Guest Artist at Creative Carte Blanche

Hello Friends

I am super excited and very honoured to have been asked by the wonderful Hels Sheridan to be Guest Artist today at Creative Carte Blanche!  I have been a huge fan of all of the talented designers at CCB since they were involved in the challenge blog Compendium of Curiosities several years ago.  They gave me lots of encouragement and I am grateful to them for that.

In actual fact it was Hels and another dear friend Kath Stewart who got me involved in

crafting/blogging so I have a lot to thank these ladies for!

Since the theme this month at Creative Carte Blanche is 'Love Is In The Air', I created a love themed card in a paper block style (that I learned in a class with Hels a few years back), adding a large grungy heart, a handmade flower and Hels' trademark harlequin pattern as an accent.

I started by choosing some pieces of Ephemera from Tim Holtz Idea-ology collection and used Ranger Glue 'N' Seal to glue them in place on a 6" x 6" piece of grey board.

I applied a layer of Distress Collage Medium - Crazing and allowed it to dry naturally.  Next I applied a coat of the Vintage Collage Medium.  Once dry I applied Distress Crayon around each piece of Ephemera and smudged it to blend it in.

I stencilled the harlequin pattern using Ranger black Texture Paste.  I drew an outline around a hand cut heart with black Distress Crayon.

The heart was painted with DecoArt Media Crackle Paint and when dry, this was painted with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Pyrole Red.

I applied a layer of Antiquing Cream in Raw Umber, let this dry and wiped it away with a damp cloth.  The Raw Umber is less harsh than black and it fills the cracks in nicely.

To finish off  I added the words (a Tim Holtz stamp) and also a hand made flower.   Here is another look at the finished project.

If you have not joined in at Creative Carte Blanche with your love themed project, there is still time to do so HERE.

Thank you again to Hels and the team at Creative Carte Blanche for having me as their Guest today!  If you do have the time, please pop over there and leave the team some love....

I am joining in Emerald Creek's challenge this month which is - 'Rock the Red'

Thanks to you too, for visiting, I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xxx

Wood.. A Word ... Something Wild ...

Hello Crafty Friends!

A quick post from me today.  The lovely Cheryl at Creative Carte Blanche is challenging

us this month to create something using Wood.... A Word ...and Something Wild.

I was lucky enough recently to attend an Andy Skinner Ministry of Mixology workshop where I created a project you can see HERE, if you missed it first time around.  I loved it so much that I bought another kit from Tando Creative and had another go!  I created a sea themed box for our (fairly new) bathroom (which already has a seaside theme). 

I would not be fair to Andy if I went into detail on all the techniques I used to create  this piece but I can tell you that I used Gesso and lots and lots of DecoArt Media Fluid Paints to create the frame.  The panel inside uses one of Andy's newest stamps - Toxic.

The above is a close-up of the inner frame which has lovely faux rusty bolts added.

And here is a close up of the inner piece on which I used Andy's new stamp and also attached

my lovely metal seahorse.  The seahorse was plain white initially and I just touched him up

with some paint.  I LOVE him!!

I am entering this at Creative Carte Blanche, where they have some wonderful entries
so far, if you want a treat, do pop over and have a look.  The CCB team always provide such
wonderful inspiration for us too.

So, by way of explanation, my Wood is the frame, my Word/Words are' beach and drift' and my Wild is the seahorse - I have this vision of looking through the porthole of a ship and seeing him - a bit far fetched I know, but that's how my mind works - lol.

Edited:  I have just noticed that SanDee & Amelie's challenge is Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial - mine is more industrial but I think it fits the theme.

As always, thanks for looking and I hope to see you again soon!

Big hugs, Anne xx