Beauty in Nature

 Inspiration is only a neighbour's backyard away. There is a lot of beauty in nature, and this is how I came up with an idea for a card.

The base: 

I smooshed distress inks and oxide on craft sheet and embossed with one of my many favourite texture fades falling snow. It seems appropriate as we still have a bit of snow especially on the Rockie Mountains. You can find this easy technique on my previous blog post here. 

It's all in the layers:

Inspiration for the greenery/twig pot came from my neighbours backyard. They have a few planters that bloom, usually late spring to early summer. For the pot I used TH/Sizzix bigz die potted, embossed with 3D lumber, blended with distress inks and distress crayon for definition. The silver bans around the pot were made with kraft metallic card stock, sanding them down to create texture and using a distress crayon for hi lights.

The twigs, eggs and greenery are from the thinlit dies, wildflower stems #1 and funky nature. Feathered friends is one of my favourite dies, the small bird fits perfectly on top of the greenery and branches. I gave this little birdie a nice soft blend of distress inks.

The fonts from the TH/SA crazy talk set are so fun to play with. I chose the hand written saying 'a little birdie told me' and inked it with distress archival ink. 

I wanted something for the bird to perch on and the branch from mini tattered florals die did the trick. Grabbed  scraps from the 3D lumber which I used to make the pot for added texture. One of the signs of Spring is pussy willows. Modern floristry dies came to the rescue for the willows. Those tiny dots are perfect.

The finishing touches: 

Walnut stain distress ink is my go to for blending edges on card stock. It gives a nice soft blend with the right amount of definition. Mastering the art of sewing can be very challenging. I'm not a seamstress by any means, but I do like to sew borders on my makes. I was hoping for a more tattered messy look, but having more patience  and slowly lightening the weight on the petal, gave me a more crisp stitch vibe. Though I did leave some loose threads at the top for some added flair.

I hope you enjoyed the back story of inspiration and the process of my make.

Christina 

Hello Spring

 It's beginning of March, and I can't wait for Spring to come. It's still Winter where we live, with lots of snow, but that doesn't stop the birds from feeding. I saw a bird the other day, and felt inspired to make a card.

The Base:

Using distress watercolour card stock as a base, smoosh distress inks in weathered wood, tumbled glass and speckled egg on base. Heat set between layers, then dab into distress oxide speckled egg and heat set. Next emboss background with TH/Sizzix alterations texture fades snowfall.

It's all in the layers:

My go to for greenery is TH/Sizzix thinlits mini holiday greens and garden greens. They are so versatile and create awesome layering for wreaths and swags. For more definition, swipe or blend distress ink in walnut stain around edges of greenery. For the Spring bird, I used thinlits feathered friends and blended distress inks in scorched timber, walnut stain, rusty hinge, and speckled egg. The little branch that the bird is perched on, is a texture wood plank that I had on hand in my stash. I rolled the plank up to create a stick. The making of the planks is a lot of fun. My go to dies are 3D texture fades lumber and bigz die planks.

The finishing touches:

Next I machine stitched a border with cream thread, leaving the ends hanging loosely. Then to complete the card, I added a TH/idea ology word token and hi lighted the word 'hello' with distress crayon in picket fence. Then slid the token through one of the branches and adhered with collage medium.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and it leaves you feeling inspired.

Christina 

Field Notes

 'With brave wings she flies'

Inspiration can come from anywhere, but somehow it means more coming from your surroundings. One of our Swedish Aspen trees in our backyard inspired me to make. This picture was taken a day before the snow storm hit.

......and this is what I came up with.

The Base:

Starting with distress watercolour card stock as a base, blend distress ink in lost shadow. Emboss with texture fades birch trees. Next swipe pumice stone distress oxide over top on the raised areas of the birch trees.

It's all in the layers:

Using watercolour card stock, emboss with 3D texture fades in cracked, then die cut embossed background with the thinlits die branched birch. This gives it a more wood like texture for the trees. Next swipe distress inks in old paper and scorched timber, overlapping on the trunks. Use pop ups and overlay on top of background to create dimension.

Making the birds into robins:

Die cut mixed media heavy stock in white with the thinlits dies in silhouette birds. Then blend with distress inks in rusty hinge, pumice stone and scorched timber. Next using a splat box, splatter brush and distress paint in picket fence is used to create the white dots on the birds. Added pop ups for dimension.

The finishing touches:

Machine stitched the two sides of the card leaving loose threads at each of the corners. Wrap twine around the card a few times and thread through a TH/idea-ology word token, then tie a knot at the end. To hi light the words on the token, rub distress crayon in picket fence over top, and gently wipe away excess crayon.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and it leaves you feeling inspired.

Christina

Phobia

 arachnophobia ~ noun ~ extreme or irrational fear of spiders 

Ever since I can remember, when I was a child and till this day I have a fear of spiders, or as I like to call them "eight legged freaks". Most spiders do no harm, catch bugs, etc. Don't notice them to much when I'm in the garden. The day my dad took me to see the movie Arachnophbia, his intentions were good, but in that moment I knew my phobia would escalate. Managed to watch the whole movie, mostly out of fear. In the early '90's I was taking night classes in drawing at the University of Art and Design. Received an A- on one of my pieces that incorporated my fears. One in particular, spiders. Was told by one of my instructors to continue putting my fears into my art. That being said, I made a Spider plant using TH/Sizzix dies and Stampers Anonymous stamps. Hope you like it.

Starting with distress watercolour card stock, emboss with 3D texture fades Brickwork. Then apply with watered down distress paints in frayed burlap and hickory smoke. Once dry, smudge in old paper distress crayon. My good friend Zoe Hillman, has an awesome tutorial of this technique on her blog. You can find it here. Next I used the new fracture stencil and distress archival ink in frayed burlap to make cracked bricks. 

Creating depth on the skull using TH/SA cms471 obscure, fussy cutting him 3 times, then using one of my x-acto knives to cut the eyes out. I learned this technique from my friend Juliana Michales. For added dimension used foam squares between the layers of the skulls.

To create more depth on the skulls, I blended distress pencil crayon in frayed burlap and distress crayon in old paper using a water brush.

Making the spider plant with distress watercolour card stock and distress watercolour pencil crayons in antique linen, frayed burlap and peeled paint, distress archival in black soot with fracture stencil. Using colorize graveyard plant leaves and adhering with collage medium to the skull.

Adding a couple final touches to the spider plant. One cannot have a spider plant without a spider (from Big Freights thinlits) and a silver cross from graveyard thinlits with metallic kraft stock, just because.... The background is kraft card stock blackout and 3D multi level arched.

I hope you enjoyed my back story and full tutorial.

Christina