Pink Lemonade for Polkadoodles

Hello lovely peeps

 It's time for a new challenge at Polkadoodles and the theme this time is 'Use Ribbon or Twine'

I've been dying to use this gorgeous 'Antique Rose Print Burlap' ribbon that I bought from the Ribbons & Trims section of the Polkadoodles store back in January (it's not available at the moment but there are heaps of other gorgeous things in there). I've teamed it up with a flower I built using the Lemonade Fizz stamp soup collection.

I stamped the flower with Black Archival ink onto watercolour card and then painted it in with Pebeo Drawing Gum to protect it while I did the background. I mixed some Rose Red Brusho crystals with a smidge of the Purple in order to get the correct shade and just slapped it on around the flower (I wet the card first so that the colour spread out). I splashed on some white gesso and Buff Titanium paint with a wet paintbrush before drying it off and rubbing away the gum.

The leaves were coloured in the with a mix of Moss Green and Yellow Brusho crystals and I used Grey on the petals.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Creative Knockouts #148 All about the flowers
The Ribbon Girls June any image
The Crazy Challenge #225 R is for ... (ribbon)

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Lavender Butterfly for Polkadoodles

Hello peeps, hope you are well.

It's time for a new challenge at Polkadoodles - the theme for the next fortnight  is 'Things with Wings'.

My Lavender Tea Collection stamps arrived last weekend so I was dying to have a play with them. I started by stamping 'butterfly wings' (i.e. one of the petal stamps) and some flower stems onto watercolour card.

I then 'coloured' them in with Pebeo drawing gum, wet the card thoroughly and painted on some Cobalt Blue brusho paint for the sky and Olive Green for the ground.

I added some Violet splodges where the flower heads would go then rubbed off the gum and coloured the butterfly in with sprinkles of Purple.

For the body of the butterfly I stamped the stamen twice onto a separate piece of paper and cut it out.

The sentiment was printed from the Lemonade Fizz CD Rom and cut up before scribbling an outline with a fineliner pen.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Crafting from the Heart #110 Anything Goes (Always)
Pile It On  #107 - Garden Creatures
Craftin Desert Divas In The Garden
Dream Valley Challenges #130 - All Creatures Great and Small
Deep Ocean Challenge #128: Flowers everywhere
A Bit More Time to Craft  #19 Anything Goes
Penny Black and More  Anything Goes with Stamping 
Live & Love Crafts Challenge  #47 Blossoms &/or Butterflies  
Quirky Crafts #5 April Showers bring Quirky May Flowers

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Lemonade Swirls

Hello lovely peeps

 It's mid-challenge reminder time on the Polkadoodles blog today.
The theme this fortnight is 'Swirls and Flourishes'.

My favourite stamp on the Lemonade Fizz Stamp Soup set has some lovely swirls in it, so that was my starting point. I built up some flowers with a few of the stamps in the set, starting with a circle for the centre and masking off as I went.

I coloured the flower in with Promarkers - Pastel Beige, Khaki and Oatmeal - and the stem/leaves with Pear and Umber. To deepen the colour I went over with a Lyra Polycolour Pencil - Vermillion.

(The flower on the right is before the pencil has been added)

 I found a paper with the perfect colour match on the Pretty Tuff CD but needed something pale to mat the flowers onto, so I had a rootle through my small stash of Gelli Plate prints and found this one that was done with the Leafy Swirl stencil from Clarity.

I cut it in half and then tore the edges and filled in a bit with a couple more Lyra pencils - Brown ochre 82 and Van Dyck Brown 76

I layered up my panel and my greeting (also from Stamp Soup) on torn green card and added a couple of die-cut flourishes. They've got a little bit of Golden Sand Embossing Powder from Stampendous on them.

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

I love Promarkers #307 pastels
AuroraWings Challenge #27 Say it with Flowers
Craftin Desert Divas In The Garden
Creative Moments #92  Always Anything Goes w/optional twist "Showers and/or Rainbows"
SSS Work it wednesday Flowers
Paper Creator's Crafts #46 Polka Dots or Gingham
{Pin}spirational #164 - Inspiration Image

Please pop on over to the Polkadoodles blog to see some more inspiration from my fabulous teamies.

Thanks for stopping by,
Katrina x

Squid Soup and Shaker tutorial

Hello lovely peeps, and welcome to my new followers.
I'm chuffed to bits because I've now reached 50 Google Connect followers (the neat freak in me likes round numbers :D  )

Yesterday I had a chance to play with my new Lemonade Fizz Stamp Soup stamps from Polkadoodles.

The idea is that you build up your own flowers etc. with the individual stamps. There is also a CD to accompany it with some other digi stamps, sentiments etc. and papers with a pink/aqua colour theme.
 
I just started stamping on scrap paper first to see what flowers I could make

But then I got waylaid because I spotted a squid :D

The idea of making a male card from floral stamps and papers really appealed to my quirky side, so I set about making a shaker card with an underwater theme. I've included instructions for those who've never made a shaker card before.

I stamped the largest flower onto green diamond paper and cut out the middle petal for the squid body. I traced it twice onto my card (which is covered with the stripy aqua paper) in pencil so I could see where to stamp my tentacles.

I stamped various leaves onto other Lemonade Fizz papers and cut them out for my seaweed.

The next step was to make the shaker frame.

To make it more sturdy I glued the paper onto some card with Collall photo glue and die-cut a circle from the middle using a large X-Cut circle die.

Next I glued a square of acetate onto the back with Collall all-purpose glue (it sticks to glass among other things, so I figured it would work on acetate)

I added a double height of adhesive foam on a roll as I find that if you only use a single layer then your shaker bits get wedged in and won't move.

I arranged my seaweed around the front of the frame and attached with Cosmic Shimmer glue for speed.

When you're ready to assemble just sprinkle your sequins etc.  in the middle of your base card,

then peel off the backing tape from the foam and carefully position the frame over the top.

Just realised that the eyes are in the wrong place for squid but it's too late to move them now.  Never mind, I'm sure you get the idea.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge #126: anything goes with a twist ...Make it Male
Mod Squad Challenge -Water, Water, Everywhere
Paper Shelter Challenge #245 - For the Boys
Craftin Desert Divas  Shake it up
Scrapbook Stamp Society Challenge Blog  #89 Anything goes option Flowers
Crafty Girls Creations   Always Anything Goes
Crafting for all Seasons  #124 tic tac toe (sparkly sequins, stamp, backing paper)

Tinker- Dream  #40 Shaker Card 

I'm going to spend the rest of the day giving my craft room a long overdue tidy :D

Whatever you're doing I hope you have a good day,

Katrina x