Crafts Galore Encore July 2023

June proved to be a very busy month with trips away and making the most of the beautiful summer weather with local activities. I'm hoping July's weather will be equally as nice and I'll be looking for outdoor things to keep us amused.

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:

Beccy's Place

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

I have made an A5 card to show you.

I used one of the free images available on Beccy's Place Blog. The image comes with a free paper which I did not use.

I layered an A4 piece of black card with a beautiful paper from G45 Elegance 12" papers.

I used the Peonies in Vase image and printed it out 3 times. I coloured the images with my Copics and cut two of the flowers and some of the leaves so I could decoupage them with foam pads.

I printed the base image with a Happy Birthday sentiment. I layered this onto black card and fixed it to the G45 paper and black card before adding the decoupaged elements. I wrapped a silk ribbon across the card front and fixed the black card onto the A5 card blank.

I finished the card with some pink gems and flowers.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog where you can see the wonderful projects and cards created by our talented team using Beccy's Place 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://beccyschallenges.blogspot.com/2023/07/july-challenge.html

https://creativefingerschallengeblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/challenge-258.html

https://classicdesignchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/07/classic-design-challenge-july-7.html

Creative Artiste #94 June 2023

  ....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.

This is a 12" x 9" (30 x 23cm) canvas board.

I think everyone knows I love turquoise and teal, but here I've used darker greens than I normally work with to create this canvas. I love the rich results with the gold highlights.

I started by using texture paste through stencil #45 from Aall & Create randomly all over the canvas. I then painted it all with black gesso.

To add some extra dimension to the elements I arranged some black straws on the canvas, cutting them to fit and fixing in place with soft matt gel.

I made the cogs and clock from resin using Prima moulds. I used Mecha Moth, Clock Faces, and Machine Parts. I arranged the resin elements I'd made across the canvas and glued them with Heavy Body Gel.

I filled in some of the spaces with Prima Artstones and Mini Artstones mixed with Soft Matt Gel. I then covered everything with black gesso.

I dabbed Prima Art Alchemy acrylic metallic paints Mermaid Teal and Emerald Green over the elements and canvas and used water to spread and blend the paints.

I applied Prima Metallic Emerald Wax, Prima Opal Magic Turquoise Satin Wax and Pebeo Empire Gold Gilding wax with stiff brushes to the elements and across areas of the canvas.

To finish, I darkened some areas of the arrangement with watered black gesso and buffed the wax highlights.

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 

June challenge. 

I have entered this project in the following challenges:

https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/05/miucb-65-anything-goes-optional.html x

https://lovetocraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2023/05/ltccb-74-anything-goes-ltccb-73-winner.html Top Pick

https://lovetoscrapchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2023/05/ltscb-161-anything-goes-ltscb-160.html x

https://aperfecttimetocraft.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-perfect-time-to-craft-open-challenge.html

https://classicdesignchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/06/classic-design-challenge-june-6.html x

https://welove2create.blogspot.com/2023/05/challenge-5-craft-card-making.html

Crafts Galore Encore June 2023

 It's the 1st of June and it feels like summer has finally arrived. The children have been off school this week and we have been making the most of the gorgeous weather with day trips and garden play. Another nice weekend is on the horizon with a few treats planned.

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:

Polkadoodles

who are offering 3 single digi stamps for our lucky winner.

I have made two 6" (15cm) cards using the same cute digi set.

The cards are both from the same Digi Deal set called Bob The Dog in a Boat. This Digi Deal set comes with a black and white and a pre-coloured image. Plus six papers, a sentiment and cutting files.

This is, what I call, a Z-fold card. The base is a 6" (15cm) card blank. It's a great fold to use multiple papers without crowding the card. All the matting layers are from a mottled pale blue card I've had for years.

I printed and cut three of the papers to fit the card panels. I used the lower part of one of the papers for the Z-band and created the Happy Birthday sentiment on the computer.

I have used the pre-coloured image and matted it onto a scalloped base. I printed the blue sentiment and matted that too before fixing it onto the image.

I die-cut an anchor and the swim ring as embellishments to finish the card.

For the second card I printed the PNG outline image onto one of the papers and coloured it with my Copics. I printed another of the papers for the backing layer. All the matting layers are a red Papermania card.

I used my Copics to colour the Bob the Dog in a Boat image in similar colours to the pre-coloured version. I created and printed the Happy Birthday sentiment on the computer and cut it into a banner.

I layered the blue and the black versions of the sentiment and added them to the corner of the image before printing. I die-cut another swim ring and coloured that to match the image 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 Polkadoodles 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://classicdesignchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/06/classic-design-challenge-june-6.html x

https://morgansartworld.blogspot.com/2023/06/morgans-artworld-challenge-6.html

https://aperfecttimetocraft.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-perfect-time-to-craft-open-challenge.html

https://2craftycrittercrazies.blogspot.com/2023/06/challenge-75-anything-goes-with.html x

https://craftyanimals.blogspot.com/2023/06/challenge-73.html x

Creative Artiste #93 May 2023

 Another Bank Holiday weekend in Britain! This time for the King's Coronation. It gives us another chance for a family visit and celebration. It's certainly been a wonderful Spring so far with all the family gatherings we are able to have. They might have seriously cut into my crafting time but I do love being able to spend quality time with my family.

So, before the weekend starts ....

 ....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 have made a set of four mixed media cards this month. I can leave them like this or add a sentiment to them when I decide to use them.

It's a lot of fun - and very messy - making mixed media cards so I like to make a few of them at a time. That way I can stick to using the same mediums and similar products for every stage.

I started these cards by blending DecoArt Fluid Acrylics Cobalt Turquoise Hue and Prussian Blue Hue with water on 6" (15cm) squares of mixed media card. Once dried I used a 3rd generation stamp technique randomly on the card squares with some Aall & Create stamps.

I then used texture paste through some Aall & Create stencils on each piece and added some more colour by spattering Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink. I also splattered the squares with black and white Posca pens.

I coloured some stamped flowers firstly with watered Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink then with Broken China Distress Oxide and water and cut them out. I added touches of  White Posca pen to details on each flower and edged each one with black pen.

I stamped some words and cut them out. They were coloured with watered Distress Oxide Faded Jeans and then Distress Ink Mermaid Lagoon with water. I ran a black pen around the edges to add definition.

I assembled the card fronts with some painted Tando Creative greyboard pieces and added some cheesecloth twists I'd tied with strips of turquoise lace. Then the flowers and words were fixed in place using a combination of foam pads and Soft Matt Gel.

I coloured four card blank edges with Faded Jeans Distress Oxide, randomly added stamping and black Posca splats before fixing the Mixed Media panels in place with Soft Matt Gel.

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 wonderful mixed media projects created by our multi talented team.
Remember to have fun crafting and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in our 

May challenge. 

I have entered this card set in the following challenges:

https://lovetoscrapchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2023/05/ltscb-161-anything-goes-ltscb-160.html x

https://lovetocraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2023/05/ltccb-74-anything-goes-ltccb-73-winner.html x

https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/05/miucb-65-anything-goes-optional.html Top Pick

Crafts Galore Encore May 2023

I am happy to say that the second wedding went very well. Everyone had a fabulous day and we are very proud of the lovely newlywed couple. The girls were all adorable and very well behaved - even the adult ones! Now we have school celebrations, a family visit and the King's Coronation to look forward to.

But before that .....

.... 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:

Last Minute Manda

who are offering a prize of 3 stamp sets for our lucky winner.

The design team were offered the choice of two digi sets and I chose these cute bears. There are six bear images in this set called Little Beach Bears. The digis come in Outline,  Jpeg and Png formats.

I have made a couple of cards using five of the images and stuck to cheerful primary colours for both cards.

This is a 6"x 6" (15cm x 15cm) card. The base layer is plain navy blue Papermania card. I used a textured yellow Papermania card to create the mats and three stripes.

 Here I have used two of the bear images. The one on the left has a sandcastle and lighthouse. Because I used the Png format digis I was able to add the second bear image in the front. I wanted to keep to primary colours for the picture and used my Copics to colour it in.

This card is 8"x 6" (20cm x 15cm). I used a plain red Papermania card as the base and the navy blue card for the mats and stripes. I created the sentiments for both cards on the computer.

This time I used three of the cute bears in the Png format so I could layer them up to form one picture. Again, I coloured the bears in with my Copics. I finished this card with a starfish embellishment and finished both cards with some blue gems.

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

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