Watercolor Flowers & Stenciling

Good afternoon. In case you didn't already know this, there is a fun challenge going on over at CAS Mix Up. This month's theme is Stamping + Stenciling and your choice of some other options.

Additional options are listed on the right side bar over at CAS Mix Up.

Here's my entry:

 

Yet another effort with the water coloring. 

 

Rubbernecker Layered Poppy Set 860 (bought in Florida on our last visit). Gansai Watercolors to create a background, then  stamped the outline using Memento Nautical Teal. Used Zig brush markers over the solid stamp included with the set, spritzed with water, inked the image.

 

- Used TH Flourish Stencil to add some dimension using Gold Viva Décor paste.

 

- the sentiment (which came from 2 different clear sets, and I don't remember which!) was placed on a stamp, inked with Nautical Teal. The focal piece is mounted on white fun foam, and adhered to a white card base which had been embossed with an old Darice EF.

 

Our family has a lot of summer birthdays, so this will take care of a June one!

 

I do hope you'll have time to join in with the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge for April. There's some AWESOME inspiration posted.

A lovely sunny warm day here in my area. Hope it's nice where you may be this afternoon too. Thanks for coming by to visit. Hugs & Blessings.

Happy Birthday Kim!

Hi ya! Over at the HLS Blog, one of our sweetest DT members is having a Big Milestone Birthday! So there's a party going on over at Kylie is addicted to Stamps to help Kim celebrate.

 

 

Kim always shares some super brightly colored, brilliantly designed, CAS cards. So I thought I'd try to do my version of CAS, with a little bright. I hope Kim likes it!

 



 

 

- Side fold, white card, trimmed off the right edge of the card front. Using Distress Inks in Blue Spruce and Blueprint Sketch, sponged layers onto the white cut-off piece. After getting the depth of color desired, brushed Perfect Pearls over top of the ink, then burnished well. This created a pretty sheen. Added a scant white mat behind this blue piece.

- Zig Clean Color brush markers were scribbled on a piece of watercolor paper, spritzed and let dry.
Stamp TV had a recent video with Embossing over watercolor, which I had tried. Some of my efforts were not the greatest, as I didn't leave enough white space. A recent PTI scribble flower die worked great over this background and the bright colors show nicely against the white & blue of this card. Also used a sentiment die to cut from the same background. Debated on some pearls or sequins, decided to leave things alone.

Oh yes, a bit of Washi tape as a border. CAS is NOT easy for me!  So do please help us wish Kim a big, big Happy Birthday. You'll find the linky tool at Kylie is Addicted to Stamps, and the birthday bash is open from March 20 for 2 wks. See ya there!!!

Altenew Botanicals and Watercoloring

Good Morning...Happy Wednesday. We're supposed to have a 76F temperature day, but our sunshine is in & out.

Two of my good blog friends have started a new challenge here (Bonnie & Loll) and Our Darnell has NBUS Challenge #6 going on. So I've tried to find time each day to make 'something' that would fit in these challenges;  each day something would come up to delay my good intentions.

This is one of those cards that _should_ have been so easy. Tried several different times working with watercolors and this pretty Altenew Botanical image - each one was a bust. Finally got one I could go with, so here it is:

 

 

- Altenew Botanical Clear flower was embossed with Ranger's Gold on Bristol Smooth paper (it's quite like watercolor paper, except a smooth surface). First effort, created the water colored background & stamped, embossed. Decided the flower blossom should not have the background colors. Restamped the flower first; masked it with the Molotow masking pen, which I'd used before with good results. Did a background watercolor wash with Kuretake Gansai Tambi  watercolors which I'd had for about 6 months**, unopened. Results were good, but when I removed the masking, the flower blossom was mottled with the blue ink of the masking fluid. The mask rolled up fine, but it appeared that the fluid had absorbed into the paper. This pen came from another source than did the first pen I had used & had been used on Copic Xpress paper.

 

Anyway, this 3rd effort worked better - stamping and embossing, no masking, just creating the water color washed background.... and at the last minute, decided to use Zig Brush markers to color the flower Lilac.

 

- Die cut with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Frames. This is one of those times I didn't look at the die as closely as should have, and discovered it cuts out an inner layer with a stitched frame. Worked great for what I wanted, but something to remember. (I probably won't!). Used the outer stitched frame, and then popped up the inner portion on white fun foam.

 

- Elizabeth Craft dragon fly cut from 2 different snippets of previously created backgrounds, using sprays, brushos or something of the sort.

 

- The motif was layered on a white rectangle- which is just a bit creamier shade than was the card base. I liked the slight contrast. Layered onto a top fold plain white card base. As I looked at the plainness (let's call it CAS, shall we?) I thought about doodling a frame around the base card using a lilac marker. Folks, I was just too afraid that I'd mess  it all up! Like I said, this is one of those cards that really should have been an easy, no brainer. Didn't happen that way!

 

**Lesson learned from not opening packages, instead just tucking away to look at later. When I opened the Gansai Tambi box, several of the pans were broken. I'm guessing this happened in shipping, as I know I didn't drop the box. Set was ordered from Amazon when after seeing the product on some Youtubes. Since it's been a while ago, I can't contact Amazon to complain about the broken blocks of color. They will still work ok, but it's something to remember. Check out your packages when they arrive....don't just stack on Mount NBUS as I've done.  

 

 I'd like to enter this CAS card, with the mixed media techniques:  Stamping, Heat embossing, water coloring, & die cutting over at the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge. This challenge is open for 15 more days, and already has lots of fabulous entries.

 

 

 

Also would like to submit to the NBUS #6 which closes in one more day!

 

 

 

 

Both these are fun challenges hosted by some fantastically talented cardmaking bloggers, so I hope you'll find time to join in the fun!

 

Thanks for popping in. Hugs

Crazy Bird Watercolor with Bleeding Art Tissue

Happy Sunday! It's another sunny hot one around here, but not quite so hot as yesterday, and perhaps not quite so humid. Still pleasant to be in the air conditioning though, and be quiet.

I've been trying to finish up some UFO's. Had seen this Eileen Godwin video using bleeding tissue paper to make a background, and thought How Neat! Ordered some of this art tissue, and finally had a little play. Not too successful with the outcome, so of course have to rewatch the video. This effort is about the 3rd time I tried it. Still not pleased, so used the reverse side to stamp the THoltz Crazy Bird that is all over Blogland. Embossed the black stamping with clear, and used the Zigs on CB. (thanks to a blogger who asked me what CB means. sorry 'bout that. I got lazy and was just typing CB instead of spelling out Crazy Bird each time!) The paper seemed too 'coarse' to blend the inks well, and I had trouble with waterlines. It was 140# watercolor paper. Put it aside and did another one with better results (will be a later project). In the course of moving things around on the desk, CB and the leftover turned up again. Hmmm...perhaps if I used some turquoise tissue, and did the bleeding bit again, might that help? Here's the result. I really do hate to let something defeat me, and end up in the trash. I'll have to be selective as to who gets this bird. Not everyone I know will think he's cute!

- Diecut CB with a stitched circle die (probably MFT)...added a little grounding for him. Used Glossy Accents on his tail feathers, google eyes, scrawny legs and beak (sort of wished I'd left it off the beak).

- Embossed the salvaged bleeding art background with an EF that has bird motifs on it. Added some double stick tape to the circle area, and inlaid CB back into it.

- White snippets (3 layers) for the Momenta die sentiment, adding Glossy Accents.

- Amuse bird in flight die (2 layers) from another small white snippet and called this UFO done. I will have to work on this bleeding art tissue technique. I'm tempted to try it with just some 'regular' tissue paper and see if that works at all. I'd be interested if you've tried the technique and how your experiments worked.

If you have time - do check the Cards by Friends page as there is a beautiful new card, that I had forgotten to add.

We're hoping to attend the Stampaway USA & perhaps get to meet a lovely blogger friend. So I'm working to get some card commitments finished, posts written & scheduled, and of course - the dread housework. If anyone else is planning to go to Stampaway, please do let me know. It would be great to meet face-to-face. (oh yes, for those who worry about my commenting on trips, we have somebody stay & a burglar alarm - along with neighbors who keep an eye on each other! Else I would not say anything on the blog).

Thanks for joining me this afternoon...and hope your weekend has just been terrific. Hugs.

PS..I see that the Snippets Playground Week 188 has opened the gates, so I'll meander over and join in the fun. After seeing all the wonderful cards already shared, I'm a bit hesitant to take Crazy Bird over. Ah, well, all those ladies are sweet and will let me in to play along. There's a lovely stamp set for some lucky person too. C'mon!

Sparkle N Sprinkle Anniversary

Happy afternoon and hope that all had a good weekend. Ours was quiet, but very pleasant. Had a few little rain storms. Today's card will be for Mr. and our anniversary which is coming up soon. (52 if you're interested! And they said it would NEVER last!) It's a lovely stamp purchased from Sparkle N Sprinkle while we were in South Florida at Christmas. I must say that every stamp purchased from SnS has always stamped out just splendidly for me - and I'm not the greatest stamper on the planet. The rubber is etched quite deeply and gives a sharp crisp image. (and no, I'm not paid to say this LOL)

But first let me give a warm welcome to 2 lovely new followers. I hope you'll take time to pop over for a little visit and let these ladies know I sent you over to say Hey.

Brenda of Stamping as Fast as I Can

Carol of Inky Fingers

Here goes for today's card:

 

- SnS Just a Note Tulips (also available in digi format). Recently received the Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush watercolor markers - thanks to some great enabling by Friend Lynn. Was waffling about whether to yet buy another product, when Lynn told me how pleased she was with these markers. Had them in a cart at Amazon, and yikes, the price had gone up slightly from when I was first considering. After hearing from Lynn how easy these were to use, placed the order. Took a few weeks to arrive as these shipped from Japan. Now I'm not very good with watercolors, but I keep trying. These markers were the easiest of any water color product I've tried to use so far.

 

Image was stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black on Strathmore 140# watercolor paper, and then clear EP to heat emboss so the ink didn't smear. No fancy shading was done. Wet each tulip first, then put down a bit of marker color at the base of each bloom. Used a regular dampened brush (not the aqua brushes) - to draw the color upwards. Touched the marker again at the base to add some deeper shading, pulled upwards. My next effort will be better (!), but I'm pretty happy with this one.

 

- S/B Divine Eloquence cut the panel and a 2nd layer was cut for the card backing using a top hinge method. While the image was in the die, used Memento Danube Blue & a finger dauber to add some highlights around the edges. Tiny pearls were colored with a dark blue copic marker to complement the inking.

 

- SU sentiment stamped with Danube Blue, die cut with an MFT Xstitch rectangle, and that's it. I would enter this in the SnS Monthly challenge, but didn't add any glitter or sparkle so the card is not eligible {sigh}. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

Had shared earlier that we were doing some 'fixits' round the house. So here's a couple pictures of what Mr. did on the front of the house (the front door and shutters were previously a pretty deep forest green & now I'm wondering why I didn't pick the current colors in the beginning!). Also a few pictures of what it looked like around here last evening when we were sitting in the swing, enjoying some nice breezes.

 

Thanks for joining me this afternoon, and hope you enjoy the pictures. I always love to see those shared by all the other bloggers that I visit. Blessings & Hugs.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Lighted flag hanging on an old house mailbox that we found at a New England flea market

 



Lighted garden flag that is on the inside of the front window by the door. Has batteries in it, so we didn't want to hang it where it would get in the rain.

 

Easter Lily that survived being left on the back deck, over the winter. Was meant to be dumped, and in the spring, we noticed the sticks had buds. It has the most wonderful fragrance, but the yellow stamens can certainly stain clothing.

 

 



Another Floating Inlaid Die Watercolor

Hello. Still on my finishing UFOs roll, and here's the 2nd card I did with the floating die technique I saw on a Catherine Pooler Floating Inlay die video.

- Stamped the image with Versamark, embossed with white EP. Used Tim Holtz watercolor markers in shades of yellows to color. The photo looks quite washed out, IRL it looks more intense.
I didn't position the watercolor image properly to insert it behind the cutout on the stripe paper just right for the petals to fit. So....after watching Catherine's 2nd video, where she used acetate, I partially trimmed the w/c paper portion, adhered to some clear packaging acetate, and made it fit into the space as it needed to go. Worked just fine. Whew! However, where the 2nd flower is placed, there was just a slight gap.

Decided to color the image that had been fussy cut from the strip dp, and use it to cover the gap. This was done with Copic Yellow markers with a red fine line pen to outline the stamping. When I was placing the 2nd flower, the stripes were matching the card front. However as I was photographing, I noticed I had not placed it in line with the stripes when I stuck it down. Too late to pull it up (I did try :-0), but it was down pretty good. Decided to leave it as is, and call this my Amish touch (you know, when a quilt is made, there is a deliberate flaw...if you're a quilter, I'm sure you've heard of this!). At least the wonky stripe patterns make it stand out a bit.

Oh yes, the sentiment was done with the Sizzix Adventure set of dies...quite a few in the set. There is pale yellow c/s behind it, and I saved the bits from the stripe dp die cut, to add back in the letters d,s,o,e. It looks quite odd otherwise.

One more UFO done except for the insert! Thanks for your visit and come again when you can. Blessings.

Floating Inlaid Embossed Watercolor Flower

Good evening, and welcome. We are back from our little adventure, and I'll tell you all about it, after this card:

 

 

Recently saw this video done by Catherine Pooler on doing what she called  Floating embossed inlay. Thought I'd give it a try and this is my version.

 

- Believe this was a Hero Arts wooden stamp, inked with versamark, stamped on watercolor paper. Heat embossed with White EP.  Used Tim Holtz w/c markers to color the petals, because the recipient is someone who excels at watercolor. She was the inspiration for this effort (and she will know who she is). Stamped the same image on DP, hand cut the image out of the dp to create the aperture. Very carefully fitted the watercolor image behind the aperture.

 

- Avery Elle die to create the sentiment. The base card is pink - saved the 'bits' from the die cut to add back into the h, e, l,l & o, as it looks quite odd with those parts missing. This was a little out of my comfort zone, as I'm rather rubbish with watercolors, also had never done the die cutting effect this way.

 

Now - to share our little adventure with you. We found out that Our Darnell was making a family visit to a small North Carolina town that is a few hours north of us.  It was an opportunity to meet this fabulous lady who is renowned in Blogland, and was  one of my very first encouragers when I started blogging. Another surprise visitor who showed up was Bonnie K,  another quite well known card-making blogger, who also has been so kind, friendly & supportive of my efforts. It was something that I didn't want to miss, but with the DH's health situation, it was chancy until the last moment, hoping nothing happened to ruin the plans. Because we had never traveled in this part of North Carolina, we decided to leave on Monday afternoon, drive up leisurely and find our meeting place. DH suggested we have lunch at Scrapbook Creations which is on the route we take to NC. Of course I had to have a browse around in the store, and visit with some of the staff.

 

We got to meet Darnell's lovely sister Diana, and had a brief visit on Monday afternoon. Said our goodbye, as D&D had some commitments, & we headed to another nearby little town to find lodgings for the night. On Tuesday Bonnie & her sweet DH drove down to join in the fun. After visiting a bit at Diana & Darnell's pad, we all went to lunch at a lovely restaurant. Here's a few pictures Darnell emailed this evening, and hopefully I will share some more in a later post. Can you tell we are having such fun getting to meet face-to-face?

 

 

Bonnie & Darnell

Mary & Bonnie

Bonnie, Bruce, Diana, Joe, Mary (Darnell took the photo)

Joe H. & Bruce K., our sweet hubs

Diana is a photography whiz, and she took most of the pictures. They will be joined by 2 other sisters tomorrow for a Sisters' Retreat. Doesn't that sound just wonderful?

 

Let me just say that it was such a delight to meet these ladies who have been my inspiration on so many occasions - with the beautiful work that they both do - and find out that they are just as lovely & kind as I knew them via Blogland. This is one of the most unexpected Blessings of this Blogging business. It's always rewarding to get to know each of you via Blogland, email, etc, but then when the chance to meet face-to-face  happens, it's just so unbelieveably incredible.

 

Thanks for joining me this evening. I'll do my best to get round to visit all those of you who left comments on the Penny Black birthday card, and hopefully can make a start on that tomorrow.

Have a great evening, God Bless.



Watercolor

Hello & thanks for popping by to visit. My morning got started very late and it was delightful to just doze as long as I wished. Talk about lazy.

There's a water theme going on this week at Jo's Scrap Shack for the Friday Funday Challenge #12 and I wanted to play along. I also wanted to use the Rising Bubbles stamp on the project. I like the look of all the water color cards that I see done with different w/c media, so pulled out the Ranger Distress Markers to give it another go. Slightly wet the water color paper and laid down some blue, lavender & greeny shades as I saw on this video. Unfortunately my attempt didn't turn out so well as Darlene's did!  I made this card instead, with my trusty copics to submit to the FFC #12.

My usual practice with an effort that I feel was a total failure is to let it hang around on the desk for a few days. Decided to cut this watercolor attempt into pieces to see what possibly be salvaged.