Crackle week over at Tando Creative Ltd.

Hi everyone,

It's crackle week over at Tando Creative this week, and it's my turn to share a make with you.  Hop across there to get the details on how I made this tag.  It didn't turn out quite as planned but that's how art goes sometimes.

Hope you all stay safe. xxx

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Tando Creative - Same but Different Week

Hi all,

Join me over on the Tando Creative Blog today to find out more about their fab Layering Stencils. x

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx


www.nikkikart.blogspot.com
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Anything Goes week at Tando Creative

Morning everyone,

Today I'm over on the Tando blog for Anything Goes week, and sharing how I made a monochrome Tag using Tando Creative products and DecoArt paints.

I hope you can join me over there to find out more, here is the tag!

Come and join me and the rest of the team this week for some more inspiration. xx

Happy Crafting,

Nikki
xx

Tagtastic over at Andy Skinner's Blog today.

Morning all,

I'm very lucky to be part of Andy Skinner's Creative Team, and have a tag to show you over on his blog today.  

If you hop across, all the details of how I made it and the products used are there. x

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Love & Hearts over on the Tando Blog today.

Morning all,

Just to say hope you can join me over on the Tando Blog today, for the 'Love & Hearts' theme week.

Hop over if you can and take a look at how I created my tag. xx

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Tando Creative Artist Trading Coins

Morning all,

Hope you can join me over on the Tando blog today to find out more about these Artist Trading Coins.  They are great fun to make and fab to trade! 

Have a great weekend,

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Faux Metal week on the Tando Blog.

Hi all,

My first post in the New Year today!  I've been a bit poorly with a kidney infection and then a bad back (twice), but finally hoping I'm getting somewhere.

I have a post for you today over on the Tando Blog, hope you can join me and my colleagues this week for 'Faux Metal' week.  This guy would like to know what you think about him :)

Happy Crafting,

Nikki
xxx

Modelling Paste Week over at Tando Creative

Morning all,

It's Modelling Paste week over at Tando Creative's blog, and I have made a little Mixed Media Board.

You can find the full post over on the blog HERE.

Hope you can join me,

Have a good week,

Nikki. xxx

Route 66 - Mixed Media Canvas with DecoArt Media Acrylics

Morning everyone,

I'm sharing a piece today that I made for Mixed Up Magazine, for February 2017.  You can still get this issue of the magazine from Pocketmags, and I'd really encourage you to take a look at Mixed Up Mag and subscribe to future issues, it has tons and tons of pages of mixed media inspiration and projects. 

This piece was loosely valentines based, well, it had a heart in it!

This piece even made it to page 66!

Hope you like it, you can check out the full details on how I made it in the magazine.

Have a fab weekend,

Nikki
xx

Anything goes week over at the Tando Creative blog. - Backwards Crackle!

Hi everyone,
.
It's my turn on the Tando Creative Blog today, and I'm sharing a full tutorial of my own technique for you, backwards crackle on acrylic.

Hope you can hop over to find out more.

Warm wishes,

Nikki

xxx

A few changes to Nikki K..

Hi all,

Well I have decided to streamline my several social media accounts, and re-brand to Nikki K Art in some shape or form.  So the following are my new account addresses that you can find me at, and if you are a new reader then the links are here for you too.  My blog won't disappear, and I'd love it if you wanted to follow my posts.

Blogger :  www.nikkikart.blogspot.co.uk 

Instagram:  www.instagram.com/nikkikartist

Twitter: www.twitter.com/NikkiKArtist

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/NikkiKArtist

Facebook: www.facebook.com/NikkiKArtist

I hope you can join me on my mixed media journey.

Happy Crafting,

Nikki
xxx

Mixed Up Magazine Blog post.

Morning all,

Today you can join me over on the Mixed Up Magazine blog, sharing 'I'm only Human' with you.  Hope you can pop across and check out how I made it.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Posting for Tando Creative today..

Morning all,

Over on the Tando Creative blog today I have a tutorial on creating a little heart sugar skull shelf.  Hope you can pop over and join me for more details.

Best Wishes,

Nikki.
xxx

Eileen Hull Passport Die and a Crafty Afternoon!

Morning all,

This is just a quick post, as I never seem to share something I've made 'just for fun'.  I've had a couple of nice days this week crafting with friends, the first day I finished a project which I can't show as usual, but on the second afternoon with my friend Jan, I just sat and played.  Jan had the new Eileen Hull Passport journal die, and I am now hooked.

Now I have to admit to not using my papers much any more, or die cutting!  But I LOVED this, and now want to make ten more.  The die is out of stock nearly everywhere in the uk, so I'm just going to have to wait to get it myself, but definitely will be now!  There is also an XL journal die, and that is now on my hit list too.

I used IndigoBlu papers for the covers and a few of the pages, and the rest were old Stampin Up papers I had, but you can use any paper, card stock, or recycled paper (junk too) that you like.

The book itself was exceptionally easy to make, and to bind at the end, we used an elastic cord, and I also made a quick tie to just slip over the book, but you could add buttons and cord, wrap around, wire, anything you like to secure it.

I added two little flower beads to my cord, as I decided to use this as an allotment journal, so I can see progress (hopefully!).

I used a thick greyboard, but would suggest to use slightly thinner than I have, it makes the spine easier to work with!  You can also glue your covers inside or outside your spine, it is personal choice.  You can also bind it in any way you like, I chose to go across the two holes as Jan's looked so neat I followed suit.

I will add a title, and maybe a little embellishment, and of course fill it full of allotment pics, so maybe will post an update later in the year.

Happy Crafting,

Nikki
xxx

Mixed Up Magazine - Revamped Cabinet.

Hi again,

My second post of the day, I have re-vamped a bathroom cabinet over on the Mixed Up Magazine blog today.  Please hop across if you'd like to find out more.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Tando Creative - Anything Goes week.

Hi all,

Over on the Tando Blog today I have a little step by step on a Gothic Arch frame, if you'd like to hop over and check it out. I just love these 'Indigo Cats' stamps by Laurel Burch too!

Happy Crafting,

Nikki
xxx

Morning everyone,

I have a post over at Tando Creative blog today, to show how I made this quick Easter tag with very few crafting supplies as I was away.

Hop over if you can to find out more.

Hope you have a lovely day today, whatever you are doing.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

A catch up...

Morning everyone,

I haven't shared some pieces I've made lately, it's been mad busy and I've not had much time to do my 'own thing', but I made a couple of samples for the recent Dare to Create weekend organised by Sue at Art Workshops, and Andy Skinner & Tracy Weinzapfel Stratton.

I was booked on to the retreat as an attendee, and it was a fantastic weekend all round. A huge thankyou goes out to all involved in the organisation for a lovely weekend.  I'll share my makes at some stage from there too, but these are the pieces I made myself for Sue for her shop for the weekend.

My brief was to make something that incorporated Andy and Tracy's style, so 'Skinzapfel' was the order of the day.  The first piece I made was a canvas,

I painted the base coat in DecoArt Media pyrrole red and cadmium orange hue, and then went over with crackle paint, leaving the heart shape and flowers empty in the middle.  Once the crackle paint was dry, I used a cogs stencil inside the heart with DecoArt texture paste through.  I then added sand texture paste randomly around the edges and over the cogs to distress them further.  This centre panel was then painted in Andy's Rust technique.  The outer colours were prussian blue hue and cobalt teal hue, and a little turquoise hue.  I stamped randomly with carbon black and Tracy's stamps on the blue background.

The hand drawn flowers were painted in pyrrole red and hansa yellow medium.  I went round all the edges with a Faber Castell pitt pen and smudged the black lines, and also some more prussian blue around the heart to give shadow.  A computer sentiment was printed and coloured to match, scribbled round and adhered to the canvas.

Finally I edged the canvas in a little prussian blue hue to darken it and bring the focus in to the centre of the canvas.

My second make I wanted to keep, it's very simple but I kinda liked it :)

I took a second hand mirror from a car boot, and painted in black DecoArt Gesso.  I then added plumber's aluminium tape to pieces of black card, and used a spellbinders Mbossabilities folder called Industrial, to run the card with tape on through the Big shot.  I cut the pieces of card into different rectangles, and adhered to the mirror with matte medium. Carbon black was then dry brushed into all the crevices and across the mirror, and wiped back with a slightly dry baby wipe, repeated a few times.

 I then stamped Tracy's stamp Vines of Love onto normal 3 ply tissue, cut out and separated the ply.  I adhered this to the mirror with matte medium also, going over the top of the tissue very carefully to seal to the mirror.  I added a stalk to the flower in blue green light and green gold, and painted the flower in quinacridone magenta and hansa yellow medium.  I made sure you could still see the edges of the flower by running round with a micron pen.

The only other thing was to dry brush the edges of the black gesso'd mirror with some metallic silver paint to tie it in, and it was finished.

I love the simplicity of this, and Tracy's style with the industrial look.

Hope you've enjoyed the steps through these, I certainly enjoyed making them.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

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