Happy Little Stampers January Watercolor Challenge

This is my first post as a member of the Watercolor Challenge Team at Happy Little Stampers. 
I joined this team because I want to improve my techniques in watercolor and the challenge blog is a good way to widen your creative boundaries.  I hope that I do a good job of inspiring your creativity.

This month the watercolor challenge at Happy Little Stampers is texture.

I recently took an online card class and one lesson was to use salt on your watercolor background to add texture.  I have done this in the past but had forgotten about it.

I took watercolor paper and colored it with watercolor and liberally sprinkled it with coarse sea salt.  Here is an example of one piece of blue watercolor paper with the salt lying on top.  You let the piece dry completely and then you brush off the salt and you get these amazing spots of color and texture on your background piece.

I had also done a piece of watercolor paper with a teal shade of watercolor.  My background piece is just a much lighter shade of the color used on the heart.  You can see the brushstrokes in the background and the different shades (I think this would be texture also). 

The heart started out as a square piece of watercolor paper on which a high saturation of color was placed.  The salt was sprinkled liberally on top of the wet piece and allowed to dry.  Once it was dry, the salt was brushed away and I die cut a heart.  The heart was pop dotted on top of the background.  Hello was die cut several time and layered together before adding tot he heart.  The sentiment was heat embossed on a scrap of the lighter watercolor paper.

Get our your watercolors and please join us for our January challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  You will have a wonderful time and start to develop new skills. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday time to show some love for your old supplies.  On these two cards I have used paper from an old 6 x 6 Prima paper pad and an old Hero Arts sentiment stamp.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings

Holiday wishes to all of you.  I am visiting my daughter in Alaska.

Here is a tag I made for an exchange.  I also made two canvases with the same basic design.

Enjoy your day.

Merry Christmas

I am sharing some cards I submitted to be published but the magazine it was for - is no longer being published.  It is sad to see printed magazines not being published anymore.

More Tim Holtz goodies used on this card.  I love all the layers.  I do wish I had all these cards back so I could have mailed to my family and friends who would have appreciated them.  

Merry Christmas

I am sharing some cards I submitted to be published but the magazine it was for - is no longer being published.  It is sad to see printed magazines not being published anymore.

I used some Tim Holtz goodies on this card along with some stamped snowflakes which were cut out with my Scan N Cut.  

Merry Christmas

I am sharing some cards I submitted to be published but the magazine it was for - is no longer being published.  It is sad to see printed magazines not being published anymore.

I used a card base from Canvas Corp.  The trees are a Tim Holtz die.  

Merry Christmas

I am sharing some cards I submitted to be published but the magazine it was for - is no longer being published.  It is sad to see printed magazines not being published anymore.

I believe this is a Penny Black tree stamp and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Merry Christmas

I am sharing some cards I submitted to be published but the magazine it was for - is no longer being published.  It is sad to see printed magazines not being published anymore.

I used some Tim Holtz stuff on this card.  I really liked this card.

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I continue to work out of the same 6 x 6 pad of paper.

This is an old stamp which had never seen ink.  I bought it when Operation Write Home was in full swing - I at least get to use it for some hero cards.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Merry Christmas

I am sharing some cards I submitted to be published but the magazine it was for - is no longer being published.  It is sad to see printed magazines not being published anymore.

I thought this was a fun take on a Christmas card.

Happy Little Stampers December ATC Challenge

It is time for a new ATC challenge at Happy Little Stampers. 

The theme this month is Pet.

I do not have any pets - I have granddogs so  I am very partial to dogs.  I did struggle trying to figure out what to make for this month's ATC.

As I was pondering, what did my wandering eyes see but my packet of Tim Holtz paper dolls and I knew there were dogs in this package.  I went through the pack and pulled all dog related figures out.  I chose these three designs.

The background is some very old sample paper.  I used a blue and a green.  I added distress oxides to both pieces of paper to give some more depth of color.  I adhered the two layers on top of a piece of chip board.

Everything was glued down with gel medium.

I added a piece of washi tape and sticker in the upper left corner.

Please come join us at Happy Little Stampers for our December ATC Challenge. 

There are prizes so please come play. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

I am working on some more card for a military box for a group of heroes from Minnesota.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I had some extra colored images so used up more old paper to complete some more cards.  If you want to see the first card, check out my post on December 4.

Remember to show some love to your old supplies - they make beautiful cards.

Happy Little Stampers December Anything Goes With Dies Challenge

December is well under way and it is time for another challenge using your dies at Happy Little Stampers.  It is the best kind of challenge because Anything Goes. 

Since the crunch is on to finish our Christmas cards, I made a Christmas card for this month's challenge.  I had this new stamp and die pine cone set that I wanted to use.  The pine cone is a layered stamp - I must warn you there are 5 to 6 layers on this pine cone.  I had a hard  time finding that many brown inks to use especially since I was not at home.  Luckily I had brought all my distress oxide inks with me and was able to dig through them and find enough plus I had a dark brown ink and a Versafine Black Onyx ink.  With the help of my Misti I stamped over 10 pine cones.

I added color to the background of my card by smooshing it in some Peacock Feathers oxide ink.  I die cut out many pine boughs out of Bristol smooth paper and then colored them with different green colored oxides.  I love the variation of color that I got in the boughs.  The sentiment from Tim Holtz was stamped and embossed in gold.  The card front was layered on a gold card base I found in my supplies.  It has a coordinating envelope.

 Here is a picture of the stamp and die sets I used.

I first layered the pine boughs onto the card front filling up two sides.  I added a tangle of red thread (I did use regular sewing thread because I didn't have anything heavier in red).  I centered one pine cone and glued it to the card base.  I then pop dotted the other two pine cones over the top.  I cut up a pine bough and glued to the top of the pine cones to fill in that corner of the card.  After everything was assembled, I sprayed the entire card with a Tattered Angels sheer gold mist.  It adds such beautiful sparkle to your card.

Here is a close up of the pine cones.

Please come play with us at Happy Little Stampers and use some of those beautiful dies you have. 

Did I tell you there were prizes??

Happy Little Stampers December Mixed Media Challenge

Time for a new challenge at Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media.  I imagine Christmas festivities may be getting to you so take some time for yourself and get messy.  Indulge in some mixed media art which will make you feel fantastic.

The challenge this month is Fantasy.  How fun can that be.  There are so many areas of fantasy to choose from.  I chose to use a fairy.

The stamp for this card was bought at JoAnn Fabrics.  I had to tear it off it's wood block because I don't stamp anything without using my Misti.  The Misti has saved me so many times from having to throw away a project because it did not stamp properly.  I stamped with VersaFine Black Onyx ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I colored with distress oxide inks.  I cut the image out into a partial circle for something different.  I did use glossy accents and a glitter gel on different elements of the image.

The purple background was created with a stencil and silver glitter embossing paste.  I love how it turned out.  I had just enough purple ribbon for the card.  Luckily the card is going in a box with her gifts..  The sentiment is from Penny Black.

Please join us at Happy Little Stampers for our December Mixed Media challenge. 

This is my last post for the Mixed Media team.  I am going to try the watercolor challenge for the next six months and continue on with the Christmas challenge.

Thanks for dropping by. 

December Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

It is December - do you have your Christmas cards done for this year - if not - jump on the band wagon and join us at Happy Little Stampers for our December Christmas challenge.  Anything Goes is the challenge with the optional twist of snow.

I have had this stamp for quite a few years and decided I needed to use it this year.  I colored the snowman and penguins with Zig Clean Color Markers.  It is fun to use them.  I added dots and stripes to the penguins scarves and hats with a white gel pen.  The background was done with a new cloud stencil from My Favorite Things and distress oxide ink.

The paper is pieces I had in my vast collection of paper (pop in next Monday on my blog to see a couple more cards using this same image).  The sentiment was heat embossed with white embossing powder.  A bow of bakers twine was added to complete the card.

I love the happy expressions on the penguins and snowman.  Some glitter was added under the snowman and penguins to make you think of snow.

Please join us this month for our Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers. 

Did I tell you there is a prize?