Prima October PPP Challenge

The last couple of days of the month are generally me time to play at some challenges once all my design team projects are done. Among my go-to challenges are the Prima BAP and PPP. Although it's down to the wire again, I did find the time to play along with the PPP this month.

I took the PPP in a whimsical direction this month, playing with the pattern of the Montgofilere paper and a picture of one of my little stars, Brennan.

And here is the lovely inspiration mood board:

Here are some closeups:

Prima Products Used:

Cartographer paper: Montgolfiere

Color Bloom Sprays: Antique Gold, Gold Foil, Lime Wedge, Iris

Chalk Edger: Tin Can

Wire Thread: Lime Green

Winthrop Vine: Topaz (577674)

Le Mia Flowers: White (571511)

Junkyard Findings: Water Taps

Cartographer SIIC

Blue Fern Studios Chipboard:

Twilight Garden Frame

Sail Away

Seeing Stars

Mom - Flying Unicorn November Kit of the Month

Happy Halloween! Are you going out tonight to celebrate? We have three little Skylanders here who can't wait for tonight. Mom and Dad? We're looking forward to the clocks turning back this weekend and the extra hour of sleep it (hopefully) brings.

The Flying Unicorn November Your Passion, Your Art kit contains the beautiful Madeleine collection from Bo Bunny. As soon as I saw this piece of background paper, I knew I needed to use it, and I had been saving this picture of my mom for just the right paper. 

I love the touches of orange in the paper, and built on those by adding some stencilling with Distress Ink.

The kit contains a package of gorgeous white blooms from Prima that are perfect for layering - I used them to make my orange and yellow flowers in the flower cluster (the white vine in the cluster comes from the same package), coloured with the Lindy's mists from the kit. I added a little extra oomph to the chipboard sticker flourishes with Distress Glitter.

These gorgeous little banner pieces and the polaroid frame are both chipboard stickers from Bo Bunny and made quick little embellishments.

I tucked a couple Flying Unicorn Adornment birdcages into the cluster to finish it off.

This kit was a big seller during pre-orders. If you didn't get yours then, be sure to pick one up right away - they will disappear quickly!

Supplies Used:

From the Kit and Add-Ons:

- Bo Bunny Madeleine papers: Tiles, Madeleine, Symmetry, Stripe

- Bo Bunny Madeleine Chipboard Stickers

- Prima Shabby Chic Treasures: Door Locks

- Prima Flowers: 577483, 577667, 577759

- Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays: Bit O' Bubbly, California Poppy Gold

- Flying Unicorn Adornments

From My Stash:

- Hero Arts Stencil: Leaf & Flourish

- Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Rusty Hinge

- Prima Stamp: Checker

- Prima Chalk Edger: Old Road

- Tim Holtz Distress Glitter: Shabby Shutters

- Jute Twine

Flying Unicorn November Kit Reveal

It's here ..Our November Kit of the Month ! Jam Packed with yummy goodies our kit will let you explore your passion and create those perfect memories. So without further adieu Flying Unicorn proudly presents Your Passion, Your Art - November 2014 Kit of the Month

Our main kit is never complete without an off the page project to get you creatively thinking outside the page! This antique white chicken wire heart hangs beautifully in any location, and is easy to decorate. Each heart measures 15.75 x 13.625 inches.

From the beginner to the avid mixed media artist our Mixed Art add on kit will surely please you. Our Mixed Art kit will always come with a canvas and this month we have included 3 -3x3 canvas to create a story or little awesome stocking sufferers. An easel is also included so that your art can be predominately displayed!

Flowers, chipboard, and embellishments oh my! Our Mixed Passion is a collection of everything pretty to add to the Main kit or the add on kits. The colors and embellishments will enhance your Kit of the Month creations or it can stand alone and you can create something magical! So turn the music up order that pizza for the family and lock your self away while you create some art!

Our Small Art Big Passion is all about the love of making cards, tags atc's and anything in between.From Stamps, flowers, paper and embellishments in between the yummy goodies included will enhance any of the kits or stand alone .

We are thrilled to present great tutorials, techniques, videos and Build a Page using our Kit of the Month to help you grow in the passion of your art. So stay tuned there is so much more to come in the next week!

Kits and Add On Kits are limited so do not delay in getting yours!

Mojo Monday at the Flying Unicorn

Every Monday, there is a new Mojo Monday inspiration sketch up on the Flying Unicorn Forums. This week it's my turn to provide you with an inspiration layout based on Alda's fantastic sketch.

The great thing about a sketch is that you can use it as a jumping off point, taking a couple of elements that inspire you, or you can translate it faithfully to your layout. In my case, the light swath under the photo looked like a smear of gesso, and that got me going.

I started by laying down a layer of Prima Heavy Black Gesso, and once that was dry began to lay down rusty, weathered layers on top using Distress Paints topped off with rusting powder.

The rusting powder was a bit dark once it had finished reacting. To give it a more textured, rusty appearance, I sanded over the raised areas, and you can see the gorgeous roughened texture in the photo above. It was almost a pity to cover it up!

The Prima vine from Flying Unicorn's October kit was perfect for a grungy layout, partnered it with Flying Unicorn Adornment flowers.

For a final touch, I splattered Izink on the background. Because I had pretreated the background with clear gesso, the ink sits on top of the paper rather than sinking in.

Everyone is welcome to play along with any of our challenges on the Flying Unicorn Forums, and best of all, you can use whatever you've got in your stash - it does not have to have been purchased from the Flying Unicorn Store (though I would encourage you to stop by and have a look as Alda stocks many overseas paper companies that aren't available elsewhere in North America, as well as the brands you know and love). We look forward to seeing what creative direction this week's Mojo Monday sketch takes you. Remember, there is a $10 gift certificate up for grabs for one randomly selected winner!

The Rules:

01. You have one week to create your project using the sketch as an inspiration (it does not have to be a layout, it can be a card, tag etc).

02. You must post your creation into the Mojo Monday thread in order to be eligible for the $10.00 GC.

03. You may use your project for any other monthly forum challenges except for the 'Anything Goes Challenge'

04. Your project must be posted no later than 8:00pm on 10/19/2014


Supplies used:

Prima Time Traveler's Memories: Falling Roses, Love Affair, 3x4 ATCs
Prima Heavy Gesso: Black
Liquitex Gesso: Clear
Tim Holtz Distress Paints: Antique Bronze, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint, Broken China
Rusting Powder
Prima Providence Vine: Bay (578251)
Flying Unicorn Adornments: Fairy Garden, Buzzing Around
Prima Resins
Izink: Ambre
Prima Vellum Flowers: 577865

UStream Debut - Flying Unicorn - Wednesday, October 22nd

Flying Unicorn has a weekly UStream Show every Wednesday evening at 9pm EDT/6pm PDT, and I'm excited to be debuting this week as one of the Flying Unicorn's UStream Educators! Be sure to join me as I create this colourful layout using the Santoro Gorguss collection and some of my favourite mixed media products.

Starting on Wednesday, and for the following week, all the products I use on my project will be on sale in the Flying Unicorn Store under UStream Specials.

Supplies used:

- Santoro 12x12 paper pack GOR 160101

- Faber-Castell Stamper's Big Brush Pens: White, Cold Grey

- Santoro Gorgus Urban stamp: GOR 907107

- Faber-Castell Aquarelle pencils

- Watercolor paper: Canson XL Cold Press Double Surface

- Liquitex Clear Gesso

- Prima 6x6 Stencil: Stone Wall I

- Prima 12x12 Stencil: Bubbles

- Golden Coarse Pumice Gel (from the October Mixed Art kit)

- Pearl Ex Antique Silver

- 13 Arts Gel Medium

- Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Weathered Wood, Black Soot

- Tim Holtz Ink Blending Tool and Foam

- Be Creative (Sookwang) tape: 5mm

- Prima Vintage Vanity Stamp: Advert 1

- Shimmerz Dazzlerz: Gummy Berry Blue

- Silks: Blue Flame

- Prima 12x12 Resist Canvas: Checkers

- 13 Arts Chalk Mists: Yellow Lemon, Yellow Amber

- May Arts Paper Cord Ribbon: Turquoise

- Petaloo Botanicas: Red and Mini White

- Prima Vellum flowers: 577834

- Prima Shabby Chic Treasures: Tassels (892159)

- Prima flowers: 577766

- Prima Resin

Flying Unicorn Mid-Month Card Challenge

I'm hosting the October mid-month card and tag challenge on the Flying Unicorn Forums. Since this month's challenge is right in the season of Thanksgiving, with Canadian Thanksgiving just behind us, and US Thanksgiving falling a couple weeks after the challenge closes, this month's challenge is to create Thank You cards or tags in autumn colours. Whether it be a card, or a tag to grace a hostess gift, we can all use some thank you cards in our stash.

In the Northern Hemisphere autumn colours are all around us, for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, the colours can be a reminder of the cooling of autumn as you head into your hottest months. Let's see cards in golds, browns, oranges, warm yellows, reds, dark greens - and remember - no big pops of white since it''s after Labour Day!

Here is the card I created for inspiration, using Prima's Time Traveler's Memories collection.

And a little closeup:

Here's a link to the challenge. Just like all our challenges, everyone is welcome to play, and you are welcome to use items from your stash.

Rules

1. Challenge runs October 15th - November 14th, 2014
2. All Standard Challenge Rules apply
3. Your project must be a Thank You card or tag in autumn colours

Here is the RAK that is up for grabs (winner chosen at random):

Supplies

Prima Time Traveler papers: Love Affair
Prima Time Traveler: 3x4 ATC card pack
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads: Rusty Hinge, Tea Dye, Walnut Stain
Prima flowers: Charlotte
Flying Unicorn Adornments: Leaves

Up, Up and Away Canvas *** Blue Fern Studios ***

Hey bloggers! I'm stopping in today to share my third project featured on the Blue Fern Studios blog yesterday, a whimsical 6" x 12" canvas featuring the bottom half of the Olga's Balloon set. The two pieces are designed to be layered together, but I chose to go "off label" in my usage as I wanted to add crazy dimension to my canvas. Never fear, the top piece will find a loving home on another project!

To get the 3D balloon, I traced the shape of the balloon part (the second image in the graphic below) 8 times onto Charlotte's Dream paper (it took 2 sheets) and cut these out, then folded them in half, alternating sides so that 4 pieces have the blue side and 4 pieces have the flowered side showing. I then adhered the negative sides together.

Before I adhered my paper balloon to the chippy I set about altering the lines and the basket. For the lines I painted them with a couple of shades of brown, and touched them up with white gesso once dry.

For the basket, I trimmed a scrap piece of Ombre Dreams paper to the exact size of the basket, and then sprayed it with a gold/brown. I then set about weaving my basket out of wire thread. It was finicky work, and I'll admit I burnt myself several times on my glue gun. I adhered the thread to the left and the bottom and then wove each individual strand, fastening it to the opposite side at the end. It is imperfect, and I love it! A little touch of gesso for aging, and I was ready to adhere my balloon to the chippy.

To add detail to the top of the balloon, I created a net out of gauze coloured with mist, and adhered wire and flowers, as well as a banner from the Dream Cards paper.

To build my background, I started with a piece of Susan's Dream paper trimmed to the size of the canvas then set about creating my landscape by tearing hills from Ginger's Dream.

What would a scene of a hot air balloon be without drifting clouds? To create texture on the Cloudy Skies chippies, I used some snow texture paste.

Blue Fern Studios Products:

Ombre Dreams Papers:

- Susan's Dream

- Ginger's Dream

- Charlotte's Dream x2

- Dream Cards

Chipboard:

- Olga's Balloon

- Cloudy Skies

- The Optimist Word Set

Thank you for stopping by today!