Life is a canvas....

Throw as much paint at it as you can. I thought I'd start with a little motivational therapy on this Monday morning. Well, August has hit town, the Olympic spirit is high and QVC is selling Christmas decorations! Monday also means a new challenge theme over at Simon Says Stamp & Show where we are painting it up...

l'm just slowly getting back into my design work as I discover life with my new daughter, so any crafty time is very precious indeed. My brain is also still pretty frazzled from all the sleepless nights, so when I sat down to work on this weeks challenge, I had no idea what to make at all. Nada, zilch, nuffink!

Know that feeling? Ready to rumble but devoid of inspiration... So I did what I normally do when this happens. I surrounded myself with lots of my favourite crafty goodies and just started playing. I was toying with the idea of creating a masterboard from Kraft cardstock, to then cut into sections, but once I got going I decided to leave the background whole.

I've been doing a bit of dabbling lately with an Art Journal and really enjoy the freedom it brings... So I thought it would be a good idea to explore the same techniques and the fab Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints to create my cards. I started like this... DO REMEMBER TO DRY BETWEEN EACH LAYER. I roughly swiped yellow paint over my base with my Craft Scraper. Then I applied a layer of texture through a dahlia stencil with white gesso, stamped the Mixed Media dots in red paint and then the mini-mum flowers in yummy teal.

I wanted to add a bit more detail and contrast so I went for a bit of stamping in Archival ink... so as to create both thick and thin layers of ink, paint and colour. I grabbed my word and number stamp strips from Stuff to Say and then added some lettering with Alpha Grunge. Don't be too fussy about the stamping. Use the rubber stamps without an acrylic block. Just hold it in your hand, bending the stamp slightly and roll sections of the stamp over the surface for a more random effect.

As the background is quite busy I decided to keep the embellishment simple by using just some wording and die-cut butterflies. I stamped the wording in Saffron Yellow for the first card and Monrach Orange for the second. I didn't use all of the first sentiment... just a section. That way you get a lot more mileage out of your stamps!

The flutter-bys are cut from book pages and thickly coated with gesso for texture. I stitched around the edges before matting the cards up with three bright layers of card. A wrap of trusty parcel string and a bit of distress work and I was done!

And great fun it all was too. So why don't you join in the painty antics and creativity? Just get your favourite crafty goodies out and just start playing around... Who knows where it will lead to? Hop over to the Design Team Blog and take a look at the fab makes from the rest of the team for more inspiration. There's a great $50 spree to be won and the top Three Artists crown too! Well, that's all folks, as Bugs would say. Thanks for calling by... Sarah.

*Claudine Hellmuth COMPLETE LOT 15 STUDIO PAINTS Ranger Paint	*Claudine Hellmuth GESSO Studio Primer Paint Ranger	*Ranger Inkssentials CRAFT SCRAPER Tool Remove Paint Glue Wax ICSR23890	*The Crafter's Workshop MINI MUMS 6 x 6 Template
*Tim Holtz Sizzix Die MINI BUTTERFLIES Movers & Shapers 657209 Alterations	*The Crafter's Workshop MINI DAHLIA 6 x 6 Template	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2012 MIXED MEDIA cms125	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2012 WORDS FOR THOUGHT cms132
*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps STUFF TO SAY CMS110 2011	*Tim Holtz Rubber Stamp ALPHA GRUNGE x3-1221 Stampers Anonymous	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad MONARCH ORANGE AIP31239	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK AIP31468
*Ranger Archival Ink Pad SAFFRON AIP31222	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad MANGANESE BLUE AIP30454

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