Mixed Media Canvas - Where There is Love...

Happy summer Monday...it's now official...there's a reason for the hot, and very dry, weather we're having! LOL

Today I have another photo-heavy Mixed Media Monday share for you...an 8x10 canvas board with a fun and *very* colorful background...

Do you remember this photo from a while back?

This is a pic of some of my "smoosh" papers - pieces of mixed media and watercolor paper colored by "smooshing" them into the leftover paints from previous projects and/or my handmade color charts of Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays and Magicals. (On Thursday, I'll be back to show you a card made with the bronze/gold/grey piece in the front...but today's piece features a bit of three of the papers in this stack, along with a few others not pictured here.)  

I wanted to make a brightly colored background for a canvas, and that's when I remembered my smoosh papers...and realized I already had the background in my basket all along! So I pulled out an 8x10 canvas board as a base, and started laying out and rearranging and re-sizing pieces. I stamped the final-choice pieces with a few fun mixed media stamps using grey Archival Ink to add some muted background images, then began gluing the pieces to the canvas with matte medium. I wound up with a starting canvas looking like this...

Then I took some smaller pieces, punched and played with the edges and ends, added stitching to a few, and glued them down with matte medium on top of the base pieces to add texture and more color variety ...

The next step was to pull out a couple coordinating stencils and add crackle texture paste...

Next up, splatter some white acrylic ink over the background, just for fun. Then I added some more LSG Magicals to color and shadow the crackle paste areas once they were completely dry.

Before adding embellishments, I needed to add an "anchor" for the large floral cluster and little pieces that would fill the center of the canvas.  I die cut two of the "Sketchy Rings" dies and glued them together in the center to form one long piece of distressed circles. 

The clear frame in the center is a Making Memories frame that's been in my stash forever...I knew I'd find the perfect use for it one day! 

And finally, black Archival Ink was brushed around the outside edges. I think the dark contrasting edges keep the eye from drifting off the edges of the canvas, and bring it back to all the fun embellishments and sentiments that will be in the center...

And now on to some closeups of the finished piece. There were quite a few "happy accidents" as I was pulling embellishments for the canvas, and I love how so many long-stashed pieces, in addition to the clear acrylic frame in the center, finally found the perfect use.

The "love" key was a recent purchase, but it was gold and didn't have enough contrast with the background, so I covered it first with black gesso, then accented with a couple different colors of Lumiere paints - and now it's perfect...

And then I found this in my metal charms drawer, and how perfect a fit is it? It's an old Making Memories plaque with the perfect quote to go with the "love" key. I accented the lettering with pink acrylic craft paint, then added more Lumiere paint around the edges, popped some foam adhesive on the back, and nestled it into the sides of the flowers...

There's still a bit of the black diecut circles peeking through at the top...I didn't cover them completely...LOL. ..

The metal butterfly was originally a dark bronze color. I had added Alcohol Inks in magenta and copper to it for another project, but didn't use it then. I pulled it out again for this canvas, dry-brushed black gesso around the outer edge for contrast, then added some Lumiere paints to the inside to bring all the colors of the canvas onto the butterfly...

I discovered that one of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology clock faces fit inside one of the diecut circles perfectly...the color was just not right. Dry brushing a little more black gesso and Lumiere paints took care of that, and a couple small black watch hands in another tiny stash drawer add the perfect finishing touches. 

Below that, another happy find...a long-held Making Memories word charm, this time the word "life," the second half of the quote in the larger sentiment charm...perfect! :)

Supplies:

Color mediums:  Lindy's Stamp Gang assorted Sprays and Magicals;  Lumiere paints "Halo Blue Gold" and "Halo Violet Gold"

Stamps:   Unity Stamp Co. "graffiti art";   LOTV "Set 66-Grunge Elements"

Stencils:   The Crafters Workshop "Mini Chicken Wire" and "Mini Chicken Wire Reversed"

Art Mediums:   Studio 490 Crackle Texture Paste;  Art Basics Heavy Black Gesso;  Liquitex Ink!-Titanium White

Dies:   Memory Box "Sketchy Rings"             "Love" key,  metal butterfly,  lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Metal clock face:   Tim Holtz             Fleur de lis charm:   Prima             Chipboard chain:   Dusty Attic "mini chains"

Clear acrylic dotted frame,  metal word charms:   Making Memories             Pearls:   Recollections

Flowers:   Prima,  Wild Orchid Crafts,   local craft store            Pink stamen clusters:   ChocolateLetters on Etsy

Miscellaneous:   watch hands,   acrylic craft paint

Thanks so much for visiting today - I hope your week is starting with a smile!

LLLC - Sketch Challenge...

Good day to you all! This week at La-La Land Crafts, the design team is working with a sketch challenge.

My term as a member of this wonderful design team is coming to an end with this post, but rest assured you'll still see lots of wonderful LLLC products on my cards in the future. This has been such a fun 6 months working with a most wonderful group of talented and fun and funny teammates!

But now, on to the fun stuff. :) This card...

is based on this sketch...

It all started with that small watercolored piece beneath the flowers and lacy strips. I was playing with some new heavily-textured watercolor paper, and liked the play-piece so much I decided to find a way to use it on a card...so happy that the sketch lends itself to using it now, and that I had a beautiful piece of patterned paper that was a perfect match for a background for it!

I cut a few strips using the Small Lacy Border Die, added narrow satin ribbon across the top of each, and placed the top two strips behind the watercolor piece, and the bottom one across the top of the piece...

Cherry Blossom Flowers and leaves from the Open Leaf Flourish Die form the floral cluster, accented with twine bows and small pearl clusters...

I couldn't find a cardstock in the color I pictured in my mind, so I die cut a Filigree Corner from white cardstock, and shaded it with a couple Distress Inks to make it just the right color...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:  Small Lacy Border,  Cherry Blossom Flowers,  Open Leaf  Flourish,  Filigree Corner

Patterned paper:  Lili of the Valley "Baskets & Bunnies" paper pad

Pearls:   Recollections            Pearl stamens:   Wild Orchid Crafts

Miscellaneous supplies:   natural twine,   Sakura Koi watercolors,   Shizen watercolor paper,   Picked Raspberry & Seedless Preserves Distress Inks

Thanks so much for visiting today. I hope you'll take a few moments and head over to the La-La Land Crafts Inspiration Blog to check out what my teammates have made up with this week's sketch inspiration!

LOTV - And the Winner Is...

Happy Friday, everyone...and what a fun way to end the week by announcing that the winner of the drawing for the LOTV blog hop prize of a full set of the newly released stamps is.....

Sharon!

Sharon's name was chosen from the comments left on Mindy's blog.  Congratulations, Sharon!

I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

LOTV - Hope Your Dreams Come True...

Hi, everyone! Sorry for the irregular blog posting schedule these days...crafting is still happening, though, and soon I'll get caught up!

Today is a fun blog hop with my Lili of the Valley teammates, to give you a peek at some of the wonderful new stamps that will be available in the shop on January 31.  There are new rubber stamps, and clear stamps, 2 sets of cute mini images, and some fairy sentiments (one of which I've used on my card).

As always, there's a prize up for grabs...one lucky commenter will be picked at random to receive a set of all the new stamps in this release. But we on the team don't know whose blog the lucky commenter will be chosen from, so to increase your chances of winning, be sure to leave a comment on all the participating blogs!

The winning name will be pulled on Friday, so check back here then to see who the lucky one is.

In the meantime, here's a full linked-up list of the participating blogs...hop them all and have some fun!

Andrea

Anne

Becky

Dawny

Fleur

Gretha

Jen

Kathy (you're here! :))

Lou

Mary

Mindy

So here's my card for today. You might remember that my focus on the team are the sentiment stamps and papers, so for this card, I chose one of the larger sentiments from the new Little Fairies clear stamp sheet as the main focal point, and backed it with one of the pretty spring-colored papers from the Butterfly Kisses paper pad. In fact, it was the name of the paper pad that gave me the idea for the theme of this card, and inspired me to use the butterfly die border...

I die cut the border on both the front and back of the card, and on the front only, diecut more pieces of the butterflies and flowers in pink as an accent...that way I could turn up the butterfly wings slightly on the front piece for a bit of fun dimension and use the diecut edge on the back as a "shadow cut" when the card is closed...

There's a bit more double-die-cutting around the pretty sentiment with the frame die. The frame die is cut in both green and white, then alternated, with the white "negative space" portion used for the sentiment, and the white frame portion used beneath the green, offset just a bit to add a white shadow...

The sentiment frame is bordered beneath with bows, flowers, and pearls...

Supplies:

LOTV Patterned Papers:   Butterfly Kisses

LOTV Sentiment Stamps:  *new* Little Fairies Clear Stamp

Dies:   Memory Box Kensington Border and Tiffany Frame;   Poppy Stamps Massa Leaf Background

Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com            Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts            Pearls:   Recollections

Miscellaneous:   twine,  white craft paint

Here's a pic of some of the new stamps that are coming out in this new release...

And don't forget about these, coming soon,  if you're a needlecrafter!...

Thank you for stopping by for a visit...and have fun hopping!

LOTV - Love Across the Miles...

TGIF....happy Friday! I have a bright and sassy card using some of the pretty new papers from Lili of the Valley to share with you today - so pull out your sunglasses, and get ready to chase those winter-weather blues away for just a little while! :)

The new One Birdie Lane paper pad has some wonderful brightly-colored papers, and I couldn't resist pairing some orange, pink, and yellow patterns together for a sunshine-y card.

I laid the sentiment from Set 25, Handwritten Phrases onto the acrylic block in a wavy pattern before stamping onto cardstock, then freehand cut along the wave to make a sentiment banner that was adhered to the card with the use of a couple layers of foam tape...

The lacy square diecut accenting the floral paper was colored with Distress Inks to complement the colors in the papers, and attached with more foam tape...

Small mulberry roses in pink and yellow lead down to the largest flower in the lower corner...

Supplies:

LOTV Patterned Papers:   One Birdie Lane

LOTV Sentiment Stamps:  Set 25, Handwritten Phrases

Dies:   Spellbinders Lace Doily Motifs,  Classic Squares Small,  Grans Peony Creations;

Sizzix Flowers, Branches, and Leaves

Small roses:   Wild Orchid Crafts            Pearls:   Recollections           Crystal flower stems:   local craft store

Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth,  Distress Inks (Marmalade and Worm Lipstick)

Thanks so much for visiting today...have a wonderful weekend!

LOTV - Be Mine...

TGIF...happy Friday, everyone!

Today's card is filled with the spirit of Valentine love, but made up in a colorway that's just short of ordinary.

Lili of the Valley has a beautiful new paper pad out called Mr. & Mrs. and as beautiful as these papers are for wedding and anniversary cards, I thought they'd be just as special on a Valentine, using a monochromatic white/grey/black combo with just a touch of pink...so that's just what I used it for...

The floral cluster is one large dusty pink rose made using Spellbinders' Rose Creation dies, surrounded with smaller mulberry paper roses, grey pearl stick pins, and a small pearl flourish...

To the right, a piece of white lace colored with Distress Inks to complement the paper colors, and highlighted with a couple Valentine stamps from Set 22, Love Sentiments, shabbily stamped in Watering Can grey ink just above the lace trim...

And the main sentiment, also from Love Sentiments, sitting atop a little cluster in the lower right corner...

Inside, I used a die cut and a sweet little sentiment from the  A5 Verses set...

Supplies:

LOTV Patterned Papers:  Mr. & Mrs. 

LOTV Stamps:   Set 22, Love Sentiments;   Set 10, A5 Verses

Dies:   Spellbinders Lace Hearts, and Rose Creations;   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves;  

La-La Land Crafts Honeycomb and Heart Doily Border

Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com          Small roses:   Wild Orchid Crafts          

Pearl flourishes:   Prima            Pearl stick pins:   Maya Road

Miscellaneous:   Pumice Stone and Spun Sugar Distress Inks;  twine;  white craft paint

Thanks so much for visiting today...have a wonderful weekend!

LLLC - Let It Snow...

It's time for another La-La Land Crafts Team Wednesday challenge, and this week our theme is "snowflakes."  I wanted to try something different this week...still a little shabby, but using only two colors...and, of course, layers of sparkly diecuts to go with the snowy theme...

It's a bit hard to capture the sparkle in photos, but the base of the trees on the Christmas Hill Border die are sprinkled with Shabby White Frantage, and accented with clear coarse glitter...

The large tree using the Build A Christmas Tree Die is also coated with Frantage, with the edges accented with clear coarse glitter...and a small snowflake as its "topper"...

The snowflakes were clipped from the Snowflake Banner Die and scattered in the sky like stars, then coated lightly with clear coarse glitter and accented with pearl centers...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Snowflake Banner,  Build-A-Christmas Tree,   Christmas Hill Border

Sentiment stamp:   Lili of the Valley Set 75, Christmas Wishes            Pearls:   Recollections            

Miscellaneous:  Shabby White Frantage embossing powder,  Martha Stewart clear coarse glitter

I hope you'll take a few minutes to visit the La-La Land Crafts inspiration blog to check out what my teammates have made up for this week's challenge.

Thanks so much for visiting today!

LOTV - Christmas Wishes...

Good Monday morning, all! I was in the mood to make a Christmas card last week, and especially in the mood for a shabby Christmas card with deeper, Victorian colors. Luckily for me, I just so happened to have the perfect patterned papers for that already on hand.

LOTV's Woodland Wishes paper pad is filled with the perfect colors for what I had in mind...so I made up a card using only papers from that collection. (I know...I hear the surprise all the way out here from some of you...the person who loves the challenge of combining different paper lines into one blended project actually used papers designed to go together. It happens now and then! LOL)

The little tag sitting in the bow is from Set 32, Christmas Sentiment Tags.  This set has become a staple in my Christmas crafting stash...there are so many uses for it. This time, it dangles from a dyed seam binding bow, accented with a small grouping of pearls, as a topper to the open frame die that anchors the front of the card...

The green pine branch is accented with a combo of Flower Soft mixed with clear coarse glitter...I made up a large batch of this last year, and still have half of it left for use this year...

This sweet sentiment is from this year's release of  Set 75, Christmas Wishes ...

  

There are seven layers on the front of this card...but it's not too bulky to mail...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   LOTV Woodland Wishes collection

Stamps:   LOTV Set 75, Christmas Wishes;   LOTV Set 32, Christmas Sentiment Tags

Punches:   Martha Stewart Doily Lace and Beaded Ruffle

Dies:   Memory Box Tiffany Frame;   Memory Box Star of Wonder;   Impression Obsession Pine Branch; 

Impression Obsession Deer Trio

Laces:   TheFunkieJunkie.com          Pearls:   Recollections

Miscellaneous:   Hug Snug seam binding,  Gold Stickles,  Polar White Flower Soft, Martha Stewart clear coarse glitter

Before I sign off for today, I've got a few fun LOTV announcements to make sure you're aware of. 

On November 22nd, LOTV is releasing 10 new image stamps, and 3 new paper pads...have you been "sneak peeking" with the other Design Team members on their blogs lately?

Then there's this fun offer for those of you who have a few items from existing stock on your shopping list...if you can order by the 19th you can take part in this great promotion! All qualifying orders (see below) placed by 11:59 PM (BST) on the 19th will be entered into drawings for all the new stamps that are releasing on the 22nd of this month, AND a set of the three new paper pads...

And last, but certainly not least, don't forget about this month's challenge on LOTV's Ideas to Inspire blog. The theme is "Merry Christmas"...easy one for this time of year, right? :)  There's still plenty of time to get in on the fun. There are *three* great prizes up for grabs this month, and if we get enough entries, there might even be more! So I hope you pull out your favorite LOTV products for a fun holiday card, and enter it into this final challenge for a chance to win.

Thanks so much for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!