Blue & Ochre Mixed Media

This week I was inspired by Scrapmasters Challenge and Paperartsy Blue & Ochre colour scheme challenges.
I also just realised that this colour scheme ties in with the new Beauty and the Beast live-action movie, so the Beauty/Beautiful theme works for that inspiration too. I think this is a colour scheme we will see move of in 2017.

I was reminded of some papers and ephemera I had in my stash by Glitz Design. They are all blue and ochre toned with gorgeous vintage imagery, the line is called:Vintage Blue. I started by layering up some papers and Whatnots.

 

I stamped the word art BEAUTIFUL with a Technique Tuesday stamp and WOW slow-drying embossing ink, then heat-embossed with Midnight Dream powder. I wanted to convey the Beauty of spring with Butterflies, Flowers and Birds. I echoed the Beauty theme with the word art quote by John Keats "Beauty is truth, truth beauty".

I layered up some Whatnots, distressing the edges with ink.

 

I stamped a large butterfly onto paper (Kaisercraft - Bonjour) and cut it out, then I stamped and heat-embossed 3 small butterflies. (Prima - Fairy Belle) with Wow powders - Daytona Sands and Iridium blend. 

added some micro beads in places to add texture. 

I heat-embossed some chipboard swirls and these lovely chipboard Poppies from Blue Fern with Stampendous enamel. It's a marbling enamel with a mix of deep blue and gold - yummy!

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I stamped the word art from Paperartsy Eclectica with Faded Jeans DI and cut it into strips.

 

I added some Prima flowers and one I made with a quilling die.

* Stamps and Stencils: Chirpy Cheep Top 3

Materials:
Stampendous - Aged Marine embossing Enamel
WOW! Daytona Sands, Iridium and Midnight Dream embossing powders. WOW! Slow embossing pad.
Papers: Glitz Design Vintage Blue and Whatnots, MME Lost & Found 2
Chipboard: Blue Fern Gingers Poppies
Inks; Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Faded Jeans, Scattered Straw, Fossilised Amber
Stamps: Prima clear butterfly stamp and Kaisercraft Bonjour clear stamps
Technique Tuesday - "Beautiful" Stamp, (In a word:Children)
Paperartsy - Beauty word art stamp Eclectica3 Sara Naumann 16
Flowers: Prima
Prima Funnabair Glass beads Butter
Dies: Half Doily die by CC Downton Abbey
Gold bird charm

Altered Birdhouse Mother's Day Gift

 I wanted to make something special for a Mothering Sunday gift this year. I had a chipboard birdhouse in my stash for a while, so as my mum has lots of birds in her birdhouse in spring, I thought it would make a lovely gift.

I was inspired by the Prima  and Agiart "Air" March boards as aqua and peach is such a gorgeous combination and I love the flowers and soft tones.

I cut the scalloped orning from some chipboard I had in my stash and heat-embossed it several times with Mint Macaroon WOW! Powder. This colour is translucent, so needed a few coats. I would recommend priming chipboard/greyboard with white gesso first.

 

I used the Prima Finnabair stencil with Finnabair Art Alchemy Paint in Rose Gold to create the roof tiles.

* Prima March Challenge - Featured

Materials:
Prima Fairybelle Papers
Prima Leaves Dies
Prima Flowers - Fairy Belle and other Prima flowers
Prima Stencil by Finnabair
Prima Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint in Rose Gold
WOW! Embossing powder - Mint Macaroon, Vintage Romance
Chipboard Bird House

Inspired by these Challenges:
Creative Embellishments - Spring - A home for the nesting birds of Spring 30/4
I Kropka #43 - Spring Chipboard (house) and Green

Believe You were Born to Sparkle

I was inspired by the Words & Paintery sentiment: " You are a diamond dear, they can't break you" to create a mixed-media 12" x 12" layout.

I used this paper as my starting point, it was a bit sad to cover up the mermaid!: 

I used the Believe sentiment from Kaisercraft's Sea Breeze Collectables Pack and heat embossed it with a blend of Coral Reef and Peach Bellini WOW! Embossing powders. The pretty pink shell is an iridescent sequin I had in my stash.

The Seahorse was in the Mermaid Tails Collectable pack and I heat embossed it with WOW! Powder and a seahorse stamp from Heartfelt Creations Under the Sea set.

The Dreamcatcher is made with the Kaisercraft Dream Big set and detail is stamped & heat embossed with WOW! Mint Macaroon. The drops are Tonic Nuvo Drops.

 

The flowers were from my stash, but I created the centres of the pink ones using Tim Holtz Tattered Florals dies to echo the starburst stamens of the ones in the Kaisercraft Sketch.

The berries are from Prima's Royal Menagerie - Maud (Velvet Leaves & Berry Clusters)

Materials:
Kaisercraft Mermaid Tails -  Collectables, 12" Paper Pad, 6" Paper Pad
Kaisercraft Boho Dreams - 6.5" Paper Pad
Kaisercraft Stamp & Die Set - Dream Big
Kaisercraft - Sea Breeze Collectables
WOW! Embossing Powders: Coral reef
Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Dies
Papermania - Self-adhesive Chevron Stencil
Misc Paper Flowers
Foliage Dies includes- Intricutz - Beach Fern, Memory Box- Beach Sprig
Nuovo Drops - Bubblegum,
Prima Royal Menagerie - Pink Berries

Handmade "Hello Spring!" Greeting Card

Spring is officially here and so to celebrate I have created this "Hello Spring!" greeting card.

I used the fabulous My Prima Planner Princess Coloring Dividers 2 and tried a new technique with my WOW! embossing powders - colouring in.

I used the WOW! embossing pen on areas of the picture and then heat embossed each area individually.  The centres of the flowers are a blend of Daytona Sands and Champers. I also used the pen to dot a few colour sprinkles around the hair.

I used Neutral Sparkle on the Eyelids to look like glittery eye shadow.

I used the WOW! French Music Stamp and Atlantic Seaspray powder to emboss the background.

I then heat embossed the wooden sentiment from Heidi Swapp Wanderlust pack and embossed the dress in my favourite shade: Atlantic Seaspray - a pale aqua pearl base with gold marbling:

The finished piece:

*
That's Crafty - Bling It Up  Top 3

Materials:
My Prima Planner Princess Coloring Dividers 2
WOW! Embossing Powders: Atlantic Seaspray, Rose Mist, Mint Macaroon, Peach Bellini, Pink Perfection, Champers, Daytona Sands
WOW! French Music Stamp
Heidi Swapp Wanderlust Wood Veneer
Pearlescent Card Stock


Inspired by these Challenges:
Creative Embellishments - Spring - spring birdies and blossoms ends 30/4

Mermaid Trend in Scrapbooking Part 2

Graphic 45 are known for their high-quality products with a vintage theme. They have brought out some fun Steampunk-inspired ranges in the past and for 2016 they have combined Steampunk with Mermaids to create...Voyage Beneath the Sea.

There are 3 cool stamp sets in the collection, pockets, chipboard and 3 x paper pads.

I haven't had time to play with this one yet, but there are lots of amazing projects to check out using this collection on Pinterest or search Google images

Tim Holtz is also getting in on the trend with his new Distress ink - Mermaid Lagoon:

Also catching the mermaid wave this year are WOW! powders with a new underwater-inspired collection. I am a huge WOW! fan and had the pleasure of attending a workshop with the designer of this collection Marion Emberson earlier this year. She is super talented and when I asked her kindly to design some mermaid powders, she looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and said "just wait and see!" So they were obviously already in the pipeline...great minds, etc!


The line includes: Mermaid Tails, Coastal, Under the Sea and Pacific Wave

These gorgeous powders came in handy for this mixed media mermaid canvas:

I used Under the Sea and Coral Reef for the crown:

I just had to use Wow! Mermaid Tails on the mermaid's tail!

The finished piece:

Challenges:

MMW#16: Under The Sea

Creative Iinspirations - Summer Challenge Seaside

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Stamps used for seaweed, stars, bubbles and vintage script.



Mermaid Trend in Paper Scrapbooking Part 1

Mermaids are finally making a SPLASH in the paper scrapbooking world! I have noticed quite a few lines this season with a mermaid theme, so will share them here and in the next post for all you fin-tastic and mermazing mermaid fans!


Echo Park have released a fun and girlie mermaid collection called Let's be Mermaids: by Lori Whitlock.

You can also buy a co-ordinating ephemera set and stamp & die sets:

Lawn Fawn have also released a cute mermaid stamp & die set which would work well with the Echo Park collection, How cute is that Narwhale?! :

Let's be Mermaids would be best suited to young girl or teen projects, for mixed-media and more sophisticated mermaid projects, I would recommend Mermaid Tails by Kaisercraft. This watercolour inspired range includes beautiful papers, album, stickers, die-cuts and stamps.
There are also some Kaisermists which co-ordinate with the collection.

The papers come in 12" and 6" and with Kaisercraft it's always worth buying the 6" too as some of the papers are different and they also include die-cuts and tags in the pad.

The Collectables pack is great and jam-packed with goodies (50+). It also has some large word art pieces which would be great heat-embossed with glitter powders.

A stand-out of the collection is a large scallop-shell shaped cardstock. This would be nice framed, but if they had created it symmetrically it would've also made awesome covers for a scrap album.

The only slight niggle I have with this collection is the mermaids themselves, which appear to have been created with Poser software. They have a computer-generated look which is incongruous to the style of the collection.  They are in the same style as the fairies used in their Fairy Dust Collection. What a shame they didn't hire a water-colour artist to create the mermaids too.

I do love their matching gloss resist papers which work well with the Kaiser mists and other watercolour media you may have.

Here is a layout I created with the Kaisercraft Mermaid Tails Collection and based on their July Sketch Challenge.

Here is a layout I created with the Kaisercraft Mermaid Tails Collection and based on their July Sketch Challenge.

Supplies:

Kaisercraft:

Kaisermists Turquoise, White

Mermaid Tails Paper Pads 12" & 6"

Mermaid Tails Collectables

Sea Breeze Collectables

Tonic Nuvo Drops in White Blizzard, Morning Dew, Ivory Seashell

Martha Stewart Scallop Punch

Prima French Riviera Background Stamp

Challenges:

Challenge #70 - USE 5 OR MORE FLOWERS

Bunny Zoe - Summer Florals

Cinspirations