Inlaid Die Cuts

Hello! A new challenge started at Mix It Up. The challenge is to use an inlaid die cut. To be completely honest, I had never heard of this technique and so google helped me. Haha! What an interesting and fun time I had. I should have gone for a more simple die cut, but I never take the easy way! Haha!

I started with a Prima watercolor paper that already had a resist on it. I added some Lindy's magicals from my favorite Steampunk set and got to adding some color. The paper took the water like a champ! I totally enjoy how the magicals flow together and work so beautifully together!

Now comes the inlaid die cut part. After google, and my team explained this technique to me, I was intrigued to try it! So, I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz MM#2 die and cut it out of my paper. I saved all of those little tiny pieces and then cut the die again using white fun foam. I was able to keep the fun foam in the die cut and then just laid that into the paper die cut. Whew! That saved some time. 

Then I started to add the paper die cut on top of the inlaid foam die cut. Very time consuming but also kind of relaxing. I knew where the pieces needed to go and just went at it. I used TomBow glue for this step. 

I added a Reneabouquets butterfly and another die cut for the sentiment (thank you to Sara Emily for that one!). The sentiment die cut was heat embossed using white and gray powders. It is a bit wonky but so am I.

I then added some lovely flowers (also from Reneabouquets) and a handmade bow I made from some crinkle ribbon. I used Lindys Stamp Gang mists for the ribbon.

And there is my take on the inlaid die cut technique. Have you tried this before? I may be the only to have not heard about this technique. Lol! Carpe Diem! Hugz! ~Niki

I am going to share this creation with these lovely challenges:

Mixed Media World-Anything Goes with a Mood board Twist

I was inspired by the colors from the peacock feathers and the swirls in the tree picture.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge-Anything Goes

Deep Ocean Challenge #162-Favorite Color Combo

Of course my favorite color combo is blue with hints of grungy rust and white

4 Crafty Chicks #366-Anything Goes and a Cray Egg

Scrappy Land Challenge #72-Anything Goes

Birthday Card (cards scare me)

Well it is always a challenge for me to design a card, I am not sure why but it's true. I wanted to make a beautiful card for a dear lady that is an amazing person. She is known for her unique style and wonderful details so I knew I had to pull out everything I had to get this design. I know she'll love it even if it is kinda sloppy because she is just a good person like that. Hehe!

I don't like to measure so I just eyeballed everything and used three layers of heavy white cardstockto make my card. 

The bottom layered is sprayed with Lindys Stamp Gang sprays. The edges were distressed and then it was glued to the card base. The second layer is made using ColourArte and Primary Elements powders. The top layer with the die cut out is crackle paste then LSG sprays, then watered down turquoise DecoArt paint and finally some DecoArt titanium white antiquing paint. 

All the layers were popped up on foam dots for dimension. The real magic started with chipboard feathers that were painted white. The flowers are goodies I won from Creative Artiste and the bows were made with strings from my stash. The blue ribbon and white pearl things are from my stash as well. The white branch looking things are the MS branch punch. Everything was given a flick and spritz of white paint and a flick of white alcohol ink. The little horseshoe is from a friend Sara of Saras Closet. 

Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would like to share this card with these challenges: 

Frilly and Funkie-Winter Hues

Mixed Media Place January Challenge

I was inspired by the blues and the feathers 

Southern Ridge Trading Co-Winter

I chose to use winter colors

Dark and Radiant

You know how you have those days where your head is full of new creative ideas and you just keep going? This weekend has been like that for me. I love it when my muse is working overtime! I have been on a canvas kick for a little bit and today is another 5x7 canvas.

How I wish you could see the shimmer and radiant awesomeness of the gel thats in the background (it's like texture paste)! Gorgeous and more gorgeous! I set up my design first to see where everything would go. 

 I used white gesso to cover my canvas, then added some white texture paste and when that was dry I painted the entire canvas with black gesso. After the black gesso was dry, I used a palette knife to add the Colour Arte Radiant Gel-Guatemalan Green. 

 When the green paste was dry, I added back all of my black gessoed elements and glued everything down. 

Using Colour Arte Silks- Wisteria and Vintage Mint I painted the flowers and the dragonfly. I added the gems last.

The crown was painted with Inka Gold-Violet, as were the clock hands. The clock face was painted with Colour Arte Silks-Warm Gray. Black Finnabair micro beads completed the canvas.

I also tried a new idea. I used a script stamp from Rubber Dance Art stamps and inked it with the Radiant Gel then randomly stamped along the side of my canvas. I've done it with paint but never paste. :) It didn't turn out as well as I expected but I am going to try it again!

This was a fun play in the art studio this weekend. I tried so many ideas, some went in the reject pile and some are still a WIP but it was a joy to just spend some time enjoying the way my brain thinks, some good me time. Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would enjoy sharing this design with these fantastic challenges: 

We Love 2 Create-Anything Goes Mixed Media

Dream In Darkness-Anything Goes

Live and Love Crafts Challenge #43-Something New 

(all of the Colour Arte paints and the gel are new)

Open Minded Crafting Fun Challenge #1-Something New 

(all of the Colour Arte paints and the gel are new) 

Sisters of Craft-Anything Goes

Mixed Media Place-Creative Gym #16 (New Beginnings) +DT call 

Colour Arte #8-Color is the Heart of Art 

(my heart sings for a darker color palette)

Little Garden Trellis

Wowzers! If any of you have had tendinitis in your hands, I just wanted to say-I feel your pain! I am a lefty but as all lefty's know, we have to be ambidextrous   That means I use my right hand to cut things, use sprays (mostly both hands at once) and use paper punches. Owwww! I thought it would go away but it has gotten worse. Luckily my husband has a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and is "fixing me". Lol!

I started this last month and only was able to finish it now. Not my usual style but it was fun, and inspired by Sara Emily-my teamie on Anything But Cute. 

I started by putting my base together. It is a Fernli Designs Dimensional wood. You have to glue the sides together and then add the top and bottom. Easy, peasy and so sturdy!

I then added an awesome brick background using some homemade texture paste and a TCW brick stencil.

Many Adirondack ink Dabbers were used to color the brick. Very good deal on these dabbers at Tuesday Morning! 

I then made the trellis from paper leftovers and painted it with gesso, chalky edgers and DI around the edges. 

Here is me piecing it together. Thanks Sara doll! 

I added the trellis to the base with foam dots after weaving some Spanish moss through the trellis. 

The flowers were sprayed with ColorBloom and the leaves were die cut then painted with Eggplant and white crackle paint. My butterfly was stamped onto white cardstock, then I used white embossing powder and a light purple copic marker to color it. Then is was fussy cut.

I added my sentiment with the tiny talkers stickers and edged those with chalk ink as well. 

This would have been much faster to make with 2 functioning hands. Live and learn and get some Physical Therapy! Hehe! 

Many thanks for stopping by and have an awesome week! Hugz to you all! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

This project will be shared with the following lovely challenges:

Anything But a Card-Out and About. In my neck of the woods everyone has hanging baskets full of flowers and my neighbor has this wonder wall trellis that is gorgeous near her front door. Of course the flowers are in bloom and the butterflies are out and about.

Craft Stamper-Take It, Make It Challenge-Take a Texture. I stamped my butterfly and used embossing powder to create the white outline. I also used the texture paste for the brick background.

Sweet Stampin'-Something Old and Something New My something new was creating a paper trellis by hand, my something old was the Fernli base as I have had it in my stash for over 8 months I believe. 

Little Red Wagon-Use It Up. I used my Fernli base and the little flowers that have been in my stash for ages. The moss is older as well but only by a month or two. :)

Vintage Garden for Anything But Cute!

I am very happy, thrilled even, to share my first piece as a Design Team Member for Anything But Cute! Our hostess for our very first challenge is the amazing Branka and her theme for this month is Vintage Garden!

What do you think of when you hear the word Garden? Is it flowers, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, lattice, vines, fences? Whatever garden vision you have, we want to see it. But make sure it's in a vintage style.You can make anything mixed media that follows this theme. When I think of a Vintage Garden, my mind automatically went to soft colors and lots of wonderful birds singing, and flowers. Any type of garden inspires me because I do not have a green thumb at all and have mad respect for anyone that can keep any plant alive!

I must admit that anything Vintage or Shabby Chic are my weak points when it comes to doing mixed media. Thankfully I have a wonderfully supportive team and they provided lots of inspiration! Make sure to check out their creations as well! 

I found this blog post by Olga Heldwein, and had that duh moment of, "why didn't I try this?"  I used her Dry Brush technique which you can find HERE, to create my background. First I applied Gesso, some number stickers, and my texture paste through a stencil and then used my chalk ink to "paint" the color onto my canvas. I used a script stamp with Archival ink lightly around the canvas. 

I painted and smeared the chalk ink with my fingers then added white acrylic paint over some spots to create a more cohesive soft look. 

I then started adding my elements. I try to place everything where I think it will go and then add in the paints, and other design ideas. The cheesecloth adds just the right amount of extra texture I needed. Whew! My birds nest was brown to start with so I whitewashed it with watered down white acrylic paint and gesso.

I painted and used gesso on all the pieces and the Inspire chippie is embossed with LSG embossing powder-Merci Beaucoup Mint. My flowers were edged with Color Box pigment ink. The die cuts are from a TH die-Spring Greenery. 

I made the eggs with polymer clay and sprayed those with LSG Jack In the Pulpit Teal! Love this color and the shimmer is amazing!

Lastly I added some small button type stickers that are garden themed and some more cheesecloth. 

I would love to share this project with the following wonderful challenge blogs:

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #12-May Flowers

Our Creative Corner-April Showers Bring May Flowers In my neck of the woods we have very little flowers growing right now but I plan on planting some rose bushes in my front yard at the new house this month. :)

Beyond Grey Challenges #68-Make Your Own Embellishments I love using polymer clay in my projects and the eggs in the nest are my polymer clay embellishment creations.

Mixed Media Mojo-Tic-Tac-Toe Board I chose the middle row with Gesso, Stencil, and Chipboard

Craft Your Passion #260-Anything Goes