Spring Themed Card for the Mixed Media Card Challenge

Today I’m sharing a card that I’m entering into the Mixed Media Card Challenge #9 (closes 25th March). Their theme is ‘Spring’ with the optional extra element ‘Bird’. Here’s my card:

I was especially drawn to the rainbow in the challenge graphic:

Which seemed like a perfect excuse to use the new Happy Scatter ‘See A Rainbow’ stencil. First I sprayed the back of the stencil with some Spray-Mount repositionable adhesive, and placed it onto my card (the front of the card measures approx 15 x 10.5cm), using some washi tape to cover any areas where I didn’t want the ink to accidentally go through:

Then I used pigment inks (Avery Elle Aquamarine and Lemon Grass, and American Crafts Mustard and Grapefruit) with a Tim Holtz Ink Blending Tool (and separate foam pads for each colour), to daub some colour through the rainbow. I started with blue at the bottom, then used green, yellow, and finally pink at the top:

I lifted the stencil off to reveal the rainbow, folded the card, and dripped some Heidi Swapp Seafoam Mist droplets over the rainbow:

While I waited for some mist to dry I glittered up a sun and a flower wood veneer (from the Fresh New World set). First I coated them with a thick layer of Mod-Podge:

I threw on lots of American Crafts ‘Wow’ Lemon Glitter:

And I left it to dry for a couple of hours (it takes a while because of the thickness of the Mod-Podge). Once it was dry I shook off the excess glitter:

Then I finished the card off with a stamped greeting (from Avery Elle ‘Cake & Candles’), a cloud and a flower from the Spring Paper Pieces set, some glitter ribbon, enamel dots, a rhinestone star, and a fabric brad with a bird on:

It’s a colourful and cheerful way to send a greeting in spring!

Have you ever entered the Mixed Media Card Challenge? Why not give it a try – you don’t have to use tons of arty supplies as embellishments and textures count too. See their list of ideas for mixed-media things to include HERE.

I hope you see a real life rainbow today,

Jennifer x

Happy Scatter March Releases!

I’ve been adding a few new items to the Happy Scatter Etsy Shop this morning…

There’s the ‘See A Rainbow’ Stencil:

Which looks so pretty when you sponge through some pigment ink using an ink blending tool:

There’s also a new wood veneer set, called ‘Fresh New World’:

The diamond shape can be turned into a kite by tying some ribbon or twine through the hole at the bottom!

Finally there’s a ‘Picket Fence’ Spring Paper Pieces Set. This is a selection pack of the kinds of paper embellishments I offer, as it includes three 3×4″ die-cut cards, two journaling cards, and ten pieces of ephemera:

You can see I’ve gone with a spring / Easter / gardening / outdoors theme this month – can you tell I’m ready for the ready to get warmer so we can get back outside more often?!

Which item appeals to you? Are you ready for spring now?! I’ll be back tomorrow to share a spring-themed card using these bits and pieces.

Don’t forget to ‘like’ the Happy Scatter Facebook Page if you want sneak peeks of new items!

Bye for now,

Jennifer x

Late Autumn layout using Happy Scatter

Lately I’d been spending so much time designing the new items for my Happy Scatter Etsy shop, and cutting them, cleaning them, packaging them etc, that I hadn’t had any time to play with them myself! Yesterday I finally got to break into my own sets, and made this layout…

Late Autumn:

Is it feeling Autumnal / Fall-like where you are? It’s not very much here yet, but we don’t tend to get a lot of golden leaves near us, and if we do it’s not until later in the year – the photo on this layout was taken on the 30th of November 2013!

I do love it when we eventually get some pretty leaves to crunch through. When me and my sister (that’s her with my kids in the photo) were driving along and spotted this wood with orange-yellow leaves, we went home for our cameras and headed back there for a walk and photo session!  It was the perfect photo to use with the ‘Lots Of Leaves’ die-cut shapes set:

I used the ‘A Lot Of Apples’ stencil on the background. I taped it with washi at the edges to hold it in place, and pressed it down with my finger so it was extra flat on the cardstock. Then I rubbed some Fired Brick Distress Ink through (using a foam blending pad), and I dripped through some Heidi Swapp gold mist droplets to give it some shine:

I like the speckled apples look:

I also used the ‘Which Way Arrows’ Stencil to doodle an arrow in the top right corner of the page, and coloured it in with a Promarker pen (Yellow Y657).

For the ‘Season Of Change’ wood veneer piece, I coloured in the sun with the same Promarker pen, and then added some Crystal Stickles on top:

 

The leaves were all stuck down with my Herma tape runner, it’s removable so I was able to rub away any glue dots which showed through the die-cut shapes:

What do you think? Is it colourful enough?!

Are you looking forward to or already enjoying Autumn?

Have a great day!

Jennifer x