Easy background cards

 

Hi everyone - the current challenge at Country View Crafts is to make your own background. Today it is my turn to share a project. Why make one when you can make three!

All the cards began with inked white card in varying distress inks. I then placed a harlequin stencil over the card and spritzed with water. Kitchen roll is then placed over the top to remove excess water and, of course, some of the ink to create this fab effect.

I kept my embellishing simple as the backgrounds are quite bold!

Here are the other versions...

See you next time, thanks for stopping by.

Nikki

x

Blooming with Emma Godfrey

Hi everyone... with all the new releases this time of year it is hard to chose what to have and what not to have! I decided to broaden my stamp collection and purchased some Emma Godfrey stamps (Paper Artsy). The intention is to start a bit of journalling but for now I have a card made with her new stamp set. I am sharing this over at Country View Crafts today.

Back tomorrow with some more cards!

Nikki

xxx

Rusty Love Heart

Hi everyone. I have the week off work so a little craft room playtime for me - along with the normal list of chores to catch up with.

So I thought I would have a play with some Andy Skinner techniques I learned at a workshop I did last year (or was it the year before!) - seems a long time ago now but am heading off to the Mixology workshop in April so hoping to learn some new stuff!

Here is a quick summary:

I recycled a canvass I had on my desk as my base and cut my hearts from some packaging that arrived (with one of my crafty orders!)

1. Layered embossed card onto a canvass and added texture sand paste around the edges. When dry  I painted black and again once dry dry brushed white gesso over to catch the embossed areas. 

 

 I forgot the photo at that point but once the gesso is dry I added translucent paints as shown. 

2. The big heart was die cut and deco art crackle paint added and then again painted with translucent colours.

3. For the smaller heart I added some little pearls to by die cut and texture sand paste to the edges. Again I painted black before adding gesso and colouring.

 

 

Here a are a few close ups - I wonder if I might have gone a little crazy with the texture!

 My central panel was cut from foam board to which I adhered some book pages ... making sure they were a little torn around the edges. I stamped LOVE all over it and painted with translucent paint.

 

 I would like to enter the following challenges:

Anything but Cute - Grungy Love

Craft Stamper - Text Me

Frilly and Funkie - Love is in the Air

Sandee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenge - Anything goes / steampunk  / industrial
Mixed Media World - Love is in the Air

Emerald Creek - Blogger Scramble

The Artistic Stamper - Heart Art

Simon Says Stamp - Recycle / Upcycle (canvass and hearts)

Thanks for stopping by today- have a lovely day.

Nikki

x

A couple of cards....

Not a very exciting title for a blog post!

I am over at the Country View Crafts project blog today with a step by step for these cards.

Nikki

xxx

'Industrial' Butterflies

Hello!

A little update to this scheduled post....
A big thanks for all the lovely congratulations messages on my lucky Tim Tag win for January - thank you all.  Coincidentally I refer to it in this post, so if you missed it see below!

Well this looks like a simple project - but it took me ages! Well, ok, lot's of that time was looking, procrastinating and leaving it for another day.... ever do one of those - when you just can't decide how to proceed?

In the end I kept it fairly simple as you can see. Today see's a new challenge at A Vintage Journey - the theme being to use the Industrial technique. I didn't want to make an industrial project though - so went with the strange combination of rusty metal and elegant butterflies.

Quite timely using this theme following Tim Holtz's January tag - so if you missed how to do this technique - check out the master himself - here. If you have time and missed it - here is my version of Tim's January tag - quite different to his!

So back to my shadow box (Ikea by the way). These are the inner elements...

The background panel is just vintage photo ink off the craft mat and a little flicking of water. I then added some perfect pearls gold spray which you may not see well in the photos.

The butterflies were cut from metal foil stuck to card and then embossed. Black soot paint was added and wiped away after drying a little. I added some rust alcohol ink and lightly sanded.

My frame was covered in tissue wrap before adding watered down paint and a little gesso in places. I sanded the edges a little and added darker paint. The inner frame was sponged with brown paint and once dry a little gesso.

 

As I write this I am looking forward to seeing what my talented team mates at A Vintage Journey have created - do hop over and take a peek and maybe join in the challenge.

Talking of challenges... I would like to enter:

Frilly and Funkie - Enjoy your Embossing

Love to Create - Anything Mixed Media

See you next time

Nikki

xxx

Crazy Cat Time

Hello everyone, just stopping by to share my first Crazy Cat creation. I fear I may be using these creatures quite a bit!

I thought I would join in at Simon Says Stamp (Monday challenge) where the theme is Ray of Sunshine and over at Frilly and Funkie we are embossing. 

I inked mustard seed ink through the rays stencil, then stamped my greeting and cat in archival black. I then replaced the stencil and added versamark over the yellow before embossing with clear powder. This then allowed me to colour the rest of the card with scattered straw and fired brick inks.

I used oval dies to create my cuts in the border before mounting on the blue embossed layer.

I stamped and cut another crazy bird and used my water brush to colour before edging with a darker blue ink.

Nikki

xxx

Textured Background Card

Just a short post today to share a card I have made for the new challenge today at Country View Crafts. Sue has chosen the theme and it's a good one - to make your own background.

My background started with some torn book pages stuck to some card with gesso. Once dry I added some archival ink through a layering stencil followed by some texture paste through a  different stencil. Once dry I used various blue / purple distress paints and a baby wipe to add colour. 

I cut the background piece to size, distressed the edges and added a little more colour to highlight. 

A few flowers and the sentiment completed my card.

This is a great challenge to play along with - so much scope to be creative! Be back at the end of the month with another project for this theme. No idea what it will be yet though!

Nikki