52 Week Mini Art Card/Tag Challenge
Our little smiler, Jacob, our Grandson, will be two years old in a couple of weeks. I'd had an idea in my head of the card I wanted to make and this evening I decided to put it together.
I'd purchased a set of Hobby Art stamps (called Dogz CS130D) with assorted breeds of dogs on. As a child, I grew up with a Dachshund so it kind of seemed natural to go with that for this card.
I stamped the dog, coloured it with Promarkers and then cut it out. I cut a strip of grey cardstock and stuck it to the base of the card to mimic a pavement. I then used a stamp (I think it may be from a Pennyblack set) for the grass.
On checking my stamps, I found the buzzy bee, it's one I've had for a while, so I don't recall where it came from, but I stamped it on the top right of the card, again colouring with Promarkers.
For the balloon, I used a Stampin' Up set called "Party This Way" and stamped in Ranger Adirondack Bright, Citrus. Using a Tim Holtz Distress Ink and a wet paintbrush I painted the streaky sky. I added a couple of clouds and a string to the balloon.
Using a Papertrey Ink stamp from their "Stylish Sentiments" set I stamped the "Happy Birthday". Finally, I stuck the coloured image of the dog and added a googly eye.
I've played with a tag this afternoon.
The background is a mix of Distress Inks and oxides, using a Signo pen to make the white dots. I've had a selection of skeleton leaves which I'd not used, so decided to use some on this tag, however the delicate nature of the leaves meant that they didn't show up on the coloured background, so I mounted them on black card and cut around them. I then used a Tim Holtz paperdoll image of a couple of witches to layer on top of the leaves.
I used Hobby Arts andStamper's Anonymous stamps for the background, with sticky black gems and alpha letters to create the "Witch" word.
The prompt for Week 4 is "Home". I thought this would be quite a versatile prompt that can be interpreted in several ways.
Just a reminder, that anybody can take part in this challenge. There is an active Facebook group where you can upload your tag/card and talk to other members who are taking part. There is no pressure, you do what you can, when you can. I usually post the weekly prompts on a Sunday afternoon/evening or a Monday morning, it depends what I am up to. The previous prompts can be found by clicking on the button to the right hand side of the "home" button, just below the title of the blog.
For this week, I have made two samples on the theme of "Home".
For the top tag with the houses, I started by using a chevron stencil and Tim Holtz Distress inks in shades of "Spun Sugar" and "Victorian Velvet" to give the pink shades. I then cut out a section of patterned papers with houses on and coloured the central house in pink. I cut the edges staggered to add interest to the tag. Using my Brother P-touch gadget, I printed out "Our House In The Middle of Our Street" in four sections and stuck it down. I die cut the arrow and coloured it with a Promarker and adhered it pointing to the central pink house. I added a dotted edge to the tag using a black pen and some sticky adhesive gems to add some interest to the plain chevron area.
For the second tag with the tree. I started by using two Distress inks with a moist paintbrush and created the blue background. I drew the tree on a piece of brown cardstock and then coloured it with Promarkers before positioning and sticking to the tag. For the nest and birds, I used stamps that came free with a magazine. I stamped onto white card and again coloured with Promarkers and then cut them out.
This week has been hard going as I've picked up a cough and cold and feel totally rubbish. I've not felt like crafting or thinking about it. This evening I sat at my desk and made a tag. It's not my best work, but it felt good to be creating again.
I've used a background of Distress and Oxide inks. The man is a Stamper's Anonymous stamp from their set called "Time Travelers - CMS157" coloured with Promarkers. I don't recall where I got the clock face stamps from. I used a Signo white pen for the shirt collar.
The prompt for Week 3 is "Pond Life".
Just a reminder, that anybody can take part in this challenge. There is an active Facebook group where you can upload your tag/card and talk to other members who are taking part. There is no pressure. You do what you can, when you can. I usually post the new prompts on a Sunday or Monday, depending on what I'm up to. The previous prompts can be found by clicking on the tab next to the "Home" button, just below the title.
For my tag, I attempted to replicate the sparkly-ness of a pond when the light catches the water. I started by using Distress Oxide inks to create the background of the tag.
I use a Memorybox die called "Honeycomb Background" to cut the black cardstock. I decided I would leave some of the shapes in and remove others and stuck it over the coloured background. Using a Stampin' Up stamp from the "By The Tide" set, I added a couple of areas of stamping text.
I then moved on to die stamp and die cut the dragonfly, using the Stampin' Up set called "Dragonfly Dreams" and "Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits". I finally added some pretty shimmery sequins to add to the water look.
Crafting the past few days has been a bit thin on the ground. It's as if I'm all crafted out. I couldn't sleep so got up early, sat at my craft desk and pondered, resulting in this very grunge looking tag.
I had prepared the background some time ago,using Gesso through a brick work stencil. I accelerated the drying time by using a heat gun. Once dry, I then rubbed a mix of yellow and green ink across the surface, which left the majority of the white Gesso exposed.
I added some weeds using a Hobby Art stamp from their "Dandelion Wishes" set. The cracks in the wall and the cat were both stamps from a Visible Image set called "Create It". I then inked the edges in shades of beige, red and black. Finally, I used my new Christmas gadget, Brother P-touch H100LB label maker to create the words.
I have a mirror with a thick pine frame. Unfortunately, there is a tiny crack in one corner of the mirror itself. I'd been trying to think if there was a way to disguise the crack and came up with the idea of creating a design with beach glass stuck to the mirror.
While walking the dog on the beach, I have been collecting sea glass, but it's not something that always seems to be about so my collection is quite small.
I saw something to suggest you could tumble glass to get the same look. For several months, I mentioned this to Hubby and I wasn't sure if it fell on deaf ears or not. But for my birthday in December, he gave me a lapidary / tumbler along with different grades of grit, so that I could tumble my own glass. My Lapidary tumbler has two barrels.
At the weekend we set the barrels up in the garage and left them to tumble. Today when we checked both the blue and the clear glass had frosted nicely and the edges were all rounded. I need to now start sourcing unusual coloured bottles so that I can put them through the same process.
I think it will be quite some time till I have enough for my mirror project, but I'm sure it will look fabulous once complete.
