WINNERS - Challenge #14 - The Birds and the Bees

Hello all of you lovelies! Niki here. I sure hope you all are having a wonderful summer full of family time, good food and crafty time. As the summer months get into full swing it is easy to forget to put aside some time for yourself, I know that is the case for me. I want to thank every one that was able to find some time to get into their art rooms and enter our last challenge. The scope of entries was vast and it made it difficult to choose a winner. After much deliberation and thought my winner of  The Birds and The Bee's challenge is:

WINNER - #7 Suzanne C

I chose this fantabulous and quirky design because it is full of wonderful mixed media techniques and leftovers. Suzz used scraps from previous projects and ended up with this stunning creation. The use of inks and textures, not to mention the awesome sauce face, left me smiling. Bravo!

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

RUNNER-UP - #6 Felix the Crafty Cat

I have to applaud the use of pistachio shells for the wowzers texture on this shrine that Angela created. The eyeball at the top of the shrine is genius and so fun. I really enjoy how the bee is the center of the design and all of the texture in the middle pulls the viewers eye to the bee. Fantabulous!

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




Anne's Favourite - #6 - Angela

I absolutely love Angela's wonderful bee shrine, it has a real steampunk feel and I love that she created texture by using pistachio nut shells and other random found objects!

Autumn's Favourite - #25 Maja Rijkers

I was smitten by the artistic quality of Maja's journal page.  I love the layers and detail in her beautiful background and how beautifully the focal images blend with it.

Branka's Favourite - #4 boozybear

I am in love with this brilliantly created layout! So many amazing elements and fantastic layering! Beautiful stencilling work, great stamping and a super cool messy design which I love!

Lisa's Favourite - #26 Kim

I absolutely love the amazing texture Kim has created on her canvas!! The colors are so soft and beautiful!! The paperclay flowers look amazing!! The bird's nest pops so beautifully!! Stunning!!

Sara Emily's Favourite - #17 Isle of Crafty Creations

I just fell in love with the rusted and metallic effects on Jane's wall hanging! Her attention to detail on this is fantastic, from the stencil work in the background to the gilding waxes that gave this a real metal look. To think this is air dry clay and MDF just blows my mind!  And she tops it off with a wonderful quote--just perfect for Niki's Birds and the Bees challenge!

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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 is still plenty of time to enter Anne's current challenge Summer Time Fun! We can't wait to see what you come up with this time!

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

Challenge #15 - Summertime Fun!

Hello Everyone!

Anne here and I am your hostess this for this month's challenge here at Anything But Cute. Thanks to all those who joined us last month, we truly did have some fabulous entries! Don't forget to check back with us next Tuesday when Niki and the team announce the winners of the Birds and the Bees challenge. Now on to this month's theme.

Here in the UK we don't usually get great summers, but we love to flock to the seaside, come rain or shine.  Many of us head off to beautiful foreign places to soak up the sun and local culture, while others prefer a stay-cation, enjoying the garden or exploring our own beautiful countries.  I love hearing about and seeing photos of holidays that family and friends have taken and that is what inspired me to choose the theme this month.  So, bring on the ...

SUMMERTIME FUN

What does Summertime fun mean to you?  Spending time by the seaside, foreign travel, camping in the great outdoors or simply enjoying time in the garden?  Create a MIXED MEDIA project focusing on how you like to spend your Summertime.  Don't forget to tell us how your project relates to our theme.

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

Anne - Redanne

Those who know me, know how much I love the seaside and anything to do with the sea. My dream has always been to own a beach hut by the sea and since part of every holiday includes visiting and photographing beach huts, it seemed natural to create my ideal beach scene....

Autumn - Sew Paper Paint

Branka - Vintage Handmade

I enjoy riding my bicycle during the Summertime and it makes me feel so free.  I created this messy and bright jumbo tag using my fluo acrylic paints to express  how much fun I have during my Summertime.

Lisa - A Mermaid's Crafts

My most favorite thing about the summer is time spent at the beach (must be the mermaid in me ;) I used just about every medium in my craft room to create this ocean-side canvas: texture paste, crackle glaze, grunge paste, texture sand, glass beads, heavy gesso, sprays, paint and even real sand. The sentiment says it all for me...life is better at the beach!!

Pamellia - My Little Craft Things

I think my favourite thing about summertime is how beautiful the world is. All the blue skies and water with colourful flowers and fresh green foliage. I love it! And you can forget the beautiful creatures too! For my tutorial part of this summery card, I have put together a video. Enjoy!

Sara Emily - sarascloset

I made an art journal page to depict my Summertime Fun. I used gesso, sprays, paint, crackle mediums, and few other mixed media products to bring to life a warm summer day at my favorite summer vacation destination.  It's more than a place--it's an experience! I hope you'll enjoy a walk through a West Virginia meadow and then sit a spell on porch with me at my blog.

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My teammates have certainly risen to the challenge with their stunning Summertime projects, don't you think? 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 create a mixed media project showing us how you love to spend your Summertime!

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 August 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 - Lisa - Brushos Techniques

Hello, everyone!! I hope you are having a wonderful week!! I'm going to share some techniques with you today using Brushos, a highly pigmented, incredibly versatile water color powder. Brushos can be used on paper, canvas and even wood and are completely non-toxic and non-hazardous. The results are never the same and can be vibrantly unpredictable...in a good way :)

To start, I punched holes in the bottles so I can easily sprinkle the powder without opening the jars each time. I used a Tim Holtz pick tool to punch the holes.

Technique #1) Brushos on Wet Paper

To get started, spritz paper with water. I used Strathmore Watercolor paper for all of these techniques.

Sprinkle as many colors of Brushos as you desire onto the paper. They react instantly with the water.

You can keep adding water and Brushos until your happy with the result.

Technique #2) Brushos on Dry Paper

Sprinkle Brushos directly onto paper.

Spritz with water and watch the colors blend!! You can either let it dry like this or...

...dab with a paper towel or baby wipe for softer, muted colors.

Technique #3) Fireworks Effect

This one I discovered completely by accident :) Spritz paper with water. Open the lid of one of the  jars and pinch a small amount of Brushos with your fingers.

Drop onto the wet paper. I love how the edges fan out, giving a beautiful exploding fireworks effect.

Technique #4) Starch on Dry Paper

For the next couple of techniques, we're going to use starch. I chose this brand with a lovely scent of mountain lavender...pretty colors, pretty smell :)

Sprinkle Brushos on dry paper and then spritz with starch.

Continue to add more Brushos and more starch to intensify the color.

Move the starch around to blend the colors.

You can pat some of the color with a paper towel or baby wipe for a nice ombre look.

Technique #5) Starch With Cling Wrap

Sprinkle Brushos on paper and the spritz with starch.

Keep adding Brushos and starch and move the starch around until you get a nice blend.

Crumple a piece of cling wrap larger than your paper and then unfold it. Pat it onto the wet starch. Let dry completely before you remove the wrap.

Once it dries, you get a nice depth of colors.

Here's another example of this technique with different colors.

And the finished result.

Technique #6) Sea Salt

You can get beautiful color and texture using sea salt.

I love this one...it looks like blue marble.

You never know what you're going to get...I love the color and texture of this one.

And one more using rainbow colors.

Technique #7) Embossing

For this one, I inked a Wendy Vecchi stamp with Versamark, then heat embossed it. I used clear embossing powder since I wanted the white paper to show through.

After embossing, sprinkle Brushos onto paper and spritz with water. You can see the circle pattern showing through. You can see it better in the next picture...

Technique #8) Bleach

To add more depth, stamp an image onto the paper (please ignore the face on my acrylic block...that happened the first time I used the Stampendous Beauty Face stamp :)

Fill a waterbrush with bleach. Paint inside the petals...the bleach will remove the color.

Here's another example using a flower stamp.

The bleach works on both lighter and darker colors.

And one more using a checkered floor stamp.

Technique #9) Using Stencils

There are several ways to use Brushos with stencils. For this one, I sprinkled Brushos onto my craft mat and then spritzed with water. Dip paintbrush into mixture (you don't want it too wet or it will bleed beneath the mask) and brush over stencil.

A pretty blue butterfly :)

Technique #10) Brushos, Stencils and Texture Paste

Cover stencil with texture past and then sprinkle Brushos over the top while the stencil is still in place.

Spritz with water and then remove stencil. I didn't show this step, but you can then turn the stencil over on another piece of watercolor paper for a beautiful background.

Technique #11 ) Coloring Texture Paste with Brushos

Combine Brushos with texture paste and stir with pallet knife until completely blended.

Spread blended mix over stencil. The color options are unlimited...you can make your own custom color of texture or crackle paste.

These are just a few techniques I've learned. I would love to hear about some of your techniques using Brushos in the comment section below. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Don't forget to join in our current challenge hosted by Niki, The Birds and The Bees. You have until July 4th to link up. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Lisa