Faux Watercolor Cards

 

Inspired by Lindsay Weirich's YouTube: Faux Watercolor Stamped Cards I made these 5 cards. I really like the look Lindsay created...

  * her cool "book" background stamp

  * how she over-stamped that with purple swirls

  * and her dry embossed layers between the background and her faux watercolor flower layer.

 

I substituted a Michael Strong stamp, Cloissone Mosaic Frame for Lindsay's book background stamp. Used Tim Holtz Oxide ink pads:

Wild Honey on the top third 

Peacock Feathers on the bottom third

Shabby Shutters on the middle third, holding the inkpad at an angle, trying not to contaminate that pad with ink from the top and bottom thirds.

I placed the cardstock layer on top of the inked stamp and then added a piece of scrap paper over that and pressed with my hand. However, I decided to get out the brayer for better pressure.  

I had a lot of ink still left on the stamp, so I spritzed it and created a second layer as Lindsay demonstrated. Was able to make 2 cards!

Lindsay used a large swirly background stamp and purple ink to stamp over the books layer. I used a swirly stamp from an old Stampin' Up set called In The Sky. Since mine was a small stamp, I stamped multiple times with Stampin' Up! Orchid Opulence ink.

I created dry embossed layers using a script and then a musical notes embossing folder. Tore the edges to create smaller layers as Lindsay demonstrated. 

I added Stampin' Up!'s Going Grey ink on the musical notes-direct to paper from the inkpad. 

For the script, I used blending brushes to apply Gathered Twigs Oxide to color it.

I used Tombow and Stampin' Up markers to ink a flower stamp from Gina K's Wild Blossoms. Spritzed it with water and then stamped it. I added some Wild Honey Oxide to the edges of the paper with an aqua brush as Lindsay showed, using a dab of water on the top of the inkpad as a pallete.  I also flicked some of this wild honey ink-putting my little layer in a small plastic waste basket to contain the splashes!

I wrote Happy Birthday Debi with a Faber-Castell PITT pen Small point on white cardstock. Cut into a banner and added purple to the edges using the aqua brush and also flicked some purple onto it.

The Variations on this card:

Used Stampin Up Going Grey with blending brush on the musical notes layer.

Used Gathered Twigs Oxide, direct to paper on the script layer.

For the bottom layer, on white cardstock measuring 4 x 5-1/4 inches, I took a Distress Antique Linen inkpad and swiped it to add a bit of color.  Then dry embossed it with a Park Lane Leaves embossing folder.  Adhered it to the card.

I stamped Gina K's Rose Lace rubber background stamp with Gina K's Jelly Bean Green ink. Cut a strip: 1-1/2 x 5-1/4 inches and adhered it to the embossed layer. 

On the smaller layer, 2-1/2 x scant 3-1/2 inches I stamped the flower and leaves from Stampin Up's What I Love using Gina K's Red Velvet and ink and Jelly Bean Green Inks.

The Happy Birthday stamp is from Stampendous and stamped with Gina K's Red Velvet ink. I cut the tail of the banner freehand.

I used the Gina K's Rose Lace background rubber stamp for this and the next card for the entire background. I am so glad to finally use this background stamp. My dear friend, Mona gifted it to me a year and a half ago! Thanks so much Mona! 

I used Gina K's postage stamp die from Master Layouts 4. Used a  flower stamp from Gina K's Wild Blossom, coloring with markers and then spritzing with water as before. Also added color to the edges with the aqua painter and Wild Honey Oxide ink and water.

I used blending brushes to add color to the script layer: Wild Honey Oxide, Jelly Bean Green and Red Velvet the last 2 from Gina K.

Similar here except I used Distress Antique Linen and Gina K Bubblegum Pink with blending brushes on the dry embossed layers. 

The flower is from Gina K's Friendly Silhouettes. Used Tombow markers to color the stamp and spritzed with a little water. Outlined the layer with Wild Honey Oxide and also flicked some on the layer with the aqua brush.

Lately to adhere my layers on cards, I have been using a few strips of double stick tape along with Sizzix Quick Drying Express Glue. When I want a little dimension, I use foam tape.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Peace and all good!

Stamp Then Emboss

In preparation for making some September birthday cards, I found wonderful inspiration from Frenchie at her blog post:  Beautiful Friendship, Stamp, Emboss without Layers.

CASEing Frenchie's card, I stamped the hydrangea and leaves from Stampin' UP!'s Beautiful Friendship set. If you have been following me, you know how much I love this set, a gift from my friend, Mona! Thanks again!!! 

After stamping, I had trouble running the card front through my Cuttlebug. I was using a Spellbinders embossing folder called, Flowers and Leaves. I think this embossing folder is a little thicker than other brands. It would not go through my Cuttlebug with two B plates, the usual formula. However, I was able to run it through with just one C plate and the base! Glad it worked....well sort of...the impression is not too deeply formed... But I think I can send it out! I used a creamy card stock from my stash-brand unknown. It has a laid finish.

Inks: Stampin' Up!  Lavender Lace and Wild Wasabi

For my second card, I just used a separate layer, 4 x 5 inches of Georgia Pacific 110 pound card stock. Stamped the Fiskars butterfly (Many Thanks set), the tulips from Stampin' UP!'s Spring Garden and the sentiment from SU's Simple Sketches. Attached to a card base of the same cardstock.

Inks:

Stampin' Up-Lavender Lace, Wild Wasabi and Rose Romance

Distress: Black Soot

Used a Faber Castell black PITT pen to draw the squiggle border

Thank you for visiting!  Hope you are enjoying happy moments!

Friday Card of the Day

Today's card of the day features a penguin from Michael Strong's Cloisonne Penguin Pals stamp set. 

This cute penguin was residing in my stash, already stamped and embossed! All I had to do was fussy cut him...or is it a her? I love the gym shoes she is wearing!

She is standing near icy cold water...maybe on a snow packed seashore on a sunny day.

Not sure if it actually looks that way???

For the background "scene" I used watercolor pencils and a water brush.  I used an acrylic block for my workspace, wetting the tip of the watercolor pencil by squeezing the water brush. The color lifted/transferred to the water brush and then I could paint the colors onto my watercolor paper. I took a photo of what I am trying to describe, however I did not use any red on this project.

These are the watercolor pencils I used from my collection:

Crayola yellow

Staedtler Karat "blue" 3

Staedtler Karat "blue" 30

Derwent "spectrum blue" 32

Using a Nestabilities Labels 8 oval die, I cut the paper and hand wrote the sentiment with a Faber Castell PITT pen XS. The edges were sponged in distress salty ocean. Then the layer was dry embossed with a Swiss dots embossing folder.

Thank you for visiting! I am thankful to be part of the Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps group.io

Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's on September 11

Lynette and I spent the day stamping at her house on Wednesday, Sept. 11. Lynette showed me the pink and purple hydrangea layers below which she made using a "crumpled tissue paper" aka "faux silk" technique. (We did not do any crumpled tissue technique on Wednesday.)

Lynette did an experiment and ran these through the cuttlebug with her new Tim Holtz Sizzix Botanical 3D Texture Fades Embossing Folder.  They came out so pretty with the various textures! I would love to do a stampfest with the crumpled tissue/faux silk technique sometime.

Back to our current stampfest...we experimented with color combos.
Inks on the card above: distress tumbled glass, pumice stone;
SU (Stampin' Up!)  pistachio pudding
Dry embossed with Tim Holtz 3D Botanical embossing folder.

Inks: SU almost amethyst and pistachio pudding

We have been noticing that Stampin' UP! seems to be recycling themes of their stamps. Lynette used the bell pepper stamp from the old SU Very Veggie stamp set. She was inspired by Betty Saccocia's Garden Goodness card on her Booptique blog.
Inks from left to right: SU summer sun, cucumber crush, rocket red, yoyo yellow. Used old olive for the stem.

Lynette was inspired by Emily Midgett's Sixth Street Sundries floral card. 

She used a variety of stamps: Stamps by Judith, All night media, Altenew wildflower garden.

SU markers: pixie pink, cucumber crush

Inks: wild wasabi, ballet blue, and not sure what the fuchsia colored one is. Will check with Lynette and update later...

Sept. 15:  Lynette says we used an old inkpad with another brand of reinker. In my stash of inkpads, I would go with SU positively pink or SU pink passion or distress picked raspberry.

I am always in need of cards, so I completed mine. Sentiment (think it's SU) stamped in Versafine onyx black. Edges sponged in SU's pistachio pudding ink then adhered to a white card.

Here you see the wreaths we stamped and fussy cut. I laid them on top of blue paper for easier viewing. We were inspired by Karen Day's wreath card.
We punched a 1.5" circle and placed it in the center and stamped the branches and flowers around it. We also used a mask to avoid stamping the bottom of some of the stamps outside the wreath area.
Inks: SU bliss blue, almost amethyst, wild wasabi, certainly celery, pistachio pudding, creamy caramel, close to cocoa
Stamps: Stamps by Judith,  Altenew wildflower garden, SU-all season wreath, bird from 1999!
It was fun to use some very old Stampin' Up stamps!

Later at home, I made this card with my wreath. From my stash I found the green, Tim Holtz sizzix embossed layer (retro circles, which deeply embosses to the point of almost ripping the paper). The happy birthday sentiment and die cut is from Hero arts.

Here are two photos from Lynette's craft room while we worked on these cards.

I like to look back at our sampling of stamped images, etc.

Hope you have a great week ahead!
Enjoy every minute of the good times!

Mother's Day Cards

I made some Mother's Day cards today. Used Stampin' Up's Watercolor Minis, Lots of Lavender and Wreath of Roses stamp sets. The feathery leaf stamp is by Judith. The embossing folder, Flowers & Leaves from Spellbinders, was a little too thick for my 2 B plates/Cuttlebug. So I used one C plate, a piece of sheet metal flashing and a medium thickness piece of paper. I really like the floral design on this Flowers & Leaves embossing folder.

Materials used: twine and some old Hero Arts plastic sequins.  

Inks:

Distress wilted violet, wild honey, 

Distress Oxide worn lipstick,

Stampin' Up wild wasabi

Here's a similar card with a yellow background.

I tried adding stems from the Lots of Lavender set. Not sure that worked well. 

Inks:

Distress wilted violet, abandoned coral, scattered straw, wild honey

Memento tuxedo black

Stampin' Up wild wasabi

Here is another slight variation.

Inks:

Distress wilted violet, spiced marmalade, scattered straw

Distress Oxide worn lipstick

Stampin' Up wild wasabi

Thanks so much for visiting!

Hope you make someone's day!

Flower Cards

Here are some cards I made recently.

Stampers Anonymous: Tim Holtz Flower GardenCMS215
Hero Arts: DC184 Ribbon Messages Stamp & Cut
(all cards shown use that die and one of the stamps from this set),
C2773 Scatter Joy
Stampin' UP!: Letters from friends, Seaside Sketches
Inks: Distress seedless preserves, peeled paint, antique linen
Spellbinders Grid SES-003 embossing folder
Wooden butterfly charm from my stash

The trees and birds layer is from my stash.
Think the trees are SU's Serene Silhouette
and the birds are from a Tim Holtz set.
Spellbinders Flowers and Leaves SES-008 embossing folder
Versafine Black Onyx ink
Twine from my stash

Used Stampin' UP's watercolor pencils (gift from my neighbor who was getting rid of them)
to "color" the Rubber Stampede Solidago Sprig 2875F. At first I added a drop of water to my craft sheet and dipped the pencil in it then colored onto the rubber, then stamped. There was a lot of color on the stamp, so I spritzed it with water. I'm thinking that spraying a fine mist onto the rubber first, then coloring in might be a better method. I was very fun playing with the watercolor pencils.
I used a piece of mulberry paper over my white oval spellbinders Labels 10 shape. Used Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls Embossing Folder  on background layer.
Stampin' UP! Lavender Lace ink
Fibers from my stash

This image and the next are of the same card.
 I cut a scalloped oval from the front.
Then cut an oval (Spellbinders Labels 10) from white cardstock.
Dry embossed that with Cuttlebug's Script.
 I adhered that to the inside.

and added a fussy cut,  watercolor pencil colored flower on top.
Fibers from my stash.

Another view, with a peek to the inside of this card.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Twas Her - Bird Stamp Set

I decided to make this card after seeing Carol Read's sweet bird card here.

My version is quite simple. I'm sorry this first image is blurry.

I like how there is extra space inside the card for stamping
and for a hand written note.

I made two of these and used them as thank you cards for my daughters.

Stamps used:

4 Printworks stamps-

Birdie-B4086

Nest-called Shelter-B4085

Egg-called A Good Egg-P4083

Sentiment-called Twas Her Thinking-E3432

and 

Hero Arts Ribbon Messages Stamp & Cut set

Distress inks: broken china, tumbled glass, gathered twigs

Swiss Dots cuttlebug embossing folder

Nestabilities Oval dies

Thanks so much for visiting!

Christmas Memory Book

Decorated the cover of a mixed media notebook 

to create a Christmas memory book for my daughter

who is having the Christmas dinner celebration this year.

The idea is to have family write a little something in it each year. 

Stamps: Michael Strong, Stampin' Up!

Inks:  Distress pine needles, walnut stain, Versafine embossing ink

Zing "gold glitter finish" embossing powder

Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder

Jane Davenport INKredible pen

Canson Mix Media 5.5 x 8.5 inch, 138 lb. blank journal

Thank you for visiting!

Michael Strong Black & White Blog Hop

Hello friends and welcome to the Michael Strong Black & White Blog Hop.
I hope you came hear after visiting Jill's beautiful artwork on her blog, Jill P's Place.

Today's card features Michael Strong's sweet Penguin Pals stamp set.
I think these 2 penguins are perfect for a Black & White themed card.
You can see Mike's penguin set and all of his wonderful stamps in his online catalog HERE. 

Be sure to visit Michael Strong's blog and leave a comment for a chance to win some Blog Candy!

Back to my torn paper pocket card...
I stamped Mike's penguins on white cardstock using Versafine black onyx ink,
 heat embossed with clear embossing powder and fussy cut.
I cut 2 pieces of white cardstock 5-1/4 inches wide. 
Then I cut them long enough to fit in the dry embossing folder 
that came with Tim Holtz's Bird Talk 2 stamp set,
dry embossed them and tore them into 3 pieces as shown.
With a tiny amount of white glue, I attached the torn pieces on the sides and bottom,
to keep them together. 
Then I placed this on the card base and punched 6 small holes 
and added black mini brads to secure the pockets to the card as shown. 

The penguin on the left is slipped into the pocket and can be removed.
The penguin on the right is attached with dimensional foam adhesive.
I wrote my own sentiment with a Jane Davenport "Inkredible" cartridge fountain pen
that has wonderful dark black ink and writes like a charm.
Added a few clear plastic sequins with white glue for some bling.

I have 2 other torn paper cards posted here and here 
which show variations of this torn paper card idea. 
My friend, Lynette, introduced me to this technique.
She saw Beth Cote demo it on the Carol Duvall Show some years ago! 

Now for more fun and creative ideas,
please hop on over to Shelly's Creative Rumblings blog.
Enjoy her beautiful artwork and be sure to leave some blog love/comments!

If you landed here in the middle of the blog hop and don't want to miss any of the fun,
you can visit Hetty's Craft Chaos blog to see the entire list of the participants. 

Remember, be sure to leave a comment on Michael Strong's blog
for the chance of winning some blog candy!

Thanks so much for visiting!

June 12 Stampfest at Lynette's

Lynette and I had a great time at her house on Monday. 

We spent time visiting, making cards and working with watercolors.

She found a new toy at a garage sale: a Cricut cutting machine!

After a little trial and error, we figured out how it works

and found that the highest setting for the cutter worked best.
Her machine takes paper that's 6 inches wide by 12 inches long.
We cut tiny "ladies" and made cards using doilies, printed paper, dry embossing and ink sponging.

Here is Lynette working on our cards.

Using 140 lb. watercolor paper that we cut into card sized layers,
we sketched faces with a drawing pencil then used watercolors.
Our inspiration came from Jane Davenport's book,

Drawing and painting beautiful faces.

It was fun and relaxing to draw and then paint the faces
in the Jane Davenport style with her watercolors.

You can see we used her neutrals and brights pallets.

By Lynette

By Laura

By Lynette

By Laura

By Lynette

By Laura

I'm always amazed at how relaxing it is playing with papercrafts and paints!
It was a lot of fun using Lynette's "new" Cricut machine too.

Materials list:
distress peacock feathers ink,
will have to find name of Cricut cartridge with lady cutout
dry embossing folders
Faber Castell Pitt pen-black
Sakura microperm pen-black
Canson 140 lb watercolor paper
Jane Davenport watercolors, neutrals and brights
aqua brush pen

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Valentine's Day and Tuesday Card of the Day

Happy Valentine's Day! I just love Valentine's Day.
It's such a special day to celebrate love and friendship!
My parent's were married on Valentine's Day way back in 1953!

Today I'm sharing some file folder Valentine cards I made by cutting kraft paper in half
to measure 4.25 x 5.5 inch
 then folding that like a card.
I made tabs with my Envelope Punch Board
then cut away the approximately 1/2 inch wide strip with my paper trimmer.
Before I had the Punch board, I just made the tab with my paper trimmer,
scissors and a corner punch. Easy and fun!

For the inside I added this "file" stamped with 

Dina Wakley's big Handwritten Heart Collage stamp. 

Stamps:  Michael Strong, Hero Arts, Ranger-Dina Wakley, PSX

Ink: Versafine black onyx, 

Distress-worn lipstick, festive berries, barn door, mowed lawn.

Thanks for visiting
and

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!