Tuesday, May 17, 2016

More Paper Flower Party with Eileen Hull


I'm back with more Paper Flower Party inspiration! You can check out the flowery goodness from the Inspiration Team all month long on Eileen's blog. It's amazing how versatile these dies are – you can create all sorts of projects with them. I used the dies to make some Mother's Day cards:


I used a few different techniques that I would like to share with you. First, fun with Distress Crayons (and Gelatos)! I used them to create the background of the card on the left and the basket on the card on the right. I diecut the basket out of scoreboard and embossed it with the Basket Weave folder. I embossed a piece of heavy cardstock with the Lace Medallions folder for the other background. Coat each with a layer of Distress Collage Medium (or similiar) to seal it. The Crayons and Gelatos blend much more smoothly over a sealed surface.


Next I scribbled the basket with two colors of Distress Crayons and blended them with my finger. A dampened paper towel can remove some of the color to lighten the high points.


I was curious to see how the Gelatos compared to the Distress Crayons so I used those on the card background. I think the Crayons are creamier but both blended smoothly and gave me good results.


For the flowers on the Bloom card, I used one of my favorite "papers", coffee filters! They take color well, cut beautifully, and look like tissue paper but are much stronger. I used various mists to color some filters and cut out a whole bunch of blooms from the Romance Flower die.


I mixed and matched sizes and colors and made a multi-layer stack with a brad in the center to hold it all together. I then scrunched up each layer to give them a bit of volume and texture.


Finally, I used Eileen's new Twist & Style Tool to make a handle out of jute string for the little basket. You'll be seeing more uses for this handy little tool. It is so much fun to use!


Thanks for sticking in here with this long post! Be sure to check out Eileen's blog for more inspiration and we'd love to have you share your projects on Eileen's Facebook page. I'm glad you stopped by!

The supplies I used for this project can be found at Sizzix or Simon Says Stamp. Follow the links below and a shopping you may go. ;-)


Sunday, May 1, 2016

Mixed Media Monthly May Challenge #24 - Butterflies & Blooms


Happy May Day!!! It's also time for our new monthly challenge over at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge blog. Our theme this month is Butterflies & Blooms and our guest designer is Ken Oliver! He is offering a prize of a set of the new Color Burst Caribbean Brights and a Best Ever Craft Mat so I hope you take part in our challenge for a chance to win. =) I created a little "Koi pond" decorative canister:


I've been wanting to try out Color Burst and I thought this month's challenge was the perfect opportunity. For the body of the diecut canister I used Metallic Sky and Turquoise Color Burst and added stenciled details with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.


The Metallic Sky adds a beautiful metallic sheen to the water. I'm going to have to experiment more. I watched this video from Ken Oliver to get some ideas for basic techniques and I know I will have fun playing more in the future.


The fish were stamped in archival ink and painted with Acrylic Silks paints and Deco Art Media Transparent White liquid acrylic.


The top flower was colored with Fuchsia Color Burst. The pigment is so intense a little goes a long way! The pond grass is cut from a white coffee filter that I colored green with spray Distress Stain. I like using coffee filters because they can be color customized and feel like tissue paper but are much stronger than tissue paper.

I hope you head on over to Mixed Media Monthly to check out all the awesome projects my teammates have created for May. We would love to see what you create with the theme Butterflies & Blooms.


Thanks for stopping by! The supplies I used for this project can be found at Sizzix or Simon Says Stamp. Follow the links below and a shopping you may go. ;-)