Easter Bliss

Sunday 23 July 2017

Oxide Dragonflies

Sorry I haven't been around much over the past couple of weeks. I've been busy with demos, classes, commissions and DT work. I did however find time to finally have a play with the Distress Oxides I purchased from Artist Trading Post. These are the results of my first playtime.

Both of these projects are mixed media card fixed to an 8"x 8" (20 cm x 20 cm) canvas board. The Distress Oxide backgrounds were created by dipping and lifting the mixed media card in puddles of Oxide ink and water on my craft mat. I dipped each colour separately and dried in between.

I used Worn Lipstick, Broken China, Vintage Photo and Cracked Pistachio to colour this background, die-cut doily and cheesecloth.

The dragonfly was die-cut using the Tim Holtz Sizzix die in pearlescent card. It was dipped in Cracked Pistachio, Worn Lipstick and Vintage Photo Oxide inks.  There is a beautiful sheen to it in real life. 

Once the ink layers were dry I stamped some text, added texture paste through a Prima stencil and some bamboo sticks. The added textures were coloured using Oxides mixed with water and painted on like a watercolour. I then added some white micro beads.

For this background and dragonfly I used Vintage Photo, Spiced Marmalade and Cracked Pistachio DOs.

This dragonfly was die cut from plain white card and dipped in watered Oxides. Prima Artstones and cheese cloth were coloured with the Oxides as a watercolour.

The panels were finished with glass pebbles from my stash.

Both canvas boards were painted with dark brown acrylic and then a layer of DecoArt's Weathered Wood. Once dry I added the top coat of acrylic paint and watched them crackle. The card panels were then glued onto the canvases with soft matt gel.
I love the way the Oxides react with each other and on different surfaces. The soft, chalky look on plain card is my favourite. It's so tactile. Have you got any Oxides? What do you think of them? I still have a couple of colours I haven't tried yet, I'll have to make time for another play....

Friday 7 July 2017

Creative Artiste #28 July 2017

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to my July post for 

Creative Artiste

We are a 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 Challenge #27 in June. Your projects were wonderful and our winner has been announced on the blog. 

Our theme is always
"Anything Mixed Media Goes"

This month we are being sponsored by:
    

The lovely Sofie very generously sent the team some some of her Scrapmatts products to play with. I've used some on this journal page.


The base is mixed media card cut to 5" x 8" (13cm x 20cm). I first used texture paste through the Bubbles stencil. When that was dry I stamped some circles randomly using black Archival ink.


I then added patches of colour using Lindy's Magicals in blue and turquoise tones and added some blue ink splashes. I chopped up and coloured some Bubbles chipboard and added that to the page.


I created a panel with the Bubbles stencil and Lindy's Magicals and edged it in blue before fixing it to the page.


I printed off a butterfly in blue and added some Scrap Words to finish.

This is a month long challenge so you have time to create mixed media projects and enter up to three times. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog. For more inspiration please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the wonderful mixed media projects created by our talented team.  Remember to have fun and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in the challenge.
I hope you all have a nice weekend planned. 

I've entered this project into the following challenges:

Saturday 1 July 2017

Crafts Galore Encore July 2017

Hello everybody. Today I have a card in a popular colourway. Red, white and blue are the colours of the flags for three of the countries I have lived in and still have family in. Can you guess which counties they are?

I have made this card for our July challenge on the  
Thank you to everyone who joined in with June's challenge. The winners are on the challenge blog's 'winner's page'. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. A full list of rules are on the challenge blog.

Our theme every month is the popular
"Anything Goes"

Our sponsor this month is:
OddballArtCo
who are offering 3 digis from their Etsy store to the winner.

My card is 7"x 7" (18cm x 18cm).

I started by adding red and blue DecoArt sprays to a white piece of card and matting it onto blue card before fixing it to my card blank.

I chose to work with an old Oddball Art image I had. The actual image is called Chloe and has been revamped so the current version has different hair. I coloured her in with my Copics and fussy cut her out before adding to my card front with foam pads.

I used a Memory Box die to cut the heart border from card I'd sprayed red and matted it onto blue card. I added some of the cut out hearts around the image and finished off with a seam binding bow I'd dyed red.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog to see the wonderful projects and cards created by the rest of the talented team and to enter your "Anything Goes" creations.
BTW, the three countries are England, France and the USA. Were you right?

I've entered this project into the following challenges:
http://cutitupchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/challenge-125-patriotic-red-white-and.html Winner!
http://creataliciouschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/challenge-118-anything-goes-with.html x
https://oddballstamps.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/oddball-art-challenge-june-17-spread.html x