CAS Christmas card with Distress

Christmas is coming up, way too fast!

I'd loooooove to spend time making advanced Christmas cards, but this year I'm running out of time..

Thus I have made a CAS cards with few "ingredients" that a lot of us already have at hand: 

I've folded the tag in half and stamped it on the front. The stamp is coloured with Distress Markers. Then I've inked around the image using ink blending tools and Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Festive Berries and Walnut Stain. I used a mister  to spritz a bit of water on there and carefully dried it. When doing this some of the ink gets lifted off and the card looks more vintage.

I also put an eyelet in, in order to tie it shut with jute string from Rayher. This little finish makes the card looking a bit more advanced than it really is... Neat, huh?

It was a lot of fun getting the Distress inkpads out again! I'd almost forgotten how fun and easy they are to work with! Maybe you'll get yours out too, or visit Hobbykunst to stock up?

Thanks for stopping by!

Siv xxx

Happy Halloween! October challenge at Mixed Media Mojo

Hi lovelies!

October already! Which means a new challenge over at Mixed Media Mojo. This time we want Halloween project, with wings!

Here's a double spread I made in my old ledger. I love how the writing comes through the inks!

I've used Dylusions inks for the background, and various stamps from Andy Skinner, Lost Coast Designs, Tim Holtz and Dylusions. The bats are made with a home made stencil (see earlier blog post).

I just NEED to show you a close up of the original writing in the ledger coming through the inks...

Isn't that just gorgeous?!

I hope you'll come along and play with us!

Enjoy!

Siv xxx

Are you sure...?

Hi!

Did I tell you how much I love my Dylusions? Well maybe this will give you a hint!

Double page in my small journal, using Dylusions paints, stamps, stencils and inks. Love love love!!!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Siv xxx

DIY: Making your own stencil

Hi!

I just wanted to show you a quick and easy way to make your own stencils.

All you need is one of your favourite dies, a die cutting machine and some thick plastic foil.

1. Pick your die
(this won't work with thin dies, go for dies like Sizzix Bigz)

2. Find plastic foil and cut to size

(I got my foil at Connie's Hobbykunst)

3. Run through die cutting machine.

I recommend you to run it a couple of times

4. Gently pick out the die cuts

5. Voilà! You've made your own stencil

 and masks!

Ta-daaa!

Enjoy!
Siv xxx

Steampunk canvas ~ Live Life Everyday

Hello world!

August.. New month, new possabilities. This month my oldest starts primary school! I can't believe he's six already! And where did actually July go!? Here in south eastern Norway it rained away.. Bah! Let's hope August brings better weather!

Anowhoooo.. The 1st of August means a new challenge over at the Mixed Media Mojo site! And this month we make it easy for y'all - the theme is Anything Goes. Now you have no excuse not to participate, lol.

For this month's challenge I went steampunk. I made a canvas using metal tape, black alcohol ink, a doll's dress form and some Tim Holtz stash. I love playing with metal tape, so this was a fun project to make!

I first added a layer of metal tape to the canvas.

 On top of this, I added different sized squares, all overlapping each other in some way.

 I then used a craft pick and made tiny holes around all visible edges.

 Then I added black alcohol ink.

 I did the same thing with the dress form. The wings and crown all got some ink on them aswell.

After rubbing most of the alcohol ink off with a scrub, I adhered the pieces to the canvas using Liquitex Matte Super Heavy Gel.

This takes a while to dry, so I waited to the next day before adding the rest of the pieces to the canvas.

I inked the edges of the Chitchat stickers with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink. I adhered them with Wonder Tape to make sure they would stick.

 I used both Sprocket Gears and Mini Gears from Tim Holtz idea-ology.

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you all a wonderful August!
Siv xx

Set of three tags

Hi!
I was lucky enough to be invited as a guest designer at Rubber Dance Stamps, and I thought I'd make something clean and simple. I like CaS both because it's relatively quick to make, and that the simplicity of it makes it classy. It is also safe for beginners.
I ended up with making a set of three tags, where I've mainly used stamps from the da Vinci set, plus a few from ATC Backgrounds 1.

First I made a background by sprinkling Brushos on cardstock and misting it with water. I then cut the background into size before I stamped and stuck them to black tags. I really like the contrast the black background gives. Finally I've "framed" each tag by drawing double non-straight lines and some doodling with a thin black pen.

Close ups of each tag:

I hope you feel inspired! 

Feel free to check out more of Bibi's gorgeous stamps over at Rubber Dance Stamps.

Wishing you a sunny and creative summer.
Siv xxx

Christmas in July

Hi all!

It's time for another challenge over at Mixed Media Mojo. The challenge is Christmas in July, with Santa as the twist. 

I made this aj page with minimum supplies, as I was on a trip. All supplies I brought with me were my Inktense pencils, a waterbrush, gluestick, black and white pens and my journals. I bought a magazine and searched for an image fitting the theme. I found a picture of lovely British brick houses - perfect! So I coloured in a stamped image from Stampotique, cut the little fellas out and stuck everything down on my background. I then added the words which I had stamped ready before I left home. 

So here's my page!

Thanks for looking! Be sure to join us at Mixed Media Mojo!

Siv x

Another black/white page

Here's another page I finished in my small Dylusions journal the other night. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Siv xxx

Black 'n white Dylusions page

So I'm in beautiful Harrogate, back at my hotel from a busy preview day at AFTH. I had so much fun catching up with old friends, making new and being creative. 

Yesterday I was in Dyan's class for regular artjournalers (I'm one of her regulars now, how cool is that?!) and we played with black and white. I wanted to share with you a page I finished later that day, which is in my small Dylusions journal. 

I've used Dylusions paint, stamps, stencil and journal block. The rest is doodling done with a white pen. 

Dyan has posted a tutourial on making a b/w page on her blog. Be sure to check it out!

Siv xx

Kate Crane inspired mini canvas

Hi!

I recently signed up for Kate Crane's online art journaling classes, called
Art Journal Soup 1&2.

Here's a mini canvas I made from one of the lessons:

The canvas is 10 x 10 cm (about 4"x4").

I've used Dina Wakley's paints, black gesso, Stabilo all pencil and black and white markers.

I've also used a Dylusions stencil in the background. The house and fence are hand drawn.

'Till next time!

Siv xx

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

It's the first of June, it's officially summer and it's time for a new challenge over at Mixed Media Mojo.

The theme for June's challenge is SUMMER and the twist is MONOCHROMATIC.

I made a double page in my old ledger.

Here's the how to:

I started off with a pre gessoed double page in my old ledger.

Then added some colours using baby wipes (I used Dylusions paints).

 I then put a stencil over the wet paint and removed a lot of the paint with a baby wipe.

 ..and ended up with this.. not very pretty, but it's just a layer.

I then added some more paint using a brayer (this time I used Dina Wakley's paint).

And removed some paint again here and there..

I then used an old credit card to add some more paint to the sides.

Pushing the paint from out to in with the card lying relatively flat.

I then dry brushed through a couple of stencils.

 ..which gave life to the page.

I stamped one of Dina's butterflies on book paper

 and gave it a quick brush with what was left in my paint brush, cut it out and adhered to the page using matte gel medium.

Finally I added William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 on my pages.

...and ended up with a finished double page in my ledger and monochromatic fingers..