Acrylic paint, water and cling wrap.

Hi everyone, this colour has come out a blue ish violet in the photo, yet I used dioxazine purple acrylic, which is very purple in real life!

I wanted to play along with a few challenges so thought I'd try and combine them.

The theme at Less is More is purples.

I've used purple acrylic paint and mixed it with water on some watercolour paper, skooshed  a tiny spray of perfect pearls and then covered it with cling wrap and moved and pressed the cling wrap around to create this texture.

When dry, I stamped silver delicata ink onto the hearts with the Craquelure stamp. It doesn't show up much in the pic so here's a closer look. I just wanted a hint of silver veining.

The theme at CAS Mix Up Card Challenge is to use cling wrap and stamping. My other techniques are diecutting the hearts and wet and dry embossing. Loll, Bonnie and the team have some fabulous video tutorials on the blog. I hadn't had much luck with brushos and inks so I watched the acrylic paint video, loved it! I've got a blue sheet done and am planning a pinky red one too!

At Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, it's add a sentiment. Not quite Valentine's day yet but it's never too early to spread some love around lol!

At AAA Cards it's the start of something new.This cling wrap technique was a new one for me.

At Stamplorations CAS challenge it's anything goes with the option of using silver.

Supplies:

Mpress heart dies; Liquitex dioxazine purple (quite a mouthful!); perfect pearls spray; delicata silver ink; Impression Obsession craquelure stamp; Mama Elephant Everyday Greetings stamp; versafine ink, clear ep and Stately embossing folder.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

ATC with crackle paste.

Hi everyone, I've made a few cards during my holidays but haven't had a chance to upload them as yet!

This is my first ever ATC and I've used it as a trial for some new toys!

I cut a piece of heavy cardstock to 3.5 x 2.5 inches, then spread the crackle embossing paste through the  VI Fibres stencil.  I let it air dry, then sprinkled on some sage green and golden sand infusions powder and spritzed with water.

To add colour to the crackle paste I painted on some raw umber and patina antiquing cream. When that was dry I wiped some of it off with a damp paper towel.

Next I distressed the edges with vintage photo distress ink and gave that a spritz of water too. I should've used watercolour paper as this poor cardstock has been dried so much I was worried it wouldn't straighten out! Adding a couple of mat layers helped to sort that, although it added a little bit to the size of the card.

The butterfly was fussy cut and coloured with prismacolour pencils.

I'm linking up to the challenge at PaperArtsy, where the theme for January is ATCs.

At Take it Make It Craft Stamper Challenge, it's anything goes as long as you include stamping.

Edited to add: thought I'd put a copy of the cover here too, as my ATC won and was published!

I used a snippet of kraft card and turquoise card as my mats so I'm also linking up to the snippets playground at Pixie's Crafty Workshop.

Edited to add: I'm also linking up to a new to me mixed media challenge at

 The Mixed Media monthly Challenge where the theme is ring in the new. My antiquing cream, crackle paste and stencil were all new toys.

Supplies:

Visible Image fibres stencil; Ranger opaque crackle paste; PaperArtsy infusions; Deco Art antiquing cream; Stampin Up Best of butterflies stamp; Prismacolour pencils; Technique Tuesday sentiment stamp Take Flight; versafine ink & clear ep.; Sharpie white paint pen.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Acrylic pouring leftovers on yupo paper!

Hi everyone, I've been playing with a new to me technique called acrylic pouring.

I mixed acrylic paints with floetrol, silicone and water and did a flip cup dirty pour!

Sounds bad but it is so good lol!

I poured on a couple of 4x4 inch canvas boards. I'll show these another time.

Lots of paint drips off the canvases and not wanting to waste it I dipped some strips of yupo paper into it.

I almost liked doing this more than the canvas pour!

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is something new.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, where it's also something new.

Seize the Birthday where it's anything goes.

Stamplorations CAS challenge where it's anything goes CAS with the optional colour of silver.

I've used a silver sentiment sticker, if that counts.

and Just Us Girls where it's anything goes.

Supplies:

Acrylic paints; Floetrol paint conditioner; coconut hair oil (silicon); yupo paper; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Happy New Year! Here's to mixed media.

Happy New Year! 

I hope 2018 is a great year for everyone and that you find time to do more of what you love, creatively and otherwise! 

This card uses a mixture of old and new things from my stash. 

The stamp set is one of the first I ever bought, from Lucy Stamps. The newbie is Neocolor II watercolour pastels. I used them to colour the daisies and as a colour wash on the base. I decided I wanted more colour so added some jade infusions and spritzed on some water.

I used a technique I saw on Carole Dion's blog. She used a silicone brush to spread nuance crystals once they were spritzed, so that the colour was a bit more controlled. 

My base was gessoed and painted with Neocolors so I had to be careful not to add too much water. Once I sprinkled on the infusions and spritzed a little water I brushed the colour up from the bottom.

(Carole has some video tutorials that are fantastic, you need to scroll down on the left hand side and find videos in her labels.)

I love how the ripped cardboard gives so much texture and lets the colour settle in pools!

The edges are distressed with a touch of vintage photo distress ink.

I'm linking up to the anything goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday,

and to the party challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday.

 A birthday is a great excuse to party!

I used a scrap of black and kraft card to layer under the cardboard panel, just to tie in the black and brown on the card, so I'm also visiting the snippets playground at Pixie's Crafty Workshop, you only need 1 scrap or snippet to join in.

I'm also linking up to the watercolour challenge at Happy Little Stampers. There's loads of gorgeous watercolour inspiration from the DT to have a look at too.

Supplies:

Lucy Stamps daisy; versafine ink & clear ep, Neocolor II watercolour pastels; PaperArtsy a bit jaded infusions;Art Basics silicone brush; vintage photo distress ink; distressed stripes embossing folder; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy