Summer 2016 #3UP {Hot Picks}

Hello Everyone, Leandra here

So here we are on the final night of #3UP. 
The end always comes around so quickly, which is tinged with sadness. Every time we do a #3UP, the content seems to offer so many ideas with new stamps, colour combinations, techniques and the like. It leaves me itching to try something different, and I hope you too!

Tonight Donna, Chirs and Nikki have pulled out all the stops and given us an awesome array of ideas with Hot Picks Stamps and the popular product of 2016 Distress Crayons. Of course, similar results can be achieved with crayola Slick Stix or Portfolio Oil Pastels (also water soluble) and Gelatos etc.

I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy their ideas!

~Leandra

First up this evening we have a project from Donna Gray.

I'm Donna Gray and I'm thrilled to be here! I adore all things mixed media especially drawing and carving my own stamps, hope you like what I've made.

It was so much fun working with 3 sets of stamps that were pre-chosen for me and getting to mix and match them up....way out of my comfort zone there I think! I coloured all the stamped images with my beloved Neocolors II.

I love this method of smearing crayons on top of Gesso then taking a stencil and a moist baby wipe and removing some of the water soluble crayon through the stencil... makes for a really interesting background don't you think?

A close up of one of my favourite little techniques, covering with glossy accents then allowing to dry, place in freezer for a few minutes, remove and then crack, gives a really good 'broken glass' effect.

To see the full project please visit my blog post HERE.

Places to find Donna.

Blog: Inky and Quirky

Next this evening we have Chris Cresswell

Hi everyone. Chris Cresswell here, aka artmadnana. My love of art journaling, mixed media and bright colours is well suited to tonight's project challenge. I have really enjoyed exploring these different art crayons together with the the fabulous Hot Picks I was given! 

As soon as I saw my Hot Picks selection: I fell in love. I immediately made a decision about my colour theme. Seeing those gorgeous butterflies made me reach for blues and purples; not my usual choices. I also decided that I was going to only use parts of stamps in all three sets. But how to combine them? I love the poppy but it had to fit in with this very definite colour theme! I limited my crayons to: portfolios, Gelatos and Crayola Slick stix, choosing similar colours from each range.

Here, I borrowed an idea from Donna Downey to emboss the poppy head several times across the canvas before 'spraying' several of the Gelatos over the entire surface. Once the Gelatos are dry you simply wipe over the embossed image to make the white flower pop against those sprayed colours. Delicious.

Here is a close up of the poppy on the frame. I mixed different portfolio crayons with water and sprayed onto heavy PA smoothy card to create these. I cut out four and overlapped them to form a larger flower head. I then put Ranger crackle glaze on top and finally sealed them with a sparkly varnish. A few beads were added to complete the effect. I love finding different ways to use these crayons.

To see the full project please visit my blog post HERE.

Places to find Chris

Blog: Loops and Lines

To finish the week we have one final project from Nikki Killinger

Hi, I'm Nikki K, been crafting since around the age of 14, mixed media is my passion, love to create bright bold or grungy, no style is my style!

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this bright vibrant cover for my own Art Journal, it makes me smile each time I open it. The stamps were a pleasure to work with and gave crisp clear images easily.

The stamps and Portfolio crayons worked beautifully together, and toned with the inks I used for creating the background stamping. The colours just pop! The crayons were creamy and easily blendable. 

Each of the stamp sets interact perfectly with each other, I love the steampunk moths and butterflies, and all the fab texture and background stamps. The sentiments are just perfect. A complete favourite in my book.. literally! xx

To see the full project please visit my blog post HERE.

Places to find Nikki

Blog: Crafty Ramblings

Whew! what a week! Our guests have surpassed themselves and everyone has produced stunning work, incredibly inspirational for us all!

Darcy and Leandra would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that took part. It is amazing, actually such a thrill to see so many different styles and approaches. We hope that you have all enjoyed the week as much as we have.

So that brings #3up week to a close.

However I hear that behind the scenes, Leandra has a few surprises planned for next week. We are taking a break for a week from the traditional blog format, but Leandra will be dropping some sneak peeks on the blog, and {TIP} you might like to check that your Periscope app is updated! We might even give facebook live a whirl too.

So keep your eyes peeled for announcements on all social media as well as the blog as we are planning to mix things up a bit. There will be some special 'reveals' when you least expect it.

The next challenge will be Topic #14 and that will begin on Sunday 24th July at 19:00.

~Darcy