Hello Little Bird, Spring is Coming!

Hello all and a joyful April to you!

For the challenge over at Country View Challenges, the lovely Corrie is hosting, the theme is "Spring is coming!". She wants to see Spring colours AND anything that is around in Spring like flowers and baby animals.

My first make has got, beside the Spring colours,  both - a flower and a little baby bird!

First I made my background with Distress Oxides in different colours. I used a blendig tool, spreat the colours around and also used some stencils. I sprayed with water to activate the oxides. 

After drying I did some stamping, only randomly here and there very lightly. I stamped tiny flowers and words (LaBlanche) and used some very old stamps for the chickenwire and the zig-zag underneath the baby bird.

Then I glued down the flower. It´s a diecut piece from a paper set. The little bird I set on a twig and used foam tape to make him pop a little bit more.

Last I added some spritzes of black and white acrylic paint, did some doodling, glued down the word whimsy from Art by Marlene (you can find a lot of products from her in the shop!) and made some pearls with a white pearl pen. I surrounded the little card with black ink to give it a frame.

Here are some more photos:

Now it´s your turn to make a spring project for our challenge!

Happy April!

Autumn - Art Journal Page

 Hello and happy September!

Unbelievable - it´s the first of September, where has the summer gone?

As always at the first of a month, it is time for a new challenge over at Country View Challenges. This month the theme is: Leaves begin to fall, hosted by the lovely Jane. She says:  Use leaves as background or the main focal of your project.

 Leaves must be the main feature, no "token" leaf added!!

So I made an art journal page.

This is what I did:

First I sprayed a watercolor paper with various mists in autumnal colors. 

I used Glimmer Mists and Glimmer Mists from Lindy´s Stamp Gang.

My background I prepared with Gesso and then I used a stencil and heavy Gesso to create some texture. When dry, I colored it with grey Ecoline liquid watercolor and added a hint of turquoise blue and light green Ecoline liquid watercolor. For some shine I dabbed some Extreme Sheen metalic paint 24K Gold from DecoArt.

For more interest I did some stamping. I used an old BoBunny stamp called It´s Written with Versa Fine Clair Morning Mist and some subtile stamping with an old border stamp, I guess it´s from Kaiserkraft, with DI speckled egg here and there.

Next I did some die cutting with the beautiful sizzix thinlits called fall foliage by Tim Holtz. I used the colored watercolor paper. I used some squeezed lemonade DO on some of the leaves and distressed the edges with DI walnut stain. Then I glued them all down, some with foam squares for some hight.

...oh, and did you discover the little elves? They were a freebe from Astrid McLean in 2020. They are absolutely lovely. 

Here are some more pictures:

I wrote the word "Herbst" (autumn) into one of the bigger leaves.

Here the first elve.

....and here the second one, hidden between the leaves.

Now it´s your turn to make something beautiful with falling leaves! You can win a 20 £ voucher for the shop!

Thank you for your visit today.

Card for a Man

 Hello all, nice to have you here!

For the new month we have a new challenge over at Country View Challenges. This time the theme is "Use a stencil or two...".

I love to use stencils very much and I guess I use them in nearly all my artwork.

To add texture with a stencil changes the whole look of a piece and they are so very versatile in their use.

For my first piece I decided to make a card for a man.

This is what I did:

I took a piece of watercolor paper and sprayed it with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in a light grey.

I put the stencil Lattice Work form Tim on top of the wet paint, sprayed a little bit more and left it to dry.

When it was dry, I removed the stencil and it looked like this.

The stencil was still wet, so i placed it on another piece of paper. I will use it for a second card.

To get rid of the "frame" I spreat Distress Inks ground espresso and black soot around it with a distressing tool and a sponge.

Time for a second stencil. I used the Numeric stencil from Tim, also one of my favourites, with Distress Oxide mermaid lagoon.

To make the numbers stand out more, I surrounded some of them with a white posca pen.

For some more marks I used the third stencil, again a Tim one, called Stitched Layering, with Distress Oxide crackling campfire. It´s not visible very much, but it adds a subtile texture and a hint of color.

To finish the background, I sprinkled some white paint on top.

I stamped my image and the sign, colored all, layered them and glued them on top of my background. Last I glued everything on top of a card and embellished the card with some flowers and a bow.

Now it´s ypir turn to make something with a stencil! As always you can win a 20£ voucher for the shop.

Thank you for your visit today!

Silhouette Card

 Hello lovelies!

It´s the first of March and it´s time for a new challenge at Country View Challenges. This month the theme is Silhouettes.

We already had some really warm and sunny days and Spring is nearly here. So I wanted to make a spring card.

I made a simple background by spreading Distress Oxide Ink speckled eggs, peeled paint and mermaid lagoon over my specialty stamping paper. I activeted it with some water.

Now I took some silhouette stamps from my stash (LaBlanche) and used my beloved Versafine Clair Inks, nocturne and warm breeze to build a scene. You can find the Ink pads in the shop.

To finish the card I inked the edges and glued the picture onto a card. 

Now it´s your turn to make something with silhouettes!

Thank you for your visit today!

Another Card with Silhouette Stamps

Hello dear friends, and happy Easter weekend everyone!

Today it´s my turn to share my second project for the April challenge at Country View Challenges.

As I promised in my previous post, I want to show you another card with silhouette stamps today.

This time no bunnies, this time a cat and a bird.

These are again stamps from LaBlanche. For the background I used Distress Oxides in squeezed lemonade, broken china and picked raspberry, and for stamping Archival Inks in Jet Black, Watering can and Cobalt blue.

This time I used a brayer to get the Distress Oxides on my card. I watched some videos from Lavinia Stamps (you can find them here) and tried this technique. I must say, I am pretty pleased with the result 😊.

Now I hope, you like my cute cat and join in with our challenge!

Easter Card

Hello dears, welcome to April!

As usual on the first of a month, there is a brandnew challenge for you at Country View Challenges.

This time the lovely Corrie hostes the theme - Animal Magic!

Easter is just around the corner and I wanted to use my silhouette stamps from LaBlanche, I bought some time ago. So here is a little card

 I started with a precut specialty stamping paper and some Distress Oxides for my background.
I spreat the inks on my crafting mat, spritzed some water on top and dipped in my paper. then I dried it with my heating tool.

I added some more green to the bottom of the card and dried it again.

Now I started to stamp my little scene. First I stamped some grass with Archival Ink in peat moss and black and dried the stamped image.

Now I added some leaves with Archival Ink in watering can and black on top of the card.

Time for some little bunnies and daffodils and a tiny butterfly. They were stamped black.

 To complete the scene, I added a sun, going down behind the little hills. For that I cut out a circle from acetate with my 2 1/2 " circle punch, positioned it on top and went around it with DI spun sugar.

Because it was not visible enough, I repeated it with Distres Oxide worn lipstick.

To finish it off, I smeared some vaseline over the surface and polished it with a cloth.

I thought, some words would be nice. I realised, that I don´t have a "Happy Easter" stamp, so I added the words "Happy holiday" and I was fine.

It´s not the usual way of cardmaking, so I felt a little bit uncomfortable and recognised, I need some practise 😉😏😋. So stay tuned for the second project this month!

Now hop to the Country View Challenge blog to see what my teamies made - I promise, they did an animal-good job!

I hope you want to play with us this month, grab out your animal stamps and make something beautiful! As you know, you can win a 20£ voucher to spend in the shop! 

Thank you for your visit and stay save!

Stars! Christmas Card for Country View Challenges

Hello everyone, nice to have you here today!

It´s the first of December and that means - a new challenge over at Country View Challenges!

This month I am the host of the challenge and I want to see "stars" on your projects!

This can be on christmas cards, as a background, stars in heaven, or - you think outside the box and find some celebrities?

For my first project I have chosen to make a little christmas card, this time not traditional, but modern and colorful.

It is very hard to take a good photo, because the gold on it is so very shiny, look!

This is what I did:

I used the wrinkle free technique. I put DO picked raspberry and mermaid lagoon on my crafting mat and sprayed them with water. Then I dipped my paper on it and dried it with my heating tool.

 I spread some DecoArt Extreme Sheen 24K Gold with a brayer on top...

 and stamped the stars from the Rubber Dance Grungy Stuff stamp set with the same paint on white cardstock. Make sure to clean your stamp immediately, otherwise you can ruin it!

When the paint was dry, I fuzzy cut them and glued them, after I darkened the edges, to my card.

 

I stamped and embossed the Merry Christmas and added some stars with awhite Posca pen. The edges are stamped with one of the borders from the Rubber Dance Doodle Borders #1 stamp set and distressed the edges with DI black soot. Then I glued the paper to a card.

I hope you will make something with stars for the challenge too!

Thank you for your visit today! See you in a few days with my second project!

Butterfly birthday card for Country View Challenges

Hello lovelies, welcome to June!
This time the theme at Country View Challenge is "It´s a bugs life!", chosen by my talented teamy Jane.
I made a card with this beautiful butterfly.

I created a wrinkle free background with 3 colors of Distress Oxides (peeled paint, picked raspberry, mermaid lagoon) and dried it with a heat tool.

after that I stamped  the flowers from the stamp set "Mindscapes" from Inkadinkado with the same DO randomly to the background.

Now I stamped the beautiful butterfly from the same stamp set with VersaFine Clair nocturne and heat embossed it with black embossing powder. Then I colored it again with the same DO inks. I set highlights with a white posca pen.

Then I stamped the birthday wishes , colored the paper and cut the words.

For more interest and a great contrast I diecut the Tim Holtz wild flowers out of black cardstock, I also diecut the "grass" with a icecles die from Joy!Crafts and glued everything to the background and glued it to the card.

That´s it for today! Don´t miss to visit the CVC blog to see the gorgeous makes of my lovely teamies.
We hope to see your projects in our challenge!