I {Heart} You

I {heart} you! Yes, you! 

I have been blogging for almost 11 months and what started out as a terrifying experience has become one of the most rewarding experiences in my crafty world.

I have you to thank for that! 

Every person who has visited my blog, commented & shared has made me 

feel a little more confident & a whole lot more inspired!

So this is for you......

~stay crafty~

julia

Love is {NOT} in the air......Emerald Creek Dare

It is time for a new challenge at Emerald Creek Dares and this time

the team was challenged to create Valentine's ~ For All The Single People. Sort of Valentine's Day themed but not necessarily filled with all the mushy romance if that's not your thing. Quite a challenge since I have not been single for 25+ years. So as I pondered this challenge while enjoying a Venti Pike Place it came to me - I LOVE COFFEE!

I decided to do a small 5x7 canvas ~ this is one of series of canvases that will be hot beverage themed and displayed above my coffee/tea corner in my kitchen.

Let's get started.....

I started by mixing some Dina Wakely Glazing Medium with a bit of Candied Apple Distress Paint.

I appled this to my canvas with a pallet knife and my fingers. While this layer was still wet I added a couple of drops Fired Brick Distress Paint to my red glaze mixture and using my pallet knife added this colour to my canvas. Lastly, I added a couple of drops of Aged Mahogany to my glaze and using my fingers added some to my canvas.

I next made a mixture of Crackle Paste and Texture Sand Paste (both from DecoArt Media) to use with my Tim Holtz Brick Stencil. My mixture was probably 50/50 but if I was to try this again I will definitely make sure that I went heavier on the Crackle Paste so the cracks would be more visible.

After I let the paste dry completely, I applied a mixture of Golden Fluid Acrylic Burnt Sienna & Glazing Medium to the entire canvas. while this was still wet I used a baby wipe to wipe back some of the colour. I applied more of this mixture to the bricks 2 more times until I got the colour I liked.

I then added some stamping to my canvas using Archival Ink in Black & Potting Soil. I love how the stamping on the bricks looks like graffiti.

I used my Fresh Brewed Die from Tim Holtz/Sizzix for my main focal point.
I cut it from chipboard, painted with Picket Fence Distress Paint and gently sanded the edges before spritzing with Ground Espresso Distress Marker.

The sentiment was one I found on Pinterest and I used a combination of Chit Chat stickers & stamping on paper.

I used my Interlaced Hearts Stamp from Emerald Creek as the steam coming from my coffee cup.
Mmmmmm........coffee. ;)
A Prize Cameo Charm, also from Emerald Creek, was perfect for the the front of the cup.
I added some Burnt Copper Leaves Embossing Powder to the outer edge of the charm before filling the centre with glossy accents, 3 coffee beans and some red glitter.

Thank you so much for dropping by my blog today!
Be sure to visit the rest of Emerald Creek DT blogs for more
 "Valentine's ~ For All The Single People" inspiration
and enter our challenge at Emerald Creek Dares for a chance to win
a $25 online store credit!

Emerald Creek Design Team

Karon
Diana
Katelyn
Cathy
Claudia
Shilpa

~stay crafty~

julia


Challenges Entered 
Simon Says Monday Challenge: love is in the air

Red & Black and Altered All Over....

Over the holidays, I went to the my local liquor store and was told I was getting a free

gift with my purchase. Oooooo.....free stuff!

I opened up my free gift when I got home and was stumped.

I had no idea what it was. I almost tossed it into the trash (as I am trying to curb

by hoarding ways.) when my son came into the room and dropped his phone

into the slot. It was a smartphone amplifier and it must be altered! With all the "Something New" Challenges out there I thought this was the perfect project to get started with!

First step ~ I sanded it to remove the shiny finish.

Next step was to paint on 3 shades of red. Lightest shade first, then the next 2 shades were randomly painted on.

After that layer was completely dry I painted on one coat of black gesso. I used my heat gun to only dry it until it turned matte then used a baby wipe removed some of the gesso to reveal the red underneath. 

I love the aged look it gives it. I added some gold metallic rub-ons as well.

All my metal embellishments were painted before I adhered them to the wood base with 3D gloss gel.

I used metallic rub-ons to highlight the details on the metal pieces.

Here is my brand new iPhone amplifier! Perfect for playing tunes while being crafty!

Have a wonderful day everyone & thank you so much for visiting my blog today!

Be sure to visit the Emerald Creek Dares blog and join our 

We are on out way....NEW Adventures Challenge

for a chance to win a $25 credit to use at 

Emerald Creek Craft Supplies

~~stay crafty~~

julia

Submitted to the following challenges:
Try It On Tuesday - Letters & Numbers
Shopping Our Stash #234 - Something New (smartphone amplifier)
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - January Challenge
SanDee's & amelie's Challenge blog - January 2016

Cherry Blossom Tag - CHA....We are on our way with Emerald Creek Crafts!

Today is my last CHA project for Emerald Creek Crafts!

I love charms and the new releases are amazing ~ the cherry blossoms
round charm is a new favourite!

One of the new charms available from Emerald Creek is this gorgeous

 round Cherry Blossom . I decided to use my Distress Paints to add some colour

but in the end I decided that the black was a bit too harsh. I decided to save this charm for another project but painted up another one - this time only adding colour to the flowers & leaves.

The Branch Tree die from Sizzix is 3 layers of watercolour paper all sandwiched together then painted with Ranger Gold acrylic paint using a foam makeup applicator.

Here is a closeup of the texture of the tree & the painted charm.

Thank you for dropping in and checking out my CHA projects for

 Emerald Creek Craft Supplies.

~~stay crafty~~

julia


Be sure to visit the rest of the Emerald Creek DT blogs for more exciting CHA projects!

Karon Hughes

Diana Hetherington

Cathy Potosky

Katelyn Grosart

Claudia Neubacher

Shilpa Nagonkar

Come join us over at the Emerald Creek Dares blog and share in our NEW Adventure!

We want to see what you are making with your NEW Christmas presents,NEW purchases, NEW techniques, NEW CHA stuff even if you are one of the lucky few to have yours right away.

Love Defined Tag - CHA Release from Emerald Creek Crafts

It's Day 3 of CHA Release from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies

Today my project features a brand new charm - The Intertwined Hearts 

and Candy Red Embossing Powder. 

This was my first project using the new December Distress 

colour release from Ranger & Tim Holtz ~ Candied Apple.

I started with a tag covered in  2 coats of gesso. I then added some Candied Apple stain, spritzed with a bit of water then dried with my heat tool. I then added some Candied Apple paint at the top of the tag spritzed it with water and let it drip down the tag. Then dried it again with my heat tool. 

I used my Tim Holtz Distress Splatter Brush to add some splatters in Ground Espresso & Picket Fence Distress Paints.

I used Candy Red Embossing Powder from Emerald Creek on the Heart Charm. Once it was cool I used a small bit of sand paper to distress the charm and then added some Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

I was happy to be able to use a set of Mini Nested Stamp Frames from Southern Ridge Trading Company.

The largest frame in the pack was scalloped edged with hearts. Perfect for my Love themed tag.

I first painted the chipboard frame with Candied Apple Distress Paint. Once it was dry I then covered the frame with Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint. After patiently waiting for that layer to dry I used my fingernail to scrape off some of the crackle and reveal a bit more of the red. I finished my frame off with some Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.

I finished my tag off with a sprig of greenery cut from the Sizzix Garden Greens Die and some flowers cut with the Tiny Tattered Florals Thinlits.

Thanks so much for coming by my blog today ~ be sure to drop by tomorrow for my 4th and final CHA project.

~~ stay crafty ~~

julia

Be sure to visit the rest of the Emerald Creek DT blogs for more exciting CHA projects!

Karon Hughes

Diana Hetherington

Cathy Potosky

Katelyn Grosart

Claudia Neubacher

Shilpa Nagonkar

Come join us over at the Emerald Creek Dares blog and share in our NEW Adventure!

We want to see what you are making with your NEW Christmas presents,NEW purchases, NEW techniques, NEW CHA stuff even if you are one of the lucky few to have yours right away.

Time To Soar Tag - CHA Release from Emerald Creek Crafts

It's Day 2 of CHA and I just know that Kim is having the time of her life down in Anaheim!

Here is another CHA project I designed using an Emerald Creek Supplies charm and exclusive embossing powders.

I used the Birdcage Charm from Emerald Creek  painted with alcohol inks.

I added Burnt Copper Leaves Embossing Powder ~ an exclusive blend available only at 

Emerald Creek.

Thank you for dropping in today ~ come back tomorrow for another CHA project featuring a brand new charm from Emerald Creek and another embossing powder!

~~ stay crafty ~~

julia


Be sure to visit the rest of the Emerald Creek DT blogs for more exciting CHA projects!

Karon Hughes

Diana Hetherington

Cathy Potosky

Katelyn Grosart

Claudia Neubacher

Shilpa Nagonkar

Koi Pond - CHA...We are on our way with Emerald Creek Crafts!

Today is the first day of CHA in Anaheim and Kim ~ owner of Emerald Creek Craft Supplies ~ and Nicole of Nicole Wright Designs are at the big show showing off their exciting new products. 

I am absolutely out of mind excited to share my first CHA project.
Emerald Creek Craft Supplies has two brand new set of stamps designed by
  Nicole Wright under the brand Nicole Wright Designs.
One is called Fallen Blossom and is a set of 5 cling stamps. The other one (used on my card)
is called Upstream and comes in a set of 6. They are beautiful!

I was inspired to make a bendy fold card using the Koi images.
There are lots of tutorials for Bendy Fold Cards on Pinterest ~ I used this one
from SplitCoast Stampers.

My card base was cut from 100lb cardstock from Emerald Creek in white then covered in a pattern paper I had in my stash. Once my card was assembled it was time to start decorating with my stamped images and accessories

My Koi images are all stamped on cold press watercolour paper and coloured with a small paint brush and Distress Markers.

I added a few of the small Koi images to my card as well ~ a few hiding away in the greenery.
The greenery is diecut from the Garden Greens die from Sizzix and then stained with Peeled Paint.

The sentiment is from the Stuff To Say set from Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection.
I first stained a piece of watercolour paper with Abandoned Coral before stamping my sentiment with Black Archival Ink.

I added some gold foil along the edges to add a bit of interest.
I just love all the layers created when the card is slotted together.

Here is my finished card ~

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Please came back tomorrow to see
 another CHA project I designed for Emerald Creek.

Be sure to visit the rest of the Emerald Creek DT blogs for more exciting CHA projects!

Karon Hughes

Diana Hetherington

Cathy Potosky

Katelyn Grosart

Claudia Neubacher

Shilpa Nagonkar

Come join us over at the Emerlad Creek Dares blog and share in our NEW Adventure!

We want to see what you are making with your NEW Christmas presents,NEW purchases, NEW techniques, NEW CHA stuff even if you are one of the lucky few to have yours right away.

Hello 2016!

After an extra long winter break, I am ready to get back in my craft room!

2015 was a great year and I am thankful to have so many crafty friends both online & off who inspire me to learn and grow as an artist. Thank you!

My first post of 2016 is my January tag for the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2016 - Technique Remix

I am thrilled that Tim will be revisiting past techniques, combining them

 with others and sharing new tips! 

I followed Tim's instructions but decided to add some Bottle Alcohol Ink from Ranger to the metal foil for a bit of colour.

Thanks so much for dropping by today!

~~stay crafty~~

julia

Challenges Entered:

Tim Holtz - 12 Tags of 2016 (January)