Nicecrane Designs Sponsor Spotlight No.3

Welcome back to the final Sponsor 'Spotlight' for this month. 

 Nicecrane Designs has been our sponsor this month and for the winner of the prize draw this month there will be a $20 voucher to spend on some gorgeous digi images at the Nicecrane store!

     For my creation I chose to work with the Bessie Gutmann images - They are so gorgeous!

     In this collection you get two sets of the images - coloured and line drawing images. I chose to work with the line drawing.

      I was inspired by our Guest Designer last month. Trace from inkypinkycraft who had used some burlap panels. I was very keen to do something similar. I didn't have any of the actual panels so I made my own with mount board, painted with Frayed Burlap DP and covered with burlap sheets.

     After the burlap was stuck down I began to decorate the panel.

     The picture of the little girl on the swing was painted with Picket Fence DP to act as a resist for the ink. The Distress paint isn't very opaque, so it is great to use for this...just a light brush of paint and you can still the detail underneath.

 When dry I blended Frayed Burlap DI over the image and then cut it out and stuck it onto ivory card.

       I stuck it to the panel and began to decorate it with some tissue tape

   I added an ivory rose that had been dabbed with Frayed Burlap DI. I stuck some delicate crochet lace and a rustic button alongside the rose.

I added a twine bow

     I used some Tim Holtz Alpha parts for the words....I decided to use the words 'Live, Love and Laugh'. I stuck the letters down onto card and painted them (and the card surrounding them) with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap DP. I loved how the paint didn't cover very well, leaving a rustic tarnished look to the letters.

     When dry I peeled the letters away from the card and inked the card with Walnut Stain and Frayed Burlap DI.

    I tore around the edge of the words. I would normally have inked the torn edge, but I decided to leave it un-inked to add some contrast.

     So where did the other words go?.....well, this one is part of a set of three.....

 I mixed up the words so none matched and used a different image and tissue tape on each. They all have roses dabbed with frayed Burlap DI, twine string tied into bows and some natural coloured buttons.

I loved making these panels - I do hope that you have enjoyed visiting our Sponsor Spotlights this month. It has been lots of fun showing you just a few of the many ways these gorgeous images from Nicecrane Designs can be used in your own creations!

     There are only three more days of Jenny's 'Three colour challenge (without the use of black)'- why not get over there and join in the fun? You could be the lucky winner picked by Random.org who receives $20 to spend in the Nicecrane store! - and of course there is always the 'Top Talent' spot to be won and you could also be picked as one of our Top 3!!! - You have to be in it to win it!

     Hope you will all come back to see the wonderful challenge Linda has planned for you on 1st March! I know you will love it!

   See you then!

Laura xxx

Crafty Individuals Sponsor Spotlight No. 3

Welcome to the third and final 'Sponsor Spotlight' for January.

We are thrilled to have Crafty Individuals sponsoring the challenge this month.

As well as a fantastic range of original design rubber stamps they stock papers, masks, dies and a whole array of other crafting must haves.

I felt incredibly privileged to be given the opportunity to work with a couple of stamp sets and rather got carried away! My choice of stamp sets were;

Tall Wild Flowers

Two Scottish Thistles

There is so much detail in each of these designs so to me it was important that they really take centre stage on my cards. Once I'd got a design that worked it was easy to replicate it for each of the four images.

For each of the sets I created an initial 'masterboard' using white acrylic paint as a resist and three complimentary Distress Inks to add blended colour.

It was a great way to produce both the backgrounds for each card and the base for each stamped image.

The detail in each image is so fine and the Jet Black Archival ink made each one pop over the coloured base.

The addition of some clear heat embossing and a coordinating border helped to make sure they became real focal points.

The script style used for each image was echoed through the use of Tissue Tape strips, drawing the eye and adding to the balance of the composition.

Using Black Soot Distress Ink on the edges of each background helped to compliment the stamping but seemed a little too harsh on its own, so I drew on white border lines.

As well as the obvious fact that you get two images for the price of one in each set, I love these sets because they are suitable for a range of occasions, both joyous and those which need to be more subdued (and are often quite tricky to get right). That means you'll get even more use out of them, an important thing to think about when you are adding to your stash.

I hope you've enjoyed this final spotlight into the delights of Crafty Individuals products. 

You haven't got long now to enter Claudia's 'No more shopping sins' challenge - you could be picked as one of our Top 3, be our Top Talent and get to display your work here at Our Creative Corner, or even win a wonderful prize kindly donated by Crafty Individuals!

Looking forward to seeing your creations and hearing those confessions!

Crafty Individuals Sponsor Spotlight No. 2

Hello and a joyful servus from Vienna!
Claudia here to shine another spotlight on some of our generous sponsors' products. This month our generous sponsor is:

And this is what I came up with after a joyful play with some of the Crafty Individuals masks and various spray colour washes and mists in green and turquoise... an altered box:

.

I fell in love immediately with the two masks from Crafty Individuals: "Fabulous Ferns" and "Delicate Grasses". Not only do their names sound like a poem to me (I love it when language plays with its special "sound effects") but they also look absolutely gorgeous (and of course because I am a big fan of stencils).

 I took an image of the box as it looked before its alteration, the cut to size and already sprayed paper pieces, the used masks and the distress inks I used:

I am sure you will see them being used more often by me in the future - they are really gorgeous and as I love plants and especially the forest with all the wonderful ferns and moss, these masks have immediately become one of my favourites ;)
The image also shows the distress inks I used ("evergreen bough" and "walnut stain") and the ready to glue on paper pieces, which I sprayed in a large old shoe box to keep my desk safe and tidy.

I glued the cut to size, then sprayed and inked paper circle and strip to the box and added two layers of ribbon to the side of the lid for some texture.

As they were too "clean" and did not look enough "forest-ish" to me, I gave the ribbons a treatment with a heavily diluted Adirondack "Espresso" colour wash first.

When using the masks to create the paper pieces, I always put some heavy screw nuts on them to hold the masks and the paper down as the paper tends to curl as soon as it gets wet from the sprayed on washes and mists (and then the masks don't cover the paper properly any more)!


I also covered some areas with torn to size paper scraps to save some white spaces for the second layer.

After the first, sprayed on layer had dried, I added a second by simply laying the masks on the paper and applying Distress Ink on and around them with a blending tool.
See to it that you create some overlaps - this creates more  depth and the impression of wild forest growth.

Then I gave my "forest" some spritzes of water for a weathered look.

For a finish I sprinkled some Mr. Huey's "Opaque White" and some more Adirondack "Espresso" colour wash onto the image. Done.

I hope you like my tiny "forest box" and are inspired to create your own forests at home ;)
And don't forget about our actual challenge "No More Shopping Sins", where we want you to show and use some long hoarded and never before used items to get rid of your secretly gnawing hoarders guilt ;)

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia x

Crafty Individuals Sponsor Spotlight

  Welcome to Our Creative Corner's very first 'Sponsor Spotlight'. 

Our sponsor this month is Crafty Individuals

 Crafty Individuals is a company that the OCC team are thrilled to work with. Their stamps are amazing and it is well worth checking out their website to see what crafty goodies they sell!

    For this creation I chose two sewing themed stamps -

Sewing Notions

French Corsets

  I loved making this - total comfort zone - I adore sewing images, so I was thrilled to be able to make something with these two beautiful stamp sets

     I decided to have the colour scheme of Coffee and Teal - and I got to work creating the picture for the frame. This was going to be filled with stamped images in a collage. I stamped the images with Potting Soil Archival ink and used a mix of Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo DI - my two favourite 'vintage' inks!
 

    I cut out all the images and arranged them onto a sheet of card....I planned to have the sewing machine on the frame so I cut that out to show the detail of the stamp.

   Now to work on the frame. I covered two opposite corners with texture paste and in the corners I began to draw swirls with a cocktail stick. as the swirls moved outwards I made them smaller then finally patted the texture paste with a palette knife to blend it in.

      I left this to dry and then painted the entire frame with Vanilla Fresco paint. When this was dry I brushed Decoart Crackle glaze over the untextured parts of the frame.When the cracks had appeared and the frame was dry I rubbed some Chocolate Pudding Fresco paint into the cracks and wiped with a baby wipe.

     I added a metallic sheen using Treasure Gold Classic Gold and White Fire - this gave a more antique look to the frame.

 I added the sewing machine to the frame and also some white roses that had been dabbed with Walnut Stain DI.

          The 'swirl' effect is shown really well here - I dry brushed Chocolate Pudding Fresco paint over the swirls and then brushed some Treasure Gold over the paste. This really highlighted the texture.

      Normally I wouldn't have used such a dark ink on the roses - but I felt it looked right for this - fitting in with the brown tones and adding drama to quite a pale creation. A few teal and brown coloured buttons were added along with some leaves and a rose that had been layered with gesso and Dylusion's Dirty Martini and Calypso Teal and water spray (repeatedly! - I totally lost count!)

     I added some tissue tape as well........

     Crochet lace was a suitable addition for a sewing themed creation.

     And one final touch...a sprig of dried Grape Hyacinth....

        

        I really hope you have enjoyed the first Our Creative Corner Sponsor Spotlight - there will be two more Sponsor spotlights this month featuring Crafty Individuals products and these spotlights will be hosted by Claudia and Jenny.

   Don't forget about Claudia's 'No more shopping sins' challenge too...you could picked as one of our Top 3 or you could be our Top Talent and show your work to everyone here at the OCC....and don't forget - one of our lucky entrants will be picked by Random.org and receive a wonderful prize kindly donated by Crafty Individuals!

        So what are you waiting for?.....Dig out those shopping sins and join in the fun!