Beachtime at Emerald Creek Dares!

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by! When have you last been at a beach? Do you love to be at the seaside as much as I do? If so the actual challenge theme at Emerald Creek Dares is for you - it is all about

The Beach! 

The perfect theme to use long hoarded seaside treasures from strolls along the beach (or use bought ones - from the Emerald Creek online store for example ;) on a little keepsake canvas...

My canvas measures 6'' x 6'' and I have used the following products on it:

Baked Texture Dirty Sand embossing powder

Baked Texture Vintage Beeswax embossing powder

Concha Seashell Stamp

Cerith Seashell Stamp

The Shoreline Shells

Amazonite Gemstones

Anchor Charms

Seahorse Key Charm and Fish Brads

I started with gluing a designer paper sheet onto my canvas using matte DecoArt Decou-Page. I also sealed the paper with thinned Decou-Page, so the crackle medium would work properly.
On some white cardstock I created a Distress Oxide ink background to stamp my shells on.

(as always click on the images for a larger view)

I stamped the shells in black archival stamping ink and then went in with some Distress Stains and a detail brush. 

Using a white gel pen I added highlights to make my shells look more dimensional. 

I scraped white DecoArt media Crackle Paste onto and around the edges of the canvas and let it air dry. 

Next I added Dirty Sand Baked Texture embossing powder in some spots. To do so I smudged some embossing ink across the canvas with my fingertip.

I repeated the step with Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture embossing powder.

Then it was time to play with the lovely  Shoreline Shells, the Amazonite gemstones, the fussy cut sea shell images and the brads and charms.

The seahorse key charm got a make over with DecoArt media Texture Sand Paste and Raw Umber Antiquing Cream (once the Texture Sand Paste had dried).

(before)

(after)

I like to prime metal charms with a thin stippled on coat of matte Decou-Page before I use acrylic paints or paint washes on them. The little anchor was given a rusty look with Quinacridone Gold media fluid acrylic paint, while I went for a wash of Cobalt Turquoise Hue with the seahorse key charm.

Once all the pieces were "aged" the way I wanted them, I glued them in place with more matte Decou-Page glue. The idea-ology word panels were inked with dark brown archival stamping ink and a piece of blending foam around the edges before I glued these in place.

To finish off my canvas I loosely painted a dark edge with Raw Umber fluid acrylic paint around the canvas' edges and also around the word tiles and the shell and charm clusters to fuse them with the background and add some contrast and definition.

I hope to see you enter our challenge at Emerald Creek Dares soon! You can win a

voucher to spend at the Emerald Creek online store and just for entering our dare you get 10% off your next purchase there by using the code given in the challenge post over at the Emerald Creek Dares Blog. How cool is that?! And you will find more amazing inspiration if you check out the previous blog posts over there - my lovely teamies' have created some awesome "Beach" projects for you!

I leave you with some detail shots (if you click on the images you will get a larger view) and with wishing you good luck for the challenge and happy summer holidays!

Hugs and happy summer crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Celebrating the 4th of July/Canada Day at Emerald Creek Dares

Emerald Creek Dares are all about "4th of July" and "Canada Day" celebrations this month. This means bright reds against blue and white, stars and stripes or maple leaves and the Canadian flag's colours red and white on cards and tags or other paper crafts.

I admit I do not relate to any of these holidays - being the Austrian chick on the DT - but I DO know that working with bright colours and striking shapes like stripes and stars can be quite a challenge, because these all ask for strong composition and lay outs to fuse all the elements used on a format.

I struggled with this theme for quite a while and finally decided to tackle card making again. Those who know me, know that card making is something that scares hell out of me...but honestly I didn't have a clue what else to create for this challenge theme...so, please, be gentle with me and my card.

So here's my CAS (well, more simple than clean to be exact...lol) card, done using Chinese New Year, Steel Sapphire, Ultra Puff White, Ultra Thick Chunk Gloss Enamel and Glacier White Emerald Creek embossing powders alongside some washi tape, salty ocean and blue china Distress Inks and Tim Holtz's Alphanumeric Thinlits dies set.

There's not much to show or tell about the how-to. I used Tim Holtz's so-called Wrinkle-Free Distress Technique to create the blue background. Then I dabbed on some embossing ink through a stars stencil and heat embossed the stars with Glacier White embossing powder. The Calico Craft Parts MDF Star Shapes were heat embossed as well and glued in place using Tacky Glue.

To glue the heat embossed die cut letters in place, I used a special glue pen with a fine tip and tweezers. 

I wasn't too happy with the outcome and had several tries that went to the bin. So when my husband asked, when seeing the finished card in the evening, how on Earth I managed to create the shape of the United States with the Distress Inks, I felt a little bit reconciled. lol 

While preparing this post I already think of all the beautiful and well done cards I will be seeing around the internet and being entered to our Dare - and once more I know that I will deeply and sincerely admire all those creative and talented people out there who know how and are able to create truly beautiful cards. Know that I hold you in high esteem! 

And don't forget - by playing along you may well become our $25 voucher winner!!! 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Guy Style at Emerald Creek Dares

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by!
It is time again for me to share my DT project for Emerald Creek Dares and this month's challenge theme is "Guy Style" - which is totally up my street!

When I hear guy or male style, I think about metal, grunge, rusty and industrial style stuff. Perfect for using some of my all time favourite embossing powders from the amazing Emerald Creek range!

I have used Emerald Creek embossing powders Hammered Metal, Burnt Copper Leaves, Ultra Thick Clear Gloss and Doubloon Gold alongside Baked Textures Ancient Amber, Vintage Beeswax and Rocky Road on this tag.

As I knew I was going to give the tag some rough treatments with loads of collaged on and scraped on layers, I decided to use one of the Calico Craft Parts MDF tags as a substrate to work on.
I also took the opportunity to use my newly bought Pete Hughes Circle Mask die from Sizzix alongside some of Seth Apter's fab Spellbinders dies.

Burnt Copper Leaves, Ancient Amber Baked Texture and Hammered Metal were used to heat emboss my first die cuts. I also used a left over die cut that had been heat embossed with Doubloon Gold.

The Hammered Metal "dots" on my tag are actually the cut outs from Pete Hughe's Circle Mask die ;)


Then I rummaged my box with left over die cuts from previous projects and found an old die cut (done with one of Seth Apter's fabulous dies) that I wanted to give more dimension to. So I heat embossed that one with two layers of the Ultra Thick Clear Gloss Enamel.

Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture is perfect to tone in any chipboards like this Tim Holtz paper doll that I wanted to have a more brownish tint instead of the original greyish one.

The MDF tag was covered with an old dictionary page that I toned down with tea dye Distress stain.

Then I scraped on some Fresco Finish Paper Artsy paints using a palette knife.

Black soot Distress Crayon was used to darken the tag's edges.

Rocky Road Baked Texture was added here and there for additional texture and patterns. To do so I dabbed some embossing ink from my dabber onto my craft sheet, picked that up with a palette knife and randomly scraped that across the tag before I sprinkled the embossing powder on.

Some Tim Holtz stencils and black archival stamping ink were used to add additional patterns.

As the background was way too noisy at that stage, I decided to tone everything down with a coat of Titanium white DecoArt media Antiquing cream.

Once the Antiquing Cream had dried, I used a soft damp cloth to wipe it back until I was content with the look of my background.

The heat embossed elements, some word stickers and my paper doll were glued in place using matte Decou-Page. I also added some doodling and shading with a white gel pen and a black aquarellable pencil.

I finished the tag off by stamping on some stitch patterns around the edges and adding a clip on top.

The actual Dare at Emerald Creek Dares is still open and by playing along you get eligible to win a

to spend at the online store! So don't miss the chance and show us your "Guy Style" projects!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx