Spring Flowers

Hi everyone,

    It is a new challenge over at Our Creative Corner and this month our wonderful Shari is leading the way....

April Showers bring May flowers

Spring comes late in my neck of the world, in the mountains of Northern Idaho. In the month of May (with Summer just weeks away), our Spring flowers are still, usually, under a thin blanket of snow, until those Spring rains wash it all away.

This month, the challenge is to create something, a mixed-media project, a journal page, a scrapbook page, a card or tag...Anything, that reflects the Spring rains and/or Spring flowers in your part of the world.

Now, I'm not going to nit-pic your choices of Spring flowers, as the growing season here where I live is short and our Spring flowers don't last very long before the blooms of Summer start budding. So, if you throw in flowers of Summer into your creation, that's OK, too.

I really wanted to focus on both rain and flowers for my creation and this is what I made...

 I chose buttercups and daisies because they are some of my favourite flowers - I suppose to many they are weeds, but I always thought they were lovely. I think the love of them began with making daisy chains at primary school - in the school field there were white and yellow blankets of these pretty little flowers and we would sit for ages making necklaces....

Just a quick note here about making flowers - if you want any info about how to make some flowers check out a tutorial here I did...

 

I began with a thick card tag base. I chose to work with a patterned paper - basically because I have so much and it is about time I used some of them! I chose a sheet from the Docrafts Papermania Persimmon collection. I stuck it to the tag and dabbed around the edges with Walnut Stain DI.

  I stuck a layer of burlap onto the tag and then added a layer of corrugated card that had been painted with gesso and Frayed Burlap DP.

A strip of crochet lace was  painted with Frayed Burlap DP. I then added a piece of hemp string that had been tied into a bow.

The quote was stamped onto ivory card with Potting Soil Archival ink and then all the words cut out separately. They were glued onto the tag after being dabbed with Frayed Burlap DI.

 I made the flowers using parts of the Tattered Florals Die cut.

The daisies were cut out of white card - I used two for each flower, edged with Frayed Burlap DI to give a vintage look. The center of the flowers were silver brads painted with gesso and then painted with yellow acrylic paint.

The leaves were die cut leaves dabbed with Peeled Paint DI 

I made the buttercups with the blossom shapes from the die cut set. I dabbed them with Scattered Straw and Wild Honey Distress Inks. I then cut a strip of paper and applied Wild Honey ink over it and then cut the strip into a fringe. I rolled up the fringe and then used that as the center to the flower.

 I applied Decoart liquid glass as raindrops all over the flowers and leaves.

At the top of the tag I attached a metal corner embellishment and added a metal button that had been brushed with White Fire Treasure Gold

And there is my finished April Showers/May Flowers tag....

It would be lovely to see you play along with us this month...

 .....as well as having our wonderful sponsor Designs by Ryn joining us this month to give a lucky winner a wonderful prize, there is also the chance you could be picked as the winner and find yourself here in the Spotlight as our Top Talent.....you could also be one of our Top 3's and be featured in the OCC Pinterest Gallery!

Hope to see you soon!

Happy Crafting!

Laura

xxx

Words, glorious words!

    Words Words Words!........

     .......that is where we go today with Alison who brings us a fantastic challenge here on 'Our Creative Corner' for the month of August......

       I'll let Alison explain it to you properly so if you want to know more, hop on over to 'Our Creative Corner' and she will lead you to some fun and fantastic creativity. I know you will have an amazing time!

    So where did I go with words?....Well, this creation actually started off as just a bit of playing. This isn't how I usually work - For most of my creations I begin after I have an idea/plan...I didn't have any ideas for this challenge when this began .....I sat down intending to just have a bit of a messy play with some Distress Inks as I hadn't done that in a while. This began as just a sheet of card and three ink colours - Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint and Tea Dye. I was just having some fun....just a bit of arty playtime....

      So there I was with my wrinkle free distress effect card....and I really liked it....and all my new birthday stamps were begging to be used.....I had the Tim Holtz face stamp that had been on my wish list for sooooo long - I HAD to use it....I knew that I needed to make something with words for this challenge....and ideas began to pop up......words flowing?....flowing hair?....paint some hair?...words IN the hair?.....and so I began to make the 'Words' creation...


      I stamped the face with Coffee Archival ink on tissue paper, then painted the back of it with Vintage Lace paint. I stuck it to the card and then using three Fresco Paints - Bora Bora, Hey Pesto and Pumpkin Soup I began to paint some hair. After this was dry I stamped some quotes with Antique Linen DP.

I used the harlequin stencil and blended some tumbled glass DI through it.

    Then I used the 'Art is' stencil in the corner of the card and blended some Vintage Photo DI over it. A Tim Holtz butterfly stamp was stamped in Antique Linen in two opposite corners, and one set had Vintage Photo DP stamped over the top to give a layered shadow effect.

.

     To add to the words theme, I stamped some script stamp using Coffee Archival ink randomly across the page. I outlined the face and hair with my 'not often used' white gel pen - (Note to self - This is a nice effect so use this pen more!) and I created my own tissue tape using Micropore tape covered in Bora Bora and Hey Pesto paint and stamped with a PaperArtsy mini text stamp in Coffee archival ink. I placed the tape at the corners of one side of the card.

     I used die cut flowers, covered with Tumbled Glass DI and edged with Vintage Photo DI. These flowers had copper brads in the centres and the leaves were blended with Peeled Paint DI and edged with Vintage Photo DI.

     I finished this creation with a two lengths of rusty wire that were twisted and the looped to create a hanger. A grapevine heart was attached to one end of the wire and a Celtic style patterned button was added to the heart with an extra twirl of rusty wire. I then blended some Vintage Photo DI around the entire card to add a bold edging

.........and that is my 'Words, Words, Words' hanging.

I can't wait to see all the 'Words' creations over at Our Creative Corner - We all hope you will come and play along with us this month!

   

I would like to enter this in the following challenge -

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Script/Books/Pages/Print




 

Coast along a creative path

     Hello again!

         I bought these coasters from Eclectic Paperie after I won the top prize there. They had been sitting waiting to be used and one day I decided to make a hanging with them...I had picked up a bargain set of papers from the Range for about £2 and they are stunning! - Had to use them so the coasters got a chance to appear!

      I covered three coasters with the papers. It was hard to chose which ones as they were all so lovely. I decided to use some die cuts - swirls and flowers - including one gorgeous one sent to me by by wonderful blogging friend Jenny (Buttons) who kindly sent me a gorgeous card she made which was filled with die cut goodies...

       The flowers were all covered with Weathered Wood and Antique Linen DS and while the die cuts were still wet I applied a smudge of Vintage Photo DP and Antique Linen DP to the center of the flowers and let the colours merge with a spritz of water - The combination of blue and neutrals is so gorgeous.

 I covered two swirls with Weathered Wood DP - I love the chalky finish of this paint.
 

The lattice die cut was covered with Antique Linen DP. The wings are covered with Frayed Burlap DI and the rose was swirled in Antique Linen DS then spritzed with water to blend the colour more.

Cream crochet lace is one of my latest favourites in my craft embellishment collection - I have one drawer crammed with them and I keep buying more...I can't help it!!!

     I made some holes in the coasters and cut some lengths of rusty wire and made some loops with pliers. A length of rusty wire was added to the top to hang it up...

    And here is my hanging....Hope you like it!

How does your garden grow?

      How does my garden grow? - it doesn't! Plants wilt at the sight of me and quake with fear...I am a hopeless gardener - despite my love of flowers. Perhaps that is why they feature in so much of my work....at least I don't have to remember to water these!

     It isn't a canvas - I wanted to enter the 'Simon Says' challenge which asked to use something you were going to throw away. Several sheets of card had been rescued from the bin and were waiting to be used. I don't normally do this kind of thing on flat card - the card I am always eager to save is corrugated for lovely shabby effects. This is just plain thick brown card that arrived inside a pack of scrapbook pages......

    I was trying to achieve here...a kind of Victorian Summer garden, delicate roses, lots of random grasses, that lovely haze you find on a gorgeous hot sunny afternoon....ahhh bliss. I certainly have had a lot of inspiration with the gorgeous weather we are having...

     So I started off with that piece of plain brown card which arrived inside a pack of scrapbook album pages and was meant for the bin...and I applied texture paste through chicken wire stencil on opposite corners. I then painted the entire card with Vanilla Fresco paint and left to dry. When it was dry I dabbed Hey Pesto Fresco and Rose Fresco paint and wiped with a baby wipe.

   I stamped some Tim Holtz Hedgerow stamps with Shabby Shutters and Victorian Velvet DI. This dried very pale and I stamped further hedgerow stamps with Peeled Paint DI to give some depth and distance to the plants.

    I then cut out roses and daises from serviettes and applied them to the card with Mod Podge. I dry brushed layers of Hey Pesto, Chocolate Pudding and Vanilla Fresco paint around the edges and then dabbed a dot stamp with Chocolate Pudding and Vanilla Fresco paint

    The picture still looked very flat especially as the dry brushing of dark colours had made the roses appear in shadow. I decided to add some lighter roses to look like they were bathed in sunlight and again add further depth to the picture. Serviettes wouldn't show up applied to dark painted areas so I painted some Snowflake Fresco paint and applied the rose serviettes over the paint. I painted a light coat of Snowflake Fresco paint over the daisies to brighten the petals.

   
















    A butterfly was stamped on cream coloured card with Coffee Archival ink and stained with Tattered Rose and Bundled Sage DS and then covered in white iridescent Mica powder. 

Script stamp was added in Coffee Archival ink and I placed a quote in the centre stamped again with Coffee Archival Ink.

 A quick sponging of the edges with Chocolate Pudding Fresco paint added a vintage shabby look
            

 Hope you like this Summer picture! Hope to see you again soon!

I would like to enter this in the following challenges -

  Country View Challenge - Summer Sizzler
  Simon says - Good to be Green - Used discarded cardboard and green paint and inks
  Frilly and Funkie - Summertime!
  Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Flora & Fauna
  Vintage Stamping Challenge  - Pretty in Pink