The "Be" Notebooks

Happy Tuesday! I'm very excited to share with you my guest post over at Quietfire Design. Thanks so much for having me Suzanne!

Such beautiful calligraphy/hand lettering from Suzanne Cannon that have been turned into stamps and dies!!

Here is my first guest post, The "Be" Notebooks for a travelers journal.

For step out instructions and more close ups of those beautiful quotes make sure you check out the full post on the Quietfire Design Blog today! And while you're there make sure you check out the store and all the wonderful dies and stamps.

Thanks for checking in and I hope you all have a great week!

Cathy

My Crackled Heart

Just a few more days until Valentine's Day! I don't do alot for this day, my kids and I are super cheap and we go get choclates on the 15th when every thing goes on sale! LOL I used to do little gift bags for my kids and as they got older it was different things here and there. Last year it was their favorites pies LOL Not very Valentiney, but they ate the pies. 

This year I had a few things in my stash that I wanted to play with so I pulled them out and made My Crackled Heart. 

I used one of the TH Baseboards from the Christmas pack, the plaster heart is from Relics & Artifacts, first time using that line and love it. The heart was originally painted in metallics from Finnabair, but I changed my mind (like I always do) and repainted it with the Distress Paints in Hickory Smoke and Wilted Violet.

I edged the base board in the Hickory Smoke and Wilted Violet as well. Super messy job on that because I already had a piece of paper that I was going to use to cover most of it.

 

I used my Stencil Girl stencil to add to this spare piece of paper and used the Wilted Violet and Tarnished Brass to highlights a few spots.

I love how it turned out, but I was going to be cutting out the TH Flourish with it. But I now have a new way to colour with my stencils.

Yes..I really love this! Going to try some different colour combos next weekend.

I also stenciled on the heart. It was a little tricky keeping it in place, but I just wanted a small part of the stencil to tie it in.

Before I stenciled on the flourish I added a layer of the Distress Clear Rocky Candy Crackle. I need to get some more of this stuff, I love it!

And here is the finished My Crackled Heart! I also foiled on a little hand drawn arrow and added some rub ons.

It's all about using what you have sometimes. And quite often I forget that I have something. So I keep digging around and finding new things (well not really new, but forgotten about) and pulling them out where I can see them.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all have a great start to your week!!

Cathy

Challenges Entered:

Frilly and Funkie: All You Need Is Love

Holidays Are Over, but....

I still have holiday projects to share!! I had to wait until the recipients opened their gifts and now have the time to do a post and share with you! This wreath was one of my favorites this year! You can't go wrong with the Tattered Poinsettia die!

The wreath is made of wood and I got it at Michaels last year. I do plan ahead sometimes! :)

The finished project!

I prepped all my bits and pieces first! I cut out 5 tattered poinsettias, then 5 large ones again for the leaves. Then I ran them through with the matching embossing folder (which I didn't even realize I had BUT am so glad I do).

The poinsettias I edged with platinum distress glitter and did platinum stickles in the centers. Before I did the glitter I used my new tarnished brass Distress crayon, scribbled on my craft mat, spritzed with water then used my finger to run it over the raised parts on the poinsettia. The leaves were done with evergreen bough distress ink and then I used a Finnabair wax on the raised parts.

I covered the whole wreath in ripped up pieces of TH Christmas stash from a couple years ago (yup I am a paper hoarder lol) and once that part was dry I sponged over it with Festive Berries, Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo Distress paints.

For this part I used my absolute favorite TH stencil, Ranger Texture Paste and a touch of red acrylic paint with a pearl finish.

 

This is one of my favorite parts!! I had this little resin window in my stash and this pic of Santa is cut out from the Th Christmas pad I had. Just like looking out the window on Christmas Eve and seeing Santa!

A little wooden word I had in my stash and stained with Tarnished Brass Distress Spray and the adorable little tree charm from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies.

 

One of my fave charms from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies.

The vintage deer and Christmas trees are too cute and I had to add them too.

 And of course the gorgeous poinsettias! Just love this die!

And one more time because I just love it, the finished project!!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you are all having a wonderful week!! More Christmas posts to come LOL I still want to share the ornaments I made  this year and some of my favorite cards.

Cathy

Mermaids and Seashells

Some of my favorite things are rolled into one exciting challenge at Mixed Media Mojo Challenges Facebook Group! The August challenge is Under The Sea with a seashell twist. Yes I love seashells and love spending time on the beach finding treasures.

This month I created a little scene in one of the TH shadow boxes.

A few step out pictures for you to see some of the parts.

I did a base coat with the 3 colours of TH Distress Paint, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers and Seedless Preserves, using a very dry brush so I didn't get complete coverage.

Once my paint was dry I did a light layer of Ken Oliver Mineral Spirits in Metallic Sky for a gorgeous shimmer

I cut this mermaid tail out of a piece of BoBunny paper and painted it with Ken Oliver Mineral Spirits in Metallic Sky and the Ken Oliver Liquid Metals in Turquoise, Emerald and Quartz

Also did this mermaid tail and little seashell bra in the Ken Oliver Mineral Spirits in Metallic Sky and the Ken Oliver Liquid Metals in Turquoise, Emerald and Quartz

Used BoBunny paper for the background pieces and painted those with the Mineral Spirits as well. Just love the shimmer I get from them! The seashell is the Concha Seashell from Emerald Creek and embossed in San Tropez Tan and coloured with the Ken Oliver Liquid Metals.

The Concha sell stamp from Emerald Creek and the sand dollar is from my Spellbinders die set that also includes the seahorse below.

Seahorse cut out from Th cardboard and coloured with Finnabair paints. The little eye is one of gemstones available from Emerald Creek, it's the Black Tourmaline.

And this little seashell was a find from my trip out to Nova Scotia in June :)

These adorable little starfish are from Southern Ridge Trading Company and painted in Finnabair metallics paint.

Don't forget to pop in and share your Under the Sea with a seashell twist with us on the Mixed Media Mojo Challenge Facebook Group. Can't wait to see what you all create this month!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great day!

Cathy

A Trifecta of Dies!

I was so excited to be one of the $50 GC winners in the Stamp 'N Scrap Busy Beaver Blog Hop and even more excited when I saw that they had some Seth Apter dies in stock!! You can check out Stamp 'N Scrap and see what they have! Great service and my package was wrapped up so pretty! I had a couple days of work left when I got my package but tonight I played!! 

I really like using canvas boards, but of course I didn't have any....so regular canvas it was. I used a 10X10 canvas and....didn't even gesso it!! I know...who does that? But I couldn't wait so I just started painting. And also...I didn't even clean my brush off between colours!! I'm losing my mind here! LOL Used a completely dry brush for all the colours and my fingers.

I used Seth Apter's Trifecta die on this project and I love it! I can't wait to use the other one I got now! You can get this die at Scrap 'N Stamp HERE or from Seth's website HERE

Here is the finished project featuring Seth's  Trifecta dies, Tim's Distress Paints in Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs.

I cut out the dies, then used them as stencils on the canvas (the Peacock Feathers colour), then painted the dies and added them on. I used some burlap I had on my table and painted that and added it.

I used Ranger clear Texture Paste and a large word stencil for background texture. I also added in some spots some Clear Rock Candy crackle paint. Here are some close ups :)

I then assembled everything and glued most of my bits on with Dina's gel medium. I love that stuff!

The shimmery paint is one of the new ones from Finnabair called Fairy Wings, love it!

So many circles!! One in paint, one die on cardstock and one done on cork.

I need to use more crackle...on everything!! I love this stuff...I forget sometimes that I have something!

Excited to have my first ever Seth Apter Dies!! You can find his designs on his website and follow his creative journey on his blog, here is the link to The Altered Page. Can't wait to get more...I need the drips one next I think! :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend everyone! 

Cathy

 

Love Is In The Air

Welcome to February with the Mixed Media Mojo Monthly Challenge!! Be sure to head over to the blog to see all the amazing projects from the DT! This month's challenge is Love, Twist - Wings. Here's my take on the challenge.

It's all about Love....but can you spot my twist?!

I used alcohol inks in Black, Purple and Flamingo (I originally started with gold but didn't like how it showed up so I switched to black) and Yupo paper to create a plaid background. Thanks to my friend Freddie for the instructions on that! I then painted a piece of substrate with the Opal Magic Violet Gold by Finnabair.

I then edge the piece in mica powder. Here is where I originally painted with the Distress paint in Wilted Violet, but I did not like the way it turned out. So I left it aside and worked on my Yupo plaid. I wrote with the embossing pen and then heat embossed with Fractured Ice from Emerald Creek.

And because I didn't like the way one paint turned out, I used black gesso and covered it and liked that much better. I then used my Distress Black Soot marker to colour the word love and stamped it around the border. To add some more texture to the black I used transparent texture paste through the heart stencil. All my little flowers were done with Tattered Florals die and paper from Wild Whisper Designs, I used some Emerald Creek brads for the flower centers.

 And now for a few close ups of the project!

All the flower sections are edged with Distress Ink in Dusty Concord

This button brad was embossed in Onyx Frost, both items from Emerald Creek.

This flower center is a Tiny Tattered Floral.

You can see the heart texture in the background

Printed and then embossed in Fractured Ice

 

And to make sure you could see my twist...here are my "wings" on the little flower fairy

Please make sure to check out the blog and play along with the February challenge!!

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a great week!
Cathy