Happy Little Stampers June Watercolor Challenge

Once again it is time for a new watercolor challenge at Happy Little Stampers. 

I recently bought some new Penny Black stamps and this is one of the stamps I bought with a coordinating die.  I love that the die cuts out in between the flower stems. 

I used my favorite red ink - Gina K - I believe it is Red Velvet.  It is a true red in my color pallet.
I did drop in a few other colors of red to add some depth to the blooms.  I also used a gold watercolor for the center of the poppies.

The leaves were colored with several different colors of green.  I wet the inside of the leaves and then dropped in one color of green and then another color and let them blend.  Gold watercolor was added after the green had dried. 

The bucket is several different colors of oxide ink with some gold added to the colors.

I did a gold watercolor wash on the background and added gold splatters after it had dried.

The image was added to card front with foam tape.  I had stamped the sentiment on a narrow strip and colored it with gold also.  I matted the sentiment strip with red to bring some more red into the card.

The card front was added to a black card base.

Here is a close up of the flowers and bucket.

I even did some watercolor on the card liner.  I painted gold around the edge of the white liner and then added some gold splatters.  (I love splatters).

Please come join us at Happy Little Stampers for our June Watercolor challenge. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

I am trying to use up some more paper and continue to make cards for the Children's Home.

This is a very old floral from a 6 x 6 pad.  I did add the clear glitter gel around the flowers.

I matted this one with white before putting it on the green card base.

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

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is time to show some love for your old supplies.  I had  this paper pad out to make a birthday card and made some more cards for a children's home in South Carolina.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Twofer - One Stamp - Two Different Type cards

I found a fun challenge blog Twofer .  You use the same stamp and make two different types of cards.

This month the challenge is to use a stamp with wheels.  I chose a vintage car from Rubbernecker Stamps.

Here are my two cards side by side.

I have a couple women friends who love their vintage cars and thought this car would be perfect for one of them.  The background was made with distress oxide ink.  The stamp was heat embossed with clear powder over black ink.  I love the stripe paper from My Favorite Things.  It is always the perfect touch to a card.  I matted the oxide ink panel with black card stock.  The die cut is from Gina K Designs.  A few black and pink sequins finish the card.

This card will be a birthday card for my brother.  I tried a new technique I learned earlier in the month.  You layer your oxide inks on a shiny paper.  After it is completely dry, you stamp your image with another oxide ink and let it dry completely.  Once dry, you take a baby wipe and wipe off the oxide finish on the stamped panel.  The panel and image immediately gets shiny.  I die cut the car with a rectangle die.  I cut panels from three coordinating colors (yes the green does match).  I layered everything up on a panel which I had colored with several oxide inks.  This panel was matted with a panel which was the same color as the ink the car was stamped in.  The dark blue ink was splattered on the card front.  I fussy cut the sentiment out.  The car image and sentiment was pop dotted up.

I had to add some chrome embellishments to finish off the card.

Thanks for stopping by.  This was my first card making venture after cataract surgery on my left eye.  In two weeks the other one will be done.  It was a struggle but I made it through.  I have been so bored.

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I needed to make a birthday card for my great nephew.  I always struggle with his cards.  What do you make for a teenage boy.  This is what I came up with.

The stamp is well aged and never been used and also the paper is well aged also.

The paper made a great "dude" card.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Playing Along With Gina K Monthly Challenge

I have an ever growing collection of Gina K Stamps and love to play with them.

Each month they have a monthly challenge.  For the month of May, the challenge is Wing It with an optional touch of gold.

I did not add any gold to my challenge card.

I used the most recent card kit to make my card.  The flowers and butterfly are just lovely in this kit.

Many people have been showing this set making their cards with the flowers in black and white and I loved that inspiration and decided to be a copycat.  I did add a touch of yellow to the center of each flower.  The background was ink smooshed on it with more ink splattered over the top.

I am also placing my card in the Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp.  The challenge is "for a special lady."

This card has already been sent to a very special friend.

Thanks for stopping by.

CAS Christmas Card

I like to do Christmas Challenges throughout the year so I have a variety of cards to mail in December.  The challenge this month at CAS Christmas Card Challenge is stocking.  I am thinking do I have a stocking stamp - what do I have with a stocking - and right before my eyes did I see - but a strip of paper with stockings on it.  This was left over from a project I did for my friend Mary.  I decided this would be the jumpstart for my CAS Christmas card.

This card is approximately 6 x 4.75 inches.  I cut a white rectangle to mount the strip of stocking paper on.  I did add a thin border of green at the top and bottom of the strip to bring in some of the green color which was in many of the stockings.  I stamped the sentiment below where the strip was going to play.  I assembled the card.  It is a nice flat card so will be easy to mail. 

After I took the picture, I did go back and add some clear glitter glue on the cuffs of the stockings.

Thank you - one more Christmas card made and I have enough of the strip of paper left to make another card. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Bear Hugs

This card is for the CAS Watercolor Challenge.  The challenge is to make a card for a child using watercolors. 

This card could be posted for an oldie moldie Monday post (I try to post a card every Monday using old supplies).  The stamp is from Fun Stampers Journey.  I stamped it in a brown ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  The bear was colored with distress inks.  I then die cut the bear using a circle die.  I fussy cut the sentiment.

I decided to use a kraft colored card base to pick up the browns of the bear.  I added a strip of the stripe patterned paper (this paper is older than dirt).  I like how the card turned out.

I will start a new box for the foster home I make children cards for. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Mixed Media Journal Page

I follow a young lady on Facebook and Instagram by the name of Marta Lapkowska.  She is a wonderful artist.

She has started a new challenge which is a journal page each week.  There are always prompts to kickstart your creativity. 

This is my page for the first week.  The prompts were butterfly, thread, circles, stamping and I do not remember what else.

I started with a piece of mixed media paper which I gessoed and painted a light teal.  I added strips of patterned paper which had a touch of orange in it and used this as my accent color.  The butterfly was heat embossed on vellum and added the orange on the top.  I added gesso and orange paint to the strips of patterned paper.  The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz chipboard collection.  Black thread was added behind the butterfly.  Black splatters finished the page.

Here is a close up of the butterfly.

Here is a close up of the sentiment.

It feels good to do mixed media.  Thanks for stopping by.

Just Because You Are My Friend

I do struggle when making CAS (clean and simple) cards.  I try to do challenges to see if I can become better at this style.  It is usually a much easier card to mail - just saying - 18 layers adds a little extra postage to an envelope especially if it is mailed to Canada or overseas.

I like to do the challenge at CAS Mix Up Card Challenge because it lets me incorporate some mixed media and try to make it CAS. 

The card also can be used for the current challenge at Paper Players where the theme is friends.  The card is being sent to a very dear friend who send me some beautiful stamps for my birthday.  She is a person I met on the internet through our mutual love of card making and we have been able to spend time together and have lots of fun creating and maybe just a little shopping. 

The challenge at CAS Mix Up was to use the baby wipe method.  I watched a few videos and this is the card I created.  I took photo paper and dipped it into several different colors of distress oxide inks to make my background.  I then stamped my bird (a new Penny Black stamp) in a darker shade of distress oxide ink and let it dry.  After the stamped image was dry, I took a baby wipe and you wipe off the oxide finish and your background and stamped image become bright.  I die cut out the image and then with the remaining background I was able to die cut my sentiment.  I really had to manuever my paper to get the sentiment.  For the background of  the card, I dipped the white cardstock into a light pink distress oxide.  After it dried, I added a layer of clear glitter gel paste through a stencil to ground my image.  The image is mounted on fun foam to add some dimension.  The sentiment was glued to the bottom of the card.

Here is a close up of the bird and you can see the light pink background with the clear glitter gel over the top.  I am really liking adding this clear glitter gel to cards.  I think I had better buy another jar.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday and it is time to show some love to your old supplies.  I found this 6 x 6 pad on my desk.  I did not have a cover with it so I don't know who made it.

These are some quick thank cards to be donated to a children's home in South Carolina.

I did lots of paper layering and let the paper do the designing.

The first card uses a stamp from The Stamp Market.

I don't remember who makes this stamp.

Remember to show some love to your old supplies.

Happy Little Stampers May Christmas Challenge

It is time for a new Christmas challenge at Happy Little Stampers for the month of May. 

The challenge is anything goes with the optional twist of circles.  I pondered circles and was going through my new stamps - and there in front of me - was this beautiful stamp with circle ornaments. 

I first colored my Bristol smooth card stock with a light blue oxide ink.  I then stamped  the image and sentiment in Versamark ink and heat embossed with silver embossing powder.  I is really pretty in real life.  I colored the ornaments with distress inks.  I attempted to add shading to each ornament and they are three different shades of blue.  I did put a coat of Wink of Stella clear glitter over each ornament to add some sparkle.  If the snowflakes had little openings, they were also colored.

I created a mat with silver glitter washi tape.  It is so much cheaper to do this than buy silver paper.  I tied some silver cord between the image and sentiment.  I tied a bow and glued that on top of the cord.  I really like how my card turned out.

Here is a close up of the ornaments and the snowflakes.

Here is a close up of the sentiment.

Please come join us at Happy Little Stampers for our May Christmas Challenge.