TIOT - Butterflies

 Hello All!

Thank you so much for all the lovely birthday messages! I really appreciated them!

The weather hasn't improved much today, and I've managed to get a few projects made. I'm sharing one today, which is a card for the new Butterflies theme at Try It On Tuesday.

It's not often that I do clean and simple. I used stamps by Crafty Individuals. 

The beautiful butterfly collage is stamped and clear embossed onto white card, then matted onto black card, then adhered to an A6 white card blank. 

I stamped the butterflies again on a scrap of white card, coloured them with Distress Oxide ink, cut them out, applied glue to the bodies, then adhered them to the image. They can flap their wings if they wish ;-)

I finished with a stamped CI birthday message.

I hope you're all having a good week so far.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

30 Days of Mixed Media with Ana - Days 24-30

Hi Everyone. I'm back today with my final week of entries for Ana Bondu's challenge on Instagram.

I missed out day 23, which was Transfers, as my effort didn't work at all, and I didn't think it was worth the stress to attempt again.

Day 24 - Metal. I covered a piece of card with sticky back foil, then embossed it and used Stazon inks to colour it.

Day 25 - Misti (Stamping Platform). This was quite complicated. I started with a piece of card coloured with Distress inks, then placed it in position on my stamping platform. I had to do the flowers individually, stamping, bleaching out colour with bleach, colouring with Posca paint pens, then re-stamping. Then I stamped the smaller flower in the centre of the large one, painted with white pen, re-coloured with red and orange, then re-stamped the small flower. After doing all the flowers, I flicked some water onto the card to create the bleached splatters. Told you it was complicated, but well worth the effort I think. I'm so pleased I eventually bought the stamping platform, as I've used it quite a lot to get well-stamped images.

Day 26 - Alcohol Ink. Sticky back foil on card again, embossed, then drips of alcohol ink added. Yummy!

Day 27 - Foliage. I love using leaves on my Gelli Plate!

Don't waste the paint on the leaves...

I also used black ink to draw some foliage on a gel-printed tag.

Day 28 - Pigment Ink. Distress oxide inks, Carabelle Studio stamps. I clear embossed the leafy sprig, in order to use the green oxide ink to watercolour.

Day 29 - Fabric. I used ribbons.

Day 30 - Mica. I sponged white tacky glue through a stencil on the black card, then brushed with perfect pearls mica powder. The stamped butterfly and quote were coloured by mixing mica powder into some water to create a watery paint.

That's it for now. I hope to find another challenge once my wrist is fully healed. I'll still be doing my little daily collages though.

Have a happy weekend,

Alison xox

Birgit's Gel Printing Challenge - Week Two

Hi Everyone! Here are some of my gel prints for week two of Birgit Koopsen's Instagram challenge.

Day 8 - Pastels & Chalks. I used Pan Pastels. These do stain the gel plate a little, but it's not a problem.

Day 9 - Stencils

Day 10 - Pigment Ink Pads. I used Distress Oxides.

Day 11 - Multiple Layers. I used stamps with Stazon ink, paint pens, and acrylic paint.

Day 12 - Repeat Patterns. Birgit showed us how to create texture rollers, using cardboard tubes with various items glued onto them - sequin waste, wall-paper, burlap, foam shapes. Then you just need to find a small paint roller they fit onto. The red and turquoise print below was made using plastic cake packaging.

Day 13 - Multi Media. I built up layers on my gel plate with alcohol ink, archival ink stamping, Pan Pastel, Posca Paint Pens, Krylon Gold Leaf Pen, and acrylic paint to pull the print.

Day 14 - Texture. I made some texture plates, using texture paste through stencils and pressing stamps etc. into it to create interesting texture. I also made texture plates by spreading a thick layer of crackle paste onto one piece of board, and bead gel onto another.

I hope these prints have inspired you to do some mono-printing. If you haven't got a gel plate, you could try using a plastic or acetate sheet, acrylic block, smooth tile, or basically anything that doesn't soak the paint up.

Alison xox