Autumn Colours

Good Morning all, its once again time for a new challenge over at 

Make My Monday   with the theme this fortnight being

COLOURS OF AUTUMN/ FALL

For my birthday i was given a copy of the creative stamping magazine, first time ive ever had it, it came with a beautiful set of autumnal stamps - right up my street so i didn't hang around to try them out, i made this card for a friends birthday that was last week. 

I dug out an old bobunny paper pad full of autumn papers.  I first decided which paper i wanted for the background, i wanted the 2 large flowers on it to be visable so used it on its side.  (the recipient was probably eagle eyed to notice the tiny script in the background on its side - something i only noticed after making the card!)  I mounted this paper onto dark maroon card and the white 6x6 cardblank. 

I stamped my squirrel 3 times, once onto white card and then onto 2 different papers, i die cut the white one into a stitched circle.  Then cut out all of the dark paper one and glued it onto the white one and then i cut the orange one and again added over the top with glue gel to give him some shape.

I stamped the sentiment onto white card and die cut into a circle, i then mounted both circles onto maroon and then the cardbase.  I then die cut lots of little leaves from papers and the maroon card and arranged them around my squirrel.  Enamel viva drops then added in co-ordinating colours. 

Close up of the squirrel.  After paper piecing him i added a little bit of grey pen for shadow and white gel pen to his eye and nose. 

Items Used:

Bobunny papers 'Autumn Song'

Creative Stamping magazine issue 60 stamps

Stitched & plain circle dies

Spellbinders 'little leaf' die set

Viva paper pens - orange, yellow & red

Please do pop over to MMM to see what everyone comes up with and join in with this fabulous theme.  

I hope you all have a good week. Emma

I would like to enter the following:

kreativeinkauf sept - Squirrel

animalfriendschallenge-september-into the forest - squirrel

M is for Monkey

Good Morning all, i hope you are having a good week. 

Its time for a new challenge over at Alphabet Challenge   with the theme being

M -MONKEY

So I dug out the Tim Holtz hipsters animals stamps and just my old brusho's.

I first made a background sheet with green and orange brushos and sprinkled in a little pixie powder, i then added lots of chunky sea salt and left to dry overnight.  It leaves this amazing pattern, this works better when the brusho's are really wet, if you add the salt when its beginning to dry you only get a slight pattern as the salt needs to draw the water into it to get the effect. 

I die cut a Polaroid frame from white card, mounted it onto black card to frame.  I die cut the centre from my brusho card.  I then stamped and hand cut my monkey and added him to the frame.  I cut out a second head and decoupaged it with glue gel.  I kept the monkey white as i wanted him to stand out against the colourful background.  I just added some glossy accents to his glasses. 

I added a panel of white mounted onto black onto the card base.  I added a panel of my background paper at a wonky angle and added the Monkey topper on top. Stamped sentiment and black enamel dots to finish. 

Close up, you can really see the pattern the sea salt leaves.  

Items Used:

Tim Holtz Hipster Animal stamps

Sizzix Polaroid die set

Brusho's - leaf green & gambage

Pixie powder - red

Chunky sea salt

Crafters companion sentiment stamp

CraftUk White Hammered Card

Black card - payper box

WRMK black enamel dots

So if you fancy joining in and see what everyone comes up with using Monkeys please do hop over to alphabetchallengeblog

I hope you all have a good weekend and see some sunshine.  Hugs Emma

Id like to enter the following
take-it-make-it-challenge-september

All At Sea - Shaker card

Morning all, well its time for another new challenge over at Cardz4guyz

with the theme for the next fortnight being:

ALL AT SEA

I decided to go with a looking out through  a porthole into the deep sea and make a shaker card.  

6x6 White cardblank.  I added woodpanel paper onto brown cardstock and then to the card front.   I added a strip of rope pattern paper across the middle and copper effect screw brads in the corners.

To make my shaker i first die cut a frame from metal rust effect paper and backed with a circle of acetate.  Then added foam tape around the frame.  I die cut an octopus and coloured him with orange starlight paint so he shimmers in the light.  I die cut some fish and seaweed from scraps of inked cardstock.  I then added clear micro beads and tiny silver and blue sequins, then backed with a blue water paper.  

I then added the shaker to the front and a sentiment sticker.  I added bronze viva pearl drops around the shaker frame to act as rivets. 

Close up showing the shaker better

And the cute octopus, the starlights paint really shimmers in the light.

Items Used:

Octopus & Fish dies - unbranded

Spellbinders & Cheerylynn foliage dies

Spellbinders circle dies

Kaisercraft papers 'coastal escape'

Papermania papers 'Mr Smiths workshop'

Imagination crafts starlight paint 'oxide orange'

Brushos & Pixie powders

Viva bronze pearl drops

So if you fancy joining in and seeing all the DT's work and entries please do hop over to cardz4guyz      I think this is a good theme for those men's cards and lots of different items to use.  

Thank you for stopping by and all your visits last week.  Its my brothers birthday this week so today we are having a family lunch so looking forward to that.  I hope you all have a good week. Hugs Emmax

Butterflies

Morning all, i hope you are all having a good week.

Today im sharing a batch of fairly simple cards using my new butterfly die.  These were some of my birthday thank you cards and then i did a few for the box.

I first die cut a white hexagon and stamped my greeting, then i added cosmic shimmer plum powder in the area i wanted my butterfly and let dry.  Love this new colour, the shimmer shakers are the upgrade to pixie powders.  It has a beautiful shimmer in the light.  I then a added to a black card blank cut with a larger hexagon die.  Then i added my black die cut butterfly and black gems to his body. 

This one uses blue brusho's and a white butterfly

Red and blue brusho's

Yellow brusho & peacock pixie powder. 

Blue brusho and red pixie powder.  Finished card size approx 6x6"

The butterfly die was a birthday gift so im sorry i don't know the brand or make. 

Items Used:

Hexagon stitched dies

Butterfly die

Brusho Powders

Cosmic shimmer pixie powders & shimmer shakers

Sentiment stamps - magazine freebies

Clear & Black gems

Thank you for stopping by and i hope you all have a good weekend.  Emmax

New York New York!

Good Morning everyone.

Its time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday and the theme this fortnight is:

NEW YORK NEW YORK!

This one really got my brain whirling, not really having any suitable stash or ideas i did some reading up online about New York and its History which was very interesting.  I decided to focus on that iconic image of the statue of liberty.  So went looking for free downloads of a silhouette of the statue.   On seeing this head only image it sparked an idea.  Ive gone for a very inky, stamped mixed media feel on this project. 

I first printed out the Statue of Liberty head onto white card, i then die cut into a large circle approx 7".  I went over the image with an embossing pen and added black embossing powder.  I did this so it stands out well, acts as a resist and the printer ink would be set for all the water i would be adding. 

I went with a blue, red & white combo.  I used a star stencil to add white embossed stars through the middle section.  I heat embossed some stamped rain drops.  I then added blue and red brusho's and let dry, i avoided the face to keep that white. 

I then added more stenciled stars with black distress ink, some stamping of various stamps in black, blue & red.  I then die cut my 'reach for the stars' from black and white card and off set for a shadow.  Once attached i covered them in glitter.  To finish i mounted onto a black circle card base. 

Just a close up.  

When pursuing our dreams and reaching for the stars we often have to have a few tears on the way and a few tears on finally reaching our goal! Its always good to have something to work towards even something little.  Thats my deep thinking for the week😀

Items Used:

Stampin up 'kinda eclectic' stamps

Star stencil

brushos

distress inks

Alphabet dies

Spellbinders grand circle dies

Statue image found here

statue-of-liberty-logo

So if you fancy joining in or just seeing what everyone comes up with for this challenge then please do hop over to MMM

*****

and 3 baby hedgehogs that came out in the daytime this week, so ive set up more feeding stations for them.  Im hoping they just got disturbed & decided to have a wonder around rather than them knowing its going to be a cold winter as usually don't see them in the daytime fattening up until oct/nov.  

I only have a small garden but try to keep it wildlife friendly - hence my little wood pile!!  

The farm animals are also fast piling on weight and a heavy thick coat - maybe another sign that nature knows we are in for a cold spell.  Hopefully not though. 

I hope you all have a good week whatever your plans.  Emma

Cardz4guyz - Bugs

Good Morning everyone, well autumn is slowly arriving down here in Cornwall, trees are starting to turn and summer flowers going over.  So time to see those beautiful garden spiders creating amazing webs.  So a warning that spiders are ahead for those who aren't keen on them. 

Its time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz and the theme is:

BUGS

We the design team had a long discussion on this subject as the meaning of bugs is different here in the UK to the meaning in USA, so as the DT members are international we decided to go for any form of insect life/creepy crawlies this includes butterflies, bees etc so more scope for ideas for your projects.

After having a think and look through my stash i decided to use my spider web and spider dies for a change.  

6x6 white card blank.  In my graphics programme Serif Craft Artist i printed out an autumny background scene, with toadstools in greens and browns.  Also added a couple of white muted moths to the background, Added the sentiment in white.  I sized it so that it would be just larger than my die cut frame.  I die cut my background into a stitched square and mounted onto dark brown card and then the base.

I die cut my spiders web and spider from white card.  I painted the web with silver paint, to give the effect you get of dew on a spiders web, i added this to the back of my white inverted die cut frame, then added foam tape to the back of the frame and added to the base.  Doing it this way meant the actual web isn't stuck directly to the image.  

I added my white spider and drew on a string for him dangling from the web with a silver pen. 

Just a close up of my friendly spider.  

Items Used:

Spider & web die

Daisytrail digikit - 'water garden' (sadly discountinued)

Mama Elephant inverted scallop frame die

Silver acylic paint.

So do pop over and see what bugs everyone comes up with at cardz4guyz

I hope you all have a good week.  Emma

Button Unicorn Picture

My Niece Alice is unicorn mad, so for her 3rd birthday i made this button unicorn picture.  Her favourite colour is purple so its mainly purple but with a mix of other colours as her bedroom is actually a mix of colours.

Sorry the photos are dark, they were taken back before our summer arrived!

I started with a 20x16" canvas, drew out a basic unicorn head shape, painted the face with white acrylic with touches of silver here and there.  A friend came up with the idea of false eyelashes for the eye - brilliant idea - thank you friend😀.  I also added glossy accents over the eye to give it a glazed look.  The horn is built up with blue glitter texture paste.  

I then built up the mane with lots and lots of buttons, this took rather a long time, adding a few at a time.  They are well glued on so that no matter how much poking little fingers do they wont come off - for safety! Ive added a few gems in the mix to sparkle when they catch the light.

I painted the chipboard alphas with purple starlights paint - i only have mixed fonts left in my stash so went with the different alphas to make up the words.  I hadn't actually planned on adding words but on having to tweak the mane to make it work i fell off the bottom of the canvas so adding the word at the top it helped to balance it better. 

This one shows the eye and horn better.  I dry brushed the background with white acrylic. 

Lots of buttons!

And this one shows Alice with it on her birthday.  Phew everyone loved it - just as well after months of working on it. 

Thank you for stopping by and all your recent visits and comments.  I hope you all enjoy the bank holiday weekend. Emmax