What if...

 When I read through challenges I tend to be on the look-out for ideas that can be combined for maximum effect. Today I came upon a few and thought, what if ---?

What if one could do stencil with watercolor and create one's own background with dots or stripes? That's four lovely challenges right there and as I see it, they can only enhance one another and make me go out of my comfort zone. 

I selected a stencil that had both dots and stripes and went to town.

I stamped butterflies with dark blue, colored them in with copics, then stamped the sentiment also in dark blue ("congratulations") and added some clear higlights.

Here is the finished card:

Entering this into the challenges that inspired me to create it:

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Watercolor

Allsorts Challenge: week 730, Use a stencil 

Cards4Galz: #199 Backgrounds

Friendship Challenge. #87 Punkte oder Streifen / Dots or stripes --- I went with both!

Papercraft Challenges: #94 Things with wings

A floral profusion

I recently came across a nifty technique where you color in a floral printed tissue paper (Youtube link in case you are interested). The link uses Tim Holtz Botanical tissue, but I wanted to make my own instead. I used several floral and background stamps, then colored the tissue in with my watercolor set and Distress oxides.

I made it into a card.

clicks for larger

Entering this in:

Allsorts Challenge: 633/4 Feminine / For a Lady

Sweet Stamping: Create your own background 

613 Avenue Create: Anything goes/ opt. Watercolor 

Double D Challenge: Colors of summer 

 

Happy happy

KK-vintagen uusimpaan haasteeseen tehty inspiraatiokortti. Pohjassa käytetty melkein kaikkea mitä löytyi: akryylivärejä, krakeluurimaalia ja kimalletta. Hyvää syntymäpäivää sinulle, elokuun lapsi!

Happy birthday!
Background done with crackle paint, acrylics, spray mist and glitter.

entering in:
SimonSays Wednesday: Midsommer blues
More Mixed media Challenge: Anything goes w/ optional bright

Spring

OKTK mixedmediahaasteen uusi kierros avautui juuri. Hakaneulaa pitää käyttää kiinnittämään kahta asiaa toisiinsa.
Tausta on Timpan painettua voipaperia jonka ruiskin erilaisilla musteilla. Myös pinkkiä on joukossa sitomassa taustaa ja kuvia toisiinsa.

The background is TH printed tissue paper which I sprayed with several colors, including pink so it would tie in with the images. The flower was originally white, but received a pink coating.
Entering this in:
Unstampabelles: Krazy for kritters, Twist: Bokeh background (which I didn't attempt).
Country View Challenges: Easter or Spring

Numbers

'Your number is up' - demands a challenge, but I didn't want to go all that dark. Here's my take on it:

1. Take your time

2. Pay attention

3. A dreamer and a doer should always be paired

4. Life is what you make it

5. And don't forget to chill!

Background is (again!) a sanded pizza carton, painted with leftover yellow mixed with a dash of black (yielding a wonderful olive).  Stenciling was done with texture paste where I added some colored mica, then came stamping, the figures (TH paperdolls), elements from 13Arts, some tape, rub-ons and finally the words.

entering in:
Simon Says Monday challenge: Your number is up.
Eclectic Ellapu: Anything goes May
 
A Vintage Journey: The magic of three.
A dreamer and a doer adds up! 1+1=3  !!

Spring

Spring is finally here. No more frosty nights or snowfall. How glorious!

I used a floral stencil with baby blue Marabou texture paste, then colored the flowers with pearlized water color and used some washi tape and Infusions for the background. Infusions is a pigmented powder that gets reactivated with sprays or splashes of water. The result is always a surprise, it seems to have a life of its own.

One challenge asks for my superpower. I think it's making a glorious mess, ha ha. I just love making these messy, haphazard backgrounds.

Entering in:
Simon Says Monday: Splash it on.
Creative Artiste: #25 Anything mixed media
Mixed Media Monthly: #35 What's your superpower

Inspired

... by Tim Holtz. For background I picked the little used technique of turning stamping into watercolor from his second Compendium. And I just love the new paperdolls from Tim!

entering into:
CountryView Challenge: Inspired by Tim Holtz
Take a Word: Childhood

SimonSays: Based on a book - that would be Little Red Ridinghood:

and the whole set into:
A Vintage Journey: All aboard

Other people's letters

Sometimes I would like to read other people's correspondence - what are they writing about? Trivialities, children, pets, or are they exchanging recepies? Or do people write about themselves, of things they've seen? Of their innermost thoughts? Of fears and concerns?
Friends used to write letters to each other, I wonder if they still do?

Today letters have been all but replaced by text messages, emails or facebook messages... but here I offer a few glimpses into letters, into a slow life and not so instant correspondence.

For me, monochrome is an excuse to use a neutral color - even though I do know any color can be treated tone-in-tone. But I do love my neutrals, especially after heavy doses of high colors as in my recent works.
Here I started with my absolute most favorite neutral ever, Hickory Smoke by Distress Inks.

Hickory Smoke is a complex color. Its value strongly depends on your surface and other materials. That makes working with it so exiting. Sometimes it is pure grey. At times it veers towards purple, at other times towards blue. Did I say how much I love it? Love it!

I stamped the writing hand onto a piece of vellum. I cut a small slit into the picture and inserted the feather.

The feathers were found one afternoon on our yard. We live close to a wood. A hazel grouse (link to awesome photos) had been snatched by a bigger bird which must have dropped it into our yard for some obscure reason. It had been a veritable death fight, feathers flying around.
But such perfect beautiful feathers! Grey, fluffy with peaks of elegant brow and rust. For this I selected the more tonal feathers.

With all this bla-bla about making it, have you been paying attention to the letters at all?  These friends have quite a lot to say to each other. Go now, and be inspired to write a letter to someone!

entering into:
The Artistic Stamper: Monochrome
Scrapper.sk: Monochrome
Anything but Cute: #17 Friendship

Put your thinking cap on

Water color for background, a stencil & stamping. That's always a recipe for good fun.

I made the background with distress ink (crushed olive) and water color (Prussian blue) on a wet water color paper. Then some reverse stenciling with some mud brown and a tree stencil. However, the reverse stenciling can only be done once, twice tops as it is already the remnants of a color. Never mind - the cool thing about water color is that all backgrounds look totally different.

Then I stamped some background.

And found some nice words.

entering this into:
Use your Stuff: #232 Watercolor
Simon Says Monday: Stamp it
Altered Pages - Artsociates: ATC awesomeness

Meadow flowers

It's the last of the month and it as such a busy month I didn't get to play at as many challenges as I would have liked. But there is a new one, new to me that is - , and one where I hardly ever participate (I feel it might be a bit out of my league) but I absolutely wanted to make something for them.

Meadow flowers was the theme of one, using stencil was the other. I thought it would be fun to combine the two. I went with cherry pink from Infusions colors. It was also flicked twice before proceeding, letting it dry in between.

Underneath is half book page, half a handwritten note. On that there is translucent texture paste through a hexagon stencil, then some tiny dot stamping.

Flowers were stamped and fussy cut.

Lastly I printed out Latin names for field flowers and attached them, catching some embroidery thread in the process. The final touch was flicks of gold and some yellow and green micro beads.

entering into:

Scarpki-wyzwaniowo: Meadow flowers
Vintage Journey: Stencil it

When is the best courting time?

Is that a silly question? You can court anytime and people did. Or did they? Courting used to be seasonal, either in the slow months of winter or else in the short nights of summer. At least where I am sitting right now, that is Scandinavia.
These cards showing Frida Kahlo and the place being South America, perhaps there was no specific courting time. Although in one of the following atc's she is making the remark that she hated when it rained in July - now that might have been the best courting time.

I built these somewhat 3D with paper scraps, washi tape and pieces of cardstock.

Next came the fun part, spraying. I used a sunny yellow and orange colored Distress inks which I sprinkled with cherry Infusions flakes. I just love to see them give out their color in and blend with the ink. Some of them stayed put and created nice little sprinkles on top.

 Then I stamped it with a script stamp and added some diluted gesso highlights. The faces and fans are raised.

It was the BEST courting weather

I am entering this into:
More than Words: August Mini-Challenge with the word BEST
Three Muses: Roses
 Country View Challenge: Hot summer days

Fly home!

The August Tim Holtz tag challenge introduced some nice techniques that I simply had to try. The brayered and flicked background technique immediately became my favorite, it produced such beautiful clean and airy look.

I used inks in colors Weathered Wood, Chipped Sapphire and Hickory Smoke. The first layer was weathered wood, gently diluted with a few drops of water. Next came weather wood mixed with chipped sapphire and hickory smoke, again with a few drops of water. It was flicked with water between brayering layers and the final drops are Infusions Black Knights - I like them because they start black but soon form vintage brown afterglow as well.

The die had ovals to be filled - I filled them with all sorts of linen. They soon reminded me of eggs. So I added  a flecked black feather (guinea fowl) and a charm birdie.

I could not find a text that would have fitted. I am mourning the fact that rub-ons seem to have all but vanished. Thankfully I am still hoarding a nice stash of rub-on letters, white among them. This way I was able to create my own phrase.
It was tied with a silk yarn. (Knitting yarn... Debbie Bliss if you should wonder. Takes dye well.)

entering this into:
Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2016: August

A hair-do for a party

What is this party everyone is going to? An why are they so concerned about their hair?

I think I know why... (snicker).

Background is acrylic washed and some random stamping with a polkadot stamp.

Figures are stamped with black Vresamark on card stock, cut out and placed. Text is from a book.

entering this into:
Stampotique: SDC 255 - Polka Dots

Grungy Frida

'Making metal' is the theme for the Finnish challenge blog this month. I made old, grungy metal looking backgrounds (scroll down for tutorial) and thought these found Frida Kahlo pictures would look great with it.

KKvintage-haaste pyörähti jälleen käyntiin. Tekniikkakesän haasteeissa pääsimme nyt vanhaan metalliin. Kun olin tehnyt kuluneen metallisen näköiset taustat (ohjeet alla), pyörittelin niitä viikon jos toisenkin kunnes keksin, että kuluneet taustat vaativat kerrankin jotain kaunista ja eksoottista parikseen. Niin syntyivät Frida-kortit, jotka toivottavasti inspiroivat elämään täydesti joka hetki.

Paired with some metal elements, fancy ribbon, flowers and leaves, chipboard and a Tim Holtz tag and big chat stickers they got some flavor.

Tutorial:
I started with random kraft card stock ( I reuse a lot!):

Gesso them over. Try not to be neat, you'll be happy about some texture later:

When dry, paint with brown paint:

Sandpaper them and wipe off the dust:

Lastly swipe them with a dark brown ink pad:

I also wanted to see what the effect would be if the ink and paint would be done in the opposite order. Voila! After gessoing and sanding, swipe once over with a dark brown ink pad:

Now add brown paint:

They look totally different:

Both look like ancient rusty metal - neat.

(with darker background)

entering this into:
Unstampabelles: #60 Anything but a card - with tutorial
Lunagirl Moonbeams: Anything goes

(with lighter background)