A rainy Seattle day means lots of creative time for me!! Yeah!!!

Hello Crafty Friends,
I have two creations to share with you today as it is raining here in Seattle and that means lots of indoors time to create, create, create!!!  Lots of pictures in this post so I hope you have a nice cup of ice tea or coffee to get you through it! :)

My first creation I have been working on little by little over the past three days.  It is for the new "A Mixed Media Color Challenge" and is my first attempt at doing anything in the mixed media realm.

I was totally inspired by Mona and Sue's beautiful creations and have been slowly gathering some supplies in order to be able to include mixed media in my crafty projects.  For my first project I used Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint and Shimmerz Dazzelerz Tutti Frutti Dimensional Paint.  I made a square card base from True Black cardstock and the first night I just painted the two corners of the card base with some of the picket fence paint.  The next day I added the Shimmerz dimensional paint and then let that dry.  This paint is more like a very soft fiber paste with shimmer and dazzle added to it.  The company describes this product as a textural paste type paint. It is so pretty in person and my pictures do not do it justice!!!!

Here is a picture of what the card base looked like at that point:

 Today I completed the card.   
Edited to add updated pictures of card with some changes:  I added some pink pearls to the card. One as the center of the largest flower and several clustered around the bow and among the smaller flowers.

 After taking the picture above I decided to add a little more shading with my copics to the tea cup and saucer as I felt they did not have enough dimension.  This is a close-up after the shading was added:

Don't you just love that little teaspoon?  The cup, saucer, and spoon are from a new to me die set CR1237 from Marianne Craftables if you are interested.  The "Serving Sweet Friendship" sentiment is from a Greeting Farm stamp set.  "Friend Blend" is from Papertrey Ink.

I also made most of the flowers on this card using various rolled flower dies.  I made the two solid pink flowers out of crepe paper that comes on a roll and is used to decorate for birthday parties.  They have it at most "dollar" stores or party supply stores.   I will be doing this way more often as I really like how they turned out!  Here is a picture of how I did it:

I layered about 4 strips of pink crepe paper under my die and ran it through.  Then I used a paintbrush end to shape the die cut flowers and I rolled them.  After they are rolled you can separate the layers out for a fuller flower.  I left mine less separated so that they would match the other flowers I had made.

My second card is for this week's The Shabby Tea Room challenge: week #171.  This week Rebekah is our creative host and she has chosen the theme of 'Ruffles and Ribbons' along with this beautiful photo for inspiration:

 Rebekah asks that you create a card or project inspired by our beautiful inspiration photo USING PINK, GREEN, RUFFLES and RIBBONS!

Here is what I came up with:

 I made the medallion in the center with a die from Memory Box and a rolled rose from MFT.  The stamp set is from Paper Sweeites and is called "Life is Beautiful".  The green rose paper is from Iralamijashop on Etsy and is called "Shabby Flowers Collage". 

I felt the top of the card needed balance so I added that butterfly.  The heart that decorates the pot is made from fabric and the woman who is blooming where she is planted under the sign is from a border die from MFT stamps. I thought she added a sweet touch to this card that is destined for a girl friend of mine.

Thanks for looking at my cards!!!!  I hope you will try both of these challenges this week.  The mixed media challenge really forced me to try things that I am unfamiliar with.....I watched lots of You Tube videos and pinned ideas on Pinterest to get ready.  Try mixed media just for fun -I think you will like it!  And the Tea Room is always a pleasure!
Hugs,
Jill