CAS Mix Up April Challenge

Hi everyone.  Another month has started which means it's a new challenge at CAS Mix Up.  Bonnie is our host and she has come up with a fun challenge ...

This month we want to see stamping, inlaid die-cutting and one other technique or product (use the list on our right hand sidebar of the challenge blog for ideas).

I do love poppies. :)  I die-cut them from hot press watercolour paper and sloshed on some diluted inks (Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon). Then I die-cut the same poppies from my smooshed watecolour background panel.  I carefully inlaid my orange poppies into the spaces.  I got them to fit just right and then added a few pieces of scotch tape to hold everything in place.  Sometimes I add a back panel and glue in my pieces, this time I took a short-cut. :)

The sentiment banner was stamped in Delicata Gold ... love this gold ink ... it's so metallic and sparkly without having to heat emboss.  I popped up the panel onto my card base to give it a bit of dimension.

My CAS Mix Up card has stamping, inlaid die-cutting, smooshing, and watercolouring.

We excited to have Maria (White Mood) as our Guest Designer this month.  Maria won the CAS Mix Up February Challenge - Corrugated Cardboard.  Welcome Maria!

I hope you'll have time to check out the challenge blog to see the gorgeous inlaid die-cut cards from the rest of our Design Team and our Guest Designer.  You will be inspired!

Stamps:  Friendship Messages (Simon Says)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb.); Watercoloured background panel (Arches 140 lb. cold press), Watercoloured poppies (Arches 140 lb. hot press)
Ink:  Distress Inks (Cracked Pistachio, Salty Ocean) - background panel; )Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon) - poppies (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  Water mister, Row of Poppies die (Memory Box), watercolour brushes

Challenges:
CAS Mix Up April Challenge - Inlaid Die-cutting

Playing with Bister Powders

Hi everyone.  I'm back with another masculine card.

Today I was playing with some Bister powders that I've had for ages ... I think over a year!!  Yep, they have been patiently waiting for me. :)  My friend Christine, picked them up in the UK when she was there.  They come in small resealable bags, so I found it hard to get out just a little to sprinkle on my card front.  Found some plastic containers (similar to the brushos pots) and spent last night putting them into the new containers, labeling, and adding a colour swatch (on watercolour paper with sticky backing) on top along with piercing a hole so the powders could easily be sprinkled.  The push pin holds everything in place and I can just pull it out and sprinkle easily.  Here's a pic of my containers ...

The colours are very muted compared to Brusho or Color Burst powders.  And they all contain a bit of walnut in with each of the colours, so they have very earthy tones.  LOVE them.  And perfect for creating a masculine card.  I simply sprinkled two colours (green and natural) over my fern stencil onto mixed media paper, spritzed with lots of water and quickly removed the stencil.  I got a very clean image. Added a simple tone-on-tone stamped sentiment banner to finish.

Stamps:  Fun Birthday Sentiments (HLS)
Paper: Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.); Soft Suede (SU!)
Ink:  Bister Powders:  Green, Natural; Soft Suede (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Fern stencil made with my Silhouette Cameo, water mister

Hubby's Birthday Card

Hi everyone.  You  know how some cards that are pretty easy, just seem like they don't want to be made??  This was one of them. :)  It took me three tries to get this done.  I cut the "HAPPY" with my Silhouette Cameo cutting machine.  But when I trimmed it, it was very crooked.  Of course I didn't notice until after gluing it to the card front.  Into the garbage, made a new card front ... and again a problem with the sentiment. The second time the machine cut it weird, I didn't notice until it was glued down to the second card front.  Anyways, third times a charm (as they say). :)

The background was super easy (it's the best part).  Just taped the gears stencil over some white card stock and sponged with Evergreen Bough, Vintage Photo, and Rusty Hinge distress inks.  What a great colour combination.  And looks awesome with the black sentiment banner.

Hubby's birthday isn't for another week, but we are having a family dinner on Saturday, so needed to get it done early.  I think he'll like it.

Stamps:  Birthday sentiments (HLS)
Paper:  Neenah 110 lb. white card stock; Black (SU!)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Evergreen Bough, Vintage Photo, Rusty Hinge (Tim Holtz); Versamark
Accessories & Tools: Mini Gears Stencil (The Crafter's Workshop), sponges, Silhouette Cameo, white embossing powder, heat tool

More Canvases

As I mentioned a couple of days ago when I posted my first two canvases HERE, I had a play day with Susan and Christine last Sunday and we experimented with acrylic paint techniques.

We first headed to two $1 stores in my area.  We picked up some acrylic paints and canvases for not much money.  The canvas above is 8" square and was $2.00.  I used four colours of paint ($1.25 ea).  Normally, I buy good quality art supplies, but these are just some fun techniques that work well with any type of paint.  One video I saw even used wall paint. :)  We lined our work table with large garbage bags before starting, which made clean up easy.

The one above is my favourite from the day.  This technique is called Dirty Pour and we followed this video.  We just diluted our paints with water, and followed the video about pouring the colours together and then giving a quick stir before adding to the canvas.  Then the fun begins as you tilt your canvas and let the paint flow over the sides.  I love the marbled look I got with this technique.

For the second canvas below, I smooshed it into the paint that overflowed from the canvas above and then dribbled on any leftover ink from my containers.  Didn't waste any of the paint, smooshing two small canvases and then card stock, coated card stock and yupo papers, just to see what worked best. They all worked great.

You'll see that I was in love with this paint colour combo, so I used it again for the third canvas.  This is a drip technique that we followed with this video.  Easy and fun to do.  All of the canvases done with turquoise, green and white are made with the $1 store acrylics (DecoArt).

My last canvas is another of the palette knife technique from this video.  This is the second time I've tried this and I ended up with lots of texture this time.  The colours are different.  I used different shades of blue, white, and just a little sea green.  This canvas was done with medium body Liquitex (Basics) acrylics.  Medium body or heavy body paint is thick which helps to create the texture that you see on the canvas.  Not in love with the results, but it's OK.  :)

I used soft gloss gel, diluted with water, to seal the canvases (two coats leaving 24 hrs to dry in-between coats).

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my abstract canvases.  They were so much fun to make!