WICKED WEDNESDAY ATC #54 - BUTTERFLIES

Last week, over at Wicked Wednesday ATC, was a celebration of their 1st birthday and there were umpteen prizes to be given away. Guess what! I won a $12 voucher to spend on Just Some Lines digis - which I have, whoopee and a big thank you.
This weeks challenge is a favourite of many I guess, butterflies. I am having fun using gesso and bits of paper, ribbon, grungepaper, etc. so this is my card:

The base is mountboard rather than just card because using both gesso and inks/paints on card makes for a disintegrated mess! I stuck little material butterflies together with hand - cut diamonds from grungepaper and scrap pieces of card border to the base before giving it the once over with white gesso. Once dry I used various green distress inks over the top. I have a gorgeous luscious green ink spray that has refused to spray from day one but it does make the most wonderful 'blobs' of colour which is what you can see in places. Finally, I distressed 2 card butterflies that have been waiting in my stash for years to be used on this ATC, stuck them together, added flower stamens for antennae then some seed beads for it's body. Another little punched butterfly and some darker distress to the edge of the card finished it off.
I enjoyed making this and it was so quick. Enjoy the different colours that my butterfly tea light gives and I'll see you next week:

WW #48 - BLACK & WHITE & ONE OTHER COLOUR

I had such fun with last week's card, 'back to school'. Not only did I win a top 3 place from Wicked Wednesday, but I also won one from Just Some Lines too. How chuffed am I. Thank you to both challenge blogs.
This week's theme can be interpreted in so many ways. I decided to go along with something I saw in Craft Stamper magazine where different layers and Gesso formed the background.

I used a piece of mount board (for my US pals, mount board is used to frame pictures etc) and covered it with a thin layer of Gesso. Whilst drying, I managed to cut the orange oval from card. Not an easy task when the dies you have are all the wrong size!! I then arranged a torn piece of white doily, a torn piece of water colour paper - just the bit that was fastening it to the spine - and stuck them all down with glue and seal from Ranger. I stamped the flowers at the top right using black Archival and then stamped some tiny flowers and swirls onto 1 layer of tissue paper using black Stazon. I roughly cut these out and carefully stuck them to the card using more glue and seal. The tissue simply disappears leaving the stamped images. A quick squirt of Perfect Pearls copper and a black marker around the edge to form a frame - done. This technique is a great way of using up tiny left overs and can make some rather appealing results.
Right, I'm off to await the sun and then I have to paint some wood preserve on my greenhouse before the winter comes, although in the UK, we are still waiting for summer!!!

SCD NOVEMBER CHALLENGE WEEK 1 - HOUSES

Pop over to the Something Completely Different challenge blog for details of this weeks challenge.
The theme is houses.
A good chance to use my new Tim Holtz on the edge townscape die. I tried it with mount board but it didn't cut through properly. The die is quite intricate, just like the scrollwork one, and that doesn't really like mount board either - but I make it have it!!!

In the end I cut the houses out of grunge paper.
This photo shows the sparkle in the stickles.

This one shows the reflection of light in the windows of the houses.
I used paint dabbers to colour each house and gesso for snow on the rooves and the 'ground' plus some glitter. I already had some off cuts of mirri card that I had previously coloured with Stazon, so used little pieces to stick behind the houses. The light shines on them and makes it look like lights are on in each one.
The base card is distressed over a clear embossed Santa which I ironed to get rid of the embossing. The stars are embossed with sparkly white powder and the 'ho, ho, ho' is simply stamped with Brilliance white.
It didn't turn out as effectively as I wanted, but in real life, it's not too bad.

GHOSTLY ATC

I don't really know why I love making Halloween ATCs. I think it's the colours - or lack of colour - and the intriguing images and effects.

Of course it's really an American thing that is catching on here as everything else from over there does (not complaining about the craft side of that though - quite the opposite) so they do it better. I've just seen an amazing ornament made using a combination of Tim's GB, stamps and embellishments. Quite delish..

My little card, on the other hand, is simple but effective - just like me LOL!!!!

I used mount board for the base and gave it a covering of gesso before distressing over it with black soot and dried marigold inks. I then sprayed the skull stamp with water and stamped the background. this gave an eery looking image which I dried quickly with a heat gun. After masking that I stamped the cobwebs using black archival, removed the mask and over stamped with Tim's barbed wire stamp, again using black archival. The little ghost word is from a mini collage of words by Studio G - I think I got this off Ebay last year. I then stuck a couple of 'spiders' - ok, I know they are really ants - which are luminous to the webs and added a bit of orange peel stickles.

The photo doesn't really do it justice because, although a simple card, it's quite effective.

I'm starting to get my things together for Lindsay's workshops on Saturday. They are going to be a hoot. Meeting up with 'the girls' (Gez, She and Sioux) and the 'sister act' (Lindsay and Heather) is a recipe for fun, fun, fun, Oh! and a lot of great crafting techniques. Check out everyone's blog from the links in my right hand side bar.

Hopefully I shall get the chance to take photos of what we make and what we get up to. See ya.

SCD TORSO - RED AND BLACK

I've joined in again this week over at Something Completely Different challenge blog.

Week 3 and the theme is Red and Black. Here is my version.

I had to get 'peg leg' to photo it with his camera because for some reason, mine won't take a clear picture any more!

I sorted out my red and black beads to make the dragonfly, one of Heather's again from her book, only to find that I was short of seed beads in either colour. So off to Hobbycraft to buy some - any excuse to go craft hunting. My stash of dagger beads has grown over the last few weeks, thanks to Ebay! Anyway, once I had the required type and number I proceeded to throw them about the floor in a bid to make the little critter. I finally managed it in between both episodes of Corrie last night.

I had no idea what to do with the background so it came about after much phaffing about. I gessod the base and when dry I used fired brick and barn door DI to cover it all. I then smudged some black soot DI over parts of it where I inteded to put the red net and dragonfly. The little areas that remained red were then stamped in black archival on little dragonfly stamps. I trimmed the net and added both red and black stickles to the edges to stick it down. I then stuck the dragonfly in place using glossy accents.

In the end I had fun and that's all that matters eh?