Hi everyone. This card is a reminder for the CAS Stencil August Challenge. There's only a week left to play along before the challenge closes.
This month is hosted by Robyn, and she wants us to use sprays through a stencil for our cards.
I used a new-to-me stencil to create a beautiful kaleidoscope of butterflies soaring through the air. I added some magical powders to a mister to create a spray for the stencil. It turned out well, but very soft purple, with lots of liquid, so I sprinkled more powder over top. Once completely dry, I tapped off the excess powder so the background remained white.
I added a clear heat embossed black sentiment on a torn vellum banner to finish the card.
Close-up ...
We are joined by our wonderful Guest Designer, Hilary and Amy this month. Check out the reminder post to see their beautiful sprayed stencil card, along with the amazing cards from our designers.
I just love this smiling snowman from Penny Black. You can't help but smile looking at him! :) I pulled a background out of my stash that hadn't worked out. I had heat embossed a snowflake background stamp with iridescent glitter embossing powder. Then added a light wash of gray. Awful! :) Turns out I used regular card stock, so had to be careful not to add too much water. I sprayed with blue and purple watercolour sprays a couple of times to get lots of depth of colour. They go quite dull on regular card stock, so then sprayed with a shimmer mist. Still not happy. :) Brushed on a coat of Heavy Gloss Gel. Now I was happy. Cut the background in half and made two cards exactly the same; one for my stash and one to donate. Snowman was heat embossed in silver, fussy-cut and watercolour with the same sprays used for the background. I used a metallic silver pen to add stripes to his hat and scarf.
Here's the close-up ...
I hope you'll check out the challenge blog to see the reminder cards from our wonderful Guest Designer Barb and the CAS Christmas Designers. Come join us!!
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Stamps: Snowy (Penny Black); Snowflake Background (Hero Arts); Say It's Christmas (Clearly Besotted) Paper: Mixed Media paper for Snowman (Strathmore 140 lb.); White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.) Ink: Versamark; Blue and Purple Watercolour Sprays made from Concentrate (Dick Blick); Light Pink Zig Accessories & Tools: Iridescent embossing powder (SU!), Shimmer Spray (Imagine), Silver embossing powder, heat tool, paint brush, silver metallic pen
I'm not sure if my sentiment is a verse, but I do love this sentiment and it gets me singing the song. :)
I started with a background coloured with Magicals. I LOVE this colour (Tibetan Poppy Teal). I stamped a snowflake background over top and heat embossed in iridescent embossing powder. I used the background to create two cards with the same design. I will keep one for my stash and the other will be donated.
I used a NBUS die that I've only had a short while. I love how it frames the background and adds a few trees for interest. The sentiment is heat embossed in silver.
The magicals have a shimmer and shine like no other. It doesn't come across in the photos unless I tilt the panel so the light catches the shimmer.
Here's a close-up ...
Come play along with this fun challenge. The DT have provided beautiful, inspirational cards. The challenge is open until noon on Sunday (PST).
Hi everyone. Sharing two cards that are the same except for the die-cut and sentiment. After a card class I had a few weeks ago, there was a left over piece of watercolour sprays on mixed media paper. This is a combination of several colours ... I believe red, brown, magenta and a little gold on top. I love the dramatic look of these colours together.
Two easy cards where I just cut my already sprayed piece of mixed media paper in half to create a panel for each card. Backed it with a piece of black card stock that was only about 1/8" bigger, creating a very thin frame. Added a black die-cut (this is a longer die-cut, but I just ripped off the bottom few leaves), and stamped a simple sentiment.
Here's a close-up of both cards ...
and ...
Thanks for coming by for a visit!
Stamps: Thanks Sentiment - Where Your Heart is (Simon Says Stamp); Happy Birthday Sentiment - Penguin Party (Create a Smile) Paper: Mixed Media paper (Strathmore 140 lb. 400 series); Black (Stampin' Up!); White (Neenah 110 lb.) Ink: Black (Memento) Accessories & Tools: Sprays made from Liquid Watercolour concentrate (Dick Blick), Flower Frolic die (Penny Black); Meadow Leaf die (Poppy Stamps)
Hi everyone. Sharing a card I sent to a friend who has had a very tough summer. I wanted to send her some sunshine to brighten her day. :)
I started with yellow watercolour sprayed background. I die-cut the sunflower from watercolour paper and then used inks to colour. I altered the die-cut slightly by cutting off two petals and rearranging them. I framed the sunflower and stamped a sentiment (masking two sentiments to create this one) in one of the colours of the sunflower to finish the card.
Thanks for stopping by for a visit!
Stamps: A Little Sentimental (Clearly Besotted); Sunny Sentiments (Amy R) Paper: Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. cold press); White (Neenah 110 lb.) Ink: Distress Inks: Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn (Tim Holtz) Accessories & Tools: Sunflower die (AliExpress), Rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Yellow Watercolour Spray made from concentrate (Dick Blick)
Hi everyone. Today's card is another using watercolouring with salt. I have watercoloured a piece of white tissue paper using watercolour sprays (magenta and orange). I quickly added some kosher salt on top and let the piece air dry. The salt reacted with the watercolour, absorbing some of the colour and creating little star bursts. So pretty!
I glued the tissue to a piece of white card stock and cut two squares. I splattered the pieces with diluted gold pigment ink (Delicata) and then layered them onto my card front. A piece of white card stock was coloured with more of the Delicata ink and then cut into the flower branch and placed on top. A simple thanks stamp finishes the card.
This month's challenge at CAS Watercolour is to use Salt. I hope you'll check out the reminder post to see more inspiring cards using salt from our Design Team, and talented Guest Designer, Ros.
Also playing along with Just Us Girls this week. There's lots of shine from the gold splatters, flower sprig and sentiment.
Stamps: Lots of Thanks (Simon Says Stamp) Paper: White (Neenah 110 lb. card stock); white tissue paper Ink: Watercolour Sprays from Concentrate: Magenta, Orange (Dick Blick); Delicata Gold ink (Tsukineko) Accessories & Tools: paint brush, water mister, kosher salt, Lavish Branch die (Memory Box)
Hi everyone. Happy Canada Day to all! Canada is the big 1-5-0 this year!! :)
Not only is today Canada's birthday, but it's the start of a new challenge at CAS Mix Up. Bonnie is hosting this month's challenge and has come up with a FANTASTIC challenge ...
I have been experimenting with watercolouring on tissue paper for the past couple of weeks. I have found that tissue paper works with many colour mediums that can be diluted with water. It's easy to do and you don't need expensive watercolour paper.
I have created a video tutorial about how I watercolour with tissue paper, along with several techniques for using the watercoloured tissue. Check out the video below, or click HERE to watch it on YouTube. Please give me a thumbs up if you found the video helpful. :) Thank you!!
For the card above, I used watercolour sprays on tissue paper to create this colourful background behind a flower heart die-cut card front. Love the mix of colours. I'll post the other three cards from the video in a few days with details on what I used to make them.
We're excited to have Sue (Sue's Card Craft) as our Guest Designer this month at CAS Mix Up. Welcome Sue!! I hope you'll find some time to check out the challenge blog to see the beautiful CAS mixed media tissue paper cards from Sue and the rest of our talented Design Team.
The challenge is open until July 24th. I hope you'll create a CAS card with tissue paper and come join us!
Edited to add: I'm heading over to Just Us Girls to help celebrate their 400th challenge - WOW! Congrats to the DT!!
Stamps: Thoughtful Messages (Simon Says Stamp) Paper: White card base (Neenah); White tissue paper Ink: Watercolour sprays: orange, yellow, magenta, turquoise (Dick Blick); Versamark Accessories & Tools: water mister, Heart of Flowers die (Simon Says Stamp), black embossing powder, heat tool
My grand-doggie turned 1 on April 15th. Jer and Alex hosted a party at our place so that the dogs had a yard to play in. Worked really well as the day was sunny and dry so they did spend some time outside.
I had so much fun making this card for Violeta's Birthday. I watercoloured the digi image using my zigs, trying to get as close to her colour of fur as possible. And, of course, the balloon had to be purple! :) Not sure if Violeta appreciated the card Nana made, but Jer and & Alex did. It's a little keepsake for them.
My friends Susan and Christine attended the party with three of their four dogs. This is the usual group of dogs that get together for a play day while Susan, Christine and I get to play with ink. It was Tessa's 1st birthday the week before Vi's, so I made her a card as well. Again, not sure Tessa thought much of it, but her mom Susan liked it. Tessa is white with sand coloured spots so I tried to keep her colours on the dog below. :)
And one more card for another friend of Vi's that is turning one ...
I had fun making the doggie cards. :) Hope you enjoyed seeing them.
Here's a picture of the princess getting ready for the party. She wanted to wear pearls for the special event, but they only lasted about five minutes before they were off and left somewhere in the back yard. :)
Card 1: Stamps: Puppy Love (Bugaboo); Sentiment - Happy Birthday (Sentiment Sampler by Paper Smooches) Paper: White card base (Neenah 110 lb. card stock); Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.) Ink: Zigs; Baked Brown Sugar (SU!); Black (Memento) Accessories & Tools: Paint Brush, sponge
Card 2: Stamps: Dog (Chubby Chums by Paper Smooches); Let's Party (Word Salad by Paper Smooches); Party Hat (unknown) Paper: White (Neenah 110 lb. card stock); Pacific Point Polka-dot (SU!) Ink: Baked Brown Sugar (SU!); Zigs Accessories & Tools: Sponge, Glossy Accents
Card 3: Stamps: Dog (Chubby Chums by Paper Smooches); Sentiment - Happy Birthday (Sentiment Sampler by Paper Smooches); Cupcake (unknown) Paper: White (Neenah 110 lb. card stock); Baked Brown Sugar (SU!) Ink: Black (Memento); Copics for cupcake; Real Red (SU!) Accessories & Tools: Brown Watercolour spray (Dick Blick); Sparkle Texture Effect (Martha Stewart)
Hi everyone. Today I'm sharing another way to mask, which is CAS Mix Up's November challenge.
This time I'm masking a stencil. This can stretch the use of your stencils and you will get a lot more mileage from them. To see what the full stencil looks like, click HERE to see a card I made a few months back.
I used a yellow watercolour spray to add a bit of texture for the background. I wanted to use this flower stencil, but it is large and has five flowers on it. So I masked off three of the flowers and just used two. I sponged the flowers with three shades of distress inks and the stems with one. Then I used my scissors to distress the edges of my main panel. My CAS Mix Up card has stamping, masking, stenciling, sponging, and distressing. :)
There are lots of ways to mask, and I hope you'll make a CAS Masked mixed media card and join our challenge!
Stamps: Chit Chat (Paper Smooches) Paper: White card base (Neenah); Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.) Ink: Distress Inks: Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain (Tim Holtz) Accessories & Tools: Yellow watercolour spray made from Liquid Watercolor Concentrate (Dick Blick), Bloom Group Stencil (cut with my Silhouette Cameo), sponges
Hi everyone. Today I'm sharing several cards I made while filming my latest video tutorial. The tutorial is how I work with Alcohol Inks and Yupo Paper. The card above is a small snippet of one of the pieces I made in the video, and below is a card made with the rest of that piece, along with other cards made from samples from the video.
I show two different techniques (smooshing and dropping inks), and then show another way to add interest and visual texture. Please check out the video below (on YouTube). If you like what you see, please give me a thumbs up!! Thank you!
Notice the texture on the sides of the AI smooshed panel ... made by spraying blending solution once my AI piece was completely dry. Blending solution pushes alcohol inks out of the way to create lighter spots. If the alcohol ink is still wet when you add blending solution, they will flow together and eventually blur. But if the AI piece is completely dry before spraying with blending solution, then the droplets will only push out a little bit until there is too much resistance from the dry inks to go any further. It creates a very unique and artsy design. You can see lots of this visual texture on the cards above and below.
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Just a quick reminder that my "Twelve Tags of Christmas" event starts on Monday, Nov. 7th. I hope you'll come back to check out my tags for the twelve days, along with the beautiful tags created by my wonderfully talented Guest Designers. And join the fun by adding one of your mixed media Christmas tags!
I have a HUGE stash of NBUS ... and the pile seems to grow bigger each passing day. I think maybe I need to stop buying for a while, but what is the fun in that??!! :)
This stencil is new-to-me ... just got it a couple of weeks ago and this is it's first time out of the package. I do love stencils! :)
I sponged over top of this stencil in three colours. The colour in the center (Abandoned Coral) has not been used before, even though I've had it for a while. :)
And I think this is the first time I've used black foam behind a die-cut (sentiment), even though I bought the foam a few months ago. :)
Thanks to Darnell, I was inspired to pull out some new (and old) items that have never been used. Come play along and join in the fun! We ALL have NBUS items just waiting for some love. Click HERE to get to the NBUS Challenge #7.
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Just letting you know that I will be MIA for a little while. I'm taking a medical break to deal with some issues. Have been super busy the past few months getting everything organized and cards made ahead for the CAS Mix Up design team. Also managed to get several meals in the freezer, which will make life a little easier for hubby as he'll be on nurse duty for the next little while. :) I expect with his wonderful care, I will be back on-line soon! :)
In the meantime, I have a few scheduled posts that will be going up so you'll be seeing those starting on Sept. 1st with the launch of the next CAS Mix Up challenge.
Hope to be back soon!
Stamps: Sentiment - Bloom Sketches (STAMPlorations) Paper: White (Neenah 110 lb. card stock); Black (SU!) Ink: Distress Inks: Abandoned Coral, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade (Tim Holtz); Black (Memento) Accessories & Tools: Large Flower Stencil - Hero Arts, sponges, shimmer mist, Small hello die (Simon Says), Rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
Hi everyone. Today I'm honoured to be a Guest Designer for Stamp Connection #16 - Brushos.
Tanja (Little Art Cottage) and Cornelia (Fun Stamping) started Stamp Connection just over a year ago. They meet up on-line monthly, alternating who picks the challenge. This time it's Tanja's turn and she picked Brushos. She asked if I'd like to join them as Guest Designer for this challenge and I jumped at the chance. I do love to get inky with Brushos! :)
The card above has been heat embossed in white with a grid stamp on mixed media paper. I then sprinkled turquoise, leaf green and lime green Brushos over top and spritzed with lots of water. I tilted my card front so the colours flowed into each other.
Once dry, I simply added a white die-cut leafy sprig, white embossed black sentiment banner, and a few sequins for sparkle.
Thanks to Tanja and Cornelia for inviting me to join them for this fun challenge.
Both of these card makers are so talented and innovative with their creations. Make sure to drop by to check out their designs and leave them some love.
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Also, this is reminder about the CAS Mix Up August Challenge - Sprays. I used water spray, along with my Brushos to colour the background. The challenge is still open for a few more days, closing Aug. 24th at midnight (PDT). Hope you'll come play along.
Stamps: Grid (Simon Says); Sentiment - Painted Butterflies (Altenew) Paper: Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.); Black (SU!) Ink: Versamark: Brushos: Turquoise, Leaf Green, Lime Green Accessories & Tools: White embossing powder, heat tool, Fresh Foliage die (Memory Box), stylus and mat for shaping leaves, sequins
