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

A Little Bird Told me.....birthday card.

I'm here to tell you that it's Nicole Wright's birthday....so pop by her blog, her facebook page or instagram {@nicolewrightdesigns} and send her birthday wishes!

I have known Nicole for about 3 years and she is fully responsible for my Tim Holtz obsession and  for encouraging me to start a blog. She never fails to blow me away with her crafty goodness and her cheese bagels.

Here is a card I made for Nicole ~

Happy Birthday, Nicole!

This is my favourite technique for a quick background - Distress Stains, my mister bottle & watercolour paper.

I couldn't resist using my Bird Crazy stamps for this card.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today for a little birthday fun!

~stay crafty~

julia

Mini Fall Canvas Set

Well, it finally happened - I took my dog for a walk at a local park in the river valley and I felt things.

The beautiful colours of the leaves, the rustling sound the leaves made as my dog ran & bounded through them. It was glorious!

All I needed a glass a warm apple cider and slice of pumpkin pie and it would have been perfection!

I came home full of inspiration and immediately went to, what I like to call, my Box of Bases!

It's where is keep canvasses, wood frames, 3D boxes etc etc. As I was flipping through I found 4 mini burlap canvasses - 4"x 4". Perfect!

Ripe Persimmon, Forest Moss and my brand new Wilted Violet that I bought at Emerald Creek Craft Supplies is a gorgeous fall colour pallet. I used my blending tool to apply the the colours to the burlap. On 2 of the canvasses I applied Ranger Texture Paste through the Zig Zag Stencil & the Argyle Stencil by Tim Holtz & Stampers Anonymous. After the texture paste dried I applied more distress ink. I applied Wilted Violet with my ink blending tool through the Zig Zag & Stripes Stencils on the other 2 canvasses.

I decided to use the Bird Crazy Stamp set because those little guys were just the perfect size. 

I stamped & watercolored 4 of them with my Distress Ink. 

I wanted some larger die cut elements and the Branch Tree & Rickety House were just the right size. 

To get the texture on the tree I took a sheet of Glassine and scrunched it up before appling Ground Espresso, Vintage Photo & Gathered Twigs with my blending tool. I then used matte medium to adhere the glassine to chipboard before diecutting my image. I used the same technique for the rickety house except I used my woodgrain embossing folder the for texture.

I used the Holidays Greens and Scribbles & Splats Thinlit dies to add a few more elements and some random letters to spell our "Fall". 

Finally, I used some old rusty hinges that I bought at ReStore to join all four mini panels together.

Thanks for visiting my blog today! I really appreciate it!

Project entered:
Southern Ridge Trading Company : Fall Challenge

Don't forget to check out the Emerald Creek Dares blog for this months challenge and for a chance to win a $25 gift card to the online store!

Seeing Spots

Big spots. Little spots. Medium spots.

I was making some random colour swatches on a scrap piece of paper

last week and thought that this would make a great card! 

looking for the perfect green watercolour

So I grabbed my Limor Circle's stamp set from IndigoBlu

and started stamping away. 

 

I made a set of masks using the Mask Sheets from Tim Holtz and continued stamping. Distress Markers finished off the card with a nice watercolour look.

I was so happy with the way it turned out, I decided to make a few more!

Thank for visiting my blog today!

Please, leave me a comment so that I know you were here ~ I love making new crafty friends!

Stamps used on Floral Card are from

Emerald Creek Craft Supplies:

Carnations 

Geraniums 

Aster 

Box o' Birds.....Craziness

It has been a crazy week for the Chupik family this week. 

I made the 3 hour drive from Edmonton to Calgary to help not one but BOTH of my kids 

pack up and move into college dorms.

It's weird to not have kids in the house - for 21 of our 22 years of marriage

 there has always been a child here and now nothing. 

This is pretty much how I feel....

I decided that I needed a creative distraction.

I grabbed my big shot, Crazy Bird Stamp stamp set and matching dies

 and a few sheets of patterned paper.  

 

I now have a Box O' Birds  to use for future projects.

 I may even use a few to make fridge magnets - wouldn't that look adorable!?

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

~~stay crafty~~

julia

An Oldie but a Goodie.....

We all have a few of those stamps bought eons ago for that one special project, then carelessly tossed aside left to gather dust & glitter at the back of a drawer, box or closet. 

Don't deny it...you know you do.

While in the middle of moving & packing up my craft room in Calgary earlier this summer I found a few of those stamps. A cartoon-like seashell? What the.....WHY?! I can't even tell you why I have that, but I do. Did I get rid of it? Of course not, because you just never know.

Then a week ago I had the opportunity to go through some (try 3 milk crates full!) old stamps that Kim Evans, from Emerald Creek Crafts Supplies had in storage. I'm not exactly sure how old these designs are but my guess is Tim Holtz was in diapers when some of these were made. Which makes them vintage and vintage is so in right now.

That's a lot of stamps!

I went through every single stamp and picked out about 50 I thought I could try.

My first project was a birthday card for my hubby who is turning 51 next week - I used 2 different tree stamps and 3 different background block stamps. Pretty simple & straightforward.

Old Stamps.New Techniques.

My next project was a tag and I wanted to combine and old stamp with a new release stamp.

I thought this Three Owls stamp would compliment the Bird Crazy Owl perfectly!

Speaking of old stamps - see that alphabet set in the top right corner?

I bought that at Crafts Canada about a bajillion years ago. I can't remember what I ate for breakfast but I remember where I bought that stamp set. 

Here is the finished tag and I think the quote from Dr. Seuss is perfect.

 Thanks for visiting my blog today! 

~~stay crafty~~

julia

Submitted to:

Emerald Creek Dares - Fall 2015 DT Call