Hello everyone, here is something a little different.

Hi there, sorry to all my followers for being so slack lately.  I've had lots going on and not much time for crafting.  I'm now DT commitment free, it's a bit sad really as the people you meet when on Design Teams are fabulous and I'll miss all the banter in the private DT pages.  

Still I needed a break from things and a chance to recharge the crafting batteries as well as time to put towards family and work, it all gets a bit hectic at times!

So, I took time out to attend a class at my local scrapbooking store An Invitation to... on Saturday afternoon, look what I made, this fabulous Art Journal cover.  I Love her wistful violet eyes and that turbun style hair makes her a little Elizabeth Taylor...ish.

Here the art journal is open  so you can see all the flowing hair, I am yet to put the words on the front cover and my yet add some to the back as well.

Hope you like my little something different.

I'm working on a variation of this one as the mask for her face came with a profile image as well.  (Yes, I used a mask, I can't draw that well!)  When she's finished I'll show her.  

I'm also playing around with some smash booking and generally taking a break from card making.  I hope to get some scrap pages done as well.

Cheers,

Kasey ~ in Oz

Hello everyone, my term with the Make it Crafty design team has come to its end.  I have made some amazing new friends, been able to play with some of the most beautiful digital images and had a lot of fun along the way.  I've learnt how to merge digital images and create backgrounds and improved my colouring skills.  I've had FUN.  Thank you to Zoe and the MiC DT for the absolutely fabulous time with them.  I'll still be around online and in the MiC facebook page occasionally, but I'm taking this opportunity to take a complete break from Design Team commitments.

 
My final project features some of MiCs slightly older images and they are super cute.  My grand daughter mispronounces a lot of words and I thought that if I don't capture them, then in a few years time when her language skills improve we will have forgotten most of them so I made some Smash book pages to capture it all.  I've also used some of the fabulous MiC chipboard that I have in my stash.  Love these chippies!

Using Frenchie Claudine, Frenchie Valerie and Frenchie Leon.

 

Frenchie Claudine
Copics used.  Skin: E000; 01; 11 R20.  Hair: C3; 5; 7; 9.  Clothes R14; 17; 29; 46;
B24; 26; 29; B0000; 00.  Icecream: R81; 83; 85. E30; 33; 35; E40; 43; R14; 17; 29; 46; YG00

 Frenchie Leon
Skin:  E000; 01; 11; 13; 31; 33.  Hair: E21; 25; 29.  Clothes YG91; 95; 99 Y23; 26; 28 Icecream
 E25; 29; 30; 33; 35; 37

 Frenchie Valerie
Skin: E50; 51; 53; 93 V22; 25.  Hair: E13; 15; 21; 33; 93.  Clothes: V22; 25; 28; Y17; 38.  Icecream: E30; 33; 35; Y00; 02; 11; E40; R14; 17; 27; 46

Hope this inspires you to get smashing using your MiC images, I've loved the pages I've created in both my smash book and my Art Journal.  Think about using your images in scrapbook pages and off the page projects too.

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

The Red Queen

OMG This new Alice in Wonderland release from Make it Crafty is so amazing, I love it!

Here is my take on the beautiful Red Queen, she looks way too lovely to be the one saying off with her head. 

 I have added her to my home made smash book, and I really need to get better at the whole journaling thing!  I loved colouring her, I am sorry that she looks quite orangish here but she is definitely red. I've added lots of spica pen over the gold trim on her gown and red hearts on both that amazing collar and her dress trim.  Oh and the jewellery too.

It seems that my photography skills are still pretty lame, the gray shadow on her white doesn't show up too well.

Copic colours used.

Skin: E000, 01, 11  Eyes: G5
Hair: E21,25, 29
Dress: R59, 46, 27, 14; Y28, 26, 23; C03,02, 00

Hope you have a lovely crafty day!

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

Back with a Bang! MiC new relase Alice In Wonderland!

Hey all, thank you for your patience while I had a month off from blogging, I've been able to concentrate on getting my health sorted and doing other things AND.......colouring for the Make it Crafty new release 
Alice in Wonderland!  I'm so inspired by these fabulous images so grab yourself a comfy seat, a cuppa and as this post is so long, you might need a snack as well!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s time for the Make it Crafty to pour a round of drinks at the super special tea party celebrations!

Not only are we celebrating the magical release of Alice in Wonderland, but Make it Crafty has turned 3! All thanks to YOU, the incredible artists and the amazing Make it Crafty team!

Let’s dance around from chair to chair, sipping a drink, eating a cake, shrinking then growing with excitement as you watch the entertainment unfold before your eyes.

Be careful not to miss the hidden words as you’ll need to collect them along the way and string them all together to form a quote. Simply enter the quote at the end of the hop for a chance to win!

Hopefully you’ve found your way from Jenn, but if you’ve just skipped a chair or two you might want to start back at Zoe’s Blog.

 Here are my projects for you...

This is my little Alice and the Drink Me potion bottle, Alice is stuck in Wonderland with all these strange plants and colours all around her.  Below is a close up of her.  I had to go traditional with my colours, to me, Alice just isn't Alice if she's not blonde with a blue and white dress on.  But that's just my opinion.

Drink Me Bottle - BG000, BV000, 01, 02, 04 YR15, N1, R14, R46, E13, 15, 23, 31, 35, 37

Shrunken Alice - Skin: E000, 01, 11.  Hair: E50, 51, 53, 55. Dress: B21, 34, C2, 3.

 Next came the Mad Hatter's Tea Party images, I kept this page a little cleaner and just did a wash of colour in the background, there is a riot of colour on the Topsy Turvy Cake and the Mad Hatter so didn't want to overwhelm the whole page with too many other images.

For those of you MiC fans who are in the FB page, the Topsy Turvy Cake is the snippet that you had to guess, I think if someone had come up with a tea party answer they would have been close enough... Hope you had fun trying to guess.

The Mad hatter - Clothes: BV01, 02, 04, 08; R12, 14, 17, 46, 59; G02, 05; C3, 5, 9; YR15, 31; Skin: E000, 01, 11, 93; Hair: E13, 15, 19, YR18, 27 



Dormouse - W0, 01, 03, 05, 09; R14, 17, 46, 59; B21, 23, 26, 29; YR15, 31; E93, 95, 97; Y06, 08 000.

Topsy Turvy Cake - BV01, 02, 04, 08; R12, 14, 17, 46, 59; G02, 05; C3, 5, 9; Y000, 11, 15, 19

March Hare -  C2, 3, 5; E93, 95, 97; BV000, 01, 02, 04; Y15, 19; R46; G00, 02; E35, 37

Curious Alice - Hair: E50, 51, 53; Skin: E000, 00, 01, 11, 93; Clothes: B21, 34, C00, 03.
 







And for my last piece, I turned to my home made smash book and did a little scene with the Red Queen and her guards.  Hence the Off with Her Head title!

Queen of Hearts - E000, 01, 11; R14, 46, 59; C00, 02, 03; Y26

I used Curious Alice again this time flipping her around she is coloured in Copic markers as listed above.

Card Guard Back & Card Gurad Front - R14, 46, 59; C00, 02, 03; Y23; 26; 28; E13, 19, 23

The fun doesn’t stop here and if you head over to Aeryn's blog she’s going to treat you with some amazing projects.

 I really hope you grab yourself some of these amazing new images they were such fun to colour.

 Bye for now,

Kasey

Back in Black

Yes, now you have ACDC's Back In Black as a song worm, it is appropriate for this post, there is a connection, I'll show you what I made today.

I've created a black mixed media canvas today, lots of layers and lots of black.  I was a bit doubtful as to how this would turn out but as I was creating it, I decided that it would be perfect for a black and white photo from my daughters wedding earlier this year.  Shayne and Becca are both huge ACDC fans and so there is the connection.

Becca was talking about her 'rogues gallery' collection of pictures that she wanted to group on her wall, she's painted all her frames black and this would fit perfectly with them.  I printed out a wedding photo of the happy couple on the beach in black and white onto copic blending card then using a foam roller I added matt modge podge over the top. 

Here is a closeup of the canvas, I just love how it turned out and so does the bride.
I've spritzed the frame with some shimmer paint to add a tiny bit of sparkle, all it needs now is a quick coat of matt spray to seal the gesso and make it easier to dust!

Hope you like what I've been playing around with in the last few days.

Cheers,
Kasey

Collage frame

Hi all, I was visiting one of my favourite scrapbook shops yesterday and spied this technique, so asked for a quick rundown on it as the next class would be ages away, I went home and created this beautiful collage.

Layer upon layer of chipboard, buttons, beads, embellishments, lace, flowers, charms, letters, cord, pearls, shells, metal bits and bobs. Lots of gesso and I used matt modge podge to glue everything down

It does look awesome in white, however I've used this awesome multicoloured spray. Lindy's stamp gang Sweet Violet Purple Teal, it has the most beautiful shimmer and from the one bottle, this is how the paint dries.  This has two layers of spray on it, it has a few touch up spritzes as well.  Just waiting now for a photo!

Thanks for stopping in to say hello, hope you like my latest creation.  I'm going to do one in black now, not sure how it will go but thought I'd give it a shot.

Cheers,
Kasey

Southern Girls challenge

Hello friends, sadly this is my last Southern Girls DT assignment, I have asked the lovely Tracey and Louise if I can step down from the design team (for now, who knows what the future may bring), I have a lot going on right now.  

I'd like to thank Tracy and Louise they have been the most wonderful and understanding 'bosses' and I count them both as friends.  The entire SGC design team are awesome, supportive and talented and I will continue to keep track of their amazing art as they always provide me with inspiration.  OK enough of the soppy stuff before my eyes start leaking!

For my inspiration card, I've used an image from one of my favourite stamp companies, Delicious Doodles Butterfly Border.  I printed this out and coloured it twice using Copic BGs and Bs and a little bit of spica glitter, the flowers were done in BVs. I then fussy cut the butterflies and flowers to layer on top of the other image. 

The gorgeous leaves from Flourishes with a Bling was snipped to create this lovely vine for the butterflies.

 Here are a few shots from angles so you can see the layers.  I think these colours are gorgeous, if you're a regular visitor to my blog you'll know I seem to gravitate towards them!

Thank you SGC!  Mwahhh

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

Fairies and more at Make it Crafty

Hello MiC fans, I'm here with a journal page made using three of the fabulous fairies from MiC.  Did you see that Zoe has just released a sensational new range of mystical images, some amazing backgrounds and some awesomely cute gnomes and delicious fairies.  Check them out here.

Now onto the journal page, I've used three darling fairies and a poem from Yeats.  I've used all my favourite colours in this page, lots of lovely pinks, purples and teals.

 Close up pics of these gorgeous fairies.

 Elven Ardella

 Elven Samenah

 Fairy Dahlia

The fairies are coloured with copic markers and then fussy cut and placed on the journal pages.  This just shows how versatile digital images are, the images have been flipped and printed out larger than I would for a card so the three images fit on the A4 size journal.

My apologies, I haven't listed the colours used this time round.  I forgot to write them down!

I've used Elven Ardella, Elven Samenah, Fairy Dahlia
Hope you find some more fun and creative ways of using digital images!  And again, don't forget to check out the new release!

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

Spread your wings and fly

Back again with more journal pages, these ones are A5 size watercolour paper which has been mounted on black cardstock and then bound with my Zutter.  

The first one is a background created using distress inks, stencils, stamps and jellyroll pens.

Another distress ink background, I usually do my backgrounds in batches, the first layers, then as I'm ready to make a page, I add the other layers using stencils and stamps as above or just stamps like this one below.

This one is another rock salt background and I've used a rollergraph wheel down each side, loads of stardust pen and white to highlight the leaf edges.

 And the final page for today's post is this bright and cheery one where I've stenciled a beautiful butterfly and then painted it and outlined in white.  I love that journal pages don't need to be perfectly neat, I'd be a complete failure if that was the case!

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,

Kasey

Starry, Starry Night

Hello, as promised here are a couple more pages for you.  I absolutely love Don McLean's song about Vincent Van Gough.  So sad and yet very beautiful.  

I used sprays and then while the paper was wet, I've scattered rock salt on the ink and left it to dry, some colours and papers give different effects.  This one left mainly deeper dots of colour but didn't have the chemical reaction that happens on other inks.  It also left a salty sparkle to the paper which of course hasn't been captured in the photo.

This one shows the lines that come from the chemical reaction you get with the salt and ink.  You can see it quite well around the words Laugh and Dream.  I've used lots of silver on the doodling.

Hope you like these two pages, I'll be back to show some more in a day or so.

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

Just one step

 More journal pages, this first one is using distress inks, I've sponged the ink over a Dylusions mask for the leaves and stamped the dragonflies, swirls, words and diamond shapes on the background.  I like the softness distress inks give the pages.  Watercolour paper is used here and it is fabulous for layering and blending the inks.

 This one shows the chemical reaction of Ink and rock salt better than any I've posted so far.  I love the patterns it makes and you never know what will happen, I usually make a few different sheets and leave them to dry overnight, you really do need to have patience for this technique, using a heat gun doesn't work!

This is mushrooms, but a friend says they look like jelly fish!  I really need to work on my freehand writing although I think it's probably too late to teach this dog that sort of new trick!

Cheers,

Kasey ~ in Oz

Journal pages obsession

Hello everyone, my apologies for being such a slack blogger of late.  I've been playing with my latest obsession Journal pages using lots of luscious inks from Dylusions and some masks and stamps as well, I've also used some Lindy's stamp gang sprays the starburst and flat fabios, Tim Holtz Distress Inks and doing some Zentangle inspired drawings.  I've used some masks from both Dylusions and The Crafters Workshop or TCW.  Chipboard butterflies are from Make it Crafty, the words are from scrapfx (I think)

I've posted a single page and a double one for now and then I'm going to schedule some posts to go live over the next week or so.

I've also had a short stint in hospital, more tests to come so I have to take it easy and reduce my stress levels.  Ah ha....yep that's easy, all I need to do is win the lottery and then I can retire and be an artist!  Yes, I know dream on.

 This one is done on watercolour paper using Lindy's Stamp Gang flat fabio sprays, I've also drawn over a stencil to put the damask shape, the gold spray just didn't show up on the yellow and orange.  I then coated some chipboard pieces with gesso and then sprayed two tone LSG starburst sprays to create the glimmer.  

My all time favourite pages so far are these, I love this saying from the Lorax by De Seuss, it just went so well with the Dylusions leaves and ghosting technique.

Closeup of page 1, I've used the negative of my Hippie Chick cuttlebug alphabet die to do the letters.  Love this font.

Close up of page 2, freehand is not my strong point!

OK so there you see a short look at what has been taking my attention craft wise, I just wish my copics would call to me.  I intend on mixing some copic images into these pages as well.  I love that I can print out digi images to whatever size I want, this should make for some interesting pages!

Cheers for now,

Kasey ~ in Oz

Bingo! @ Southern Girls

Hello, yes I am still around, I've been challenging myself to try something new for me but shhh it's not ready for sharing just yet.  

What I do have for you is the Southern Girls latest challenge 'bingo card'.

 I am stretching is just a little with my 'gems' I'm using the flower centres as my gems.  The spots are included in the background paper that comes with this amazing image from The Paper Shelter called the Dragon Whisperer.  I just love the little dragon.

 I've used lots of distressing and distress ink to give that aged look.  Hope you're inspired by the choices in our bingo card.  Love to see you playing along.

 Cheers,

Kasey ~ in Oz

 Hello everyone, sorry I've been a bit missing in action lately, but I'm back with a post for you that I hope inspires you to try merging images if you haven't already tried it.  I've created this picture on one sheet of A4 Make it Colour Blending card (fabulous stuff!)

This was my very first attempt at merging images using Paint Net.  I know I've shown a few of my merged pieces since then, but I thought I'd show you this one to show that while it is far from perfect, it's still pretty good for a first attempt and I've found as I have practiced and gained experience then you can too! 

 I used Far Away Castle; Enchanted Unicorn and Exquisite Princess
Let me tell you it was at first quite daunting, this was the first time I'd tried merging images and then of course there was all that colouring ahead of me.  What I did though was work on it in sections, that broke the whole project down into more manageable pieces.

Check out the tutorial section here and also ask questions in the MIC facebook page for advice from the DT, Youtube also has some amazing tutorials.  All you need to do is try and you too can create beautiful pictures and artwork using MiC digi stamps and colouring them with your favourite media weather that be Copic or other alcohol markers, distress inks or pencils.

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

My creative space almost finished

I'm still in quite a mess, I've updated my creative space page with pics of how I have the new room arranged.

The phone move meant no internet for a week or so and I still have a few odds and sods to put away yet from the move.

I'm hoping to have some posts for you all soon.

Cheers,

Kasey