Creative Artiste #111 December 2024

  ....Welcome to a new challenge at

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a monthly challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. So, as long as you like to use various mediums on your creations, we'd love to see you enter the challenge.

A big Thank You to everyone who entered the challenge last month. Your projects were all wonderful and our winners have been announced on the blog.

Our theme is always
"Anything Mixed Media Goes"
We have opportunities to be a Guest Designer for all our winners.

I've made a festive wreath to show you.

The base of the wreath is a 7.5" (19cm) wooden embroidery hoop. I made all the snowflakes using a Stamperia snowflake mould with Hearty Soft Paper clay.

I prepped all the pieces before assembling the wreath.

I first gave the hoop and the snowflakes a coat of white gesso. Once dry I diluted some DecoArt Prussian Blue Fluid Acrylic with plenty of water and painted the hoop and snowflakes. 

The next step was to cover the hoop with DecoArt Crackle Paste and let it dry.

I then wrapped a battery powered string of little lights around the hoop.

Finally, I painted the snowflakes with DecoArt Glamour Dust and sprinkled them with a fine white glitter while they were still wet so the glitter would stick. I added some silver Tim Holtz metallic droplets to the centres of the snowflakes.

I arranged the snowflakes around the hoop and glued them in place with Heavy Body Gel, overlapping them to cover the hoop and lights.

I arranged some plastic pine branches, some mini pine cones and a few little metal bells on one side of the hoop and fixed them with Heavy Body Gel. I tied a bow with wide white ribbon and added some more of the branches, bells and a cone to cover where the battery pack for the lights is attached.

I finished by tying a ribbon onto the hoop to be able to hang it up. 

The wreath looks so pretty when it's lit up from the back.

Now it's your turn to have fun and create your mixed media projects. You can enter our challenge as many times as you like. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog. For more inspiration please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the fabulous mixed media projects created by our multi talented team.
Remember to have fun crafting and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in our 

December challenge. 

It remains for me to wish a fun festive season to you all, however you celebrate!

I have entered this project in the following challenges:

Crafts Galore Encore December 2024

 December at last! And Christmas is just around the corner. This has been another difficult year for our family as we have lost two wonderful, and treasured, family members. Although they were somewhat elderly, dementia took them sooner than they deserved. Christmas will be a time of reflection and enjoying fond memories as our shrinking family comes together to celebrate.

Plus, we have a lovely event to look forward to next spring!

But, my personal sadness doesn't mean that I can't enjoy some of the fun annual Christmas traditions, starting with making festive cards ....

.... Today sees the start of the December challenge at

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog. 

Thank you to everyone who joined in with last month's challenge. The winner and DT favourites have been announced on the challenge blog. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. There is a full list of rules on the challenge blog.

Our theme every month is the popular

"Anything Goes"

and our sponsor this month is:

Gecko Galz

who are offering a generous $25 voucher for their online store for our lucky winner.

I used some of the Gecko Galz papers and collage images to create my first set of Christmas cards for this year.

The cards are all 6"x 6" (15 x 15cm). 

I used Christmas Haberdashery collage set for the focal point images on these cards. I isolated the individual images in a photo editing program and printed them on white card. I then cut out the images and matted them on green card from Limetree Craft. 

I used the lovely red papers from the Night Before Christmas ATC set and matted them on the green card and red card, also from Limetree Craft. I used papers from Merry Little Christmas ATC sheet to make the card top left.

I also used the green card for the die-cut sentiments and punched holly border.

I added festive bows, ribbon and cut doileys to complete my designs.

For these cards I used two gloriously vintage papers from Merry Little Christmas ATC Sheet with the  red patterned papers from Night Before Christmas ATC set. The papers have beautiful Victorian type baubles which I cut out and mounted on foam pads on the cards. I matted the papers on gold mirri card and finished the baubles with festive bows.

The gorgeous vintage sentiment is also from the Merry Little Christmas ATC sheet.

Although all the papers are from ATC sets, they do print out much larger with no loss of definition.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog where you can see the wonderful projects and cards created by our talented team using Gecko Galz products.

Grab some inspiration while you're there and enter your "Anything Goes" creations in this month's challenge.

I have entered this set of cards in the following challenges:

Creative Artiste #110 November 2024

  This is my second post for today. Scroll down to see my Cards Galore Encore post.

....Welcome to a new challenge at

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a monthly challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. So, as long as you like to use various mediums on your creations, we'd love to see you enter the challenge.

A big Thank You to everyone who entered the challenge last month. Your projects were all fabulous and our winners have been announced on the blog.

Our theme is always
"Anything Mixed Media Goes"
We have opportunities to be a Guest Designer for all our winners.

I joined a mixed media craft group on Facebook earlier this year. The group is run by Anna Hersom and involves creating fabulous craft projects with different mediums. The classes come with all the elements and mediums needed to complete the projects.

The substrate is a thick MDF board that measures 12" x 5.5" (30 x 14 cm)

I started by giving it a coat of white gesso before adding texture paste through a stencil.

Once dry I assembled all the resin elements and fixed them in place with Heavy Body Gel. I then sealed everything with a coat of white gesso.  I swapped some of the elements provided with the class and added the butterflies.

The next step was to add some colour. This was done by adding some brown pigment powder and spreading it with a brush and water. I then added the second colour. This time it was a turquoise pigment powder that I spread with a brush and water. 

I then added some more brown pigment to blend the colours better and add shadows.

I dry brushed some white gesso over certain areas to lighten them and finished the project with some gold Pebeo Gilding Wax.

I love this project and it is one of my favourite creations of all time.

I call it "The Secret of Time".

Now it's your turn to have fun and create your mixed media projects. You can enter our challenge as many times as you like. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog. For more inspiration please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the fabulous mixed media projects created by our multi talented team.
Remember to have fun crafting and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in our 

November challenge. 

I have entered this project in the following challenges:

https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/11/miucb-74-anything-goes-optional-paper.html

https://lovetocraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/ltccb-83-anything-goes-ltccb-82-winner.html

Crafts Galore Encore November 2024

The temperatures have taken a nose dive, the trees are losing their leaves and the clocks have gone back. It's definitely Autumn now. Time to put the heating on and start thinking of indoor activities. Like Christmas crafting.

Meanwhile .....

.... there is a new challenge starting today at

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog. 

Thank you to everyone who joined in with last month's challenge. The winners have been announced on the challenge blog. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. There is a full list of rules on the challenge blog.

Our theme every month is the popular

"Anything Goes"

and our sponsor this month is:

Fred She Said

who are offering a $10 store voucher to our lucky winner.

Even though it's only November, I thought I'd make a start on my Christmas cards and what better image to use than this cute penguin?

I decided to make the card look like a snow globe. I used a circle die to draw the shape on a 6" (15cm) card blank and a piece of gold card. I fixed the gold card in place and trimmed the card blank behind it.

I printed out the coloured version of the Dancing Penguin with the background. I die cut it before inking the edge in blue using a Copic pen and fixing it to the card blank. The image comes with a great selection of line digis and coloured versions of the cute penguin, with and without the background. 

I printed the sentiment on my computer and die cut some holly leaves and berries to finish the card.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog where you can see the wonderful projects and cards created by our talented team using Fred She Said images.

Grab some inspiration while you're there and enter your "Anything Goes" creations in this month's challenge.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

https://aperfecttimetocraft.blogspot.com/2024/11/a-perfect-time-to-craft-open-challenge.html

https://2craftycrittercrazies.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-92-anything-goes-with.html

https://craftyanimals.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-89.html

https://morgansartworld.blogspot.com/2024/11/morgans-artworld-challenge-82.html

Creative Artiste #109 October 2024

  ....Welcome to a new challenge at

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a monthly challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. So, as long as you like to use various mediums on your creations, we'd love to see you enter the challenge.

A big Thank You to everyone who entered the challenge last month. Your projects were all wonderful and our winners have been announced on the blog.

Our theme is always
"Anything Mixed Media Goes"
We have opportunities to be a Guest Designer for all our winners.

Whilst having a clear out recently I came across this wooden unicorn head. One side of it had been decorated with inks by the little princess. I decided to commandeer the unicorn so I could paint and embellish the other side.

1. I started by painting the head with white gesso and sticking down some resin cogs and domes with Prima's Heavy Body Gel. The cogs are mostly from Prima's Machine Parts mould.

2. I gave the cogs a coat of white gesso and then added watered down DecoArt Prussian Blue Hue fluid acrylic to the wood with a brush. I sprayed more water to spread and lighten the colour in some areas. I added the paint to the sides of the head. Then I dried the paint to fix it.

3. I next added watered down DecoArt Cobalt Turquoise Hue fluid acrylic. I sprayed with more water and allowed it to run down the sides. I used the brush to help to blend it in and dried it to fix the colour.

4. I dry brushed the cogs with white acrylic paint to lighten them and make them look more uniform. I painted the unicorn's eye with black acrylic paint.

I dabbed a sticky glue onto random areas of the cogs and sprinkled them with IndigoBlu Royal Peacock gilding flakes and brushed off the excess. I also did the unicorn's horn.

I gave the flakes a good buffing to make it all shine.

Now it's your turn to have fun and create your mixed media projects. You can enter our challenge as many times as you like. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog. For more inspiration please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the fabulous mixed media projects created by our multi talented team.
Remember to have fun crafting and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in our 

October challenge. 

I have entered this project in the following challenges: