zigs clean color and bristol smooth

I'm a believer!

You may remember this post where I grieved about watercoloring with Zig Clean Color Brush pens. My results always seemed so heavy handed. I know many of you scribble the Zigs onto an acrylic block and pick the color up to paint with. But I wanted to make the pen to paper thing work, ya know? Eliminate a step.

This Bristol paper is the answer. Its smooth nature makes moving and blending the color with a water brush pretty darn easy.

Here's my first example. I couldn't resist pulling out the pink and yellow to color this STAMPlorations In Bloom Plumeria when I googled and found this photo.

image source

Added a light and sweet sentiment from Avery Elle Oh Happy Day and voila!

Tomorrow I'll share my second card from this crafting session. Have a good day!

zappy birthday

A day late and a dollar short... I made a card for a couple challenges and totally forgot to post it. I think it was Make it Monday and another challenge using primary colors. And I needed a birthday card for a little guy.

So I made this.

I think Papertrey's Zappy Birthday lends itself well for a little guy. Did some stamping. Did some die cutting using PP. Added a big ol' number.

Then I needed another card for a not-so-little guy. So I upped the design a notch.

Decided I liked the die cut words better in some in-your-face red. But since I'd heat embossed the sentiment in black (oh yeah, now I remember. I wanted to play in a MIM about drop shadows) I decided to bring black back in in the form of the lightning bolts!

I'm taking these over to:
Creative with Stamps - Celebrate

Seize the Birthday - no splatter topping for me

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

spotlight on emboss resist with distress oxides

Check out my tutorial over at STAMPlorations today. I've played with heat embossing and the resist technique. Used Distress Oxides and water.

STAMPlorations inspiration #145

Time for another Tuesday inspiration from the STAMPlorations inspiration team where we all feature stamps from one of our talented stamp designers. Today it's our fearless leader's turn.

Today we're using Shery's Shery Russ Designs stamps. From now until July 31st all of Shery's stamps are 10% off in the STAMPlorations store! Faith Expressions is 20% off this week. Remember you can use the code STAMPGIRLMARIA for an extra 20% off anything you order too! If you missed the 4th Birthday celebration, you should check out all the new goodies in the store - stamps, dies and stencils!

In my series of cards stamping on patterned paper (like here, here and here) I chose to use a feather stamp and went in search of a fitting PP. Found one in a Heidi Swapp 6x6 pack.

I thought the "life is beautiful" phrase on the PP worked well with the artsy feathers. I heat embossed them in teal cuz there are little splodges of teal in the corners of the PP ;) And keeping with the feather theme, I added my sentiment on a die cut feather. This works well as it creates a trio of images on the card pleasing to the eye.

Trendy Feathers 2

Wanna see more feathers? Here is a another project using Shery's feathers with a different technique. And another with some different feathers. Guess I like feathers, eh?

Don't forget to leave comments on the July inspiration posts. One random commenter will be chosen each month to win a $10 GC to the store. Here's the lineup.

I'm going over to:
Danipeuss - Quick and Easy (cuz it was!)

anniversary a la clean up my desk

Had a request for an anniversary card. So I made one , a couple, many. And you got to see them all! Cuz today's is the last :)

Meet my card. This was really a get-into-the-anniversary-mode freebie. Cuz I just picked up scraps from this card off my desk and voila. I do prefer the original better, the colors, wispy die cuts... but this one's already on its way too!

Digi Papers are from The Lily Pad Herbology.

Cut my panels with Lil Inker Stitched Rectangles, hearts with Sizzix Hearts, blooms with Simply Graphic and sentiment with CUTplorations Hugs. Oh and there's a portion of that vellum cut with MFT Peek a Boo Polka Dots.

If you've been following my series of anniversary cards, did you have a favorite?

Hope your week is off to a great start. I'm starting my packing list for summer vacay in MI :)

anniversary a la ... wine

Had a request for an anniversary card. So I made one , a couple, many. And you get to see them all. Tomorrow's is the last :)

Meet my card. My girlfriend who requested the anniversary cards actually suggested a card with "wine" as a theme. But she didn't end up taking this one :(

That's OK. I'm not sure why, but I'm not so keen on it either.

I heat embossed Stampendous Wine Labels gold and then watercolored about three layers over it with Gansai Tambi blues and a touch of purple. Not really happy with the watercoloring. Hm. I was envisioning elegant, regal blue, paired with lovely gold embossing. I got this :) Your thoughts?

Cut my panel with CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangles.  Added a Hero Arts Best Wishes sentiment on vellum.

I'm joining the fun at:

Happy Little Stampers - July Watercolor with plenty of the optional twist of blue this time

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

anniversary a la altenew

Had a request for an anniversary card. So I made one , a couple, many. And you get to see them all.

Today's was actually inspired by scrapbook layouts I've seen where strips of PP are used behind the main photo. Love that look when there's lotsa white space maintained. I lost some of the white space cuz my canvas isn't 12x12. And I used a floral image rather than a photo. But I used, count 'em, 12 snippets from my stash!!!!

Here's my card. And BTW,  it's one of the ones my girlfriend selected, the only non-CAS design she chose!

Stamped the butterfly from Altenew Wild Hibiscus onto my cardbase and then a bloom onto white CS which I fussy cut. Arranged my snippets and adhered or stitched them down. Heat embossed a sentiment from Hero Arts All Occasion Messages onto a black snippet and then popped up the bloom.

Since I had a snippet of debossed and gold inked white CS in there, I decided some gold splatters would tie in nicely!

I'm joining the fun at:
Snippets Playground - self-explanatory I think

Altenew - July challenge (chose red, pink and green snippets)

A Blog Named Hero - Florals (and my sentiment is HA)

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

anniversary a la lil inker designs

Had a request for an anniversary card. So I made one , a couple, many. And you get to see them all.

Today's was inspired by a brilliant anniversary stamp set It's Today Right? from Lil Inker. I'd love to hear about anniversary sets you have, especially funny ones. Please leave me a comment if you have one to suggest.

Here's my card. And BTW,  it's one of the ones my girlfriend selected, another CAS design!

White cardstock. Black ink. A tiny red heart over the happy couple. And I put the "has it been that long?" sentiment on the inside.

Only a couple more variations on anniversary to go, I promise.

I'm joining the challenges at:
CASology - Diamond (it might be a stretch but there's surely a diamond on her finger!)
Double D - B/W with a pop of color
Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

anniversary a la moi

Had a request for an anniversary card. So I made one , a couple, many. And you get to see them all.

Today's was inspired by me! The gal who requested the card is the wife of the guy who got one of these birthday cards. So I figured a card similar to the one she'd liked so much couldn't hurt. (Yep, it's one of the ones she selected!)

Here's my card.

I used STAMPlorations Parfumerie and Newyweds extras from The Bee's Knees line along with a sentiment from The Birds and the Blooms. Added some red and blue hearts from Winnie and Walter So Tweet.

Hope you're enjoying all these variations on anniversary. I'm joining the challenges at:

Cards and More Shop -  Anything Goes with Summer (red white and blue are definitely maritime summer colors for me!)

Challenge up your Life - Colors

Let's Create and Craft -  Red, white and blue
Double D - B/W with a pop of color

anniversary a la miriam p.

Had a request for an anniversary card. So I made one , a couple, many. And you get to see them all.

Today's was inspired by this cool card Miriam P. made. Don't have those stamps (they went directly to my wishlist), but I tried my best to mimic her design with what I have, using the front and back sides of the stamps.

Here's my card.

Studio Calico Houseplants stamp 

Simon Says Stamp  Sending and Wishing stamp

Altenew green inks

Thanks for looking. I'm hooking up at:
Daring Cardmakers - If you go down to the woods today

STAMPlorations inspiration #144

Welcome to  our regulary scheduled Tuesday inspiration from the STAMPlorations inspiration team. Today we're showcasing Deepti's Artsy Impression stamps.

I'm on my mission to use patterned paper in my inspiration post cards this month so I've turned to a good, old technique to help me use up some patterned paper from my stash. Fussy cutting. First I stamped on patterned paper, like I did here and here.

Knowing I was going to turn this into a sympathy card with the sentiment about "memories" (BTW, that tiny "Thinking of You" sentiment in the set is gorgeous and perfect for when you need a small one - I put it on the inside of my card), I decided to subdue the fussy cut images behind a piece of vellum. To add interest I heat embossed the sentiment and the ripples (another cool image) onto it.

Lotus Love

From now until July 24th all of Dee's designs are 10% off in the STAMPlorations store! Use the code STAMPGIRLMARIA for an extra 20% off too!

And don't forget to leave comments on the July inspiration posts. One random commenter will be chosen each month to win a $10 GC to the store. Here's the lineup.

I'm linking up at:
The Flower challenge - Embossing

anniversary a la flora fauna

Had a request for an anniversary card. So I made one , a couple, many. And you get to see them all.

Today's was inspired by this cool card using Flora Fauna stamps. Don't have them but I tried my best cuz that design is just so cool.

Meet my card.

Die cut a mask. Stamped graphic images within heart. Then stamped black images. Voila!

Aha Arts Painterly Shapes stamp 

Hero Arts All Occasion messages stamp

Amuse Heart Trio die

Thanks for looking. I'm hooking up at:

Basteltraum - colors

Creative with Stamps - it's an anniversary "celebration"

watermelon for winnie and walter

Oops. Nearly forgot to post this card I made for a couple challenges and of course one is closing soon, so here I am again. Know which color challenge inspired me?

I discovered an old Basic Grey stamp set with a watermelon slice (definitely the summer trend this year!) and that reminded me of the Color Throwdown.

There's also this ant in the set and I decided he was going to be carrying the slice through the woods. What? Yeah, I don't know either...

Colored the slice with markers, spritzed and stamped. Stamped the ant. Masked the slice and stamped two trees from Winnie and Walter Kindness. Cuz it's the stamp set over at the Rerun Challenge this month. And since Taheerah A. is all about fruit at The Gossip Column, I'm going there too!

The inside sentiment (notice the reference to "seeds") reads "kindness happiness grows". Sweet, eh?

That's all from me today ;)

anniversary a la h&m

Had a request for an anniversary card. So I made one , a couple, many. And you get to see them all.

I'm starting with my favorite (though not one my friend selected!) cuz you just might want to go and recreate it yourself ;)

Two planets crossed for the inspiration for this one. The first was a desire to try the trend of one-layer card with a masked stamped sentiment and random stamping on the card front. Cuz you know I love me some random stamping. The second was an advert for H&M that entered the house, like this IG shot. Those colors!

This happened.

Simon Says Stamp Sending and Wishing stamp 

Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp

various pigment and dye inks

I was thrilled that one floral stamp set (intended to produce gorgeous layered peonies) yielded enough different images to create this card. Stay tuned for more anniversary cards! And have a fabulous week.

I'm hooking up at:

Craft Stamper - Take it Make it July

The Heart Desires - used blues and oranges and pinks

Cherrylana - sentiment takes center stage

Creative with Stamps - it's an anniversary "celebration"

give a girl the right dies...

Oh my goodness. Simply Graphic dies... simply exquisite.

I ordered several (so hard to choose which ones) and now I'm certain that at least three of them were definitely worth it.

Did you see my photo on IG last week? I had a Distress-Ink-on-acrylic-block session after watching Jennifer M.'s video. Well today I took one of those little rectangles of color and made these two cards with it using positives and negatives. I think they speak for themselves.
I know I'm enamored!

Picked Raspberry

Mustard Seed

Salty Ocean

duo love

cadres cectangles fins irréguliers

fleurs abstraites

I'm hooking these up at Freshly Made Sketches , Basteltraum and Happy Little Stampers.

one unicorn, bitte

Funny how life is sometimes. Just commented on IG that although I'm not a unicorn fan, I really like the new one from Concord and 9th. The same day, DD asks me if I can make a card for her girlfriend who's turning 20. With a unicorn, bitte! Whaaaaaaatttt?

Thank goodness for clip art.

I used Winnie and Walter's Color challenge for July. And while I was over there I saw that this month's Rerun is Kindness. So I used that too for some tree and mini heart stamping on my cardbase. (I must apologize. This was the only photo in focus, so it'll have to do. I'm still getting the hang of flatlay photography. You can barely see the tree in the lower right corner.) I'm hooking up at:
Happy Little Stampers - Anything goes with Dies too

Added some gold striped washi, a gold striped horn and a flower sequin for some shine. Because unicorn.

Other products I used were Audrey Cutaways, Big Bold Party Cutaways, MFT Bottlecap Numbers and digi paper from Melstampz.

watercolor girly birthday

I smooshed some Dylusions inks recently and afterwards had a piece I'd used to sop up the leftovers. And this Simon Says Stamp Alphabet Blocks die fell into my hands. Literally. Forgot I had it. And wouldn't you know it fit exactly on the leftover piece! So I die cut it.

Made this card with some of the letters.

Figured with the watercolored alphas I was going to play at CAS Watercolor July, so chose an old foam butterfly stamp inked up with yellow and orange Distress Oxides to add to the lower corner. And some black splatters to tie in with the Dymo label.

Playing at:
CAS Watercolor July - Butterfly
Happy Little Stampers - Watercolor AG
Happy Little Stampers - Anything goes with Dies
Rubber Dance - Color (although there really isn't any purple left in the "leftover" sopped up ink)

yellow, purple, magenta

Those are the colors over at Rubber Dance challenge.  Where my STAMPlorations teamie Susanne R. also designs. Who has a fantastic way with bold color. And those colors screamed Dylusions ink spray to me. As in Pure Sunshine, Bubblegum Pink and Crushed Grape. Sound good enough to eat don't they?  So I made this.

Ink smooshed BG, PP strip along edge, ARTplorations Flutterby stencil, STAMPlorations Scribbly Splattery Grunge stamp, Papertrey Birthday sentiment.

And my teamie Cornelia W. is being CASEd at Time Out so keeping these colors in mind I used Cornelia's layout and sentiment style.

Masked a portion of a circle, sponged on Distress Oxides then stamped Concord and 9th Tree Ring with water. Obviously too much water, but you can still catch a bit of the woodgrain effect in this close up!

A heat embossed Martha Stewart butterfly on vellum and Altenew Label Love German sentiment finished it off.

I'm also playing at:
Where Creativity meets 9 - Embossing
CAS Watercolor - Butterfly (both cards)
Seize the Birthday 

celebrating 25 years with pastels

Have you seen Case This Sketch #229?

It totally intrigued me. And I needed two anniversary cards. So... this happened.

Hello Heidi Swapp Dreamy PP, paper trimmer and sewing machine. Six rectangles from the sketch? Check. Hello Technique Tuesday Hello and MFT High Rise Number dies. Die cuts atop the rectangles? Check.

Then I veered from the sketch, inspired by the fabric layers of the bed canopy in the Daring Cardmakers inspiration photo.

Stitched on pleated crepe paper. Gold heat embossed the cake from Winnie and Walter Sugar Rush onto PP and fussy cut it. Added a die cut negative (CUTplorations Love) and a pink flower. A touch which I think my niece will like ;)

Inspired by these, I was.
Double D Challenges - made me pull out old Heidi Swapp Dreamy PP to get those colors

Daring Cardmakers - a cake, pink flower, ruffles and a touch of gold

Thanks for visiting. Enjoy your day.