Penny Black - Illustrious

Hi everyone.  Today I'm sharing two cards using the Illustrious stamp (40-735).  This is a beautiful bouquet of large leaves and small blooms.  It took me a little while to figure out how I was going to watercolour.

This is an outline stamp.  I started by inking up all the different parts of the image with markers in a variety of colours.  By the time I finished inking the whole image, some parts were dry, but I stamped it onto my mixed media paper anyways.  Then I used a mini mister with water to give a very light, fine mist over top of my stamp.  Mini misters are great for that!  I stamped onto my mixed media paper again.

I then took a wet paint brush and moved some of the colour from the outline to fill in the blooms.  Once finished, the tiny flowers looked like blobs. :)  So I inked up my stamp again, this time one colour at a time and stamped over top to reestablish the outline.  It turned out great.  The only thing that didn't work well was moving colours on the leaves, there just wasn't enough ink from the outline.  So I watercoloured them separately.  Added a happy birthday sentiment (Special Sentiments 30-574), masking off the top line so I just had "happy birthday".

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I'm entering the card above into Seize the Birthday #193 - Watercolouring.

Made a second card using the same beautiful stamp.  This time I stamped the image in black onto white card stock and added a little bit of colour with my zigs.

I wanted a different type of layout, so I cut the image to the size I wanted and then cut the panel into three equal parts to create a triptych.  What a different look with changing up the colours of the image and cutting the image into three.  The sentiment is from a new set called Grown with Love (30-713).

Close-up ...

Thanks for stopping by!

Products
Illustrious (40-735)
Special Sentiments (30-574)
Grown with Love (30-713)

Card #1 - Happy Birthday
Stamps:  Illustrious; Special Sentiments (both from Penny Black)
Paper:  Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.)
Ink:  Stampin' writers:  Gumball Green, Turquoise, Elegant Eggplant (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories & Tools:  paint brushes, mini mister (Ranger)

Card #2 - Especially for You
Stamps:  Illustrious; Grown with Love - sentiment only (both from Penny Black)
Paper:  White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.)
Ink:  Black (Memento); Zigs:  Light Gray, Gray, Geranium Red, Light Violet (Tsukineko)

Challenges:
Seize the Birthday #193 - Watercolouring

Penny Black New Release - Refreshing

Hi everyone.  So excited to be playing with some of the new release from Penny Black - Refreshing.  I'm starting off with some adorable critter cards.  This set is called Plant Joy (30-708),  These sweet images are definitely joyful!! :)

I did all three cards mostly the same.  They are all stamped in black on mixed media paper and watercoloured with distress inks.  The sentiments are all from one new set called Trust me Builder (30-710).  The only difference between the cards are the backgrounds and placement of the images.

I had a lot of fun making these one layer cards.  :)

The first card has a stenciled background made from sponging over a template I cut from the Leaf Pattern die (51-432), which is from a previous release.  I then stamped my image in black and watercoloured using distress inks.

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For the second card, I started by masking off the outside edges of my card to create a border.

I made a cloud template by cutting a small piece of leftover card stock with a row of "bumps" that are all different sizes.  I used that template to sponge my cloudy sky.  Stamped the image in black and watercoloured with distress inks.  Stamped the sentiment and the used a fine black pen to add a hand-drawn frame before removing the masking tape

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The third card started with a stenciled background using a die-cut of the beautiful Creative Curves die (51-611) for my template.

I sponged in light blue and then stamped my image in black.  Again, watercoloured with distress inks and then stamped my sentiment to finish.

Close-up ...

I'll be sharing more cards from this same stamp set in the next while.  Still three more adorable critters that I haven't used yet.  :)


Penny Black Products
Plant Joy (30-708)
Trust me builder stamps (30-710)
Leaf Pattern die (51-432)
Creative Curves die (51-611)

Stamps:  Plant Joy (Penny Black); Trust Me Builder (Penny Black)
Paper:  Mixed Media (Fabriano 140 lb.)
Ink:  Black (Versafine); Distress Inks:  Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon, Tumbled Glass, Brushed Corduroy, Rusty Hinge, Gathered Twigs (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  sponges, paint brushes, red chalk, white gel pen

Rustic Christmas

Hi everyone.   Today's card is another technique that I saw on my friend, Colleen's blog - make sure to check our her cards made with this technique!  She played along with Gina K's video - Carved Wood Technique.  I just loved her cards.  So I watched the video -  and gave it a try.

Happy with how this turned out.  I dry embossed my main panel with a snowflake stencil, turned it over and scored lines every 1/2".  I used the underside with the debossed snowflakes for my main panel.  I did direct to paper with two distress ink pads (Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy), dragging the edge of the ink pads in the direction of the "grain".  I love the warm colour of the "wood" panel.  The ink also reveals the debossed snowflakes.  Cut my panel to size, added a torn snow hill, deer (cut from my Silhouette Cameo several years ago, sponged with gathered twigs and antlers with walnut stain inks).  To finish, stamped the sentiment in red before popping up the whole panel on my card front.

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Another fun technique and another Christmas card made. :)

Sending this card over to June's Rudolph Days Challenge, which is Anything Goes - Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products
Snowflake Stencil (Paper Artsy)

Stamps:  ? (Hero Arts)
Paper:  Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.); White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Antique Linen; Brushed Corduroy; DOX ink:  Candied Apple (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  Snowflake Stencil (Paper Artsy), Scoring tool, sponges,  Deer die-cut (Silhouette Cameo)

Challenges:
June Rudolph Days - Anything Goes Christmas

FadeOut Ink

Hi everyone.  Today I experimented with FadeOut Ink.  I was inspired after seeing my friend Trina's card HERE.  I've had my ink pad for several months .. it might even be a year, but have not used it yet.  Today is the day.  Sending this to the NBUS #15 Challenge. ;)

I stamped my flowers and leaves with FadeOut ink and then watercoloured using Distress inks.  When you watercolour over top of the outlines, they show up in a darker version of ink, similar to what happens when you use Archival Gray Shadow ink.  After a few hours, the lines are completely gone.  It's going to take me a while to get used to this ink, but what a great way to do no-line watercolouring.

I splattered the background with a mix of pink and orange inks that I used to colour the flowers.  Then stamped a large sentiment in soft gray ink.  I thought it needed something to make it look more finished, so added the thin oval frame in light gray to match the sentiment.  Popped the panel up on my card base and done!

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I'm sending this over to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes (optional spots and/or stripes).  This time I have the spots from my splattering! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Products
Flower Collection (Penny Black)
Special Sentiments (Penny Black)
FadeOut Ink (Ink on 3) - SSS

Stamps:  Flower Collection (Penny Black); Special Sentiments (Penny Black)
Paper:  Mixed Media (Fabriano 140 lb.); White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.); Soft Slate (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  FadeOut Ink (Ink on 3); Distress inks:  Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Ripe Persimmon, Picked Raspberry); Gray Shadow (Archival)
Accessories & Tools:  paint brushes, Oval Nestabilities dies (Spellbinder)

Challenges:
NBUS #15 Challenge
Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes (optional:Spots and/or Stripes)

Ink Blending with Warm Colours

Hi everyone.  Playing along with Gina K's videos again.  This time it is ink blending in warm colours with silhouettes.  I have done this before, but it's always nice to play along, especially when I get to use my favourite colours (pink and orange!).

I had a die-cut stitched square of white card stock in my stash from an earlier project.  I ink blended Picked Raspberry, Abandoned coral, Mustard seed on a bit of a slant.  I then inlayed the square into my card front and stamped a leafy sprig and sentiment in black.  Easy, peasy card that has a lot of impact from a small square of colour.

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I'm entering the above card into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes with optional Spots and/or Stripes.  As you can see, no option used this time. :)

Here's a second card with ink blending of warm colours --- this time Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade.

Made the second card with a slight difference.  This time I added a Faux Mother-of-Pearl finish to my white card stock before ink blending.  Once I was finish adding ink, I wiped away any excess from the resist of pearl acrylic paint before making my card.  Used this as a background for a large die-cut flower-filled heart.  Popped up the heart for more dimension and also popped up the white heat embossed black sentiment banner.

The close-up shows more detail of the faux mother-of-pearl finish ...

Products
Nature's Gift (Penny Black)
Eloquence (Penny Black)
Hey Love (Simon Says Stamp)
Many Everyday Messages (Hero Arts)

Thanks for stopping by!

Card #1 - Friends for Life
Stamps:  Nature's Gift (Penny Black); Eloquence (Penny Black)
Paper:  White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.)
Ink: Distress Inks:  Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral, Mustard Seed (Tim Holtz); Black (Memento)
Accessories & Tools: Ink blending tools

Card #2 - Sending Love
Stamps:  Many Everyday Messages (Hero Arts)
Paper:  White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.); Black card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Distress Inks:  Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade (Tim Holtz); Versamark
Accessories & Tools: Pearl (Frost White) acrylic paint (Tsukineko); Ink blending tools; Hey Love die (Simon Says Stamp), white embossing powder, heat tool

Challenges:
Penny Black Saturday Challenge June - Anything Goes

Pencil Colouring on Kraft

Hi everyone.  Three friends of mine are playing along with the Monday videos from Gina K, learning new techniques.  I have been loving the cards I'm seeing from them, so I joined them Monday night and watched as Gina showed how to use coloured pencils on kraft without having to use any blending liquid.  Here is a link to her video Coloring on Kraft Card Stock with Colored Pencils.  Fast forward through the first part where the audio is not good until you get to the actual colouring.  Gina fixes the audio part way through the video.

I only have crumb cake and baked brown sugar card stock from SU!  I don't like the lightness of the crumb cake, so I used the darker colour.  This is darker than kraft, but I'm happy how it turned out.

I stamped my image in black ink.  Used three colours for the petals (magenta, pink, white), three for the leaves (olive, lime, white) and dark green for the stems.

It took me MUCH longer to actually decide on the design than it did to colour the image. :)  In the end I placed a plain piece of brown sugar card stock through the aperture of the white card front with stitched square cut-out.  The card front has been dry embossed with leafy branches, but couldn't capture them in the photo.  The peonies are popped up through the window so they hang outside the edge of the frame.  Sentiment is stamped in black.

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I don't have a good pencil sharpener (more shopping!).  So I ended up colouring over the lines in the center of the petals and leaves.  I had left my image in the Misti, so once I was finished colouring, I restamped the black and heat embossed in clear.  It really made a big difference.

I rarely have time to play along with Just Us Girls, so happy I can this week for their "Frame It!" challenge!

* * * * *

We were lucky to have my mom stay with us last weekend.

She had a good time and got in lots of cuddle time with Jessie.

Jessie loves my mom ... here she is licking (kissing) mom's ear.  It tickled!

Thanks for shopping by!

Stamps:  Perfect Peonies (Clearly Besotted); Essential Sentiments (Maker's Movement)
Paper:  White card Stock (Neenah 110 lb.); Baked Brown Sugar (SU!)
Ink:  Black (Memento); Prisma coloured pencils
Accessories & Tools:  sharpener, Clear embossing powder, heat tool; In & Out Stitched Squares die (My Favorite Things); Leafy Branch embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Challenges:
Just Us Girls - #540 - Frame It!

CAS Challenges June Reminder

Hi everyone.  The above card is a reminder for the CAS Mix Up June Challenge - Embossed Vellum, hosted by Susan.

Susan is our host.

I'm having lots of fun playing with vellum.  An embossing folder (gift from a sweet friend) was used to dry emboss the background.  A piece of acetate was adhered to the back of the dry embossed panel for stability.  The watercoloured flower spray was popped up onto the dry embossed panel, which was popped up over the card base.  A white sentiment banner was slipped in under the edge of the spray with a simple sentiment stamped in soft gray.

This is the first time I've used this embossing folder so I'm adding my card to the NBUS (never-before-used-schtuff) #15 gallery.

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Linda is our host.

CAS Christmas Reminder card ...
The card above is a save.  After watercolouring my image, I stamped a large sentiment with red ink.  I then decided I would cut down the image slightly to make it more CAS. I didn't realize the red ink was not dry yet.  I ended up with blobs of light red ink all over.  I wiped off as much as possible and then cut the image down a lot. :) It turned out OK.

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I hope you'll check out the challenge blogs to see the amazing reminder cards from our Designers and participants.  If you haven't had time to play along, there's over a week left before both challenges close on 24th at midnight PDST.  Come join us!

Products
Floral Arrangement die (Penny Black)
Cross Stitch Embossing Folder (Taylored Expressions)
Bells & Berries (Penny Black)

CAS Mix Up Reminder - Cross-stitched Vellum
Stamps: Happy Messages (Stampendous)
Paper:  Vellum (Stampin' Up!); White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.); Watercolour paper (Arches 140 lb.)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Picked Raspberry, Shabby Shutters (Tim Holtz); Gray Archival Ink (Ranger)
Accessories & Tools:  Cross-stitch embossing folder (Taylored Expressions); Floral Arrangement die (Penny Black), paint brush


CAS Christmas Reminder - Bells & Berries
Stamps:  bells and berries (Penny Black); snowglobe sentiments (My Favorite Things - retired)
Paper:  Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.)
Ink:  Sahara Sand ink (Stampin' Up!)Distress Inks:  Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint, Ripe Persimmon, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, Gathered Twigs, Iced Spruce, Black Soot, Candied Apple (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  Paint brush


Challenges:
CAS Mix Up - Embossed Vellum
CAS Christmas - Bells
NBUS #15

QCAS Card

Hi everyone.  Today's card is a QCAS (as per Darnell), which means it's a quick, clean and simple card.

I used a NBUS (never-before-used-schtuff) die (Tall Sketch Daisies), which are watercoloured with distress inks.  I placed the daisies in the opening of a stitched rectangular aperture and stamped a sentiment in bright green ink undernearth.  Very quick card!

Since my die is NBUS, I'm adding this to the NBUS #15 gallery ...

Close-up ...

You'll have to excuse the photographs ... I had a heck of a time. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Products
Tall Sketch Daisie die (Poppy Stamps)
Rectangle Peek-a-boo Window die (My Favorite Things)

Stamps:  Nouveau Flowers - sentiment (Clearly Besotted - retired)
Paper:  White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Twisted Cirton, Mowed Lawn, Ripe Persimmon, Picked Raspberry (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  Tall Sketch Daisies die (Poppy Stamps), Peek-a-boo Window die (MFT), paint brush

Challenges:
NBUS 15

Twofer Challenge #28

Hi everyone.  Today I'm playing along with the Twofer Challenge #28.  The Designers cards are awesome, make sure to check them out on the Twofer Challenge blog.

This really is a challenge for me because I do get stuck on certain designs / layouts, so I have to think outside the box.  Plus this challenge allows me to also go outside my CAS style.

I used the same circle stencil on both cards.  The first card is a CAS design, Christmas card with a bokeh sky make using the stencil, along with peacock feathers and white inks.

I die-cut the hillsite scene and stamped a sentiment using the same ink as used for the bokeh sky.

Edited to Add:  Entering this into the Christmas Craft Creattions - Christmas Tree Challenge.  Thanks Trina!

The second card is an encouragement card.  I started by masking a border and sponging gold ink through the circle stencil, using only the smaller circles and not filling in completely.  I die-cut and watercoloured my hollyhocks, adding a bit of gold acrylic paint and splattering more over top and over the black panel.  The sentiment is heat embossed in Princess Gold embossing powder which is a perfect match of the yellow gold of the Delicata ink used for the circles.

I had a lot of fun creating these two totally different designs.  I hope you'll come play along and have some fun with the Twofer Challenge as well.

Products
Sloping Hillside die (Poppy Stamps)
Christmas Messages (Hero Arts)
Family Sentiments (Penny Black)

Card #1 - Peace of Earch
Stamps:  Christmas Messages (Hero Arts)
Paper:  White card stock (Neenah)
Ink:  Peacock Feathers Distress Ink (Tim Holtz); White Pigment ink (?)
Accessories & Tools:  Circle stencil (AliExpress), sponges, Sloping Hillside die (Poppy Stamps)

Card #2 - Big Hugs
Stamps:  Family Sentiments (Penny Black)
Paper:  White card stock (Neenah); Black card stock (SU!); Watercolour paper (Arches 140 lb.)
Ink:  Delicata Gold (Tsukineko); Abandoned Coral, Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn Distress Inks (Tim Holtz); Real Red ink (SU!); Versamark
Accessories & Tools:  Circle stencil (AliExpress), sponges, Hollyhocks die (AliExpress), paint bruses, Gold Acrylic paint (Lumiere), Princess Gold embossing powder (Ranger), heat tool

Challenges:
Twofer #28 - Circles / Bubbles
Christmas Craft Creations Challenge - Christmas Trees