Brusho Butterfly

Hello lovely peeps

It will be my turn to demo something at our craft club in December and I've chosen Brushos to play with. I've been making up some quick cards cards to take along as samples and show what effects you can get.

I started this card by stamping an IndigoBlu butterfly onto watercolour card with Black Archival ink then painted over it with Pebeo Drawing Gum. I sprinkled Sandstone Brusho powder around the butterfly and spritzed it with water.

Once the card was dry I rubbed off the drawing gum then sprinkled Vermillion, Lime Green and Dark Brown Brushos onto my craft mat and added water to them to make paint. I coloured in the wings and body of the butterfly with these.

I made some dots by dripping some Ranger Enamel Accents

and some Tonic Nuvo drops onto acetate

and left them overnight to dry. I liked the idea of doing them this way because it doesn't ruin your whole project if you muck them up, plus you can do loads in one go.

I have two tips to pass on :-

1. don't do them too close together
- they merge into each other, as you can see in the second column

and 2. don't put Ranger Enamel Dots onto acetate
 - they stuck to it like concrete and wouldn't come off in one piece :D

So after doing some more Enamel Dots onto the leftover backing sheet from 3D foam squares I was ready to stick them onto my project with Cosmic Shimmer glue. I've finished off with some red organza ribbon and a stamped sentiment (Woodware)

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Crafty Ribbons #173 Animal magic..with ribbon or lace
The Ribbon Girls OCTOBER ANY IMAGE 
Fussy and Fancy #175 Shades of Autumn
Penny Black and More Autumn
The Pencil Case #31 Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenges # 143 one for the girls
Really Reasonable Ribbon #151 Orange you glad it's Autumn 
Simon Says Stamp (Wed) Anything Goes
Stamplorations CAS AG/option of black

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Seahorse Dream for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps

I'm back with the third and final card that I made for Leonie's new launch of stencils/masks and stamps. I started by spraying Stick and Spray adhesive onto the back of one of the Dream masks, then placed it onto a square of watercolour card.

I stamped images from The Deep Blue stamp set around the mask using Black Archival ink
 

I stamped the large swirl along the top of the card to make some waves, masking as I went with sticky notes. I also masked the seahorses and shells with some Pebeo drawing gum to protect them

 To make spritzers I added Inkadinks (Blueberry Ice and Beany Green)  and water to some spray bottles

and sprayed them onto the card

Once this was dry I removed the 'Dream' mask to reveal the white card underneath.

I mixed some of Leonie's sparkle pens on an acrylic block

and coloured in the waves with them (I also did the Seahorses)

A bit more seaweed at the bottom completes the scene

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 Allsorts #386 - Sparkle and Shine
The Pencil Case #31 Anything Goes
Love to Scrap  #88 Anything Goes
Creatalicious Challenges #101 - Anything Goes with optional Halloween
Stamps & Stencils elements of nature
Love to Craft #3 Anything Goes
Card Mania #85 let it shine

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Robin hanging

Hello lovely peeps and welcome to my new email follower :)

I've got a bit of sad news to bring you today.

As my elbow is being stubbornly slow to heal I need to cut down on my DT commitments, so I took the reluctant decision last Friday to step down from the Polkadoodles Design Team.

If I'd stayed on this would have been my post for the new challenge starting today, but instead it's a little 'farewell'.  Thank you so much to Nikky for having me on the team, you are a fantastic bunch and I've made some lovely crafty friends. 


So, onto my make - a little canvas hanging using the Festive Christmas stamps and co-ordinating CD 

I started by covering a 5"x5" canvas with Buff Titanium and White Titanium acrylic paint

and then some positively ancient red paint

Once I was happy with the background I dabbed the tree stamp in some green paint and stamped onto the canvas with it. This wasn't entirely successful as the paint didn't stay wet long enough.

I mixed the paint with some DecoArt stamping medium and tried again. This was a bit more successful although it will need a bit of filling in.

I stamped the robin with Black Archival Ink

and coloured him in with acrylic paints.

I touched up the trees with a bit more green paint and added white 'snow' highlights then added a sentiment from the CD, covered in glossy accents. The ribbon, berries and jingle bell are from my Christmas stash.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
The Ribbon Girls ANY IMAGE
Crafty Ribbons #172 Anything Goes..with ribbon or lace
ABC Christmas Challenge U is for Under the Pile (old Christmas stash)
Craft-Dee BowZ  CDB42 Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow
Not Just Cards  #38 Anything Goes
Creative Artiste Challenge #19 "Anything Mixed Media"
Happy Little Stampers (Mixed Media)  nature
Moving along with the Times # 31 trees and/or leaves
Creative Craft Cottages Challenges #75 use ribbon 

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

New Home for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps, I hope you are well.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me well wishes over the last several weeks while I have been recovering from my elbow operation. Progress has been slower than I'd thought but I have to keep hoping I will recover the strength in my arm. I had a follow-up with the surgeon last week and he thinks I may have nerve and/or muscle damage so I am waiting for some tests (not sure I want to know the results ;D )

Anyway, I'm still managing to do a bit of crafting so that is keeping my spirits up :D
Here is the second card that I made for the launch of Leonie's new stencils/masks and stamps last week.

First I inked up part of a stamp from the 'Flower Burst' stamp set with black memento ink and stamped it in the centre of a 5"x5" card blank

I then drew in the 'snail' body with Ice Grey 5 Promarker and coloured in the shell with Tan, Cinnamon and Walnut

To do the wording I masked off individual letters on the stencils and stamped through the aperture with the scribbly circles stamp (from the same set)

Tip: draw a horizontal line in pencil along the bottom of the card to help line the letters up

I did one letter at a time and drew in outlines with a fineliner pen, using the stencil as guide.

To write Home I used the o,m, and e from the Memories stencil and H from Laugh

and for 'new' I used the n and e from Imagine and an upside down m from Memories

To finish the snail I added tiny black pearls for his eyes and stamped the dotty squiggle for his slime trail (with added Clear Overlay Sparkle pen)

And there he goes, off to his new home

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Addicted to Stamps and More #216 Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft  #38 AG always
That's Crafty! Challenge Blog clean and simple
Artistic Stampers  Patterns
Happy Little Stampers (Mixed Media)  nature
Noor! Designs UK #23 CAS OR FULLY LOADED
Squirrels Not-So-Random Challenge #2 one colour
Glitter n Sparkle #210 AG

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Tumbling Leaves for Polkadoodles

Hello lovely peeps

It's challenge inspiration time at Polkadoodles today where the theme as always is 'Anything Goes' and the Design Team theme is 'Autumn Colours'

I love the colour of trees in the autumn so for my inspiration card I've stamped a few tumbling leaves using the poinsettia leaf from the new Festive Christmas Soup stamps. .

I used sticky notes for the masks this time and coloured in the leaves with diluted brushos

I added some sparkle with a clear glitter pen (Crafters Companion)

The sentiment was printed from the Daisydays CD straight onto some watercolour paper and I extended the twirly bits with a black fineliner pen.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-

Crafty Friends Challenge #42 autumn colours  
 The Crafty Addicts #26 AG/Autumn Colours
Open-Minded Challenges #10 Thanks/Thanksgiving

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Magic Peacock for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps

 Woo hoo! Leonie is on Hochanda TV with a new launch this evening. Do you remember her first launch back in April with the masks, stencils and zentangle stamps? She has extended the range with 6 fabulous new masks/stencils and 6 new stamp sets to match.

I would like to say a big thank you to the lovely Emma at Crafters Companion for sending me this kit. She knew my arm wasn't recovered enough to do much in the way of samples but thought I should have it anyway. How amazing is that?

Of course, with such beautiful products I couldn't resist having a little play, and after looking at the stamps the first thing that popped into my head was a peacock. I wanted the background to be vibrant so I dug out some bright acrylic paints and my Gelli plate.

I started by placing one of the 'Magic' masks face down onto the plate
.

I put some small puddles of paint on my craft mat and ran my brayer through them to get an ombre effect. After brayering the paint onto the gelli plate I took one of the new stamps and pressed it into the paint several times (quickly removing the paint from the stamp in between impressions).

I lifted off the 'magic' mask and took a print by placing some 7" square card on top and rubbing firmly all over.

I stamped the squiggly circles onto the print with Black Archival ink

then covered it with a sticky-note mask and stamped it again to overlap the first one - this forms the peacock's tail. I also stamped one of the paisley images over the top to make the peacock body

I couldn't find a suitable stamp to use for the bird's head, so I drew one on myself

Peacocks have an amazing crown of feathers coming from the top of their heads and I found a semi-circular stamp to suit - I 'inked' just the outside part of it with a black Spectrum Aqua marker

then drew in some lines to attach the feathers to the head

Some rough lines for the legs and feet...

then I coloured in between the feathers with a Graph'It marker (8140)
Note: I used archival ink to stamp the images to get a good crisp impression, but this bleeds if you colour with alcohol markers, so be careful to colour in between the lines to avoid smudges.

The 'magic' outline from the gelli plate print was a bit fuzzy in places, so I placed the stencil over the top and traced around with a black fineliner pen to give it some definition

I coloured in the rest of the peacock with markers 1180, 7130 and 7170 and added a little bit of sparkle with Leonie's yellow glitter pen. Some second and third generation stamping around the bottom balanced out the image a bit, then I trimmed the edges of the print and mounted it onto a 6" square card blank.

My teamies Nick, Jane, Elaine and Natalie have some gorgeous samples to show you too. I have links to their blogs on my sidebar --->

 Leonie will be back on Hochanda tomorrow (Friday 14th October) at 9am, 12pm, 4pm and 7pm.

You can watch Hochanda live online, Sky channel 663, Freeview 85 or Freesat 817.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 Inky Chicks #73 Animals
Stamps & Stencils elements of nature
Happy Little Stampers (Mixed Media)  nature
Creative Artiste Challenge #19 "Anything Mixed Media"
Creative Fingers #117 Anything Goes
 Crafting from the Heart #131 Anything Goes 
Through The Craft Room Door - Always Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Challenge #24 Anything Goes
Classic Design Team Challenge #7 AG
 

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x