Monday, February 16, 2015

Sunshine, Freedom and a little flower

Hi everyone! It is Monday and we have a new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for you, A Piece of Paradise. Lots of options with this fun topic, be inspired by beaches, waves, travelling, tropical colours or anything else you can think of.

I made a mixed media canvas about creating your own little paradise wherever you are. I was inspired by a quote by H.C. Andersen, and used butterflies and flowers since it fit with the quote. The colours of the canvas were inspired by the tropics and the focal piece is a Tim Holtz Found Relatives card.

A 5 x 7 canvas board was coated with gesso. I die cut my own stencil with the Butterfly Frenzy die and Simon Says Stamp new fabulous Masking Paper Label Sheets. I'll be using this masking paper a lot. Place the stencil on the canvas and apply Texture Paste with a palette knife. After the paste dried, I painted the canvas with Distress Paints. The clock was coloured with Patina Ink.

The butterflies, from the Stamper's Anonymous Classics #17 set, were stamped twice on Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art Modeling Film and once on watercolour paper. I watercoloured the latter with Distress Ink and coloured the other two with light shades of brown alcohol ink, to give them an old look. After heating the film with my heat gun, I shaped the wings to give it life. If you are not happy, you can just reheat the film again (just be careful not to burn yourself). It keeps its shape perfectly when cool.

Here you can see the dimension of the wings better. I stapled the butterflies together with the Tiny Attacher. The small butterflies only have one layer of Modeling Film.

The Found Relatives card was distressed with a sanding block and a scratch tool, and inked. It was also softly coloured with Distress Inks to resemble old tinted photographs.

I made the flowers with the Tattered Flower Garland die. First, watercolour paper was coloured with Distresss Ink, by smearing ink on my craft sheet, misting with water and pressing the paper into the ink. I also die cut flowers and leaves from Tim Holtz vellum. The mix of the watercolour paper and the translucent vellum makes for interesting looking flowers. A little bit of Rock Candy Distress Stickles was smeared on the petals. I coloured the brads with Patina Ink.

The background and the photo was stamped with a script alphabet stamp, and I splattered brown paint here and there.

Here you can better see the texture of the butterflies. Almost any die can be turned into a stencil, and it is a great way of getting more out of your dies.

I hope you will join us in our challenge this week! Just like every week, one randomly drawn participant wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp.

Thank you for the visit!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies (affiliate links):






18 comments:

  1. Stunning layers on that butterfly and the colors are so warm and rich. Beautiful!

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  2. Wow! This is amazing! Brilliant choice of colours and textures! Chris

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  3. Gorgeous project Anna-Karin! Those butterflies fluttering about look AMAZING! Such a pretty color palette!

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  4. this is so gorgeous, love how you have used colour and yet created such a soft feel . gorgeous x

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  5. Love this and the butterflies and flowers are just heavenly... have bookmarked this to give it a try. You are such a clever and talented lady <3

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  6. These 3D butterflies are gorgeous! Especislly the biggest one! Amazing card, love everything on it - butterflies, the quote, flowers, colours!

    House cleaners Clapham

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  7. This is an amazing piece! The more I look at it, the more I find. LOVE the layers and colors! Thanks for sharing and inspiring. :-)

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  8. This is amazing, Anna-Karin! the girls are so cute and love all the embellishments around them! Hugs, Sandra

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  9. Oh, my, this is absolutely gorgeous.

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  10. Very neat mixed media canvas, Anna-Karin! I just love the butterfly colors, my goodness, so pretty!!

    *mwah*
    Steph
    Simon Says Stamp!

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  11. This is such an amazing piece! Love the gorgeous flowers and color scheme! :)

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  12. The colors scheme is so beautiful, yellow is a difficult color to use for me! You have created a wonderful piece with this palette! Amazing canvas as always! Barbarayaya

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  13. I love every little detail of this wonderful creation, I can't take my eyes off it.

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  14. As soon as I saw this, I just knew it was yours Anna-Karin and as always, you've created such a wonderful piece of art that is an absolute joy to look at! So much gorgeous detail and such a beautiful colour palette! :)

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  15. What an absolutely gorgeous color combo on this piece! I really loved the aquas with the yellows. And that butterfly is INCREDIBLE! Really lovely work!

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  16. Jaw-droppingly fabulous... LIke Andrea, it's the butterfly which has really captured my heart, but the colours, the textures. Have so loved catching up a bit - the creativity is simply astounding here.
    Alison xx

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Thank you so much for leaving a comment! Happy Crafting!