Art Journaling: Brasso

Welcome to the first art journaling post of the new year! February’s session was based on a technique I picked up from somewhere years ago that I remembered using when I was on the WOW! Embossing Powders design team. I found my original post here, from 2012! It uses Brasso metal polish wadding and heat embossing to create an effect that is hard to replicate any other way. I remembered to take step-by-step photos as I created the layout, so another tutorial follows…

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AAA Cards challenge: January’s sketch

Well, here’s a thing. I’m no longer on the AAA Cards design team but I thought I’d join in their challenges now and then when I wanted something creative to do that wasn’t ‘work’. January’s sketch design is the first for the year – a prompt for your card layout. Here’s my entry:

AAA Cards Challenge: January's sketch
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Art Journaling: A shiny Christmas

The last Art Journal Session of the year is on Monday, 4th December at The Studio in Leicester. Inspired by all things sparkly and shiny around this time of the year, I’ve come up with this shiny Christmas double-spread:

A shiny Christmas art journal layout with coloured glazes over aluminium foil tape.

If you’d like to come to the session, please let me know. I remembered to take step-by-step photos this time, so instructions follow…

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LIM DT: Blue, pink and white colour challenge

We have a colour challenge over at Less is More this week… Your clean and simple card should feature blue, pink and white to enter our gallery. Now, my cards don’t necessarily fit the guidance for ‘simple’ or ‘easily reproducible’ but I find them rather pleasing and am running with them! Here’s my first card for the design team inspiration page and below is another I made:

Blue embossed mandala with pink and white shading to colour mounted onto white card blank using foam pads.
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AAA Cards DT: Skies, planets & galaxies

This week’s theme at AAA Cards blog is quite broad. So broad, it’s almost universal. We want to see your clean and simple cards featuring skies, planets or galaxies. I considered blatant advertising by using a chocolate bar wrapper on my card but thought better of it and raided my stash instead. Here’s my design team card for the challenge…

planets birthday card
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AAA Cards DT: Add a tag or ticket

A new theme starts at AAA Cards clean and simple card challenge blog today and runs for the next two weeks. This time we are asking for cards that feature a tag or a ticket. There are some great inspiration cards from the design team, and here’s my take on the theme:

card with a stamped tag

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LIM DT: Orange – colour challenge

A bit of an early autumnal colour palette challenge over at Less is More for the next fortnight… orange. I toyed with the idea of taking it literally and plonking a representation of the fruit onto the card. However, inspiration didn’t fully materialise and I decided to go with a technique-based card instead:

Mottled orange strip with white happy birthday sentiment on a white card blank. Continue reading

AAA Cards DT: Dogs/puppies

Finally! A challenge for which I had a choice of stencils and stamps to use in my card design – dogs/puppies. This is this week’s theme over at AAA Cards‘ clean and simple card challenge blog. After using technology to make last time’s card, I thought I would go back to my card-making roots and go for something using basic techniques:

Dogs in a row, stencilled silhouettes on a teal background and kraft card blank Continue reading

AAA Cards DT: Circles

Check in at AAA Cards for their latest clean and simple card challenge: use circles in your design. The design team have interpreted this theme in numerous ways and it’s worth having a look for your inspiration. Here’s my take on the challenge:

Blended bokeh effect circles in distress oxides

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AAA Cards DT: Teal and gold colour challenge

Over at AAA Cards, there’s another colour challenge for a clean and simple card design. This time it’s my choice of scheme: teal and gold. A classy and classic combination in my opinion, with lots of potential choices for metallics and media. Here’s my card design:

teal and gold coloured folk art card Continue reading