Vibrant Colour in a Mixed Media Tag!

Hello and Happy March! Its time for another challenge at the wonderful Anything But Cute! Our very vibrant and fantabulous hostess this month is Branka, from Vintage Handmade. Branka makes some amazingly vibrant and colorful designs so her challenge theme was meant to be. Can you guess what the theme is based on my tag? So bright and colourful!

Crazy for Colour is our theme for March and this is what Branka is looking for: "Spring is coming-a time of the year that brings amazingly beautiful colours! To celebrate it, we would like you to create a mixed media project using VIBRANT COLOURS. It can be a tag, a card, an art journal page or anything else. Just be sure it's vibrant!' Love the badge for the challenge!

Now to be honest, bright colors are a challenge for me so I headed into this design with determination and channeled Branka! Hehe! I made an extra large tag out of some heavy duty white paper/matboard. Then I dabbed some Alcohol in Pool and Wild Plum onto my craft mat and also splooped down some Colour Arte Silks in Vintage Mint and swiped AI paper through it. Pretty and vibrant!

While I was still deciding on the chippies to use I stamped out 4 butterfly stamps and "painted" those with the 3 colors I used on my background. I colored inside and outside the lines-dern art teacher said I could never paint, haha, look at me now!

Fussy cutting is not for the weak handed, nope! And some good scissors are a must! It seemed to take dayssss to cut out my butterflies but I got er done! I wanted to make 2 butterflies that were layered 3 deep and seemed to be 3D! It took some doing but I finally figured out how I wanted both to look and I think it turned out pretty dern good. Hard to get a picture of though. 

The picture above is the butterfly in the lower left corner of the tag and the picture below is the butterfly in the upper portion of the tag. In real life this is full of depth and dimension!

I used a rather large stamp and some bright blue embossing powder to add the design in the lower left corner. 

My chipboard corners were painted with Colour Arte Radiant Gel-Guatemalan Green and glued to the tag with TomBow Multi. I did add some Spanish moss under the chippie. And the butterfly antenna were made out of black wire. 

The sentiment "Off the Beaten Path" was stamped onto vellum and heat embossed with green embossing powder. I chose those words because bright colors are not my norm and took me down a new path. :) And there you have it-A Bright and Vibrant Tag! Can't wait to see what you create! Remember to stop by my teamies blogs and leave em some love! Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would like to share this large tag with these challenges

Try It On Tuesday-Feminine and Fancy

Our Creative Corner-Return of the Challenge
I chose September 2013-Forgotten Things-My bright blue embossing powder has never been used, the corner chippies have been hoarded for some time now, and the black wire for the antenna is about 1.5 years old and this is the first time I have ever made antenna for any butterfly.

Crafting with an Attitude #13-Anything Goes

Time Out Challenge #51-Easter/Spring
I chose Spring! Butterflies and bright colors remind me of Spring! And Happy 2nd Birthday to you!

Morgan's Art World #5-Include a Sentiment

Creative Artiste Challenge #12-Anything Goes

We Love 2 Create-Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes

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)