Addicted to Art

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

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

Monday, 29 September 2014

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

Monday, 22 September 2014

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

Friday, 19 September 2014

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

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

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

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

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

Saturday, 13 September 2014

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.