Emerald Creek Dare - Easter Hunt

It's time for another challenge at Emerald Creek Dares

and this time we are celebrating Easter and the Easter Egg Hunt.

Show off how you celebrate Easter at Emerald Creek Dares for a chance to win

a $25 credit to the Emerald Creek online store.

My family of Crazy Birds and the Easter Egg Hunt

I started with a small square box that I had in my box. It needed very little prep as it was already white but I did take my small sanding block to the edges to distress it just a bit.

I started by making my background for the small squares. I trimmed some watercolour paper to fit each space and sponged Versamark over my Chevron Layering Stencil from Tim Holtz before applying Emerald Creek pastel embossing powder in 3 different colours - green, lilac & pink.

I finished these off with some Distress Stains in coordinating colours.

The background for the large box was made using watercolour as well but this time I used a large oval stencil that I thought could pass for an Easter Egg. Again I sponged Versamark through the Chevron Layering Stencil and this time used the Easter Parade embossing powder from Emerald Creek - its just one of a whole line of  Festive Glitters. I love them all! 

I received my Distress Crayons this week and was so excited to use them with this project. I have a lot to learn about them but had fun playing around with some watercolour techniques on my bunnies & floral embellishments.

For my flowers I used 98 lb watercolour paper that I dragged through Distress Stains & Picket Fence Distress Paint that I applied to my craft mat. The Picket Fence give the stains a gorgeous pastel feel. I then use my set of Tiny Tattered Florals die set to cut out a bunch of flowers.

Here is a close up photo of the finished flowers ~

And close-ups of those Crazy Easter Egg Hunting Birds. One of those rascals couldn't resist a nibble of  the chocolate bunny ears.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! 

I wish each of you a very Happy Easter and may your long weekend be filled with love, happiness & joyful celebration with family & friends.

Be sure to check out more Easter inspiration from the rest of the Emerald Creek Design Team

then visit the Emerald Creek Dare blog to share your creation with us.

Katelyn

Diana

Cathy

Pam 

Claudia

Shilpa

Emerald Creek Craft Supplies

products used:

Stamp:

Happy Easter

Embossing Powders:

Pastel Green

Pastel Lilac

Pastel Pink

Easter Parade

Playing With Crayons - Tim Tag March 2016

I was beyond excited when my Distress Crayons arrived last week but was so busy I didn't have a chance to start playing with them until yesterday. Well, let me say they were worth the wait. 

After a bit of play time on random paper - with some success and some hot messes -  I jumped into the creation of my Tim Tag for March.

Here is Tim's gorgeous tag

I realized that after I die cut the corrugated cardboard & the base tag that most of the 

details would be covered up - note to self: better pre-planning.

The Distress Crayons blend beautifully on a surface prepped with

 gesso - so smooth and easy to blend. 

I wasn't happy with the blank space that would be showing through the feather on the right so I decided to add a stamp. I also stamped the corrugated layer so it would line up with the image on the bottom layer.

My brad embellishment is a Flower Wheel Brad  from Emerald Creek. I rubbed  the Mermaid Lagoon Distress Crayon over the brad and used my fingertip to push the crayon into the grooves. I really like how it turned out. 

Challenges Entered:

Tim Holtz: 12 Tags Of 2016 (March)

Distress Ink & Watercolour - My Current Obsession

I love watercolour and have made a lot of cards using watercolour techniques
but I recently became completely obsessed with a no-line watercolour
technique I saw on Scraps & Stamps.
You can check out Nicole's blog post about no-line watercolouring here.

Nicole uses a combo if Distress Ink & Peerless  Transparent Watercolours.
Her finished project is gorgeous but it got me thinking - why couldn't I just stamp the image using Distress Inks and then blend the ink with my detailed watercolour pen?
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I stamped the koi image from the Nicole Wright Designs Upstream stamp set
on to 140lb cold-pressed watercolour paper using Twisted Citron & Carved Pumpkin
 Distress Ink Pads. Now it was time to grab the water brush and start blending.

It doesn't take much to get a beautiful watercolour effect and it's oh so simple & quick.
To get a bit more definition I took my Distress Markers in the same colours and added more colour to the fins before blending with water..

To protect my images before the next step I applied a layer of Distress Micro Glaze.

The final step was to swipe the paper through some Distress Stain for a water effect.

My completed card - I love the water droplets made with the stain.

Here is another card made using the same steps but this time when I applied the
Distress Micro Glaze I made sure to spread it a bit past the image. I wanted to have more a 'halo' effect when I applied the stain layer.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today!

~~stay crafty~~

julia

Scrapbook Bootcamp

I needed a serious kick in the butt to get started on scrapbooking my 

old family photos. I had all the photos printed and ready to go but the task seemed so daunting that I kept putting it off and putting it off. A year and a half later and I was still putting it off.

Then I found Scrapbookin' Adventures and the UYOP Workshop.

Heather, Jennifer Edwardson & Julia at the UYOP Workshop

What is a UYOP (Use Your Own Product) Workshop, you ask?

It is a workshop developed by Jennifer Edwardson in 2009 ~ meant to help scrapbookers go through their stash, create easy kits and spend one day creating 20 layouts. YES! TWENTY LAYOUTS!

I'll share a few of mine with you....

Three before the workshop, I received the instruction kit from Jennifer.

One sheet of basic instructions and 20 layout maps that told me what I would need for each kits.

Creating my kits was intense and took me about 10 days to complete but I was thrilled to be

 using up so much of my stash. I was so excited to get started when I finally had my kits ready.

Workshop day arrived and off I went with my kits & a large coffee! I was greeted by the lovely Jennifer Edwardson and had a few minutes to chat and shop before we got started.

This is a fast-paced workshop with Jennifer leading through the construction of each layout

 in about 25 minutes. I only finished the basic assembly of each page. I added titles, embellishments and hidden journaling pockets at home.

By the end of the 12 hour workshop I had 20 layouts ready for a few touches!

Twenty! That's more layouts completed in one day than I have done in 5 years.

Jennifer suggested keeping out kit instructions and reuse the page maps over again by flipping or rotating them to get a different look. What a fabulous idea!

This week I am starting to put 20 more kits together - these will be perfect to take to crops and retreats over the next few months.

If you live in the Calgary area be sure to check out Scrapbookin' Adventures! 

Follow them on Facebook

~~stay crafty~~

julia

Emerald Creek Dare - Ring In Spring

It's time for another challenge at Emerald Creek Dares!

Show us your Spring-themed projects - think bright & colourful. We want to see your cards, canvases, art journal pages, scrapbook layouts or home decor.

My project is a hexagon frame from Kaiser Craft. 

I prepped the frame pieces first with a coat of gesso then using matte medium applied Tim Holtz tissue paper. I applied another coat of matte medium over the top of the tissue paper. Once everythig was dry I assembled the frame pieces then gave the entire thing another light coat of gesso.

I used Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Spiced Marmalde, Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry & Cracked Pistachio to colour my background. I first applied small pools of the stains on to my splat mat and then used a small brush to apply small amounts over the tissue paper. 

I painted the outside of the frame with Scattered Straw Distress paint and distressed the edges with sandpaper. To further deepen the colour of the frame I used my ink blending tool to apply Rusty Hinge Distress Ink over the frame.

I used my Jumbo Tattered Floral die from Sizzix to make my focal point. What better way to signify Spring than some big colourful flowers! I die cut my flowers out of 140lb cold-pressed watercolour paper and coloured them with Distress Stains. While the paper was still wet I shape the flowers by curling the petals around my fingers. I then let the flowers dry naturally before layering 4 dies together and securing them with a Flower Wheel Brad from Emerald Creek.

The leaves were made with by applying Vintage Ivy Embossing Powder from Emerald Creek.
I love this embossing powder ~ after its heat set it leaves a soft, velvety texture.

I found this sentiment on Pinterest and thought it was perfect for this project.

Here is my finished project ~ a little bit of Spring inspiration to enjoy while I wait for the snow melt.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! Now head over the rest of the Emerald Creek DT
blogs for more Ring In Spring inspiration.

Claudia Neubacher
Shilpa
Katelyn
Diana
Cathy Potosky
Pam Bray

Head on over to Emerald Creek Dares to show us your Spring projects for a chance
to win a $25 credit to the Emerald Creek online store.

4 Quick Cards - Spring Edition

Ah...can you smell that? It's the sweet smells of SPRING!

Today I'm showing you the make & take I taught at the Paradise Lost One Day Crop on Feb 27.

I based it on another blog post I did back in December - 4 Quick Christmas Cards. 

I start with a pallet of spring colours - Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin & Picked Raspberry 

Distress Stain ~ and a sheet of 140lb cold press watercolour paper 9"x11".

I start by smooshing my 3 colours of Distress on to my splat mat and giving them a good spray of water. Then I start laying my watercolour paper on top of my stains. The middle picture shows the first & the right photo is about the 5th. I dry between layers and keep adding stain and water until I like what I've got. I don't worry about the white spaces and you'll see why in the next step.

This layer is all about Distress Paint & Ink Pads. I use all the same colour and start layering these on over the stains. I give this layer a really good dry with my heat gun before trimming my paper to 4 - 4"x 5.25" panels. This will leave a few small scraps that I toss in my scrap bucket to be used for future projects.

I add a stamp image (SA/Tim Holtz - Flower Garden)  and a sentiment (SA/Tim Holtz - Crazy Talk) to each card front before using my blending tool to ink the edges. Lastly I ran my Black Archival Ink pad along the edges to 'frame' them. 

I really enjoy this technique to make a set of cards - I get to combine my love of a large mixed media surface and cardmaking. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog today & I hope I was able to inspire you!

~stay crafty~

julia