Frilly and Funkie - I'm Part of the Team!!

Hello Everyone!

Today is probably one of the most exciting days for me and I have been just busting at the seams to share the good news with you! I have been invited to join the design team over at the FRILLY AND FUNKIE CHALLENGE BLOG!!

This is a challenge blog that I have been following for a couple of years...long before I started my blog. They were the inspiration behind my very first Tim Holtz purchase, a Vintage Photo distress ink pad. I have learned so much from the amazing artists, past and present who have worked with Linda Coughlin, that when I read the email that the she sent me, inviting me to join the team...I actually stood up and did a happy dance!! It's a dream come true for this small town girl! I'm on top of the world!

The wonderful designers on that team continue to inspire me and I am beyond thrilled to get to work along side the biggest talents out there! Thank you to the entire team for the inspiration, the honour and the warm-hearted welcome!! 2015 just got a whole lot yummier!

OK...so for my first challenge at Frilly and Funkie, the theme is ANYTHING GOES, hosted by the super talented Nicole. I decided to make a winter journal to put all my winter project ideas in. I do hope you will join me in this fun challenge, I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

The strip across the middle is a piece of vellum which I just ripped to get an uneven look. I used some home-made texture paste and Tim Holtz'z Gothic stencil to lay down the pretty pattern. While the paste was still wet, I sprinkled it with Tim Holtz Rock Candy dry glitter for a gorgeous shimmer!

The ribbon was hand dyed using Tim Holtz distress ink pads Iced Spruce, Weathered Wood and Bundled Sage.

The silver embellishments were hand made out of crafter's clay and a Wilton fondant mold. I painted them with Tim Holtz Brushed Pewter distress paint and then a layer of Tim Holtz Rock Candy crackle paint. After it dried I highlighted the cracks with some white wash.

The snowflakes were cut from acetate using the Tim Holtz Snow Flurries die. I edged them with my Krylon silver leafing pen, coated them with clear chunky glass glitter and then dabbed on a little Picket Fence distress paint to make it look like snow crystals.

The frame is cut using Sizzix Ornate Frame 2. I splotched on some home made texture paste to make lots of grooves and peaks. I sprayed it with Tim Holtz Brushed Pewter distress spray, dabbed it with Picket Fence distress paint and then covered it with Rock Candy dry glitter. It's much prettier in real life.

The filigree corner started out bronze. I used some Ranger Perfect Medium and Ranger clear embossing powder to cover up the bronze. While the embossed surface was still hot, I sprinkled on some chunky clear glitter and pressed it in for a crystal look.

HOW DID I DO THAT?

- I started with a journal that I picked up during the summer. I carefully removed the cover from the binding
- I used  some Ranger Glue N Seal to apply a crinkled up piece of tissue paper over the entire surface

- I applied two coats of white Gesso and then cut out all of the grooves for the binding

- Using Tim Holtz distress sprays Iced Spruce, Weathered Wood, Bundled Sage and Brushed Pewter, I spritzed and sprayed - and sprayed and spritzed until I liked how it looked. That Brushed Pewter is so metallic...LOVE IT!!

- I took some homemade texture paste in white and mixed it with some Iced Spruce distress stain to get a matching paste. I think re-inker would work better though...that's going on my wish list for next time!!

- Next I used the Tim Holtz Speckles stencil and the Memory Box Lanthenay and the texture paste to apply a pattern in the bottom and top corners. While the paste was still wet, I covered it with Rock Candy dry glitter

- After that dried, I used some Rock Candy crackle paint around the edges for some extra texture

- I took some white wash (watered down white paint) and covered all of the cracked sections, then a little dabbing of white paint over the glitter to make it look like snow covered ice.

Presto, ready to decorate!!

I am entering my Winter Idea Book into the following fabulous challenges:

- Love to Create - Challenge # 147 - Icy Winter Days

- Crafty Boots Challenge - Winter Wonderland

- The Glory of Christmas Challenge - #49 - Anything Goes (as long as it's Christmas)

- CRAFTING FOR ALL SEASONS - Challenge #92 "Anything Christmas BUT a Card"

- Fussy and Fancy - Challenge #129 - Snowflakes and Ribbon

***

All of the following products that I used can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.

Our Creative Corner - I'm on the Design Team!!

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas full of yummy food, good friends and lots of family hugs! I apologize for not being able to leave a message on everyone's blog before I left, but time just got away from me! I thank everyone for all the kind Christmas wishes you left me, you filled my heart with holiday joy! I had such a wonderful time with my family, but I have to admit, I sure did miss my craft room! OK, let's get to it, shall we!

I have just been squirming to tell you the great news! Laura Bomber, the owner of Our Creative Corner has invited me to be a part of their Design Team. Only a crazy person would say no to that, so starting January 1st, I will officially be a member of the Our Creative Corner family as we begin our first challenge of 2015! I'm still pinching myself! I would like to send out a huge Thank You to Laura and the rest of the team for welcoming me with such warm smiles and big hearts! I can't wait for this next leg of my crafty adventure to begin!

Laura asked me to put together a little something to introduce me to the crafting community, so for my first project, I have made this altered box. I call it my OCC TRINKET BOX! I do hope you like it!!

The name plate was hand made using crafter's clay and a silicone mold. I painted it with home-made bronze paint (DecoArt Forest Green, Black and Spun Gold paints mixed together). I antiqued it with Tim Holtz Black Soot distress stain and used Rock Candy crackle paint to cover the OCC that I stamped with an alphabet set.

The large red rose and the small carnation were made using Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, the medium and small red roses were made using Joy Crafts Flower 2. All of the red flowers were spritzed with a bit of Gathered Twigs and Tarnished Brass distress sprays. The white flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the leaves were cut with a La-La Lands die.

The large dragonfly was a plastic cut out. I sanded it and applied some home-made glitter paste in gold, then I squished in some gemstones and let it set. I spritzed it with Gathered Twigs and Tarnished Brass distress sprays. I rubbed some embossing gel over the raised bits and then added some Ranger Queens Gold embossing powder and heated it up. The small dragonfly was cut out using an Elizabeth Craft Designs die and textured using the same process.

I wrapped the body of the dragonfly with gold wire and used the ends to make the antennae. I got this idea from a very super talented lady SARA EMILY BARKER of sarascloset. I get a lot of inspiration from her fabulous works and I highly recommend you visit her blog if you haven't already...you won't be disappointed!

HOW DID I DO THAT?

- I started with a plain unfinished wooden box and removed the hinges and the latch. I used Mod Podge Matte to stick a layer of cheesecloth to the entire outside of the box and lid.

Here is where things went terribly awry! I forgot to put the base coat on before I applied the paste!! This was an epic error that took me three days and a full box of Q-tips to fix! I'm not going to explain to you what I DID, I'm going to explain to you what I SHOULD have done!

- I should have applied a thick layer of white Gesso and THEN used my ColorBox Mandala stencil with some of my home-made glitter paste in gold to cover the box with this amazing pattern. Let's just pretend I did that and move on, shall we. lol

- I then began spraying with Tim Holtz's new distress sprays in Iced Spruce, Bundled Sage (my new favourite colour combination) and Tarnished Brass as well as some Lindy's Stamp Gang Moonshadow Mist Tawny Turquoise.

- I applied some globs (that's the actual technical term for it) of Mod Podge and then dropped some different seed beads and micro-beads into the globs and let them dry. A few final sprays of ink, let it dry and presto, ready to decorate!

A couple of close ups of the finished texture. To view super-sized images, right click on any image and then click 'open link in new tab'.

I hope you liked my introductory project, make sure to come back on January first for our first challenge of 2015!

I will be proudly displaying this badge!

I am entering my Trinket Box into the following wonderful challenges:

- That's Crafty - Anything Goes Challenge

- The Mirror Crack'd - Challenge #04 - Recycle/Upcycle or a Christmas Gift

- That Craft Place - Anything Goes

- Mixed Media Place Creative Gym #3 - Wings

- 613 Avenue Create - Challenge #104 - Anything Goes

- The Crafting Cafe - December Challenge - Your Favourite Thing from 2014

My absolute favourite thing from 2014 was the discovery of mixed media, especially texture paste!

- The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - December - Tic Tac Toe

(I chose Bow, Stencil, Dies - I used quite a few bows, but most ended up covered by flowers)

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

Well folks, that's a wrap for me! I am heading up North to spend a few days with my family. I want to say thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful comments and inspiration you have given me this year! I wish everyone a holiday full of love, laughter and good health and I will see on the 28th when I am back with some super exciting news for 2015!

Until then, I thought that I introduce you to the two smallest members of the Johnson family. These little girls are the lights of my life and, other than crafting...the biggest joy of my day, every day!

The white one is the oldest - Scully, she is a teacup Maltese. Scully is a bit of a snob and she will hold a grudge for hours if you yell at her. She thinks that she is human and she's smart enough to be a pain in the butt, but she sure loves her Mom and Dad, and that's all that matters to me!

The black one is the baby - Pebbles, she is a teacup Pomeranian. Pebbles is scared of EVERYTHING, I mean EVERYTHING, even if you make a funny face at her, she hides her head under the pillow! Hilarious little girl, and I couldn't imagine my life without her!

This picture is actually from 2011. Pebbles has put on some weight since then and Scully has lost most of her teeth (she looks like a little vampire now), but they are still my little darlings! They make me smile, they make me laugh and yes, sometimes they make me say Grrrrrrrr, but they're my babies and I love them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE

FROM ME AND MY GIRLS!

Traditional Holiday Wishes - Chalkboard Sentiment

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is all ready for Christmas, only 5 sleeps left! I love visiting with friends and family during the holidays, everyone has twinkling lights and big bows everywhere. All the stories, the laughter, the hugs...what's not to love about that!

Last weekend, I had the honour of visiting with my good friend Cec (CW Card Creations) and her hubby at their lovely home not far from me. Her Christmas tree was to die for and so was her cooking...YUMMY! She is an amazing woman and was such a lovely hostess to boot! Anyway, this is the card that I made for them.

For the background I stamped some snowflakes from BoBunny with white pigment ink and then used my homemade glitter texture paste and a Crafter's Workshop Quatrefoil stencil to lay down the iridescent pattern...so sparkly!

The grey panel was stamped using Impression Obsession background stamp Damask. The snowflake is from Simon Says Stamp. The sentiment and sign are from BoBunny. I embossed them with white embossing powder on black card stock. I fussy cut it out and then used the chalkboard technique to rough it up a bit.

The little iridescent fabric snowflakes were a gift from my Mom when she was here in November. Aren't they pretty!

The tag was stamped with Impression Obsession Swirl background stamp using Ranger Archival ink Watering Can. The striped stamp is from Rubbernecker and stamped using Ranger Archival ink Vermillion. I also added some glitter stripes with Stickles Stardust.

The holly leaves are from Prickley Pear, the pine branch is from Marianne Designs, the white sprigs are from Die-Namites and the red sprigs are from W Plus 9. I added lots of DecoArt snow and topped it all off with some Glamour Dust.

I am entering the following wonderful challenges:

- Fussy and Fancy - Challenge #129 - Snowflakes and Ribbon

- Crafty Sentiments - Winter Challenge

- Shopping Our Stash - SOS #181 - Red Alert
- Tuesday Throwdown - Challenge #225 - Christmas
- Little Red Wagon - Challenge #268 - Anything Christmas Themed
- Wednesday's Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog - #294 - Christmas / New Year
- Inky Chicks - Challenge #44 - Winter Wonderland

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.

Winterfresh Christmas Card & Pine Branch Tutorial

Hello Everyone!

I would also like to thank everyone who dropped in and left me a congratulation message on my last post! I was just thrilled to see so many wonderful and kind comments! Thank you so much everyone for always making me smile!

I have another Christmas card to share with you today. This one was inspired by an artist I have only recently had the joy of getting to know, ASTRID MACLEAN. She is just so incredibly creative and talented, and I have been learning a lot from her the last couple of months. This card is loosely based on a combination of two of Astrid's Christmas cards that you can find on her blog here...Astrid's Artistic Efforts.

Thank you Astrid for being such an amazing inspiration!

For the background I painted a piece of card stock with white paint and used a Memory Box stencil called Lanthenay with some home-made texture paste to make that beautiful pattern down in the right hand corner. I used Tim Holtz distress ink sprays Iced Spruce, Weathered Wood, Bundled Sage and Brushed Pewter to colour the paper. I stamped some branches using Ranger Archival ink Library Green and an Inkadinkado pine branch stamp.

I cut the frame out of acetate using a Sizzix Ornament 2 die and then covered it with chunky glitter and edged it with my Krylon Silver Leafing Pen. I dabbed a little white paint on the top to give it a frosty look. The beautiful bird stamp is from Artistic Outpost.

The 25 was cut using Tim Holtz Vintage Noel die, and then I used my distressed metal technique to give it a wintery, metallic feel. I used UTEE, platinum, white and aqua embossing powders on a dark teal card stock.

I have had some questions about how I do my 3D pine branches, so I have included a short tutorial for you today. These pine branches were cut from silver metallic paper and covered with clear chunky glitter and then dabbed with DecoArt White paint. I'm not even going to bother explaining how much more shimmery they are in real life, my camera is apparently a SCROOGE and refuses to cooperate when it comes to glittery Christmas cards!!

HOW DID I DO THAT:

1. You will a piece of card stock, some wire and the Cheery Lynn Cutie Fringe 2 die.
2. Cut out the Cutie Fringe using your die cutting machine and cut a piece of wire about 6 inches long.

3. Glue the end of the wire to one end on the fringe. I glue it to the inside of the die cut (the rough side).
4. Twirl your fringe around the wire on an angle, adding a little glue here and there as you go.

For this sample I used HALF of the Cutie Fringe and a 3 inch piece of wire to make a longer branch with not too much fullness (better for mailing). If you use the whole fringe cut out and a larger wire, you can twirl it at less of an angle and you will get a more full, longer branch.

I wanted to share a couple of photographs that PATRICIA COOK sent to me. She gave the 3D pine branch a try and really liked how it turned out. Here is what she made using the branches. Patricia doesn't have a blog, so I wanted to share them on her behalf. Aren't these sleighs fantastic! Thanks so much Patricia!

I am entering my Winterfresh Christmas card into the following wonderful challenges:

- Artistic Inspirations - Challenge #122 - Anything Goes / Merry Christmas
- Artist Trading Post - Let's Celebrate

- Sweet Stamps Challenge Blog - #200 - Non-traditional Christmas Colors
- Get Creative Challenges - #4 - Use Blue and White or Silver
- Card Mania - Challenge #62 - Christmas
- Creative Moments - #58 - Anything Goes / Non-traditional Christmas Colours

- Sketchy Colors - #238 - Grey, White and Blue

- Just Us Girls - #271 - Trend Week - Mixed Media

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.