Challenge #12 - April - Earth Day

Hello Everyone!

Samra  here, hosting my last challenge here at Anything But Cute as a member of Design Team. Thank you all who took part in our last month's challenge! It was a pleasure to see all the gorgeous entries. Don't forget to check back with us next Tuesday when Branka and the team announce the winners of the Crazy For Colors challenge. Now on to this month's theme.

Inspiration for this theme came from the fact that April 22nd is celebrated as Earth Day, and I wanted our team to take part in the celebration by putting together Earth Day theme challenge.

EARTH DAY

Create a mixed media project inspired by this mood board and the beauty of our planet. Please tell us what inspired you. Entries for this challenge can be echo friendly, or even recycled/upcycled items; or depiction of the sea, mountain, river, forest, flowery meadow…let’s celebrate our planet!

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It's Sara Emily here, and I'm excited to introduce our talented Guest Designer for April!  She was the winner of my February challenge "Grungy Love". Please welcome Nikki Acton of Addicted to Art!

Nikki has a distinct simplistic style that I adore! But even though her projects appear "clean and simple", she puts so much into them with her perfectly executed techniques. What I wouldn't do to be a butterfly on her art room wall! Without further ado, here is the super talented Nikki and her gorgeous canvas! Check out all her techniques!

Hi everyone - I am Nikki from Addicted to Art. Many thanks to Pamellia and the ABC team for welcoming me as a Guest Designer today.

I live in Hampshire in the UK. I have been crafting and blogging for just over two years. I joined a new gym, started playing badminton again, made some new friends and one of them was a crafter. I visited her house, saw her craft room and scrapbooks and the rest is history! My own craft is eclectic, from simple cards to grungy mixed media projects. I am a big Tim Holtz fan but also love bright, bold abstract art and lots in between. 

Around the time I received the guest invitation I was visiting Brenda Brown (Bumblebees and Butterflies) who lives locally and she was creating a project using the Tim Holtz globe thinlits die at the time. I don't own it, but she kindly cut one for me as it seemed perfect for this theme. I decided to celebrate the beauty of our planet with my canvas but used a crackle effect on the surface to reflect the fragility of the world in which we live.

The cracked surface was created with PaperArtsy crackle medium.

My butterflies (Tim Holtz butterfly duo) were coloured with oil pastels and PaperArtsy fresco paint. There are more details of these techniques over on my blog today. 

I hope you like my creation. 

Nikki - Addicted to Art

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And now for some inspiration from the talented Anything But Cute design team!

It is with a sad heart that we tell you the news that this will be the last challenge that Cec and Samra join us as Design Team members. It has been such an honour to work behind the scenes with these ladies. They are so talented and have been an inspiration to everyone, they will really be missed by all of us! We wish both of you the best of luck in all that life and crafting has to bring you! Hugs, the entire Anything But Cute team!

Cec - CW Card Creations

I have gone into the rain forest for my Earth Day offering.  This little canvas has a background created with card stock die cuts covered with paints along with some stenciling.  I have added elements created from crafter's clay, altered greenery from the dollar store and even dirt made from beads and texture paste.

Samra - Paper Talk with Samra

I created a house in a flowery meadow  next to a deep blue lake under the starry sky. As you can probably tell, I was inspired by the blue flowers and the house at the base of a mountain. There was a quite a bit of texture, recycling and painting involved in creating this card for my co-worker who is going to retire in a year and move to another state to a house by the lake.

Anne - Redanne

I just love Samra's challenge theme, I was really inspired by the gorgeous colours in the mood board. It was perfect for me as I absolutely adore seahorses, they are an endangered species where we live.  I had lots of fun with some Fiber Paste, lots of paint and a real starfish to create an underwater scene.

Branka - Vintage Handmade

I was so inspired by Samra's beautiful mood board and especially by those awesome blue and green tones to create a mixed media mini canvas. I used gauze, art stones, modeling paste, Dylusions inks and some lace. 

Niki - Pawsitively Creative Crafts

I was so inspired by Samra's lovely mood board and used the blue tones, the earthy feel, the grass and the butterfly. Found objects, tinted modeling paste, and stamps made this design come alive.The eggs are made from polymer clay and painted a robins blue to compliment the mood board. Happy crafting and Carpe Diem!

Pamellia - My Little Craft Things

I just love Samra's mood board and I was completely drawn in by these neon earth colours! I drew inspiration from the foliage, the flowers and the gorgeous bird. I also was inspired by Samra's project. I love the natural foliage she included! My "Big World" canvas is going on the wall beside my bird-watching window!

Sara Emily - sarascloset

I just loved Samra's mood board, and I was inspired by the beautiful colors, butterfly, flowers, mushroom,  mossy looking fields, and the overall sense of nature combined with fantasy. Even Samra's words inspired me to use recycled materials.  I used over 20 of my mixed media products including, but not limited to paints, sprays, inks, pastes, and other mediums to create my tree stump. I hope you'll pop by my blog for lots of close ups and a step out of how this was made. There's even a little surprise! 

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I hope the inspiration from our team's creations and the mood board gives you plenty of creative juices to make a project for this challenge . Please hop over to the team blogs to see more photos and get some details on how these projects were made. And don't forget to leave some bloggy love while you're there.

I hope that we have inspired you to celebrate planet Earth with us this month. The winner will receive the honour of being our Feature Artist for an upcoming challenge!

JUST A REMINDER THAT WE DO NOT ALLOW BACKLINKING. PLEASE DO NOT ENTER PROJECTS INTO OUR CHALLENGE THAT WERE POSTED ON YOUR BLOG PRIOR TO TODAY. THANK YOU!

Challenge runs until May 4th - we can't wait to see what you come up with! Happy Crafting from the entire team and thanks for visiting Anything But Cute!

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