Don't Speak by Ros Aggett-Madley

Hi everyone, hope you are all still staying safe and also warm.

I make these backgrounds sometimes where I just lay down some water and what ever I have near me.  This time it was some Bubblegum Colour Artist Spray and some Mermaid (yummmm) and Calypso Colour Artist Ink.   I let it just sit on top of the page and then squash another piece of card on top to make a couple of prints, just like I remember doing in primary school.

I make multiple of these and sometimes take them to work and doodle a little on my breaks.  This is how this girl started, filling in time at 3 in the morning and I just could not get her mouth to work.  I made a mess of her but couldn't bring myself to ditch her so took her home and threw her into the 'one day I'll finish that' pile.

She wouldn't stop looking at me though so I just went with it.  

I have used the That Way Stencil to add a star where her messy mouth was.   This was done with some Heavy Black Gesso and a sponge and outlined in white pen.

I have again used the Black Gesso and a sponge, this time with the Grungy Splat Stencil.  

I added some more colour to her eye with some Calypso that was not watered down and when dry, went over the top of the eye with a Clear Shimmer Pen.  

The little ...Shh at the bottom is some Scrap FX alpha transparency. 

Hope you've been inspired 💙

You make me happy - by Tracy Jackson

Good morning Bee Arty fans...

I'm back again to show you a nice simple card and tag set

I have been eyeing up these stamps for a while now and finally got my hands on them. Its perfect for all you card makers out there who love colouring. Its called "You make me Happy" which is mounted with firm red rubber. It makes a nice crisp outline when stamped which is always a winner in my eyes.

So after stamping the flowers several times and the words with Memento Ink so my copics wouldn't run I was ready to colour.

7 flowers later... time to find my scissors for a bit of fussy cutting while watching a TV program

At this stage I decided the centers needed a bit of bling, so out comes the Shimmer pen which I love, its mess free and easily adds some blingy goodness

So next I picked out a background paper which I cut from Love & Grace collection, I played around with the arrangement of flowers and words until I was happy

At this stage I had 1 flower left so made a tag by cutting one out from the same paper collection, added a bit more detail by stamping a stamp from the Textiles stamp set

After drawing my boarder around the outside, finding a word and a few leaves from the same paper collection I cut and inked all the edges then put my card and tag together.

Hope you have enjoyed this card and tag set. I love how it turned out, and will defiantly be getting a lot of use out of this stamps set

Happy Crafting

'Colourful handmade cards' by Amy

Hi all you crafty people! It's Amy here with some colourful handmade cards. 

Here's a little teaser - just look at the brightness of these little beauties!

To start, I took three ready-made A5 white cards from my stash that were already scored. (They are 210 x 148 mm.)

Next, I trimmed three pieces of cardstock to be mounted onto the front of the cards.

For the white inserts, I primed with White Heavy Gesso - using an old gift card to apply the Gesso.

I also used some cellophane (actually some left over clear plastic packaging) to apply some water mixed with Colour Artist Ink in 'Citrus' and dried it with my heatgun.

On another sheet of heavy white cardstock I repeated the same technique - to be used for the flowers.

As you can see, I have done this technique for the three colours: 'Oasis', 'Slipper' as well as the 'Citrus'. Note to allow plenty of drying time between each colour - or, alternatively,to speed up the process you could use a heatgun.

Using a permanent-based ink, stamp the Floral Delights 2 clear stamp flowers over the three colours! ...and then fussy-cut the flowers out.

As pictured, I stamped a strip of the Meridian Clear Stamp Set over the water colour background. The flowers will be placed over this black strip.

After I layered the pretty flowers onto the cards - to add some bling - I used a Shimmer Pen in 'Clear'. It is hard to see all the shimmer and shine in the photos, but it is there! 😊

Finally, for the sentiment on the black card I die-cut using the Bee Arty '365 Alphas' die set with my trusty Cuttlebug. Then I finished off the cards by adding some embellishments as pictured. 

Take a look at these close ups.

Products used:

- Colour Artist Inks - Citrus, Oasis, Slipper

- Heavy Gesso - White

- Shimmer Pen - Clear

- Bee Arty Die Set - 365 Alphas

- Stamp Sets - Floral Delights 2; Meridian

Other products:

- A5 cards - white

- Cardstock - black; heavy white

- Permanent ink - black

Thank you for stopping by - and happy crafting! Amy

Spread Your Wings and Fly. by Suzy Loudon

Hi everyone. Today I'm sharing a layout using  the gorgeous Spread Your Wings Collection.

 

To begin with I matted my photo using sections from Keep Calm, Spread Kindness & Earth Angels papers. I added cardboard between sheets to add height.

I painted some chipboard with Heavy White Gesso.

I made up my own paint colours. To begin with I added 3 drops of Mermaid Artist Ink & 1 drop of Calypso Artist Ink to some Heavy White Gesso. Once mixed well I painted some flowers & parts of my chipboard.

I then add 4 more drops of Mermaid Artist Ink for a deeper colour. And again painted some flowers & more of the chipboard.

I then added a few drops of Grass Artist Ink for a more greener colour. Again I painted the chipboard & some flowers.

 

I then used the paint that was just in my lid & added more Mermaid. And painted. 

And then some more Mermaid!!

Using the Seeker metal die I cut out some black card.

Using both the darker paint on the lid & lighter in container I splattered around the page.

I then Splattered some watered down Heavy White Gesso.

I was really impatient so dried with a heat gun. It was really cool when some of the thick splotches raised right up.

I fussy cut the green butterflies from the collection, and along with the gesso painted butterflies I went over them with the Clear Shimmer Pen

I used the Clear Shimmer pen to highlight the flowers also.

I didn't add much more.

Thanks for looking.

xxx Suzy

Winter by Suzy Loudon

How's everyone going with the winter chill? Well here's a layout that won't be warming you up.

 Before I even knew what I was going to do with this layout I used my Snow White   Colour Paste in a snowflake silicone mould & left to dry until I was ready to do my layout (it was quite a few weeks but a day would be more than enough)

For my paper I tore the edges of my top sheet before sticking it down onto another. To soften it I stuck bits of different laces & cloths in between.

Then using my Snow White  Colour Paste I spread it through a snowflake stencil.

I cut out some chipboard snowflakes with a metal die that I had, then embossed it with Singin The Blues Colour Embossing Powder.

For my chipboard title I first mixed Navy Shimmer Dust with Heavy White Gesso before painting "Winter". I then painted the rest with the White Gesso.

Once it was completely dry I used my Clear Shimmer Brush Marker all over it.

I tore some background paper to mat my photo & played around as to where I could put all my snowflakes.

After I started to stick things down I decided to do some splattering with some watered down Heavy White Gesso (I covered my photo before I did this)

While waiting for my splatters to dry I coloured my flowers.. I used my spray that I made up from Navy  Colour Shimmer Dust. All the blue flowers on my layout are using this spray (although I did dunk a rose or 2 straight into the bottle rather than spraying). I made a few darker than others.

As I was sticking all my elements down I decided my art stones needed more. So I coloured some with the Navy  Colour Shimmer Dust. Waiting till they were fully dry before gluing down.

Here are a few close ups.

Thanks for looking.

Xxx Suzy