Sending Smiles Baby Elephants

 How sweet are these baby elephants? This card was inspired by one made for the Sunny Studio blog. 

I ink blended the grass panel and die cut it in parts with an arch grass die. The sky was ink blended, splattered with oxide sprays and white paint and the grass panel was placed on top. I stamped, coloured and die cut the elephants, clouds and balloons and adhered them to the front and a sentiment was stamped in the corner. I used a black marker to draw the strings for the balloons. Everything was added to a stitched mat and then to the card base. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

AH 620 - Bold Just a Note

Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge 620!

I followed the sketch very closely because I loved the design. 

I chose the colours based on one of the Colour Cubes from Sarah Renae Clark. The backgound was sprayed with Distress Oxide spray and then splattered with gold paint. I adhered that to a green background and die cut a blue frame to add on top so just a small white edge was showing. The orange rectangle was stencilled with a darker orange ink and I added the partial circle and leaves according to the sketch. The sentiment was added across the bottom and some gold gems finished off this card. 

Come and join us at Atlantic Hearts and show us how you interpret this sketch. 

You have until Sunday evening to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create!

Enjoy, 

Alyson

MTTC 542 - Just for You Anemone

 Welcome to My Time to Craft Challenge 542!

The theme for this challenge is to use texture. 

I created a background using oxide sprays and stencilled the bricks onto it. Right away, the colour was showing through the bricks so once the paste dried, I stencilled over it again - and the colour STILL showed through. I realized that since oxide inks are water reactive, anything wet added on top of them will take on the ink colour. I had to start a second time and this time, I used other inks and smooshed the paper into them. I wanted a teal, pink and purple background. Once that was dry, I stencilled the bricks again using texture paste and it turned out so much better! 

The anemone was die cut from white cardstock and I added some light purple ink around the centre. The sentiment was placed across the card and the anemone was added at the left. No embellishments were added as the flower is the focal point. 

Come and join us at MTTC and show us your projects with texture. 

You have two weeks to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create!

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Delicate Foliage Pair of Cards

 This beautiful stamp, stencil and die creates a leaf image where some of the leaves are coloured, some are open and some overlap. I stacked the die three times to add some dimension. 

The backgrounds were sprayed and spattered with Distress Oxide sprays and white paint. Once they were dry, sentiments were stamped at the top and the leaf images were added and trimmed along the right side. I placed those pieces on white cardstock and then on a coloured card base. Some clear gems were added around the cards. 

Enjoy,

Alyson

AH 522 - You're Awesome

 Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge 522!

The sketch is shown in landscape format - I rotated it 90 degrees.

The background of my card was created with two diagonal pieces - one was hot foiled in teal and the leaves were coloured and the other half was created with Distress Oxide sprays. I adhered those pieces to a teal background and added a teal glitter strip across the centre. The sentiment panels were die cut with stitched rectangle dies and I stamped a sentiment on the white panel. The leaves were die cut and adhered around the sentiment. There was enough happening on this card so no other embellishments were added but I did brush the leaves with a shimmer brush. 

Come and join us at Atlantic Hearts and show us how you interpret this challenge. 

You have until Sunday evening to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

DT 136 - You are a Treasure

 Welcome to Double Trouble Challenge 136!

This week, it's all about celebrating the special women in our lives. Our partner challenge requires flowers to be used as well. The small graphic is below - please visit the Double Trouble Challenge blog for detailed information. 

I created a card design that I have used before but it fit perfectly for this challenge. The background was inked with Distress Oxide inks and splattered with Distress Oxide sprays. The flowers were hot foiled in gold and I coloured them with markers. They were die cut and I arranged them on the inked background. The sentiment was heat embossed in black in the corner and I added some clear dew drops to finish off the card. 

Come and join us at Double Trouble and show us how you interpret this week's challenge. 

You have two weeks to link up your project. 

I am also entering my card into the Beautiful Blossoms Challenge. 

We can’t wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

SS 720 - What's Up Giraffe Card

 Welcome to Sketch Saturday Challenge 720! 

The optional theme (in addition to the sketch) is to use an animal. 

If you saw my last post for this design team, you may recall that I ended up remaking my card as I wasn't happy with my first attempt. It was the same situation here... seems I am hainvg a hard time getting it right the first time! 

I created a background by blending turquoise distress oxide inks and then splattering that with white and turquoise sprays. That was adhered to a dark teal background and then to the white card base. I die cut a stitched square background (trimmed it) and stamped some giraffes on white cardstock to be placed behind the border. A leaf image was added along the right side. 

This is the original card I created for this challenge... I rotated the sketch ninety degrees and stamped three animals. They were coloured and fussy cut. I die cut three shapes to form the box and fussy cut three pieces of white cardstock for the inside panels. Those were stamped with a splatter stamp before I adhered the animals. I stamped a sentiment for the bottom and added an old flourish which I coloured in a darker shade than the background paper. 

Come and join us at Sketch Saturday and show us how you interpret the sketch shown above. 

You have two weeks to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create!

Enjoy,

Alyson

Christmas Cards with Oxide Inked Backgrounds

 Every now and then, a little messy work is fun - and these cards are the end result. 

I created three letter size backgrounds and cut them into four card fronts each. I made the backgrounds using Distress Oxide sprays and water. There was a lot of smooshing and drying before I had the backgrounds that made me happy. Once they were entirely dry, I cut them into pieces slightly smaller than a card front as you can see in the photos. 

Die cutting and more die cutting - and still more die cutting... all those little pieces were die cut and arranged into groups for 12 cards. The sentiments were also die cut and these cards have a smaller sentiment piece from a set of sentiment strips. I added some Stickles to the centres of the poinsettias and placed a few clear gems around the images to finish off the cards.

Enjoy,

Alyson

TSOT 553 - Love and Friendship

Welcome to Try Stampin' on Tuesday Challenge 553!

The optional theme in addition to the sketch is "things that fly". 

I created a background using Distress Oxide inks and sprays - lots of smooshing and drying between layers. A piece of black and white patterned paper was placed across the card front and a turquoise ribbon was added to the center of that piece. I used stencilled flower and butterfly images to represent the circles on the sketch. A small bow was tied from twine and added along with a sentiment. The card front was adhered to a black frame and then a white card base. Some clear gems were placed around the card and I used a clear shimmer brush and Liquid Pearls on both images. 

Come and join us at Try Stampin' on Tuesday and show us how you interpret the sketch shown above. 

You have to weeks to link up your project. 

We can’t wait to see what you create!

Enjoy,

Alyson

Hello Sunshine Slimline

It was time to play with some mixed media products - it has been a while!

 Three Distress Oxide sprays were mixed with transparent gloss texture paste. The top two colours were very similar (Cracked Pistachio and Peacock Feathers). Those mixtures were layered on an angle across a slimline flower stencil. The flower was embossed in blue and I  coloured it using watercolour pencils. A second flower was coloured and the centre was cut out and adhered to the first flower with foam tape. The sentiment was foiled in silver and adhered to a blue border. Some silver gems were added and the blue flower sections were brushed with a clear shimmer brush. 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Leaves, Leaves and Leaves!

These two cards share a background - one that I created a long while ago using Distress Sprays. I die cut the background using two stitched rectangle dies and used parts of them on each card. 

The first card has teal and purple in the leaves and berries so I used purple cardstock behind the die cut background. The inside stitched rectangle and the "leftover" rectangle that was created from cutting between the two dies were adhered on top of the cardstock. The leaves were stamped, stencilled and die cut and added at the top of the card. A silver foiled sentiment was placed on top and some coordinating gems were added in and around the leaves. A clear shimmer brush was used to brush some shimmer onto the berries. 

The second card uses the same images but they were stencilled in a different colour scheme. The card was set up the same way but the rectangle pieces are opposite from the ones used on the first card. The background is orange to coordinate with the berries. A gold foiled sentiment was added along with some coordinating gems. 

Products used are as follows: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Pansy Cardstock, Nectarine Cardstock, Watercolour Cardstock (CTMH), Neenah Solar White Cardstock 

Stamps: In the Meadow plus die and layering stencils 

Inks: Grape Crush, Royal Treatment, Aquatini, All that Jazz, Tiki Torch, Orange Twist, Fiesta Blue, Something Borrowed, Blue Suede Shoes (Catherine Pooler), DO Sprays - Peacock Feathers, Salvaged Patina, Mermaid Lagoon (Ranger)

Accessories: Foiled Sentiments, Lavender Gems, Sapphire Gems (PFS), Stitched Rectangle Thin Cuts, Clear Shimmer Brush (CTMH)

Enjoy,

Alyson

Distress Oxide Snowflake Cards

I love experimenting with mixed media... I'm not good at it, but it still is a lot of fun! 

These two cards were created by blending a background using Distress Oxide inks. While the ink was still wet, I spritzed some water on each. I also used some Distress Sprays to add some extra splatters. The last step for the background was to splatter some white acrylic paint mixed with water. Those pieces were left to dry overnight.

The next day, I embossed some snowflake images in white on each card. I also added very small dots of Stickles and Liquid Pearls in coordinating colours on each. The card fronts were adhered to craft foam, then to white cardstock and finally to coordinating coloured cardstock. They were placed on a top folding card base. 

Products used are as follows: 

Paper: Neenah Solar White Cardstock, Teal and Purple Cardstock (scrapbook.com) 

Stamps: Snow Flurries (CTMH), Christmas Joy (Hero Arts), Peace-Love-Joy (Gina K. Designs) 

Inks: Versamark, DO Inks - Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet, Prize Ribbon, Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon, DO Sprays - Peacock Feathers, Prize Ribbon, Mermaid Lagoon

Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Craft Foam, Stickles - Steel, Mermaid, Liquid Pearls - Lavender Lace, Juniper, White Craft Paint

Enjoy,

Alyson

Always in My Heart Slimline

I spent some time last week playing with Distress Oxide Sprays... they are fun but can be very, very messy. My hands were washed at least 40 times and the stain was STILL there! Next time, I will use some gloves...

This background was created using two oxide sprays. I initially sprayed them on the same surface and spritzed them with water but the result was a very dull colour. I cleaned off my surface and used one colour at a time. The paper was smooshed into the ink several times and heat set between each session. I probably did 6-7 smooshing sessions to get the result I wanted. I also dropped some water on the paper to create more interest. The last step was to splatter it with a Lagoon shimmer brush. 

The sentiment was stamped in two colours and it was die cut. The die isn't long enough so I cut part of the image, flipped it around and cut the second half. I used the same technique on the sentiment border piece. The flower was stamped with four ink colours and die cut - same with the leaves. I added some bright pink embroidery thread behind the flower and finished off the card by adding some glacier gems. 

Products used are as follows: 

Paper: Neenah Solar White Cardstock, Teal Cardstock (scrapbook.com), Slimline Card and Envelopes (CTMH), Distress Watercolour Cardstock (Ranger) 

Stamps: Slimline Sentiments (CTMH), Japanese Mum plus Dies (Altenew) 

Inks: DO Sprays - Kitsch Flamingo, Peacock Feathers (Ranger), Black (CTMH), Sparkling Rose, Bubble Gum, Raspberry Bliss, Grassy Knoll, Key Lime (PFS), Be Mine, All that Jazz (Catherine Pooler) 

Accessories: Stitched Simple Brackets Thin Cuts, Lagoon Shimmer Brush, Clear Shimmer Brush  (CTMH), Dark Pink Embroidery Thread (misc.), Copic Marker, Thin Foam Tape, Glacier Gems (PFS)

Enjoy,

Alyson