Sunday 26 October 2014

APC Challenge - Week 8

This is Week 8 of the 
Altered Playing Card Challenge
and the background being used is Gelatos.

I bought a pack of 4 Gelatos at the beginning of the year just to try them out, as I'd been hearing good things about them.  Well, my first impressions weren't good - it was a disaster!  I watched various you-tube videos, read about them and still they just didn't work as I expected.  Actually, I think that was my problem - they didn't work as I expected them too.

Anyhow, the backgrounds on the cards this week was to use Gelatos, so off I went again.  As these cards are only small, I had no trouble scribbling some colour and adding water to mix them around and this is the result.


The card #1 I scribbled some purple around the card, spritzed it with water and moved the colour around using my fingers.  Before it dried I stamped the heart image (Stampotique) twice, just using the rubber stamp.  When you lift it up, it takes a bit of the colour with it leaving a white image.


I stamped the hearts again using black Staz On, coloured them with red gelato and cut them out.  I wanted to be able to still see the images underneath, so I layered them over each other and glued them down.  The words are from a sheet of cutouts and I doodled around the border with a Uni POSCA black paint pen.


Card #2 was done the same way but this time I used a red gelato and added a couple of blobs of green gelato and sort of blended them together (although the green went a bit of a murky colour - oh well).  The cute little monster (Stampotique) came from the Stampotique ATC Challenge this month as an added extra (I will have to find out what his name is).  I fussy cut him out and added colour using Distress Markers.  I glued him into place, adding the heart and the words.  Again I used the Uni POSCA black paint pen to add the arrow border.

If you would like to join in this challenge, go to www.claudinesartcorner.blogspot.com for details.

Happy Crafting!
 

Wednesday 22 October 2014

APC Challenge - Week 7

Altered Playing Card Challenge
Week 7

The theme this week was largely "nautical" though not necessarily so!

Sound confused?  Me too!!!


So, these are the two cards I created.


I schmooshed some colour around leaving a white patch, and while I was letting it dry, I stamped this little sea creature from Stampotique onto white card, coloured him with Distress Markers and fussy cut him.  I then glued him onto the background and then covered most of the card with Distress Crackle Paint and left it to dry.  I wasn't sure whether to add a sentiment or not, but since I couldn't think of anything, I decided to leave it just as you see it.


The background of this card was made a few weeks ago when I was experimenting with what worked or not, so I'm not entirely sure of the process - oh well!  The colours worked with the theme so I decided to just go with the flow!  

The stamp was a freebie off a Craft Stamper magazine which just happened to be the right size, and the little fish are hand-drawn onto cardstock that I'd been playing with a while back, using Distress Inks and blending colours together.  I cut them out, glued them in place, and there you have it!

If you want more details about this challenge or want to play along, go to 
www.claudinesartcorner.blogspot.com

Thanks for looking and I'll be back again soon with my cards for Week 8.

Happy Crafting!
 

Friday 17 October 2014

Halloween Owls

The theme for this month's 
Stampotique ATC Challenge was
Halloween

Now, Halloween isn't really celebrated here in Australia, although with the amount of halloween merchandise you can now purchase, the retailers are doing their very best to get it off the ground!

Some years we get a few trick or treaters at the door, so I usually make sure there are some lollies  
(I always make sure they are the wrapped variety)
to hand out to anyone who comes knocking.

Anyhow, back to the task at hand, halloween.


I started off with the top left image and the quarter moon with a crackle background and the eyes of the owls dotted with Liquid Pearls in various colours.

The second image on the top right was done in the same way but the crackle background was done with a darker colour for better contrast.

The third and bottom image has a full moon and Tim Holtz' 'shattered glass' stencil with the eyes of the owls coloured with shimmery Jelly Roll pens.

On each of these three ATCs, the main colour used was Distress Inks 'ripe persimmon' and the contrast colour was 'peacock feathers'.

I was quite happy with how these turned out but then wondered how the opposite colours would work i.e. the main colour was 'peacock feathers' with the stencilled colour 'ripe persimmon'.


I was very pleased that by changing the colours around the ATCs look quite different.

"Owl Tree" was stamped in Archival Ink 'jet black', as was the word "Halloween".
In the right light their eyes appear to shimmer.  
These two ATCs went across the world to the UK and the USA
and I hope the recipients were happy with my interpretation of the theme.

I wonder what next month's theme will be ........ can't wait!!!
 
Happy Crafting!
 

Thursday 16 October 2014

APC Challenge - Week 6

It has been a strange week; 
we've had all seasons of weather, from 33 degrees heat on Monday, followed by a storm;
 to 26 degrees on Tuesday, followed by another storm and high winds and a sudden drop in temperature that saw the Blue Mountains coated in a thick layer of snow!  
Yesterday the temperature topped about 15 degrees but today the sky is blue, not a cloud in sight, with a forecast temperature of 22 degrees - weird!!

Also this week, I taught my last class of the year at Alice in Paperland,
woohoo, now I can play just for ME!!!

I also realised that I had labelled the last Altered Playing Card Challenge Week 6 when it was actually only Week 5 - OOPS!

So here is the real

Altered Playing Card Challenge - Week 6


I started by painting the card in Distress Paint 'barn door' and letting it dry before adding some tissue tape.  I then stamped an image in Staz On 'black' that really didn't work ..... 
hmmm ....... (she says frowning)
so I pulled off the tissue tape and re-stamped over the top.
Just as well it was a solid stamp I was using!


This stamp comes from Graphic 45 "Happy Hauntings" and was fairly easy to line up over the first image.  I then added some different washi tape to the blank areas and since I didn't know what else to do, I left it just as you see it.

For the next card I started with a serviette image which looks anything but halloween!
Lemons anyone???


Anyhow, I peeled off the top layer and positioned which part I wanted on my card and glued it down.  So far, so good!   Next I stamped the pumpkin, bat and sentiment onto white card and coloured the pumpkin and bat with Distress markers and glued them into place.


The images came from this cute set of stamps "Witchy Poo".


I decided to add crackle to the sentiment and after it finished drying, popped it into place using dimensionals.

And so finishes Week 6 - hope you like them.

I'll be back soon with Week 7 - one down, one to go!

Now that I have finished classes at Alice in Paperland, I will hopefully (fingers crossed) have more time to play along with various challenges.  

Now, if only I can get my craft space back ...........

Happy Crafting!

Thursday 9 October 2014

APC Challenge - Week 5

Altered Playing Card Challenge
Week 5

Gosh, the weeks seem to be simply flying past and I feel like I'm getting further and further behind on any challenges ..... but at least I just scraped in with week 6 of this challenge before the next lot of instructions were posted for week 7.


The card on the left had a coating of lilac paint  
(yes, I know it looks blue, but in real life it's lilac)
The dots were made using a Memory Box stencil of different circles, and were two shades of green paint although they didn't blend very well, as I think the paint dried too quickly.

The vine was stamped using Staz On from a set of border stamps I picked up in Kmart this week for $5.50 - what a bargain!


The black lines were made using a little plastic bread bag tags, just ink the edge and drag it to form lines - easy peasy!
Next came the image and it took a bit of thinking as to where I could find an image.  Upon looking through my stash of papers I found a part page from Graphic 45 "A Ladies Diary" that I thought would be just right, so cut her out and glued her to the card.  The words also came from the same paper.


The two images on the second card came from the same sheet of Grapic 45 paper.  It was one of those sheets that is designed like a newspaper advertising the latest fashion, and these two ladies were perfect.  

The background is a collage of old Stampin' Up papers that were rather bright on such a small card, so I grabbed my white craft ink pad and dragged it across and then smeered it around with my finger.  Next I stamped the lace edge (another border in the stamp set from Kmart) using black Staz On, glued the top lady directly onto the card and popped the bottom lady onto dimensionals.
I then stamped "hello friend" from Tim Holtz in the bottom corner.

I started to number the cards but I'm not sure I like it ........ hmmmm???
Anyway, hopefully I'll be back soon after I get my head around week 7
(among other things I need to do, like samples for a class on Saturday ..... eeeekk!!)
Happy Crafting!