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 September TIMI challenge - Take a stamp

Hi all,

It's Craft Stamper TIMI challenge time, over on the blog we have some fab inspiration for you, and this month's theme is an easy one - take a stamp!  

We would love to see your stamped creations, you can check out the rules here, there aren't too many, I promise!

Our sponsor this month is:

STAMPlorations!

The Prize: Two stencils: Bold Florals, Leaf Print
Stamp Set: Boxed Blooms and Bold Sentiments

STAMPlorations have also been incredibly generous and have supplied a coupon code for Craft Stamper challenge players to take advantage of free shipping from the store! The code is: CSTAKEITMAKEIT and is good for free shipping on orders over $20 (£12.90). The coupon will work all through September, and can be combined with any other STAMPlorations coupon.

My inspiration for this month's challenge is a Journal page, showing one of my favourite thoughts..

If moth's like light so much, why don't they come out in the day?  

I used Dylusion spray inks, Indigoblu Gee Sso Good, (black and white), a credit card to make lines and lids to make circles, and Indigoblu's Grand Tour II stamps. 

We'd love to see your designs, you can enter HERE.  

Don't forget to check out the Design team's individual blog's to check out how they made their projects too :)

Bye for now, have fun creating,

Best Wishes,

Nikki. 

xxx

'Colour'

Today I wanted to share something I made for myself, and it's a work in progress.  My first little Art Journal.

I painted the chipboard pages in white gesso, and on some of them, swirled the end of a paintbrush in the texture to make some patterns that show when they are covered in paint.

I mixed some acrylic paints, to make a bright orange, pink, and yellow, and painted the pages with my fingers.  (Yes - finger painting!)

The cover has the lovely lady from the 'Mr Darcy' Stamp set from Indigoblu, coloured with distress inks and pan pastels.  It is then stamped with bubble wrap, lids from bottles or sprays, and something like credit card edges to ground the image and add interest to the page.

The 'Art' wording is also from Indigoblu, and I then added some chipboard flowers, cut out text, and stick on pearls.

The techniques used are from watching the wonderful Kate Crane's dvd's,  I was inspired to have a go myself, I love the bright colours and way everything pop's off the page.

The little castle is a charm I took the ring off, it just added a little something to the page.  Some of stamped rings on the page are highlighted in gold paint,  and the little dots in white are from a uniqlo pen. 

The word ART, is stamped with flitterglu, and foiled with 'peacock feathers' from Indigoblu.

Here are two of the internal pages.

 

 These pages are similar to the cover, with bubble wrap stamping, backgrounds, doodling, stamping with household objects, and finger painting.  They are blank and ready for me to add journalling when I am ready to.

If you haven't tried it since you were a child, finger painting is one of the most relaxing ways to get lost in your craft (and the cheapest!)

I thought I would enter this for the 'Colour' challenge over at 'Simon Says Stamp & Show'

If you fancy having a go, you can get Kate's dvd's here:

I know I had fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki