epilogue to danke (Lawnscaping, SSS, LIM)

Last time I'm comin' at ya with the peony from Stampendous.  Remember in this post I mentioned a "typical Maria" card front.  Well, I had to make it.

I wanted the watercolor effect without an hour of watercoloring.  Tried a new technique to get a peony-shaped-watercolor-blob onto my front panel, which I could then stamp over with the outline stamp. And I opted for blue. Cuz there are so many blue peonies IRL, right? Whatever.

First I inked up the cling side of the stamp with various blues. Then spritzed with water. Now if I had just flipped this over and stamped with it I would have gotten a mirror image of the bloom. Not what I wanted.

So I laid a piece of acetate onto the inked surface, thinking I could get the rough shape of the bloom onto the acetate and use that to stamp onto my watercolor paper panel.

It kinda worked. Of course, when you pull the acetate up off of the stamp the ink pools. Maybe if I had used less water the pools would have been smaller?!? I picked up more of the ink on the acetate and pressed it onto the watercolor paper. And then inked up the stamp, spritzed it and stamped over the watercolor blob.

This is what I got. Definitely not a technique for control freaks... notice the few stray streaks up top... But I then tried something else new, not sure if it would work, but it did. I sprinkled some Ranger Holographic Embossing Powder on the areas that were really wet.  Hit it with the heat gun and it worked! You can see the close up in the first photo above.  Here is the finished card.

I'm hooking up to the Lawnscaping Challenge #79 where we are to try a new technique.  I tried two - transferring watercolor with acetate and heat embossing with watered down ink.

Also joining the fun at Less Is More where it's about a touch of turquoise.  Can do. And I'm squeaking in at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with this Birthday card too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies for Alles Gute:

Paper: Bringmann, watercolor (Target for kids)

Stamps: bloom Stampendous,  sentiment Klartext

Ink : Distress Ink, Versafine Smoky Gray

Tools: 

Other: holographic embossing powder

prologue to danke (STAMPlorations, SSS)

Yesterday I told you about how I was inspired by Joni A. and her way with cards.  And with this card in mind, I was going to heat emboss the damask pattern on the cardbase, then stencil it halfway up onto the focal panel too before adding the peony.  Or so I thought.

First mistake... I stencilled the Wild Honey onto the cardbase but forgot to apply embossing powder while it was damp.  And I was too scared to dab my Versamark ink pad over the inked areas for fear of contaminating it. Um.

So I figured I'd just leave it as is and attach the peony right to the cardbase.  Maybe not such a bad idea since the bloom is so huge.  Off to watercoloring it was.

Next mistake... I started with Festive Berries, then Picked Raspberry.  And then an hour later that bloom was just way too "in your face" and I wasn't happy with the stamens I had traced with a black marker OR with my shading.  TIP: When watercoloring, start with your lightest color and work up to the darker shade(s)!

So this was roughly what I had.

But didn't like. That's when these pieces got set off to the side and yesterday's card was born.  And since I forgot to wipe the Wild Honey off my stencil before starting with the blue on that card, I got yellow + blue = green.  Now you know what happened in that upper right corner of yesterday's card!  So back to this one... After wondering "what would Joni do?" (and I would love to know what Joni would have done at this stage)  I continued with this adventure.

Had two ideas.  First I thought about adding some blue to the base and adhering the bloom kinda vertically along the right edge, chopping off part of it. (Maybe I should have...) Then I decided to banish it to the inside, also chopped off.  Then I envisioned a window for some of it to peek through. And it became a Mother's Day card with a sentiment from Jane's Doodles Mother's Flowers.

Looking at that photo of the inside now, it could have been a typical Maria card front ;)  But I was pretending to be Joni, remember? So, out came some heat embossing and more distress inking, this time with Peacock Feathers.

I cut apart my STAMPlorations Mom Subway Art Builders #1 stamp and created the embossed BG before inking. Oh, and the window was born thanks to a Spellbinders Label One die.

Not earth shattering.  But not in the wastebasket either ;)

I'm playing at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "Journey".  Cuz it certainly was a journey to arrive at this card.

Have a wonderful day, friends.  Thanks for coming by.

Supplies for mom:

Paper: Bringmann, watercolor (Target for kids)

Stamps: bloom Stampendous, Mom STAMPlorations, sentiment Jane's Doodles

Ink : Distress Ink, Versamark

Tools: stencil Prima, scissors, die Spellbinders

Other: white embossing powder, paintbrush, Sharpie

danke a la guess who? (STAMPlorations, RIC)

Sneaking in here with another twofer that I hope you'll enjoy.  Best things, first.

So I was catching up on some blogs and became enamoured with a certain someone out there (who I wouldn't be surprised to see as the next Papertrey gal).  Her work is gorgeous. She has a phenomenal way with color.  And photography.

This is a sneak of my card inspired by her. Can you guess who I'm talkin' about? Hint: she was a recent muse at CASE Study.

Back it up a bit.  Our challenge at STAMPlorations this month is Stamps and Technique.  I had made a card with heat embossing and distress inking.  Love that. Lots. So I was thinking about doing it again  and when I was devouring Joni's (did you guess right? Joni A. of Papell with Love) boldly-but-only-partially-inked backgrounds like on this card and then saw her use the Stampedous Jumbo Peony (NBUS in my stash) on this card I was off and running.

Well, with my first attempt I smashed into a brick wall.  But more on that tomorrow.

Watercolored another peony and this was born.

Heat embossed the bloom onto watercolor paper and watercolored with Distress Inks in Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick. TIP:  Check out this fabulous video about watercoloring. Applied Distress Inks (Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Broken China and Peacock Feathers) through a Prima Damask stencil for the BG. My intent was to have the lighter green and blue up top and the darker tones down toward the bottom.  See the green-ish hues up on the right?  Should have been just light blue... you'll understand more when you've seen tomorrow's post ;)  Created a dymo label sentiment which I layered with some vellum before adhering it to the bloom which is popped up with foam adhesive.

Now it's a stretch, but I'm going to RIC # 57 with this since I was influenced by the colors although I did not end up going graphic with the BG.

Thanks for the inspiration, Joni! And to those of who who brightened my birthday celebration with your kind words and beautiful cards over on Shirley B.'s blog, DANKE!! This one's for you.

Supplies for danke:

Paper: Bringmann, watercolor (Target for kids)

Stamps: Stampendous

Ink : Distress Ink, Versamark

Tools: stencil Prima, scissors, dymo labelmaker

Other: white embossing powder, paintbrush

STAMPlorations sketch #9 (ATSAM)

It's that time again.  Sketch Challenge #9 is live at STAMPlorations.

Now, I am the first person to admit that I am the last person to think of when thinking "elegant", but I went and got all elegant with this sketch.  At least my version of elegant.  Black and gold and art deco.

Have you noticed art deco becoming quite trendy?  This VIGNETTE: Art Deco Border Builders set is one versatile set, and it screamed to me to use it when I saw the sketch!  Nothing tricky here, just lots of gold embossing helped along with a few pencil lines as guides.

So have a gander at the great samples from the DT and our guest designer, Kathy S, and then join us for this sketch challenge. There are digi prizes to be had. And a guest designer spot next month.  Join us!

BTW, since it's CAS over at Addicted to Stamps and More, I'm in!

Supplies for thank you so much:

Paper: black CS American crafts

Stamps: STAMPlorations

Ink : Versamark

Tools: square punck EKS

Other: gold embossing powder 

more stencils and paint (Moxie Fab)

Did you see this card I created with lots of paints and stencils? I blogged about it yesterday.

Now if you know me, you know I don't like to let anything go to waste.  I had quite a few paint-covered stencils during the creation of that card and what is a paint-covered stencil anway?  It's a giant stamp.

See the black letters, the yellow bricks and the red flowers.  Imagine all that residual value!

And meet yesterdays somewhat meeker cousin...

Just flipped the painted up stencils over onto another piece of card, put a piece of scrap paper on top of it and rubbed the residual paint onto the card.  Black, yellow, then red.

And then of course, there was the paint leftover on the palette.  Couldn't let that go to waste, so I practiced some hand-lettering of simple words.  Definitely not the stuff of stamp designers, but hey, it's real! (said in an Uncle Si tone...)

I cut out the "hi", adhered it to black CS and fussy cut it again.  Some wispy thread and two cut-from-vellum-and-stamped-with-Delicata Kesi flower custers later the cousin was dressed and ready to go!

See that wonderful touch of sparkly gold? Yum. That's the Triangles stamp from Kaisercraft, BTW. Great for a tiny, subtle print.

This cousin is joining the other one at the Stencils challenge over at Moxie Fab World. Cuz stencils are definitely moxie fabulous.

Have a good one.

Supplies for hi:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps: Kaisercraft

Ink : acrylic paints

Tools: flowers (Kesi Art)

Other: alpha stencil (Dyan Reavley), bloom stencil (TCW), bricks stencil (Dutch Doobadoo),paintbrush,  thread

stencils and paint (Moxie Fab, SSS, Virginias View)

Playing with stencils and paint I was. After doing the mountains of laundry that accumulated here while I was having a good ole time in Michigan!

Wanna have a looksee?

Used my DIY gelli plate (a plastic bag on a pile of newspapers) applied green paint to gelli plate and "printed" onto white cardstock.

When it was dry I applied turquoise and light blue paint through a raindrops stencil from The Crafters Workshop. Um, you may notice I actually used the "second print" of the green page, not the page pictured above.

Then I used black paint with an alpha stencil from Dyan Reavley.

I die cut a bloom and hand cut a stem to use as masks.  Adhered the masks temporarily and applied cream paint to the entire piece. This is how it looked when the masks came off.

Went with yellow paint and bricks (from Dutch Doobadoo) on left side; red paint and blooms (The Crafters Workshop) on right side of piece. Get the picture?

Took masks off. Stamped leaf with black paint. Trimmed panel to size and adhered to card. Made a dymo label sentiment and popped it up on dimensional adhesive and over some wispy threads. Figured after all the "heavy" stuff a little bit of "wispy" was in order ;) So here she is in all her glory...

And let me tell you right now, I was totally inspired by Jessica Sporn. Wanna have some fun and get wild? Check out her blog. And stop by tomorrow to meet this card's somewhat quieter cousin ;)

This is going to the gallery at Moxie Fab World where it's all about Stencils right now.  Check out the amazing gallery and add something of your own.  And I'm also joining the Birthday fun at Simon Says Stamp - 5 years. Not bad, eh? Have a great weekend! And ETA:  Virginia's View Challenge #2 is Stencils too.  Gotta go there!

Supplies for happy birthday:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps: Claudine Hellmuth

Ink : acrylic paints

Tools: bloom (Spellbinders)

Other: stencils, label maker, brayer, paint brush, thread

STAMPlorations april challenge "stamps and technique"

It's time for a new monthly challenge at STAMPlorations.  This month's theme is "Stamps and your favorite Technique".

Pretty easy call for me.  One of my all-time favorite techniques is heat emboss/resist.  Preferably with Distress Inks.  Ummmm, yummy.  Here's my little card.

Embossed the text-y feather from VIGNETTE: Trendy Feathers on Neenah CS and applied pink and orange Distress Inks.  Such a therapeutic technique! Splattered some water and then stamped the feather again offset with water to get that shadow look.  Yum. (Did I already say that?)

Figured the only thing strong enough to hold its own against all that pink and orange goodness was a strip of black, so I heat embossed the sentiment in white and smeared some white ink around on it in a nod to the chalkboard technique.

Can't wait to see some of your favorite techniques over at the challenge.    Head over to STAMPlorations and join us - check out what Sian our Guest DT and my teamies have to share; you have until April 30.  The winner of the monthly challenge gets two stamp sets and a guest designer gig. And there is a fabby prize up for grabs if you join the monthly and bi-weekly challenges...

Thanks for coming by. Have a great day!

Supplies for just a note:

Paper:  CS Neenah

Stamps: STAMPlorations

Ink : Distress Ink, Versamark, white pigment Hero Arts

Tools: stapler

Other: white embossing powder