GDT for Creative Artiste Mixed Media Nov Challenge – Autumn Teapot

**THERE WILL BE TWO POSTS FROM ME TODAY. THIS IS THE FIRST POST OF TWO**

Hello friends and happy November! The weather has finally decided to give us a bit of a cool down and it feels more like that Autumn Season right now. We’ve been waiting on some rain as it’s been dry and then the wind blew in some cool with it too! I always like to give Autumn it’s “due justice” as it never seems to have a spotlight as much I think it should.

I’m very excited to share a mixed media project I made for a guest design spot (that I had won a top spot from a previous challenge). I was asked to join this month as a guest designer for the Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Blog!

The theme for these monthly challenges is always “Anything Goes Mixed Media“. So be sure to check out the wonderful inspiration from the team and share your mixed media project over there! I look forward to seeing your inspiring makes!

I’m always excited when I have an “excuse or reason” to get out all of my mixed media things and play around to make something! I thought since it was November, it would be a great time to pull out the Autumn media:

I made this fun center/accent piece for Autumn and pulled out the cool Finnebair rusty metal teapot from my shelf to finally decorate on! It actually looks pretty cool by itself, but I had to add some other details to it that I thought would make it my own.

For the base: The only thing that was missing for me was a “handle” for my teapot and I went through my husbands things and found an old metal coat hook that I had him screw onto the side. I also had some extra pieces laying around from the molds I made with resin, so I attached those along the frame opening with 3D matte gel. I wanted to also add some texture to my teapot and that’s where I added some crackle paste in various areas…all of these things had to dry for quite some time. It didn’t look pretty at that point as those pieces were white. LOL The “hurry up and wait” had begun.

After the long drying time: I started by covering the entire thing with two layers of black gesso so that all of those white areas were completely covered up. I pulled out some acrylic paints in Raw Umber, Burnt Orange and very light touch of Marigold. I started with the darkest color first and did not use a brush to apply the layers. Instead, I used a sponge after each layer was dry. I very lightly and sparingly used the yellow. I even went back in with the Burnt Orange and Raw Umber to get the look I was wanting.

After all of the painting, I used more of the 3D matte gel and wrapped some jute/rope around the top handle.

Going to the right side of the teapot, you can see where I’ve added all of that crackle paste and the painting that I’ve done over it. The only thing missing at this point was the “highlights” to make it look like a found rusty metal teapot. Since it was Autumn themed, I pulled out the Finnebair Vintage Gold Wax and rubbed over the raised areas with my finger. You can see the look it gives over the paste and decorative molds around the frame and even the raised “dots” along the top of the teapot.

Moving over to the left side of the teapot, you can see where I’ve screwed in the metal hook to the side of the teapot. I just incorporated the silver screws with the design by adding paint. I told my husband that I thought it looked cool to turn the coat hook up-side-down as it looked more like a handle.

And now if we take a closer look to the inside of the teapot frame, you will see an Autumn scene in there. The back of the teapot comes out so you can decorate how you’d like. I know it’s a bit hard to see in the photo, but I found some leafy background paper to attach over the metal backing and I also splattered some gold paint over it.

For the bottom of the teapot, I attached some woodland moss mixture with 3D matte gel and also used it to attach the gold splattered gourds, eucalyptus, a wood slice, a cardboard squirrel, sticks and some acorns. I also went around the outside areas to attach some Fall leaves and more acorns. The only thing I didn’t have in my stash were the acorns and sticks. My husband said that he could get them for free…and of course he went to our local park and picked them up! LOL So those are the only “real” things on my teapot.

I had thought about maybe adding some fairy lights inside at the top so the inside would be more visible, but not sure if I would like that or not…what do you think?

And in case you might want to know, the measurement of the teapot are 12″ across (including the added metal coat hook), 8″ tall and about 3.5″ in depth. I currently have it sitting in my cabinet at home.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my mixed media teapot! I would love to see your mixed media project as well if you play along with us this month at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog!

Thanks so much for stopping in! Stay tuned as I will have another post coming up in a couple of hours!

Challenges: (if this project doesn’t fit with your challenge, just delete.)

Ally’s Angels – #87 Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create – October Anything Goes with optional: lots of leaves (Fall/Spring)
Dragonfly Dreams – October Anything but a Card
Krafty Chicks – #740 Anything Goes
Classic Design – #10-2024 Anything Goes with optional twist: Anything but a card
The Creative Crafters – #81 Anything Goes

Mushrooms at Sparkles Monthly!

Hello friends! I hope that your October has been a good for you! We have just started seeing some cooler weather and even a bit of frost coming tomorrow night! I also wanted to say thank you for your comments about my last post. After having such a break, getting my crafting back on has been touchy. I’m trying to get organized!😁

Today starts the October challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and for this month, our hostess is asking to see a mushroom(s) on your project. Be sure to stop by the blog to see what the rest of the team has created for you. Here’s my project for this challenge:

I really like how this one turned out! I was trying to keep it in an Autumn feel with using these colors and adding leaves. Everything I’ve used came from Lawn Fawn.

I started by cutting out the background panel, the leaves and the mushrooms in different colors of cardstock. I sponged over the each of the pieces for dimension and shading and then splattered over top of them with brown and white paint.

I just attached all of the layers together that I thought was pleasing to my eye and then I white heat embossed the sentiment over the brown cardstock and cut out the banner and popped it up over the leaves with foam tape. Lastly, I just added a few white gems for sparkle.

I hope you like my card today and has inspired you in some way to play along with us for the challenge this month! I would to see your mushroom creations in the gallery! I appreciate you stopping today!

Challenges:

Penny’s Paper-Crafty – #582 Anything Goes Using Paper
Just Us Girls – #748 Leaves
Creative Friday – #370 Faux Stitching (in die cut background)
Crafty Catz – #680 Anything Goes optional: Autumn Colors
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2441 Anything Goes
Four Seasons – Anything Goes Fall
Crafts Galore Encore – #128 Anything Goes
The Paper Funday – #70 Anything Goes optional: Autumn

Hello Flowers & Catch Up

Hello friends! I hope you’ve had a great week so far! It’s a rainy day, but I have some errands to do as it will be a busy weekend so I wanted to get some things done. I also have some more catching up to share with you at the end of the post too!

I made a card using some older Newton’s Nook products I have and played along in a few challenges as well:

I am not sure if I used this stamp set or not before that I received a few years back from Newton’s Nook called Versatile Vases (retired), but I think it’s a great set with lots of versatility.

I stamped the flowers, then stamped the vase over top of it to make it look like the flowers are inside the vase. I colored with my Copic markers and cut out the panel with the Newton’s Nook Framework Die Set and then cut another panel with pink cardstock for the frame around it. I then stamped the hello sentiment at the top right corner of the panel.

I followed along with the sketch (see below) for the Inky Paws challenge and used some pink ink to stamp the solid flower image from the Versatile Vases set and layered it over a pink cardstock layer. The purple dotted paper came from the Newton’s Nook Birthday Woofs Paper Pad. I arranged each panel over a white top folding A2 card base, but before attaching the purple dotted strip going horizontally behind the flower panel, I wrapped some white twine around it and added a bow with it.

I used some foam tape to pop up the flower panel and then added some purple rhinestones to the center of each flower.

It’s a very simple and sweet card perfect for sending a smile!

I’m still catching up with some projects that I had been working on earlier this year and never had a chance to post each thing I was doing at the time.

You may remember the “Stamp Joy Virtual Event” that I did back in March and I shared those in my post here. During the exact same time I was doing that, there was another event going on through Scrapbook.com called SBC Fest which was recorded so I watched it later and participated in the classes as I had time. I finally finished what I wanted out of it in May and so here are the things I made except for the scrapbooking classes as I wasn’t interested in those projects. (I used items mostly from my stash.)

*If you’re on my website, click on each photo to enlarge*

I’m getting closer and closer to posting my “catch-up” projects! I have one more event that I attended this Spring and a class that I haven’t shared yet, but will post soon!

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by, for leaving me a comment or just catching the photos of what I’m doing. I hope you enjoy my sharing as much as I’m enjoying creating.

Have a wonderful day!

Challenges: (Top card only)

Inky Paws – #228 sketch
Cupcake Inspirations – #599 Pink & Purple
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2430 Flowers
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

Mix It Up With Veggie Stamping!

Hello friends! Happy July! I can’t believe that June is gone and the 4th of July Holiday is gearing up now! I’m looking forward to some happy times ahead through the Summer and I hope you are too!

Today begins a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog and it’s always “Anything Goes with an optional theme“. For the optional theme this time, we’d like to see some “Veggie Stamping“! (In other words: use vegetables as your source for stamping with!) I’ve never done it before, but I gave it a try! Here’s what I came up with:

Now I’ve heard of people carving food as art, but I don’t think I’ve ever really seen anybody actually use vegetables/food as a stamp! Have you ever tried this? I encourage you to give it a try and join in the challenge with it because it was so much fun to play!

For my vegetable stamping, I didn’t want to use ink pads in fear of contaminating/ruining it, so I decided to use some acrylic paints instead. I grabbed some veggies from the fridge along with a plate to hold the paints and cut the veggies to dip into the paint piles. My husband decided to come around and snap a photo of what I was doing, so I thought I’d share my mess:

I was actually in the process of cutting out the “veggie flowers” when he took the photo, but I started with some acrylic paper because I was using paints and cut the paper large so I had plenty of room to play around. It was a bit of trial to figure out how each veggie would look. I thought it worked best to dry out the veggies as much as possible on a paper towel. The coral large flower came from the red pepper. I found that using a paint brush to apply it to the veggie was a better look. Then I dipped the celery end to make the purple flowers. The shallot was used to create the teal flower (the shallot was applied the same as the pepper) and I used the end of the carrot for the center of the flowers with yellow paint and then I used a broccoli to dab on the center of the flowers as well with some dark grey paint.

I then tried to arrange the flower bouquet how I wanted on my card base after cutting out the flowers. I took a paint brush with (no kidding) celery green colored paint and painted the stems coming from each flower. For the “leaves”, I used the same paint and dabbed the celery end around the stems.

I finished out my card by stenciling the brick background before attaching the cut out flowers. I popped some of the flowers up with foam tape and then I white heat embossed a sentiment over dark grey cardstock and popped that up over the bottom of the bouquet. This was attached to another panel of grey cardstock that I attached to a top folding white A2 card base. I topped it off with a few gems.

So what do you think? First time trying it out and just playing around having fun is all! A little abstract for sure, but hopefully they do look like flowers on here🏵️! I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone does with this! Hope you can play along too! (Remember you have 6 weeks to enter! So plenty of time to play!)

THANKS SO MUCH FOR POPPING BY TODAY! HAVE A GOOD ONE & I’LL SEE YOU SOON!

Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps & More – #471 Make Your Mark(I used paint)
Little Red Wagon – #762 Layer It Up (I cut out flowers to layer on top)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes (Used a MFT stencil)
CRAFT – Anything Goes
Just Us Girls – #733 Stencil Week(Brick stencil)
Creative Fingers – #281 Anything Goes

Try It On Tuesday GDT-Book Pages

Hello friends! Happy June! Hope you’ve been enjoying your month so far! It’s going to start warming up at the end of this week which means I’ll probably start spending more time indoors with the air conditioning and hopefully have some time crafting! Yay!

I’m super excited to share my post with you today as I’ve been asked to be a guest designer for this challenge at Try It On Tuesday! Always happy to be apart of the challenges and support them as much as I can as they help to inspire creativity!

I’m loving the challenge theme for this one which is “BOOK PAGES”! There are several different ways to go with it, but here’s my take with the challenge:

I am an avid reader and I do love turning the pages of a good book, but sometimes you can come across an old book that is in bad shape or even a book that has no meaning to you and that you might normally throw away. I don’t do that, but I keep it instead for purposes of using in my crafts! I do the same with magazines, etc. Sometimes I use the illustrations for art journaling, etc. I’ve even kept some for the purpose of gift wrapping. How about you? Do you keep things like this for anything? If you do, then this challenge would be a great for using it up! I’ve even seen some decorative papers that have a “book page look” which would be suitable, I think, for the challenge as well!

For my card: I’ve used a cover plate die (unknown) and cut the pieces from a book page and then cut it again in black cardstock so that I could use the frames. I took some brown ink to sponge around the edges and in the center randomly, so that it wasn’t so stark white. I then splattered it with both black and white paints, wrapped some twine with a bow around and placed it on a side folding A2 black card base.

The flower image: I took another book page and stamped/heat embossed the Bursting Blooms stamp from Taylored Expressions(retired/not in store) and cut it out with the coordinating die. I had some fun watercoloring the image with some Daniel Smith watercolor samples and than I sponged around the edges with some more of the brown ink before attaching to the card with thin foam squares. (I also cut an additional piece of white cardstock for added thickness as some book pages can be thin.)

To Finish: I’ve taken the Taylored Expressions Sundry Sentiments and white heat embossed the sentiment over black cardstock and cut it out with the coordinating die. I attached it to the card along with some black rhinestones.

I love how this one turned out and I hope you do too! Please be sure to pop on over to the challenge blog and check out all of the inspiration from the team! I look forward to seeing your creation in the gallery as well!

Thank you for stopping in today and I’ll be sharing more with you soon!

Challenges:

Allsorts – #784 Flowers Galore or Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #279 Anything Goes
Alphabet – ‘E’ is for embossing wet or dry (heat embossed flower and sentiment)
Krafty Chicks – #719 Stamps
Time Out – #265 Inspired by a Quote from Henri Matisse: “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”

Mother’s Day Flowers

Hello friends! Sending a happy Mother’s Day to all of the celebrating moms this weekend! It’s a beautiful day out today and tomorrow will be too, so I’m going out to plant some flowers that I’ve been wanting to do! I hope that you’re having a nice weekend in whatever you’re doing.

I just wanted to share a card that I had made just for Mother’s Day:

Vicki-TE-MothersDay

I love how this turned out with all of those blooms bursting out from the antique pail! I’m in the middle of going back over some classes that I’m doing, and this was one of them that I’ve switched up to fit this occasion. The original card had carrots as a base and I didn’t have the flower dies they used, so I made my own version with what I had.

The antique pail, flowers, leaves, bow and foiled sentiment dies all came from Taylored Expressions. The scallop rectangle frame came from My Favorite Things and some of the design papers I’ve used came from Scrapbook.com.

The background papers and large flower came from the same pattern papers as a couple of other flowers and dark green leaves. I used some light pink ink to sponge some of the other flowers and center of bow. The center of the scallop frame has some light green blending, so that it wasn’t so stark white behind the flowers. I also sponged around the antique pail.

I arranged the flowers inside the pail and turned it over to attach with glue over the center of the scallop panel. I popped up the front flower and added some colored gem dots to the center of the flowers and bow. I attached some mirror cardstock to the back of the scallop frame panel to match the foiled sentiment. The sentiment was attached over the pail at the bottom.

It took a little bit of time to cut and arrange all of it, but it was fun to fiddle with.

Thanks for taking some time to stop by and I hope you’ve enjoyed this pail of flowers for Mother’s Day! Have a fabulous weekend whatever you do! 🌼🏵️

Challenges:

Creative Inspirations – Feminine
The Paper Funday – Anything Goes optional: Flower Shoppe
Craft Rocket – Flowers
Cardz 4 Galz – Celebration (Mother’s Day or other)
My time to Craft – Mother’s Day or Friendship
A Place to Start – Anything Goes optional: For a Lady
Aud Sentiments – Foiling and/or Flowers + sentiment
Unicorn – For the Girls
Get Creative – Ladies Only

Mix It Up with Inlaid Die Cutting!

Hello friends and happy May! I hope you are having a wonderful week and have been enjoying your Spring season with lots of sunshine and flowers! There’s always lots of things to do when the weather turns warmer, but that’s a good thing!

Today starts a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog! There is always lots of wonderful inspiration from the team, so please go check it out and play along! The challenges are always ANYTHING GOES with an optional theme. This month’s optional theme is Inlaid Die Cut (flat or raised)! For these challenges, you have plenty of time to enter as they run for 6 weeks! I look forward to seeing what you come up with! Here’s the project I made:

I think this card turned out very well using the inlay die cutting technique! I found the perfect dies, but of course you can use almost ANY dies you want to try this including your regular shaped die cuts! I always find those frame style dies to be very easy to work with for this.

I received this cool freebie die from Taylored Expressions called “Simple Stems” and thought it would be perfect for this technique. I also inlaid a sentiment die from my stash over top of the flower and inlaid that too. I used the Taylored Expressions Frame in Frame 3 die set to create the middle pattern and glitter frame around the flower. These were also inlaid into the white card front panel.

It’s a little tricky at first to figure out in what order to die cut all of your pieces so that it looks right. Mine is very flat which I find helpful for mailing out and with the cost of postage stamps going up again this Summer, I need to rethink the type of cards I make any more. Here’s a photo so you can see that everything lays flat to the card front:

For the inlaid die cutting, I also find sticky sheets very helpful. I took a piece of double-sided sticky sheet and placed it on the back of the white card front panel AFTER I had cut out the frame from it. This makes the inside of the panel sticky so that I could lay all of my pieces on top and also keep it flush with the white card front panel. Once I laid all of the die cut pieces, I took the backing off the sticky sheet and attached it the A2 top folding white card base with everything in place. You also don’t have to worry about liquid glue oozing out.

It’s a simple CAS card, but it was so fun to do! Hope you’ve enjoyed my card and take some time to check out the challenge this month! Thanks so much for dropping in! See you soon!

Challenges:

Daring Cardmakers – “Something Old, Something New” (old glitter paper and new die cut + I used blue paper)
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Feminine
Moving Along With the Times – #166 Flowers

April Showers Bring May Flowers at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I’m so very happy to see April come as well as the warmer weather it has brought our way! I’ve actually been taking sometime outside to see some blooms with daffodils, tulips and other buds popping out everywhere! We are expected to get some rain tomorrow, but that is exactly what April is all about…and then the May flowers to follow!

This is exactly what it’s all about for this month’s challenge over at Sparkles Monthly too! We hope you can share your “April Showers-May Flowers” projects with us this month! Here’s what I’ve chosen to make:

I always love a good Spring rain with a little bit of sunshine peeking through that causes rainbows! I never get a good photo of one, so I just enjoy it while it lasts!

I’ve used a fairly new product from Taylored Expressions with my card today called “Create-in-quads ROYGBV” which creates 4 different card panels at one layered stencil session. (I now have 3 other panels to make cards with too.) I used the “Create-in-quads ROYGBV vase die” to cut it out and then another one in black cardstock for a slightly off shadow effect behind it.

For the background card panel, I had a DCWV rain drops stencil (that I’ve had for a long time) and blended some blue ink over it. I’ve also cut a piece of blue/teal colored glitter paper for a thin border behind it to attach over an A2 white top folding card base. I then took another piece of blue cardstock strip to make a “landing/grounding” for the vase to sit on. Before popping up the ROYGBV vase, I took a marker to create a blue shadow underneath where the vase would be positioned. I was going for a “rain puddle” look. Popped it up with foam tape and added a white enamel dot in the center of one of the flowers. I also took a glitter pen to cover over the raindrops and “rain puddle” under the ROYGBV vase.

The sentiment came from the Taylored Expressions Mini Strips-Rainbow stamp that I’ve white heat embossed over black cardstock and cut it out with the Mini Strips-Asymmetrical die and chose the ones that I wanted to use for this card to attach over top of the vase. (I also have extra sentiments to use on other projects.)

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! I also hope that you will take some time to stop in and join in the challenge with us this month! I have several projects finished that I’d like to share, but I find it so hard to come and sit at a computer when the sunshine and happy weather is calling my name! Maybe when it rains tomorrow, I will post more things!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:

Just Us Girls – Word Week: RAIN
A Place to Start – One or More Flowers
Crafts Galore Encore – #122 Anything Goes
Try it On Tuesday – Rainbow Colors
Addicted to Stamps & More – #465 Die Cut and/or Stencil
Crafting Happiness – #170 Rainy Weather

Tricorn Fold Cuteness

Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a wonderful week so far! We have officially started Spring over my way and now I’m just waiting for the weather to warm up to match it. I’m looking forward to being outside with the flowers!

Speaking of flowers, I saw this really cute image over at Beccy’s Place and wanted to play along, so I printed it out and colored it, but didn’t quite know what I wanted to do with it until I saw Beccy’s tutorial – Tricorn Fold Card: (click name for her tutorial)

Isn’t this so fun!? I thought it was such a unique design that stands up, but also folds flat for a 4×6 card size. I usually make an A2 (5.5″x4.25″) card size, but I can also easily create my own envelope for any size too. It was a bit tricky at first and I messed it up because I put the scores going in the opposite direction, so I had to start over. I wasn’t confident enough to figure out the mat layers of all the angles, so I just added some pattern papers to the largest two panels and then placed blank white on the back of the card for a message.

I also found a stitched hexagon layering die in my stash that worked out for the design which is what I used to cut out my colored mouse and layer behind him. I found a sentiment that worked well for the space I had on my card and then finished it with a couple of teal rhinestones I had laying on my table. It was fun to create, and it will also be great to send out too!

Here’s a closer view of the colored image that I’ve done using Copic markers. I did add a few white dots to his cheeks with a white gel pen as well as the center of his eyes.

I have my card lying flat so you can see that it will fit inside an envelope for mailing. It does spring back up, but I think that’s what will be great for a recipient to pull out of the envelope to see that the card stands up by itself.

Thanks for dropping in today and I hope you’ve enjoyed my card!

Challenges:

Beccy’s Place – March Monthly Challenge optional Bingo (Not sure if the flowers in the image qualify, but if it does then I used the center across row)
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes #667
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal #81
Critter Crazy – Anything Goes featuring animal #84
Creative Creases – Anything Goes with Fun Fold #78
Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes
The Crafty Addicts – Anything Goes #11
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes #226
Crafty Calendar – More Than One Fold

Art Journal Journey Inspiration-Letting Go…

Hello friends! Hope that your week has been off to a good start. We are closing up February, but there are still a couple of days left if you’d like to enter the Art Journal Journey Challenge that I’m hosting this month with the theme of “LIGHT“. It has certainly been a journey as I’ve never created that many pages within a month’s time! I did have fun on this journey as it also helped to push me to try a few different things that I can take me with as I continue to art journal. Thank you to everyone over there for having me as host for this month and to those that have played along, as I have really enjoyed all of the fabulous inspiration!

For my last page, I challenged myself to try something I don’t feel comfortable with:

Sometimes as hard as it can be, you just have to let it go. I let go the fear of hand lettering and drawing for this page.

For the Background: I’ve got a piece of canvas paper 5.5″x8.5″ that was pre-punched on the right side with my Zutter machine. (I like this canvas paper because it takes paint really well and the texture does not interfere with making the writing wonky.) I took my favorite colors turquoise and lavender paints that were extremely watered down to cover the page with. I was going for very light colors with a flow that blended together. Once dried, I took some light blue ink and stenciled in certain places.

For that cute little girl that I found on my computer from Tiddlywinks, I printed her out rather large to fit on my page and colored her with Copic markers. I printed an additional image over a piece of vellum and cut out the dandelion seeds and hearts and attached that portion to the girl image I colored. I did this so that you could still see the background. Once I’ve attached her to the page, I cut a piece of cotton ball and glued it to the dandelion weed and the one in her hair. (Cotton is pretty light!)

Lastly, I took a deep breath and used a pen to write the title above her head as well as all of the dandelion seeds floating around with the words. I used a white paint pen to make an underline around the words as if they’re flying through the air. I filled in the lettering with a blue gel pen.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my page today and found some inspiration with it. I also hope you’ve enjoyed my journey this month with art journaling too! Thanks for stopping in!

Challenges: