OCC Challenge "April Showers bring May Flowers"

May has finally arrived and so has the challenge for Our Creative Corner. My Design Team member Shari Trumbull has come up with a wonderful challenge for you this month.

              April Showers bring May Flowers

...Or so the proverb goes.  Spring comes late in my neck of the world, in the mountains of Northern Idaho.  In the month of May (with Summer just weeks away), our Spring flowers are still, usually, under a thin blanket of snow, until those Spring rains wash it all away.

This month, the challenge is to create something, a mixed-media project, a journal page, a scrapbook page, a card or tag...Anything, that reflects the Spring rains and/or Spring flowers in your part of the world.  

Now, I'm not going to nit-pic your choices of Spring flowers, as the growing season here where I live is short and our Spring flowers don't last very long before the blooms of Summer start budding.  So, if you throw in flowers of Summer into your creation, that's OK, too.

Here’s the link to the challenge… http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com/2015/05/april-showers-bring-may-flowers.html

Also we have a wonderful sponsor this month Design by Ryn giving away a great prize. 

  http://designsbyryn.com/index.php/shop1/

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For my project I thought of the Spring flowers and nesting birds in my garden and the sound of the rain drops on the leaves.  

Starting with a watering can, I used gesso and distress spray to soften it and then added some of my favorite colors of papers and a touch of sweet lace.

Of course what's Spring without a nesting birds.

The flowers were created from dies and stamps from Heartfelt Creations and Faber-Castell markers. I then embossed the edges of the petals with both Broken China and Old Paper embossing powder from Ranger. I loved the way the stamped crackle look came with on the finished flower. 

To add the rain drops I took a thin wire and crystals to look as though it's raining from the water-can. 

Thank you for visiting my blog. Come join in on this fun challenge. We'd love to see your creations.

xxx Laurie Moore

Creative Cone Challenge

Hi My Friends, Do you like fun challenges and a chance to win gift certificates! Come join me on Facebook where we do just that! Here's the link to the fun....

Laurie Moore's 2015 Challenges

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/217820275068513/

This month challenge is called  "Creative Cones" 

All you need to do is purchase your paper mache' cone from my Artfire store

 http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/home/MooreArtFromTheHeart

and decorate it in anyway you would like to and add your pictures of it to my Facebook page. All the rules are on the challenge page along with lots of ideas to help you out!

Come see what my Design Team Members have created to give you inspiration. 

Here's the first inspirations to get you going!

And from one of my Designers here's Kimberly Moore lovely creation.

Here's the beautiful and creative cone project from my Designer Laura Bomber. Visit Laura's blog for even more inspiring projects.... http://laurabomber.blogspot.co.uk/

Look at the gorgeous cone my Designer Becky Colvin has created using some hand made flowers to set off this lacy wonder.

http://colvinscreativescraps.blogspot.co.uk/

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Now for our entries .......

#1 entry is from Peggy Gansberg

https://www.facebook.com/thepossibilitiesrendless

#2 entry is from Cathie Cowles

http://daydreamsinpaper.blogspot.com/

#3 entry is from LaCrisha Oliverio

#4 entry is from Becky Long 

#5 entry is from Deborah Gamboa  

And the winner of this months Cone Challenge is........

# 3 entry LaCrisha Oliverio

Congratulation LaCrisha you won the $10.00 gift certificate to my Artfire store.

  Thank you to all the entries this month and all the other challenges. They were all fantastic! 

We will be off for the summer and return with new challenges in September. 

Have a wonderful summer everyone!!

Happy Crafting to All,

Laurie

Please leave your comment below so I know who saw this post.Thanks

Playtime with Grand-kids

I was looking for something fun to do today with my grand-kids and remembered the post from Our Creative Corner where the lovely DT Claudia talked about what to do when you have a creative block. The project she did was just what we were looking for.
My 4 year old Grandson Brahm said he wanted to use fingerpaint and his fingers to create his. Crystal and I decided to follow along in the same process Claudia used.
Pop over to the blog the OCC and see for yourself how inspiring Claudia's idea is.

Thanks for visiting,

xxx Laurie Moore

The 3D Prima Matte Gel is sold in my Artfire store... http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/home/MooreArtFromTheHeart

OCC April Challenge "Color Your World"

I am so excite to be this months challenge host for the OCC. Coming up with the theme for this months challenge came to me while out working in my garden.    

Here in the United States we are coming into spring - the season when nature comes forth with new life.

Soft green grasses grow in the fields and the trees bloom in glorious colors with the promise of fruit.

Tulips and daffodils emerge from the soil after a long winters nap.

The colors of spring, the sights and sounds of nature at this time of the year renews my soul.

In the spring time the colors of nature are different around the world.

For my challenge this month I want you to

Color Your World

For this challenge create a project with the colors of spring time where you live.

Show us what colors renew your soul

Our wonderful sponsor this month is

 Creative Embellishments     

 and they are offering a $25 gift certificate to our randomly drawn winner this month! Also more goodies for the top three winners as well.        

    Thank you Creative Embellishments

I love the warm sunny days that come with Spring. They're always so welcome after many months of cold  and rainy days. So my first thought for the canvas was to add a feeling of sunshine. 

Staring with an 8 x 10 canvas, I added a coat of Gesso and a mask from TCW called Butterflies to add one more layer of texture. Using Distress Sprays from Ranger, the hues of yellow sunshine came alive on the canvas. Now for more colors in my world, greens and splashes of pink.

 Every Spring setting around me this time of year has flowers and this canvas is no exception. The chipboard words tell my story of the peaceful feeling Spring brings to me.

 

Thank you for join me here and I hope you get a chance to come play with us over at

Our Creative Corner
 http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.co.at/

xxx Laurie 

OCC Challenge Junk in Your Trunk

Candice our Challenge Host for March at Our Creative Corner has a challenge for you.

 Create something out of any kind of junk and re-fashion it either into something useful, functional or beautiful for the

  JUNK IN YOUR TRUNK

 challenge this month.

Candice is leaving the challenge open to your interpretation of what constitutes “Junk”

It may mean a set of hideously patterned china that you want to smash up and a make a mosaic...

It may mean reams of patterned paper you have lying around that you turn into a collage masterpiece...

It may mean doing something with skeins of wool that you intended to make a a sweater with...

It may mean doing something with rusty keys, nuts and bolts and random pieces of wire that you pick up off the street...

  You can create whatever you want to, however you want to and with whatever you want to.

The only rules are that your project MUST contain something that you consider Junk that you have reclaimed or recycled.

  Check out the OCC blog for great ideas from all our creative designers. You'll also find the rules to add your project to this challenge and don't forget to check out our fantastic prize sponsor Crafty Individuals

This challenge inspired the gift I put together for my Dad's birthday. I love altering and repurposing items. For my project I pulled out a few junk items to work with, old book papers, cardboard and maybe a little something unexpected, egg shells. 

The metal home decor plate I used as background was a great piece to alter and give to my Dad for his Birthday. He's the little boy in the pictures there with his older brothers. 

I adhered the book paper down with Prima Soft Gel to the metal plate. With inks and sprays it was transformed into a vintage styled background for the embellishments and old picture that was added. 

 The egg shells were used to create a mosaic pattern inside the watch. Then alcohol ink and Distress embossing powder were added along with a metal tag and an antique typewriter key.

Most of the items placed on this layout were inked, embossed, rusted, and painted to give them the feel of a time gone by. This is one of my favorite looks and mediums to work with. 

I finding that I love adding the copper micro beads around in my arrangements. It's like adding the look of dripping metal amount the vintage finds.  

I have a video on my Youtube channel showing my process. Come take a peek and hopeful you will learn a few new techniques or just be inspired to try this project. 

Link to Youtube channel...   youtube.com/user/MooreArtFromTheHeart

Link to challenge ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com junk-in-your-trunk

Products used here can be found in my Artfire store... artfire.com/ext/shop/home/MooreArtFromTheHeart

Thanks for stopping by, 

xxx Laurie Moore

OCC Challenge Tic Tac Toe

Here's a great challenge from Julia, one of my team mates and Designer over at Our Creative Corner.
We would love you to come play along and here's the link..... http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com/2015/02/tic-tac-toe-fun.html
Just a few rules to this challenge.....
 For this challenge please choose one line from the grid shown. This can be a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line but you must select the middle square as one of your choices. What you make is your choice but please ensure that the three items you have chosen are clearly visible on your make. Please state in your post which line you have chosen. Inks, stains, sprays etc can be used as necessary on your project.

For the two bottom corners you see more than one chose in the square, if you choose one of these squares you may use just one item listed there or as many of the items in that square as you would like to use. Just remember to let us know which items you used.

Please check out this month wonderful sponsor 
Tando Creative  http://www.tando-creative.co.uk/catalog/

For my project I choose "Paint, Stamps and Stencils" I've want for some time now to start making Journal covers for a few gifts to give. This cover is of my daughter and sweet grandson. I've recently discovered 3D Gel mediums from Prima and this challenge inspired me to give the transparent gel a try with the stencil and mixing it with paint. I am loving the look of it! A lot of the products I used here can be found in my online Artfire Store with a link below.

  I started with an 8"x10" piece of chipboard that I painted with gesso. I then used strips of paper from the Romance Nouel collections which I adhered down with the 3D gloss gel medium, another great use for this gel. I then began adding my Distress spray stains. Once they were dry then came gesso with one stencil and 3D gel with the other. (these next pictures are from the tutorial I did)

Using light blue paint mixed with 3D gel and my fingers I applied lines of paint around the edges of the strips of paper to bring out the outlines and this also added another layer of texture. I stamped using one of the 3D stamps I carry. I used the set with the dragonfly which was what my grandson was so intently watching on the porch that day. On the Dusty Attic chipboard I added sprays and distress embossing powder. 

Flowers from the Coffee Break collection with distress embossing powder applied on the edges added just the right touches around the black and white photo. Using black paint I covered the word "tender" and place it across the photo. Black gesso around the edges and the project was complete, ready to be bond with paper and a back cover.

I also have a video tutorial on my YouTube channel you can check out Youtube OCC Feb. Challenge

For products used visit http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/home/MooreArtFromTheHeart 

Thanks for coming by and becoming a follower, 
Laurie Moore