Birds of a Feather

 

Hello, I'm actually entering a challenge, well a joint one between Time Out Challenges and Just Us Girls where they're having a joint collaboration with the theme Birds of A Feather.

I made this card with some Tim Holt Sizzix dies - Papercut Cafe, Brushstroke Flowers Mini and Feathered Friends.  The background is part of a Stamperia Coffee and Chocolate Plates stencil coloured with Distress Oxide sprays.

I'd actually made the card before I saw the collaboration challenge, but it fits the bill perfectly!

STAMPlorations Ephemera

 

I've been playing with some of the new Ephemera Tiles from STAMPlorations.  Shery has a growing range of colourable, ephemera and card fronts in the store, with plenty of fun designs.  They're printed on really good quality card and they're a joy to work with.

This set is called Newsprint Blooms, and you get 6 identical sheets in the pack.

I sliced them up in various ways.  For the first card I sliced the panel in half horizontally, then sliced each half in half again, then re-arranged them and stuck them onto my card.  I added a 'thanks' using Skinny Sentiments.

I'm adding this one to the Just Us Girls gallery - no stamping.

For the next card I cut the three white tiles, then added a fourth tile with a sentiment from Succulently and a couple of squiggly lines, and mounted them all onto a black card.

With the three remaining black tiles I painted some red and pink stripes on my card base, then added the tiles and a sentiment from Baa Baa.

And for the final card, I sliced down the centre of each flower then re-arranged them to make new flowers.  I stamped an Artsy Doodled Border on the card base, and used a sentiment from Trendy Feathers 2.

I'm adding this to Simon Says Monday challenge, Beautiful Blooms.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #212

Hey peeps, it's time for Inspiration Tuesday at STAMPlorations, and we're still in a Spring mood and the Spring Fling sale lasts all through April, and all stamps in the Spring Fling section are automatically 25% off, no code needed.  If you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get a further 20% off, so go grab yourself a bargain!

I've used Folk Flowers for some vibrant blooms.  I coloured them with Zig Clean Colour brush pens, edged them with grey, then masked them while I sponged Distress Oxides through the Broken Glass stencil.  I stamped the border on the card base then trimmed the panel to fit.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the store.

I'm entering this into Just Us Girls - Off The Edge.

and AAA Card Challenge - Along The Edge

and Simon Says Monday Challenge - Beautiful Blooms

OCC Colour Theory - Day 3

Day 3 of OCC Colour Theory, and we were looking at complementary colours, split complementaries, tertiary and tetrad.  Here's some homework.

For my complementary colours card I smooshed some red and green Distress Inks, being careful not to let them merge into mud.  The stamps are from Layered Poinsettia.

For this next card I used tertiary colours: blue-green, red-violet and yellow-orange.  The stamps are from Altenew.

I'm entering this into Just Us Girls - Stripes.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #178

Its Inspiration Tuesday at STAMPlorations, and I'm previewing one of my new stamp sets, Layered Citrus, which launches next week.  We've got some fab inspiration projects in store for you.

I'm playing along at Just Us Girls with this, where the theme is Citrus.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the Design Team.  If you're thinking of having a splurge while you're there, you can use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY for 20% off all stamps, stencils and dies in the store.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #55 - Expect Great Things

It's time for some inspiration at STAMPlorations, and we're in the middle of a new stamp release, so it's a great excuse to use some of the new images and sentiments from the release.

The butterfly is from my new set, The Bee's Knees Winged Things, and the sentiment is from Deepti's new set, New Beginning.

The background panel has been in my stash for a while.  At a guess, I'd say it involves a smooshing of modelling paste and some Distress Inks ;)   Once I'd stamped and coloured my butterfly on mixed media paper, I added a touch of pink and yellow onto the background to tie everything together.  Stamped a sentiment onto the scrap of mixed media paper, stapled it to the panel then mounted the panel to the card, added the fussy-cut butterfly and it's done.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Something New.  The sentiment says it all, but it's also a new stamp set ;)

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Time Flies (time or flying)

Just Us Girls - Metal or Metallic (I've used staples, does that count?)

and Fusion, where I've picked a couple of the colours (magenta/yellow) and sort-of followed the sketch ;)

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Don't forget about the Mixed Media Card Challenge, which is all about beginnings, with an option of sequins.  Click here for all the details.

Orange and Autumn's Graffiti

I've got a couple of cards for you today.  The first one is a reminder about the Mixed Media Card Challenge, which has a theme of Black and Orange with an option of glitter.  I'm entering it into the following challenges:

Virginia's View - All Things Coloured

and Colour Me... Monochromatic

Just Us Girls - Stencilling

and Simon Says World Cardmaking Day

My second card is my design piece over at A Sprinkle of Imagination.  Pop on over to the blog for details on how I made the card.

I'm entering this into Time Out - Inspired by Words "Autumn ... the year's last, loveliest smile",

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Autumn

and Simon Says Work It Wednesday - use a stamp

A Two-fer From Scratch

Mixed media meets CAS.

Still playing with the negative image left behind after painting chipboard hearts pink.  I needed a mask for a different heart card so I drew round one of the chipboard hearts on scratch paper and cut it out, then cut out the middle bit and laid it aside.  

Masking done, I looked at the panel with the negative image, looked at the mask, then put them together - yeah, I like it!  Stuck it down, drew round it with a black Neocolour II crayon then followed it round with a wet paint brush, and added two rows of stitching (because the first one was crooked).  Added a sentiment (STAMPlorations Sentiment Builders: Love), mounted it onto black card and added two strips of black washi tape.  

I'm entering it into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - All Things Bright and Beautiful,

CASology - Love

and Just Us Girls - Love.

So, what happened to the middle of the heart mask?  I painted a piece of white card with pink acrylic paint, stuck the heart down, ran the black Neocolour II round it and the edge of the panel, added some red Neocolour II round the edge, and two tiny red buttons, and a sentiment (Marion Emberson Designs).

I'm entering this one into Simon Says Monday Challenge - Red and Pink,

Inkspirational - Rose Colours

and Inspiration Emporium - Love Is In The Air.

If you're still with me, don't forget the Mixed Media Card Challenge is all about Love and Buttons. And as you can see from these two cards, mixed media can also be CAS.  Just mix your media!

Love-ly

When I was painting some chipboard hearts pink the other day, they left a fabulous grungy negative on the scrap paper.  So I painted some more on card panels so that I could use the negative image.  This is version two - version one is below, with the sentiment stamped in black.  As soon as Less Is More's new challenge came in, I knew I wanted to make a version with a grey sentiment, so here it is!

PINK AND GREY

I'm also entering this into JUGS where the word is Love:

So here's the original version.  

The paint is deeper on this one (I added white to the paint for the top card to soften it against the grey sentiment).  

Fancy trying out this technique?  Feel free to CASE this card and enter your version into the CASE playground at STAMPlorations.  And have a look at our new CASEplorations game while you're there.  You could CASE one of those cards (or indeed any card from the STAMPlorations Inspiration team) during February and be in with the chance of a prize.  If you use STAMPlorations stamps in your creation, you can enter it into the never-ending Anything Goes challenge for more chances to win.

Mixed Media City Girl

I've been having a play with mixed media, seeing as my kids have now sorted out my birthday present - a year-long online art/mixed media/journalling course.  The journalling part is optional, so I'll probably be opting out of that bit, but who knows?

For this card, I tore pieces of patterned paper from my ginormous, never-decreasing stash and stuck them down onto white card, then stamped the CityGirl image, aligning it to get the best from the papers.  Then I painted over the background with white acrylic paint to soften the colours, and left the papers within the image unpainted so that they were more vibrant.  I stencilled some dots using translucent cerise paint, then again with white acrylic.  There was a cut-out folk heart lying around on the desk shouting at me, so I drew a heart border and added it to the card.

I'm playing along at JUGS where the theme is Mixed Media:

And Simon Says Monday Challenge, Anything Goes