Snowdrops

Good Morning everyone

Today Im honoured to say that I have been invited to join the very talented design team at Creative Artiste mixed media so for one project a month I will be playing with alot more mixed media which is always fun.  

So I thought to kick start I would make something very seasonal.  After Christmas when most of the garden is slumbering in sleep and lots of earth and brown on show these dainty little snowdrops pop up to brighten our day with their lovely white and green flowers.  For those of you who are new to my blog you will find that usefully my projects are full of colour so this is very muted for me but I wanted to go with a more realistic look and let the snowdrops be the star.

Approx size:  5x7" (13x18cm)    I started with a piece of stiff card cut from a cat food box.  See the last photo for how i did the background. 

Onto the base layer i added a layer of handmade paper which i tore into a rough oval shape - this i felt gave the effect of a soft frost.  I then tore a piece of brown packing paper - this i used so that the white of my snowdrops would stand out - all the torn edges giving a rustic natural feel.  I then added a piece of hessian ribbon. 

I die cut lots of snowdrops from white card and used green alcohol markers to colour the stems and add a hint of green to the flower head.  I added a little bit of 'crystal' stickles glitter glue to the little piece on the flower heads to add just a little frosty shimmer

Computer printed word 'beautiful', matted onto kraft card, glossy accents added to finish.

To hang i added white eyelets to the top and threaded with green cotton cord with 2 green glass beads.

I added the snowdrops with pinflair glue gel to give dimension.  To make them more realistic I cut the heads off some and glued back on the opposite way so that they aren't all facing the same way.  These snowdrop dies - the little bits in the middle fall out so that they have little gaps in them which i didn't want for this project so after die cutting them i added a little tape to the back to hold those pieces in place. 

The background/ base layer

I tore off some of the top layer to reveal the corrugations, added texture paste through a stencil.  Once paste was dry i added brusho powders in Olive and light brown which have tones of green, brown and purple in them so give a lovely dirt like colour.  I sprinkled on a little copper pixie powder, the mica giving a light shimmer. I used this criss cross effect stencil as i felt it had the effect of lots of dead stems and twigs in the garden like you get over winter. 

I then dry brushed on a thin layer of white chalk paint to soften it and give a frost like effect and edged the panel in white.

Items Used:

Snowdrop die by Alexandra Renke

Brusho Powders 'olive & light brown'

Cosmic shimmer pixie powder 'copper'

Green alcohol markers

Texture paste

Plaid 'folkart' matte paint 'antique white'

Stencil

Handmade paper, packaging paper & Hessian ribbon

Ranger stickles glitter glue 'crystal'

Ranger glossy accents

White eyelets, 2 green beads & cotton cord.

Do hop over to creative artiste mixed media to see what the rest of the DT have created and to join in.  You don't need to make a big mixed media project, it can just be a card or atc as long as you mix your medias.

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

Id love to enter the following:

 

https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/winter-season-february-2025.html

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https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-2025-challenge.html

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https://craftingacutabove.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-anything-goes.html - the snowdrops are dies

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https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free_02003369360.html

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https://daisychainchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/challenge-93-layer-it-up.html

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Creative Artiste...

Good Morning everyone, welcome to October.

I was honoured to be offered a guest designer spot for Creative artiste Mixed Media for this month.  As it was for october my first thought was maybe a halloween mixed media project but then i saw this bone shaped mdf and thought it would be ideal for those Crazy dog stamps from Tim Holtz

Mdf bone size 12x7"....  after doing the background (see last photo below) I stamped the tim holtz crazy dogs and a couple of zinksi art dogs, coloured them with inktense pencils and cut out.  I covered them all with mod podge to give them a bit of protection.  

From an empty pet food box i die cut my alpha's with a sizzix bigz die, covered with black paint and then glossy accents to give them an enamelled look.  I die cut some circles from card, painted with yellow paint, drew on lines to make them look more like tennis balls and again covered with glossy accents. 

 I then got arranging it all - this took longer than you might think getting the dogs in an order that i felt worked best and actually i didnt glue them down for a couple days to make sure i was happy with this finished arrangement!  I added a few Tim Holtz ideology bones, a couple of them i cut in half as you wouldn't see the whole bone anyway and made them go further. 

A metal tag added above the be happy to finish which reads 'live in the moment' which i think alot of dogs do.

After a few days i felt it needed something to balance the heavy black letters so i stencilled some black paw prints around the edge to look like one of the dogs had been off for a wonder following a scent trail as they do😁.....and it made all the difference.

Of course i had to add glossy accents to the dogs eyes and noses too

and onto my background

 I stencilled texture paste through a paw print & diamond stencils and once dry covered it all with black gesso.  I then added patches of crackle paste and once all was dry i built it up by dry brushing on white and cream acrylic paints adding a touch of diamond to the top layer that twinkles in the light.  I found an old tim holtz grungeboard heart in my stash which i again added texture paste paw prints to, covered in red paint and then again dry brushed on the white and cream acrylic.  I then added that to the bone and edged the bone with black paint.  This bone came with a stand but i wanted to hang it so just cut off the tabs and sanded back and punched some holes in the top with my crop o'dile.

Items Used:

MDF Bone  'dog bone on stand' from Craftshapes.co.uk

Stencils - paw print, diamond

Golden texture paste

Crackle paste

Tim Holtz crazy dog stamps

Paperartsy Zinkski art dog stamps

Derwent inktense pencils

Tim Holtz ideaology - bones, metal tag, grungeboard shapes

Sizzix Tim Holtz word play bigz die

Various acrylic paints

Thank you all for stopping by and to everyone at creative artiste mixed media.blogspot for welcoming me to join them this month.  I hope you all have a good weekend.  Hugs Emmaxx

 

Go Green - Upcycling

Good Morning everyone.

Its time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday,

 the theme this fortnight is:

GO GREEN

Upcycling, recycling, reuse

So i had a dig around and came up with used toothpaste tubes, cat food tins, cat food boxes and plastic packaging and had fun making this wall hanging.  I decided it would be good to go with a nature theme as we can all do our own little bit to help nature and the planet by recycling and reducing our use of plastics and packaging. 

8x8 mountboard panel for the base.  I covered the base with a couple of patterned papers.  I then added a panel of corrugated cardboard with some of the front torn off to reveal the corrugation and texture and added to the base. 

After preparing my recycled items - see below for full details  I arranged them to my liking, 

I added a feather to my birds wing and a couple of others amid my die cut greenery, as well as the foiled foliage i added die cut ferns.

A close up, i added twine in the background for more texture, buttons to my plastic packaging flowers.  Chit Chat stickers used for the title 

'Cherish Everyday  -  Beautiful World'

This shows my used items, 2 toothpaste tubes, ive turned one over so that you can see that although plastic tubes they are foil lined - they are 2 different brands aquafresh & oral B so i think most modern plastic toothpaste tubes are lined, just cut off the top and bottom and cut along one side, wash and they are ready to be used, the cat food tin is foil, plastic packing - some crafty dies came in that and then the cardboard cat food box, has a lovely brown tone to the inside.

This shows them die cut, the leaf swirls are toothpaste tube, the leaf from the foil tin, plastic flowers and the brown bird from the cat food box.  I used my old Sizzix bigz dies to cut them all.

The plastic package flowers, toothpaste & foil all take alcohol inks beautifully to colour them, you can get a lovely marble like effect which adds more interest to them instead of flat colour.  The cat food tin foil is brilliant as you can mold it into shape. 

Items Used:

Sizzix Bigz dies - Flower Layers #5, birds, vine w/leaves, fern

Tattered lace fern dies

Tim Holtz chit chat stickers

Tim Holtz alcohol inks - various colours

I hope i have inspired you to maybe look at some of that 'rubbish' we all produce and think of another way to use it.  Please do hop over and see what the rest of the team has come up with and also what all those entering come up with over the fortnight.  I think this is going to be a good challenge, lets all do a little for our beautiful world.  

Make My Monday

Thank you as always for stopping by and all your comments last week. I hope you all enjoy your bank holiday Monday and the sun shines. Emma