Hi everyone! Happy Tuesday!
We have a fun new challenge starting today over at Tuesday Throwdown - a Tic Tac Toe board!!
We also have a fabulous sponsor this week - DRS Designs, who has graciously provided my team with images to use on their cards. I chose to use the Large Stained Glass image. I thought it would make a perfect background, and why not follow it's name and do some stained glass painting on it!
I started by printing the background image onto some watercolor paper. Then chose some very basic watercolors and set to work. I first filled the space I wanted to color with clean clear water and then dropped my color in, moving around the image and then circling back to the previous spots to spread the color to the edges if it didn't make it with just the water. I wanted there to be more red than any other color so I started with that one and filled in a lot of the little spaces. Then went back in with the green and super watered down black so it would be grey. The white spots actually have a really light blue in them. I didn't want them to be left white but I didn't want another bright color to pull away from the Christmas colors...so I just did a light blue.
Once all of the paint was dry, I went over the light blue and red spots with my wink of stella clear glitter brush to add a little bit of shimmer. Let that set and then traced over all the lines with a black sharpie. My printer ink is running out so they weren't a nice bold black like I wanted, but they worked fine enough so I could paint them and then go back over them.
Once everything was completely dry, I smooshed my VersaMark ink pad over the whole thing! This worried me a little. I wasn't sure if all my paint would then transfer to the ink pad so I tested it first and it came out clean! So I did the rest of the panel and then coated it with clear embossing powder and heated it till everything had melted and the whole panel had a nice glossy shine to it! So perfect!
I cut out the large "Merry" with my Silhouette and layered it onto black cardstock. Then white heat embossed the word Christmas onto some black cardstock as well. I found a holly image in my digital collection (sorry...I don't know who it is from...) colored them up with my Shin Han markers and added them around the sentiments.
The last touch to everything was another coat of wink of stella and a little bit of star dust stickles on the berries! This card turned out perfect! I love how shiny the stained glass is and everything just gels together so well!!
I hope you will join us for this fun challenge! Here is the tic tac toe board for this week:
I went right down the center with red & green, digital stamp, ribbon.
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Creative Fingers #96-Anything Goes
Ooh La La #192-Embossing
Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
Thanks so much for visiting!! <3
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Hi Everyone! Happy Monday!
I hope you all had a fabulous Halloween this weekend! We were able to attend a little party with our close friends...it was awesome! We even did a little dressing up :) I'll share that pic at the end...but first, to my card!
Awhile ago I was working on making up some stationary for a letter that I'm trying to build up the courage to write...figured it might be easier/nicer to have some gorgeous paper to write it on. But after getting the stationary finished, I had these little scraps left over that just screamed to be used...I knew I couldn't throw them away. So I mulled it over for a little bit, and the best idea ever struck me!
I turned them into Christmas Lights!! Ok so the die cut that I was using for my stationary pieces was the Notebook Edge Die-namic from My Favorite Things. It's a super fun die to have and I love the nice finished edge it gives...but it also leaves behind these cute little strips with circles from where the holes are in the notebook edge!
With the holidays bearing down on us, I thought those cute little circle string stripes were perfect for Christmas lights, so I colored them up with my markers and generously coated them with some wink of stella clear glitter. I even added foam tape to the back of each of those little circles so they had some dimension behind them! Once they were all adhered, I coated them in glossy accents so they would really shine!
I think they look so perfect with the blue night sky behind them :) And I've been addicted to my new Liquid Platinum embossing powder, so of course I had to use it for the sentiment on this card! The final touch was a few white and silver dots in the sky for the stars. I adore this card! It was so fun to come up with a unique way to use scraps from a previous project!
I encourage you to try and think outside the box with your scraps...you never know what you might come up with! If you do have a unique project using your scraps, share it with me here! I'd love to check them out!
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps #168-Holiday
Fab n Funky #279-Christmas
Incy Wincy Designs-Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
Oh and here is our Halloween pic :)
Thanks so much for visiting!!! <3
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HI!
It has been really quiet around here this last week...I've sort of been in a little slump and am struggling to pull myself back up out of it. It's always frustrating when the desire to work and create is there and absolutely zero ideas come to mind...I just stand at my desk and stare at things, getting more and more frustrated with each day that passes and I haven't pulled anything together?
Do you struggle with lost inspiration? How do you overcome it? I feel like I've tried everything, and I'm still drawing a blank...super frustrated!
I did find a little relief from my "crafter's block" this week with Sami's new release - Halloween Mermaids! I'm thankful to be on this wonderful team! Sami always manages to put together the exact thing I need to get my craft on and this release really helped to get a little creativity flowing.
I used the beautiful Pumpkin Mermaid 2 image for my card. As I looked her over and tried to pull some sort of idea together, the thought struck me that she sort of looked like she could be floating in the water on that pumpkin. So I rolled with that and absolutely love how it all turned out!
I started by creating a little mask so I could get a nice horizon line on my water. Inked up the water with Tumbled Glass and Mermaid Lagoon and then spritzed it with some shimmer mist. Once that was dry, I reversed my mask so I could make the sky. Added a little Squeezed Lemonade and Spiced Marmalade for the sunset and then Spun Sugar and Stormy Sky to finish out the sky. I adore how this all turned out! I really looks like a sunset on the water!! Made me so happy :)
Then I colored up my mermaid using some new ShinHan markers my fabulous husband bought me to try and help me out of my funk :) I love him so much! Not chocolate or flowers...markers :) He knows my heart!
Once I had finished coloring my image, I trimmed it out and layered it onto my sunset inked panel. Trying to create that background without full adhesive sheets to use as a mask would have been a super pain, so I just opted to color the image separate and add it on top. I did add a water line on the pumpkin...but then I covered it up with the sentiment...oops :)
To finish off the card, I wanted to still stick with the fall theme, so I used the Falling into Autumn set from Newton's Nook and chose several of the smaller leaves. I did some rock and rolling with those stamps onto some Stampin Up ink pads and then cut them all out to arrange them along the sides of the image. That was a lot of cutting, but I think these leaves add the perfect finishing touch to this card!
I used a sentiment from that stamp set as well and heat embossed it in liquid platinum onto vellum before adhering it down and adding a few clear sequins. I did add some sparkly stars in the sky and a few shimmer details to her fins.
I hope you enjoyed this card! Hopefully I will be over my crafting hurdle soon and back to posting more regularly...it's been a frustrating couple of weeks and I'm ready for it to be over, but I also know that I need to take some time to refocus on me in order for the creativity to flow properly. Hang with me! <3
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafty Cardmakers #150-Autumn Colors
Craft Your Passion #285-Anything Goes
Penny's Paper Crafty #251-Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #207-Anything Goes
Be sure to check out the rest of the release at Sami Stamps and thanks for visiting! <3
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Hellooooo!!!
It was lonely today without any internet...and that also means I'm super late getting my post for our new Tuesday Throwdown challenge up! Oops :)
The theme for this week is You Have My Support. You can interpret this however you wish :)
Our fabulous sponsor this week is CraftyGirl Creations! I'm using the Rose with Heart image. I decided to do some fun watercoloring for the image after I found out the markers I wanted to use were dry...boohoo...
I added a bit of shimmer to my grey watercolor before painting in the rose. I love the little bit of sparkle that gives when the light hits it. The background has a light pink blended over it and then I used some embossing paste over a dot stencil for some texture. I also covered that in some sparkly embossing powder and heat set it once everything was dry.
Ever since getting this Hero Arts stamp and die set, I have been obsessed with it. So of course, I used it on this card too :) I die cut the 'prayers' and then stamped over it with the coordinating stamp in a light pink again. Layered that die cut up a few times for dimension and then adhered it right over the center of the rose. The rest of the sentiment is clear embossed around that die cut. I also added a few little hearts to finish everything off.
Stop by and join in this awesome challenge!!
Thanks for visiting! <3
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Happy Friday!
This week has been very unproductive for me...lots going on but none of it has really been at my work desk. I'll get a few projects started, and then pulled into something else and everything gets put on hold. But that's okay. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from the cards and focus on other things :)
I did manage to get a card put together for this weeks Halloween Re-Release at Sami Stamps though!!
Whenever there are kitties involved, I can never resist. Sami has a great collection put together for this re-release, but I chose the kitty :)
This image is Cozy Pumpkin. I started by embossing a spider web onto my paper and then inking over it with Seedless Preserves, Chipped Sapphire, and Black Soot. I added a few droplets of water to pull some of the color away and give it a little more creepy vibe...but I think it just made it cuter :)
I colored in my image with my markers and cut it out, backing it with some vellum. Then I added a simple sentiment from Create with TLC along with a black sparkly stripe of paper as well, and that was pretty much it!
Hope you will stop by Sami Stamps to check out the DT's awesome creations with these fabulous images! And be sure to join in our Anything Goes challenge this month too!!
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
AAA Cards #50-Clean and Simple Halloween
Artistic Inspirations #142-Anything Goes/Halloween
Chocolate Coffee Cards #102-Halloween
Fussy and Fancy #150-Orange, Black, or Purple
Retro Sketches #185
Word Art Wednesday #205-Anything Goes
Thanks for visiting!! <3
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Hi Everyone! Happy Friday!!!
I'm excited for this weekend, are you? Matthew has his possible last flag football game on Saturday (unless they win, then their in the playoffs for next week...fingers crossed!) Then on Sunday I get to hang out with my bestest friend in the whole world and be crafty! I'm so excited!
But first, I must share a card with you. Have you ever thought up an idea and started to execute it, not really knowing how it would look in the end, debating it the whole way until that last piece is added and it's so amazing you want to cry? Yeah that happened with this card.
I did some things I don't normally do on a card, second guessing them each time and doubting that they would all work together in the end. But I'm so glad I stuck it out. I can't tell you how happy this card made me when I put everything together. It just...well...kind of takes my breath away :)
Ok, I may have been dramatic...but look at that card! I feel like I got everything right on it for once. I love a lot of the cards that I make...I wouldn't share them if I didn't. But this one...this one takes the cake.
So to start, I took a piece of white cardstock and spritzed it from the side with some Amethyst Heidi Swap shimmer spray. I wanted there to be a concentration on one side and then have it fan out from there, so I also added a lot of larger dots on that left side to build up that idea. Then I cut of scallop border from the Mama Elephant Borderlines Trio set from black and layered that behind my spritzed panel. I also added a thin strip of black glitter paper along that edge.
For my cups, I did a fun watercolor technique onto a half sheet of watercolor paper. First I pressed my distress ink onto my plastic mat...I used Seedless Preserves, Milled Lavender, and Picked Raspberry. I misted all that ink, and then pressed my paper down onto it, swirling it a little to get the color to move. When I pulled it up I had nice coverage on my paper, but wanted more, so I misted the ink a little more and pressed my paper into it again. Then I dried it a little so the ink on the paper wouldn't move so much anymore, and continued to press the paper into the ink left on my mat. This helped give it some speckles and variance in the colors. I also added little drops of black to the puddles of ink on my mat. I didn't want there to be a lot of black, just little dots.
Once that was all dry, I added some water droplets to lighten and remove some of the ink, and also splattered some of the Heidi Swap shimmer inks in the black and amethyst for a little bit of sparkle. Set that aside so it could completely dry and worked on my kitties.
I adore these little kitties. They are so precious and reminded me of Storm and Cloud. Sami always gets it right, I swear! So using my ShinHan markers, I colored them up like my babies. So precious! Oh, the image is the Cup Kitties 4 image from our most recent release at Sami Stamps!
After everything dried, I cut it all apart so I could piece them all together. I did add a little bit of Seedless Preserves around the edges of the bottom cup, and Picked Raspberry around the edges of the top cup, just to help separate them a little.
The final thing I added was this Prayers die cut from Hero Arts and Simon Says Stamp. I just got it in the mail and couldn't wait to break it out! I took some of the Amethyst Heidi Swap shimmer spray and painted it onto some watercolor paper and waited for it to dry. Then die cut it out, along with 2 more in just regular cardstock. I layered all of that together, which gives the die cut some really nice dimension, added it to my card and covered it with glossy accents.
By the end of this card, my fingers were covered in purple and black ink and I had to be really careful to not snudge it all over my kitties. But sometimes getting inky and messy can produce the best product!!
I hope you've enjoyed this sweet little card! Remember we have an awesome Anything Goes challenge running at Sami Stamps so go join in! Just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image :)
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
CAS-ual Fridays #144-Tic Tac Toe (spritzing, coloring, die cutting)
Chocolate, Coffee, Cards #101-Animals
Creative Fingers #95-Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #204-Anything Goes
I'm also entering this into the Damsel of Distress' Hop to Stop. This is a great blog hop to help draw attention to Domestic Violence. I encourage you to check it out!
Thanks for visiting! <3
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I admit...I've caught the Christmas card bug...I tried so hard to avoid it! Willing it to hold off for just a little bit longer...but alas...the crafting world has broke me and I now find myself dreaming up wintery cards and Christmas scenes...
I will try not to bombard you with too many (after this post :) ) for a little while longer...but they are coming!
I have had this gorgeous stamp set from The Cat's Pajamas called Elegant Christmas since last year (unfortunately it looks to be sold out...). When I purchased it, I absolutely adored it and felt I had a ton of ideas for using it...but it sat on my desk and I barely touched it. Nothing ever seemed to click or I got wrapped up in other things and couldn't get around to using it. I think the main reason I bought this set is for this stunning poinsettia image.
With the spark of Christmas hitting me this week, I decided it was time to put this set to use. So I pulled it out and started playing around with this poinsettia. I stamped it with distress inks so I could do some watercoloring. While my post yesterday was about simple watercoloring, this card is the opposite :)
I wanted to avoid all those perfect swirls so that they stayed nice and crisp white. Doing that was super easy with a really fine point brush and a steady hand. But you have to have patience! You can't rush or use too much water or the whole thing blobs out and you have to start over.
The flower was first stamped in Abandoned Coral distress ink to get the base color down. Then I went in with Fired Brick for my darkest color in the center and Barn Door for my mid-tone. Once I had those blended nicely, I came back in with some more Abandoned Coral and blended it all out to get a nice smooth finish. I trimmed around both flowers and layered them together.
The challenge over at The Cat's Pajamas is to case one of the DT. I fell in love with the layout of Christine's card and decided to use that as my guide. Of course, I got the placement of my sentiment wrong...but I think it works out better at the top for my card anyhow :)
The white background was embossed using the Simon Says Stamp Triangle Pattern die. I backed that with some Lawn Fawn paper and added a few sequins and that wrapped up the card!!
Thank you so much for stopping by! <3
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Hi Everyone! Happy Wednesday!
Wet and rainy here in Washington! After such a gorgeous week it's hard to see the rain...but it wouldn't be the Pacific Northwest without it :)
As you know, I love watercolors. My brain automatically goes to them whenever I start to think of a card idea. It's just natural...I'm addicted. But sometimes I want it to be quick and simple without too much fuss. That's hard for me because I want to control it all and have it look exactly the way I want, but that's also the beauty of watercolor. You can keep it simple and quick, or mess with it till it's perfect. It just takes the willpower to leave it alone!
So I tested myself with this card, and let it be simple. It was tough! I wanted to fuss with it! But I controlled myself this time instead of the watercolor.
The very first thing I did with this card was add a super light wash of blue and purple to the background. I didn't want the flowers to be on stark white so the super light colors were perfect. Once that was completely dry, I started stamping the outlines of my flowers and leaves from the Pretty Little Peonies set from WPlus9. Those are heat set with clear embossing powder.
Embossing images that you plan to watercolor can be a great way to keep the water contained so it doesn't spill out of your image. For this particular technique, it worked really well and was almost a necessity to keep everything within my flower lines.
To get the color into my flowers, I took the sold images from the same stamp set for each of my flowers and colored in little bits of detail with my Distress Markers. I didn't color the whole flower, just around the centers. Then I spritzed it with some water and stamped it down onto the embossed flower, rocking it a little to push the color into all the petals. Once I lifted the stamp up, the color would move just a little bit within each petal giving the flowers nice variation.
Since I only colored in the centers of the flowers, the outsides faded off nicely leaving the centers bold. I did the exact same thing for the leaves.
After everything was stamped, I felt I needed a little filler between the peonies. So I grabbed the Fresh Cut Containers set from WPlus9 and used a cute little flower cluster and leaf set to fill in the gaps. I did the same thing, colored the stamps with my markers, misted, and stamped. Since these don't have an outline, they were just solid stamps and didn't have much variation in color, but misting them softened them up and gave them a watercolor type look to match the rest of the peonies.
For my sentiment, I created and cut out the large Happily word with my Silhouette a couple times and layered the pieces together. Before adhering it down, I swirled some silver thread behind it for an elegant touch. Once the word die was stuck down, I covered it in Wink of Stella clear glitter and glossy accents so it would shine. After that dried, I added my little white embossed vellum strip and a few pearl dots to finish it all off.
I am in love with this card! And this fun technique! It was quick and simple and made a gorgeous card!
I'd love to enter this card into the following challenges:
AAA Cards #49-Word Play
Cas(e) This Sketch #143
Craft Your Passion #282-Anything Goes
Penny's Paper Crafty #248-Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #204-Anything Goes
Thanks so much for stopping by! <3
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Hi everyone! Happy Tuesday!
We have a fun new challenge for you at Tuesday Throwdown this week - Sports Fan! Perfect for this time of year, right? :)
Our sponsor this week is MyGrafico and they provided us with some super cute images to use on our projects.
I struggled to get this card put together. The ice skating deer were super cute, but sports fan to me just screams something else...but I pushed myself and finally got something put together at the last minute.
Maybe my issue is that it's another winter card and I'm just not ready for those yet. I haven't really even done any Halloween cards! Those have to come first! But at the same time, inking up this gorgeous wintery sky for this card was super fun and kind of started to get me more in the mood. It will take a little bit, but I'm getting there :)
So I started by inking up my background with some distress inks to create a gorgeous bright winter sky. Then I dabbed some white pigment ink over the very top to try and mimic clouds. It didn't turn out quite like I wanted but it's still cool. Then I added some embossing paste through the Winnie & Walter Scenery: Big Bang Circle Creative Screen to get my snowflakes. I didn't put them all the way to the top because, again, there's supposed to be the look of clouds up there...oh well. It's still gorgeous.
I printed off my image and colored it in with my pencils. Then added foam adhesive to the back and stuck it to my Stitched Rectangle vellum die cut from Lawn Fawn and added it to my card.
The finishing touch was a big white sparkly snowflake and a few little snowflake embellishments.
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create #144-Anything Goes/Pink
Chocolate Coffee Cards #101-Animals
Crafts 4 Eternity #246-Woodland
I hope you stop by and join in this fun challenge! Thanks for visiting! <3
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...but I'm sharing a Christmas card with you today!! I apologize...I usually do my best to put that sort of stuff off until after the other holidays...but these adorable new images from Sami Stamps just screamed Christmas! Please forgive me :)
So I hope everyone is well! We've had a pretty mellow week...until yesterday when we woke up to the sound of gushing water in our bathroom. Well, not in our bathroom, but under it. Yup...broken pipe...ugh...Matthew thankfully was able to stay home from work and get it patched, but even with the fix, it still highlights a much larger problem with our pipes that neither of us really want to deal with, but know we should...someday.
It was awesome having him work from home though! Being in the office together..me crafting, him clicking away on the computer. It gets a bit lonely here at home all alone, so having him here was nice. And it kept me motivated to get my work done! I cranked out this card showcasing the new Cats in Cups release from Sami Stamps:
I have used the very sweet Cup Kitty 1 image. It's just so precious! I, of course, colored her in like my sweet little Cloud. Then fussed over the cup...I tried coloring it solid with my markers but I couldn't get the blending right and it just looked horrible...so then I decided to paper piece it with some fun Lawn Fawn paper and only added shading around the bottom. That worked pretty well so I pieced it all back together.
The shape of this image just seemed super perfect to try and make an ornament from it! Sandy Allnock has a "Go for the Gold" series going on right now and her first card/lesson was about making an ornament and adding it to a card. Figured I'd give it a try. To fit some of the gold in, I embossed little hearts on the cup in Enchanted Gold embossing powder and added little gold dots around them, though it's hard to see those in the picture.
I did add a little adhesive behind the image to help it stick to the card, but I rubbed it against my shirt a few times to take most of the sticky away. My sentiment is from Pink Cat Studio which I printed on vellum and embossed in clear. This panel is what should be used to hold the ornament in place, but mine isn't super tight. I did add the little gold brads to help tighten it a little and it's fine, but the adhesive behind the ornament was definitely needed.
Finished the whole card off with some sparkly gold enamel dots!
Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this adorable release! And check out the rest of the DT's creations!!
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Fab n Funky #275-Anything Christmas
Penny's Paper Crafty #247-Anything Goes
Sandy Allnock's Go for the Gold Day #1
Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
Tuesday Morning Sketches #320
Thanks for stopping by! <3
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Hi Everyone!!!
It's been super quiet around here! That was absolutely not intentional, but you know...life gets busy and the work desk stays empty for a few days longer than it should. Hopefully I'm over my little creative slump and can get back to sharing super adorable cards with you, along with some fun techniques!
Today's card was put together in a little bit of a hurry. I needed to leave at a certain time so I could get to a friends concert yesterday but felt like I really needed to get something made. So after searching my brain (and the internet) for some inspiration, I was finally able to put something together.
It was a really quick make, but man I love it! I started by using some distress inks in Seedless Preserves, Milled Lavender, and Worn Lipstick to ink up my background in a slight ombre style. This color combo was inspired by a recent card by Julia Altermann at Just One More Card. Don't you just love her blog name! It's always so true!
Once I had the background blended the way I wanted, I sprayed it with some perfect pearl shimmer mist to give it a ton of shine!! It's gorgeous!
A little tough to see the sparkle in the picture but if you look right by the cat's back and up by the spider webs, you can see it!
For the images, I decided to combine a couple of stamp companies..two of my favorites-Lawn Fawn and Newton's Nook! You know I can't resist Newton's Nook...I've featured their products in 3 of my most recent cards...their stamps just never leave my desk! So I wanted this cute little scene of a kitty walking through the pumpkins, and decided that the sweet cat from the Lawn Fawn Critters in Costume set would be perfect paired with the little pumpkins from the Newton's Nook Newton's Perfect Pumpkin set. I stamped them out and colored them in with my ShinHan markers and then cut them out.
I laid my images on my sparkly background to get the placement right and then stamped and embossed the fun spider and webs around the outside with some sparkly black embossing powder. You have to be really careful when using black embossing powder as it can be a pain to get a good crisp emboss with. I don't use it often, but when I do, I try to really load up my paper with an anti-static powder and get a good impression with my Versamark. That seems to help get the excess powder to slide off, and with the thick layer of Versamark, you can flick your paper a little harder as well. Works pretty good for me!
Once everything was dry, I adhered it all down and created a striped pennant to go behind my image panel. Used a fun sentiment from the Newton's Nook set as well and stamped it on a die cut banner. Finished everything off with a few purple and black enamel dots!! So..Much..Fun!!!
I hope you've enjoyed this sweet Meow-oween card!!
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Artistic Inspirations #141-Anything Goes/Black
Deep Ocean #113-Autumn
Newton's Nook Inky Paws #25-Halloween
Our Daily Bread-Ink or Emboss Your Own Background
Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
Sweet Sunday Sketch #288
V's Sweet Ideas #38-Technique Tuesday
Word Art Wednesday #203-Anything Goes
Thanks for visiting! <3
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Hi Everyone and happy Tuesday!!
I hope your weekends were fabulous and the week has started off with a bang! We celebrated Matthew's birthday with friends on Sunday at our place. It was fantastic and I'm thankful for those that came :)
We have an awesome color/image challenge for you this week at Tuesday Throwdown! It's perfect for fall. And our amazing sponsor this week is Winnie & Walter!!! They have kindly provided materials for our team to use on their projects.
I chose the In Bloom: Addie's Garden stamp set for my project. I adore all the giant flowers and can't wait to put more of them to paper!
To begin my card, I stamped all the leaves and the fun little flower/berry branch onto watercolor paper and heat embossed them in a gold and bronze powder. Then did some really simple watercoloring by covering the image with water first, and just dropping my paint in the centers. The clean water pulls the paint out and gives it a great fade.
While those were drying, I worked on my background. I started by blending together Faded Jeans and Black Soot. I really wanted a dark blue at the bottom but using just the blue wasn't getting it there. You have to be careful when blending ink on watercolor paper though. This type of paper doesn't allow the ink to soak in very quick, so it sits on top for quite awhile and if you rub too hard to blend the ink, you're just going to pick it back up. So I did sort of a dabbing motion with the black and again with the dark blue over top of it.
Then added Broken China above the Faded Jeans and blended that out to a nice white at the top. I felt the bottom needed a little bit more interest, so I pulled out a few of the words from Winnie & Walters Big & Bold sets and lined them up.
When you do tone on tone stamping, you can usually use the same ink that was put in the background like I did here. I used the Faded Jeans color for my stamping. You can see it gets a little hard to see at the very bottom where there is black as well. But for the most part, when you do ink blending, you're not applying the full strength of the color. So this allows you to stamp something that is at full strength and have it show up over those colors. It's an awesome technique and really adds a lot to the projects!
To finish the card off, I cut out 3 layers of the Hello die cut from Winnie & Walter and heat embossed it with glittery gold. A simple piece of twine was wrapped around everything and tied in a bow, and then I added a couple of glossy accent dots around the lower corners. This has been a fun way for me to add a little more detail and dimension without too much bulk, or worrying that I don't have the right color of gems or sequins :)
I hope you've enjoyed this awesome card! Give the tone on tone stamping a try and let me know in the comments below how it went for you! I'd love to check your projects out!!
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Addicted to CAS #72-Leaves
Crafty Cardmakers #148-Make it Sparkle
Simon Says Stamps-Die Crazy
Winnie & Walter's Join in to Win
Thanks so much for visiting! <3
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Hi everyone and happy Friday!!
I hope you've had a fabulous week and are ready for an amazing weekend! We're having a birthday party for Matthew on Sunday so I'm going to be baking my little heart out!
Today Sami is re-releasing one of her past image sets, and it's one of my favorites, so you have to go check it out! The set is called Butterflies and will steal your heart :)
I worked with the same image I used when this set first came out because I just absolutely adore it!
The image is Butterfly Flower and is so gorgeous! I decided to push my watercoloring a little bit on this one...it may have gotten a little out of control but I think that's what makes it so beautiful.
To really make it stand out, I did a no-lines coloring on the image as well. Printing on watercolor paper can be a pain because once you add water, the printer ink will smear. So I needed to find a way to get the image onto my paper without having to print it. I decided to do a transfer, which was done by printing the image onto vellum, tracing the image on the backside, and then laying that vellum (facing up with the pencil lines down) onto my watercolor paper and rubbing it with my bone folder to transfer the pencil lines.
Depending on how hard you push, you can get dark lines or light lines. I did this several times because each one turned out different, so by the time I got to doing this one in particular, my pencil lines had lightened up quite a bit. If they were too dark in some places, I just lightly erased them before painting.
Painting without any lines isn't really that difficult. You still apply your darkest colors in the shadows and make sure your colors go all the way out to the image lines to fill it all in. The nice thing with this technique is it looks more natural instead of having a dark black line around the outside.
I also did a little splattering with this image...as I said, it went a little crazy :) To get the bursts of paint coming out of the image in a few spots, I simply applied clean water around the outside of the area I wanted the paint to "bloom" and then connected that clean water to the wet paint. The water picks up that paint and spreads it into the clean water. I added more paint as needed to get it to spread as much as I wanted and then did a little splattering for more detail.
The background was made separately, and I did basically the same type of "bloom" technique for it so that it looked like the paint continued out from the image. Added a lot of splatters and then used the Zig Zag Dots stencil from Simon Says Stamp with some Wendy Vecchi embossing paste to add more texture and detail.
Super crazy card, but I'm so in love with it!! And that was a giant wall of text, but I hope you made it through all that! It was a lot to explain and I wanted to be sure you had the full details so you can give this fun technique a try!
If you do, let me know about it in the comments below!!
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps and More #162-Make Your Mark
Word Art Wednesday #201-Anything Goes
Thanks so much for visiting! Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of the DT's creations with this awesome image set!! <3
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Hi Everyone! Happy Friday!...evening!
This card seriously took me all...stinkin...day!
Between not having a set plan or design, to getting distracted by my own brain a thousand times, to still not having a plan....ugh...it just took forever!
But maybe that's a good thing, because in the end I absolutely love this card!
I haven't really done a card like this before (meaning, cluster of flowers behind a die cut sentiment)..so getting the flowers placed in an appealing way was tough for me. I think that's probably what I struggled with the most...and coloring them.
I started by stamping these roses from the Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Addie's Garden set in a super light blue ink. My original plan was pink, but the coloring didn't come out right and my blue's matched better...
Once they were all stamped, I pulled out my Spectrum Noir pencils and lightly colored them all in. I really wanted the tips of the petals to be super soft, so I kept a really light hand and only applied intense color to the darkest parts of the flowers. It's not perfect, but I really love them and hope that with more practice, I can be more confident in my coloring.
I did the same steps for the leaves and cut them all out. The Thanks die cut is a cut file from Winnie & Walter that I layered 3 times and then embossed with some sparkly silver powder. I did a light ink blending on the background with some Tea Dye ink just to add a little more color and interest and then set about getting the arrangement together (which again...took forever...)
Once it was all laid out the way I wanted, I adhered it all down, sprinkled some Pretty Pink Posh sequins around the flowers and added little drops of glossy accents. I also added tiny sparkly dots around the whole arrangement. That wasn't originally in my plan, but I think it really helped finish it all off.
I hope you enjoy this card, and it inspires you in some way!
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps & More #161-Anything Goes
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards #99-Fancy & Feminine
Craft Cardmakers #147-Floral Embellishments
Retro Sketches #180
Simon Says Stamp-Use A Stamp
Word Art Wednesday #200-Anything Goes
Thanks for visiting!! <3
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