June Happy Little Stampers Watercolor Challenge

It is June in Australia which is the home for Happy Little Stampers.

The watercolor challenge for the Month of  June is Anything Goes with the added option of Layers. 

Here is my card.  It is a taller, skinnier card.  I had the watercolor background in my background stash.  I believe it was made with powders you activate with water.  There is a nice gradient of pink in the overall piece.

I stamped and heat embossed the floral image in the bottom left corner and also in the upper right corner.  I did add some darker pink color in several of  the flowers (this is layering of colors.

I decided to take several small rectangle dies I had gotten recently and cut out a rectangle in the upper right and lower left part of the card.  I also die cut craft foam.  Adhered it to the back of the watercolor rectangles and then inserted the foam backed images into the openings left by the die cutting.  You very carefully line up the lines of your stamped images.  (more layering)

I made a black card base and added a strip of My Favorite Things black striped patterned paper to the very left edge of card.  I then adhered the focal point to the front of the card base.  I glued several different sizes of crystals to the card front.  I die cut the sentiment from black card stock, glued to the front of the card and then used a glitter pen to add some glitter to the black card stock.  It really sparkles.

Here is a close up of the image and foam layer.

Here is another view of the popped up layer.

Please join us at Happy Little Stampers for our June Water Color Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

Slim Line Cards

The new trend in cards is slim line cards.  These are cards that measure approximately 4 x 8.5.  The size can be somewhere in that size range.  They fit into a business sized envelope.

I decided to make one with some messy water coloring and a favorite floral stamp.

I am entering it into two different challenges - both challenges are "anything goes".

The first one is Addicted to Stamps and More. 

The second challenge is Wednesday's Simon Says Stamp Challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.

I grabbed a 6 x 6 pad from Simple Stories - it has very pretty colors in it - it has a date of 2013 on it.

I liked the sketch at Paper Players. 

I used a new die I had to have during stay at home.  I really like the scalloped edge.  I added glitter gel to the dots on some of the butterflies.  This card is going in a box to a foster care home.

I used the remaining scraps from the sheets I cut for the first card to make this card.  This card will go into a military box.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Flowers

It seems the majority of my cards involved flowers.  I love to stamp and color  flowers.  My favorite coloring method lately is water coloring.  I stamp lots of images and then spend my time coloring.  I believe it also calms your soul to sit and color.

The current challenge at Twofer is Flowers.  The concept behind Twofer is to use the same stamp on two different types of cards (thank you, birthday; anniversary, sympathy; etc).  The stamp must be used in two different ways.

This stamp is from Rubbernecker Stamps. 

On this card - the floral image was stamped and die cut in a circle.  I love the bright colors in this card.  Black splatters brings everything together.

On this card, the image was stamped coming from two different angles for the card front.  I added black and glitter to the center of the flowers.  This is going to a friend's mother for her 90th birthday.

I love trying to use my stamps in different ways. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Clean and Simple Cards

Today I am playing along with the current challenge at Paper Players.  Their current challenge is to make a clean and simple card with a masculine flair.

I am also entering this card in the challenge at CASology where the challenge is plant.  I do believe my lovely leaves come from a plant.

I recently purchased a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp.  I do have a thing for leaves and loved this beautiful image.  The sentiments on the stamp set are perfect for this time in history.

I first lightly colored the background by using Tumbled Glass Oxide Ink and did some ink smooshing.  I must admit I have a problem with perfectly white backgrounds.  I stamped the image and then colored with two colors of oxide ink.  A touch of gold watercolor was added to each leaf in the corner when I did the gold splatters.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.  I was playing along with a challenge and then kept going with the paper pack.  I made eight cards before I tired of using the same paper.  I repeated several designs and did not post all eight.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

My Favorite Things Weekly Sketch Challenge

I have new supplies from My Favorite Things and waited patiently for the new sketch to see if it would work - yes it did.  Let the happy dance of creativity start.

I first spent the morning stamping all the butterflies in their new stamp set.  I used just one set of inks from Altenew so I knew they all coordinated.  I learned some things from stamping the set and want to grab other colors and just stamp a bunch of different butterflies so I have them available for creating.

Here is the sketch from My Favorite Things. 

I colored my paper with the same inks that I stamped the butterfly in.  On the rectangle, I added a layer of glitter gel to add some sparkle.  I added my sentiment and butterfly at a slight angle to offset the straight lines of the sketch.  The sentiment is actually from a Christmas set but I think it works for an everyday card.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Totally Awesome

I am trying to find some creative mojo.  It has been lacking this week.  I looked at some sketches and I knew that I wanted to use my new butterfly stamp set from My Favorite Things. 

One morning I grabbed a set of Altenew mini sets in the shades of pink and the stamp set and stamped each image.  I learned lots of stamping all of them and I know that I want to grab different ink color combinations and stamp all the butterflies.  By doing this, you will have a supply of beautiful butterflies to create with at different points in time.

I decided to play with the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. 

 I also am playing along with the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  The challenge this week is "anything goes."

I colored my paper with the same inks that I used to stamp all my butterflies.  The sentiment is new from My Favorite Things also.  I heat embossed the sentiment so it is bold.  I decided to add a black mat to balance the large sentiment.

I really like how this card turned out and that sentiment can be used for so many different things.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for some old supplies.

I made a sign and had dug out some old paper to make the sign and as I was putting the paper away, I thought - these are pretty colors - let's make some cards.  Ten cards later I put the remainder of the sheets away to be revisited another day.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Anything Goes At Paper Smooches

It is time for a new challenge at Paper Smooches.  The challenge for the first part of May is Anything Goes.  

This card was a challenge for me.  The concept (in my head) was good but then it seemed nothing wanted to cooperate with me.  My stamping did not turn out very well so I thought what the heck - doodle on it.  The doodling actually went very well.  I assembled the card and added some dark teal splatters and then added some black splatters.  Well as I added the black splatters the end of the brush fell off and left a big black line on one of the butterflies.  Off to the trash went that card.

I started again.  I decided to do the doodle route again.  I had liked it and the the butterflies had lots of empty space I could be creative with.  Of course, my doodling is not the best in the world but I try.

The butterflies are stamped in two different shades of Gina K ink.  I masked off the middle butterfly to stamp the side butterflies.  I kept the doodling quite simple on the butterflies.  On the outside butterflies I just doodled on the center and around the edges.  I took the dot stamp from the butterfly set and added dots in the darker teal ink.

I stamped the sentiment.  It was crooked.  Oh well, that you can cover so I finished up with my splatters, restamped the sentiment, and glued it over the top of the original crooked sentiment.

Whew was I glad when I finally got a finished card.  I was not going to  give up.  I think I won this creative battle.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hello Friend

In one of my private Facebook groups which focuses on card making, someone issued the challenge to make a card with a basket of flowers.

I could not find any stamps so I went to my Silhouette Cameo and cut a basket.  The top layer of the basket has 3 layers glued together so there is some dimension.  I used my favorite flower dies from My Favorite Things.  The greenery is from a Tim Holtz die set.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Gesso Resist

I decided to try some new things this last week.  Here are two of my attempts at Gesso Resist.  

I applied gesso through different stencils and then blended distress oxides over them to bring out the gesso resist.  My gesso was very thick so I would like to try it again with a more liquid gesso.

The current challenge at CAS Mix Up is Gesso Resist and this is what triggered my playing with this technique.  

Here is one of my cards.  I did some die cutting and heat embossed my sentiment.  I love the warm colors of this card.  It reminds me of the wonderful sunshine we had this last week end.

Here is another attempt at Gesso Resist.  The blue is very soft and I like using grey to change up your colors.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Little Stampers May Christmas Challenge

It is time for the May Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge.  This is a great opportunity to get a jump start on your projects for Christmas 2020.

The challenge for this month is "anything goes" with the option of ornaments. 

This option could be interpreted in several different ways.  You could make a card with ornaments on it or you could make an ornament.  This is what I have chosen to do.

I got the Gnome die from Simon Says Stamp.  This is the large Gnome die.  I have made many multiples of this gnome.  I went through my 6 x 6 Christmas pads and found paper to use for the hat and bottom of the Gnome.  The beard and nose were cut out of white card stock and colored with copics.  I colored the noses and always put the pink on the lower right side because the nose really did need to go in that way to fit properly.  I used grey card stock to build the Gnome on.  I used Gina K Connect Glue to adhere all the pieces together.

The ornament is a piece of chipboard I had which was white on one side.  I inked the edges of it with brown ink to distress it.  I die cut the large snowflake which you can see peeking out from gold card stock.  The greens are from a Tim Holtz die.  There is also a brown twig looking die cut in there. 

I first glued the snowflake on and then added the greens and brown twiggy thing.  The Gnome was added with foam tape on top of a piece of dark brown thread.  Brown twine was used to make the hanger.  To finish the ornament off, I added white splatters.

I do love the new man in my life.

Please join us at Happy Little Stampers May Christmas Challenge.

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.

I made this design from coordinating papers in a 6 x 6 pad.  I have had them cut out for over a year I believe and I finally put a couple together.

Thanks for stopping by.