Santa's House

Hello ! It's Sue C here and today I'm sharing a Christmas project. I should really be getting to grips with Christmas cards but I am so very easily distracted and this was no exception !

I spotted this little wooden plaque with a metal hook in my stash and thought it would be great to hang a Christmas stocking on.

 

I decided that it needed a little something extra so I cut a roof shape and 2 additional side panels from grey board and a scalloped piece for the bottom edge from mount board (which I actually didn't use in the end!). 

I then used Wendy Vecchi's Yikes Stripes stencil with her white embossing paste on the roof and 2 side panels.

 

Then I started to paint, I wanted to keep the colours to a traditional Christmas theme and as I was seeing the panels as shutters I chose to use shades of brown acrylic paint over an initial coat of cream. 

I then started to add colour to the main wooden board, sticking to the same colour theme.

I then used Red Geranium Archival ink and the Wendy Vecchi Fancy Florals background stamp.

 

For the centre of the wooden panel I found a frame in my stash and painted it with acrylic paint in dark brown and when it was dry I swiped a lighter colour over the top to distress it. I also brushed some metallic wax around the edges too. 

The below is the finished piece and  I have to apologise for the poor photograph. I got my other half to knock a hook into the wall so I could hang it up to photograph and then realised the light was behind me so there was a great big shadow! The santa inside the frame is from the Tim Holtz Mini Holidays set.

The poinsettias have been made from Grunge Paper that I've covered with cream card that's been stamped using Potting Soil Archival ink. I've painted a jingle bell with acrylic paint and brushed metallic wax over it too.

The letters have been cut from mount board using the  Tim Holtz Word Play die. I've then covered them with gold embossing powder and while it was still hot I spinkled on some UTEE grains too. The holly and berries are die cut using the Tim Holtz Festive Foliage strip die. The berries have had some Rock Candy Distress Glitter added to them.

For the numbers  I cut four of each from cardboard using the Mini 25 Tim Holtz die. I glued the numbers together and used Festive Berries Distress Ink to paint them red. Then I dabbed embossing ink on to them, used some Sticky embossing powder and then sprinkled on some Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

The right hand panel has been decorated with die cuts using the Festive Foliage strip die and the little calendar is from the Tim Holtz Mini Holidays stamp set.

To finish, I added a couple of filigree metal corners and brushed some more metallic wax around the edges of all the panels.

I hope you've enjoyed today's project !

Sue
x

Eye of Newt and blood of bat...

All go into this potions card for Halloween.  This is a peek a boo card and one of my favorite to make.

I used a free download template from the internet for the potions bootle and cut out the inside of the front.  I used the piece I removed as a template for the inside.  With an ink pad, I randomly stamped on the front of the card and then smudged the ink with my finger tips.  I wanted the "glass" bottle to appear old.  To add even more of an aged look, I used crackle on the top of the smudged ink.

I cut a piece of the G45 Steampunk Spells paper for the inside and another for the peek through bottle label.  I cut the bat out of one of the sheets of the paper pack and painted on Distress Stickles.  I used  metallic effects paint for the bats eyes.  I mounted the bat on the front of the card with pop dots to add interest and dimension.  Attach a cord and voila! Happy potions card!

I have so enjoyed being the guest designer for this month and hope you found some inspiration in my Halloween themed projects.  My thanks to all.

Products Used in this Project

Graphic 45 Steampunk Spells 12x12 paper pack
Distress Stickles in Black Soot
Tsukineko Momento ink pad in Gray Flannel
Inkssentials Crackle Accent
Viva Decor Ferro Metallic Effects paint in Amber Gold

She is.......

persistent.  Yes I am! Hi everyone, Micki here to share my long over due art journal play!

Since first seeing the new Donna Downey stamps from Unity Stamp Co., I've been wanting to play with any of these new, larger - perfect for art journaling stamps.  I was really drawn to Donna's "She Is" stamp.  I love the painterly look of the face and love the quotes/sentiments that come with this beautiful face stamp.  It's been ages since I've had a chance to play in my art journal but was determined to find some time this past weekend.  Painting walls and cabinets is not as much fun as playing with paint in your art journal, right?  
While the paint was drying on my cabinet, I dug out my Dylusions Journal and flipped to the pages which I had previously covered with Idea-ology Composer and Melange Tissue Wrap, as well as Christy Tomlinson "She Art" Coffee Filter Sheets.  I used matte multi-medium to make sure they were secure to the pages and covered both pages with Clear Gesso.  After that I used it as a blotting page for some paint and to clean my stencils but that is how the pages were left.

The first I grabbed my favorite colors of Dylusions Ink Sprays along with my mini-mister of water and applied color.  Some areas were blotted with a paper towel roll, others were not.  I did use an easel to help with some drips.

After several layers of inks, the page ended up looking like this:

I needed to 'prepare' a spot on one of the pages for the She Is stamp, so I added a little gesso which was spread with Inkssentials Craft Scraper. 

Notice how the gesso reconstituted the ink colors, which was what I wanted. Before adding the stamp, I got out some stencils and paint.

I dabbed some Barn Door Distress Paint onto my craft sheet and used my foam blending tool (and fingers in some spots) to dab the paint throught the Mini Numbers Collage stencil. The color turned a little more pinkish because of the layers underneath I think, but it still looked good against the greens and teal colors.  Next I used Adirondack Terra Cotta Paint Dabber with Christy Tomlinson She Art stencil which didn't turn out as I had hoped.  I was so focused on making sure the colors would go with the background colors that I didn't even think about how it would look with the (by now) slightly pinkish color of the first stencil.  So I covered half of it a little by again scraping a layer of gesso over it.

Next I dabbed Black Soot Distress Paint on my stamp:

Which I then stamped onto my right page.  Because of all the texture from the tissue wraps, and blotted paint or maybe because of the clear gesso which turned the surface kind of rough, I got a light image.  I wanted something a little darker.  There was plenty of paint left on the stamp so I flipped to an empy page in my journal and stamped again.  This image came through really great:

Now I know I could have used black gesso or a heavier bodied paint, instead I opted to use Jet Black Archival ink.  I used one of my old stamp positioner to help me line her up and stamped again.  

Next I mixed gesso and Dylusions London Blue with a craft stick.

Using a brush to brush the mixed paint onto Market Street Honeycomb stamp and randomly stamped on the pages.  (I did come back and add a little black gesso and a couple of drops of Golden Pthalto Blue to darken the color a bit).  Next I used the dauber off a bingo dauber pen thingie (found on clearance at an office supply store) to add some black dots around the page:

I also used the lid of the Distress Paint to add some hollow circles. 

With my scraper I added some black lines:

Still not happy with the way the doily stenciled orange looked, I got out my Prima stencils, adding more orange (mixed with a little white gesso) through part of the Chevron stencil. Once dry I sprayed Vibrant Turqoise ink spray through the Damask stencil.

You see those circles with the little circle inside?  That is that bingo dauber.  The neat thing about this lid is that as the paint came off, it actually gave me an image of a small circle within the circle.

At this point I added some more stamping using the phrases from Donna's She Is stamp, Unity's Collage of Digits stamp as well as a Studio 490 stamp, bubble wrap and Christy Tomlinson She Art rub-ons.  And just because I thought one of the quotes from Fancy Pants Adventure stencil set  fit this spread so perfectly,  I added it using black gesso which was outlined with a white gel pen.

 I used scrap kraft card stock to stamp one of the quotes and the date.  The "today" sticker is from Idea-ology's Chitchat collection.

I went ahead and doodled in her neck and cheek outline with a back pen and that should cover it all I think.  It's so hard to keep track when one becomes engrossed in the process, lo.

You can probably understand why I had to add that Fancy Pants quote, right? Because even though there were some elements or layers that I wasn't happy with, it truly was fun getting to this:

I hope you were inspired to get inky, in your art journal, on a sheet of paper or even newsprint.....as long as you have fun!

Thanks for stopping by and definitely head over to the eP shop and check out all the new goodies, including Donna Downey's new stamps!!!!! 

Supplies Used:

InLinkz.com