Splashes of Watercolor

Wild Pink Fairy

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Happy Friday!!  Yay!  Almost the weekend again!

Today I've got a beautiful Wild Pink Fairy for you to see.  This image is from the A Day For Daisies March Club Kit called Wild Fairies.  Beautiful!!  And we're starting a new challenge (#91) over at the ADFD blog.  It's an easy one….Anything Goes!

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Please be sure to check out all the gorgeous creations of the design team here:

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Arielle Broni Danielle Juliana Mila Sherry

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Thanks for stopping in on your way to the weekend!  Have a great one!

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The NEW ePlay Challenge - Push Your Boundaries!

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Welcome to eclectic Paperie's ePlay Challenge – Push Your Boundaries!  We’re altering our challenges in 2014, creating one, month-long challenge, increasing the prize drawing, holding a design team blog hop, and including a product discount with each new challenge!  Check out the details below:

· We’ve combined our two challenges into one, announced on the first Thursday of each month.  This gives the design team more flexibility with challenge topics and projects and allows you more time to enter! 

· We’ll also feature a product each month, and during the first day of the challenge, you’ll receive a discount on the featured product….be sure to check for the special code! 

· Our prize drawing is increasing from $15.00 to a $25.00 gift certificate and the winner of each challenge will be announced on the last Thursday of each month and will be featured on the eP blog. 

· Each month we’ll hold a blog hop featuring the beautiful artwork from our design team…just scroll down to the bottom of the post for all of the links!  Talk about inspiration!!

Our challenges are about encouraging you to explore your creative journey and inspiring you to step outside of your comfort zone.  When you submit your artwork, share a unique card, scrapbook or journal page, a canvas, home décor project, or anything that you’re excited to share!  We’re looking forward to crafting with you!

Today’s special is on Liquidtex Gesso and Clear Gesso and for one day only, you can save 10% on a bottle of gesso…perfect for all of your altered projects!  Simply use code GESSO03 when checking out.

This month’s challenge is ALTER A BOOK.

And here's what I came up with:

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Here's my process:

1- Using an old (copyright 1990) torn-up children's book with a missing cover and hard pages, I covered the front page with Gesso.

2- I wanted to use my Gelli plate to add color to the page.  I coated the plate with yellow acrylic paint and laid my Daisy Bits mask on it. 

3- Next I laid down my Mini Chevrons stencil, then lifted it and turned the Gelli plate over onto the book page. 

    

I'm pretty sure I took too long to complete these steps, because my paint dried pretty fast and I didn't get a good imprint.

4- I used green paint and my Two Leaves Bits mask next.

5- Then I used hot pink paint and the Daisy Bits mask again, but I also added some curvy lines with my Silicone Wedge tool.

6- Next I used some aqua paint and the Silicone Wedge tool again to make some straight lines.

7- When I had the front of the page covered with the Gelli prints, I started added fillers with stencils and Distress paints. 

    

8- I added another watered-down coat of Gesso to create a more uniform background.

9- I added my words using the Letter Jumble stencil and the Funky Word stencil with some Black Soot ink and an ink blending tool.

10- I also added some Black Gesso with the edge of an old credit card, then added some more texture with some Metallic Gold embossing paste and more stencils and some white embossing paste and the Vintage Floral stencil.

11- Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone!  I had to pull out some Dylusions ink sprays and squirt them a few times, then allow them to drip down the front of the page. Then I finished it off with a few spritzes of gold Color Shine spray.

And this is how is all turned out:

     

You can click on any of the images  to see them full size.

That's it for me!   Please be sure to follow along the blog hop to see all the beautiful inspiration from the design team:

Thank you so much for stopping in today!

Letter Jumble stencil - Dylusions	Studio 490 - Funky Word Stencil	Mini Chevron 6x6 template	Studio 490 - Vintage Floral Stencil	TCW - 6x6 Well Rounded Stencil
TCW - Balzer Bits Mask - Daisy Bits	TCW Two Leaves Bits mask	Catalyst Silicone Wedge Tool - Yellow	Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso -black
Claudine Hellmuth Studio products	Spun Sugar Distress Paint	Broken China Distress Paint	Black Soot Distress ink pad	Inkssentials Foam Blending Tool
Speedball 4" Pop-In Rubber Brayer	Gelli Plate 6x6" - Gelli Arts	Studio 490 White Embossing Paste	Dylusions Fresh Lime Ink Spray	Dylusions Bubblegum Pink Ink Spray
Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise Ink Spray

InLinkz.com

Birthday Wishes & a Surprise for me!

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Well, it's Wednesday and that means it's time for the latest and greatest Color Throwdown challenge!

But before I get to this week's challenge, let me tell you about my surprise this past Saturday.  I was at my Copic coloring class with the super-awesome Debbie Olson, when I looked up and who did I see at the very next table?  The adorable smiling face of our February Guest Designer, Nicole Nastali!   That was so cool!  She's so peppy and vibrant and super fun!  We just had to take a couple of photos:

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And the class was so great!  We colored faces and hair for a full 5 hours!  With all that practice, I surely learned something, right?  And I will be putting my new knowledge to the test very shortly!

But for now, let's get on to this week's Color Throwdown!  Monika is our hostess and she's chosen some vibrant summer colors for us to play with.  Just look at that gorgeous sunset/sunrise!

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I needed a birthday card for the end of the week, so I pulled out a new (to me) set from Technique Junkies called Pennant Set 4.  I flicked some So Saffron ink onto a piece of white cardstock, then cut it in half, adding a strip of black between it and the Tangerine Tango layer.

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I'm using this week's CAS(e) this Sketch #65 and I'm also entering this card into the Catered Crops Good Birthday Recipe Swap:

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The charcoal twine is attached in several places using tiny drops of Glossy Accents.

I hope you'll plan on joining us for the challenge this week.  We love seeing what you create!  Check out the inspiring designs from the rest of the team:

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Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Enjoy the rest of your week!

InLinkz.com

Lucky Clover Pixie

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Hello, there! 

It's time for another new release from A Day For Daisies.  You know it's getting close to March and thus St. Patrick's Day, so let's get a head start, shall we?  This new collection is all about Pixies and beautiful ladies and Clovers!  It's called Lucky Clovers.

And we're starting a new challenge (#90) over at the ADFD blog.  The challenge (oddly enough) is to USE GREEN!

So here's my card using the adorable Lucky Clover Pixie:

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I used this week's Seize the Sketch #14:

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We hope you'll play along with us in the USE GREEN challenge.  And be sure to check out the awesome inspiration from all the members of the design team here:

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Arielle Broni Danielle Juliana Mila Sherry

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Thanks so much for dropping by on your way to the weekend!  I'm attending a special Copics coloring class in Charlotte tomorrow taught by the incredible Debbie Olson!  I'm super excited and can't wait!!  Have a great one, y'all!

InLinkz.com

Cute Delivery Fairy - February Club Kit Take 2

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Such a Cute Delivery Fairy!  And I believe she's delivering sunshine!  We sure need it here!  This is what our week looked like here in the Deep South:

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This card is for a very special person who I hope will love it! 

The image is part of the A Day For Daisies February Club Kit and it's AWESOME!  Lots of lovely, sweet fairies!

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I used my new Rays stencil from Tim Holtz and also my new TCW Mini Well Rounded stencil, both from eclectic Paperie to create my background.  The clouds are from Lil' Inker Designs and the great sentiment is from Technique Tuesday.  The clouds, the hearts, and the adorable fairy are all popped up on foam mounting tape, and I tied a length of Lemondrop twine around the card front and into a bow.

I'm entering this in the new CASE Study Challenge #178:

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Please be sure to check out all the beautiful designs from the rest of the team:

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Arielle Broni Danielle Juliana Mila Sherry

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And don't forget there's still time to play in Challenge #89 - Use a Big Heart over at the ADFD blog.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!  Thanks for coming by today!

InLinkz.com

Love & Feathers - Color Throwdown #279

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Hey there, y'all!  It's time for another round of Color Throwdown!  Lori is our hostess this week and she's brought us an adorable inspiration photo, with a fun color combo.

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Yes, I'm STILL making some Valentine cards!  I'm using the Wonderful Words: Love die and the new Feather Finery stamp set and coordinating feather dies.

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The background was done by cutting a piece of acetate using the Hearts Cover Plate. I used this for a stencil and pressed some Versamark through it onto my white cardstock.  Then I covered it with clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.  I sponged some Pink Pirouette ink onto some of background.  Here's a better view:

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The feathers were also heat embossed:  the smaller feather with Versamark and clear embossing powder and the larger one with Pink Pirouette ink and clear embossing powder.  I don't know if you can tell but the rhinestone heart is red - that's my only red element on this card.

I'm entering this card in the Catered Crop for February to use hearts.

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Please try to take some time to play along with us this week!  We'd love to see your beautiful creations!  Take a look at the inspiration provided by our awesome design team:

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That's it for today!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

InLinkz.com

Love in Black & Gold

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It's been a long time since I just made a card to enter into a challenge.  But I really wanted to play in a CASE Study challenge this month, since Danielle Flanders is the muse.  I love her style!

This is the card chosen to be cased this month for the CASE Study Challenge #177:

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I made another Valentine card (I know, don't shoot me!).  But I love the idea of a Valentine in black, white and gold!

The background is clear embossed by pressing Versamark through my Mini Chevrons stencil and then embossing with clear embossing powder.

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I used 3 different washi tapes, some sequins, and some hearts from the Happy Hearts set embossed in gold.  I also stamped the love and arrows from the Oh Yeah stamp set in black and gold and popped it up on foam mounting tape. 

So that's it for today.  Thanks so much for your visit!  Please stop back by tomorrow for my sample for the latest Color Throwdown challenge.

InLinkz.com

Lots of Love

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Hello everyone!  I thought I'd drop in briefly today to share a card I made for the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #151: Drop Shadow Die Cuts challenge.  I love doing this and thought I'd take this opportunity to make yet another Valentine's Day card.  I hope I'll be able to sell some of my "love" stash at work this week for the guys to give to their sweethearts!

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I used the Wonderful Words: Love stamp set along with the coordinating Love die.  As you can see, I used a few of the phrases and sprinkled them around the "LOVE" that was stamped in a light gray.  Then I layered on a gray die cut, topped with a 3-layer die cut in hot pink.

I also used one of the arrow dies from the Valentine Stitches die set and an arrow stamp from the Sketched Shapes set.  The hearts are the centers of the "O" of the "LOVE".

So that's it for me today.  Thank you so much for taking the time to stop and look!

InLinkz.com

eP Get Altered Challenge - Altered Playing Cards

 

Hello there, everyone!  I'm hosting this month's eP Get Altered Challenge.  This month I'm asking that we play with~

 Altered Playing Cards

I'm sad to say I haven't tried this before, but after this fun little adventure I'm sure I'll be going back to pull from my deck again and again!

Since it's February, the month of Valentines, I decided to make Valentine altered playing cards for all my grandchildren.   There are 8 altogether between George and myself.  Whew!  So it literally took days for this all to come together. 

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I'm going to try to take you through a few of the steps….the ones I can remember and that I photographed!  The first thing I did was sand all my cards using a sanding grip block.

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I used my Gelli plate to apply some aqua and lime acrylic paints to the cards, then I added some purple dots.  Instead of using a brayer, I just used a paint brush.  It gave more texture to the surface of the cards.  It also took longer to dry between layers.  I did this with 4 of the cards.

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I painted over them with white acrylic paint and then wiped it off with a baby wipe.  This helped the texture of the paint to show up better.  I cut a heart from a scrap of paper and used it to draw hearts onto the cards.  Then I painted them with red acrylic paint.

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For the other 4 cards, I decided to try painting directly on the cards as opposed to using the Gelli plate.  I used the same colors and also painted on the purple dots.  I spread some Studio 490 white embossing paste on 2 of the cards and let it dry to add some texture.

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Then I put on some more embossing paste using my Mini Hexagons stencil and my palette knife.  After it dried, I sprayed on several different bright Dylusions ink sprays.  When they dried I sprayed just a little of the White Linen ink spray.

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I sprayed the first 4 altered playing cards with White Linen ink spray as well.

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Here are all the cards.  (You can see I experimented a little with the bottom right one.)

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I used both pieces of my cut-out heart (the positive and the negative) as masks to stamp either onto the hearts or around the hearts.

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I did some more stamping on the cards using the Catherine Scanlon Random Shapes images and Archival jet black ink.  This second photo is taken from a different angle so that you can see the texture even under the Glossy Accents that I added to all the hearts.

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And here are some closeups:

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I simply painted the back of the cards with some white paint.  That's where I'll write my little love messages to the kids.

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Ok then!  That's my take on Altered Playing Cards.  I hope you'll decide to play along with us!  Be sure to link up on the eclectic Paperie blog  so we can all check out what you come up with!

Thanks for visiting!

Sanding Grip Block Non-Stick Craft Sheet Gelli Plate 6x6" - Gelli Arts Mini Acrylic Paint Sets - Metropolitan Claudine Hellmuth Artist Brushes Black Soot Distress ink pad Jumbo round dauber eP Catherine Scanlon Random Shapes Archival Jet Black Ink Pad Studio 490 White Embossing Paste Palette Knife TCW Hexagons 6x6 stencil Dylusions Bubblegum Pink Ink Spray Dylusions Pure Sunshine Ink Spray Dylusions Fresh Lime Ink Spray Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise Ink Spray White Linen Dylusions Ink Spray Ranger Matte Accents

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A Gift of Love for Valentine's Day

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Hi, y'all!  I hope everyone else in the Southeast has recovered from our "winter storm".  We were supposed to get 3.5" of snow and ended up with about 1".  It was gone the next day, even though the high barely reached 32 degrees.  That's a typical Southern snowfall!

And now it's on to another weekend with highs in the 60's.  That certainly works for me!

Speaking of weekends…..it's Friday and time for my latest A Day For Daisies creation!  We're still working on Valentines and I chose to use an adorable little image of 2 angels called A Gift of Love.

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I loved the colors we used at the Color Throwdown this week, so I decided to use them again for today's card.

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And I used this week's I {heart} card sketches #051:

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I colored the little darlings with my Copic markers and spread Star Dust Stickles on their wings.  The card front was impressed with my new Hearts cover plate.

I hope you'll stop by the designers blogs to see their awesome creations too!

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Arielle Broni Danielle Juliana Mila Sherry

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Thank you so much for stopping by!  Have a happy and fun weekend!  {Go Denver!}

InLinkz.com