Going for Gold with the Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media challenge

Happy Sunday evening .....

I hope you've had a nice weekend ..... the good thing is, here in the Isle of Man, and the UK, it's not over yet!  We've got a lovely Bank Holiday tomorrow ..... no early Monday morning start, and the weather forecast is looking good! 

It's time for another challenge now though ...... fancy some Mixed Media?  Then pop over to the Happy Little Stampers blog because it's time to get this month's  Mixed Media challenge underway.
The theme for May is ......... GOLD!

I've gone for adding a little bit of gold heat embossing onto a pretty MDF heart, using one of my favourite IndigoBlu stamps .....

I painted the heart with white gesso, and then covered the front using a piece of the Tim Holtz Botanical Collage Paper 

I added a touch of colour to the paper BEFORE I laid it onto the MDF which had been given a coat of Ranger's Glue and Seal.
I used Distress Inks on the back of the paper so that the colour wouldn't run when I applied the medium again over the top to seal the paper to the MDF.

Once everything was dry I then heat embossed the gorgeous flourish over the top with a gold embossing powder ......

On the back, I gave the heart a coat of a pale grey paint and dry brushed over the top with white to give a worn look .....

and then heat embossed that gorgeous flourish in full, again using the gold powder .....

I love how this looks ..... it could be used as a decoration or why not use it as a beautiful tag on a special gift.

As with all the HLS Challenges there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the Challenge winner, which will be doubled if the winner has used Happy Little Stampers stamps on their project.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.  And if you have the Bank Holiday tomorrow .... enjoy it!
We're hoping for a repeat of today .... its been glorious!  We've had blue skies, and sunshine all day ...... it's been lovely.

And yes, the BBQ was on again earlier.  I don't think I've used the kitchen at all this weekend .... it's great!
We popped into Douglas this afternoon ...... went to see Chris in his new place and had a lovely Sunday lunch down there. He's had a busy week but the hard work has paid off .... The British looks fab! 
We popped round to see Lauren too, who was putting together a HUGE trampoline in the garden for the little man .......

guess who had a fun afternoon there! No ...... I'm not talking about me ..... although hubby was quick to try it out!!! 
Then it was back home to enjoy the afternoon sun, sat in the garden with a good book.

We drove along the prom and it was really weird ..... Manannan's Cloak was coming in across the bay .... or was it a heat haze perhaps!!

Manannan's Cloak is this strange wall of mist that occasionally comes in low across the sea and covers the island, supposedly to shroud it and protect it from unwanted visitors.  It's fascinating to watch it come in .....

It obviously did it's job today ....... we're still here!

Cheerio until next time ......

Ahhh ..... tissue!

Happy Sunday evening folks ......

Our weekend is almost over ....... I hope you've had a good one.
It's been lovely and relaxing here .... for a change!

It's time to get another challenge underway, with the Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge

The theme for August is all about Tissue Paper.  It's not something I use regularly but, when I do play around with it it's always fun!
There's lots of ways to use tissue ...... stamp onto it and then apply it to MDF, wood, canvas or your cards and journals. This gives a really nice delicate effect.
Use Bleeding Art tissue to apply colour to your projects .... this works great on canvas or watercolour card, makes fab background pieces.
Or ...... watercolour just plain white tissue paper, like I've done for my inspiration piece here ......

 
This fun technique is a favourite of one of my Blog buddies .... the lovely Loll Thompson. She's been using tissue a lot recently .... check out her YouTube video for some great ideas.

Inspired by Loll's techniques I used Distress Inks to watercolour my tissue paper ..... smooshed the ink directly onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water and then laid the piece of white tissue paper on the top to soak up the colour

Once it was dry ..... it doesn't take long ...... I scrunched up the tissue, opened it out again and then stuck it down onto a piece of white cardstock, using IndigoBlu's Slap It On as my adhesive ..... this makes it easier to work with.

You can see I left all the creases in the tissue and even added a few more as I glued it down ...  this gives a great texture.

Whilst this was drying I die cut my birds (CUTplorations For the Birds dies) once from plain white cardstock and once from black.  I then layered the two together off set ever so slightly to give a shadow effect ......

I also die cut a stitched frame and cut the tissue down to size so that it would fit behind the frame with the die cut birds on the top.

I added a stamped sentiment underneath ......

And a little stamped banner to the top ...... just look at all that lovely texture from the tissue paper

I had a piece of the coloured tissue left over so .... for the inside of the card I stamped part of my greeting .......

and used the tissue to die cut the rest ......... I don't like to waste anything as you know!

Don't forget as with all the HLS Challenges, there's a prize for the challenge winner ...... a $20 Gift Certificate to spend in the HLS Store .... so get creating!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy what's left of your weekend.

It's been very quiet here today ..... no family Sunday lunch.  I think both of the kids have been making the most of their time at home.  Lauren has had her first full day off in two weeks so she spent the day with the little man and Robbie, and Chris well .... he's had a tough week, bless him!  He's been watching the builders tear his pub apart ...... eeeek!

   

The Prospect closed it's doors last Saturday night and is undergoing a huge re-furb.  Floors have been taken out, the pool table's gone, all the decor and the TV.......... and the walls are currently a nice shade of bright green apparently! Thankfully it's only the undercoat! 

It's all supposed to be finished by the end of the month ..... re-opening night is scheduled for Thursday 31st August ........ we're looking forward to that.

Have a great week.

Cheerio until next time .......

Hello, Hello, Hello .....

Happy weekend to you .....

I hope you've had a good week and that you're all enjoying the weekend.
I've been hosting a Stampin Up! party this afternoon so my weekend has got off to a great start.  Tea, cake and lots of laughs with my crafty ladies, and lots of new SU goodies too.  It's always a fun afternoon when Lyn, my SU demonstrator comes round ..... expensive but fun!
Thanks ladies for a great afternoon.

I'm playing along with this month's CAS Mix Up Challenge today ........

I've been having fun this week trying out Loll's Tissue Paper Watercolouring Techniques ..... you've got to give these a go they are so much fun and really easy to get brilliant results. Check out the link to Loll's YouTube video.

CAS Mix Up ....... what's all that about then?  It's right up my street ...... CAS design, lots of white space, Mixed Up with rubber stamping and different techniques using mixed media products. You can find all the details on the CAS Mix Up Blog

This month it's all about using Tissue Paper, along with rubber stamping and my choice of technique/product is inlaid die cutting.  Here's the result ........

A really simple design, lots of white space, using the Say Hello  die set from Concord & 9th.  This is a fab die set .... 2 pieces one of which cuts the word as above, including the outline and the other part cuts the word much finer (you'll see what I mean later on)

I followed Loll's instruction and coloured my tissue paper using Distress Inks ...... smooshed onto a craft sheet, spritzed and then laid the tissue over the top to soak up the colour.
Once it was dry I adhered it to a piece of white card stock using IndigoBlu Slap It On as my adhesive and left it to dry.
This was then die cut using the large hello die ......

I love the texture that you get from the tissue paper ......

I used the same die and cut the word from black card and also from a white piece that had been cut to fit the front of my finished card.

I then inlaid the tissue paper hello along with a black border into the white panel ...... love the effect!

A simple stamped greeting and a few dots of glitter glue add the finish touch

Here's a couple more versions using up the die cut pieces ....... the first one is using the panel of die cut coloured tissue

Inlaid with the black hello and this time I added in the white border.......

I also used the second part of the die .... the fine cut word.  see how I've layered it on the top to add more detail ......

I also adding in a touch of gold embossing powder too.  Simply wiped gently over the top of the raised areas with Versamark ink ..... I used my finger but you could use the ink pad itself.
Sprinkled on the gold embossing powder and heat set ...... love this effect.

I stamped some words to finish the greeting, and a little bit of gold thread for added interest

A few pretty sequins add a touch of sparkle.

Finally the white version ........

Using the black left over card I inlaid the white hello and the tissue paper border .....

A little bit of stamping to add detail to the bottom ....... I used Distress Oxides for the flowers, they're great on dark cardstock, and a bit of white heat embossing for the word friend 

And again I finished off with a few dots of glitter glue here and there

I think I can say that's good use of all that die cutting .... well you know I don't like to waste anything!

Time to put my feet up now I think and catch up on some TV. 

We've got the little man staying with us tonight, so it might have to be Pokemon or Power Rangers for now until he goes to bed.  Then it's time for a cheeky G&T ....  and the last episode of The Night Manager. 

I've finally managed to get my hands on a new Aromatic Tonic from Fever Tree so it would be rude not to try it ..... the decision I have to make is which gin do I put it with!  Cheers folks! 

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your weekend.  

It's supposed to be nice weather here tomorrow ..... so it's looking like BBQ for Sunday lunch!

Cheerio until next time ....

Happy Monday ......

Happy Monday .......

The start of a new week ....... how's your day been?
It's been one of those days full of paperwork here, and not the fun kind either!  Forms to fill in, household stuff to sort and letters and emails to write.  It's all done now though so I'm looking forward to the rest of the week.

Friday 13th wasn't so bad either ...... even after a little bit of a shaky start.  Lauren turned up at the house first thing and she'd lost her phone! She got it back though.
Hubby had the day off work and we went to view some houses, and we think ........ fingers crossed ...... that we might have found somewhere suitable.  Not too far away either.  I'm not saying anything else at this stage .... there's still a way to go yet.

I did manage to spend some time on my journal too ...... I'm amazed that I'm keeping this up. I might not be completing a page a day yet, but I am doing something in there everyday.
I actually finished 4 pages over the weekend!!!  Well ...... two 2 page spreads.  A little bit different too ..... a bit more grungy for the first two and then a little bit vintage looking for the second.  See what you think ......

Pages 11 and 12 ......

There's a little bit of everything on here ....... starting with PaperArtsy Infusions for the background (so excited, there's some new colours launching soon!) ....... applied by sprinkling tiny amounts of the powders directly onto my journal pages, then I used a Glazing Medium to spread the colour around.  I simply brushed the glazing medium up and down the page picking up the pigment as I went along and blended the colours together.

A little but of stenciling next with some Heavy White Gesso ........

I stamped the face using a black Archival Ink .....

And then I added a bit more detail to the pages, with some Aged Mahogany Distress Ink through one of my favourite stencils .... the brick wall.
I placed the stencil back over the design and applied the Tim Holtz Crazing Collage Medium over the top and left it to dry.

Look at all that texture ....... it works in a similar way to Crackle glaze only you don't need to add paint onto the top.

Next I did a bit more stamping here and there with various stamps ....... some floral, some background

and a touch of script in there too.
And I finished off the pages with some words from a couple of JOFY stamp set.

On to pages 13 and 14 ........
A touch of vintage ....... my favourite so far I think

Guess who's been watching Tim Holtz on Facebook Live all last week.  Have you seen all the new stuff that's coming out ..... stamps, dies, Idea-ology and then tonight whoo hoo!!! new inks!!!! I cna't wait to get my hands on those.

I do love the grungy, vintage look but I don't seem to create it that much these days so I thought my journal was a good excuse.

I found a piece of tissue paper that must have come wrapped around something .... what I have no idea but anyway it ended up in my stash and it was perfect for the background of this spread.

I scrunched it up a couple of times, opened it out again and stuck it across both journal pages using Rangers Glue and Seal ....... I love the texture that this creates.  I didn't smooth out any of the creases I wanted that old crinkled look

I then gave it a coat of clear gesso and then washed over the top with Tattered Rose Distress stain. Whilst this was still wet I gave it spritz with Biscotti Perfect Pearls ..... I love how the colours gather in the creases

Once everything was dry ........ I did give it a little helping hand with the heat tool ....... I added a little bit of stamping here and there

And, using my finger, I rubbed a touch of Versamark ink over some of the more raised creases in the tissue paper and then heat embossed with a gold powder

This art journaling is making me use some of the bits and pieces lying around on my desk  ........ like the cogs and the clock face .......

Cut from grunge paper and card, and coloured with Distress Paints

And as always I added some of my favourite words ......

Along with a lovely sentiment from Inkylicious

I'm still not up to date ...... but I'm getting there.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your Monday.
I've got a birthday card to write and a present to wrap ..... our little girl is 25 tomorrow!!

Happy Birthday Lauren! ..... love you loads xx

Cheerio until next time ....