Sparkle and Shine

Today sees a new challenge at the Sweet Pea Stampers challenge blog and our theme this week is Sparkle and Shine. So I kind of went to town with the glitter and sparkle on my card... :)

 

I used one of the new digi stamps by Valarie Wade.. this one is called Planting Seeds:

 

 

Isn't she just adorable? I coloured her in with my Promarkers and then used my favourite Spellbinders die to cut her out. And then, in keeping with the theme, I added some lovely sparkle and shimmer to her wings with some Stickles, and a few touches of Stickles in the flowers in her hair too.

 

 

I used a 6x6 white card blank and turned it on its side to use it as a tentfold card and added a piece of fabulously glittery cardstock. I topped this with a panel of white cardstock, the bottom section of which I had embossed with a Stampin' Up! border embossing folder. Across the bottom of this panel I added a length of Tim Holtz rose ribbon which I had first dipped randomly into some Spun Sugar Distress Stain.

 

 

To finish off, I mounted my cut-out image onto the card front using foam pads and added a little dotted border around the centre panel using Waterfall Stickles.

 

 

Lots of lovely sparkle and shine on this card... now let's see what you can do! :) You've got two weeks to enter the challenge - just make a project that fits our challenge theme, post it to your blog and link up your entry at the Sweet Pea Stampers blog. You don't need to use a Sweet Pea Stamps image to enter, though obviously we love to see your Sweet Pea Stamps creations. There will be a randomly-drawn prize winner and also a further prize for the Design Team's favourite creation (which will be voted on by the DT from the entries using Sweet Pea Stamps images).

 

Can't wait to see what you create. :)

I'm entering this into a couple of challenges:
A Creative Romance - Pink
Alphabet Challenge - R for Roses
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Craftitude - Anything Goes/Things beginning with the letter S
Pattie's Creations - Ribbon
Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes
Stampin' For The Weekend - Anything Goes
Wags n Whiskers - Pink : Breast Cancer Awareness
 

 

For a Friend...

One of my crafty friends has been having a bit of a tough time lately so I wanted to send her a card to cheer her up... and I thought this sweet image by Regan Kubecek - one of Sweet Pea Stamps's newest artists - would be perfect:

I used the digi stamp version of Regan Kubecek's Angel Wings and coloured her with my Prismacolor pencils, with touches of white gel pen for accents:

These pencils give a lovely soft effect that I think works really well on this image. I went with pretty pale colours in pastel shades and teamed the image with soft pinks and creams for my card. I embossed a panel of white card using my Stampin' Up! Cloudy Day embossing folder and added lacy ribbons, a pearl flourish...

...lots of pretty flowers...

 

...and a computer-printed sentiment which I cut out using a Stampin' Up! Bitty Banners framelit die and inked with Spun Sugar Distress Ink.

Regan's beautiful stamps are available in both red rubber and digi stamp format from the Sweet Pea Stamps store.

WOYWW 227

Chaos. My life and my desk this week are chaos.

 

 

I have so much to get sorted this week that I feel like I am constantly running from one task to the next and never get any of them finished... or if I do get one finished, another two pop up to take its place! :lol:

 

I'm off on my yearly scrapbooking retreat this weekend. Heading off on Friday and coming back Sunday... so hubby has got Friday off work and will be looking after the kids all weekend.

 

I'm not packed. Not even remotely. Not even started to think about it. And I've not only got to pack the usual clothes etc for the weekend, I've also got to pack whatever craft supplies and equipment I want to take with me.

 

I've also agreed to teach a tutorial during the weekend on colouring with alcohol markers. So I'm busy trying to put that together too... including an reference sheet with in-progress photos. Hence the Promarkers and sheet on my desk in the photo. I've also been printing out image sheets for folks to colour in but - sod's law - my printer has chosen this exact moment to run out of black ink. And... to make things even better... the package of replacement ink cartridges for my printer that I bought ooooooh ages ago because they were on special offer and which has been sitting around in my craft room waiting until needed.... turns out to be not the correct cartridges for my printer! So now I have to 1) go out tomorrow and buy a refill cartridge and 2) track down my original order reference for those cartridges and work out if I ordered the wrong ones by mistake or if they sent me the wrong ones by mistake!

 

See what I mean about every task I complete (or, in this case, fail to complete) spawning two more tasks for the to do list?! Argh! :lol:

 

Thanks very much to everyone who commented on my WOYWW entry last week (I did manage to get around a few of you and reciprocate). I'm pleased to say that the painting that was in-progress last week is now finished. I managed to find time at the weekend (while the kids were "helping" daddy in the garden) to work on it and I have to say, considering this is only the second ever original painting I have ever done on canvas, I am really rather pleased with the result:

 

 

Now I just need a few more hours in the day (and possibly days in the week) so I can find time to paint as a hobby as well as papercraft, and draw, and make digi stamps, and teach myself to knit (that one's on hold at the moment), and write fiction.... too much inspiration, not enough time! :lol:

 

Thanks for stopping by... see ya next week when my desk will no doubt be buried under boxes/bags/piles of stash that I've not had time to unpack following the weekend. :)

It's finished!

As mentioned in last week's WOYWW post, I've recently gotten really into painting (something I've not really done a great deal of) and had started painting a canvas.

 

Well, I managed to find a bit of time this afternoon to get the paints out again and am pleased to say my canvas is finally finished:

 

 

I'm really rather pleased with this. I drew the image straight onto the stretched canvas and then painted it. I feel like I managed to get the shading right and managed to take my time with it and get some real detail into it - especially in the eye and lips, and the shading on the hair. I like the colours and the stylised imagery with the large eye.

 

 

 

For my first "proper" painting, I'm really happy with it. I think I might even hang it up on display in my home. :)

 

Love Is In The Air...

The challenge theme at One Stitch at a Time this week is Use a Digi and I've been working with Floppy Latte Design's cute little Elmer the Lovestruck Elephant digi stamp:

 

 

Isn't he adorable? :) I coloured him with my Promarkers and used a white gel pen for highlights.

 

 

I cut him out using one of my favourite dies and sponged some Distress Ink around the edges before removing the die. I covered my card with pretty patterned paper and an old doily that I'd previously used as a mask for misting, so it had turned a lovely soft blue colour.

 

 

I finished things off with some ribbon and a little cluster of flowers.

 

 

You can enter any kind of project into the challenge, as long as it meets the challenge theme, and entries using a Stitchy Bear product will be eligible to win our main prize. Entries not using a Stitchy Bear product will be entered into the draw to win a $3 gift voucher for the Stitchy Bear digi outlet.

 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Catch The Bug - Anything Goes
Di's Digi Designs - Coloring Skills
Paper Creator's Crafts - Dies or Punches
Sugar Creek Hollow - Romance
Bloggers - Love Is In The Air
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Flowers
Craftitude - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
Cut It Up - Think Pink
Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes
Wags n Whiskers - Pink (Breast Cancer Awareness)

 

 

 

WOYWW 226

I've been a bit hit and miss with the old WOYWW lately. I either forget that it's Wednesday(!!) or just don't have the time to join in! :/

 

I'm a bit late today but am going to join in anyway. :) Here's what's on my desk this morning:

 

 

The chaos has gotten worse and my bird cage of paintbrushes has been moved down off the windowsill and plonked in the middle of the desk. There is a reason for this...

 

Last weekend there was a paint-a-thon at ATCsForAll.com. I was away from home Saturday to Sunday (going to my school reunion! :D) but I loved the idea of painting some ATCs and I found time to join in on Friday and Monday. I was really really pleased with the cards I painted and found myself not only enjoying painting but actually feeling like I was producing some decent images.

 

Yesterday the school teachers were on strike in England so I had DD1 at home with me... but DD2 was at nursery for the day so for once we got to have a bit of mummy and daughter time, just the two of us. DD1 loves to be creative (takes after her mummy! :D) so we took advantage of both my recent interest in painting and the opportunity to get creative without DD2 charging around like a bull in a china shop. ;)

 

So I got my paintbrush pot down and selected some brushes and took my tub of paints into the kitchen and got DD1's pre-mixed paints out... and we spent an enjoyable afternoon getting painty and creative.

 

I worked on this:

 

 

Am really pleased with how this is going. I've managed to get the shading on the skin with just enough contrast to give some contours to the face without too much contrast. And I'm pleased with the detail on the eye and the shading on the lips.

 

And DD1 painted a grand total of 7 pictures - and drew 3 more! Here's her take on Mickey Mouse:

 

 

Not bad for a 4 year old eh? This was done with zero input from me (I was busy painting on my canvas) - she chose all the colours and painted it all on her own. Think she's definitely inherited mummy's creative gene. :)

 

The weather's miserable here today so am hibernating at home with DD2... might see if she wants to do some painting this afternoon and have a painty/crafty session with her too. :)

 

Paint-a-thon

I like making ATCs. And I like swapping ATCs. And I like getting involved in swaps and personal trades and various other fun and games over at ATCsForAll.com.

 

And this past weekend they had a "paint-a-thon". From Friday to Monday the idea was to make hand-painted ATCs. There were a few prompts you could choose to follow but they weren't compulsory. The idea was just to have fun and to create and to share your creations with fellow ATCers.

 

I was away from home Saturday to Sunday for a school reunion but I was really taken with the idea of the paint-a-thon and I managed to find time to join in a bit on Friday, on Sunday evening and on Monday.

 

I should say that I have never really considered myself as being any good at "art". I can draw okay and used to draw a lot when I was younger but I was never really any good at painting... however I do think in recent years my papercrafting - particularly using Promarkers etc to colour stamps/digi stamps - has really improved my skills in using colour on images. So I took the plunge and got painting... and, d'you know, I loved it! :)

 

I'm actually really *really* pleased with the results - some more so than others but I like all the cards I've made in their own different ways...

 

Acrylic paints on watercolour card
One of the prompts during the weekend was "Autumn"

Acrylic paints on patterned paper over watercolour card

Acrylic paints on oil card

Fineliner pen and watercolour paints on watercolour card

Acrylic paints on watercolour card

Acrylic paint on watercolour card

Pencil and ccrylic paints on watercolour card
This is one of my real favourites - I managed
to get some proper fine detail onto this card

Biro and mica watercolour paints on plain card
This card has an amazing light-reflective shimmer
that the scanner sadly doesn't really pick up

Watercolour paints on plain card

Mica and watercolour paints on plain card

Metallic and acrylic paints on plain card

Metallic and acrylic paints on watercolour card

Acrylic paints on watercolour card

I found painting these cards so enjoyable and so inspiring - I have a gazillion ideas for more painted cards and could happily have carried on with the paint-a-thon all week! :lol: I'm definitely going to carry on making hand-painted cards. I actually feel like I've made proper "art" here, rather than "just" papercrafting. :)