Happy New Year to you all ...

From all the DT here at Love 2 Create we wish you all  ...

Here's to all our new crafty endeavours, inky, painting 

and messy adventures in 2018.

New challenge begins on 7th January 2018 - see you then ... 

Thank you for your continued support,

 Love 2 Create DT

x x x

Apologies for the confusion over the winners ...

Thank you for all your kind messages regarding winners for the first 2 challenges and the confusion generated. Yep we had posted Challenge 2 winners  in error and missed off the first challenge winners.  So to clarify the situation here are the winners for Challenges 1 and 2 ...

Challenge 1

Random.org winner

Many congrats Granmargaret. Please email sales@polkadoodles.co.uk, quoting code L2Cwk1a and also stating that you are a winner over on Love 2 Create. This information will help you claim your prize.

Top 3 

(in no particular order)

Andree

Velvet Paw Creations

Lozzy

Challenge 2

Random.org winner

Many congrats Maggie. Please email sales@polkadoodles.co.uk, quoting code L2Cwk1 and also stating that you are a winner over on Love 2 Create. This information will help you claim your prize.
 * * *EDITED TO ADD ... prize now claimed * * *

 

Top 3 

(in no particular order)

 

Helen

Karen

Veana

 

 

All details on winners lists etc have been updated and again apologies for any confusion caused. Winners for challenge #3 will be announced on 14th January 2018.

Many thanks for your continued support,

 

Love 2 Create DT

Welcome our GDT Jacki Daniels ...

Again here at Love 2 Create we are very priviledged to have another guest designer sharing their talent with us and this week it is the wonderful Jacki Daniles. You can check out her blog HERE.

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Jacki Daniels I live in Oldbury West Midlands UK, I’m 49 and
I have been card making for about 10 years now I started after I had an accident at work that made me unable to work and very noise sensitive. I needed a hobby and started off cross stitching which I loved but the finished product could take months to complete and I’m a very impatient person lol. So I brought a magazine about card making and was hooked, I love colouring - my favourite medium is pencils - I‘ve never taken any classes everything I have learned has been from youtube or blogs. I love mixed media work and have dabbled a little and made a few pieces I’m still learning and it’s something I want to do more of.

Here is the fabulous project Jacki has created for Love 2 Create ...

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As my week is coming up to Christmas I decided to make a Christmas canvas.

 

I started with a blank 8x10” canvas and coated with gesso then added a sheet of Christmas paper - from one of the many collections over at Polkadoodles. I tore the edges of the paper so it would blend better when painted and there would be any harsh lines. 

 

Then I  added so texture using some star and snowflake stencils I added some dotty texture as well. Then I added some circles by cutting lengths off the centre piece from some tin foil (you know the cardboard middle bit) I dipped that into the texture paste (homemade) and added it here and there to the canvas.

 

 

I then went all over with a thin coat of gesso to tone everything down I then started to add ink and paint to the canvas (distress stain and oxide inks and starlight acrylic paints). When I was happy(ish) with the inking I decided to move onto my tree (knowing I could go back in and add more colour if I wanted to once it was all in place) So taking sheets from different Christmas collections I printed them off then cout them into sections so I could roll them into straw like tubes.

 

 

This was the basic shape for my tree I just had to adjust the sizes of the straws to get smaller as they went up to the top. Once they were done I needed a base so I hand cut a pot shape from white card then using brown distress and oxide inks I went to town colouring it, once happy I shaped it and glued it to my canvas then added the straws to make the tree.

 

I wasn’t sure what to put at the top of the tree I did think about a star and something but then decided on a bronzey coloured bow and also thought I’d add one the pot as well. I then went back in with my inks and paint to add some dimension to the tree and I also added some die cut snowflakes that I covered with frontage, I also added some to the canvas. I finished off with a sentiment from one of the papers I just cut out and embossed with clear powder then added splats of paint and ink.

 

So there you have my Christmas canvas I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it and I’ll see you soon.

 

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WOWswers what a fabulous project and description and again many thanks to Jacki for joining in with us.

Have a fabulous Christmas everyone and our current challenge is still open until the 31st December, so if you have the time, please do play along with us.

from us all at

Love 2 Create

Welcome our GDT Katrina Brown ...

It's the final day to enter our current "Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes" challenge and you can find all the details HERE.

Now we are again pleased to have another talented crafter joining us as a guest designer, Katrina Brown and you can see all katrina's wonderful projects over on her blog HERE.

Before Katrina shares her project with us, let's learn a little bit more about her ...

Katrina Brown ~ I live in Indiana, USA. 
I have always enjoyed art and crafting. I would always choose collages over reports in school! I couldn’t figure out why anyone would choose to write a long report over doing an art piece! ; ) I enjoy all sorts of paper-crafting, I suppose my favorites currently are journal pages and books. I also dabble in mixed media, faith journaling and 3-D projects in addition to scrapbook layouts and cards. Outside of crafting, I spend my free time with my horses and family.

Now let's thoroughly enjoy Katrinia's wonderful journal page ...

My creation is a layout in my faith journal.  I was inspired by the verse from Exodus in conjunction with this wonderful Winnie image ~ Bearing Gifts!  I'm no literary/religious scholar, but for me this verse is a reminder of how we are all entrusted with talents and I especially liked this for mixed media since it talks about stones, metals, woods, and crafts!

All of this inspired me to cut the trees from a plaid fabric and add gems, sequins, and pieces of gold and silver chains to them.  The trunks of the trees are cut from wood veneer.  

Winnie is Copic colored and I added sparkly glues/gels to the crown.  






Winnie (Bearing Gifts) and the trees (Winnie Winterland Digis) are from Polkadoodles Winnie in Winterland Bundle.  The background paper is from Winnie White Christmas.  

I am so grateful to share with you over at We Love 2 Create and thank the wonderful team for inviting me to participate!

My journal pages are off to:
A Inky Mess:  AG Mixed Media
Classic Design Team:  AG
Crafty Girls Creations: AG
Jo's Craft Shack:  AG

Thanks for dropping by today.  It's always great to have company!  Please feel free to peruse other pages/posts, visit my Pinterest,  or view some videos at my YouTube Channel.

I'm sure you all agree that Katrinia's journal page is stunning and we at Love 2 Create would like to say a huge thank you to Katrina for being a wonderful GDT. Remember if you are interested in becoming a GDT, either email us or alternatively add GDT after adding yor project to our current challenge HERE .

Not long now until the man who bears gifts will vising us all ... are you organised yet?

The Love 2 Create DT.

Awesome tutorial from Gemma!

Happy Sunday everyone and you are all in for a treat as we have a wonderful tutorial from gemma today. Before you whizz down to the tutorial, please remember that you have up to 31st December to enter this months challenge, (Challenge #3) - details HERE - and if you fancy being a GDT for Love 2 Create, add GDT after your name when entering your project.

Now over to Gemma ... 


I have a fun Christmas/winter canvas to share with you all today, I love making this kind of project, it is not too time-consuming and the process is fairly simple to recreate in lots of different sizes and on different bases.

 I printed out a few background sheets from the wonderful Polkadoodles Festive Christmas collection, Keeping in mind that I wanted papers for the sky and ground as well as different patterns on cardstock for the trees. 

Then I tore my sky papers into little squares and glued them to the canvas with a mat gel medium, I covered about two-thirds of the canvas, not worrying about the edges as I had already decided I was adding a painted frame. 

I tore the ground papers into stripes, giving then a curved shape and I glues them to the canvas in the same way.

Before cutting my printed card into triangles and some scrap card into rectangles for my trees, I went around all the edges of the papers that were glued down with my Pitt brush pens and blended the ink with my fingers. This helps to bring everything together and make it feel like one piece. 

After my trees were glued into place, I edged them with the same pens. At this point, I also stamped out and glued my chosen text onto the canvas and edged them as well.

I then took a lovely wintery themed stencil from my stash that reminds me of snow falling and applied texture paste through it onto the canvas. before the paste could dry I sprinkled glitter over the top.

Then I just needed to frame it and I did this by adding brown paint to texture paste, I applied it to the canvas with a palette knife, which gave me the effect of a very rustic bumpy imperfect frame.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial, there is still plenty of time to join in this months challenge. We love seeing what everyone is making.

Gemma

Products from Polkadoodles
Festive Christmas Collection

Challenge 3 - Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Good morning everyone and yep, December is here already so it's time for a new challenge!! A big thank you to everyone who entered last month's challenge. We'll be announcing the winner plus Top 3 for Challenge #2 on 24th December. - Christmas Eve!

In case you missed the post, winners for Challenge #1 can be found HERE on in the tabs above.

The long winter evenings are a great excuse to craft so I hope you're going to join us. Our theme is easy peasy ...

Anything Creative Mixed Media Goes

You don't have to use our products to enter (but we do a happy dance when you do lol) and the challenge will run until 31st December so there's loads of time to play long. Did I mention we've got a fabulous prize from Polkadoodles for our lucky winner too?

Prize: £5 gift voucher for the Polkadoodles store.

We were wondering whether any of the crafters who join in with us would like to be a GDT for one of our challenges in 2018? When you link up to this challenge, just add GDT after your name and we will contact you.

So check out the inspiration from our DT and get crafting to be in with a chance of winning! As you can see our talented teamies have been busy working their mixed media magic for you .....

Terry  Hey there crafters outthere, I have made a card with the Lush stampset from Nikky, I just love butterflies and thought I would make a card with them, colored the background with waterpaint and the background stampset from Nikky, Colored the butterflies with waterpaint too and placed some sentiments from a stampset from Polkadoodles.

Lou: I've decided to play with the Belle Papillion big kahuna kit to create an album from scratch using lots of the papers, embellishments and stamps. I've aged the papers further with my inks and pan pastels. More details can be found on my blog HERE.

Gemma is sharing a little sneak peak of her project because next week she will be showing us all her finished project plus sharing a superb tutorial with everyone.

REMEMBER: We were wondering whether any of the crafters who join in with us would like to be a GDT for one of our challenges in 2018? When you link up to this challenge, just add GDT after your name and we will contact you.

We're all waiting eagerly here at Love 2 Create to see your wonderful projects 

and all you need to do, is link up below:

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Welcome our Guest Designer Julia and winners from Challenge 2!

Now at Love 2 Create challenges we are continually amazed by the talent of the crafters out there and even more blessed to have wonderful guest designers who want to join in with us, and this week we have another talented crafter joining us ... Julia McNeill. Check out Julia's blog HERE to see all her wonderful projects.

Before we see Julia's project, let's learn about her ...


I'm Julia .. I have been crafting for as long as I can remember, I was always making something, having art lessons on the beach on holidays, with my uncle who is an amazing artist. My Nan litrally gave up her spare room as myself and my cousins built a whole village out of cardboard boxes, tolit rolls margarine tubs ... we even stunk the whole house out when we decided to make grass out of Thyme. I did sewing, x-stitch and knitting with my mum so really and I have dabbled in all sorts of crafts and still do. Papercrafting probably took hold about 12 years ago, and has remained a firm favourite, now I mostly colour ( I have a major obsession with colouring products ) & make cards. I do love playing with mixed media and getting covered in ink and paint, and generally just making a mess.

Here is Julia's wonderful project ...



Many thanks Julia for creating such a beautiful project with us and if you would like to be guest designer on Love 2 Create challenges, either drop us an email or leave GDT after your name after entering the challenge.

Now on to the winners from our 1st challenge ... boy oh boy was it a struggle to pick out a Top 3, so here they are ... in no particular order ...

Helen

Karen

Veana

The randomly chosen winner of the fabulous prize from Polkadoodles is ....

Many congrats Maggie. Please email sales@polkadoodles.co.uk, quoting code L2Cwk2 and also stating that you are a winner over on Love 2 Create. This information will help you claim your prize.

Next week another challenge starts, so please pop back to see more inspiration from the DT.

Weclome our Guest Designer Zeljka

Here at Love 2 Create we are very priviledged to have another wonderful guest designer joining us and this week it is Zeljka. You can check out all Zeljka's wonderful projects over on her blog HERE.

Zeljka has created a fabulous project to share with us all but firstly, let's learn a little bit more about this talented crafter ...

Hello!!!
I am Željka (45) and I come from Zagreb,capital city of Croatia (Europa).As a child,my mum told...when we were in big shopping store I always went to paper section...had no interest in doll's ,barbies etc...paper,crayons,glue,scissors,pens...that was my joy...and 4 years ago begins my journey with card making.Love to create all types of cards and special challenge for me are mix media cards or projects.

Here is the project Zeljka has made to share with us all ...

 

 

Even though I am not a mix media tip, I accept the invitation to challenge myself. I love to use stencils,inks etc. so it should not be that hard...I thought...But I struggle !!!I waited for my inks to come,and since they didn't,on time, I was out of mojo and my whole concept of the project was crushed.And then I decided...1.it's going to be tag...I used the Kraft card base and die cut the tag,add stencil and with distress inks I colored the stencil paste and add to the tag and left to dry. I stamped the gorgeous Christmas Poinsettia/Holly on watercolored paper and colored with my ZIG markers.After it's dry I add some shadows with my color pencils.I also used the paper from Belle Papillon Big Kahuna Download bundle and distress the edges .From my stash for some dimension I used silver glitter chipboard snowflakes and one big white snowflake and white lace.I also  add sentiment that I used from Christmas Wreath stamp set.Last touch was adding some Nuvo Jewel drops,that becomes transparent,so you get the feeling of rain drops on the petals and some white splatters  with acrilic paint.


Many thanks Zeljka for creating such a beautiful project and if you would like to be a guest designer on our blog, please enter the latest challenge, putting GDT after your name. You can find all the details and links about the latest challenge HERE.

You still have one more week to enter the latest challenge, so please don't be shy, share all your wonderful projects with us at Love 2 Create.

A Fab Tutorial by Terry

Happy Sunday everyone and boy oh boy do we have a treat for you today ... a stunning tutorial from Terry who uses a digi image to create a mixed media project. Terry's full tutorial is below.

Our monthly "anything mixed media/creative goes" challenge is still running and we'd love it if you could play along. The link to the challenge is HERE.

Now over to Terry ......

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It is my turn, Terry to put a tutorial together for your inspiration and I just loved doing this for you all.

I colored the ULA Image from Polkadoodles, with my copic markers.....I love coloring and this amazing cute girl was a lot of fun to color.

What I did was I cut a piece of paper that I wanted for my background, took different coloured Distress Ink and splashed some water on top to let it flow over the paper. The best way to do that is to hold the paper between 2 fingers and then spray the water. You can rotate the paper so that water goes over it. That way you get a mix of colors on your background.

After the background paper is dry, I have added some color. Also, the brown color along the edges of the paper and a bit of green.

Then of course I wanted to be sure that the background colors would fit with Ula....and I thought she did fit in perfectly.

I thought the background was a bit bland, so I used a stencil to fill the background. The Grit Paste gives the flower a 3D-effect and takes in the color from the Distress inks.

When the Paste was dry I got my waterpen, the fabulous stampset from Polkadoodles, calles Bonfleur and stamped 2 butterflies from the stampset. I colored the butterflies with the Distress Oxide and cut them out of the paper. The background was colored with the Oxides too. This time I used the Distress Inks but you can easliy work with the PanPastels too. They work great on the background and also to color your Digi stamps and Stamps.

Working with the Paste gives the flowers a real 3D effect. Still thought the background was a bit bland so I stamped a few tiny flowers on the paper. I colored the tiny ones with distress too and I was happy with the result. 

A bit upclose so you can see what I mean with the flowers having a 3D effect with the Paste. 

Oke so my background is finished with the fab colors and the stencilled flowers. Now all I need is the colored image from Ula, so I decided to get some doublesided tape on it and placed the image on my background paper.

So what do ya all think, I am pretty happy about it, and if you tell me Mixed Mediums don't mix with digi images, you'r totally wrong eh? All it needed was a few words...I thought Sending Lots of Love would be just perfect....and to finish I have placed the colored butterflies on the flower and on top of the card and my card is finished. 

So there ya go, my project that I wanted to share with you for your inspiration is finished. I sure hope you are going to get your thinking cap on and get those fabulous digi stamps from Nikky, from Polkadoodles...I am sure you are going to love these cuties.....

Thank you all for stopping by and hope I gave you some ideas on what you can make with Mixed Mediums and Digistamps mixed with stamps.

Have Fun.

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A huge thanks Terry and next week, our inspirational post is from another ubber talent crafter, Zeljka Jurkovic-Grizic.

Don't forget you still have time to enter our November monthly challenge and you can find all the details HERE.

Challenge 2 - Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes

Good morning, November is here already so it's time for a new challenge!! A big thank you to everyone who entered last month's challenge, the DT will be voting for their top 3 picks and we'll be announcing the winner and Top 3 on  November 26th. The long winter evenings are a great excuse to craft so I hope you're going to join us. Our theme is easy peasy ...

Anything Creative Mixed Media Goes

You don't have to use our products to enter (but we do a happy dance when you do lol) and the challenge will run until 30th November so there's loads of time to play long. Did I mention we've got a fabulous prize from Polkadoodles for our lucky winner too?


Prize: £5 gift voucher for the Polkadoodles store.


So check out the inspiration from our DT and get crafting to be in with a chance of winning! As you can see our talented teamies have been busy working their mixed media magic for you .....

Claire C I've made a mixed media wallhanging using the beautiful new image called Nature Lover - January which you can find in the Polkadoodles store here. I've printed her onto kraft card and coloured her with pencils. The background was made with PanPastels. Next I stencilled some leaves with iridescent paste and once it was dry added some colour with alcohol markers. You can find all the details on my blog

PanPastel Set Donna Downey

Nature Lover -January

Gemma I have a poster to share with you all today made using printouts from the wonderful Belle Papillon collection from Polkadoodles. I ripped and glued printable background papers onto mixed media strength card with Gesso. Once dry I layered up acrylic and water sprays, before adding some stencilling with Pan Pastels. Then I glued these wonderful large butterflies from another printable into place with a feel-good quote, once dry I added some colour with more Pan Pastel and colouring pencils to blend them in before going around the edges with a black pen.

Lou: Last week I shared a 'top tip' about different media to print on to create your mixed media projects - see HERE - and this week I am sharing with you the project I made using my printed toilet roll and kitchen towel. I have used the Belle Papillion Big Kahuna collection to make a notebook cover. I even dusted off my Bind It All to make the notebook! You can find lots more details and photos over on my blog.

A Sneeky Peeky this time from me (Terry) on the 19th of November I will be sharing a Tutorial on how I made my project....hope to see you there....xxxx

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We don't really do loads of rules here but we do have a couple so please take note:

1. No back links

2. Only 2 entries to make it fair for everyone

3. The main prize must be claimed within 10 days or it will be offered to a random winner from the Top 3 from the same week.

4. You MUST be a follower of this blog to enter.

The challenge will run until 30th November and the winner and top 3 will be announced on Sunday 24th December 2017!!

Add your link below to be in with a chance of being our lucky winner or Top 3 honours.

Good luck everyone!!

Do you fancy a GDT spot at Love 2 Create? 

If so, please put GDT after your name and we'll contact you.

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