Squirrel Watercolour

Hello lovely peeps

Today's make was going to be a card when I started, but I was so pleased with how it came out that I framed it instead.

New Beginning tag

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

Just popping in to show you a tag I made at crafting club, hosted by the lovely Kristi.

Family Tree Frame

Hello lovely peeps

I've got a home decor piece to show you today which I made with a few simple dies.

New Alpha Bears sneek peak

Hello lovely peeps

Lili of the Valley have some fabulous new NovemBear stamps coming out this month, including a full alphabet set which I have used to make this door hanging.

Dinosaur Hanging on Throwback Tuesday

Hello lovely peeps

This week's unblogged make is a hanging that I made for Leonie Pujol's TV shows featuring her mixed media dies.

When I was looking at all the little triangles in Leonie's Mosaic set they brought to mind the spines on the back of a stegosaurus, so I thought I'd have a go at making a little dinosaur.  After looking at some 'how to draw' sites for children I sketched a dinosaur body onto white card and then scanned it in to my computer so I could resize it.  [If you would like a copy of this for your personal use please see my new Freebies page]

I printed it onto some watercolour card that I had coloured with Brusho crystals and then cut it out.

To decorate his body I inked up one of the stamps from the Gimme Texture set with Vintage Photo distress ink and stamped along the neck, back and tail.

For the spines I coloured some Sheena stamping card with distress inks and splatted on some water

then used several of the small triangles from the Mosaic set to die-cut the spines. These were then glued onto the back of my dinosaur cut-out.

For the background I painted some Kraft card with Titanium White acrylic and sponged on Forest Green paint at the bottom. This was then run through an 8"x8" Pebbles Embossing Folder

I sanded it back a little and smudged some Pebeo Empire Gold Gilding Wax around the edges before glueing it to a chipboard rectangle - this was a page from a Papermania Bare Basics Chipboard Album which I put new holes in so it would hang the other way.

For the wording I brayered distress inks onto some Clarity coated card, then cut it into strips

and stamped each part of the vertical sentiment from the Hey There Dreamer set, adding doodled lines around the edges of each strip.

For finishing touches I made a little red sun and a leaf for him to chew on using the Floral Bursts dies

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Monochrome Heart for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps

Today I've got an MDF Heart to show you, decorated with dies and stamps by Leonie Pujol.

First I cut some flowers and leaves from black card using the Flower Bursts dies and rubbed on some Pebeo silver gilding wax.

For the centres I used this one - I snipped into the die-cuts and rolled them up with a quilling tool.

I shaped the flowers on a foam mat with a large ball tool 

then glued three layers and one centre together using a glue gun

To decorate the heart I took some ivory card from my stash and traced around an MDF heart with a pencil.

After cutting the heart out and glueing it to the MDF using Mod Podge, I sanded the edges to get a flush finish. Before splatting on some black ink I covered half of the heart with some kitchen roll.

To get the splats I pressed a black Memento inkpad onto my craft mat and picked the ink up with a large wet paintbrush, then tapped the brush over the top of my project.

Next I took one of the stamps in the Gimme Texture set and stamped around the edge of the heart, starting at the top.

Oops, missed a bit - I'll fill it in with a black fineliner at the end :o)

The sentiment is from Leonie's Hey There Dreamer stamp set.

For hanging the heart up I poked a hole through the card with my pokey tool (from the back first so it lined up with the hole in the MDF), and attached a loop of black spotted organza ribbon by knotting it at the back. I attached three of the flowers with a glue gun then after a bit of umming and aahing I tucked a couple of leaves in at the top to finish it off.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Artistic Stampers  Black and white
City Crafter Challenge #369  Black & White
Creative Craft Cottage Digi Creations #76 Monochrome
613 Avenue Create  #199 Anything Goes w/Optional Twist: Monochrome
Southern Girls #163 Ribbon or twine
Craft for the craic Handmade flowers, not a card
Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge July

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Counting Sheep for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps

Leonie is on Hochanda TV this evening to kick off a new One Day Special - there are great offers on some previously released masks/stencils, dies and stamps.

I wanted to show you how I made my sheep picture using some of the products on offer.

To start off,  I sprayed some Stick and Spray onto the back of one of Leonie's 'Imagine' masks and positioned it on an 8x8 canvas board.

Next I made a pale blue paint by mixing Titanium White and Cobalt Blue acrylics on my craft mat and sponged it over the top two thirds of the canvas, leaving some white spaces for clouds.

 I sponged some Docrafts Artiste Acrylic 'Soft Green' over the bottom third for the grass and built a fence with one of the line stamps in the 'Doodle Drops' stamp set - I used scrap paper to mask off part of the stamp when doing the sides and diagonal. You can see the join if you look closely but I'll be painting over this later.

Now for the sheep :o)

The Tangled Tails set has a fab stamp that you can use as the body for a sheep, but I needed to paint this shape onto my canvas first before overstamping with the pattern. I stamped the pattern onto some card and cut it out so I could use the card as a sheep mask.

I positioned this over my canvas and sponged through some Titanium White acrylic paint

Once the paint was dry I pressed my little finger into a Black Memento Ink Pad and 'stamped' the sheep heads. That took me back to my school days - I used to love finger painting :o)

The ear is one of the stamps from the 'Arrow to the Heart' set and the legs were done with the end of one of the 'Pretty Borders' stamps

Once all the sheep were done I stamped over the top of the 'Imagine' mask with various stamps

The word really pops when you take the mask off.

The flowers along the bottom were all stamped using the Tangled Tails set.

The yellow flowers were stamped with Versamark and sprinkled with yellow embossing powder, with the centre overstamped in Black Memento and white Enamel Accents added when dry.

The red flowers were stamped in Black Memento and coloured in with a Poppy red Promarker, and the tiny white flowers were filled in with a white gel pen.

I added some leaves and grass around the bottom of the fence with a leave stamp from the 'Doodle Drops' set and a black fineliner pen, painted with a mixture of Soft Green and Jungle Green paints. The fence was painted in with Burnt Umber acrylic paint.

To finish off I put the canvas in an 8x8" white picture frame.

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

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

My teamies have some new makes to show you too, so please visit them if you can. The links to their pages are in my sidebar   ------------------------>

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 Stamping Sensations Animal magic
Animal Friends Challenge  #47 no designer paper 

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Rusty clock for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps, and welcome to my new follower :o)

There's a 'better than half price' One Day Special on Hochanda tonight and tomorrow, featuring Leonie's Mixed Media dies, Entwined Heart dies and associated stamps. The team* have made some new samples to inspire you.

*We have some new additions - please welcome Anne Dimitriou, Anne Richardson, Diane Ingram and Nicola Clegg. I hope you will spot their work on the TV shows.

Nicola doesn't have one yet, but I have added everyone else's blog links on my sidebar ------>

For my first sample I've 'rusted' something.  Ever since Andy Skinner was on Hochanda a few months back I've been dying to have a bash at this, and I'm quite chuffed with the result.

The clock started life like this:-

but I've made it look a bit different with the aid of these

First I painted three coats of white gesso on, to smooth out the texture a bit and hide the markings. The fourth coat was Titanium white mixed with a smidge of Buff Titanium acrylic paint.

Next I splattered on Payne's grey and Quinacrodone Gold mixed with Payne's Grey

While that was drying I cut Leonie's 'In a Spin' die from grey card and slapped on a bit of Matte Medium. I put this aside to dry as well.

I randomly painted on some Quinacrodone Gold and a bit of Transparent Yellow Oxide then sprinkled with a bit of table salt before allowing it to dry.
 

I glued the die-cut onto the clock base using Collall Tacky Glue

The clock hands were painted with white gesso to prime them and then I painted on watered down Payne's Grey and sprinkled on salt. Once this was dry I rubbed off the salt and added the Quin Gold and Yellow Oxide paints.

Now for the outside frame...

I cut another 'In a Spin' die-cut from card and used it as a stencil. I sprayed Stick and Spray over the back and placed it over the frame before stencilling Matte Medium through.

Sorry for the pictures at this point - the sun was streaming through the window.

Once this was dry I painted on Paynes Grey and a smidgy of the Yellow Oxide, then sprinkled with salt.

I added Quin Gold and salt to the inside edge, let it dry, then covered with more diluted PG and salt.

For the 12/3/6/9 o'clock positions I stamped and embossed the screwhead from the Gimme Texture

Mixed Media Stamps with Versamark and black embossing powder.
I also stamped one of the sayings from Hey There Dreamer around the frame with Black Archival ink.

To finish off I added a thick coat of clear crackle glaze to the clock face. I'm not sure why there's a little bit of white 'bloom' in places - maybe the glaze reacting with traces of salt? I couldn't do much about it and I guess it adds to the aged look so I'm calling it a happy accident :o)

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 Left of Center Creative Challenges #156 Inspired By (Andy Skinner's rusting technique)
A Vintage Journey - Cracking Up (inspired by Andy Skinner)
613 Avenue Create  #191 Anything Goes
We Love 2 Create #23 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Creative Moments #105 Anything Goes w/optional twist Thanks
Creative Artiste Challenge #20 "Anything Mixed Media"
Just Us Girls  #369 trend week - metallic
Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge November 

 Leonie is on Hochanda this evening at 8pm GMT and again tomorrow (Thursday 17th November) at 9am, 12pm, 4pm and 7pm.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x