New leaf?

It's challenge time at Tando Creative and our theme this month is "Green and Yellow".

I've made a simple canvas this month. I used watercolour crayons in shades of green and yellow to scribble directly onto the canvas and blended with gesso.

I sponged ink over the Random Circles mask and then stamped the leaves. I used green and yellow acrylic paint to paint over the stamping and left all but one of them as basic shapes. On the last one, I added some veining with dark brown paint and also scratched through the layers of paint with a pin and finally added a drop shadow with the brown paint.

The chipboard domino is triple embossed with a word stamp pressed in and then picked out with some more acrylic paint.

Stamps:
Falling Leaves (Stampers Anonymous)
Imagine (The Artistic Stamper)

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Lettuce)
Versamark

Other:
Random Circles mask (Tando Creative)
Chipboard domino (Tando Creative)
Canvas
Acrylic paint
Gesso
UTEE
Caran d'Ache watercolour crayons

Thanks for stopping by! If you fancy having a play with this springtime colour combo we'd love to have you join us and if your project is picked in the random draw at the end of the month you can pick out a lovely Tando prize! Challenge details here.

Household flower!

Papercrafts magazine is celebrating its Pratical Solutions for Papercrafters special issue this week with a whole bunch of challenges on Cath Edvalson's Moxie Fab blog.

I thought I'd play along in the "Household Items" challenge and made this card.

I've used two household items - a facial tissue and kitchen foil.

The foil was simply stuck to some cardstock and embossed with a Spellbinder folder. I scribbled over with a pink Copic marker and then sanded to give a sort of brushed metal look with a hint of pink in the low spots.

The sentiment is heat embossed in silver to go with the foil.

I remember making piles of flowers from coloured tissues when I was a kid to decorate a village carnival float. We must have been pretty sure it wasn't going to rain!

This is a smaller version of those flowers - I started by cutting strips about 2" wide from a tissue and then layered, concertina folded and wired in the middle of the strip. I rounded the petal ends, ran a marker around them and then carefully separated the layers to make a fluffy bloom. The centre is Glossy Accents with some nail art microbeads sprinkled on.

Stamps: Say it Loud (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper: White, Bitter chocolate, Facial tissue

Ink: Versamark

Other:
Detail silver embossing powder
Memento marker (Angel Pink)
Nail art microbeads
Kitchen foil
Copic marker (Tender Pink)
Spellbinder M-bossabilities folder (So Trendy)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by - why not check out the Moxie Fab blog for some great pratical challenges?! (Deadline is 9th April and you'll find all the challenges listed on the right hand side of the blog).

Inspired by Klimt

Our challenge for March over on UKStampers is to take inspiration from a modern (fairly abstract) painter and alter something.

I've altered a chipboard domino to make a pendant inspired by Gustav Klimt. I didn't look at a particular work of his, I just worked on my association of him with rich green and gold and fluid curved lines.

I didn't have black UTEE which is the ideal for this "faux cloisonne" technique so I used three coats of clear with black pigment ink and then a coat of black detail embossing powder just to make sure! The final surface is coated with Versamark and dusted with a couple of colours of Perfect Pearls, reheated to melt before pressing the stamp into the soft surface.

Once it was cool, I used a Versamark pen and added a little more Perfect Pearls to a few circles. I gave the whole thing a couple of coats of Klear floor polish to give it some sheen. This is take two - the first one had a coat of Glossy Accents on it which I left to dry overnight. This morning it was cloudy in the middle and had deep splits in three or four places - I guess it didn't like the non-porous surface!

The edges and the back are finished with gold acrylic paint and I rounded the corners with the ⅛th inch Corner Chomper.

Stamps: Bubble Border (Lost Coast Designs)
Paper: Chipboard domino by Tando Creative
Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Other:
Clear UTEE by Ranger
Detail black embossing powder
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Forever Green and Sunflower Sparkle)
Gold acrylic paint
Versamark pen and fine paint brush
Corner Chomper
Klear floor polish
Jewellery findings

Thanks for stopping by!