Inset Floral Birthday Card

I made this card for my lovely niece using the Simon Says Stamp Cosmos Stem Wafer Thin Die from the Believe in You collection.  The flowers are inset after being coloured with Copic markers on Neenah Solar White 110 lb. cardstock.  The card base, sentiment , label and ribbon are from Stampin' Up!

This was a really fun card to colour and to put together.  Hope you like it too!

Clean and Simple Holiday Online Card Class

This is a card that I designed for one of the card making classes at the Georgian Bay Cancer Support Centre.  It features layered die-cut snowflakes from the Stampin' Up Snowfall Thinlits set mounted on an embossed white background.  I used the de-bossed side of the cardstock that I created with the Swirls and Curls Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  The silver frame was die cut with the Pierced Rectangle Frames by My Favorite Things.

This second card features snowflakes cut with the Tim Holtz Sizzix Swirly Snowflake collection.  I layered some of the snowflakes and left some flat to create more texture.  The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Merry and Bright clear stamp set.  The fun part of this card comes when you open it to reveal the shadow box scene inside.  The winter scene was made with Lawn Fawn stamps from several different sets.  The scene is framed with more of the Tim Holtz snowflakes.

         

Hope you like them!

Monochromatic Colour Scheme

This is a project I created for a friend.  It will hopefully be inspirational to the recipient who has recently been diagnosed with cancer.  I was going for a soft, restful monochromatic effect.  The background was watercoloured on a sheet of Strathmore Mixed Media paper.  Before applying the watercolour to the paper, I spattered it with Pebeo masking fluid. Once the watercolour was completely dry, I removed the masking fluid dots and then stenciled the tree ring image with an Altenew stencil and a sponge dauber.  I used Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide Ink to ink the stenciled image.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment using a stamp from Woodware Craft Collection Clear Magic entitled "Always Remember" with SU copper embossing powder.  I decided that I wanted to add some ink spatters, so I covered the writing with a simple paper mask.  I used Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Ink and US Art Quest MicaColor copper paint to add the spattering.  The skeleton leaves were stamped with Versamark and embossed with stamps from the Stampin' Up "Rooted in Nature" using SU copper embossing powder on Neenah Desert Storm 100 lb. paper.  After fussy cutting the leaves, I created some dimension by manipulating the paper with my fingers.  The leaves were adhered to the background using liquid glue and dimensional tape.  I added a May Arts Jute Twine bow as a finishing touch.  I trimmed the finished piece to fit in a 5" x 7" frame.

30 Day Colouring Challenge

For anyone who loves to colour, you really should check out Kathy Racoosin's 30 Day Coloring Challenge at her blog, The Daily Marker.  You can join in and post pictures of whatever project you are busy colouring, but you can also get all kinds of inspiration by checking out what other people are doing.  I'm showing a card I made using the Lawn Fawn "Sprinkled with Joy" stamp and die sets.  I actually cased a card made by Nichol Spohr using the same sets.  You can check out her card and video here.  I stamped the components with My Favorite Things Black Licorice Hybrid ink and coloured them with Copic markers.  This was such a fun card to make. 

 

Probably the most endearing feature of the card is that the little oven door opens to reveal the cookie sheet holding tiny cookie images.  I used a piece of acetate to form the window of the oven door and a strip of silver foil cardstock to make the handle.  I just love the die that cuts the tiny dish towel with its little cross-stitch detail.  Here's a closer look:

 

I also used stamps from the set to create the greeting inside the card:

 

 Lots of fun!  Hope you like it too!

Crazy for Hydrangeas

I simply love hydrangeas.  My garden is full of them, but unfortunately, we had a very mild winter last year with an extensive thaw in January.  Hydrangeas don't take kindly to being warmed up and chilled again, so I don't have many blooms this year.  When I first saw this Mondo Hydrangea stamp, which was designed by Julie Ebersole for Essentials by Ellen over at Ellen Hutson, I just had to have it!  Although I bought it quite awhile ago, I'm just getting around to using it now.

I used my Misti to double stamp the beautiful bloom and leaf with Versamark, (I inked and stamped twice in the same spot to get a well defined lines.) and then embossed it with white Tsukineko embossing powder on 100 lb. Bristol paper.  This gave it nice bold white lines, perfect for watercolouring.  Although Bristol paper doesn't handle water as well as actual watercolour paper, it is nice and smooth and therefore takes stamping very well.  It does allow colour to move the way that watercolour paper does, so as long as you avoid "scrubbing" at the surface with your brush, it works well for the technique I wanted to use for this project.

I used a combination of Distress markers and Distress inks applied to an acrylic block and picked up with my brush to watercolour the petals and leaf.  I wanted to achieve a sort of "pink to blue" transition over the flower head, so this worked well.  I used Shaded Lilac and Picked Raspberry to colour the petals in varying degrees of intensity and mixing to get the look I wanted.  I used Fossilized Amber for the centres of the blooms and Peeled Paint for the stems and leaf.  When I finished painting the flower, I used a very watery wash of Faded Jeans to fill the background.  When the paper was completely dry, I stamped the sentiment in Jet Black Archival Ink.  I mounted the finished watercolour piece on a card base of Stampin' Up Pear Pizazz.  I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out and I think I could use this particular card for a number of different occasions by simply choosing an appropriate sentiment for the inside greeting, or by writing in something personal to suit the event.

Until next time,
Carol