Challenge Me a Christmas Card with Michelle Lupton!!

Hi there crafty peeps,


I am excited to be a part of the wonderful christmas collaboration that Michelle Lupton is doing

I haven't had a chance to get crafty in such a long time and this was a really fun one to do.  When Michelle approached me a few months ago, I found this image on Pinterest and really fell in love with the shine and shapes--not to mention the mouthwatering colours!

 For my card today, I let the inspiration take me where it wanted, and I used the right side of the photo.

To create the top section, I swiped some Viva Gold paste onto the cardstock and made a thin layer with a nice organic, swipey 'edge' to it. I wanted to represent those gorgeous votive holders in the inspiration pic.

For the lower half, I was really loving the grid-like pattern of the paint palette in the photo, and I'd just finished watching a movie set in the middle east, so I was thinking of their beautiful Moroccan tile patterns etc.

I used some delicious Schminke watercolour paints and created a set of colours I was happy with, adding and removing greens, blues or even just more water, to create a variety of depths and hues.

The shimmery gold and silver are from my Zig Kuretake paint palette. Just look at the shine they create.

To finish, I added some torn vellum and put some lovely old alphabet stickers and thickers to good use. The little enamel-style dots are handmade ones I created a few months ago.

I hope you like my card! I had fun getting painty and playing with mixing the colours.

To check out Michelle's beauty, go HERE and leave her some comment love :)

Michelle, as always, thank you for being a lovely crafty friend and such an inspiration to so many.

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Linda xo

Watercolour to the max!

Hey lovely peeps.

I'm here with another card for A Blog Named Hero's Facebook group, and it's taken the watercolour theme to the max! I couldn't have watercolored more if I'd tried.

I'm super-in-love with this card. The colours in real life are so soft and subtle. 

Any horticulturalists out there (or even flower-enthusiasts) PLEASE don't look to hard at my freehand flowers. I was going to do just the leaves/vines but I got carried away and ended up adding flower petals/bulbs as well. Let's just pretend they look awesome, shall we?

I used the Hero Arts Mice Tea set AGAIN (Not apologising), and the delicious Schminke Watercolour paints (DROOL).

I hope you like it! I'm very happy with this little card. Now to decide who I'll send it to!

Sending you all lots of crafty hugs, be sure to check out A Blog Named Hero!!

See you soon

Linda xo

Can't stop, won't [stop using Alcohol Inks]

Hey there friends,

Good morning from Alcohol-ink-obsession-land. I'm here and I'm deep in the highlands of it. WOW I'm finding it hard to create anything that doesn't start with those gorgeous blooms of colour.

I'm not concerned about this, it'll pass at some stage and at least I'm creating, right?  I'm up on the A Blog Named Hero Facebook page today.

Ok so on to my card.  I've stuck with the theme for A Blog Named Hero's current challenge which is

Here it is,

For the card I took my alcohol inks and dropped colour around my card, then splashed some alcohol over the top, and blew on the puddles, to shift the colours where I wanted them. Once I was sufficiently high from the fumes, I set that aside and stamped my sentiment.

Once the card was dry, I stamped and heat embossed the beautiful floral and jar image from the Hero Arts Monthly Card kit from several months ago (Can't stop using this either!), carefully masking off the jar rim area.  I used Hero Arts white embossing powder as always.

I adhered my sentiment, popped the coloured panel on foam tape and layered that onto a piece of coordinating fuchsia cardstock, then adhered all of that to a white cardbase.  Easy Peasy, and barely a hint of a headache from the smell :)

Thats all from me!

Be sure to check out the A Blog Named Hero site for heaps more inspiration and enter the challenge while you're there!

See you soon

Linda xo

Oh how I wish I was in Scotland

Hey there peeps,

I hope you're all well and happy, here in Perth it's moving into the cooler months, and I'm pretty happy about that, I'm one of those people who loves the cold and mist and rain.

So todays card is all about that really, I wanted to create a scene, and while, originally I was planning a springtime sort of theme, it ended up quite wintery--and I'm ok with that.  I was thinking about Scottish highlands and the way the mist creeps around, making everything look less bright. Lovely.

Here's my card;

I went with a no-line colouring technique to make the images seem softer and more 'in the scene'.

Very simply, I stamped everything in Hero Arts Wet Cement ink (which was a tad too dark actually but I stamped it off once and used the second generation technique to make it paler). I then used my Prismacolour pencils to colour everything and the well only, with some gamsol.  I made sure to creep some green onto the stones and wood of the well, I wanted it to look nice and mossy--a-la-Scotland.

For the grass and sky, I freehanded some light colouring across the areas, and added grass tufts to the lawn. I then used a MFT stencil/mask for some cloud shapes, and I gently rubbed a little Hero Arts white Unicorn ink VERY gently of the edges, and then some Broken China distress ink over as well, to give a foggy look rather than crisp white clouds in the sky.

The sentiment is from the same CM240 Wishing Well set from Hero Arts, and is embossed with Hero Arts embossing powder (the only one I ever use actually!)

I added a faux stitched border around the edge, and some butterfly trail dots for some added fun, with a white gel pen.

Hope you like it!

I'm over on the A Blog Named Hero Facebook page sharing this today, so feel free to leave me a like or a comment over there! I'd love to hear from you.

See you soon!

Linda x

I'm back!!

Hello!!

I'm super excited to be here today because I've been invited back for another year on the A Blog Named Hero Facebook Team!

I've created a card that I'm sharing over at the FB page, and I hope you like it! 

Here's a sneak peek;

I hope you like it!! 

Can't wait to meet the entire new A Blog Named Hero Team, it's going to be an amazing year!

See you again soon,

Linda XO

For this card I used;

Ranger Alcohol Inks

Delicata Gold Ink

Hero Arts Black Dye Ink

Hero Arts 'Ornate Henna Patterns' Stamp Set

Hero Arts Stamp & Cut 'Love' 

Ranger Multi Matte Medium