Creative Expressions Calling Card Challenge

Creative Expressions are looking for 6 crafters to become part of their Design Team and have set a challenge called Calling Card which must be published on the applicants blog giving a step by step description of how it was made. This is my interpretation of the challenge and is designed to be about the things I enjoy doing.

My entry is a 12x12 canvas. On the happiness card I have written all the things that make me happy and represented these on the canvas.

Using stencils of a butterfly and a leafy design I applied moulding paste through the stencils on the bottom rightt hand side of the canvas. When this was dry the canvas was painted randomly in patches of blue, peach, pink, yellow, green and lilac acrylic paint to resemble an artists paint pallet. I then muted the colours by using a wash of watered down white acrylic paint. The leaves of the stencilled moulding were painted green, the flowers yellow and the butterfly in shades of pink.

The purple flowers were cut using various dies, one shaped into a rose, one by pinching the petals with a bead for the centre the third using tubular wire mesh ribbon with a brad to hold it together. I made the leaf using 1mm and 0.6mm gauges of wire.

To represent my love of cooking vials were filled with herbs and spices and together with a dolls house set of scales these were glued to the canvas with glossy accents.

The orange flower was stamped 3 times onto grungepaper. One was left whole, the second and third were cut on the inner rings to create the 3D effect.

The chipboard shape in the top left hand corner was painted with pale blue acrylic chalk paint and using cut and dry foam the edges were smudged with a darker blue. I used scrabble tiles and a chipboard question mark painted with the dark blue and adhered them to the chipboard shape.

The chipboard ME were already an orange but I wanted to tone the colour down and applied the crackle technique by covering with PVA glue slightly watered down, dried with the heat gun, then used a pale peach acrylic paint, dried with the heat gun and the crackles appeared as it dried.

The ATC in the bottom left hand corner was coloured with barn door, broken china, mustard seed and dried marigold distress inks using cut and dry foam and the colours blended together. The stamps are from Creative Expressions Vintage Artist plate and the paint brush was stamped on a piece of card, coloured, cut out and mounted with foam pads.

The Artist's pallet was stamped on white card and cut out. It was smudged with various colours of acrylic paint then small blobs were dropped on and left to dry. The tubes of paint were stamped onto white card and cut out. Each was coloured to match some blobs and then mounted to correspond with the blobs using foam pads.

The easel was made using water colour paper and the "painting" was created by using torn paper, finger daubers and the blue and green ink from the big and juicy Happy Birthday pad to imitate hills and sky. A small circle was cut from the sticky end of a post-it note for a mask to make a sun. Once the sky was complete I used the hole left in the post-it as a mask to colour the sun with yellow. A tree and way marker were stamped using the Foliage big and juicy and the shrubs were done using the edge of the tree stamp. The unique self was stamped over the scene and the easel was cut out and mounted using foam pads and glossy accents for additional hold.


The book shelf is made from lolly sticks, the bookends were the two ends of the lolly sticks glued to two button shapes from my stash. The books were made using templates from a dolls house website.

The key and lock were painted with Eco Friendly black paint then when dry bronze was dabbed on with cut and dry foam to make them more antique looking.

A dressmaker's pattern stamp was stamped onto tissue paper and fixed to the canvas with soft matt gel. The chipboard dressmakers dummy was covered in material and an over skirt of netting was sewn around the waist and finished off with a bow. This was completed by antique charms and buttons. The cross stitched dress was backed with dressmakers iron on interfacing to stiffen it and added to the canvas with pinflair glue.

The number 2, on the right, was added to represent my two beautiful grandchildren - they are my pride and joy.

The three flowers in the top corner were cut using spiral dies and cordinations card which was then sanded to distress it before rolling them into the flower shapes.

Finally I added Tim Holtz corners to complete the canvas.

This was a really enjoyable project which incorporates a lot of different techniques, hence quite a long blog. It is about the things I like to do in my spare time and I had a great deal of fun deciding what to use/make to represent my hobbies.