Opus Gluei Challenge #126 Branching Out with Madam Fairy.

The lovely Electra over at Opus Gluei has set the challenge this fortnight to use anything to do with trees or nature in general in your project.
Please welcome Madam Fairy who enjoys nature so much that she is often referred to as Nature Girl.
Click on the photos to make them bigger.

Of course her spare time is quite limited because she is such a busy Queen dealing with her royal subjects and doing her fairy duties as well as attending school.

Her mother thinks she is a proper little Madam and this off duty candid paparazzi photo clearly shows her mother to be right.

 Oh where would we be without the paparazzi and their high moral standards and their profound understanding of dignity and human rights, eh?

I tell you what; I am hopeless at using up my scraps by turning them into something artistic.
I think this card clearly shows that from now on my scraps and surplus bits need to go in the bin not in my shortly to be defunct scraps drawer.

For the canvas I wanted to use my new Memory Box die - Catalina Wreath as it has branches holding it together; well at least when I had the idea it seems like it had branches on it but maybe they are more like long green bits but very natural green bits... Anyhow I used white card to die cut it which I coloured with a cotton bud and Versamagic inks in Aloe Vera and Pixie Dust.
I stamped a Lost Coast stamp with Adirondack dye ink in meadow onto white card then cut it out with a Nellie Snellen die.
I painted a 5"x7" canvas with acrylic paints and used bubble wrap to apply some of the paint and then dry brushed white paint over the top to calm the whole thing down because it was very bright, which was lovely but didn't make a very good background as it competed dreadfully with Madam Fairy and that would never do.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #125 That's the Ticket

The lovely Jana over at Opus Gluei blog has sent out the challenge That's the ticket.

I am Ticket Stash Poor but I do have an old Craft Stamper Magazine freebie ticket to the Enchanted Kingdom stamp from years ago so that was my starting point.
This plaque will have to go on the wall as I can't think of another way of displaying it as it is a decoration and a completely nonfunctional thingamajig.

Click on any picture to make it bigger.

 

I cut the largest Nestie Postage Die out of chipboard. Leaving the die in place I sponged two layers of Worn Lipstick Distress Ink onto the front using cut and dry foam.
I painted Deco Art Glamour Dust ice crystal paint around the white edge of the chipboard for some subtle shiny.
I used Kay and Co paper throughout.
I cut the largest Nellie Snellen die MFD010 out of the flower garden paper and edged with Worn lipstick ink.

I stamped an old Dovecraft Fantasy Fairy or Fantasy Flourish stamp set (can't remember quite what it was called) using Versafine in Imperial purple and used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch (the one with the 3 butterflies on it) to cut some little butterflies.
Everything glued with Anita's white PVA unless described differently.

I painted a 3 inch Swan Vesta matchbox with Docrafts Artiste Acrylic Paint in Lush Pink. This is a good matt acrylic craft paint for the price £1.25 for 59ml/2oz. It's thinner than Reeves Acrylics or Claudine Hellmuth studio acrylic but thicker and more opaque than Dylusions Acrylic paint. There are some lovely bright modern colours in the range too.
I added a rectangle of paper to the bottom of the drawer and added some beads around the inside edge using Anita's 3D gloss as the glue.

I stamped the ticket in Versafine black onto gold card and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
I used 3 layers of foam pads to raise the ticket up.

I wrapped a piece of patterned paper around the sleeve of the matchbox and used a scoreboard to score folds where the corners are so it gave a neater wrap effect.
I cut 4 Marianne Design die cut flowers and followed the instructions on the back to make the 3D flower. I used Anita's 3D gloss to glue a bead in the centre of the flower and used silicon dimensional glue to glue the shaped petals to the base flower.
The flourish is part of a Sizzlits set called Decorative Flourishes Set 656538.

Happy Creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #124. Warm Fuzzies.

The lovely Rosemary has set this fortnight's Opus Gluei challenge which is Warm Fuzzies.
Now it could be a project made with felt or other similar texture or you could focus on something that gives you warm fuzzy feelings.

I chose to feel the LOVE and settled on the lovey dovey donuts of a Valentine's card for Himself who likes the colour purple. 
I prefer the colour red and seeing as I was making it, it's mainly red!

Click on it to make it bigger.

The top heart pulls up for the message which I haven't written yet OR maybe it's written in invisible distress ink that you have to lick for the writing to appear.
Oh come on, surely you're not surprised?!!
You know full well that Tim Holtz can do anything with Distress Inks. 

 

My card was inspired by Joanne Wardle's Tent Fold Card project on page 29 of February 2012 Craft Stamper magazine. All you need is a piece of A4 white card.

I used Distress inks in Festive Berries and Seedless Preserves. 

Chocolate Baroque stamp sets Daisy and Butterfly, and Seed pod and Butterflies. 

The background flourish stamp is Personal Impressions.

I also used Tim Holtz movers and shapers heart cutters and a blue Woodware 2 inch heart punch.

Happy Valentine's Day 

Gini

xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #123. Tweet, Chirrup and Trill.

It is my challenge this fortnight on the Opus Gluei challenge blog.

One of my favourite themes is all things Birdie so let rip with your Bird art this coming fortnight.
 
I drew a birdhouse template and cut it out of chipboard and covered it with Tim Holtz papers. I then paper pieced a couple of adorable birds to live in the birdhouse. 
These birds are chipboard shapes from Twiddlebitz but when they arrived they were far smaller than I thought they would be so had to redraw them bigger to fit my grand plan (Ahem). 
Now I drew them freehand but if my brain cell had been around the front I would have realised that I could have scanned them and printed them out bigger and it would have been much easier. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing is it not? It always puts me in such a jolly mood...

Click on the pictures to make them bigger, you will be glad to know that the second picture blows up nice and big.

Onto my baby birds, my dear little chickies... 
C'mon Ladies -enjoy the new poobahs!
 

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #122. Take a picture it will last longer.

The lovely Kirsten over at Opus Gluei has given the following prompt to get our creative juices flowing "Take a picture it will last longer."

Now I can't say that I use photographs much at all in my art but I often make pictures so I set out to make a picture that would fake the look of fabric in a photograph (WTF)  even I can't follow the very convoluted way I have tried to meet this prompt, when I was creating it all made perfect sense to me but in the cold light of day today who knows what I was thinking...my brain cell was not round the front but MIA.

So this fake fabric background that is made of paper but looks like a picture replica of a photograph of fabric..... is a tenuous entry at best for this prompt, but hey I've felt quite poorly this last week and this was my best shot.

Oh but doesn't Gooseneck's dear little face make you smile nestled in that flower?

 

Then I made another similar card, but it's very boring.

I took white card, Do Craft's V & A stamp set called V & A quilts- cornfield, and stamped in versamark ink and heat embossed with clear fine detail powder. Used cut and dry to apply Evergreen Bough and Festive Berries Distress inks to make the background.

I coloured a few of the flowers with Cosmic Shimmer Watercolours for a little bit of shiny.
Made a 3D flower using red card and Marianne design die cutting set of flower shapes glued together with white PVA and 3D decoupage glue.
Gooseneck's face from Stampotique.
A spellbinders die for the tag and metallic red card candi.
The sentiment on the second card is a Personal Impressions stamp.

I'm sure anything you make for this challenge will make far more sense than mine.
If you want to see a very clever take on the challenge go see what Electra has made as her brain cell is round the front and isn't budging from pole position.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #121. Out with the Old and In with the New.

Firstly may I wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Deena over at Opus Gluei has been very clever with her challenge title and theme because it is basically a free for all challenge just use some old stash or some new stash or a mixture of both and create something!
How clever is that?
I love clever play on words so Deena is off to a roaring start in 2012 and I hope the same is true for you.

I thought I would make something useful for this time of year so I made 6 identical Thank you cards and then I made another 3 identical general cards using a seahorse stamp from Chocolate Baroque.
My new stuff is the yellow sequins and the 3 and 3/4 inch square shaped blank cards from Craftworkcards, the rest is from my stash.

 

I have used some of my favourite inks, Brilliance Pearlescent Inks, I have use the tricolour pads in Peacock, Twilight and Aurora.
I used the background stamp from Penny Black Slapstick called Paisley Swirls but I think it looks great as stylized sea.
The flourish is from Inkadinkado called Sketchy Flourishes.
The Many Thanks sentiment is from Hero Arts Sending Smiles messages.
The With Love sentiment is from Papermania Hampstead Collection, Icon and sentiments.
The Dress form is a 3inch Woodware Punch Dress 2.

I've also used standard sized sequins which I think give a better balance of size on these small cards rather than using Card Candi which is bigger.
Here is a size comparison photo. See what you think.

For the Pinafore dress card.
I drew a pinafore template to fit the card blank on white card and coloured with distress inks using Rangers cut n' dry foam.
Spritzed with silver mica mixed with water in a mini mister.
The background stamp is from Chocolate Baroque and has been coloured with distress inks, the little Teeny Weeny stamps used on the Pinafore are also Chocolate Baroque stamps called Curiosities and Teeny Weeny Meadow.

I coloured Icing Sugar Card Candi (white) with Versamagic chalk inks to get an accurate match in colour.
Did you know you can colour Card Candi with your inks?
It makes the Icing Sugar white pack endlessly versatile.
Inks I have successfully used to colour the Candi are Distress Inks (dye ink), Versamagic (chalk ink), and Brilliance (pigment ink).
I use small 3D foam pads which are 2mm thick to stick my Card Candi on with.
The brand I use is Stick It! code number STI 4100. Very cheap and work well.

Happy Creating in 2012!
Gini
xx

Merry Christmas to you Cards

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, peaceful, prosperous and creative New Year.

If 2011 was a crapper for you too, then let's believe in the miracle of Christmas and that next year will be full of wonderful surprises, peace and prosperity with a large daily helping of joy, excellent health and happiness.

If 2011 was a fabulous year for you I hope next year is even better.

I have told Santa just how good you've been this year so make sure you hang up a really big stocking tonight, I mean really BIG, you know;

a humungous whopper of a stocking - yes, you have been that good and so have I.

Here are just a few of the Christmas cards I made this year. Each one badly photo'd and wonky, no change there then. If you want to see it wonky even bigger, click on it, if not then just tip your head to the side a little bit.

 

Happy creating right through 2012!

Gini

xx