Pretty pastel wall plaques and CVC Big shot prize reminder!

We are reaching the end of our Stencil it challenge at Country View Crafts - but there is still time for one more project to share!

This time I have used wooden plaques - a great surface to paint, stamp, stencil and doodle on. I gave them a coat of gesso and added a pastel base colour (PaperArtsy Fresco paints).  I then just randomly stencilled with differing colours and stencils.

I dont have any process shots but it was similar to my sparkly canvas - and also the cards I shared on the CVC project blog earlier in the week.

A few close ups:

Reminder - there a chance to win a BIG SHOT bundle at CVC this month - just two days to go if you would like to enter.

See you next week for new challenges!

Nikki

xx

Fresco Paints Masterboard Cards

Just stopping by to entice you over to the Country View Crafts project blog today. I have been having some fun creating masterboards with Fresco paints and making them into cards.

Nikki

xxx

Inspired by Kassa

Hi everyone and welcome to my 300th post! Wow how did that happen and where does the time go?

I have been meaning to post these for a while - completely inspired by some recent creations of Kassa Hayselden - do check out her blog! 

First I played with a canvas - lots of distress paint colour in lines and splatters and then an upcycled picture frame. My butterflies are Tim Holtz butterfly duo - and I added sparkly mod podge to give a bit of sparkle to my dark images! 

Some close ups:

I would like to enter:

Anything but Cute - Celebrate your style

Mixed Media Monthly - Butterflies and Blooms

We love to Create - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Till next time - happy crafting

Nikki

xxx

Infusions Playtime

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my shabby chic / pink / sparkly card on Monday! If you missed my 'non Nikki like creation' you can find it here.

Today I am over on the Country View Crafts project blog sharing some fun with PaperArtsy Infusions. I have used them in 4 different ways on these cards - with texture paste, to stamp, to dye and with water. Do hop over if you want to take a peek!

Nikki

xxx

Pink and sparkly!

Hello - hope your weekend has been good, hottest day of the year (I think) in England yesterday although I didn't see much sun. I had a card class in the morning and we were also setting up our pop up craft shop again in Basingstoke town centre - the doors open tomorrow! (All Our Own Crafts).

I have been working on this card the last couple of days. It's been a while since I made something that wasn't for a DT piece or for the shop - this one was just for fun and inspired by a few challenges I saw popping up.

Yes it is pink, lot's of sparkly bits and, well, not quite my normal style! At Frilly and Funkie the goal is to do the opposite of your normal style - I think this fits the bill both in style and definitely in colour! Pink is being celebrated over at Stamps and Stencils and at Emerald Creek Dares it is all about B's - I have included buttons, butterflies and bling.  Simon Says Stamp are embossing - lots on here!  Finally two favourite blogs - We love to Create and Take it Make It (Crafter Stamper) - both mixed media anything goes this time.

I challenged myself to use this paper in my stash as my start point - but I had to tone it down - so it got a layer of watered down gesso, was embossed with clear texture paste and white distress embossing powder added (heated once the paste had dried).

My tags were hand cut and the card swooshed in a mixture of white and red paint (don't have any pink paint!) before some text was randomly stamped and finally I embossed with crackle texture paste through a stencil.

My wooden celebrate was coated with gesso and then microbeads added. Later I added some stickles too.

The cameo frame was made with air dry clay, painted with gesso, sealed with sparkly mod podge and later highlighted with stickles.

My doily is the new Tim Holtz die (love it!)

Some card was stamped with a script stamp and my butterflies punched, inked and have air dry clay buttons added (plus stickles!).

My little greeting was stamped and curled to make a little scroll banner.

I added a few beads, some fibres, lace and ribbon to decorate and some more stickles around the card although I doubt all the sparkle is showing too well on the photos!

Thanks for stopping by - I am back on Thursday with a project for Country View Crafts and I promise not to mention stickles quite so often next time!
Nikki
xxx

Loving crackle!

Hello everyone - hope you have had a lovely weekend and if in the UK are enjoying our holiday weekend. Today I am over at A Vintage Journey with a step by step on this reverse canvas for our Destination Inspiration series.

There is lots of lovely crackle to be found so be great to see you there.

Nikki 

xxx

Stencils and Wildflowers

 Hi everyone and thank you for stopping by today. The start of the month marks a new challenge at Country View Crafts with our theme being to Use a Stencil. 

But this is no normal month we also have a blog hop and an amazing prize up for grabs - you could win a

Sizzix Big Shot Machine & Die Bundle

To enter, you must be a follower of the Country View Crafts Challenge Blog and also hop along to each of the Design Team Members blogs and leave a comment. 

The normal monthly challenge is still taking place and those who link their Use A Stencil projects will also be entered into the £20 Voucher draw. Winners will be picked at random in early June. 

So here are some links for you:

Country View Crafts - April challenge and Blog Hop

If you are here from Doreen's blog (hello!) the next on your list is Monika.

After all that excitement here are some more details of my project!

I decided to make a few cards with different backgrounds all using a slightly different technique but all using distress inks and Tim Holtz layering stencils.

From left to right:

1. I added various inks to my card using cut and dry foam. I then placed the stencil (my favourite - latticework) on top and spritzed with water - gave it a few seconds to react and then laid kitchen roll over to remove the ink.

2. I used the splotches stencil. I secured it over the card and used cut and dry foam to add a blue toned ink randomly but not over all of it. I then took a green ink and added to the remaining white areas.

3. Latticework again secured to my card. With a stencil brush I created a rainbow effect by brushing my inks in lines down the card.

4. Not as successful I think! The honeycomb stencil with 2 tones of pinky / purple - again with a stencil brush - the aim being to create a slight shadow.

I cut wildflowers from the die set out of dark blue cardstock and matted my backgrounds onto the matching card.

Nikki

xxx