Love to Create Challenge Blog...sponsored by Polkadoodles

Sunday, 17 January 2016

Challenge 2 ...Anything Goes Crafting with Mixed Media at We Love 2 Create Pan Pastels challenge

Good morning crafty friends and a big thank you to everyone who entered our last challenge, we'll be announcing the lucky winner and Top 3 next Sunday but today we've got a new challenge for you.

You don't have to use PanPastels to play along and our lucky winner will receive some fabulous crafty goodies from the lovely people at Premium Craft Brands

As always we like to keep the challenge easy and simple for you all so you can all enter so it is

Anything Goes

and you have until Sun 31st Jan to enter, just add your entry to Mr Linky - please follow the challenge rules at the top of the page.

So let's see what inspiration we have for you this week...

Nikky....Today I'm sharing a make I made a while back - now I'd love to say I finished this but the truth is it is still in this same, original state! ie about 15% done! To explain, this is one of my colouring pages from the Colour Therapy 1 Collection. I sent this off to a specialist printer online and had it printed off as a GIFREAKINGANTIC A1 poster (this only cost me about £13 which I thought was a bargain)...

AND then I decided to colour it in with my Pan Pastels. I LOVE the result! The paper is heavy but quite shiny and smooth because it's a poster print - I was a little worried the pastel would just dust right off but it seems to love this paper - so vibrant!

I used my Sofftt Tools to colour this - they're just the right size to get in the details with it being a large piece, and enabled me to get some lovely smooth swishes of colour down nicely...to give you some perspective on the size those leaves are about 5 or 6 inches long and the flowers are about 3 or 4 inches wide LOL...

I'd love to say that there was a whole lot of artisticness gone into this but I must confess I just let the paper and the pastel do the work here really... What I really adore about pastels is the ability they just seem to have to mix themselves which makes really unique colours...I'm so lazy I dont really worry about colour contamination because you actually CANT contaminate the pans anyway, so I just work away with one or two tools and just let it happen. It seems to give a real depth to your colour when you work this way.

This poster is so huge I really want it to go on my Living Room wall but I do need to find time to work on it some more yet. If I had space I'd mount it on the wall and have it as a WIP and work on it every time I passed but that is never gonna happen in this shoebox of a house!

* * * * * * * * * *

Katie here with a colourful journal page to share. I started off by applying bands of Magenta, Turquoise and red across the page. I then blended them in and added a bit of yellow over the red to create a sunset effect.

I stamped over the page with texture stamps and the new Papermania Geometric set and then sealed the page off with gel medium.

I love how the colours have melted together.

Products and links:

PanPastel - Sofft Tools Kit

Diarylide Yellow PanPastel

Magenta pan pastel

Perm Red Pan Pastel

Phtalo Blue Pan Pastel

Permanent Red Tint Pan Pastel

So we'll be back next week with more inspiration for you - so just add your entry to Mr Linky below!

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Sunday, 10 January 2016

Challenge 27 inspiration and winners announcement!!

Good morning crafty friends! Winter seems to be arriving here in the UK so its perfect weather to keep warm in your craft room and play along with our

Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

challenge, you can link up your project here

You don't have to use PanPastels to play along and our lucky winner will receive some fabulous crafty goodies from the lovely people at Premium Craft Brands

Before we check out the inspiration from our talented DT its time to announce the winners from Challenge 26! A big thank you to everyone who entered, we had some really beautiful entries! There can only be one winner though and Random.org has picked out

12. April W

Woo hoo!! Congratulations hun, please email us (details in sidebar) quoting your winners code which is PPWK026001 and your snail mail details and we'll get your prize in the post to you asap!

Top 3 honours this time go to

2. Julie Lavalette

9. Jane's Journal

18. Kezzy

Congratulations ladies, your project were amazing! Don't forget to pick up your Top 3 badges for your blogs!

Now let's see what the DT have been busy with this week

Yvonne - Today I have a piece which is very different from my normal style. I started out with an idea but wasn't sure where it would take me - great fun!! I started by stamping lots of different stamps in different colours before covering with different colours of panpastels. I then used embossing powder and versamark to stamp two large open flowers. I then erased the Panpastels from the inside of these flowers, highlighted around the outside edge and then finished the outer edges of the flowers differently. My reason for making the background this way was because I wanted the stamping to show through the petals of the flowers.

The first flower I edged in black Wink of Stella and dotted with a white pen, I then coloured the inside of the flower.

The second flower I just edged with the white pen to give a different look.

The word "Original" is a Tim Holtz rub on which I think finishes the piece off well.

There are step by step photos over on my blog if you'd like to take a peep at the process I used.

Claire C I've used my PanPastels with my Twinkling H2O paints to create this project, I've blended my pans to create the background on a canvas board and then on a Stampbord panel that I made using an assortment of smaller stampbord pieces and added some detail with the H2Os. I love the contrast between the velvety matte finish of the Pans with the shimmer of the paints

Bright Yellow Green Pan Pastel	Bright Yellow Green Shade	PanPastel Turquoise Shade	Turquoise Pan Pastel	PanPastel - Sofft Tools Kit
Stampbord Assorted sizes

We'll be back next week with another fun challenge so don't forget to pop back!

Click HERE or scroll down to add your link to this weeks' project

Sunday, 3 January 2016

Challenge 27 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Good morning crafty friends and welcome to a brand new challenge here at We Love 2 Create!! We'd all like to say

Happy New Year

to you all and a big thank you for supporting our challenge, we've got lots of exciting plans for 2016 so there's loads more good stuff to come!! We'd also like to say a big thank you to everyone who entered our last challenge, we'll be announcing the winners next week along with Top 3 honours so make sure you pop back!!

We're keeping it nice and easy for you as always and our theme is ...

Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes

You don't have to use our products to play along but of course we love it when you do! As always we've got some lovely crafty goodies up for grabs for our lucky winner thanks to our generous sponsors Premium Craft Brands so don't miss out on your chance to win!!

As always our very talented DT have been working their magic to create lots of inspiration for you so let's check out their amazing project!!

Tracy Scott - happy new year beautiful creative people. Thrilled to be here today with my project. I'm loving using up all my scraps of papers, old tags, clothing tags, flash cards etc at the moment and have found that combining them with acrylic paints and PanPastels lets me create the most fabulous 'crazy towns'

Claire C Christmas is a lovely time but its a bit hectic so I've enjoyed a little peace and quiet in my craft room playing with my Pans and Stampbord to create this project using some of my favourite Premium Craft Brands stamps and lots of scratching with the fab Stampbord Scraper Tools. One of the fun things about stampbord is that no matter how dark the colour, you can add highlights and texture with these tools. It can be a bit scary to start off with but just go for it!! Another easy technique with Pans and Stampbord is to stamp with versamark to lift colour off the surface, that's how I created the dandelions and swirls on this project.

Stampbord ATCs	Stampbord Scraper Tools	Postcard A5 stampset	Premium Art Brands STOP stamp set	Phthalo Blue Shade
Black COARSE Pearl Medium for PanPastels	PanPastel - Sofft Tools Kit	Metallic PanPastel Set

Terry: Happy New Year guys and hopefully you will have a FANTABULOUS CREATIVE YEAR....this is what I made...yep my Last Christmas Jars made for your inspiration. I worked on the background with Jute and Lace....on top of the Jar I placed some lace and snow. What I did next was color a few wooden stars with first Gesso, White Coarse and White PanPastel. The borders were colored with Metallic PanPastel. |The Wooden Star was stamped with a Christmas Sentiment and finished with Iridescent Paste. Than I got myself a string of rope and placed a brons bell on it. I did the same with the smaller Jar. Last but not least a few small stars above the big one and my Jars were finished.

Some of the products that I worked with:

Iridescent Paste

White COARSE Pearl Medium for PanPastels

White Fine Pearl Medium for Pan Pastels

Metallic PanPastel Set

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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 can only be posted to a UK address - if the prize is not claimed within 14 days it will be offered to someone on the Top 3 from the same week.

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

The challenge will run until 16th January and the winner and top 3 will be announced on Sunday 24th January!

We'll be back next week though with lots more inspiration and we'll be announcing the winner and Top 3 from our last challenge too so don't forget to pop back

Sunday, 27 December 2015

Winners and Top 3 from challenge 25!

Good morning crafty friends, I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas and enjoying the holiday weekend. We don't have an inspiration post for you this week as our DT are having a well earned break over Christmas and New Year but we'll have a brand new challenge for you on January 3rd so make sure you pop back!

Its time to announce the lucky winner and Top 3 from Challenge 25!!

Our lucky winner as chosen by Random.org is ............

1. KathyK

Woo hoo congratulations hun!! Email us (details in sidebar) quoting your winners code which is PPWK25001 and your snail mail details and your prize will be winging its way to you asap.

As always choosing the Top 3 was no easy task as we had some amazing entries but this time around the Top 3 honours go to

3. Carol Dunham

11. Sathyakala

30. Katrina Bufton

Congratulations ladies, your projects were fab-u-lous!! Don't forget to pick up your Top 3 badge for your blog from the sidebar.

We'll be back next weekend with a new challenge and lots of inspiration

Sunday, 20 December 2015

Challenge 26 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Good morning crafty friends, are you all organised for Christmas? Why not take a break from the Christmas preps and have a bit of creative fun and join in our new challenge here at We Love 2 Create!! A big thank you to everyone who entered our last challenge, we'll be announcing the winners next week along with Top 3 honours so make sure you pop back!!

We're keeping our theme nice and easy for you ...

Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes

The random winner and Top 3 for Challenge #25 will be announced next week, so check back to see if it's you! We're giving our hard working DT a bit of a break over Christmas and New Year but we'll be back with a bang (and lots of inspiration) on 3rd January!

Let's check out the beautiful artwork our DT have created:

Nikky...I made a project similar to this a long long time (like years) ago and I liked it so much that when I came across it in a box recently I decided to create another using my PanPastels. I just cut out a heart using a die and some sturdy cardstock and then gesso'd it to create a foundation. I coloured using my favourite turquoise and some violet and aquamarine and a mix of others in there too I think...
I have to say when I do mixed media I just throw everything at it and forget to write down what I'm doing as I go, I mixed in some of the pearlescent white to create a nice sheen...used Gold Shake Marker around the edges and just splodged it around and smudged it with my fingers to make it look like it had been gold leafed. Then I added Maimeri gloss gel over the top and once it had all dried I just bent it and it all cracked up. A simple Ranger lock and a Tonic die-cut inked up with Versamark and stamped with stars to co-ordinate and Bobs your uncle. I will cut a hole in this and then thread wire to make a hanger I think...

You can get a better idea of the texture and crackles here...

Pan Pastel - Magenta

Turquoise

PanPastel Ultramarine Blue

Pearlescent Blue

Pan Pastel, White (fine) Pearlescent

PanPastel - Sofft Tools Kit

Yvonne - This is a page from my Altered Dictionary. Panpastels are great for this work as you can't really use Alcohol pens or water based pens as the paper is so thin that it soaks through. Panpastels work beautifully on this paper as it seems to grip them and the colours remain intense. I did loads of stamping with masquerade style stamps and then began to colour. Finally I added glitter to the lips, eyes and jingle bells!

More details and photos over on my blog if you have time to grab a cuppa and take a look xx

Permanent red tint	Permanent Red	Orange	Violet Shade	Phthalo Green Shade
hansa yellow	Phthalo Blue Shade

Claire I've altered this MDF word to create a little Winter Wonderland scene, I didn't have a lot of time but PanPastels are fabulous to create a very quick background. I'd already created a crackle background on the MDF using acrylic paints but I set to and made a bit of a forest background on some card (cut to shape using a dinner plate lol) . I stamped the trees with Versamark ink and used shades of Phthalo Blue PanPastel to shade the trees.I blended the excess out to create the sky but forgot to mask the moon, doh! Not a problem with Pans though as they are erasable so I used a circle die and a pencil eraser to create my moon. I added some falling snow with a White Graph'It Shake pen before attaching to the back of the MDF. Next I cut out three snowdrifts from white card, smothered them with texture paste and brushed over Course White Pearl Medium, it gives a beautiful frosty sparkle! I layered up the snowdrifts with silicone glue and popped my little image (coloured with Graph'It Markers) behind the 'O'

I created some snow on the word itself and along the front by applying texture paste and again dusting with White Coarse and Fine PanPastel Medium

Phthalo Blue extra dark	Phthalo Blue Shade	Pan Pastels - Phthalo Blue Tint	White Fine Pearl Medium for Pan Pastels	White COARSE Pearl Medium for PanPastels
Graph It shake it white marker	Graph′It Markers	PanPastel - Sofft Tools Kit

Terry: Oh my I had so much fun making all the Candle Jars, I started out with a Jar, the background was made wit Jute Strips and white lace.....The top op the Jars were decorated with Snow and White Coarse to give it a bit of a shimmer. The Wooden hearts were attached with rope and the background of the hearts were worked on with Gesso, White Coarse, White Pans and the Christmas Sentiments were stamped with ink and Metallic PanPastels. The last layer was painted with Iridescent Paste. To finish I placed the wooden sentiment Xmas and colored the letters with Iridescent Paste and stamped it with Metallic Pans. And last but not least I placed a little Christmas Bell to the rope. If you wanna see more Candle Jars you can see the detailled pictures on my blog.