inspiration. Create your water work of Art and enter it into our challenge. You just might be the lucky winner of a $50 voucher to Simon Says Stamp. You can also be named as one of the "Top Three Picks" for this challenge. Good luck, and please visit the other DT member's blogs.'Water' group of talented people we have on this team!

 

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

A Whole Lotta Green!

***FYI: I've been getting horrible Anonymous Spam Comments so I've had to enable the dreaded "Enter What You See Here" thingamajig, at least for a while.  I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, and if you don't want to leave a comment, no biggie, I understand. 

Hi crafty peeps! Thank you for all the emails, tweets, facebook messages, and even texts from those of you wishing me a get well. It's not been a good few months for my immune system. ;0) Even the doctor chewed me out and said I can't venture out in public until I get boosted up and get healthier, which means lots more sleep. Easier said than done. Just started my third round of new antibiotics today. If this doesn't work I will have to become a real hermit!

Anyway, back to this post. A whole lotta green don't mean money money money, unfortunately, but instead means color! It's almost St. Patrick's Day, and it's a day we celebrate here at our house, so I've made a few things.

The current Making Art Challenge at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group is "Shadowbox". HUH? This was definitely a challenge for me, as I didn't want to use a premade box, and I already had my tag planned out and I was not going to budge on the main design of it, which was using a very traditional love/friendship/loyalty symbol of Ireland, the Claddagh, although this one is a little non traditional looking.  So I tried many things, but ultimately came up with making a teeny tiny shadowbox inside the heart of this Claddagh, a treasure of sorts. I hope that counts!
I am also submitting this tag to Hels Sunday Stamper for "Use Some New Stash",  and to the Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog challenge for "Tags".

I tried out many Maya Road crowns, this one did not make the cut, but Wendy's Parts did. I did bend the fingers a bit to mimic holding the heart. These Parts can take a beating. I cut a rectangle bubble from some packaging from Tim's Idea-ology Keyholes.

I found some shamrock paper from literally 15 years ago, gave it some of Dyan's Dylusions, and adhered it to the package bubbles, now shadowboxes. I adhered these to the hearts, and then covered them with Wendy's Gold Embossing Paste that I just spackled on. I should have added some other stuff in there, like gold coins or something, but hind sight you know!

The hands were painted with Victorian Velvet Distress Paint, and her nails were manicured with Distress Markers. A little ribbon and a gold hightlighted puffy silk shirt made from Prima Flowers, and they were ready to go.

The crown was painted with Ranger's Silver Paint Dabber and then covered with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint. After it was dried, I misted it with Butterscotch Color Wash to seep into all the cracks. I wiped the rest off. I added emerald green rhinestones, gold cord, and a green rose from my stash to finish it off.

More 15 year old paper was adhered to a piece of corrugated paper...to the front side to give extra strength after I mutilated it.

I turned it over to the back portion, and used all the greens from Tim's Distress Paints and just painted some stripes on in each color. I left brown areas from the base on purpose.

I used the two background images from Wendy's new Heirloom Art and Sunshine In Art from Stamper's Anonymous, and hand stamped them in Jet Black Archival so only portions of them showed up and I didn't crush the ridges of the base underneath with my major stamping muscles when I use a block.

I tore portions of all that hard work away, revealing the corrugated ridges underneath. The distressed look is very cool I think. I was able to cut this piece into two #10 jumbo sized tags and two #5 small tags (I just traced around them and cut out with scissors.).

Carolyn from The Crafty Scrapper wanted me to try out Tsukineko's Goosebumps Texture Spray, I have never used it before. I thought it would be perfect to add a little more texture here and to protect parts of the brown corrugated paper from being colored. I wanted portions of it to remain as it was. I was worried of course, but BINGO...it worked, gave it shine, gave it texture, and even darkened parts of the brown areas where I sprayed it a little more heavy. I love this stuff! My wheels are turning on how to use it next. It reminds me of the starch I used to cook on the stove, spray on my jeans, and then have to iron them of course for the crispest pair of pants you ever wore. They stood by themselves. Those days are over!!!! Boy was I dumb!

Next, I took a Wendy Diamond Stencil and Bottle Paint Dabber and added it here and there. Love!

And the last thing I did to finish this background off was spray it up with some Dylusions in Lemon Zest, Squeezed Lime, and Fresh Cut Grass. The Distress Paints, Acrylic Paint, and Goosebumps all acted like resists, so only the untouched base brown areas were colored! LOVE!!!! I could totally have a wall look like this...even in green! I love this background!

A little Citrus Alcohol Ink and these Idea-ology Plaquettes were perfectly Irish. ;0) I added everything on, and found some more trims perfect for this, like Maya Road's Zippered Ribbon in the perfect shade of green, and I even found some beads that I am sure someone forced me to wear one St. Pat's!

 

I also made a card for a friend as well, using basically the same supplies, but I tweaked an image of Wendy's from her new Heirloom Art set that I thought was perfect for St. Pat's!

I used watercolor paper for a card base, and sprayed it with water. Then I added Salty Ocean, Bundled Sage, and Peeled Paint Distress Paints and blended it all up with the water again. FUN! It's matte and strong. I stamped Wendy's Flower Image in Jet Black Archival three times.

I stamped this background image over it in Olive Archival Ink, covering up some of the areas I didn't want stamped with sticky notes. I drew in more leaves with a black Sharpie so that they now look more like shamrocks.

Using Distress Markers, I just started coloring in the leaves and flowers. I also used a White Uniball Signo Pen to help, and added a little doodling with the Sharpie.

A Pearl Paint Dabber made clouds, and Stickles added shine to the leaves. I found some pearl string and added more flowers. I added the sentiment From Crafty Secrets, and Butterfly Pins from Maya Road.

Supplies:  The Crafty Scrapper

Corrugated Cardboard

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint In Mowed Lawn

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint In Peeled Paint

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint In Bundled Sage

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint In Forest Moss

Stamper’s Anonymous Wendy Vecchi Sunshine and Art Stamp Set

Stamper’s Anonymous Wendy Vecchi Heirloom Art Stamp Set

Ranger Archival Ink In Jet Black

Tsukineko Goose Bumps Clear Texture Spray

Wendy Vecchi Stencils For Art Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend

Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber In Bottle

Ranger Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Ink Sprays In Lemon Zest

Ranger Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Ink Sprays In Squeezed Lime

Ranger Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Ink Spray In Fresh Cut Grass

Wendy Vecchi Art Part In Dress Forms and More

Maya Road Large Chipboard Crown

Dreamweaver Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste In Gold

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint In Victorian Velvet

Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber In Silver

Ranger Tim Holtz Crackle Paint In Rock Candy

Ranger Adirondack Color Wash In Butterscotch

Prima Craftable Flowers

Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber In Gold

Maya Road Zipper Ribbon In Green

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Number Plaquettes

Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink In Citrus

Tim Holtz Distress Paint In Salty Ocean

Tim Holtz Distress Markers
Uniball Signo White Pen

Ranger Stickles In Orange Peel

Ranger Stickles In Firefly

Ranger Stickles In Mystic Green

Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber In Pearl

Crafty Secrets Card Sentiments Stamp Set

Ranger Archival Ink In Olive

Specialty Stamping Paper 8.5 x11

Tim Holtz Distress Ink In Black Soot

Ranger Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool

Prima Green Mini Roses

Maya Road Trinket Pins In Vintage Butterfly

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!