Feature Artist - Crazy For Colour - Welcome Jane

Hello Everyone!

Pamellia here and I am so excited to introduce you to our Feature Artist for March. Welcome Jane of Jane's Journal! I have been following Jane's work for quite some time and I always find inspiration in not just her projects, but her posts as well. Every post is filled with the images of nature and her surroundings and the places where she finds her inspiration, it's hard not to be motivated with every visit to her blog. She is crazy talented and we are honoured to have her here with us today!

Jane has put together a gorgeous project for our current challenge Crazy For Colour. I am just blown away by the beautiful vibrant colours, and I think you will be too!! And now, over to you Jane...

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Hello, I'm Jane from Jane's Journal and I am delighted to have been invited by Pamellia as the Feature Artist for the current Crazy for Colour challenge. You will see my spelling of colour, yes that can only mean one thing...I'm English.

I live in Surrey in the UK and I am just about to finish working as a physiotherapist for the NHS after 34 years. It's a long story, the funding for our posts has stopped so I decided it was time to do something very different. Next week is my final week and I have decided to follow a crafting journey instead. Exciting times are ahead.

I have been blogging since 2010 and I have just taken on my very first DT post. I never had the time before. I have been a make and do girl since I could hold a pen and scissors and I adore all things paper crafting, including mixed media.

As well as my paper crafting I am also a silversmith, jewellery maker (note that English spelling again ;0) gardener, keen photographer and occasional cake decorator. Most of my inspiration comes from Mother Nature and my pretty little garden. I am lucky enough to have a garden studio where I can create outside in the warmer months.

For inspiration for this Crazy For Colour challenge I just looked around at all the lovely spring colours exploding around me. I needed a gift money wallet for some Easter cash so I reached for my brightest Distress Inks to come up with this

Yes put those sunglasses on! Below is how my money wallet started out. After blending the inks I added extra colours through 3  of my favourite Tim Holtz stencils.

I also embossed, stamped and fussy cut out a Visible Image butterfly which I coloured with glitter pens for some extra sparkle.

I also added some gold Treasure Gold to the CL die cut leaves for a total bling effect.

Please pop over to my blog here to see the inside of my money wallet and also the gorgeous spring flowers which inspired my post today. A very warm welcome awaits you there.

Thanks again Pamellia for inviting me here today and I really hope that I may have inspired some more readers to join in with this great colour challenge.

Crafty hugs, Jane

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I'm drooling!! What a gorgeous project! All those beautiful colours make me so excited about the upcoming spring and summer seasons! Such a great project idea and Jane has really captured the essence of our challenge theme! Thank you so much Jane for all your work, you have made a stunning spring creation!

I hope that seeing Jane's wonderful spring wallet creation will inspire you to join us for our current challenge..."CRAZY FOR COLOUR!

You have until the 4th of April to play - and you'll find all the challenge details as well as lots of inspiration from the brilliant Anything But Cute design team by clicking on the challenge link.

Happy Crafting!
Pamellia :)

Winners - Challenge #10 - Grungy Love

Hello, it's Sara Emily here, and I've got to do  the most difficult task of being hostess for last month's challenge--pick a winner and runner-up!  Thank you for all your AMAZING grungy entries; I'm amazed at how many fabulous grungy love projects we received!  In my heart you ALL are winners, but I'm limited to choosing just one --so without further ado, here is the winner!

WINNER - # 33 Nikki Acton

Nikki created so many grungy layers on her canvas with incredible textures and gorgeous grungy metallic colors! This artwork is like four different projects in one, and has provided me with enough inspiration to last me a year! Wow!  You've got to visit her blog to see all her amazing techniques!

Congratulations Nikki!  Pamellia will be in touch by email to send you a personalized winner's badge and to provide details about being our Guest Designer for the next challenge.

And now for the Runner(s) Up!  I couldn't possibly pick just one!

RUNNER-UP - # 21 Aisha

Aisha added so many artfully arranged embellishments to her grungy heart, but my favorites are that little caged fairy popping out at the center of it all and the fairy dangling at the bottom (not shown in photo).  Beautiful colors, too! I could sit and stare at this for hours, and this is one I'd like to hold in my hands to get a real good look-see!

RUNNER-UP - # 36 Mayoori

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I adore Mayoori's crusty lock, key, and chain on her altered bottle, but the entire project is just beautifully grungy!  I also loved that she included a step by step of her work--I'm a curious crafter, and it helps me to appreciate her work that much more!

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Now let's have a look at our DT favourites:




Anne's Favourite - #59 Joi@RR

To be honest, I had about 4 favourites but I just love how Joi put this canvas together, the black heart the chainsaw chain surrounding it, the gorgeous colours, the texture, it just screams grungy love!

Branka's Favourite - #2 Tracy Evans

Gorgeous aged frame with awesome industrial elements. The colours and distressing on the frame are simply fabulous with those amazing splashes of red. A stunning piece of art so cleverly put together.

Cec's Favourite - #8 Boozybear

There were two parts to this tag that struck my fancy.  The background has some wonderful texture and colour to make it grungy on its own.  Then add to that the fabulous steampunk heart that started life as a piece of styrofoam from the dollar store and was transformed into a grungy work of art.

Niki's Favourite -#53 Merethe Arstein

What I really like about this altered egg is the love behind it. Merethe made this for her son and every element that she added represents a memory or something that her son likes. I can only imagine the time and love that went into this grungy egg and it will remain a treasure for her son for years to come. That's grungy love!

Pamellia's Favourites:
#25. Anna

I am so in love with Anna's creativity on this canvas. The way she carries the pattern around the edges of the canvas is amazing. You should pop in and see her close up shots, so the detail of her project can be truly seen!

45. Elli

I was just captivated by this drop dead gorgeous piece! The brilliant colours mixed with soft flowers and filigree butterflies just grabbed me and pulled me right in! Shabby goodness at it mixed media finest!! LOVE IT!

Samra's Favourite - #27 Elena Vinogradova

Stunning work of art with details that are special and meaningful to the recipient, just like certain details and charms that I added on my Grungy Love card :) I am so glad that I stumbled upon this creation while browsing the web, it simply stole my heart!

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Outstanding Technique

To me, outstanding technique has more than one meaning. Sometimes it's trying something new and getting an incredible result, sometimes it's perfecting an old technique to make it new and exciting, and sometimes it's mastering a style that is considered difficult to others.

A style that I find super hard to do with any degree of success is One Layer/CAS Mixed Media Cards. It's a tough one to pull off, and this month we had not just one, but three absolutely gorgeous entries that were crisp, clean, simple and grungy - all at the same time! To these ladies, I say...YOU HAVE OUTSTANDING TECHNIQUE!

#3 - Suzz                             #4 - Loll                              #16 - Ksenija

    

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Honourable Mentions:

I think this may have been the toughest Honourable Mention board to date. There were so many outstanding projects last month, and we truly loved each and every project in the end! In the order of entry, our Honourable Mentions are...

6. Kerstin                  11. Jane R.                18. Lula                     19. Lozzy

      

34. IrinaR                 44. Autumn               52. Suzz               54. Elizabeth 

      

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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's still lots of time to enter Branka's current challenge Crazy For Colour! We can't wait to see what you come up with this time!

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

Challenge #11 - Crazy For Colour

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to a new challenge here at Anything But Cute! Branka here and I am your hostess for this month's challenge. First of all, I would like to thank everyone who participated in Sara Emily's 'Grungy Love' challenge last month with all their amazing and very grungy Valentine's projects! Don't forget to check back with us next Saturday when Sara Emily and the team announce the winners of the 'Grungy Love' challenge. Now on to this month's theme.

Spring is coming! A time of the year that brings amazingly beautiful vibrant colours! This is what inspired me to choose the theme for this challenge...

CRAZY FOR COLOUR

To celebrate the springtime, we would like you to create a mixed media project using vibrant colours! It can be a tag, a card, an art journal page or anything else! Just be sure it's vibrant! It's time to go 'crazy' with colours!

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


Anne - Redanne

I absolutely love the faux crackled glass technique I thought I would experiment with some really vibrant colours and give a 'facelift' to this oil diffuser set.

Branka - Vintage Handmade

A lots of acrylic paints (mostly fluorescent), Dylusions inks and acrylic inks have been used in creating this vibrant art journal page. I also used my hand dyed wool, a medical gauze, a piece of dyed burlap and some buttons. 

Cec - CW Card Creations

This Pot of Posies art journal page was made with lots of inks and stencils for the background.  The posies and butterfly utilize some watercolour techniques while the pot came from a painted page.

Niki - Pawsitively Creative Crafts

Going through my art supplies made me realize I do not have really Vibrant colors so I used what I had and enjoyed the end result. All of these colors put together really pop! Both butterflies are 3D! Embossing powder, alcohol ink, and Colour Arte paste took me "off the beaten path" with this tag. Hugz and Carpe Diem!

Pamellia - My Little Craft Things

I just love Branka's "Crazy for Colour" theme, it gave me a chance to just let loose and start spritzing those ink sprays every which way!! Lots of handmade embellishments, paints and texture products put together to create my Rainbow Sherbet Canvas!

Samra - Paper Talk with Samra

To create this card, I used neon paint that I got in Spirit Halloween store last year; some texture paste added through geometric stencil; hand made flowers and a few rhinestones. I hope this inspires you to create something bright and happy for this challenge. :)

Sara Emily - sarascloset

I had to dig deep to find my bright colors, but I finally put to use my Dylusions sprays, my long forgotten LuminArte Silks, Distress paint, transparent texture paste, some yard-sale-find fluorescent embossing powder and even a little bling to make my little canvas .

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Truly inspirational and stunningly vibrant works by my talented teamies! Wow, ladies, what a treat for the eyes! 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 get out your vibrant colours and create some wonderful projects for our challenge!

The winner will receive the honour of being our Feature Artist 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 April 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 - Samra - Handmade Flowers

Hello dear "Anything But Cute" readers!

Samra here, and thrilled to show you how I make the flowers for my projects. Mind you, this is nothing new, but it is the presentation of how I create flowers. So, there will be tons of pictures, everything is very self explanatory and as you will see, I don't have any fancy tools, just what I can find in my kitchen or crafting supplies that helps with the process.

Now, I'll show you how I make flowers with pearl stamens. (Prepping of the petals is the same as it is for the roses)

Very important thing is that you add glue on the bottom to ensure that flower does not come apart. And here are a few pics for the smaller flower version:

Now onto the wrapping tissue paper flowers: the only difference in making this type of flowers as oppose to paper/card stock flowers that you have to take several die cuts of the same size and glue them together to the stamen before going to the next size cutouts.

Well, that is it from me...I hope you found some useful tips and that you enjoyed this picture show :) There is still plenty of time to join in on our current challenge Grungy Love hosted by Sara Emily.

Thank you for stopping by...
Samra