Wrinkle Free Distress April 2025

 

I was inspired to make some wrinkle free distress backgrounds recently after running across a beautiful card by Jung Ahsang from 2015! I used watercolor paper, cut to about 3-1/4 by 4-1/4 inches. I dabbed distress inks onto my glass mat-in the white section, so I could see the colors: picked raspberry, worn lipstick, scattered straw and ripe persimmon. NOTE: initially I used spun sugar, but subbed worn lipstick instead. Spritzed the inks with water. Then dragged the watercolor paper through it to pickup color. You can go back and add more color if desired. 

Allow the paper to dry. You can use a heat tool to speed up the drying time. Used Versafine onyx black to stamp the images.

Flowers from Crafters Square, a gift from Lynette! Belated birthday stamp from DeNami Design. I don't know if they are in business anymore.

Flowers from Crafters Square (again). This time I added leaves to change it up a bit.

Leaves from Pink & Main, a gift from Mona!

Happy Birthday from Gina K's Happy Hydrangea small stamp set.

For my last card, I used an old Stampin' Up! inkpad called positively pink. Used Gina K's Mandala Maker for the flowers and "leaves". 

Happy Birthday from Hero Arts A2153.

Thanks for visiting!

Peace and All Good!

Stampfest at Lynette's January 17, 2025

Don and I visited Lynette Friday, January 17, 2025. We walked to Sugar Bowl restaurant, enjoying the sunshine and warmer weather. Two of us had the delicious Hobo breakfast skillet and one had a big hamburger meal with fries. Plenty to eat and lots of leftovers to bring home.

Lynette found a great card idea created by Ceal Pritchett for My Sweet Petunia. Lynette used her Waffle Flower Postage Collage Die to make two postage layers. We then cut the individual "stamps" by using scissors to cut on the perforation lines. Voilá 6 stamps for each of us. We decided we could each make two cards.

Stamps: Stampin' Up! - Nature Walk, Botanicals, French script and postage cancellation

Unity - a butterfly collage stamp, and stamps from her stash

Inks: Gina K warm cocoa for the script, Versafine onyx black

Colored pencils

We had so much fun making flowers on watercolor paper at our May 7, 2024 Stampfest that we 

re-visited Amy William's technique Water Coloring Made Easy! This time, we used Lynette's watercolors from her stash. She had made a palette of dried tube watercolors on a plastic covered tray with round "wells". It worked great with a waterbrush...and we used an old rag to absorb extra water from the brush when needed.

Lynette's four panels are first. Then the next image of five panels is mine. 

We were inspired by some Pinterest pins to add more to the stems this time...extra lines and dots and lots of little leaves. We plan to add the panels to a card base.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Peace and all good!!

Fun with Faux Postage Cards

You will see four faux postage cards below. The first one is cut from Lynette's Waffle Flower Postage Collage die. The other three are made with the old Just For Fun wood mounted stamp and stencil set.

For this card, I started with a faux postage layer made at Lynette's house on November 13. At home I stamped some postage stamps from Stampin Up onto white cardstock and fussy cut them. I placed one of them over my badly stamped leaf in the center of the panel. The Postcard "word" is from a Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous clear stamp set called City Central CSS27911.

I was so happy to find my old Just For Fun brand wood mounted postage design rubber stamp and stencil from years ago! I used stamps from the sets shown in the photo above. Below is a close up of my Faux Postage card.

There are lots of faux postage samples on the Waffle Flower website and other blogs. For the design above, I was inspired by the colors of  Galina Filippenko's card with distress pumpkin ink blending at the bottom.

This card was inspired by Lisa of  My Card Trip. I stamped  then ink blended with the same ink in each of the rectangles. 

Gina K inks: bubblegum pink, light orchid

distress inks: lucky clover, fossilized amber

and Versafine onyx black

The card below has the same colors of ink blending as the first card, which was made at Lynette's house. See more details listed on the image. Click on this image or any image to see a larger view.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's November 13, 2024

We visited Lynette Wednesday, November 13, 2024 and had a great day! For lunch, we took a walk to nearby Chipotle's for  Burrito Bowls.

Back at her house, she helped me decide on a simple Christmas card design.

Inside of my Christmas card

Then we had lots of fun playing with her new Waffle Flower Postage Collage Die, Waffle Flower Postage Collage Blocks Stencil (contains the "window openings"/rectangles to mask out the perforation areas and a little border AND the Waffle Flower Collage Wild Flower Stencil set (of 3 stencils) to add the flowers. 

We were impressed how easy it was for Lynette to die cut the faux postage layer in her Cuttlebug. The Postage Collage Wild Flower Stencils (set of 3 stencils) are etched with text on each showing the order to be used. Made it easy to add the ink with blending brushes.

Remember to click on any image for a larger version.

We used Gina K inks: wild dandelion, sweet mango, warm cocoa and grass green.

On our second postage collage, we ink blended 3 background colors to each of the rectangles. We used the Waffle Flower Postage Collage Blocks Stencil and we added paper to block each rectangle when the colors did not go across the blocks.  

Then we stamped various small image stamps from our collection using Versafine onyx black ink.

For the background ink blending, we used Gina K inks, starting at the bottom and working our way up...

bottom: jelly bean green 

middle: wild lilac 

top: light orchid.

When we were done stamping, Lynette taught Don and me to play Mexican Train Dominoes. It was a  lot of fun. We played a few rounds and I think we'll play again next time. 

Lynette always puts out a beautiful charcuterie board with some delicious wine and last night was no different! We enjoyed the food and listened to music and then showed her many pictures from our recent vacation. It was a lovely day!

Thanks for visiting!

Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's, May 16, 2023

Lynette and I had a great time stamping and visiting yesterday, May 16, 2023. We started with a nice walk along the river in the beautiful warm sunshine. Then Lynette served us a delicious lunch at her house: her famous mostaccioli crab salad, potato salad, tossed salad and lemon squares for desert. I should have taken a picture of the food! ...and should have asked Don take a picture of Lynette and me with our cards. Maybe next time!

You can click on any image to view a larger version.

Inspired by a card viewed online somewhere...we used Stampin' Up! Pool Party color paper. Thank you Linda B. for giving us all that cardstock!

I think we used Stampin' Up! whisper white card stock.  Also, we noticed the ink color seems more vibrant on the SU white card stock, when compared to stamping on Walmart's  white cardstock.

To get the very narrow black framing layer, 

We cut the black layers 4-3/4 x 3-1/2 inches

and cut the white layers 4-5/8 x 3-3/8 inches

I had trouble cutting at first, getting all confused, so Lynette took over the task. Thanks, Lynette!!!

Cuttlebug embossing folder: Birds and Swirls

Stamps: 

Stampin' Up! Nature Walk.

Gina K Fearless Flyers-sentiment

Inks: 

Gina K ocean mist and jelly bean green

Versafine onyx black

Colored pencils to color the fussy cut birds.

This card was stamped using Gina K's Tropical Blooms set. Thank you Mona S. for giving me this stamp and dies set along with the whole kit: the Hearts & Flowers StampTV Kit from January 2018. It's so much fun stamping these flowers!

Inks:

Gina K bubblegum pink, passionate pink, jelly bean green, fresh asparagus

Versafine onyx black

Using heavy weight white cardstock (I think from Hobby Lobby?) we stamped the butterflies with Versamark ink. Then used white embossing powder and heat set the butterflies.

We used wrinkle free distress technique by dabbing three distress inks onto a craft sheet

broken china, blueprint sketch and wilted violet.

We spritzed the inks with water. Then we placed our paper on top of the inks, lifted the paper and then dabbed the edges of the paper back into the inks a few more times to get color on the edges.  We set these layers aside to dry. When dry, Lynette placed some big acrylic blocks on top of these to try and flatten the paper. Then we used thin foam tape to adhere to our white cardstock base.

Thank you for visiting!

Wishing you Peace and all good!

Fluttering Fall Stamp and Stencil Bundle

I treated myself to Gina K's Fluttering Fall Stamp and Stencil Bundle. Found Gina's YouTube tutorial Washi Tape Background Technique and a Fluttering Fall Card Idea very helpful. Gina gives excellent advice on cutting the stencils out first and using removable tape to keep the cutout in place on your work surface. Then it is easy to center the stencil. I kept my flowers simple-using only 2 ink colors, a light color first, with the larger stencil. Then a darker color for the smaller stencil. I omitted the circle oval and the dotted center stencil parts as shown in Gina's video only. This was a totally new technique of adding color with the stencil. I look forward to using more of the stencil parts next time.

Instead of using Gina's washi tape background, I made a faux woodgrain background that I learned from Gina's Creating an Ink Blended Window Scene - Stamp and Chat Live Replay. Scroll to about 18:31 minutes to see how she swipes an inkpad over scored cardstock to look like planks of wood. I used white paper and distress antique linen ink on this card.

For the butterfly I used distress shaded lilac, distress wilted violet, distress and a Gelly Roll 08 white pen for the dots.

For the leaves and twig: GK jelly bean green, GK honey mustard

The sentiment is from Gina K's Original Wreath Builder stamp set. 

Butterfly:  GK sea glass and tranquil teal

Flower same as above, but added dots with Gelly Roll 08 white pen.

Leaves: ink blended the GK jelly bean green first then added a touch of GK tranquil teal to give the leaves a two-tone look, see minute 44:00 in her YouTube video.

Sentiment; Love and prayers, are 2 stamps from Gina's Fluttering Fall Stamp set. 

Butterfly: distress mustard seed and dried marigold

Woodgrain:  distress weathered wood

Butterfly: distress spun sugar, GK bubblegum pink

Thank you stamp is from Hero Arts Message Circles LP114

Woodgrain: distress tumbled glass

Flower: GK wild dandelion, honey mustard

Single pair of leaves from GK Sketched Flowers

Enjoy and shadow die from GK Time to Coast Kit

"because it's the day you were born" sentiment from GK Enjoyable Greetings

Woodgrain: distress pumice stone

Thank you so much for visiting! Stay safe and healthy!

Peace and all good!

Started with Block Stamping

 

Here are some birthday cards I made:
Two Z fold cards, continuing to use up flower photos.
The map and boat card was not my idea. I CASE'd it from Lynette.

Experimented with "block stamping" by dabbing ink pads onto an acrylic block then spritzing with water. Inspiration from Cathy at Maine Mountain Stamper. She used markers to "color" the acrylic block. I used distress inkpads because I liked those colors.

The green card base is 4-1/4 by 11 inches, scored at 5-1/2 inches and 8-1/4 inches. I cut 3 pieces of white cardstock, 2-1/4 by 3-3/4 inches.

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Marvelous Morning Glory.    Using ballet blue ink, I stamped off  for the first impression for the fuller part of the flower. Then used ballet blue again  "full strength" for the detailed part of the flower. Same idea for the leaves using wild wasabi ink.  I stamped some tiny irregular dots in the center of the panel of flowers with SU's old Itty Bitty Background stamp. Used SU's Simple Sketches Happy Birthday stamp in ballet blue and added the little bird from SU's Feathered Hope.

Stamps: SU's Beautiful Friendship and Watercolor Minis using SU's wild wasabi and distress worn lipstick and dried marigold.  Not sure which SU set the "happy day" stamp is from?

Here is the guy card I CASED from Lynette's card. 

Stamps: Prima #572594 Seashore (a very tiny little clear acrylic stamp set), Sentiment from Tim Holtz cling set: Saying Stuff, SU Old World Map, that I embossed with Zing white opaque finish embossing powder.

Here are the block stamping cards. I used off  white cardstock from my stash. It has a laid finish. It's a little thicker than the Georgia Pacific 110 lb. that I use. I may try this technique with watercolor paper or a watercolor layer because the card front warped a little. I used 3 colors on this  card: distress spiced marmalade, fossilized amber and salty ocean.  It was difficult trying to tap ink in the middle. I put a piece of paper down on the bottom third of the block to keep that part clean. The very bottom of the color block did not seem to get enough water. One does not know what the result will be...keeping it kind of fun. 

Stamps: SU's Petal Prints (flower) and Denami Designs (sentiment) stamped in Versafine onyx black.

Here I switched to just 2 colors of ink, Salty ocean and crushed olive. Much easier to do. I would like to try and make a scene card with these colors...sky above and green grass below.

I probably did not add enough water for this block stamping? Instead of throwing it out, I thought little houses, trees and clouds from SU's Good Neighbor's set would be fun and funky? What do you think?

Thank you for visiting! I hope you have a wonderful day! Stay safe from covid!

Script Beautiful Friendship

 

Here are three cards I made for September's anniversaries. My inspiration came from Ingrid L's floral card that I saw on Pinterest. I really liked the way she used her script stamp with the flowers.

Now for a closer look...

The card base is cream cardstock with a laid finish from my stash. 

Stamps: Stampin' Up!'s Beautiful Friendship and Botanicals (script); Hero Arts Ribbon Message Stamp & Cut (sentiment stamped and die cut)

Inks: Stampin' Up! Going Grey, Pretty in Pink, Rose Romance, Certainly Celery on the first 2 cards. Switched to Wild Wasabi on the third card.

Thanks so much for visiting! Hope you are having some happy moments this week! Stay safe from Covid!

Anniversary Beautiful Friendship Cards

I continue to enjoy making cards with the Stampin' Up! Beautiful Friendship set that my friend gave me. Here are two anniversary cards.

On the second card I fussy cut the roses and attached with dimensional foam. The banner is made with the Hero Arts' DC184 Ribbon Messages Stamp & Cut set.  This Hero Arts die cuts perfectly every time, unlike some other brands of dies. I avoid the dies where the paper sticks inside and you need to poke the pieces out with a pin.

INKS: 
Distress - wilted violet, scattered straw, dried marigold
Stampin' Up! - almost amethyst, certainly celery, pretty in pink, rose romance

STAMPS: 

Stampin' Up!, Stampablities, Hero Arts 

Thank you so much for visiting! Stay safe from Covid!

More Z-Fold Cards

I am still making Z-Fold cards inspired by Hetty and Tricia from Card Scrap here and here. I omitted the narrow Z-Fold strip on these cards. Used some old flower garden photos. 

By mistake I cut this card 4 inches high.  The folded size of this card is 4 inches high by 5-1/2 inches wide. It should have been 4-1/4 inches high. I forgot to take  photos before writing in some of these card. So I blurred that out.

Stamps

 Michael Strong: Mini Cloisonne Wings, Mini Cloisonne Shapes

Stampin' Up!-Watercolor Trio, Thanks from the heart

Verses Rubber Stamps-vertical Happy Birthday

Inks

Stampin' Up!-wild wasabi, certainly celery, bashful blue, primrose petals

Stamps
Stampin' Up!-Wild Rose, Watercolor Trio (sentiment)
PrintWorks (sentiment)

Inks
Stampin' Up!'-primrose petals, certainly celery, wild wasabi

I applied Tombow light blue marker #491 directly to the flower stamps. Then applied a slightly darker blue #452 to the edges of the flower. Huffed then stamped. The blue was still very light, so I added darker blue with a coloring pencil.

Stamps
Stampin' Up!-Watercolor Trio, Watercolor Minis,Santa Rosa

Inks
Stampin' Up!-wild wasabi, ballet blue
Distress-tumbled glass, shaded lilac

Thanks so much for visiting. Please stay safe and healthy!