It’s that time of year when things start picking up in pace: kids are back in school, it may be warm out but we begin to think about the months ahead & maybe even plan! WELL let’s have a nod to fun color that’s grounded with gold foiling, wood prints & a soft chalkboard look… Oh and you’re never TOO OLD to play with Vicki Boutin’s art crayons & “Creative FX” glaze! I go over the glorious possibilities & simplicity of use with the next (7 minute!!!) video showing at least 6 techniques, with tips & tricks! Did I mention this kit has a FULL SIZE Lawn Fawn ink pad? Well, if 18 pieces of paper: 5 with gold foiling! from Jen Hadfield fun matching stamps & dies from Vicki Boutin Jen Hadfield & Vicki Boutin doesn’t get your attention, I hope that will! By the way, this kit is already limited. I strongly encourage you to consider subscribing to CEP’s box of fun! O.K…. watch the video(s) I’m posting today & leave a comment, don’t forget to like/subscribe! *hugs* Stay Crafty, my friends!
Mixed media
Fun 10 Cards, 1 Kit
Well, I have created one of my favorite 10 cards, 1 kit collections AND I have a ton of goodies leftover! Half of the journaling cards/card starters, a ton of stickers, some pieces of cardstock already cut for other cards & a lot of half sheets & partial 6×6 papers. Not to shabby for a kit that costs $25.99! This is the best collection of cards I think I’ve compiled using various products, techniques & tips/tricks I think I have done since coming back from Family Leave earlier this year. I tried to create different designs than other DT Members that are doing a fabulous job! So, I hope you enjoy this 10 Cards/1 Kit video using the Spring Market line by Carta Bella:
3 Christmas Card Kits!!!
Well, it’s been a long wait for me to have the honor of revealing these kits by Creativeescapepapercrafting.com So, I hope no matter what your budget is, your style, or if you have never made a card before: DIVE IN! You can never compare the store-bought cards with the handmade cards! So, sit back & see which kit is right for you?!? Coordinating items will be posted shortly and are on the website, creativeescapepapercrafting.com & ship with kits for free, or you can get individual items, as well. Yes, ANY Christmas kit qualifies for the “Fall Frenzy”/Christmas Kit combo shipping & a free bottle of Nuvo Drops! Subscriptions now available. 🙂 Note: Every other month subscriptions are how we operate right now. We put a lot of time & effort about thinking about our customers & potential customers. We understand many people subscribe to other card kits and/or watch their bottom line. That is why we are an every other month operation. Thus far, customers have been supportive of this & others quite appreciative.
Quick & Easy Chameleon Pen Demo
Hello everyone! I had the camera rolling to do an unboxing & I realized had NOT done a proper tutorial for the included Chameleon Pen! So, we’re going to change that right now! They are easy to use however, being a new kind of alcohol marker, they are an investment. So, it’s worth a few minutes to know how they work, how to store them properly & how to put the pen together! That way, you can get to the good part: having fun coloring with the pen/pens! They really are nice to just zone out & have fun without the guesswork of shading! If you have other shades of Chameleons, I recommend coloring in circular pattern on an obeject, like a flower. (Going around the image instead of just moving up and down an image.) That way, the shading is more uniform since your coloring depends on how long you fuse. Stay crafty, my friends! ENJOY:
Watercoloring with Nuvo Mousse
(Mixed Media for Her 2) Also male friendly if you ask us!
When we decided to start a blog, we wanted it to be different. To be honest, we didn’t want to push new items constantly without trying our best to use the products in a creative way or technique(s). Crafting is a creative adventure to us, as one can always learn and discover a new craft, technique, and a world of products. In our opinion, this is why card kits are so popular. It’s really easy to move on when you have leftovers from a kit, but if you really love a kit, why not try to use it all? Enter our Nuvo Mousse watercolor technique! A damp finger dobber or make up sponge worked as our brush in this instance and watercolor paper are all you need to create this look with Nuvo mousse! You can use heavy cardstock if you don’t have watercolor paper. However, I opted to use my favorite affordable watercolor paper because I knew I’d be using multiple colors which would mean a bit more water for blending. *Another plus: the mousse allows you to build a bit of texture when you’re blending your color(s)! Win, Win! Stay Crafty, my friends! Thank you so much for your subscriptions & comments! It’s very encouraging! “Ingredients” listed below.
All Nuvo colors from top to bottom on card front: Lemon Sorbet, Indian Gold, Spring Green and Pacific Teal. Products for this card: Canson Watercolor Paper, Nuvo Broad Tip Glue Pen, matte medium, glossy accents, sanding tool from Prima, finger dobber & make up sponge, mini water bottle. Extra blue rhinestones & chipboard piece from LovefromLizi. Nuvo Mousse colors from LovefromLizi: Lemon Sorbet & Spring Green. Indian Gold & Pacific Teal were from Amazon.
Heat Embossed Butterfly Card
Ready to use your stash a bit differently? Try our heat embossed #sprayembossingpowder technique for a refreshing take on heat embossing that allows you to enjoy crafting more, too! We allowed SOME of the granules of embossing powder to stay on the card & melted them on, taking full advantage of the texture and shine of the melted powder. We used 3 butterfly stamps from LovefromLizi but any stamps would work for this. This technique works for larger sentiments with brush lettering or a die cut sentiment because of the building up of a few layers of embossing powders, tiny sentiments may not be as easy to read. It never hurts to try a heat embossing a stamped sentiment on scrap paper using this technique to see how it works for you. You many be surprised! Or, you can simply die cut your sentiment out of specialty paper to add after you’re done with embossing like we did. The effect is fun, easy and unique. This card was in our 10 cards, 1 kit video but we wanted to cover the technique more thoroughly here:
Mixed Media Made Simple
We know many people are intimidated by the thought of Mixed Media but really, it’s crafting with another material besides paper… Some argue that it’s any other type of substrate or material, medium with as little, if any, paper at all. At Platinum Peacock, this argument about how much, if any, paper is allowed creates unnecessary confusion.
What is one to do? We don’t believe in crafting commandments but guidelines, such as odd numbers tend to look best. So, ratios of how much paper is involved doesn’t concern us too terribly much. There are some wonderfully talented mixed media artists out there but never forget that you are in charge of your creative journey. So, experiment a bit with us and see what you like. We have a fun, affordable, easy and fast card idea using mixed media principles. You can add as much detail as you’d like, as you see above in the pictures. The tag is card #10 in the video below:
The No Cardstock Card
Take your Love from Lizi card kit to the next level with this clean & simple design. No cardstock left? No problem. We used the empty box that the March Lizi kit was shipped to us in to cut out a piece of cardboard to use as the card’s base.
We blended 3 colors of Nuvo Mousse to create the watercolor finish on the front of the card. We used a Just for You sentiment from the March Lizi kit. The butterflies were cut using dies from the same kit. For instructions on how to make this unique card check out the video below.
Mixed Media meets Art Deco
An easy, cheap or dare we say FREE and easy way to dive into mixed media is by using newspaper and magazine articles to create a dry decoupage. Dry decoupage? Yes, if you have any type Xyron, it works great with torn and ripped pieces from a magazine and/or paper – using both gives you different colors of paper to apply to your cardstock. However, if you do not have any Xyron machine, you can use a tape runner, scor-tape, etc. We liked the look of the varied colors from the combination of magazine and newspaper, so we did a couple of layers so the background didn’t look flat. Then, we used a geometric stencil, Ranger Texture Paste, and an artist spatula set to smooth out the paste on top of the stencil. A knife or spoon from the kitchen will work – just keep whatever you use out of the kitchen afterwards! 🙂 We added a frame, a bit of silver mirror cardstock, “Happy Birthday” peel offs, a black Sharpie, and Nuvo Drops, all from LovefromLizi (except for the Sharpie). On the inside we use silver peels offs from LovefromLizi to maintain the classic black, white, and silver scheme for anything deco!
We’re beginning to explore mixed media more and thought this was a good staring point as you may have everything needed to achieve this look, or close to it, depending on your personal taste. The stencil can be any shape, of course, we just always try to do at least 1 male card a month. Love from Lizi’s had 300 GSM paper this month, so we did use that & it worked beautifully but you could use watercolor cardstock or anything with heft. Stay tuned this week: Getting more from you inks and everyday materials, Shabby Chic cards for the ladies and another card for the gents! It’s going to jam packed with creative ways to get more out your supplies with beautiful results. We’ll be posting throughout the week on Facebook, twitter, and Instagram. The video below takes you step-by-step with instructions. Stay crafty my friends! P.S. If you’d like to add color and shine to a project like this, check out our Nuvo Mousse video.
Platinum Peacock 