Black with two Challenge

After a very very long time, playing alongwith Black with two. This month's colours matched a photograph from one of my France vacations perfectly. The background came together in a few mins and the layering went zip zap zoom and withing 30mins all done!

Now that almost never happens with me, so Im very happy :) May not be one of my best layouts, but I'm glad the story behind this photograph is finally documented. For the background, I used texture paste through a stencil, gave it a coat of black gesso and then rubbed grey paint over the raised areas.

Scrapping4fun Challenge # 24 using A Beautiful Moodboard from OTRS

Its time for another challenge at Scrapping4funchallenges and this time its another super fun theme that I know all of you will enjoy - Use a technique; any technique - distressing, layering, watercolours, quilling the list is endless; use one or several, but make sure you mention what all you used. This is also my last DT post for them and I have immensely enjoyed creating for Rachelle.

I created a mixed card for this challenge using my favourite techniques : texture paste, gel medium, burlap, medical gauze for texture; watercolours, paints, gelatos ,mists to add colour; gesso and stamping to tie it all together.

 

The sketch and colours for my card came from this fabulous board from OfftheRails Scrapbooking. Its really beautiful isnt it..... Ive used these colours plus ofcourse white from gesso. 

I couldn't stick exactly to the sketch, so I retained the main focal elements in the top like in the sketch but centered it.

One last reminder, there is still time to join us at the Mixed Media Card Challenge #2 - Summer ; hop over to check out what the other DT have created, Im sure you'll enjoy it.

                                                         

Here are a few pics I took along the way making this card. There are soooooo many layers on this, I'm surprised the paper (Prima Princess) withstood everything I threw on it. LOL :)

 

The base was burlap with gauze on top of it, mists and embossing paste and texture paste through a stencil.

Some more layers of paints and gesso

Then accidently spilt some very bright pink paint which was almost like a neon pink... and it ruined the whole thing :( so on it went heaps of gesso and then very carefully restored the colour on the card by adding a little paint at a time.

 

Also playing alongwith - Simon Says Monday Challenge - Anything goes

Challenge # 37 + Steps to create 4 backgrounds

Hello my dear friends,

I'm over on the Lulupu blog with Challenge # 37 : Background stamps + Mists / Ink spray

I had a lot of fun making this mini album and I do hope you all like it. You know, how once in a while you come across a paper pack that you just can't stop creating with - well for me this was it - Heidi Swapp Dreamy! Each and every paper in this pack is super cute.

The album is perfect to hold a few wallet size photographs and there is room for loads of journaling. Now onto the inside pages. Each has been made using stamps, mists and just to add some fun Studio 490 Embossing paste (Translucent) I didn't want a very picture heavy post, so only one photo per page. If you would like to see more photos or have any Qs regarding the steps, please drop me a line and Ill get back to you.

Once the pages were done, I trimmed them down, folded and embellished them using a Heidi Swapp Ephemera pack and Studio Calico wood veneer. There are so many fun elements in a pack - tags, tickets, vellum shapes, journaling cards and more! Here is what the pages finally look like. The embellies on the photo mat have been stapled in the corner so the photo can easily be slid under them.

I hope you liked this album and do let me know if you give any of these techniques a go. 

Something girly - Scrapping4fun challenge#23

I seem to be playing catch up with most things today but glad I could sneak in this post. Rachelle has a super fun theme going this time at Scrapping4fun Challenges

                                                   

Something Girly

 

 

Super cute, right! To stay with the theme, for my card, Ive used soft colours, a little bit of paint & ink (just couldn't resist), flourishes cut on my Silhouette and the sentiment - Love.

 

 

 



Head over to the Scrapping4fun challenge blog to check out the inspiration from the rest of the DT.



Tag you are it - with Disress Inks

Hello dear friends,

Here is my creation for Lulupu Challenge #36 - Make It Macho: Cards / Tags using Distress Inks

 

I am an ink lover - especially of distress inks. Its on my MUST have list for a mixed media project, primarily because of the versatility that these water-based inks offer. So, for this project, I decided to use only distress ink and experiment the many ways to use it, here are a few



1. Through stencil - First, rub distress ink over a stencil , spritz it with a little water and then press the ink on the tag to get the reverse image stamp on the paper. The image will not be perfect, but gives a lovely pattern. On my tag, the first layers of gears (stencil) is hardly visible.

2. To stamp - Lesson learnt : Distress inks give sharper images when used on rubber stamps, clear/acrylic stamps the image is a little hazy.

3. Add to texture paste- Rub some distress ink onto your craft sheet. Using a palette knife, mix it with modelling paste and apply though stencil. The clocks on the tag are made using this technique - I mixed a few brown shades to get the final colour.

4. Colour chipboard - Rub some distress ink onto the craft mat and spritz it with water. Swipe the gessoed chipboard on it. Some places will catch more colour than others. This was used to colour the trellis chipboard (cut with the Silhouette). I also rubbed on some colour with my fingers. The gears in the forefront were not gessoed. The ink pads were directly rubbed onto it, to give more intense and darker shade.

5. Colour wash - The ink spritzed with water was used through a waterpen, to colour the gauze and also blend the background and splatter using a paintbrush.



By the way, the pattern paper for the tag comes from Kaisercraft Basecoat - this collection has the most amazing backgrounds, perfect for a grunge project.

So, what do you have in mind for this challenge my friends? We are eagerly waiting to see what projects you link and hope you too have as much fun with distress inks.

Cheers!

Mixed Media Card Challenge #2

August already! This year is flying quicker than any year I can remember, maybe it's because I'm learning new artsy things and sharing with all of you wonderful friends.

Did you hear, we had 89 wonderful entries last month at the Mixed Media Card Challenge Blog.  What a whooper! A very special thank you to all my readers who also joined. It was very enjoyable going through all the entries, visiting each participants blog and knowing them a wee bit more through their creations. So, here is the theme for this month - Summer + burlap (optional)

                                                    

What pops to mind when you think 'summer' - beach, sand, holidays, the sun... whatever your interpretation of summer, we would like to see it. 

Well, I'm still dreaming of summer here, so I combined the warm sunrise colours with a precious summer memory. One summer early morning, I walked out of my house and found hundreds of butterflies just sitting on the driveway..... literally hundreds. They had filled every inch of the driveway and some of the garage walls and some of the nearby plants. Bright blue and grey, fluttering their wings slowly, warm sunbeams streaming through the nearby trees, it was a spectacular sight. I learnt later that day about butterfly migration and was lucky to witness this a couple more times. I do miss my Bangalore very much. With this is mind, my card was born -

I started with Prima Princess paper. Stuck on a burlap panel with multi medium. The remaining burlap strings were stuck in the bottom right of the card. Then on this went pieces of lace, studio 490 embossing paste (translucent), stamps, mists and watercolours interspersed with gesso to blend and tone the colour. I wish I had mica flakes - have searched in so many stores with no luck, so had to settle for sequins.

I loved effect of the embossing paste and mists. Also managed to get my new silhouette started and cut the chipboard and butterfly with it. yaaaaay. But, I just haven't figured out how to cut fine designs with my silhouette. All I wanted was to cut the word believe on Prima pattern paper and every setting tried frayed the paper and tore it :( tips pl. the title was to be placed in the bottom right, but the card doesn't look bad without it, I guess.

Linking this to Simon Says Wednesday - Anything Goes