Oh deer!

A new challenge commences today at Try it on Tuesday - with the theme of animals.

Having been short on crafting time of late I have produced a quicky Christmas card using some deer die cuts. I was with some crafty friends a few weeks ago and one of the ladies had this die in her stash and I thought it might come in handy so cut a few!

The background is just ink stencilled to different tones.

I would like to enter:

Completely Christmas

Christmas Stampin All Year Long - Challenge Number 30 - Non Traditional Colours

Nikki

xx

September Tim Tag - Missing You....

Just managed to get my September tag done - thought I might have to miss this one. Tim's instructions are here - I struggled a little! Problem 1 - don't have many alcohol inks and those I have are bright! Problem 2 - it's not that easy. So I improvised a little - and having followed Tim's directions to start with, I then removed some of the ink back through the stencil with blending solution. You can see the stencilled hearts if you look closely. Pretty much followed the rest albeit with different stamps, text, embellishments and theme.

My tag is for George Clooney - how dare he go and get married!

Nikki

xxx

I'm All at Sea!

Over at Country View Crafts the current challenge is Nautical. A few weeks ago I attended the same Andy Skinner workshop as Brenda Brown. She has recently shared the fabulous project (click here to see it!) we made on the day - although I have to tell you there are lots of Brenda's little additions on her's! I will save mine for another day, but thought I would use some of the techniques we learned to create my Nautical project.....

I started with a piece of grey board and covered it in strips or torn, embossed card at the top - I wanted to create the impression of the stars. The bottom half had lots of texture paste added to create a stormy sea. Black acrylic, dry brushed gesso and watered down acrylics were then added..

My compass was achieved with gesso, dry brushed black acrylic and then translucent acrylic. The letters and stars in a similar way - but I went heavier on the colour as I wanted them to stand out a little more.

All at Sea seems relevant at the moment - my life feels somewhat chaotic!

Thanks for looking and Happy Monday.

Nikki

xx

Colours of Autumn

The Colours of Autumn is the new challenge at A Vintage Journey - chosen by the very talented Astrid. My plan was to use my new butterfly (die and texture fade) to make a card - but I got carried away and ended up with 4 butterflies so decided to go 3 dimensional!

The butterflies are all made slightly differently with inks, distress paints, embossing powder, glossy accents and mica powder., Not sure how much of this is visible on the images though! I folder them gently and joined them in the middle to make my 3d butterfly - adding a little coiled wire for the antennae.

I had also been playing with inks and sprays to create autumnal colours on some watercolour paper so decided to decorate an ATB. 

The base of the ATB has fresco paints and crackle glaze.

 The layers are made from my watercolour paper experiments with die cuts of Tim's trellis and leaves - which were inked or painted in various colours with crackle glossy accents added to the autumn leaves.

I then cut various other autumnal leaves to finish my piece. 

I would like to enter this into:

Inspiration Emporium - Fall is in the Air

Katzelkraft - Colours of Autumn

The Artistic Stamper - Autumn Colours

Eclectic Paperie - Fall

Thanks for looking- do pop over to A Vintage Journey to see inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Nikki

xxx

Autumnal Card

Hi everyone, a quick post from me to share a card I made at the weekend. Autumn is my favourite season! Not sure whether this is because of my aversion to the heat or the cold, childhood memories on bright, chilly Saturday mornings on the hockey pitch or just the vast array of wonderful colours in nature. I love walking on crunchy, fallen leaves although not a fan of clearing them from my garden!

 I would like to enter into:

Fantasy Stampers - Autumn Colours

Our Creative Corner - Autumnal Image Inspiration (its the shape of those leaves!)

Rubber Dance - Autumn colours

The Artistic Stamper - Autumn Colours

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Nikki

xxx

Coffee and Craft

We are recycling at Try it on Tuesday. Do hop over for lots more inspiration from the design team and to play along in our challenge.

So it is coffee tin to paint brush holder for me!

I coated my tin in fresco paint, crackle glaze, distress paints and inks - no major plan here, just wanted it grungy and a little rusty looking. I also stencilled little hearts with grunge paste and when all the inks and paints were dry added a bit of shadow around them.

I stamped my images onto tissue paper in black archival before using matt medium to adhere to my tin. I then varnished it with clear varnish - as if it is going to sit on my desk I wanted it to be tough!

Finally I got out my melt pot and randomly added some beeswax. Once dry I gave it a bit of polish and added a small amount of mica powder. My photos are not the best so you may not be able to see those bits!

I would like to enter:

Craft Stamper - Stamping on tissue paper

Altered Eclectics - Anything goes

Thanks very much for looking - I do appreciate your visits and comments.

Nikki

xxx

Christmas for the Stampin Up Autumn Blog Hop

I am the one who said ... I won't be making my Christmas cards! Here I am in September making them! Well we are celebrating the seasonal Stampin Up catalogue - I have focussed on two stamp sets - Endless Wishes and Festival of Trees - perfect for quick, simple cards or make them more fussy too!

Usual stuff - follow the links below to visit the other blogs or all the links of our participants are at the bottom of this post.

Click HERE to go back

Click HERE to go forwards

Thanks for visiting our blog hop today - lots more to view on all the blogs below.
Thanks for looking
Nikki
xxxx

Tracy Hart Lawrence 

Pip Todman 

Eimear Carvill

Emma Goddard 

Caroline Thomas

Kim Fee

Lynn Clifford

Cary Buckham

Cat Herrington

Nic Parr

Diane Marlow 

Christine Widdowson 

Di Richardson 

Jamie Turney  

Sara Thornton-Bryar  

Natalie O’Shea 

Louise Sims 

Katie Jones  

Cayleigh May 

Nikki Acton 

Sue Bridge 

Cathryn Perkins 

Sarah Mcdermott  

Fiona Whitten 

Birthday Girl

An attempt to make something a little more feminine for a family birthday coming up. Quite simple with embossed card used for the white panel and the punched butterflies. Lots of distressed edges and inking. 

I would like to enter into:

Craft Cardmakers and more - Make an Impression

City Craft Challenge - Butterflies

Back tomorrow with something a little different again and then might return to my normal style!

Nikki

xxx

Seconds out, round 2.....

.....of the Speed Craft Challenge where we have just ten minutes to see what we can make. Now this may be a bit of a cheat this time round as I had been making a lot of Christmas cards for another project and had lots of scraps and bits left out on my desk! 

Ingrid challenged us to use turquoise and I was unsure I had anything and then realised Stampin Up Lost lagoon ink and paper would fit the bill..... so my products are all SU except my Tim Holtz stars stencil.

The card is A7 - I didn't get to mount it in the 10 mins (did that later!) - but managed to emboss, stencil, stamp, ink, punch, cut and stick.

Why not visit the other mad Speed Crafters - what is great about this group is we are all quite different in style!

Ingrid - Ingrid's Crafts Corner - a master of a diverse range of mediums and techniques

Donna - Inky and Quirky - of the wonderfully quirky creations and fabulous arty backgrounds

Keren - Kerenbaker's Blog - CAS at it's very best

Nikki - A2A - Addicted to Art - oooh that's me

Pamellia - My Little Craft Things - feminine, romantic, elegant and shabby chic loveliness

Thanks for looking
Nikki
xxxx

Summer Garden

Hi everyone and apologies again for not being around much, Craft and blog time been limited but have finally managed to finish this. A 6x6 panel of mountboard with various layers of textures and paint and ink. Flowers added with texture paste and some shadow stamping.

I would like to enter:

Frilly and Funkie - Summer Garden

The Mirror Crack'd - Anything Goes ( a fab new mixed media challenge - check it out!)

Hopefully be back soon.

Nikki

A Birthday Flourish

At A Vintage Journey we commence a new challenge today chosen by Jennie - the theme is 'With a Flourish'. As Jennie says have you ever noticed that much of Tim Holtz's packaging includes that fabulous flourish? So the challenge is to see what we can do with flourishes! Do check out the rest of the design teams creative flourishes over at A Vintage Journey.

I started two cards as I wasn't sure which was going to work! I took a piece of Tim's paper and some grungepaper and stamped my background with the wonderful images from the Papillon set. The paper version is still on my desk, but I loved the feel and texture of the grungepaper - so went with that one.

I also added some machine stitching and stamps from Stampin Up (from Gorgeous Grunge and Work of Art). My butterflies were back to Papillon and I used various techniques on grungepaper - embossing powder, archival ink and distress paint.

My flourishes are a Tim die, kindly cut for me by Chris Warner - as I dont have the die yet!

I matted my card on some grey and then black card, before adding to the actual card base.

My card is for a lovely colleague - her birthday is Saturday but she will get it today at work along with her little gift from as all - as long as she remembers the cakes!

I would like to enter into 'A Special Birthday' at Fashionable Stamping Challenge.

Thanks for looking

Nikki 

xx

My 100th Post !

My 100th post - or so blogger tells me! Started crafting in November my blog at the end of December and can't imagine life without it now!

Anyway a tag today for Sugar Creek Hollows - Tag you're it challenge. A distress paints background with some grungy stamping and stencilling. My heart is UTEE made in a mould. 

A few more photos:

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx