In Full Bloom For Creative Expressions

I'm taking a bit of a break from ATCs for this week's Creative Expression make. The Creative Expression team all got items from the MDF Dimension art range in their DT packs this month and if you want to see what the rest of the team have done with theirs then don't forget to pop on over to the Creative Expression's Facebook page and scroll through the beautiful makes.

So this MDF piece is the Baroque Square Photo Frame.

To give you an idea of the size it is 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 inch), it comes in three pieces - the shaped front of the frame, a smaller square back with drilled holes and a stick to use in one of the holes as the stand.

I started by covering the frame and back piece with old book pages then used the acrylic paints to add a colour wash. Once this was dry I added some tinted molding paste through the That Special Touch Peacock mask...

and the That Special Touch Polka dots mask.

Then some dry brushing with white paint and wiping with the cobalt Ranger Archival ink pad. 

The blooms are old page collages and some wire and I used the Saffron and Vermillion Ranger Archival ink pads to colour the circle flowers.

Finally the brush pen sentiment was made from the old book page collage and a bit of wire decoration to go with the flowers and wire leaves.

Thanks for popping in today.

Kim

Dotty Stamping For Creative Expressions

Time for another DT make and today it is the turn of Creative Expressions.

I've gone for another ATC to showcase another way to use their new A6 Background stamps.

So far I've used the stamps with embossing powders and some triple embossing and then the first week I coloured the image with pencils. This week I've used them with Ranger Archival ink pads and some masking techniques.

I've used the Ranger Archival Saffron ink pad and also the Ranger Archival Cornflower from the Wendy Vecchi range of ink pads. The stamp is the Creative Expressions Umount Swirl Background stamp.

Have a great Wednesday.

Kim

All Embossed Stars For Creative Expressions

Happy Wednesday All! I have a make for you today and I almost went for a heart-themed make again, you know, like last week's post. But I avoided temptation and went for a star instead.

It is a make for Creative Expressions and I've used the Creative Expressions Umount Feather A6 Background stamp to emboss the background and to press into the triple embossed star.

When I started this make I was thinking that I would do a black and white theme and then I spotted this gorgeous Cosmic Shimmer Blue Watercress Blaze embossing powder in my collection - it is yum and I am a sucker for teal colours. 

I wanted a little counterpoint colour and the Cosmic Shimmer Bright Gold Metallic embossing powder just seemed perfect.

Then a little bit of Ranger Archival Jet Black ink to act as an accent and there you go!

Have a super Arty Wednesday.

Kim

A Rainbow Of Love ATC For Creative Expressions

Wednesday has snuck up upon us again. Did you spot it coming? I certainly didn't, I mean it was only Tuesday a day or so ago...

Well as it is Wednesday I better share with you my Creative Expressions make for this week.

I've gone for a bit of colour with some pencils for this Rainbow of Love ATC. I've stamped out the Creative Expressions Umount Feather A6 Background stamp in a light ink for the background and the heart is made from the Creative Expressions Umount Swirl A6 Background Stamp.

Hope you are having a fun week and thanks for popping in.

Kim

Recycled And Cracked For Creative Expresssions

Time for a proper bit of vintage for my Creative Expressions DT make this week. Well, I don't know, maybe it isn't that vintage-y but it does have a crackle effect layer and some distressing so that must count towards the vintage-ness of today's offering right?

And of course the vintage-style stamps from the Umount Antique Dressform stamp set also help don't they? There is a little bit of book page collage going on but would you believe that the tag and the crackle layer are all made from a cereal box? Oh yeah! They certainly are - Mmm... knew I should have photographed the back so that you could see.

Ok enough of this week's recycling news and on with the make itself. Well the colours are all from the Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Stains range, mainly because they are the only items that I can get to at the moment. My workspace is in a kind of limbo state and has been for a few months now. I spend most of my time climbing over things to get to other things. 

I've used my two favourite colours of stains - Peacock Feathers and Squeezed Lemonade - and the vintage tints come from Gathered Twigs. 

I have to admit that I would not have picked the Gathered Twigs colour if it hadn't had been for stock availability issues and a demo I was doing. My usual inclination is towards bright colours and not so much towards the Earth Tones, well other than the Ranger Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain in the distress range which I usually use a lot when distressing, if I can get to them!

But I am really glad I now have Gathered Twigs stain in my collection, it has turned out to be a really useful colour to have as you can see. Not only did I use it to distress the tag, but it is also the colour I used in the cracks of the crackle layer.

The crackles come from a layer of Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crackle paint - Rock Candy over the Peacock Feathers and Squeezed Lemonade painted die-cut label. Then when the paint was dry I sponged on some of the Gathered Twigs Stain and let it seep into the cracks.

All the stamping was done on cartridge paper with the Ranger Archival Coffee Ink Pad.

Not bad for an old cereal box!

Thanks for popping by.

Kim

Just For You For Creative Expressions

Time for my second DT make of the week with another handbag stamp from Creative Expressions. After my wondering away from my planned DT makes with last week's Art Journal page I thought that this week I would stick to my plans with this card.

The design is quite simple, as you can see...

The handbag is called Bejewelled Bag and is from the Creative Expressions pre-cut single stamps range. The sentiment comes with the stamp.

What makes the card slightly different is that I've used some leftover background paper experiments from another project. I never throw these papers away as they always come in handy eventually, I'm sure you are the same aren't you?

Also in my DT pack this month was one of the Cosmic Shimmer Pastel glues, so I thought I would see how it works to make pearls. The dot in the middle of the flower is a Pastel glue pearl and it was very easy to apply and formed a nice rounded shape. I don't know about you but sometimes I find that some products don't give you a nice rounded pearl and can be a bit hard to apply, I've often been frustrated with the end result but this one seems to work just fine. 

Also it was touch dry really quickly - bonus! I can not tell you the number of times I've accidentally smeared or messed up pearl drops on a make, seriously I am rubbish when it comes to remembering that something is wet and must not be touched!

Right, I'm off. Catch you all later.

Kim

Journal Page For Creative Expressions

I've already drifted away from my planned makes for Creative Expressions this month. When I first got the DT package I designed my makes for the month, as is my normal routine, and then I went and ignored my designs and made this journal page instead.

Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and for some reason this was the flow I thought I would go with this week.

The purse stamp is one of the Creative Expressions Singles stamps and it comes with a sentiment by the way. It is called Basketweave Purse.

The inspiration behind the page started with the purse really. The idea of the words exploding out of the purse was in my head and I knew that I wanted to have it framed in black lines. The rest grew organically.

If you look really closely you can see some of the page I'm working on coming through and I achieved this with the alcohol rub-back technique I described in my article in the November 2013 issue of Craft Stamper. 

I'm actually working on a flier, you know those leaflets you get that advertise events? This one is practically a book and measures 15 cm by 21 cm (A5) and the paper is quite good, well it was a City Of London flier so you can expect the quality to be better than average!

I like using fliers and advertising materials for journals as they are free, you can pick them up all over the place and I'm re-purposing something that will otherwise get thrown out once the event is over. So they make great messy art journals and you don't have to go through that pristine, blank-page sketch book syndrome.

Anyway, I digress! I have used layers of Soot Black and Antique Linen Ranger Tim Holtz Distress paints to rub back and the Squeezed Lemonade and Peacock Feathers Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Stains for the colours and final layers. I've also used the Jet Black Ranger Archival ink pad and the Creative Expressions Acrylic glue.

The words are cut from magazines and are vaguely money related, well in my head anyway. I will leave you to put your own interpretation on them. But as I was working with this page I did start to think about other pages I could do that explored my relationship with money. Mmm perhaps some more projects there!

Well thanks for popping in and sharing this journal page with me.

Have a creative Wednesday.

Kim

Dressform In Pink For Creative Expressions

Hi Guys, so my first day back at work proper was Monday 6th, probably like a lot of folks, and I now feel that Christmas was a whole other year ago - oh wait - it was!

Happy New Year All!

Now I know I posted something on my blog yesterday, so that is officially my first blog post of 2014, but to tell you the truth I wrote it, and made the project, the week before Christmas and this is actually my first make of the year.

I'm really looking forward to all the creative possibilities of 2014 and I hope you are too. I've definitely got that New Year feeling happening and hoping that it lasts at least through to the end of January if not further. I think that key for me this year will be getting a bit of life balance back and not burning myself out with some mad deadlines. 

I kind of found myself in a bit of a cycle of deadline chasing followed by exhaustion, so this year I'm going to work harder on not being such a workaholic - did you see what I did there? Work harder at not being such a workaholic - yeah, ok, I didn't say I was going to work harder on being a comedian did I? Cut me some slack!

Ok, so how about the first make of 2014? It is for Creative Expressions and we have a very feminine-themed DT packet this month with the Umount Antique Dressform stamp set. So I've put on my female hat on and pinked out with my first DT make.

My original intention was to make an ATC but then I decided that the ATC would look better mounted on a card and so a card it became. 

You might not be able to tell, but I've actually stamped the dressform in Ranger Archival Cobalt ink. The words are stamped with the Ranger Archival Rose Madder ink and the darker pink edging uses the Ranger Archival Plum ink. 

I've added shading and details with coloured pencils and layered it all with 3D-foam onto a Kraft card, I love the leaf detail on this stamp.

Well first make of 2014 done and first blog post (well second) of the year sorted. Hoping that you keep that New Year buzz for as long as you can.

Catch you later.

Kim

Happy Birthday Frame For Creative Expressions

Hey lovely blog hoppers I've got a Creative Expressions make for you today and it's another look at the Henna stamps for you.

I've used a bit of paper piecing with the Henna Floral Corner Stamp. I've stamped in blue and red with Archival Ink Pads and cut them out, then layered them over a stamping on acetate with StazOn. Finally I lined up each corner into the 3D-frame.

Now if you were being really swish, and had more time than I did, your could probably stamp the blue layer as one piece. It would need a bit of patience and some good lining up but I'm sure that you could do it!

Right, I'm off to stuff my face with more mince pies!

Catch you later.

Kim

Add A Bit Of Colour For Creative Expressions

Today I thought I would go for a bit of colour with my ATC project for Creative Expressions.

This week I've used one of my favourite techniques with the Henna stamps and the Archival Ink Pads.

It is a really simple technique but I love it! I've dabbed different Archival ink pads onto the stamp. You can of course make your own ink pads if you like by adding ink to a piece of felt or foam but if you are short of time the direct dabbing method works just fine. If you are worried about contaminating your pads just rub them on a piece of spare paper once you are finished.

The photos might look a little different on my blog this week? I'm trying out a new lens for my camera, I've finally taken the plunge and broken away from my kit lens. I've now got a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II for my baby and I love it! The new blog profile picture in the sidebar and on my Facebook page were also taken with it. So now I want... Oh dear... new expensive addiction alert! Better save me pennies!

Catch you all later

Kim

Happy Birthday Chalk For Creative Expressions

Another make and this time for Creative Expressions.

It uses the Henna Stamps and I've made a heat emboss resist background and coloured it with one of the Cosmic Shimmer Chalk misters. The sentiment is from the Winter Flower Stamp set.

Have a fun Wednesday

Kim

Winter Henna For Creative Expressions

A new month and some new stamps from Creative Expressions to share with you this month. They are the Henna stamps from their single stamps range.

I've gone with a Winter theme and embossed the stamp with some of the Cosmic Shimmer True White Detail embossing powder. The sentiment is from the Umount Winter Flowers A5 Stamp Plate.

The colour is from Cosmic Shimmer Misters and I've added a little bit of Baker's Twine to finish the piece. 

Thanks for popping in.

Kim