Butterfly eyes

Today is for my second Country View Challenge inspiration post, and let me tell you it did not turn out how I had envisioned at all... I was thinking Vintage, shabby chic etc... but once I had started my background I loved the bright colours and wanted to keep with it.

Our challenge theme this month, chosen by the lovely Jane, is "It's a bug's life" so, of course I have a few insects on the tag, but the star of the show is a rather fantasy butterfly... gifted to me by a crafter friend.

 

I used 3 colours of Paper Artsy Fresco paints and their brayer to colour my tag. Here's the first layer on the right.

My next move was to add dark touches with Blueberry Fresco, especially around the tag. I then knocked it back with the Blue Oyster as it was a bit fierce.

All in all it probably took 10 minutes and the paints dry very quickly!

My focal image is one by Carabelle Studio,  Sweet Butterfly Eyes, it is stamped in black and embossed, then coloured with watercolour pencils.

 I popped it up on foam pads and placed on a die-cut (Crafters Companion - Create a Flower Metal Die - What A Mesh!) which loosely reminds me of the broken surface of a lake.


For embellishments I played with lots of embossing, first with the Adelaide stem (Memory box) die-cut which I embossed with Ultra thick Tropic red powder for the blooms  and Moss green EP for the stem.
The small wooden bee has been embossed in yellow for the body, Chai Latte for the wings and black for the head (since you ask, yes it is fiddly work!)

The wooden dragonfly has been embossed with a mix of Vintage peacock and Seaglass.

All powders are from Wow embossing, apart from the Ultra Thick Embossing crystals in tropic red (Cosmic Shimmer )

I hope that I did justice to that beautiful butterfly image and that I have inspired you to join our Country View challenge. Don't forget a random player will scoop up a £20 voucher to spend on crafting goodies...

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the  We Love To Create, Craft Stamper TIMI, Penny Black and more, Stamping Sensations challenges.

For our elders...

Did you know STAMPlorations are celebrating their 6th Birthday  this month?

 

To coincide with the event our Theme & Sketch challenge is about Birthdays too and I have a second inspiration make today.

 

The theme and sketch are:

I used both Theme and Sketch for this birthday card and pulled out my A Snarky Birthday to You stamp set again.

This time I went for a Vintage vibe with old newsprint paper and doilies for the background.
My focal point is the sentiment, which I masked before stamping the balloons from the same set.
To give this waxy, aged look, I used Seth Apter's Vintage Beeswax embossing powder in a thick layer all over the panel.

The final touch is the stamped and embossed "Happy Birthday" , sarcastically placed after the put down! I can see a lot of siblings liking this one....

Check out further inspiration from my teamies for all the challenges here. 

 

***

If you feel like shopping, check out the Birthday Summer sale
 



 And don't forget, whenever  you shop for STAMPlorations products you can get 20% off with my code: STAMPGIRLCRAFTY

***

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Addicted to stamps  challenges.

 

Sarcastic Birthday

June started so well... but the rain is back again. Still today we can cheer ourselves with a new STAMPlorations Theme & Sketch Challenge!

The theme and sketch are:





I chose to go with the theme and created a Birthday card with the fun A Snarky Birthday to You stamp set.

I first die-cut some Kraft cardstock with the Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies to use as my card base. Then, with the help of my stamping platform I stamped 2 rows of candles from the A Snarky Birthday to You set with red dye ink .


I created a topper by stamping the sentiment and balloon from the same set with a Kaleidacolor inkpad. I then die-cut it, but with a twist…

For the more recent die-cutters among us, I used this old technique which consist of fussy cutting part of the image with scissors and then die-cutting the rest of the image with a shape die.
As shown in the photo, the rectangle die is inserted under the fussy cut shape so that it doesn't get cut off by the die.

The balloons have been coloured with watercolour pencils and a water brush.

I love the fact I used the same set for both background and focal image, it's just a different way to use my stamps!

Over to you now... you can follow either the sketch or the theme and of course both, to enter the STAMplorations Theme & Sketch challenge for the chance to win prizes...

***

Whenever you shop for STAMPlorations products you can get 20% off with my code: STAMPGIRLCRAFTY

***

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Craft Stamper TIMI, Stamping Sensations, SSS Wednesday challenges.

   

It's a bug's life

Summer is finally around the corner, the heat of the sunshine, the holidays and the... bugs everywhere! Maybe why my teamie Jane chose It's a bug's life as the theme for our Country View Challenges this month....

Today I am showing you a page with 2 of my favourites bugs, dragonflies and butterflies.

I covered my journal pages with a printed paper and added both Tim Holtz/Ideology tissue tape  and Prima Spread Your Wings washi tape around the borders. The Prima (new) is very wide (5cms/2") and also more resistant to water/waterbased paints than the Tim Holtz tape. I bought it specifically for its width as it can be torn in half for a straight line on the outside of the journal and distressed on the inside. Also, since the Eclipse tape (a tape use to cut out masks for stamping) is impossible to find, I will be able to use the Prima tape instead, I know it sounds like waste but there is a lot of tape on that roll!

I then stencilled with Paper Artsy Fresco paints using PS126 and PS092 stencils (also Paper Artsy) and the Dragonfly stencil (That Special Touch) .

The sentiment, embossed in white EP, is from the Paper Artsy Hot Pick 1206.

To finish, I gave the left hand stencilled flower a stalk and leaves with acrylic paint and a paintbrush and added a butterfly made of 2 layered die-cuts and stitched together in the middle.

I hope that I have inspired you to join our Country View challenge, hop on over to see my teammates makes and don't forget a random player will scoop up a £20 voucher to spend on crafting goodies...

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday, Bleeding Art, We Love To Create challenges.