The Flowers of Summer

I have been playing with my gelatos, gesso and distress paints,  I saw a card similar to this on Pinterest and unfortunately I do not know who did it originally.  I loved the design so tried my best to come up with a card that was somewhat similar.

Here are a couple close ups of the flowers and the bow.

The flowers are colored with distress markers and made out of gessoed book pages.  I cut wonky circles in different sizes and layered them.  The smaller flowers have two sizes and the larger flower has three sizes of wonky circles.  

The bow was colored with distress ink.

I am going to enter this card in the challenge on Mixed Media Monthly challenge Summer Days.  What is more summer than bright colored flowers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Summertime

What says summer better than the colors of Yellow and Green.  Yellow represents the sunshine and Green represents the grass (that keeps growing and needing to be mowed) and birds - birds who wake up singing at the crack of dawn.  They are so happy.

I combined several challenges for this card.

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Summer

Simon Says Stamp  Monday Challenge - Summer

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - We're Going Dotty  

The background was made with a yellow gelato and Green Grass distress ink.  I scribbled the gelato on my sheet and added water.  I dipped the watercolor paper in it.  The distress ink was done the same way.  You needed to let them dry between dippings.  I believe I came back and redipped the yellow so it was a little brighter.  The cute little birdie was stamped on gessoed book pages and colored with distress paints.  He was cut out and glued to the panel.  Googly eyes were added with glossy accents.  The ribbon was dyed with the distress inks also.  The dots are embossing paste - the dots add just a little contrast to the green/yellow back ground.  Everything was matted with dark grey cardstock.  

I hope you are enjoying your summer.  Thanks for stopping by.  

ATC - Green Bird

I have started making ATC's and find they are quite fun.  Little pieces of art.  Something to satisfy the creative urge in your soul.  This week I discovered a challenge blog for ATC's called Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge Blog.  I thought I would play along with their challenge this week which is green.

I keep all my pieces of backgrounds I made so I went and dug through my box and I did find a piece of green background with blue highlights in it.  I think the background was made with different layers of acrylic paint.

I also decided to play along with the monthly challenge at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge which is Birds of a Feather.

I have had this Hero Arts bird stamp for awhile - I had to have it and then it sat.  I have now used it twice in the last couple months.  I inked the stamp with some VersaMark and Versafine black ink.  I then used clear embossing powder on top to it really pops and has some texture.  The sentiment is another Hero Arts stamp which I stamped the same way but only used part of the sentiment.  The other day I discovered and decided it was my goal to use up eyelets.  I added 5 eyelets to my ATC.  Some rub ons from Basic Gray were added to the front of the ATC.  I used my black Big Brush Pen and ran it along the edges of the card.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my green bird ATC.  Yes life is good - our temps are in the 60's and the snow is melting.

Oldie Moldie Monday Goes Mixed Media

On Monday's I always try to use old supplies.  This Monday if you scratched the surface you would find a very old piece of patterned paper in pink and brown.  I have a drawer of very old pink and brown paper.  The coffee cup stamp is very old also.

I am combining three challenges for this post.  The first challenge is the monthly challenge on the Faber Castell blog Design Memory Craft.  Mou is challenging us to post about our favorite beverage.

My favorite beverage is coffee.  I have to start my day with coffee.  I make sure I take the first thirty minutes of my morning savoring that first and second cup of coffee.  After that - I can face my day.

I searched Pinterest for the perfect coffee quote.  I found several but decided to use this one.  Some mornings, this is exactly how I feel about my first cup of coffee.

This is a piece of recycled chipboard which I adhered patterned paper to it with gel medium.  I applied a very light coat of gesso over it.  After that I applied some pink acrylic paint and then wiped some of the paint off exposing some of the lower layers.  I have a Tim Holtz stencil that looks like coffee stains.  I added that to the front of the image with a brown gelato.  The image was stamped on tissue paper and then color was added to the backside of the tissue paper.  When you apply the tissue paper to your base with gel medium it melts into the background.

The sentiment was computer generated, cut into strips and colored with distress paint.  Tim's new January color.  I adhered that to the front of the base.  The words were then outlined with a brown marker.  I have several small stamps I like to use on my projects.  I love that circle.  You can stamp it and then add color.  I used the Big Brush to add some brighter pink.  I took another stencil and my white Big Brush pen and just colored the circles in in different areas.  I like how the white softens the colors.  I then took the bright pink Big Brush and brushed it along the outside edges and underneath the cup to ground it.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I am also entering it into the monthly challenge at Mixed Media Monthly which is Think Pink.

It is also being entered in the Creative Corner challenge which is a Tic Tac Toe Challenge.  I used the middle row:  Paints, Stamps and Stencils.

I hope you have had your first cup of coffee and you are able to enjoy my coffee creation.

Paper Smooches Spark Challenge

Back to trying to play with my Paper Smooches stamps each week.  I try to play along with the weekly challenge at the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge Blog.  The challenge this week is anything goes.  Yeah - I like anything goes.  I have been wanting to play with this coffee set for a long time so decided to make a little mixed media project.

Sometimes when I am out shopping I pick up little things that I think I will someday alter.  Usually they are pretty inexpensive.  This is a small plaque that measures - 2.75 x 4 inches.  I covered it with a book page which is applied to the plaque with gel medium.  I then applied a layer of gesso.  I used another challenge for my color inspiration and will share that picture a little later.  I took the pink, yellow and aqua from the picture for my colors.  The first color laid down was a yellow gelato - then I added layers of pinks and blues with more gelatos.  I stamped the cups on more gessoed book pages and then colored them with distress paints.  I hate to tell you it took me 3 times to get that blue cup correct.  I smeared the ink (I am not patient).  I had a good cup done and then noticed I had colored the inside of the handle blue also.  Well that didn't work so back to the stamping.  I added the cups with gel medium.  The sentiment was stamped on more book paper and applied with gel medium.  I added some embossing paste that I colored with distress paint through a stencil.  Added a few rub ons.  I think it is a fun little project.

The colors were inspired by this challenge from The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge.

If you want to get your own Paper Smooches stamps, just pop over to their online store.  Check out their weekly challenge.