Vive le Tour!

For those of you who've been confused the past few days about why I was getting all British on my blog about the Tour de FRANCE, you'll be relieved to know the race has made it's way back to the motherland! I'm so excited, I had to bust out my Fleur-de-Lis stencil!

Today I'm trying to flex my mixed media muscle. Or, at least work on building that muscle....! I love love love the layers and textures of mixed media, it makes me happy! I began with some white card, and covered it with Broken China Distress Stain, then spritzed it to add water spots. Once dry, I finally gave the oh so popular Wendy Vecchi embossing paste a try! I just secured my MFT stencil with tape, then spread on the embossing paste with a palette knife. The black dots were created with bubble wrap and ink, and Distress glitter was added over the stenciling. The message was spelled out with those Hero Arts Typewriter Letters I love.

Tomorrow the Tour dips into yet another country that I love (and a country that LOVES cycling!) - Belgium! There's been a lot of excitement about Stage 5, it's going to be a tough one. The guys will have to ride over several sectors of pave! (I really need to figure out how to add accents on my words, imagine a little accent over that final e and pronounce it pah-vay!) In other words - cobblestones. Racing fast over cobblestones. Just let that process a little and you can begin to imagine how jarring that's got to be on a body! Ouch.

And even more exciting than the pave - tomorrow brings my first guest designer to the blog! Yay! And she knows a thing or two about bike races in Belgium... :-)

See you tomorrow,

Stamps: Typewriter Letters from Hero Arts
Paper: Neenah Solar White, MFT Kraft
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink (Broken China), Hero Arts black
Other: MFT Fleur-de-Lis stencil, Wendy Vecchi emobossing paste (white), Ranger Distress Stickles (Clear Rock Candy), Sequins (Neat & Tangled), Multi-Medium (matte), bicycle clip, bubble wrap

Watercolored Sand Dollars

I'm still having fun with my watercolors! One of these days I'll put them away and move on to another coloring medium. But not today. Or tomorrow. Or...

Instead of creating a background, this time I used them to color in a stamped image...

The image is the new Jam'n Sand Dollar from Texana Designs. It's really big and fun to color. It was created with the idea of filling it with Zentangle - I'm going to have to do that soon!! But this time I used my paints. I just kept adding color until I liked it - gray, cream, blue, pink, green, brown... just more paint, more water, let it dry... Once it was completely dry I traced the outlines with black glaze pen, and added a little white gel pen detail. And twine bows!

For the card base, I had a little fun with my Distress products. I started with Kraft paper, then added some Picket Fence and Broken China Distress stain. I wanted something "more" and decided to play with my Distress crackle paint. I just brushed some on and allowed it to dry and crackle. I love magical products like this! :-)

Once the crackle paint was dry, I added Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy inks with a blending tool. A little distressing along the edge and more Brushed Corduroy, and that was that!

The message is another great one from Texana Designs, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

I made this a while ago...

And forgot to post it! Geesh! This card is a bit different for me, but I'm not gonna lie, I pretty much love it!

I picked up these Dylusions by Dyan Reaveley stamps from the Stampers Anonymous booth at the stamp show in South Carolina back in February. They are so funky and fun, I just LOVE them!! After the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry class, I just had to try his technique of using Rock Candy Distress Crackle on some chipboard (wings in my case!), then soaking Distress Stains into the cracks after it's dry. SUCH a cool look!!


I popped up the little head on this Dylusions girl, just to make it even more funky. She's colored with Copics, and then Distressed up a bit to tone down the colors.


The background of the card is also full of Distress ink and some of my favorite Hero Arts stamps. If you look very closely you may notice Starburst Lace in the lower right corner of the card, and La Lettre in the upper left.

Boy, this week on my blog is all about me going outside my comfort zone. Go me! ;-)

InLinkz.com

I did something crazy!!

I made a video tutorial!! I hadn't tried that in *years* and everything was strange and different (both my new video camera and also my version of Movie Maker) so it was a massive learning experience!! It was actually fun. Maybe I'll make more....! :-) BUT... to see this tutorial, you have to head on over to A Blog Named Hero where I'm guest designing! Yay!

Here's the card I made:


I was playing with mists made from Distress ink refills and water, and used them with a cloud template. And I dug out some of my favorite Hero Arts stamps - the bikes!! Oh how I love bikes.

I even made several versions of my bike/cloud combo (the tag isn't quite that dark IRL, it's just all distressy & shimmery - hard to photograph!):


Have you played along with the latest challenge on A Blog Named Hero?? You have until midnight on Tuesday! Get out your favorite Hero Arts stamps and get inky!!

Thanks for stopping by,

InLinkz.com

A Blog Named Hero Guest Designer!!

There's a new challenge blog on the block, have you heard? A Blog Named Hero - started by two of my very favorite stampy friends Linda & Mary Dawn, and featuring Hero Arts stamps! Yup, I pretty much love it! I told myself this is a challenge I *must* play every single time, and I'm off to a swimmingly good start with Challenge #1 because those sweetieheads running the blog asked me to be one of their guest designers this month! YAY!

The theme for this inaugural challenge is to create a project using your favorite Hero Arts stamps. Here's what I came up with:


The Hydrangea stamp is most definitely one of my very favorite Hero Arts stamps. As is La Lettre that I used in the background. Looooove! I've been taking the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101 class the past two weeks, so I had tons of fun playing with Distress Inks, Distress Stains, Crackle Paint and all that fun stuff! This card has a bunch of shimmer and crackle to it in real life that is pretty much lost in the photo!

Now head on over to A Blog Named Hero and play this first challenge!!


A random entry will be chosen for a $25 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp! Get your card linked up before April 10 at midnight EST!

Thanks you Linda & Mary Dawn for inviting me to join you, I am honored!

Thanks for stopping by,

• Stamps: K5376 Hydrangea, K5344 La Lettre, CL510 Sweet Threads Labels (message) from Hero Arts
• Paper: Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper, Hero Arts Kraft Paper, Olive cardstock
• Ink: Distress Inks (peeled paint, dusty concord, broken china, brushed corduroy), Distress Stains (peeled paint, dusty concord, vintage photo), Distress Refill (peeled paint), Archival Ink (jet black)
• Other: Distress Crackle - picket fence, Creative Imaginations Radiant Rain shimmering mist, circle punch, Hemptique Hemp Cord (purchased at Studio Calico)