Botanical Prints for the CAS Mix Up Challenge .......

Happy Friday ......

How are you? ...... I hope you've had a good week.

Welcome to October ......... only 84 days until Christmas (just saying!)

I have started to think about the festive season, and I must confess ...... the shopping has started!

Well, you know what it's like, you see things when you're out and about, and I do have an extra one to spoil buy for this year.  

Arthur isn't really going to understand the whole Santa thing this year, and he may be the smallest member of the family now but, no doubt he will have the largest pile of presents under the tree!!!

Anyway, enough about the C word ..... it's the first of October so that means there's brand new CAS Mix Up Challenge ...... yeah!!!

Bonnie is our host this month and she's chosen a real fun challenge for us.

  

It's a Mixed Media month, and the challenge is to use actual leaves or flowers etc. from your garden to create your Botanical Prints ....... cool or what!

There's a few ways to do this.  Ink up your leaves etc. with paints or ink pads and then use them to stamp with.  Use them as stencils with spray inks, or on your gelli plates.  Or, you can even run them through your die cutting machines sandwiched between watercolour paper.  This is really cool, I've never tried it but, I have seen it done.  

If you're not sure which way to go then check out the CAS Mix Up Blog.  Along with all the gorgeous inspiration from the DT you'll find links to some great video techniques for this challenge.

As it's a Mixed Media month remember to include some rubber stamping on your card, and at least one other Mixed Media element. 

OK,  here's one way of using leaves .......

I used Distress Ink, directly from the ink pad onto the leaves and then I used the leaves as a stamp.

I placed the inked up leaves onto a piece of white cardstock and then I covered the leaves with a piece of copier paper and applied a little bit of pressure to transfer the image. 

I love the detail on the leaves ..........

And I think I have a new favourite Distress colour ....... Salvaged Patina, I love it!!!!!! 

I repeated the process twice and then stamped my sentiment over the top using a black ink.

I added a few splatters of gold ink to the background ......

Now you know me, I don't like to waste anything, especially ink.  

I noticed that there was still a little bit of colour left on my leaves after I'd used them to print so, I spritzed with a little water, grabbed another piece of white card and used them again .......

I love the different look to the leaves, more of a watercolour feel I think ......

The paler leaves in the background are the ink that was left on from my first card ...... 

The second, deeper image in the front was done by inking up the leaves again, although not using as much ink as I did on the first card, spritzed with a little water and then repeated the technique.

I stamped and heat embossed half of my sentiment directly onto the card, stamped the other half onto a scrap of cardstock that I'd coloured using the same Distress Ink.  I cut this down and attached with foam pads, adding some rainbow mettalic thread underneath to add a bit more interest to the design.

The final touch was a few splatters of gold here and there, done using a technique I picked up from Tracy Scott

You know how I love to splatter well, these were done with water and gold embossing powder. 

Simply splatter the water onto the card, sprinkle with embossing powder and heat set.  It gives a bit of a different look to the splatters and a touch of texture too.

Now its your turn ..... pop into the garden and see what you can find to create your Botanical Prints.

See you in the gallery!

We have a great Guest Designer for this month ....... Izzy (Izzy Scrap) is joing the Mix Up Design Team so be sure to pop by and say Hello!

Thanks for stopping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day and have a lovely weekend.

It's World Cardmaking Day tomorrow (Saturday 2nd October), and the lovely Sharon Everett from The Forget Me Not Kraft Kabin  has gathered together some favourite faces from the craft world to celebrate, with a whole day of online videos and tutorials.  

It's all going on on Facebook ......... click HERE if you want to check out the details.   

Jo Firth-Young (JOFY), Tracy Scott and Julie Hickey are three of the names who will be live during the day.  The lovely Eileen Godwin will also be joining in the fun, along with a whole host of others. 

Sharon gets everything underway at 10am (UK time), and the last demo is around 8pm I think so, it's going to be a busy day. 

I'm off to get my craft desk clear and some supplies ready to use, so I can join in the fun.  Maybe I'll see you there! 

Cheerio until next time .......

Products used:

Stamps: Sentiment Collection (Penny Black) - card 1; Happy Happy Happy (Lawn Fawn) - card 2

Inks: Distress Ink - Salvaged Patina; Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Versamark; Delicata - Golden Glitz (for the splatters - card 1)

Other: Leaves from the garden; Gold Embossing Powder (WOW!); Metallic thread