PaperArtsy Blog - Topic 19 - Cute Critters

Hi everyone, I'm contributing on the PaperArtsy blog today where I'm sharing Party Cats card for the cute critters topic.

You couldn't get cuter or more fun than Elena's Zinski Art Christmas stamp set ZA50, the purrrrrrfect party animals! 

My background is a mix of Infusions, they are Olive Tree and Frankly Scarlet.

I did my paint splatter with Iceberg and Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics and I also used the Snowflake to stencil in the background through Sara's Christmas stencil 114 with a stencil brush.

Intial colouring is with Inktense watercolour pencils, I've used a dabbing action to achieve the mottled appearance of the fur. You can see the stenciled pine leaves here, they make a nice border around the card. 

I added a touch of coloured pencil over the watercolouring here and there but I didn't need much. These two Infusions colours are gorgeous in the background and perfect for Christmas colour schemes.

There are more close up photo's and steps on the PaperArtsy blog and lots of inspiration over the two weeks of this topic if you love stamping cute characters.

Have a lovely weekend!
Chris

PaperArtsy Topic 18 - Shaving Foam - Festive Foam

Hi everyone, I have a post to share on the PaperArtsy Blog today which is all about Shaving Foam! Something I hadn't ever tried for crafting and I very much enjoyed it. I was lucky enough to have some of the new stamps by Tracey and also some of the new paint colours which are very pretty. I've gone bold and pastel with some Christmas cards now made to add to my stash! There are lots of gorgeous examples from other contributors too, a really lovely topic that everyone enjoyed! More photo's and steps I took on the PaperArtsy blog post.

Have a great weekend!

Chris x

PaperArtsy - Topic 17 - A Vintage Christmas

2019 Topic 17: A Vintage Christmas

Hi everyone, on the PaperArtsy blog I'm sharing my take on topic 17 which is 'A Vintage Christmas'. I chose to work with gorgeous recently released Christmas stamps and stencils by Kay Carley. All the stockists for the stamps and stencils I used can be found on this post.  It's nice to do a pretty project like this now and again with lots of sparkle and a gorgeous palette of colours that I feel can reflect vintage from Tracey Scott's new Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint release. Stockists for the paints can be found at the end of this post.

I enjoy decorating gift bags and making tags for my Christmas gifts and everyone seems to appreciate them which is nice so I feel it's worth the effort. This one will be for my mum, it can be easily pegged onto the top edge of the bag.

There's a gel print in the background using some of the paints listed above. The Fresco's  create a really nice base for stencilling and also for colouring with pencils, the mono print gives an even coating of paint on the card with a little tooth for the pencils to grab. Die cut holly, a silver skeleton leaf, silver mini clothes peg, and a silver glitter matting layer all help to add the vintage sparkle.

The gift bag follows on from the tag above in style with a stencilled and stamped mono print and then stencilling over the top. The die cut this time is cut from another mono print where real leaves were used on the gel plate.

The recipients name could be written in the heart instead of using a gift tag.

By using different parts of a gel print you can achieve a nice variance in the colours but they all co-ordinate and the new Fresco colours are so pretty together. 

A bit of glitter card is another favourite thing of mine to use at Christmas and some wrinkled seam binding too.

Have a good week.

Chris x

Paperbabe Stamps Challenge 96 - Spots and Stripes

 Hi everyone, hope you've had a good week. There's a new challenge today on the Paperbabe Stamps Blog where the theme this time is 'spots and stripes'.

I made a card for a lovely friend using the gorgeous new Profile Face Right Dinky Stamp Set and the Mixed Media Template Set Profile Face Right these are for sale at an incredible price at the moment.

I started off this project with a left over gel print that had some splashes of gold paint in with some pink and peach toned distress Oxide inks. I'm enjoying using some WOW Pearl Gold Sparkle embossing powder at the moment as it's the first one I've found that keeps it's sparkle. I used it for the spots element of the challenge sponging embossing ink through a medium spot stencil and then embossing with the powder. 

The stripes element is added by scraping out some stripes with a craft knife from the gold cardstock which has kraft core and I really like the texture this gives. The colouring is Prismacolor Pencils over a base of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Nougat and Terracotta.

I hope you'll join us in the challenge, there's a lovely prize from Kim for the winner.

Have a great weekend!

Chris x