Aall and Create ITAC 17 Challenge 1 and 2

Hey everyone just popping in to share what I have been up to (other than my obsession with the Mini Booklets!). 

I have been inspired to have a go at the International Tournament of Art And Craft Challenges over at Aall And Create. The prompts are Here if you wish to have a go yourself, there is loads of fabulous inspiration to be had so do check it out! 

I am a little behind but I have done the first 2 challenges so far and here the are:

First Challenge: "Europe" 

The requirements are to use at least one of the following: 

• A face
• Papers (newspaper, printed paper, rice paper…etc.)
• Letters, numbers
• Blue for the colour of the European Union, Union Jack...
• Ribbon, twine, string or lace…
• Textures – take inspiration from history from ancient civilisations to the fall of the Berlin Wall
• Something both vintage and modern

And I think I have used them all!! 

Some close ups:

I got to use a new  masculine stencil by Scrap FX, loved using this one!

Now for the second challenge: "Asia"

The requirements:

  Motifs inspired by mandalas

· Geometric shapes

· Tiles - ceramic, pantiles, glazed tiles, or their designs...

· Asiatic flowers, such as cherry blossom, chrysanthemum, orchids, lotus, Frangipani, lilies, hibiscus etc..

· Calligraphy or handwriting

· Fabric, faded or dyed

· Powdered pigments

And inspiration from a gorgeous pic.

So here is my take, a little more feminine this time!

A couple of closer shots.

 I think I have gone to town on the requirements again and used them all except the fabric!

 

So why not head over and take a peek, you never know, you too could be inspired!

Until next time,

Michelle

Catch up Art Journal Play!

Hello everyone! 

Back with a quick share of a few pages of my art journal, I have so many bits and pieces to catch up on so I will make this post a quickie I promise!

First one is in my favourite black journal!

I had a play with my new Scrap FX paintbrush stencil, I had fab fun making them look all arty, messy and drippy! 

After "tracing" through the stencil with a pencil, I used mostly water colours and pigment powders to get the colour onto the "Gessoed" page.

I outlined the brushes with my new favourite tool of all time...a Black Pico embellisher....just awesome!!!!! It will write on any surface and leaves a line that looks like it is embossed, how could you not love that???

I used more of the left over paint on the Scrap FX chipboard word, being careful not to put too much paint on the engraved plaque section as the lettering would be covered.

My next page is in my larger journal, 

I used what I call a "Smashed" page (a page I use up all my left over paint and stencil paint on), so my background was basically done, I just added a few more layers!

Once again I used a stencil from Scrap FX, "Vogue Girl". I painted her face with white Gesso then

filled in details with that Black Pico Embellisher and watercolour crayons and pencils.

The saying is a stamp by Donna Downey. 

I think I spy some Dina Wakley stencils in that background too.

The checkered pattern is a foam background stamp by Scrap FX, inked once but stamped several times, over the page. 

 That white writing at the bottom of the page is my white Pico Embellisher, just perfectly opaque, (whats not to love) you know how hard that is to find?

  

Lastly the flowers at the bottom of the page were created using Colour Blast Colour Paste in Bling through a stencil by Crafters Warehouse.

And that my friends is it for now, will be back shortly, I promise! 

Till next time!

Cheers, 

Michelle

Good Grief it's July Already?

Wow what is going on with this year flying by??

 It just amazes me .... the older I get the quicker time goes! 

So I finally got my pages done for Scrap FX for this month, I got my hands on all these lovelies (new releases) and had to bond with them for a bit before I could decide on which idea to act on. 

I was so inspired by these I had too many ideas! 

So the upshot of that is I have a few projects to come because every piece in this release I adored!!!!

So with out further words of admiration here is my first design:

A page featuring my eldest who is growing up way too fast....he will be driving later on in the year....Arghhh! 

I created the background using loads of paint over a scrap paper layer. 

The Number Panel and Chevron Feathers foam stamps are just fabulous to add randomly to the background.

The chipboard Chevron pieces work great together, I cut them a little to go a little further. I had a play with those Gilding flakes once again, I have had a bit of practice with them now and do not get them up my nose any more, much more skilled with them now! LOL

Check out the Words of Wisdom Stencil!!!! I have used Light Molding Paste and a little embossing enamel to make it shine in that background and it is quickly becoming a new fave!

A new wordlet completes the Title, just love it!

I stamped the sentiment on the photo with Stazon Ink, it worked well with the Matt paper I printed the photo on.


Really enjoyed making this one, love doing backgrounds lately. I just never know what they will turn out like till the end. I think I covered all the white space on this one so I guess I could have done with more so that it does not look so busy, but I was just having way too much fun!!
So thats about it for now, will be back very soon with more! If you want to check out the new releases by Scrap FX do drop by their web site.

Bye All,

Full of Wonder!

Back with another page made for ScrapFX using the new chippies and some older stamps that I am still bonding with.....just cannot leave them alone!

Here are the new products I used in the page:

 I also used the Chevron Spot stamp randomly on the background:

And here is the full page:

On the background used Lindys Stamp Gang Sprays and on the chippy pieces I used embossing powders also from Lindys, just love their huge colour range!

The other stamps on the background are from Tim Holtz.

I just love how long, big and "Flowy" the new flourish is, it needs nothing more than a bit of colour to help make the photo a statement on the page. 

 I used the Spot stamp, and then drew in some lines to emulate the compass on the Tim Holtz stamp.

You can see what I mean below:

So that is all from me for today my friends,
thanks for dropping by,

Scrap FX New Releases.

It is that time of the month where I reveal what I have been playing with over the last few weeks for Scrap FX. There is a theme happening with these latest products as you will see, the LO's are using some very masculine bits and pieces. 

Yes, very car oriented, I have to say they did challenge me a bit as I generally don't do these sort of pages. Still not too sure I like what I ended up with, but that is not the fault of the embellishments more to do with my creative BLOCK!

Without further ado here they are:

In this one I have used the new spark plugs, and gear stamps in the background:

 

also the new overlays:

 Also used some old faves, the Typewriter Alphas, Mini Cogs and Cogs.

The spark plugs are just painted up with some Mica paint and then I aged them by adding some black ink. I was going for the totally grungy dirty look!

I treated the alphas with some aged gold thick embossing powder and to add some depth to the main word of the title placed the overlay underneath.

I used the foam gear stamps pressed into molding paste to create the textured background.

Lots of layers with some highlights done with coloured pencils.

Finished it all off with some dots of liquid pearls and random embossing to make the title standout a little more.

The next LO I went for a simpler (it started out that way) look using the cute embellishments below:

I just treated all the chippies with ink and for the finer details used a marker. Used a Scrap FX tag for a little bit of journalling.

I really liked the key that you can easily personalise with handwriting or stickers.

The title was made using the Lanky (RED) and Playground Alphas. The RED is just some ink then I coated the letters with dimensional magic. The other letters I just used black paint.

And finally the whole page:

Still not sure I achieved what I wanted with these LO's  but I guess you cannot love everything you do ...or can you??? I think I am my own worst critic, as we all are!! 

 That is all for now, this post is long enough! I will be back with 1 last LO with these new releases a little later! 

Thanks so much for dropping by and big hugs to all!!

More fun Stuff!

Back again with another page made for Scrap FX with their new releases for May.
This time I used these very cool hash bits and hash foam stamps......I was so inspired when I first laid my eyes on these. I am certain they will feature in lots of my future creations.

I used the foam stamps on the background stamping the ink in a random manner. The best thing about these foam stamps they really keep on stamping even with one ink application.

I also stamped into the wet light molding paste to create texture.

I inked the hash bits with black then added embossing powder roughly so that it was not perfect coverage.


Here is the full page of my nieces hamming it up once again!

I used this Bracket word as my title and my journalling .... how easy is that??

I used the black ink once again and some gold paint for the highlights and smaller lettering as they looked lost all in black.

The background sprays are all from Lindys' Stamp Gang. The patterned paper is all Graphic 45.

 I tried to replicate the hash pattern with the patterned paper.

Lastly I just embellished away with sequins and liquid pearls.

 Well that is it for me for now, hope you are all creating away and perhaps I have thrown just a little inspiration your way!

Hugs,