Another Sneak Peak!

Hello dolls! With the cooler weather slowly seeping in near my neck of the woods, I decided to make an Autumn themed card for my beautiful Grandmother.

If you would like to see the finished project check it out at Rubber Dance Art Stamp where I am a Guest Designer. 

Hugz to you all and Carpe Diem! 

Alcohol Ink Fun!

So I had a blast dragging Alcohol Ink glossy paper through my mash up of alcohol inks and decided to make an art journal page with the leftovers. This is only my 3rd ever attempt with an art journal so bear with me please. :) I was inspired by the art recipe from Finnabair for April-Out of Ordinary, the color of the Gelatos in the picture. The background was achieved with various colors of alcohol ink.

I tried adding some subtle dimension to the page but not too much because the journal has to close right? Yeppers!  

I heat embossed the clock die cut with two different embossing powders and popped it up with small foam dots. I stamped the left edge and the bottom edge of the journal with some flourish stamps.

The central sentiment is a nod to myself. Keepin it real and happy is my motto along with Carpe Diem! This was a fun design as I wasn't expecting anything but just enjoying the journey. 

Sharing this fun design with some challenges please: 

NBUS-Challenge #5 

My NBUS were-the mixed media die cut from TH, the sentiment stamp, and the glossy paper for the background. 

Mixed Media Place Creative Gym #11-I used this recipe HERE 

The gelatos in the picture and the texture inspired me

Crafting by Designs-September Anything Goes

September Tim Tag of 2015

Well it has been a doozy of a week so far. I have been laid up with a back injury since Friday. Apparently pain meds and muscle relaxers make me silly for art. I had so many ideas in my head but not much made sense so I did my tag.

The weather is dreary here so my pic doesn't capture the vibrancy of this tag. The only reason I was able to do the tag this month is because of my love for alcohol inks and a very sweet dearie from the Tim Holtz addicts FB page. Without her, I would not have had the AI paper. 

I did all the techniques Tim did but not exactly the same. You can see his Here. The picture below is of my trials before I decided on the perfect background one for my tag. Love doing this technique! Messy and fun! 

 The texture paste had to dry and I didn't want to activate the embossing powder I had added to it so I waited, and waited, and waited!

I used the package backing from a stamp set to make the "frosted film" butterfly overlays. The packaging doesn't take heat well. Lol! 

I also added some Glossy accents and sparkle embossing powder to the transparent texture paste because I only have matte. I am happy with the results even though it still is a bit muted. 

I would love to share this tag with these sweet challenges: 

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 1015

Rubber Dance Art Stamps-Anniversary Challenge!

I used the September colors of red, orange, and yellow. This is a celebration for their one year anniversary! 

The Mirror Crack'd-Tic Tac Toe/Art Shrine. 

I used the bottom row-Free Choice, Frilly and Funky, Texture. The colors used in this design are more girly/frilly than I usually go with. Hehe! Broaden those artistic horizons!

NBUS Challenge #5

My NBUS are the transparent texture paste, the bottom 2 butterfly stamps, and my Alcohol ink glossy paper, and the alcohol ink technique

Guest Designer over at Rubber Dance Art Stamps

Hot diggity dog! I was asked to guest design for Rubber Dance Art Stamps for September. The owner, and very talented lady, Bibi is such a sweetie! She, and her team design some awesome sauce stamps! There is such an array to choose from and shipping is fast! I had the honor of working with a few of these stamps and here is a sneak peak of what I came up with:

If you would like to see the entire design please head on over and check it out HERE! All of the stamps I used can be found at the Rubber Dance Art Stamps Store, along with a plethora of other stamps.

I hope you all are having a lovely week! Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

Happy Birthday Card!

Oh wow! Today has been an experience in the flower garden and I have decided I have a black thumb. Maybe next year I will not kill any plants. That is the goal at least. Hehe!

I wanted to try my hand at making a layered, die cut Birthday card and here is what I did: 

I just (like 2 days ago) added to my die cut collection and have been trying out different substrates and "sandwiches". There is a lot to learn about that. I only have a Cuttlebug. This is my first try at using only die cuts and paper. I had to add some stamping though. :) 

The base is cardstock, the heavy stuff. Then I added another layer of printed cardstock and distressed the edges. The slipped a diecut (Sizzix-Label & Edge, Scrollwork) under the first layer after applying some Emperors gold Silks to it. 

I added some cracks with my stamp and Archival ink in coffee. 

I then used a Cuttlebug die (Flourish Emblem) and made my focal die cut, sprayed it with LSG sprays and added the same cracks stamp. 

I popped it up with small foam dots to give the card some dimension. 

I used a third and fourth die (Spellbinders-Fancy Framed Tags Three) for the part under the sentiment and dry brushed it with the gold Silks as well. There are so many dies out there in the world! Who knew?!? Everyone but me, apparently! Lol. I don't have any stamps or dies that have Happy Birthday so I used an alphabet stamp set I have and stamped each letter individually. It isn't perfectly straight but that was my seventh attempt so I went with it. :) 

The flower is from Reneaboquets store. The lace is from my stash and I thought it added some nice texture to this card. 

Hopefully I keep trying my hand at this die cut and layer stuff. It is a fun process. Thanks for stopping by and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I plan on sharing this card with these amazeballs challenges: 

Frilly and Funkie-A Touch of Gold

Cuttlebug Mania-Anything Goes using a manual die cut/embossing machine

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge-Stamp and Punch/Die Cut

Craft Your Passion #278-Always Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar Challenge-Anything Goes

Mixed Media Makeover!

Hello dearies! I do hope you are enjoying your September so far. Side note: Fall is quickly coming and that means Pumpkin Spice Latte season for me (I opened my Starbucks early last year for access to the PSL and plan to do so again hehe!) Yummy!

Alas, it is time for a new challenge at Anything But Cute and this month I happen to be the hostess. Oh boy! Nerves and excitement here. This is a Mixed Media Makeover! I would love to have you pull out an old card, tag, project, masterboard or embellishment that you weren't completely happy with or never completely finished. I want you to recycle it. We all make "mistakes" with our art right? Now's your chance to fix it. Redo it, hide the mistake, make it bigger, make it better, make it more beautiful or rip it apart and use the pieces! Give it a mixed media makeover! For this challenge you will need to include a beforepicture so we can see what you started with! 

Here is my before: don't laugh too hard :)

My first ever attempt at "Shabby Chic"(seriously what was I thinking!). I had this gorgeous idea in my head but the end piece was NOT even close. So I revamped it into this: dark chaotic textural fun! 

The first thing I did was to rip off everything on the original, (the mini canvases would not come off-E6000 works superbly) and tear strips of paper into random shapes to add texture. I applied black gesso to the entirely too pink canvas. 

Better already! I then laid some crackle paste randomly and a cracked stencil.  I gathered a bunch of odds and ends together to create the corner designs. The cord is randomly wrapped around the canvas to go with my chaotic theme. :) I kind of went out of order for adding the color to the canvas first then to my added elements. It all turned out okay though. I added Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays (of course, look at that shimmer!) Canna Lily Burnt Orange, Jack in the Pulpit Teal, Rizzo's Rowdy Red (the red looks pink in these pics though). Lol!

I used my cracked stencil and then rubbed Inka Gold Copper over the dried texture paste. 

I really wanted my sentiment to be: Create Without Fear but the words were too big to fit on the mini canvases so I improvised. I used chipboard lettered and heat embossed those with copper EP, then rubbed some Copper Inka Gold over those as well. 

Total makeover! I hope you all can join and and also take a look at the designs my teamies have come up with. Have fun and Carpe Diem! Hugz! ~Niki

I am sharing this makeover with these challenges please:

Rhedds Creative Spirit-Anything Goes Mixed Media

Eclectic Ellapu-September Already:Anything Goes

That Caft Place-Mixed Media Anything Goes

Altered Eclectics-Anything Goes Altered Art

We Love to Create Craft Challenge #18-Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Mixed Media World #6-Gorgeous Texture

Lindys Stamp Gang September Color Challenge

Tag It!

Hello one and all! Hooray for September! I have been looking forward to this month since April! My birthday present was: tickets to ComiCon! Yippee! Excited dance! My first time going. So I made this tag with my birthday celebration in mind.

Anyway, this month sees another awesome sauce challenge at SanDee&Amelie's Steampunk challenge. You all know how to make a tag right? Join us for Tag It! Create a tag that is vintage, industrial and/or Steampunk. Easy peasy no? 

I decided to put some color into my tag and not use my comfort palette of rust and patinas. The background was stamped and then heat embossed with Snow EP. 

I then added Cracked Pistachio to the middle to draw your eye to those gorgeous Steampunk'd butterflies (thanks Debbie!)

The outside color is Rust (couldn't stay away Lol) DI and edged the tag with Hickory Smoke DI. I added black cardstock as a backing and to give it more depth, this is a first for me.

The ribbon bow was made with my Bowdabra and inked with the same Cracked Pistachio. First time I have ever used a bow like this on anything except a Christmas gift. The middle embellishment on the bow is a metal rose. 

This tag was a blast to make because I didn't have much of a plan and wasn't sure what it would look like. The journey was the destination. Haha! 

Hope to see you all join in the tag-erific fun! Hugz! ~Niki

I am going to pass this tag around to the following challenges:

Mixed Media World #6-Gorgeous Textures

Anything But a Card Challenge #50-CELEBRATION This is their last challenge but they want to go out with a Bang so we should help make it happen!

The Artistic Stamper-Septembers Creative Challenge-Things with Wings

Try It On Tuesday-Try Something New