Thursday, March 21, 2013

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!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

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!