Mixed Media Mayhem!

Good morning, crafty friends.

I had to jump on board the Distress Oxide ink band-wagon after seeing several people's demonstration of their potential and:

• ordered a half dozen colours to try out;
• discovered a bottle of Frisket, the masking fluid, probably purchased sometime in 2016 and never opened, under a pile of patterned paper on the craft table;
• needed a new "miss you" card for my hubby's suitcase...

All the right ingredients for an experiment!

Here's my card:

I bought this stamp set from Close to My Heart last year---my DH was a chemistry student when we met, so the sentiment is perfect!

I started by stamping the beakers onto the card base with archival black ink. I used a paper mask to give the illusion of one beaker being behind the other.

Then I covered them both, and the sentiment with the Frisket liquid. It's pretty easy to use, and dries translucent so you can see what is underneath.

Then I went to town with three colours of Distress Oxide ink: spiced marmalade, broken china and cracked pistachio. I smooshed the ink onto a craft mat, spritzed with water and then dragged the card base through the ink. Dried it off and began again; added some splatters... Very satisfying and completely random. 

Once it looked like a small explosion, I rubbed off the Frisket and coloured the beakers with alcohol markers. Added some bubbles from the stamp set with Oxide inks. And coated the beakers with Liquid Glass so they'd look glassy.

I just love the result!

 Let me know what you think, or tell me about your experiments with Distress Oxides.

Have a creative day!

Caroline

P.S.: getting in, better late than never,  to Kathy Racoosin's 30 Day Colouring Challenge, on Day 30!

Also linking up to Simon Says Stamp's National Craft Month post HERE

Freshly Made Sketches #280

Good morning, crafty friends.

I've been working on spring birthday cards and was inspired by a YouTube video from Jennifer McGuire this week, as well as the current Freshly Made Sketch:

Jennifer was doing some ink-swiping with balloons. They certainly say "celebration," perfect for my 15-year-old niece's birthday (not too cutesy). The only balloon stamps I had were not big enough in scale for this sketch, so I decided to use patterned paper instead. I free-hand drew the balloons onto the paper with a coloured pencil and cut them out.

Then I popped the one in front up with a spring, for dimension and playfulness.

I used a well-loved Cuttlebug embossing folder for the background, which also serves as the sentiment. Some twine tied to the balloons completes this simple card.

Stop by the Freshly Made Sketches blog for some more inspiration!

Have a crafty week,

Caroline

Supplies:

Card stock: Close to My Heart white daisy; patterned paper from retired Magical paper pack
Embossing folder: Happy Birthday from Provocraft/Cuttlebug
Twine: Michael's
Ink:  Derwent Inktense watercolor pencil
Spring: Close to My Heart

Cross Canada Hop: Bonjour/ Hola/ Hello!

Bonjour / Hola / Hello
Welcome to our March Blog Hop featuring Close To My Heart stamp sets that are available in FRENCH, SPANISH and ENGLISH. When you flip through the catalogue these stamps are identified with a world-globe icon. You can also use THIS LINK to see images of the multi-lingual stamp sets. I find these stamps very useful for the card-making workshops I host. People really appreciate being able to create cards in the language of their choice.

We have an amazing group of talented ladies all across Canada participating in this hop, and they would love to hear from you, so before moving onto the next person, please take a moment to leave a comment telling us about what you loved about their work.

If you've arrived from Sue Mallory at Sue's Sparkly Stampin then you are in the right place!  If you'd like to start at the beginning of the hop and continue from East to West Coast, make sure to visit Michelle Stewart at My Creations with Michelle. If you get lost along the way, head to Michelle's blog; she'll have the full hop-list posted.

I created three cards using different stamp sets.

A1192F: I loved this font as well as the message: You make my heart happy!
I used CTMH Thin-cuts dies (on sale this month at 25% off) to cut a heart-shaped opening into a water-coloured panel, and mounted it above the sentiment, using foam-tape for some added dimension and shading. The Thin-cut features a skinny border, which helps to frame the message.

C1660F: This next card features mix-and-match sentiments for any celebration. I created an embossed background this time, inking the embossing folder to transfer colour to the de-bossed area and swiping a darker ink-pad over the embossed confetti to make it stand out. The balloons were cut from CTMH glitter paper and I coloured the balloon and sequin with a turquoise Shin-han Twin-touch alcohol marker, to match the rest of the design.

C1605F: This last card features the very versatile "Happy to be Friends" stamp set. It also includes multiple sentiments which can be combined to wish a happy birthday or anniversary, express sympathy, or "just because." I combined the sentiment "Bonne Fête des Mères" with the March Stamp of the Month "Tea-riffic!" to create a cozy little card. The patterned floral paper is from the "Dreamin' Big" paper pack. I stamped the flower image onto the tea-cup  and I coloured it to match the paper with alcohol markers.

Complete supplies are listed at the end of this post.
To purchase any of the items seen in today's blog hop, contact your local CTMH consultant to place an order.

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Dominique Groulx at of Fun2Cre8 with Dominique.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way.
We hope you will join us again next month when we will be featuring creations using the ShinHan Touch Twin Markers. So mark April 15th on your calendars for more creative inspiration.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

A1192F:  "Happy Heart" stamp set in French; White Daisy and Cranberry card stock; watercolour paper; water-colour paints Z3132 & brushes Z3188 from CTMH; Thin-cut hearts Z3260; Black ink-pad; gold sequins

C1660F: "Happy for You" stamp set in French; White Daisy and black card stock; Sea Glass, Lagoon and Black ink-pads; Glitter paper in White Z3237 and Silver Z3239; Confetti embossing folder Z3118; ShinHan Touch Twin Turquoise Blue alcohol marker Z2465; Balloon die-cuts from Lil'Inker Designs.

C1605F: "Happy to Be Friends" stamp set in French; "Tea-riffic" stamp of the month S1703; White Daisy, Saffron, Poppy card stock; Dreamin' Big paper pack X7218B; Archival Black and Slate ink-pads; Slate ribbon (discontinued); gold sequins; ShinHan alcohol markers; quilted die cover-plate, Lil'Inker Designs.