Fall/Autumn Challenge

When I saw this coffee pot stamp and the floral images that could be put into it I knew it would be an enamelware one like a coffee pot I used to have when we went camping. I've entered this card into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for Fall/Autumn cards.
The pot wasn't stamped as enamelware, so after coloring it the blue I added white gel pen for the speckles. The stamp set is "Country Home" from the new Holiday catalog from Stampin' Up.
I added it to a piece of woodgrain double-sided paper and used the Stitched Seasons Framelits die for the greeting.

Pleasant Pheasants

The new Stampin' Up Holiday catalog is here and I am really enjoying using the stamp sets that I recently received last week! I can't wait to show you all the new products, especially the 3D embossing folder that makes the paper look like tin tile! I am entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Fall Challenge for this week.

Of course, since I have English Springers, you know I always get pheasant stamps and this set is Pleasant Pheasants and will be a great Thanksgiving set. For the first card I decided to stamp the pheasant pair in Momento Black ink as I was planning on coloring them with Copic markers. After that I added some Wink of Stella clear to give the feathers some shine, which I am sad to say does not show in the photo.

After die cutting the pair out and then added another oval frame of Early Espresso cardstock I used a piece of copper cardstock and ran it through the Big Shot with the new Tin Tile 3D embossing folder.  And then added it to a 4 x 5 1/4" piece of Early Espresso cardstock and then onto the front of a white card base. I just love this tin tile look!!

Now, coloring the pheasants was a bit time consuming, so I thought I'd make a "simple" card, so here's another example, stamped in Early Espresso ink on Crumb Cake cardstock with Vintage Photo Distress ink sponged around the edge, affixed to another square of Early Espresso ink and then onto a piece of woodgrain DS paper. (This is the 6 xd 6 woodgrain paper from Stampin' Up.) I gold embossed the "Thinking of You" right onto the woodgrain paper.

Sprinkles & Splatters!

It's been a difficult week in NE PA with all the "sprinkles" we've been getting lately! Actually, it's been more like torrential downpours with roads washed out and flash flooding. This card is one I water-colored and then splattered with watered-down watercolors and it's for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Sprinkles and Splatters. 
The stamp set is Winter Joy by Penny Black and I embossed it on Arches hot press watercolor paper.

Blended Seasons - Watercolor

Hello, thanks for visiting my blog! I've got two different water-colored cards to share today using the Blended Seasons stamp set from Stampin' Up and I've water-colored these with Sakura's Koi watercolors on Arches hot press watercolor paper. Here's the two cards:

 The first card uses the basketweave 3D embossing folder with Pool Party cardstock for the background. I embossed the floral image with black embossing powder on the watercolor paper and after painting it, I used Coliro Pearlcolors to add the shimmer. I fussy-cut the image out very close to the edges. The sentiment is from the same set, stamped in Gorgeous Grape on white cardstock and die cut with Stampin' Up's Stitched Labels Framelets.

The second card uses the same image, again with the Pearlcolors painted over the watercolor and the shine shows more in this photo. Not wanting to fussy-cut this as time-consuming I left the white border. This is affixed to a piece of Marina Mist cardstock that I ran through the Big Shot with another die from the Stitched Labels Framelets. This die just pierces stitching holes in the paper and I like the interest it adds.

Thanks for visiting!

Distress It

This card is water-colored with Distress Oxide inks and is entered in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge, "Distress It." I masked and embossed the images from Simon's "Winter Flowers" with white embossing powder and then painted with the Distress Oxide inks. Then I embossed the "Merry Christmas" sentiment from Altenew's Holiday Wishes set. Then I used Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink to sponge around the edges and finally added some gold embossing on the four edges of the cardstock. I stamped other images from "Winter Flowers" on the matching envelope.

Blended Seasons

Well, the voice over stopped at the end of this video, but you will see how the card is made. It's a little long, but I've included a little information about the watercolor pencils and the advantages of using them instead of traditional watercolors, especially on cardstock that isn't watercolor paper. The card that I make in this video is the fall leaves card that is shown on the previous post. I'm working with two different computers and don't have the photo on this and wanted to get the video online. Sorry about the audio cutting out!

Blended Seasons with Watercolor Pencils

Well, I've been working on a video for these and for some reason it's not working! So, I will keep working on it but thought I'd show you step-by-step how to use Stampin' Up's watercolor pencils on Crumb Cake cardstock. Here's the cards I made to share for today that use the new "Blended Seasons" stamp set and matching dies that became available August 1st. Mine arrived yesterday and so I had to play with them!

The stamp set also includes a bell for a wedding card (or another Christmas one) but I haven't used that yet. Following is a step-by-step for how I made the floral card. First, the materials I used were: Crumb Cake and Bermuda Bay cardstock, Versafine Onyx Black ink, Wink of Stella clear, and watercolor pencils in the colors shown plus the Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie. Each photo will show where I added each individual color.

First I applied the Pacific Point Pencil to the flower centers and any part of the petals that are covered by another petal and the flower buds:

Next Bermuda Bay was blended from the Pacific Point out and in, leaving the highlights with no color:

Then the white was added to the highlight areas of the flower petals:

The centers of the flowers were first colored with Daffodil delight and then Pumpkin Pie was added around the edges.

All the leaves and stems were done with Old Olive:

The open ares of the leaves were where I wanted highlights so I added Daffodil Delight in those areas to blend with the olive and make a lighter yellow-green:

Once I had all the color on the card with the pencils I used a Silver Black Velvet Brush (4 Round) and added water to blend. Note that I used a slightly damp brush and I did not let any pooling of water on the paper. I used light stroking motions, moving from the outer edge of each petal or leaf and dragged the color down into the dark areas where the shadows would be. I also blotted the brush off every time on a paper towel before using it and cleaned off excess color from the brush so as not to put too much pigment on the highlighted areas.

Finally, to give the card a little sparkle, I went over the painted areas with the Wink of Stella. Then I affixed this to a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" Bermuda Bay cardstock piece and then to the front of the card base.

Using the watercolor pencils is fast and easy and might be the best way to introduce you into watercolor painting, as it is very forgiving. Notice that I colored the entire image before I added the water to blend. This means you can stamp multiple images and have them ready to go and are able to "color on the go," and blend with the water later. Another advantage to this method is that mistakes are easily corrected as you can erase any color that might stray out of the lines before adding the water. 
Hopefully if I can get the movie to work I'll be able to post the fall Thank You card! Thanks for reading all this and leave a comment if you like as I do read them.

Die Leftovers...

The Nativity set from Simon Says Stamp has been in my stash for months, waiting for me to feel like making Christmas cards. I know it's usually "Christmas in July," for most people, but I just wasn't ready to think about that yet! Anyway, after making the Nativity card the inside of the creche was cardstock I was not willing to waste by throwing it out, especially after I stamped a wood grain on it, so I decided to turn it into a birdhouse. So under each individual card I've explained how I made the card. All cardstock and inks are from Stampin' Up unless otherwise stated. Thanks for looking and I hope you like these!

First card I made was the Nativity one:

I stamped the Holy family in Momento Black ink and colored them with Copic markers and cut them out with the matching dies. I also stamped the star with Momento Black and cut it out with the matching die. I also sponged over the star with More Mustard ink so that the white outlines would not show. I sponged around the Holy Family with Soft Suede ink for the same reason.

I stamped Smokey Slate cardstock with the Hardwood background in Grey Granite ink and cut it out with the creche die. For the outside night scene I blended Wilted Violet, Seedless Preserves and Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide inks over a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock and spritzed it with a fine mist of water and let it dry. I cut off the bottom 1 1/4" of this (which had the Seedless Preserves ink on it) and cut it in half with Memory Box's Stitched Curves dies and glued them together and then glued them back onto the remaining bottom of the "sky" piece.

The background is a stamp that I purchased years ago and don't even know who made it but it gave me the Middle-Eastern look for a wall that I wanted. I used River Rock cardstock (which I have to tell you that I NEVER use as I don't like the color, but it has that "yellowish" tint to it that I thought would give a sandstone look. I used Soft Suede ink on that stamp and "slid" the pad across the stamp instead of pouncing it over it and stamped off 1st on a piece of scrap. That way the solid stamp gave me the mottled look. I sponged around the background in Soft Suede ink and mounted everything on a piece of Baked Brown Sugar cardstock. I stamped the greeting from the Nativity set in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

I made a dozen of the Nativity card so I had a dozen "house shapes" that already had the wood grain stamped on them, so I sponged around them with Soft Suede ink, added a black 1" circle and a Soft Suede 1/2" circle to the front, a scrap of  Smokey Slate for the pole, sponged to give it a dimensional look. And I used the roof edge of the creche die to cut out just the roof and glued it to the top of the birdhouse. I used Glossy Accents and drizzled a fine line along the top of the roof, dipped it in a white flock and then in Nuvo Pure Sheen glitter (Ice White).

The background is Bristol Smooth which I blended Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide on the top half and then stamped the Tree Line stamp from Paper Roses in Smokey Slate ink across it. I liked this stamp as it was not just a line of spruce trees but had the winter bare-branch trees with them.

The roof and backing are both Handsome Hunter cardstock but the photo makes it look blue. Anyway, the bird is Hero Arts Color Layering Cardinal which I cut out with the matching dies. I stamped the first layer in Poppy Parade, the 2nd in Real Red, and the 3rd in Cherry Cobbler. I also trimmed any of the white cardstock around the edges as I did not want white trim around it and then sponged around the edge with Soft Suede ink. I added two foam pieces behind only the body to hold it up and bent the edges of the bird back for a more realistic look.

Finally, I stamped the pine branches, also from the Hero Arts Color Layering Cardinal set in Old Olive ink and added the red bow.

So now I have 24 of my Christmas cards done and a bunch more to go!!

Watercolor Backgrounds

Watercoloring backgrounds around images can be stressful... you've watercolored the entire image and then often don't know what to do with the background, so we try watercoloring it and find we often mess it all up. I've done that! This image from Concord & 9th's Hello Lovely stamp set was heat embossed with white embossing powder on the smooth side of a piece of watercolor paper.

I used Zig's Clean Color watercolor brushes and a plain water brush to color the image and then used two of the same brushes to add color to the background by dragging and blending the ink out away from the image. Then it needed more in the background so I used those two colors of ink and added a green and scribbled them on an acrylic block and spritzed the block with water. I picked up each color on a brush and sprinkled the background for a splattered look.

The sentiment is from the same set and was embossed in white on black cardstock and raised up with a piece of foam. Then affixed the entire image to purple cardstock.

This stamp set comes with several "fills" for the flowers and leaves for a very simple "sloppy watercolor" look and that card is below as a single-layer very simple card. Again, the sentiment is from the same set. This card is entered in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge, "Make Your Own Background." Thanks for looking!

Single layer card:

Simply Embossed Backgrounds

Although the coloring of this image took a while, as the image has such small flowers and leaves, but coloring with Copics worked as they have such a sharp point. The stamp set is Concord & 9th's Happy Days and the background is die cut with Simon Says Stamp's Frames and the center panel is embossed with Stampin' Up's Tufted 3D embossing folder. The gold inlay was also cut from the Frames die set. This card is entered into this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Make Your Own Background. Embossing folders are simple ways to create interesting backgrounds, especially when part of the background is not embossed while another part is. Nested dies allow you to do this easily.

Wild Things...

This week the Monday challenge for Simon Says Stamp is for Wild Things, so I've made some cards for that. I often stamp a bunch of images all at once to color in later and this past week I stamped a lot of images from Simon Says Stamp's Encouraging Animals. I colored the images with Copics and cut them out with the matching die set.

These images make great cards for children of all ages. The first card uses two bees from the set and the background die used is the hexagon background from Stampin' Up, which is discontinued (sorry). The paper used is So Saffron, also from Stampin' Up. I embossed the sentiment in white and cut it out with the stitched fish-tail die set from Lawn Fawn.

 

 Then there's my favorite, the toucan, with the Leaf Frame cover die from Altenew. I modified the sentiment a bit by only stamping the word "toucan" from the Encouraging Animals set and then used Stampin' Up's Thoughtful Banners with the matching punch for the rest of the sentiment. After stamping the banner, I sponged Broken China Distress Oxide ink over it and added clear embossing powder to give it some shine.

Final "Wild Thing" is the whale. I used Hero Arts wave stencil to add waves in Broken China and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide ink and sponged the sky with Tumbled Glass Oxide ink. I added the Swirly Scribbles die cut in white from Stampin' Up over the waves.