Mixed Media Valentine

I was lucky enough to receive a subscription to Craft Stamper for Christmas and a project in the March edition really caught my eye when looking for some Valentine inspiration. I haven't copied Tracy's project but have been inspired by the design and by her sketch to make my card.

I made a masterboard by brayering 'Blue Oyster' acrylic paint lightly in patches onto a piece of 300gsm card and then with a dry brush/baby wipe applied patches of 'Mermaid', 'Jade', 'Lime Marmalade' paints and white gesso until I was happy with my background. I then dry brushed it with the Interference paint which gave it a gorgeous opalescent sheen in places. I stamped the background script with Distress ink.

I don't have any mdf shapes so I made my own heart embellishment by die-cutting a heart five times from strong grey card and sandwiched them together. I applied texture paste on top and left it to dry before adding patches of 'Mermaid' and 'Lime Marmalade' paint and then overpainting with 'Park Lane'.

I dry brushed two doilies, one for the outside and one for the inside with 'Mermaid', 'Lime Marmalade' and 'Park Lane' paint. The sentiment was printed using my Dymo Letratag gadget with paint smeared over the top.

I cut a piece of the masterboard to fit my card blank using a dark blue mat. The doily and the sentiment were stuck to the card colouring around the edges with a blue pencil to embed them into the card. Scraps of ribbon, lace and cotton thread were stuck to the doily before placing the heart on top. I finished by making some marks with white gesso and splattering blue paint and white gesso to tie everything together. The piece of the doily that was left over from the front of the card was put on the back for interest and the remaining doily was stuck inside with the other part of the sentiment.

Supplies Used:
Acrylic Paints: Blue Oyster, Jade & Mermaid (PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk); Lime Marmalade & Park Lane (IndigoBlu), Interference Green (DecoArt Fluid)
Stamps: Background Script (Lavinia Stamps)
Inks: Stormy Sky (TH Distress)
Dies: Classic Hearts (Spellbinders)
Snippets: 300gsm card, Thick grey card, White doilies, White gesso, Pearlescent embossing paste, Blue pencil (Derwent Cumberland), Ribbon, Lace, Cotton thread

Tracy's original

I would like to enter this project into the following challenges:

Country View Crafts: February 2018 Anything BUT Cute

Happy Little Stampers: February 2018 Anything Goes With Dies

I seemed to have everything everywhere while making this project but I really enjoyed doing it! Thanks for visiting.

Stef x

CC&S Sketch Challenge 190: I too must say goodbye ...

I'm sad to say that this will be my last post as a DT member of CAS Colours and Sketches. To cut a long story short and keep this post about crafting, my mum has not been well recently and had a short stay in hospital. She has been staying with us since she came out as she lives on her own but it is going to take her some weeks/months to recover. Having taken on a more demanding role at work this term, something has to give so that I have more time for my mum and for now that means that my crafting time will have to be restricted.

So to finish with a card featuring a technique (which, if anything, is what I'll be remembered for at CC&S) and some flowers and butterflies. Karen is our hostess this month and this week she has given us a sketch with lots of possibilities! When I saw it I immediately thought of making a cutaway card which I hope shows up in the photo. To save time, I used part of a masterboard on the inside of the card that I made some time ago having followed a video on the fabulous Eileen Godwin's YouTube channel HERE. I cut away the curve from the front of the card and then trimmed the edge with die-cut and punched butterflies to match the colours used on the masterboard. The sentiment is printed directly onto the card and, after I had photographed the card for my post, I added some pearls to the butterfly bodies.

I think I can just about get away with calling this a CAS card because over half the front of it is still white even though the rest of it is quite busy! I'm going to give this to my friend Angela at work who is lucky enough to be taking early retirement in a couple of weeks' time.

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Beautiful Blooms 1 (Uniko Studio) 
Ink Pads: Milled Lavender, Tumbled Glass & Worn Lipstick (TH Distress) - I think, though not sure exactly which colours I used now
Stencil: Small butterfly (free with a magazine)
Die & Punch: Small butterfly (XCut)
Sentiment Font: Rage Italic
Snippets: White gesso, Small bubbles stamp, White and silver gel pens

I will carry on crafting, card-making and blogging but maybe with not as much regularity in the next few months. I love it all too much not too and it has definitely become my sanctuary, somewhere where I can lose myself, listen to music and be creative.

Thank you all so much for being part of my CC&S journey and for your continued support of our CAS challenge. I will always remember it for being my first ever DT and I will continue to follow what's happening and join in when I can. The rest of the ladies on the DT are a brilliant bunch of crafters to work with and I am thankful to them for their friendship and support and for helping me to extend my creative boundaries over the last couple of years!

Stef x