Mixed Media .....

.... Hi! Hope you're all having a good week, it's been lovely here in Northville, in fact, it was really warm yesterday and didn't feel much like autumn!! I don't have a card for you today, I've got a page from my small Dylusions journal. After Dyan came to our local craft shop, Scrappy Chic, two years ago, those of us who attended her classes set up an Art Journal club. We're called the Scrappy Chic Kitchen Roll Sprayers Art Journal Club and we still meet on the last Sunday of each month. Last Sunday the challenge was to create a Christmas something - tag, page, card, etc. I thought it was time to create a page instead of just making backgrounds!!!

Stamps: Dylusions - Christmas Backgrounds, Bordering on the Edge, Christmas Words
Inks/Paints: Dylusions Paints - Polished Jade, Cut Grass; Distress Ink - Pine Needles; Archival Ink - Paradise Teal
Accessories: Dylusions Small Journal; Dylusions Holiday Colouring Sheets; Zig Clean Colour Brushes; Sakura Stardust Pens; Stencils; Wink of Stella - Clear; Ranger - Collage Glue Stick; Stabilo - Black Watercolour pencil

I used a background that I made ages ago using the baby wipe technique and I'm fairly sure that the colours I used were Polished Jade, Cut Grass and Lemon Zest (although you can't see much of the lemon). I added a simple border and some holly using a stencil and stamp. These fun Santa characters come from the Holiday Colouring Sheets booklet. I used Zig brushes to colour them and then carefully cut them out along with the ornament and fir branch border. I used the collage glue stick to adhere the images to the page. I drew around all the images with a black watercolour pencil and smudged it out with a water brush. I added lots of sparkle to the beards with a clear Wink of Stella brush and finished the page with a simple Christmas greeting. It was such fun making this page. I'm going to submit it to the following challenges:

• Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - SSWC2911 - Anything Goes
• Love to Craft Challenge Blog - LTCCB#16 - Anything Goes
• Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge - HLSXMAS#11 - Anything Goes

You can see all the sparkle on the beards in the detail photo above. I really must create more finished pages - it really is lots of fun. That's all for now. See you again soon.

AC - Naughty or Nice - 12 DOC ....

..... Hello and welcome to the 12 Days of Creepmas.  What's that, I can hear some of you ask?  Well, Creepmas is a friendly push back at the retail companies in America and the UK who decide that it's okay to put out Christmas decorations, presents, etc before Halloween has even finished!!!  So this is for those of us (and the number is increasing) who really enjoy our Halloween and quite like to play with Christmas too!  The 12 Days of Creepmas Blog Hop is run by Smeared Ink and there's a list of everyone playing along at the bottom of this post.  Do drop by and say Hi!

I have the great honour of being the first of Rick St Dennis's EDT to host our post at Airless Chambers.  I've made a very non-traditional Christmas card:

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - Creepmas Costume; Dylusions - Christmas Words; Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz - Crazy Talk, Crazy Things
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Night of Navy, Bermuda Bay; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Dies: Spellbinders - Sm Deckled Mega Rectangles (S5-014) #4, Sm Mega Rectangles (S4-144) #4
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Gold Mirri Card; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear, Gold

I absolutely love this guy - I think he's very confused as to whether it's Halloween or Christmas.  I used the colours from this week's Cupcake Inspirations Challenge - CIC#338.  I found a new challenge yesterday, The Challenge - TC#53 - I don't know how I missed it, but I did.  This week the team would like a non-traditional Christmas Card - yep!!!

I printed the image on white card, coloured it with Copic markers, added some sparkle - gold and clear - to the Christmas ornaments, his crown and to the frills on his costume.  I layered the finished image on some gold mirri card and attached it to the card.  I found a sentiment that works with the image - he's not sure whether he's naughty or nice!!  On the inside I cut a mat layer of gold card and on the white panel added a pumpkin and Santa hat along with a message.

Rick has a fabulous selection of Creepmas images at both his Zibbet and Esty shops, and if you like this guy, you'll find him at Rick's Esty shop.  And now - here's the full list of all those participating in this year's 12 Days of Creepmas Blog Hop:

Fiona
Black Dragon
Susan R
Rebecca
Jessica
Suzi
Airless Chambers
Deborah
Susan S
Val
Sarah
Kat
Leigh
Lady Brayton
Sue

That's all for now - see you again soon.

52CCT - Technique ....

....  Good morning!  It's the last Saturday of the month and that means it's time for our technique challenge here at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  This week our technique challenge is Mixed Media.  If you're not sure what Mixed Media is, this might help:

"A mixed media card uses a variety of effects and techniques. You could use embossing paste and powders, stencilling, stitching, die-cuts, embellishments, gesso, fabric, glitter, found objects, chipboard, watercolour, chalks, acrylic paints, inks, crayons, printing...The list is endless! This could be the perfect opportunity to try a new technique or use that interesting product that has been sitting around in your craft stash."

Basically - go wild on your Christmas or winter themed card.  Here's the card I made:

Stamps: Dylusions - Christmas Backgrounds, Christmas Words, Various (from craft class)
Inks: Archival - Leaft Green, Sepia; Versafine - Onyx Black; Dylusions Inks - Fresh Lime, Vibrant Turquoise, Calypso Teal; Distress Stains - various (craft class); Distress - Black Soot
Dies: Waltzingmouse - Stitched Tag; PTI - Wet Paint Holiday
Accessories: White Lustre Card;  Washi Tape; Wink of Stella - Green, Pink; Thread; Stencil Creative Expressions - Snowflakes; Stampin' Up! Card - Bermuda Bay

I started by laying on a snowflake stencil and spraying on three Dylusions inks, quickly blotting off the excess to leave the white pattern.  I created my own stencil using three festive words and sponging through with black ink.  Next I used a couple of Christmas background stamps and randomly stamped some holly and trees on to the background.  I added colour with green and pink Wink of Stella brushes.  Previously I've made a number of tags at craft class, but they were all too big for the card, so I picked one to coordinate and die cut a smaller tag from it.  I sponged the edges of the tag with black ink.  I printed a fun sentiment (which I wish were true) on some coloured card, cut it out and added it to the tag.  I finished the tag with some lime green thread and adhered it to the card with dimensional tape.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of card and added some more holly to the white panel.

I did have fun making this card and got quite inky!!!  Don't forget to visit our blog to check out the inspiration projects from the rest of the team.  The main thing is to have fun - you've got until Friday 3rd July midnight BST (that's 7.00pm EDT) to submit your cards. Have a fun weekend!

Mixed media ...

....  Good afternoon.  I hope that everyone has had a good holiday weekend.  We've had a super time.  I picked up my new car on Saturday - it took a while, but was worth it.  On Sunday we all went to a photo shoot with two ballet dancers - it was such fun and I'll get the photos up soon.  And today, while Kathryn has been out with a friend, Jonathan and I went to the cinema this morning to see Mad Max and this afternoon I got to play in my craft room.

At the beginning of March I went to a craft class with the wonderful Dyan Reaveley and learnt lots of techniques using her Dylusions sprays.  I left the class with an art journal that I started and several loose sheets that had backgrounds ready for further work.  This afternoon I finished my first art journal page - was such fun:

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - I Love My Prezzies; Dylusions - Christmas Words; Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage
Inks: Archival - Jet Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Dylusions Sprays; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear; Crafter's Companion Spray 'n' Sparkle - Iridescent; Stencils - various

I was browsing through Rick St Dennis's Zibbet shop this morning and found some super new digital images and I was fully intending to colour them in this afternoon, but I stumbled across this lovely lady already in my stash of RSD digis!  How could I have missed her? 

The background was created using three shades of Dylusions spray and several different stencils.  I decorated the edge of the page with some solid black holly leaves as well as a number of outline leaves which I coloured with Copic marker.  I printed the image on white card and coloured her with Copic markers.  I wanted her to really stand out against the background, so I picked a soft pink for her dress, which I distressed with a light grey marker.  And then I had fun colouring the parcels at her feet - bold and bright and very scary too!  Here's a close up of the main image:

Dyan has created wonderful sentiment stamps - and I found all three on her Christmas words set - I think they are absolutely perfect for this naughty girl!!!  I stamped the sentiments on white card, coloured them with Copics and then cut them out and adhered them to the page.  I finished the page by lightly distressing the edges and adding some iridescent spray - which sadly doesn't show up on the photo.

If you're wondering about the images I picked to play with they are Dance Club Witch - a fun and funky young witch (and I'll be back with something featuring her tomorrow) and Zombie Holiday Showgirl - another somewhat quirky image, but I think she's fab!  I'll have a finished piece featuring the showgirl soon.