The Studio Challenges - 27 October - Pinterest inspiration

Hello!

Another challenge over at The Studio Challenges today and this time it's a Pinterest challenge - take inspiration from this pin Anne found on Pinterest, whether it's the feathers you like, the colours or masks, up to you!

Well, you will allow me to write a few more words today...

Given that the colours are not my favourite ones, as soon as I saw the photo I thought that my inspiration would be the feathers.

When I have a word or a theme to be inspired from but I'm not sure what I want to do, I look for quotes with this word. This time I found out the quote Birds of same feather flock together. I had never heard that before but I thought at once my craft-friends and the hobby that brought us together.

However, the quote looks like it would just apply to the hobby when we share so much more than that. Through our daily contact via internet (and not only), many, many meaningful friendships have been established. And our group interests are not limited to scrapbooking or card making or crafts in general, but anything we might want to discuss with a friend.

That's the reason why I often say that the biggest gift I've got out from this hobby so far are the people I have met and the friendships I have developed these last few years all around Greece!

So today's layout is dedicated to what I call "craftoparea" or crafty friends:

The photo is from Katerina's birthday, the owner of Scrapbookers in Greece and the lady that have brought many of us together and who loves organising crops! Many of my best friends are not in the picture - indeed, they don't even live in the same city as I do, but we are so many in this photo which I have always wanted to scrap, so I thought it was a great opportunity.

I made the feather banner: cut the feathers out of vellum paper with the help of my brand new Cameo (yoohoooooo!!!!!) and then I started writing the names of the friends with white gel pen:

I glued the feathers on a lace-y ribbon (hhhmmmmmm!!!), glued the ribon on the paper and then added some stitching with my sewing machine to make sure none of the feathers would fly away!

The feathers are so many so that you cannot read some of the names... what can I say, we are many!

And a closer look of the great ladies in the photo:

And here you can see how I combined a wood veneer feather with a "real" feather (I do hope it's not real!!!)

And that's all...

Well, not quite actually. The winner of October's challenges will get a great gift from our sponsor this month, Teresa Collins Stampmaker

Manufactured by Photocentrics who also produces clear stamps

One lucky winner will get one set of stamps (size A6) of their own design. You could make one single sizeA6 stamp or several smaller that fits in that size.

So what are you waiting for? Get out your pretty papers and your scissors and come play along with us!

Hugs,
Anastasia

PS: For those who know me... pearls, dot paper... I even used a bit of lacy! If that's not transcendence, I don't know what is! lol!!!

The Studio Challenges - Monochromatic

Hello!!!

I just came back from a wonderful weekend I spent in beautiful Corfu with amazing company and unique friends that I have met thanks to our hobby... isn't that just great?

Alas, all good things come to an end soon, and here I am back home already. BUT at least I have to share with you a layout I made for the latest The Studio Challenges challenge.

The theme is an easy one - monochromatic! Which means that you can use different shades and hues of a single colour!

Now, bizarrely enough (or not!) I have chosen... pink! (I am even crocheting an afgan in pink colours right now...). So I guess I can officially say that finally I have also fallen for this colour which I was avoiding until recently. And this is actually the theme of my layout as well:

...By the way, I think I have just used all the supplies of the embellies I had in pink colour, so I need to refill them asap!

And a couple of close-up photos:

Yes, this little girl is myself at about four years old...

And this time I managed not to use black colour at all - I have even printed the journaling on vellum using pink font:

Each of the design team members have chosen a different colour... and we also have the creations of the new members as well! So come over at The Studio Challenges to get inspiration over all the rainbow colours (and even more!). There's also a great gift for the lucky October winner sponsored by Teresa Collins Stampmaker

Manufactured by Photocentrics whom also manufactures clear stamps.

One lucky winner will get one set of stamps (size A6) of their own design. You could make one single size A6 stamp or several smaller that fits in that size.

...So we are waiting to see your monochromatic layouts!

Hugs,
Anastasia

Cards... finally!!!

It's been sooo long since the last time I made a card!!! So I just had to go and make four for my card challenge over at Get Creative, lol! (Although I have to admit that I did find it quite difficult... I do need to practice more!)

So it's my turn for a card challenge and I think it is quite simple: use watercolours!

You can use any kind of watercolours you want - from gouache and watercolour pads to distress inks or even the watercolour pencils of your children... Whatever is in hand and is water soluble!

As I said, I made four cards with different watercolour materials:

Distress Markers:

I just insisted in using my Distress Markers that I so rarely use. I watched videos, practiced a lot and finally I have to admit that they are very easy to use (on watercolour paper that is!) and I really, really enjoyed it.


Inktense Watercolour Pencils

Of course I had to use some watercolour pencils, right? So I heat embossed the flowers, added my favourite happy colours and used my water pen to work with them (So you see, I do use flowers every now and then... ;) )



Distress Ink Watercolour Background

Tested, known and favourite technique: just add distress inks on a background stamps, carefully mist it with water and stamp your paper


Neocolor II

Finally I had to use my very favourite watercolour pastels Neocolor II... Amazing quality and colours... Here I used them to colour the mistable arrows and the wood veneers - cloud and rain

So that's it from me... I hope you like them, that you are a bit inspired, at least enough to come and play with us!

The winner of my challenge will get some of my favourite products - a 6x6 paper pad from Crate Paper, a wood veneer package... and of course watercolour - an Ecoline bottle.

And don't forget that one lucky winner of this month will get a great gift from Scraps n Pieces, our sponsor this month!

So come over at Get Creative to celebrate with us this awesome month full of card challenges!

Hugs,
Anastasia