a day of fun with my STAMPlorations products

Some projects are quick ones that only require a little time to complete and then there are ones that take all day. This was one of the longer ones, but I had a lot of fun making it. What was fun with this project is I started with 3 colors of solid cardstock. White, Black and Kraft. Any other colors were added. These products that I used to make this card are from STAMPlorations.

 ARTplorations Bloomdala Bliss #9 and 

Showers of Flutters

Peonies all Over

CUTplorations Perched Bird

and STAMPlorations In Bloom: Darling Dog Roses

This was one of the two gel prints that I cut up for the front of the card. 

I put the strips on white cardstock and put on a black cardstock base. I masked the center strip and stamped the roses and painted the roses. I added white dots with a gel pen. The little die cut bird that i had cut out of kraft cardstock for yesterday's project was sitting on my desk so I decided to paint him. The scripture and bird are popped up on dimensionals. 

For the inside of the card, I put another card. I used this gel print

I did the same technique as yesterday by painting black around the edges. 

Then I had fun. I added little white dots and highlights to the print with a gel pen. I place it on a white card that lifts up. I figured it was a place for signatures. 

This is the other part of the inside. I took a gel print and cut it into strips. I mitered the corners and outlined with a black marker. I stamped the thank you sentiment onto a piece of scrap cardstock left over from the from one of the prints I used on the front of the card. 

One last piece of scrap for the back of the card and I hand wrote my blog address.

If you liked any of the products that I used and want to add them to your crafting stash/supplies you can use this discount code to get 20% off your order. 

Thanks for reading this long post. Happy Crafting.

I am going to share this card with WORD ART WEDNESDAY. 

MIX-Ability challenge Onions and Birds

I have been having so much fun this week making what I thought was a project for this week's MIX-Ability challenge for SCS, only to find out when I was done that the challenge had been changed on Tuesday. I was so busy creating I didn't check. So I felt a little bit of a rush to make a project. Good thing that it was a really easy one to do. The challenge is to take a gel print or any decorative paper  put a die cut image on paper, trace and paint around that with black acrylic paint. 

I had this gel print that I made sometime in the past few weeks. It was made with 

I used ARTplorations Onion in Raws

I used CUTplorations Perched Bird

To be mixed media, it needed more than one medium and even after I painted around my little bird, I had used only acrylic paint. So I decided to try the asemic writing again. This time I varied the length of the markings. I think it helped to make it look more like writing. I used the end of my paint brush to add the little eye with acrylic paint. 

This was definitely a fun technique that I will try again. If you like the stencil or little die cut bird and want to add them to your crafting stash, you can use this discount code to get 20% off of your order.

Happy Crafting and have a blessed weekend. 

Embossed Resist Zen Heart

I used ARTplorations ZEN HEARTS stencil

and my gel plate today. I used versamark embossing ink with the stencil. I just pushed the ink pad over the stencil. I stenciled on to kraft paper and then heat embossed with white embossing powder.

After I embossed it I used my gel plate to make a print. After this print was done this is how it looked.

Not very pretty right? Then I took sand paper and sanded off the paint from the embossed areas.
I love the distressed vintage look that it created.  I mounted my print on black cardstock. I took a white gel pen to create "Asemic writing" around the edge.
Do you know what Asemic writing is? I didn't know before this week.
Here is the definition:
Asemic writing is a wordless open semantic form of writing. The word asemic means "having no specific semantic content", or "without the smallest unit of meaning". With the non-specificity of asemic writing there comes a vacuum of meaning, which is left for the reader to fill in and interpret.

So basically you scribble and try to make it look like letters without making letters. I took inspiration from my husband's signature and my 2 year old grandson Noah's writings.
It was harder to do than I thought. I think next time I do it I will need to vary the length of my fake words. throw in a couple of shorter ones. 

'

One thing I learned is, don't try to sand the embossed areas until you are sure that you are done with the print. I thought I was done and had sanded the heart but then felt like the background needed a little bit more. I thought I could just sand the heart some more, but I was wrong. It left too much of the paint on the heart. I am sharing this photo to show you what not to do, but as I look at it on my computer, I am thinking that even thought it wasn't the look I was going for, I am sure I can use it somehow, So it will go into my pile of stuff to be "reworked".

If you want to add this fun stencil to your crafty stash, you can use the following discount code to get 20% off your order.  I hope you have a great time creating art.

Gel plate image transfer card using Unity ALLOW YOURSELF

Thinking of fall has me thinking of butterflies. I see more butterflies this time of year than any other. 

I decided to make a gel plate image transfer using Unity's ALLOW YOURSELF butterfly.

Here you can see I stamped it right onto my gel plate. I used black stazon ink. (Don't pay too much attention to the left over paint around it. I don't clean my plate because I like the little surprises of paint that come on subsequent prints.)

 I made sure that the ink was dry before I started the next part. I used a paint brush and acrylic paint to paint the butterfly. Notice I wasn't really careful with the painting. This is a backwards layer so it doesn't really matter as long as I stayed within the "main" butterfly image. Not having to be really specific gives it a more artistic look and is super easy and quick to do. The hard part is waiting for this paint layer to dry before going to the next step.

Today's SCS color challenge CC756 was these three colors:

I tried to match those colors as close as possible to make the background.

After I put down those colors I brayered over the whole plate covering up the butterfly and put my cardstock down to pull a print.

Here is how it looked when I pulled the print.

I added some details with a white gel pen and matted it with black cardstock and mounted on a kraft card.

Bible journaling Luke 13:34

The technique lovers challenge on SCS TLC759 is to pick a way to color an image, especially one that you don't use as your "go to" coloring. I decided to take paper piecing to extreme. I drew this chicken in my journaling bible with a pencil.

I had a pile of "trash" prints from my gel plate. They were done on typing paper and were not prints that I could really see using. I freehand cut the feathers for my chicken from these prints.

I slowly freehand cut, eyeballing the paper to "color" my chicken. I started with the beak. I then did te tail feathers then the legs, then the body and then head,

This is how my chicken looked when I had all the papers glued down.  

 I erased the few pencil marks that were showing. I then outlined and added feathers with a black sharpie marker and a white gel pen. I used colored pencils to add grass. Then I watercolored the top and bottom. It has a little bit of warping because of the watercoloring. I am not worried though because it is in my bible and when closed it will add pressure that will eventually flatten it out.

Day 2- Masking -birgitkoopsengelprintingchallenge

There is a gel printing challenge this month. Day 2 of Birgit Koopsen's Gel Printing Challenge - 

#birgitkoopsengelprintingchallenge

is to use masks. I made 3 prints for this challenge. I used ARTplorations Bloomdala Bliss #9 mask

For the next print I used ARTplorations Bloomdala Bliss #9

and 

ARTplorations Shower of Flutters

My last print did not turn out how I imagined it would. 

I used the same two masks, Bloomdala Bliss #9 and Shower of Flutters that I did on the second print. 

This is how it looked on the gel plate. 

I was excited because I thought "Oh this print is going to be really good"

It was an exercise in patience because it seemed that it took forever for it to dry so I could add a layer of white to lift off the paint. 

Well this is how it looked when I pulled it off the plate. What I had been unable to see was that the butterfly mask had shifted leaving a shadow print. I was kinda disappointed.

 So on to my #1 rule of creating... if I don't like it, it isn't finished. I outlined the butterflies and doodled. I stamped flowers and music notes. I painted a thin layer of white on the flowers. 

I also stamped little hearts and the sentiment "love". I also splattered white, light and dark blue and purple paint.

 STAMPlorations Frames and Flowers

STAMPlorations In Bloom Dog Roses

The music notes are from a retired STAMPlorations set called Mini Mixed Media Background. 

Cupcake tag- mixed media

STAMPlorations is sponsoring this week's

 CUPCAKE INSPIRATION CHALLENGE 477. 

I used STAMPlorations

 Cupcake Builder # 2 Die

Tags #1 Nesting Dies

and 

ARTplorations Prisms Stencil

 

 I decorated my cupcake to look like the cupcakes on the bottom of the photo. I had a lot of fun painting the cardstock and adding dots with a white gel pen. The background was made using the stencil and a gel plate.

If you would like to get these dies or stencil or any number of wonderful products at STAMPlorations you can use my code to get 20% off your order.