WINNERS - Challenge #4 - Making Magic

Hello Everyone!!

Georgie here, and wow.... seriously you guys... this has been one on the hardest things I've had to do, and I know a lot of teams say this when picking a winner etc, but seriously, it is! The work you've created is just out of this world and I want to say a huge thank you to all have played along in the challenge theme (and a big thank you to my teamies for their superb creations too). I never intended to set an 'easy' challenge and I'm scatterbrained by so many creatively amazing entries. :) Thank you!!

After a lot of going back and forth, here is my winner:

WINNER - 17. Sanderijn de Bruin

This page completely stole my heart! I created the mood board because of my love of these colours and the theme because of what it can represent! Sanderijn's use of texture, layers and colour has completely blown my mind and the play of light with the colour in the background and the sparkles is beyond magical!!! If you can, go and check out her close ups for this scrap-page - I promise you won't be disappointed!!

Congratulations Sanderijn!! Pamellia will be contacting you via email to send you your personalized winner's badge and details about being our Feature Artist for the next challenge.

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And now for my Runner-Up

RUNNER UP - 15. Heather

This trio of ATCs have captured a look of old magic, and the set just look completely breathtaking together. I love how Heather used embossing folders for the background and then added acrylics to get the colour. The little vintage images add that air of old mystery to them, and I also get a Lord Of The Rings vibe from them too. I understand completely why Heather doesn't want to let these go, shame though as I so need them in my life! :) Please go check out the other two ATCs, it's a complete magical pick me up!

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Now on to our DT Favourites

Branka's Favourite - #17 Sanderijn de Bruin

I love this magically beautiful scrapbooking layout with all those shimmery elements against the black background! So many fantastic details and amazing textures creating a brilliant composition! A stunning way to showcase that awesome photo! 

Cec's Favourite - # 24 - Irina R.

I chose this assemblage project because the glass lake as she calls it reminds me of a magic crystal and just draws one right into this piece of art.  I love all the bits and pieces she added to the inside and outside of the frame and the shimmery colours makes it all pop.

Niki's Favourite -#6 Lisa Minckler

When I first saw this canvas I was enthralled with the dark beauty of it and the imagery pulled me in. I really enjoyed reading about the message behind this design and the purple ribbon is something that most people know. The texture in this design and the sentiment tugged at my heart because this subject matter hits close to home. Thank you to Lisa for bringing awareness to such a wonderful cause.

Pamellia's Favourite - #37 Mac Mable

I was completely captivated by Mac's project!! The colours are so rich, the whirlwind of golds and greens seem like they come straight from an enchanted forest and the textures just whisked me away to a magical land!! Mac really captured so many of the wonderful elements from Georgie's mood board, I just love it!

Samra's Favourite - Lisa #35

The Fairy's wand is what stole my heart! I pay attention to little details and you definitely need a wand if you are going to make some magic :) Of course all the texture and gorgeous composition follow along. 

Sara Emily's Favourite - Lisa #35

Lisa really caught my attention with her magical forest, complete with a sprite and her magic wand! I fell in love with the hanging vines, the Skittles and oh MY, the magical sparkle and shimmer!  And she was able to capture all the magic with her camera! Well done!

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Honourable Mentions

18. Yvonne Bijoux      26. pearshapedchris     27. Sandra Crosfield         33. MARCH

      

36. Senna: Phoenix    39. Shilpa    44. Suzz's Stamping Spot    48. Studio Garage Band

      

A huge congratulation everyone! Thank you so much to everyone who played along with us last month and don't forget to grab your badges! You earned them!!

There is still plenty of time to enter Niki's current challenge MIXED MEDIA MAKEOVER! We can't wait to see what you come up with this time!

Hugs to all, from the 'Anything But Cute' Design Team

Challenge #5 - September - Mixed Media Makeover

Hello Everyone!

Niki here and I am your hostess this for this month's challenge here at Anything But Cute. Huge thank you to all the artists that were able to join in with our last challenge! You all make this challenge blog amazing! We see such a wide variety of awesome sauce projects and details! You all rock! Don't forget to check back with us next Saturday when Georgie and the team announce the winners of the Making Magic Challenge. Now on to this month's theme.

Have any of you ever tried a new style or technique that didn't turn out the way you thought it would? Like maybe trying shabby chic when you are more of a grunge style artist and it ended up being a disaster? Or making hand made flowers that fell a bit short of the image you had in your head? I sure have! The rejects are laying around my art room looking sad. :( So I decided to try and turn some of these into designs I am proud of. Don't be embarrassed by the before picture (have you seen mine?) just have fun with this challenge and enjoy the process! Carpe Diem!

MIXED MEDIA MAKEOVER

Pull out an old card, tag, project, masterboard or embellishment that you weren't completely happy with or never completely finished. I want you to recycle it. We all make "mistakes" with our art right? Now's your chance to fix it. Redo it, hide the mistake, make it bigger, make it better, make it more beautiful or rip it apart and use the pieces! Give it a mixed media makeover! For this challenge you will need to include a before picture so we can see what you started with.

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

Niki - Pawsitively Creative Crafts

Before

After

I just had to redo this disappointing canvas and make it over! This was a fun way to make something that I liked. I used so many supplies and found pieces from my stash. Metallics and textures are front and center for my dark chaotic textural fun. Fear No Art means create anything you darn well please and don't fear trying new things because you can always do a makeover!

Branka - Vintage Handmade

Before

After 

As soon as I saw the theme Niki picked for this challenge, I knew that I was going to recycle one of my art journal pages I never liked. I decided to create something completely different from the original page using gesso, a lot of distress stain sprays, Lindy's sprays, Ecolines and acrylic paints. 

Cec - CW Card Creations

Before

After

My before item isn't something I didn't like but instead it is something that would not work for a project I had envisioned some time ago so I abandoned it.  (Note to self: Do not buy wood items from the dollar store if you want the surface to be smooth.)  I took it apart and created a wall hanging with a vintage peacock image and then I added lots of lace, flowers, buttons, beads and sequins along with paints and sprays to showcase her glorious colours.

Georgie - Little Blue Craft Box

Before

COMING SOON

After

Samra - Paper Talk with Samra

Before

After

My message to all crafters is: Never try to save on materials if you want your project to turn out good...I tried to create my dress with ribbon leftovers and it turned out to be a huge mistake. So I used up the leftovers that you see in the before picture and added probably 4 times more ribbon and silk of all kinds to create this wedding dress card...

Sara Emily - sarascloset

Before

After

When I create, I do it off the cuff, and usually make a few "rejects" before I settle on something that makes it to a finished product.  My before shot shows just a few things I pulled out of the recycle bin that weren't quite what I was going for the first time around. I wouldn't say this is a complete makeover, but a simple remodel.  What I've taken away from all this--never throw anything out! Recycle! Please pop over to my blog to see what made the cut, what didn't, and what else I've added to make this card!

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The fantastically talented design team here have come up with some whoppers! That's what I love about this team, such a wide range of talent and passion. 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.

We sure hope to inspire you with our unique challenge. Now it's your turn to head to your craft room and dig through everything you have to see what you can recreate or improve! Here is your chance for a total mixed media makeover!

The winner will receive the honour of being our Guest Designer for an upcoming challenge!

Here at Anything But Cute we just love to see all the seasoned and expert mixed media artists, but we also want to encourage those who are just getting their feet wet. Our design team will always be on the lookout for these exceptional projects and artists. You just never know when we might be giving out something special to a lucky mixed media newcomer. We all have to start somewhere, right?

Challenge runs until October 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!

An InLinkz Link-up

Spotlight Artist - Alison - Drink a Magic Potion

Hello Everyone!

I am really excited to be here today to introduce you to a very special guest, Alison Bomber. I have been following Alison's blog - Words and Pictures, for quite some time now and I am always blown away by the amazing and creative techniques that she uses in each and every project. I have so many of her posts bookmarked, I had to start a new folder just to keep track of them all! I am just so honoured to have her here with us today to teach us just a little of her expertise in the mixed media arts!

Now buckle up because this is going to blow your socks right off!!

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Hello all!  I'm delighted to be here at Anything But Cute.  I was so excited when Pamellia invited me to be a guest, but also a little daunted since the amazing team here produce such outstanding creations.  Pamellia also said that I could make anything I liked - no limits - which is always slightly terrifying... but as soon as I saw the beautiful moodboard for this month's Making Magic theme, I knew that it would be inspiring my project.

So I offer you my mystical magic potion bottles - handed down from white witch to white witch along with the spells for making dreams come true and making time stand still.  (You might want some magic potion of your own to get you through the lengthy post!)

It was very hard to get a decent photograph of these, especially since we've had so much horrible weather here in the UK - with all the shimmer they change in every different light angle - but I hope you'll be able to get the idea as we go along.

I started with some vintage glass bottles.  I managed to get a job lot on Ebay for a good price, working out at just less than £1 a bottle (well, I thought it was good).  

The first task was to give them a couple of coats of gesso so that any media I applied would take on the surface.  (I had a few on the go at once - I like that as it takes the pressure off, and I now have a number of very different looks ready to share soon over at Words and Pictures!).

I then wanted some crackle, so I applied DecoArt Media Crackle Paint in various thicknesses over the bottles.  I got some great cracks and, to be sure they wouldn't start flaking off, I sealed the whole thing with the DecoArt Ultra Matte Varnish before continuing.

I stamped one of my favourite branches and then got busy with some spritzing.  I thought I'd start with a layer of the DecoArt Media Sprays - they give good coverage and are permanent once dry.

After that I gathered some of my Silks Acrylic Glazes - various blues and greens as well as the Emperor Gold - and started applying them over the spritzed crackled bottles.  At some point I also did some glazing with a Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze.

I'm afraid I wasn't paying too much attention... I was just layering up shimmering colours adding depth and shading.

I also used Treasure Gold in Florentine to highlight some of the texture - both the crackle and, of course, the fabulous embossed writing on the sides and reverse of the bottles.

The photo in the moodboard which really captured my heart is the tiny golden droplets of dew on the leaf, so I wanted to try to echo that.  I had the branch stamped, still visible under all the layers, since the Silks are highly translucent, so I thought that might be the key.

I mixed up some of the Emperor Gold Silks paint with DecoArt Liquid Glass in a fine tip applicator bottle and tested out the results on a spare bit of card.  As you can see, there were various mixtures - some with Glossy Accents, some with Wild Honey Distress Reinker, and all sorts.  (If you look closely, you'll see that there was more than one application on the bottles themselves too, but that's the joy of mixed media experimentation.)

I started by following the stamp with the fine tip applicator to create the branches - a happy accident that it echoes the veins on the leaf in the moodboard photo...

And then I added "berries" where each of the flower heads had been, and sometimes several berries all in a cluster.  I'm sure they are also in the recipe for the magic potions!

I'm really happy with the dimension I ended up with, though I wish I'd managed to recapture the most translucent mixture - ah well, maybe next time.

The gold wire continues the look of the vines and branches, swirling up around the necks of the bottles and disappearing inside.

It's the last of my hoard of golden notebook rings, ripped out and preserved from some old reporters' notebooks.  I've only got plain metal and white ones left now...

I added the Remnant Rub-Ons words - can't have a project without words, can I now?

I washed over them with one of the lightest Silks colours so that they would blend into the background.  

A final dusting of Treasure Gold for extra gleam, and we're pretty much done.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how my magic potion bottles came to life.

As you can see, there's plenty of experimenting, trial and error - it's always the great "what if?" for me... but when the sun finally came out to make those berries gleam, I thought it was worth it!

Thank you so much to Pamellia and the team for inviting me along this month.  I had so much fun with these, and thanks to the moodboard I went in lots of new directions I might otherwise never have travelled.

That's the whole fun of a challenge I suppose!  I hope you like them - it's always great to hear what you think - and if they've inspired you, you've still got nine more days to come and play here at Anything But Cute.

Alison xx

Words and Pictures

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HOLY SMACKEROONIES!! I've been scrolling up and down for a coon's age!! These are just amazing aren't they!! Alison has really captured the colours, the textures and the spirit of Georgie's gorgeous mood board! Thank you so much Alison, you are truly an inspiration!! 

I do hope Alison has inspired you to head to your craft room and get messy!! You still have until September 4th at midnight to get your entries in! We can't wait to see what you come up with for our MAKING MAGIC CHALLENGE!

Happy Crafting from the Anything But Cute team :)