Let It Snow

It is crazy hectic with last minute details surrounding Christmas Day. Spend it with my fam or my DH fam? Or both? Can I eat 2 large meals?!? Yeppers, I sure can!  I retreated to my art studio and created some me time today and went about designing a canvas. Ahhh, my sweet canvas! How I missed you! Since its been snowing here I was inspired to make this:

I love love love the shimmer from my Primary Elements and Silks. Colour Arte has the most wonderful and brilliant colors. I used: Autumn Skies, Go Navy and a dash of Plum Crazy PE and Cielo Azul Silks. Enjoy and Merry Christmas to all of you lovelies! 

I started with a Prima stencil and some clear matte texture paste. I then heat embossed all three snowflakes and the mini canvases. Glitter glitter everywhere, glitter glitter in my hair! Hehe

I sprinkled the Primary Elements onto my canvas and sprayed with water, blotting and adding color until I was happy. The mini canvases are popped up with different sizes foam dots for added dimension. Once the canvases were added I used some watered down white acrylic paint to highlight all the "snow" bubbles. I then glued the sentiment down with Glossy Accents. I hand died my seam binding with a mix of the Primary Elements and some DI. I tried a new seam binding and in order to get it to crinkle I wrapped a rubber band around it and stuck it in my dryer, waited 20 minutes (agonizing!) and pulled it out. It ended up with crinkles but not as good as others I have used. I added the metal snowflake charm to my ribbon for more texture. The bow is set on a base of cheesecloth and leftover ribbon stuff. The small branches are a punch with Glitter added for some more shimmer. 

Lastly I added the Snow Tex and more glitter. Some of my snow bubbles were highlighted even more with glitter. This was a fun design and it is so shimmery and glitzy IRL but the sun is not out today. Thanks for stopping by during this busy time. Happy Weekend! Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would like to share this design with these lovely challenges:

Colour Arte #6-Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland-Christmas Bingo (I used Snowflakes, Glitter, Pearls/Rhinestones)

My Time to Craft #311-Last Minute Christmas Makes 

Brown Sugar Challenge #177-Anything Goes

Inspiration Emporium-Tis the Season Everything Goes

Another Christmas Card!

I keep on trying this Christmas card making phenom and am finally getting into it a bit. After watching countless videos (mostly Pamellia)  and reading different tutorials, I had a go at making a layered card with lots of textures. Enjoy!

I started by watering down DecoArt Metallic gold and silver acrylic paint. Then I swiped some glossy paper through it and slowly heat dried it. It started to look like hills! Yippee! 

I then took a stencil and applied DecoArt Titanium white acrylic paint through a stencil to create a snow texture. My rolling hill is a piece of scrap paper that has numerous layers of paints on it. I finished the hill with DecoArt texture paste stippled with my palette knife. When it was dry I added some DecoArt Snow-Tex randomly and some glitter. 

I layered my tree dies behind the hill. For the gold trees I added some DecoArt Snow Tex to create some depth and interest to the tree line. While it was still wet I sprinkled on DecoArt Crystal sprinkle on glitter. The white trees were painted with a thin layer of DecoArt Liquid Glass and the crystal glitter was sprinkled onto that. When it was dry I added some Snow Tex just like I did for the gold trees and the same glitter. 

The base behind the tree layer is painted with DecoArt Metallic Gold paint. I only went around the edge that would show though. 

The base of the card is embossed and hand painted with the gold metallic paint as well. 

I added a seam binding bow that was hand painted with watered down gold metallic paint. HINT-when using paint to color a seam binding bow, know ahead of time that the bow will be kind of stiff unless you use a fabric medium. The metal tidbits were attached with a thin metal wire that is wrapped around the back of the bow. 

This card will be shared with the following challenges: 

Frilly and Funkie-Tis the Season

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge-Silver and Gold

Try It On Tuesday-Snow, Snowflakes, Winter Whites

Country View Challenge #34-Create a Scene

You've Got Happy Mail! #8 at Anything But Cute

Can y'all believe it is December already!?! December is too cold for me where I live but Christmas is my favorite holiday! The lights, the atmosphere, the cozy fires, and the Happy Mail all make this time of year special. With that in mind I wanted to create a challenge for you lovelies to share some of that Happy Mail. I am your hostess this month over at Anything But Cute and our challenge #8 is:

We all like Happy Mail right? That feeling of being spoiled rotten when you receive a handmade card from someone is better than being wrapped up in a soft blanket near a fire, sipping on a hot latte. So, for this challenge I would love to see some mixed media Christmas cards, tags, ATC's or whatever papercraft you are mailing to a friend, inspired by the spirit of the season! Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! 

I'll be completely honest here-making Cards scares me! There, I said it. I have no rational explanation for this but it is true. I have done a few in the past but nothing crazy. So, I wanted to challenge myself and cards it was! For this design I decided to go non-traditional for Christmas. Black/White/Red are my fave color combo (I even used it for my wedding) and the Damask print is my fave as well (also used for my wedding).I started by painting some cardboard pieces with Black Gesso and then applied DecoArt Liquid Glass to get the shine. I kept telling my mind I was making a plaque. :)

The Damask background was inspired by Samra's design (HERE) and also my love of the pattern. It is a TH stencil, with DecoArt crackle paste applied through it. I added some Distress Rock candy to the paste while it was wet and set it aside to dry naturally. 

The wreath is part of a feather boa than I cut apart and glued to a round template I made. I just used the bottom of a cup and traced around it. :) I then used my new MS branch punch and metallic red cardstock to create the blinged branches peeking through the feathers. The snowflake in the center is a BoBunny design that is heat embossed with Red Tinsel EP. 

Here is a close up of the Damask crackle and Distress Rock candy. Awesome sauce! 

The back of the card was heat embossed with a TH stamp and Black Tinsel EP then edged with Black Soot DI. My thoughts are still with Paris and the horrible attacks. They stood behind America during our September 11th attacks and we stand by them. 

I made the base of the card with some matboard, not sure if this is suitable for cardmaking but it sure is sturdy! The inside of the card has a sentiment stamped and this will be mailed out to a dear friend. I don't seem to have the best of luck with the parcel service. Lol!

Spread the Happy Mail cheer and join in on the fun! I know how happy I get when there is a package in the mail for me. A big thank you to all of my peeps and to my new peeps! You all are so very sweet and the positive reinforcement comments sure make me happy as well. Hugz! Happy Crafting and Carpe Diem!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MERRY CHRISTMAS 

I would love to share this card with these amazing challenge

Emerald Creek Dares-Bringing Bits of Cheer, Let the Festivities Begin!

Crafting By Design-December Anything Goes

Artistic Inspirations #146-Anything Goes with a twist of Christmas

Card and Scrap #108-Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly-Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door-Dec 1st-7th Anything Goes

Steampunk Christmas Ornament

On this episode of Pawsitively Creative we are going to sit back, enjoy, and get messy! Raise the Roof! Over at SanDee&Amelies Steampunk Winter Challenge we have an ongoing 2 month challenge of Anything Goes! How's that float your Steampunk boat? My mind came up with this star ornament:

This star started life as a plain paper mâché piece crying out to be made over into some Steampunk goodness! Using aluminum tape and alcohol inks, along with an EF and my fave-Rusting Powder, I designed the base. 

Alcohol ink Pool and Rust are my go to  for creating this patina color. Add some rusting powder to the mix and Viola!

After all the tape was applied to the star, I  painted over it with DecoArt Matte Varnish. I knew the matte wouldn't dull all the shine. By applying the varnish I am able to handle the aluminum tape with the rust on it and it doesn't come off onto my hands. :)

The design for the central image wasn't planned, just came to be what it is. The cog was heat embossed with 4 or 5 embossing powders. Then the metal filigree corners were added. The gentleman was inked onto some tissue paper with Black Archival ink after being fitted into the metal frame. The metal wings were from my stash.

I then added some greenery from leftover Christmas picks. Everything was glued to the star with Glossy Accents! And that's my first real Steampunk ornament for my Steampunk tree! Hopefully by next year I will have enough ornaments to complete my tree and I still need to order my copper tree. Ahhhh fun! Hugz and Carpe Diem! Happy Holidays y'all!

I would love to share this ornament with these challenges: 

Altered Eclectics-25 Days to Christmas-Anything Goes Altered Art

Our Crafty Corner #3-Anything Goes/Lace and Pearls

I joined in on the Anything Goes

The Crazy Challenge-Everything Goes

Sweet Stampin-Sparkle and Shine

I think my star sparkles and shines because of the aluminum tape, the metal and hey-it is a star and stars shine bright! :)

Frilly and Funkie-An Altered State

I believe my altered state of this star is vintage-ish :)

Mixed Media World #9-Anything Goes

That Craft Place-Anything Goes Mixed Media