Celebrate

On to Day 6 of Stretch Your Stamps 2. Again while downloading and printing the class PDF, I was struck by Debby Hughes' card on balsa wood, the colors she achieved were so striking.  As it was after midnight, another CASE was in order.

I scrounged through my scraps box and found some patterned papers, and some balsa wood...well maybe it was a bit thicker than balsa wood -- it was not happy being die cut, but with a few judicious scissor snips all is good.

I used the same stamp from Clearly Besotted's Fresh Flower set, along with a die from Cottage cuts for the sentiment. The balsa wood really does suck up the ink. I used Spectrum Noir markers, and got some color on the white stamens...but the blender solution on a cotton swab took most of it off. The bits and pieces include a Tim Holtz paper clip, some Hemptique hemp cord, Martha Stewart sequins, Heidy Swapp spray color mist and Stampin Up Pearls.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I am off to bed!

Make Life Beautiful

Today I tackled homework for Day 3.  I was quite taken with Jennifer Rzasa's card. 

She cut up portions of sentiments from the My Favorite Things stamp set Simply Fabulous Sayings, in order to make new sentiments.  She added a collage of stars in a curved line along the length of the card.

I used bits and parts of the sentiments to create mine as well.  I used Elizabeth Designs Bunch of Flowers to die cut the flowers placed for decoration from left over scraps.  Stampin Up pearls were used for flower centers. It took a bit of time to put this one together.

 

For the flowers, I placed them all where I wanted them, and piled them for a particular look.  There was no way I could re-do that with the gluing.  I placed a piece of 2 inch thick post it tape on the flowers, made sure they were all attached to the tape, then flipped the card.  Next I added glossy accents in small bits making sure each flower was dotted with glue.  Then I placed the entire bunch onto the card. Pressing down firmly.  Once the glossy accents dried, I slowly pulled up the tape.   Over hanging petals were trimmed, then pearls were added to some flower centers.

Thanks for stopping by!

I Love Color - Bold Color

Another card made with that left over piece of water coloring from my day 1 homework; for Stretch Your Stamps 2, presented by Online Card Classes.

It too started out as a CASE of one of Kristina Werener's cards.  I put a yellow shadow behind my diecut, and then colored white sticker letters from Kelly Purkey with a yellow wink of stella glitter pen (after determining that yellow embossing powder does not show up on black card stock...maybe if I had stamped in white first...)



Kristina's card is much more clean, one thin strip of color at the bottom, but her card is landscape and mine needed to be vertical to accommodate the water color strips--not to mention the unfortunate embossing issue!  (It's all good.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Day 10 of Watercolor for Card Makers

My second post today.  More free hand paining...yikes.  Well there is one thing that I feel almost comfortable painting free hand and one thing only. A sunflower.  I have one on my craft room wall that I painted with acrylic paints years ago. Again this took a while just to paint, much less dry, mat and add a sentiment; but, it was a peaceful afternoon well spent listening to some soft rock and the light rain outside.

I had the sentiment in mind when I sat down to paint, it is from Simon Says Stamp Color and Sunshine stamp set.  So while normally I would have the "white space" above the flower...in a play on the sentiment, I inverted the image panel.  Simon Says Stamp Sunshine card stock is the perfect card base for this piece as well.

I so loved this class, I know part of it is the medium of the water colors. However, I have to say the class materials - Video (every single class day) were spectacular. So much talent in the group of instructors and guest designers. This class is so worth taking. The galleries and forums remain open to additions until May 22th. 



Thanks for stopping by.

Two more Day 5 and 6

Here are my two latest homework pieces for the amazing class over at Online Card Classes.

Onlinecardclasses.com

 Both for the topic of water coloring stamped images. One is a background piece selectively embossed then colored in a fading fashion and the other is an image which used Luminart Shimmer Mist as my "water".

I was kinda stuck for a background stamp for the Shari Carroll inspired card, then tried this stamp from Hero Arts, it is called Magical Background.  I think those swirls when colored almost look like simplistic roses.  I am quite happy with how it turned out.

Then next image was based on Jennifer McGuire's white embossed floral image and circle die cut. I am not sure I like the free hand cut of the circle, next time I think I would lay down the circle die, mark where it intersects with the flower and leaves, then cut in on those and pull them over the top of the circle and die cut the rest of it, so that is is better proportioned.  Or maybe even a different shape, a square maybe...with that hydrangea's big blooming head, some straight lines might be good.

Still one week to go in this class which is by far one of my most favorites...this one and the stenciling class, hard to decide which one gets top billing...for now it is a tie.  Thanks for stopping by!

Continuing Watercolor Journey

onlinecardclass.com

I am enjoying this class so much, and today I probably made one of my all time favorite cards.  I have two to share, one was from day 4 - watercolor with stamps.  I really need another watercolor type stamp image to get a better product, but this will do.  I wanted to bring out that yellow center, but I am thinking it would look better without the string. Next time...

Today, day 5 I watched an amazing artist at work with watercolors and a stamp. Swarup Murthy made such an incredible water color card using a stamp, watercolors(cake) and some distress ink pads. It was amazing to watch her work and for her images to take shape.  Her blog is here.

It was way out of  my comfort zone, but I had to give it a shot, and eventually I surprised myself. 

Finding the right image took some time...I tossed away 4 other attempts before actually going with this one and finishing it all the way. And it took time...I am so impatient, that I am surprised I stuck it out. I used crayola (cake type) watercolors, and some tube type watercolors to get a nice deep yellow, and some distress ink for the stamp image and sentiment. I will have to revisit this technique. I love this little bit of a card about 3.75 by 3.75 inches.  The photograph does it no justice at all.

The class still runs another week.  If you have ever thought about watercolors and moved mentally on because you do not feel "artistic" think again.  I am in awe of people who can see something in their head and actually translate it to paper.  I do not have that talent at all.  This class makes me feel "artistic".

Thanks for stopping by.

Iron it off!

My first card for our lessons on days 5 and 6 entitled Backgrounds into the Foreground uses emboss resist to create the background, and then the embossing is ironed off so that none of the shine remains. It is a cool way to create a patterned piece.

I chose the Hero Arts Square Pattern Background CG458, and embossed it with clear powder using versamark ink. Then I applied distress inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, and Peacock Feathers to the unembossed areas using a waterbrush.  Then the iron came out (gotta use it for something).

Applying heat with a paper barrier between the iron and the embossed piece removed all the embossing leaving a matte cardstock piece with the coloring intact.  I applied a bold sentiment, that pattern is bold so it needed a statement, from Technique Tuesday called Incredible.

Thanks for stopping by, I will have one more homework item today, but first I must make dinner.