More Browns Technique Cards

This card started as a panel made at Lynette's house on Oct. 23rd using Natasha Foote's YouTube tutorial,  Browns Only Technique, Video #1237 from Sept. 24, 2025. The embossing of the hill and trees was demonstrated by Natasha at about the 10:15 minute mark in her video tutorial.

I tried the technique, first wiping the bottom of the panel with an anti-static powder bag. I tore a piece of paper to make the mask for the hill.  I applied Versafine embossing ink to the paper below the hill mask with a makeup sponge. Then I stamped the trees with embossing ink. Finally I added the gold embossing powder and heat set it all.

I liked how the gold embossing looked, but the paper I used was thin and there was warping from when I did the browns technique. I tried to "get rid" of some of that warped paper by cutting my panel with a Hero Arts Oval nesting infinity die. I cut a black "frame" with the next size larger oval die. I did not get my panel centered perfectly, however! 

The photo above shows  the way the "swiping" of the 3 colors looks, working from the bottom of the page toward the top: Gina K's dark chocolate, warm cocoa and soft stone at the top. 

Below are three cards and another sample showing the swiping of the inks at the beginning. Below each card I list the ink colors I used for the sky. Info about the stamps is at the end.

Ink blending: distress tumbled glass for the lake and streams. The sky, bottom up: distress fossilized amber, Gina K sweet mango, blue denim.

Ink blending: distress tumbled glass for the lake and streams. The sky, bottom up: Gina K wild dandelion, sweet mango, bubblegum pink, blue denim.

Ink blending: Gina K peach bellini, lovely lavender, wild lilac.

Above you can I tried swiping greens for the land. Used Gina K's asparagus, then jelly bean and soft stone at the top. I liked using the Fabiano Smooth Bristol paper 103 lb. (280 gsm). It worked much better than my regular inexpensive cardstock. It held up to water without much warping to much. 

The stamps for the outline mountain and a solid, filled in mountain are from Momenta, a small set that Lynette gave me. 

The tree stamps are from Gina K's Natural Silhouettes & You Warm My Heart, Stampscapes:  Tree Duo 085A and Inkadinkado-2 pine trees 96683 K, 

The birds are from Gina K's Fearless Flyers and Stampscapes-Gulls 302A.

The ground cover filler in the green card is from Stampscapes: Bush, 191A.

You can always click on an image to get a larger version.

Thank you for visiting! 

Wishing you Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's October 22, 2025

On Wednesday, October 22, we spent a wonderful day with Lynette. We went to a delicious Mexican Restaurant, La Marina Mariscos and enjoyed their lunch special, with lots of left overs to bring home.

Then we had a ball working on cards.We made a quick card stamping on  printed paper. Then we tried a simple ink swiping technique from Natasha Foote's YouTube Come Crafting with Natasha. 

Below are the cards we made with printed paper, inspired by Sharr Lm's Oct. 9, 2025 post on Facebook, at the Come Crafting with Natasha group. 

We used Lynette's Tim Holtz printed papers from her stash, stamping flowers in Versafine Onyx Black ink. 

Stamps:

Hero Arts wood mounted H3258 Real Dill

Gina K Natural Silhouettes

My Sentiments Exactly Happy Birthday

For the next four cards we tried Natasha Foote's Browns Only Technique, Video #1237 from Sept. 24, 2025. 

We used Gina K dark chocolate, warm cocoa and soft stone inks for the "land" in our panels. As shown in Natasha's video, we dabbed a small amount of brown ink on an acrylic block, spritzed it and tried to drag it across the white cardstock. It was difficult to drag. The ink did not go on smoothly. Natasha used the words, "hot mess" at one point...and we were thinking the same thing. Natasha encourages to keep on going and we did! 

NOTE Oct. 25, 2025...I just revisited Natasha's YouTube and noticed that when she dragged the inked and spritzed acrylic block across the paper, the block was held at an angle, so only part of it was touching the paper. That must be why we had trouble dragging it across the paper.

For the second panel we tried Natasha's "wet paintbrush and ink from an acrylic block" technique. That was a little easier. However after our panels were complete, we LIKED the uneven look of the browns and gray colors applied with the acrylic block. That method added more texture than just painting the browns and greys. We dried the paper with a heat tool and also set it aside to dry completely. 

We colored the sky by using blending brushes and ink.

Stampin Up orchid opulence, Gina K wild lilac, blue denim and blue in the navy.

For our lakes: Gina K powder blue and sea glass.

Stamps used:

Gina K Natural Silhouettes...very small pine tree

Gina K You Warm My Heart...various pine trees

The first two panels are Lynette's. The second two panels are mine. Lynette found some beautiful dark brown cardstock to back the panels. 

After a day, our panels look 200% better and I think we both are going to try this technique again!

Thanks for visiting! You can always click on an image to view a larger version.

Peace and All Good!

Stampfest at Lynette's October 2, 2024

On Wednesday, October 2, Don and I visited Lynette. We had a great time having lunch together at Buona Beef, stamping and later visiting and relaxing!

Here's another view of our cards.

Lynette wanted to try a stencil technique that I have used to make sympathy cards. We used the Lattice section of the Tim Holtz Stencil called Flourish And Latticework Thmm115 and Stampin' Up's cameo coral ink with a blending brush.  We stamped Gina K's long flower from the Lisa Hetrick designed Hugs & Wildflowers stamp set using SU's lucky limeade and cameo coral inks. The card base is a  heavy weight creamy white cardstock from Hobby Lobby.

When Lynette showed me the butterfly and stenciled cards she made based on Natasha Foote's YouTube A 'Must Know' For Crafters!!! The Classic Split #1040 I wanted to make it too! So Lynette cut the butterflies with dies from Crafters Companion and I added stenciling and ink blending to the card using the Flourishes portion of the Tim Holtz Stencil Thmm115 with distress broken china and SU gable green inks. Also used a piece of waste canvas as a stencil. Lynette's work was the hard part, getting all those pieces removed from the die! 

We were both interested in making the Scribbly Bird cards posted on Anneke De Clerck's blog, Some Fiddling on the Kitchen Table. Below are 2 of Lynette's birdie layers, then 2 of mine:

We used Lynette's Caran D'ache watercolor crayons and a water brush on cold press watercolor paper--the smooth side. Used a heat tool to help dry the panel before stamping with Versafine onyx black ink and Dina Wakley's Scribbly bird stamps. We also stamped a separate bird image for layering as shown by Anneke, leaving the legs and feet of the image on the panel showing. We used a zig permanent pigment ink marker to hand draw leaves and circles and lines and a pink marker for groups of dashes, as Annke showed.  It was so relaxing to make these layers!

We also stamped some floral designed panels, using Gina K's Hugs & Wildflowers stamps designed by Lisa Hetrick. We duplicated the panels we made on our March 27, 2023 Stampfest. However we used Stampin' Up inks: lovely lilac ink for the flowers and old olive for the stems and leaves. We used an embossing stylus after inking the leaves to create the "line" in the center of each leaf.

After we finished stamping, Lynette served us an assortment of crackers with a Double Gloucester cheese with onion and chive, tortilla chips and salsa, a pumpkin spice caramel cluster candy, and Motif Cabernet Sauvignon Red Hills Lake County wine from Trader Joe's. We enjoyed watching some old music videos on YouTube on the TV. It was great fun visitng, stamping and relaxing!

Thank you for visiting!

Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's January 31, 2024

Time flies...can't believe it's been almost 7 weeks since our Stampfest on Jan. 31! Finally have these cards up on the blog. Sorry for the delay! 

Lynette wanted to try Melanie Muenchinger's Direct to Paper Technique: Embroidered Denim Flowers. It was on YouTube January 26, 2020.

Used Gina K's Powder Blue mini inkpad to swipe the paper directly with ink for the background. Then used Gina K's Water Droplet stencil and a blending brush with the same Powder Blue ink.

Flowers and leaves are from a Stampin Up! clear set called What I love. They are stamped in Gina K's Blue Denim ink.

Lynette also wanted to make a sprig card like my Christmas thank you cards. I found inspiration for those here: Jackie Bolhuis' cards which she posted on her blog and YouTube.

Used the 3 different sprigs and the sentiment from Gina K's Perfect Poinsettia set. The pinecone is from Stampin' Up!'s Fantastic Foliage set. I forget which stamp set had the cute little group of 3 berries...

Used Gina K's You Have My Heart set for the guitar. I think the musical notes and sentiment are from Lynette's stash. Not sure which brown and blue inks were used.

I wanted to made cards based on Natasha Foote's Creating Your Own Stamps From Fun Foam, with Magnificient Results Youtube #977

I used Stampin Up's Little Shapes set, from 2000 instead of creating my own blocks with fun foam, though it would be fun to try!

Gina K inks: powder blue, dusty rose and peach bellini 

The flowers are from Lynette's stash: Time Well Spent by Stampin Up!

Ink Colors: Gina K's Key Lime, Sweet Corn and kept the Powder Blue.

Thank you so much for visiting!

Peace and all good.

Stampfest at Lynette's November 15, 2023

Lynette and I had a great visit almost two weeks ago. We took a walk, had lunch at a nice restaurant and stamped! 

After watching Natasha Foote's YouTube #915 called Is the the best layout ever we made these cards.  We both loved how easy these cards were to make.

Close up of Lynette's card-with 2 pieces of coordinating paper cut to  3-7/8 by 5-1/8 inches, your first cut is 1-1/2 inches. Then you turn the pieces and your 2nd cut is 1-1/4 inches. You are able to make 2 cards! And use up some of that printed paper in the stash!

This is the card I made the night before coming to Lynette's to test out Natasha's idea. I used one of Lynette's Stampin' Up! Stamps for the "hugs and kisses".

On this card, I used Lynette's pretty kraft paper with a delicate design printed in black. I wanted to try my new Gina K stencil, Bold Bouquet. My inspiration was Gina K's YouTube, Gift Card Holder Card - Inspired by Mindy Eggen. 

Lynette let me look through her stash of stamps for a Christmas stamp for my Christmas cards this year. I found this beautiful PSX nativity scene. I stamped it in Gina K's blue denim ink.

Just wanted to include this photo with  "Graphic Tree" from Gina K. I was experimenting with possible Christmas cards.

Thank you for visiting!

Peace and all Good!