Mega excited and proud! - PaperArtsy 3UP..

Hi everyone, 

A couple of months ago I was picked to join in with a secret blog.  Today it's here, and  I am super proud to be a part of the PaperArtsy 3UP blog!

Once we accepted the mission, we joined a secret facebook group, and met our fellow posters for the same evening, and had chance to chat about our makes and colours, and get to know each other.  Then we just had to keep it a secret until this week :)

If you head to the main page, you will see all that's been going on over the past week or so, and my team mates posts for today as well, you can also see their pieces over on their own blogs too.

My inspiration piece was using the PaperArtsy HotPicks stamps, and 'crayons'.  I used Portfolio's, they are lovely and rich and creamy and blend beautifully.  And the colours were right up my street!

I first gesso'd the background in white, and added some texture through a circels stencil, so the colours of the crayons popped on top.  I randomly added the crayon in different colour patches, and just blended them gently with my fingers, it didn't take much, they work really well.  On top of this the background was stamped in toning inks, stazon pumpkin and cherry blossom pink, and then I stamped in gesso to bring in the white elements and versafine black ink for the rest.

The tag was made in exactly the same way, crayon then stamping, and I absolutely loved the butterflies and steampunk moth's on the Hot Picks stamp sets I was given to work with, and the sentiment too.  These have now already become a firm favourite stamp set for me, and are turning into a bit of a 'go to' set.  I do have a good few of PaperArtsy's stamp sets, but luckily didn't have any of these and I'm over the moon with them.

I stamped the steampunk moth onto separate card, and fussy cut out, to anchor the tag at the bottom and lead up at the top.  I stamped him on the page first so he still had his antennae, as I'm a bit rubbish at cutting things that fine!  

I layered the tag up, and added a dark shadow around the edge to make it stand out a little from the background, you can remove the tag still as I used pads, I thought if I liked it separately I could do something different or change it up, or use the tag on a card at a later date.  The sentiment was edged with versafine, and cut out and layered on pads also.  The butterflies were curled and added with pinflair glue, and they are coloured in the portfolio crayons, but I embossed them with versafine and clear embossing powder to make them stand out.

So you can see I created a VERY bright and busy journal cover, but I like it, I think it's happy.  I hope you can join us on the PaperArtsy blog, and check out Chris and Donna's pieces tonight also.  

Look forward to hearing from you,

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Craft Stamper TIMI challenge Reminder - June - Take a Technique - Get Inky!

Hi everyone,

It's Craft Stamper challenge reminder time, and I love this month's technique - Get Inky!  Use more than one TYPE of ink on your creation, ink pads, spray inks, alcohol inks, reinkers, drawing inks, ink crystal powders, or acrylic inks etc, OR, use more than one COLOUR of ink.  Then join in and enter over on the Challenge blog.

The prizes up for grabs this month are:

Firstly the Sponsor Prize, and the winner of this will be randomly chosen from all the eligible entries of the challenge. To make sure your project is eligible to win, make sure you have followed our challenge guidelines. These can be found HERE.

We are proud to announce our sponsor this month is....

PaperArtsy 

PaperArtsy are a UK based brand, selling a HUGE range of stamps by some wonderful designers, as well as their own signature line of chalk finish paints! The online store is just full of amazing product, well worth a visit! The latest (and very very popular) range to be launched is the Infusions range....
Infusions are water soluble particles with 2 components: dye colour pigment suitable for paper/ fabric, mixed with Walnut Stain.
The colour powder particles dissolve faster than the walnut crystals, so you can control the colour-to-brown stain ratio!
These amazing little bottles of fabulousness have been flying off the shelves, but we have a selection as the prize this month! This is the whole colour range:

The prize is a set of FIVE Infusions as seen here:

Lemoncello, Black Currant, A Bit Jaded, Are You Cerice and Emerald Isle.

And second, As always, we will also have a Design Winner this month.

This winner is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite design from all of the entries. This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post! 

Here is my inspiration piece for the Challenge:

I used both colours of inks, and types of inks on this tag.  The background was created with Dylusions spray inks in Fresh Lime, Squeezed Orange, and Lemon Zest.  I sprayed a piece of A4 card and made a masterboard, so I can use other pieces where I want too.

I then stamped the text from Indigoblu's Tasty Texture's background stamp, in Stazon Pumpkin Orange and Cactus Green.  The Honeycomb background is IB too and stamped in the same colours.

The dots stamp is PaperArtsy HotPics, stamped in Versafine Onyx black,  as are the white Stazon Opaque Cotton white circles.

I used Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade and Shabby shutters on the wording, flowers and edges, and added a little washi tape to the background for interest.  

I did use embossing ink, and embossed the flowers, but didn't like the gloss look so went back over with DecoArt's Ultra Matte Varnish, which took the finish right back again.  The flowers still look raised but aren't so shiny against the matt tag. 

I think this is the most stamps and inks I've ever got on one small tag :) 

I hope you can join us at Craft Stamper Magazine this month! 

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx