Rainbow Unicorn Magical Wishes

I just got these brand new stamps and dies from Concord and 9th! I love that this unicorn is a bit more realistic than the other unicorn stamps I’ve seen. I used hot press watercolour paper and some professional water colours (various brands) to colour the image.

The paper has a definite ivory tint so it was a bit hard to match some of the other parts of the card. I used the cloud die included in the set to airbrush the clouds on the background then I die cut the oval from the aqua cardstock (PTI). I would have cut the cloud from white paper but it looked really odd next to the ivory water colour paper. So I used Tim Holtz silver glitter paper instead.

I created my shaker in the usual way placing the oval die cut on the card base to back the window. I made 4 of these cards at once so I made up a huge batch of multicoloured sequins and beads, too many in fact so I have extras to use on future cards! To finish, I added lots of stars, the sentiment and lots of shimmer pen.

Our theme at Crazy 4 Challenges this week was to make a card or project for a kid! These are actually going to adults but seriously, who doesn’t love unicorns with rainbow mane and tail? :) Awesome right? Have fun!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Mermaid Songs Canvas

Once in a while, I like to make a project other than a card for Crazy 4 Challenges. I made this mermaid a while back and started the canvas but hadn’t finished it yet. I happened to notice it right while I was deciding what to make so it worked out perfectly!

When I started, I had a slightly different plan so I covered the canvas with Tim Holtz tissue paper. Then I covered it with watered down gesso. Next I mixed up a concoction of acrylic paint and shimmer acrylic paint for the sky. The shimmer paint was old and pretty thick so it made a sort of paste so instead of painting it on, I used a palette knife. It gave me some really cool texture! I liked it so much that I repeated the technique for the sea except I added much more of the shimmer paint. For this layer I also used a palette knife to give me some texture. I deliberately applied it in wave-like motion and because I didn’t mix it completely, there is some colour variation as well especially in the lower corners. It’s subtle and didn’t show up well here because the shimmer reflects the light so strongly.

To follow the sketch I needed a half circle at the bottom so I mixed up another concoction this time with gold and buff paints, some texture paste and some gold glitter. Again, it was applied with a palette knife; I didn’t use any template, I just applied it like cake icing until I got a shape I liked. While the paste was still wet, I embedded shells, shell chips and added some more glitter; gold glitter all over and some bright colours to look like coral and little creatures sticking to the rock. Some green glitter was applied to look like sea weed as well. I liked it so much that I created a large sea weed growing off the top of the rock using texture paste and glitter. The shape I wanted was much too small for the palette knife so I used a new set of silicone tipped tools I bought.

For the corals, I used a stencil from Red Lead paper company. I tried adding pink and red glitter but I waited too long (off washing the stencil) so it was splotchy and I didn’t like the colours. So I mixed some Autumn Rose and Copper Nuvo drops and painted that over the top. I liked that so much better! I used another Red Lead stencil to add the words using gold paint mixed with light modeling paste. It kept a hint of shimmer which I liked. So much is shimmery on this canvas that this is a nice contrast.

Also to match the sketch, I added some sea creatures to the canvas. These chipboard shapes were from Michaels; I covered them with various paints. The Prima doll stamp by Julie Nutting was stamped on scrapbooking paper from Craft Smith except for the skin which was stamped on X-Press It paper and coloured with Copic markers. Last I added some Nuvo drops for bubbles, a plastic starfish to her headband and a few sea gulls in the sky.

Join us over at the C4C blog with your project featuring this fun sketch.

Enjoy, Rebecca

Floral Smile Card

I recently saw that The Flower Challenge is looking for a new design team member! So I decided to play along with their latest challenge. It’s pretty easy, Anything Goes!

Think I used enough flowers? Ha Ha! The background paper is by Echo Park and the flower dies are by Altenew. I don’t usually use an odd colour for leaves but this time it seemed to work perfectly. Adding green really wouldn’t have worked although I guess a sage colour might have been ok. The heart die is by Hero Arts and I made the tag by hand but used the reinforcer die from a tag set by Neat n Tangled. No matter how many tag dies I have, I never seem to have he perfect length and width I needed! Does that every happen to you? The stencil I used on the tag is by Prima. And last but not least, the sentiment is by Papertry Ink! I shopped at almost every store in my stash for this one!

I really hope the powers that be at the Flower Challenge enjoy my card. I really enjoy the challenge of being on design teams. I work best with deadlines!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Crazy 4 Chickens?

Sadly Crazy Designer Bonnie had to step down from the team but before she left she gave us her challenges for the month. This week she challenged us to use chickens as inspiration. Apparently she had chickens for over 40 years! I can only imagine how delicious those eggs would be! If you don’t have any chicken in your stash, feel free to use the closest bird stamps or papers you have.

Yes, my card features eggs not a bird, but if you look carefully, you’ll see the birds I stamped on the cardstock in the background. A lot of what I used is from the Hero Arts kit from last month. The eggs and nest are die cuts, the branch is one of the stamps and even the small butterfly and tiny leaf branch were in the stamp set. I coloured the eggs with watercolour and sponged ink onto the nest except for the leaves which I coloured with pencils. After the eggs were dry, I flicked on some very dark brown watercolour with a tiny brush to get the smallest dots.

The watercolour I used is quite chalky which is normally terrible for watercolour. But this pan in particular works amazingly for lettering (use a brush to apply it to your calligraphy nib) and the chalky look was perfect for the eggs too. It’s a handmade watercolour by DesignsByRachelBeth on Etsy. Her darker colours are not chalky at all and have luscious pigments. I highly recommend them.

Fun challenge right! Pop on over to the Crazy 4 Challenges blog to join us this week. Be sure to link up your fowl creations by Friday midnight!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Let Them Eat Cake!!

We had yet another dessert challenge this week at Crazy 4 Challenges! Yummy! Isn’t cake the best? My favourite is chocolate with fudge icing, ganache and caramel sauce! Although I have so many favourites!

This cake is by Flourishes but sadly the relaunch didn’t go as planned and it’s closed again so this stamp set isn’t available. But this cake was exactly the right size for this card! I stamped it in a medium grey with my MISTI leaving the stamp inside.

The image was coloured with pencils to add some shading to the cake and colour to the plate. I used mostly warm greys and gold pencil (which didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped) then placed the image back in the MISTI to stamp it with Versamark and embossed it with gold powder. I did this so the pencil tip wouldn’t damage the embossing as happened to me once before. Sadly some of the careful shading I did disappeared. I knew that the lines would be much fatter after embossing so I tried to compensate for that but not quite enough. It’s something to keep in mind if you decide to try this.

The pink die cut and heart use paper from Echo Park from the June Simon Says Stamp kit from last year. The heart die is by Hero Arts and the ornate panel die is cut from the A2 Devine Eloquence set by Spellbinders. The sparkler is from the Happy Day set by Concord & 9th. I drew in the ‘stick’ using a dark grey gel pen. It looks a lot like the colour of a real sparkler.

Enjoy, Rebecca