Spring is in the Air

I thought I should make a card and pop it on my blog, before I am forgotten! I'm working on trying to get more balance in my life and create at least one or 2 days a week. Now I just need to find my Mojo!

This card is inspired by an earlier card I made, which you can see here. I was asked to make 3 cards, the same as the original, but I didn't have any of the designer paper left, so I did a watercolour background using distress inks and Gansai Tambi paints. On this card, I decided to add a bird, rather than a flower.

The bird imaged is from Inspired by Stamping and  I've coloured on the back of the fussy cut bird with Copic markers.
The embossed background is one of my new favourites. 

I am entering this in the Simon Monday Challenge - the theme is Throwback - we are challenged  to choose a previous challenge! I chose a theme from July this year - No Ordinary Paper. I love stamping and colouring on vellum.

Mixed Media Card Challenge - Orange & Black

Hello strangers! Well I'm back from my Italian sojourn and have lots of wonderful memories.  I can definitely recommend getting an apartment and living like the locals - next time I'll stay for longer and maybe it will be a villa!

Now on to my card. The theme this month at the Mixed Media Card Challenge is 'Orange & Black' - perfect for Fall and Halloween. The optional element is glitter.

I decided to use some of my new WPlus9 stamps - Autumn Leaves and a NBUS die for the black butterfly. The sentiment is also new - it's from Inspired by Stamping, an Australian company.
Now when you look at this, you might not think it is Mixed Media, but I've used dye ink, and Memento Luxe (orange) and the outlines have been embossed with metallic embossing powder. I've also added some splatter with the memento luxe ink and perfect pearls and added Wink of Stella to the butterflies.  So although it doesn't look very artsy, it still fits the criteria*.
I really love Memento Luxe ink, because it is thick and when it dries it feels like paint!
I have included shimmer as opposed to glitter, by adding the perfect pearls and Wink of Stellar.

You still have lots of time to join in the challenge - the deadline is 25 October. Click here to add your card to the gallery.

I'm also adding my card to the Fusion Card Challenge, inspired by the colours in the photo.

*WHAT'S A MIXED MEDIA CARD?

Straight up, a mixed media card is a card that is created using a variety of mediums.

For this card challenge blog*, it means using any of the following in addition to the usual stamps and inks:

• Mediums that add texture. Some examples: fabric, stitching, embossing paste, texture gel, gel medium, modeling paste, gesso, textured paper, glitter, found objects
• Mediums that give dimension. Some examples: die-cuts, chipboard, embossing powders, epoxy/thick stickers, embellishments, found objects
• Mediums that allow you to use (and even combine) different techniques. Some examples: watercolor, pastels, alcohol inks, markers, chalks, acrylic paints, oils, crayons

Mixed Media Card Challenge Reminder

Hello there. We had a dreary, cold start to the day, but the sun is now shining, so I was inspired to make another spring themed card. Yes, for my Northern Hemisphere visitors, I live in Australia, so it's spring down here!

This card also serves as a reminder for the Mixed Media Card Challenge, which has an easy theme this month - FRIENDSHIP - and an option to include ribbon, which I only remembered when I was taking my photo!!!

This is the process I followed:-
1/ Used a Stamplorations stencil and distress ink to sponge the green border on the left of card.
2/ Stamped the vintage script
3/stamped the flowers and the bird using distress markers
4/Used a brush, water and markers to colour the images
5/Die cut butterflies and coloured with distress ink and wink of stellar for shimmer.
6/Die cut a branch to make a stencil and then using distress markers, brush and water added the branch
7/ Machine stitched a border and added sentiment
8/mounted the watercolour panel to a base card of shimmer blue card stock
9/added some crackle paint to the bird

Well I hope you like my card, which will be heading off to a special friend!

The Mixed Media Card Challenge goes through to 25 September,so you have plenty of time to join in the fun

I am also entering this in the Simon Monday Challenge, Trio of colors and the Simon Wednesday Challenge, Make it Colorful

Welcome Baby

I have a very quick post today to say congrats to the gorgeous Shery of STAMPlorations fame, who has just given birth to a darling little girl! I am so happy for her and her family!

The gang at STAMPlorations are having a surprise bloghop to send their love to Shery.
Anyone can join in, so go and check it out.

Vintage Flowers

Hello there. I have a quick post today to share a card I made for fun. I wanted to try out Altenew's new inks and I hadn't yet used their Vintage Flower stamps - this is the result ...

I found the pink bloom much easier to stamp. The yellow/orange inks didn't  look so good at first, but it's amazing how after a while the ink settles in and they seem to almost blend. I used M.I.S.T.I. to stamp this and I must say I'm in love with this tool!
I wanted the card to look 'vintage-y' (is that a word?) , so I added the ornate corners from Kaisercraft and the sentiment from Wplus9.

I'm entering this card in the Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge - the theme is masking.

Another Mixed Media Butterfly

Hi there. It's a glorious sunny day in Melbourne and Spring is in the air after a long cold winter, so I thought I'd share a Spring-like card today.

This is also a reminder for the Mixed Media Card Challenge - you still have a few days to enter the challenge. This month the theme is ** Butterflies **, with the option to include gold in your card.

To begin I embossed the panel and then stamped the background, masking off the edges. Then I added a few splatters of ink.
I decided to use some of my beautiful Japanese paper for the die-cut butterfly and some gold cord knotted for the butterfly's body. The leaves have some shimmer added with Wink of Stellar.

You should pop over to the Mixed Card Card Challenge to get more inspiration from the team and you have until 25 August to enter the challenge here
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Playing with the Damsel of Distressed Cards

Well hello there friends! I've been missing again, but today I'm so excited to be back with a very special post.

One of my all time favourite blogs to visit is The Damsel of Distressed Cards - the creation of Becca Cruger. Becca's cards are always so bright, artsy and totally amazing and reading her posts never fails to put a smile on my face! Not only that, but Becca is so supportive and leaves the best comments on other people's blogs!

Bec has a great post once a month called Featured Friday in which she highlights another crafty blogger who is a huge inspiration to her. Well imagine my surprise when I got a message from her asking if I would be the featured blogger this month!  I really mean it, when I say I'm honoured, because she has featured some incredibly talented crafters!

Anyhow, as part of the feature, Becca has chosen one of mty card's to CASE and I have also CASEd it. Here is the original and the new card.

I have chosen to make my card more CAS, by having a white panel, but adding some texture with the dry embossing.
I used distress markers, applied directly to the stamp, spritzed with a little bit of water and then stamped. When they were dry, I fussy cut them. I love using vellum in this way, because it looks so 'dreamy'.
I used the same colours to dye the seam binding, which ties in with the original card.
I thought the stripes suited the CAS look.

Well I'd like to give a huge thanks to the gorgeous Becca for the shout out - it really has inspired me to get back in to card-making after a very long time without my crafty Mojo!