March Happy Little Stamper Watercolor Challenge

It is time for the new watercolor monthly challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

The challenge this month is "anything goes" with the option of florals.  I think just about everything I color with watercolor is a floral.

 This month I decided to do something other than a card.  I have made bookmarks this month.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the shapes for the bookmarks.  The first layer was cut out of watercolor paper.  The back of the bookmarks is black card stock. 

I used my Misti to stamp the bookmarks.  Some are stamped in black VersaFine ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  Some were just stamped with the same ink and not embossed.  The embossing just helps keep the ink inside the stamped lines.

I water colored these bookmarks while I was in Florida.

Here are close ups of the bookmarks.

Please join us at Happy Little Stampers for our March Watercolor Challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Children's Card

I am playing along with the current challenge at Paper Smooches blog.  This is a color challenge.

I was out shopping and what do I find but paper from Paper Smooches in these exact colors.  Of course I had to buy it along with a new stamp set.  I love the bee on this stamp set.  It will get lots of use.

I had recently stamped this giraffe and colored him so wanted to make a card with him.  The card will be going to a foster care facility.  I love the colors of the patterned paper in this collection.  The sentiment is from my new Paper Smooches stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bridal Thank You Cards

I have two special people getting married this summer so decided to make each of them a set of thank you notes.  This set ended up to be more than twenty cards but I wanted to used up every little bit of the patterned paper I bought for the thank you notes.

This person is having a rainbow wedding on an island. so I decided to make rainbow thank you notes for her and her husband.

Two sheets of patterned paper produced all of these cards.  The first two cards used both the positive and the negative from the die cuts.  I die cut the rectangle and heart at the same pass through the die cut machine. 

For the first card, I die cut a white rectangle and dipped it in a light pink oxide ink to add some color to the background.  I stamped the thank you and added the heart with craft foam.  This was all adhered to a white card base.

On the second card I adhered the rainbow panel to a  white base.  I then used a blending brush to add some light pink to the heart opening.  A thank you black die was added across the heart.

I had two strips of the patterned paper left - it was double sided so I decided to use  that strip of paper up also.  I got four cards out of those two strips.   I made two thank you cards and a card for a military box and a card for a foster care home.

I am very happy with how the cards turned out.  I know she will be thrilled with the gift.  She is a crafter so knows all the work that goes into a handmade gift from the heart.

I am entering the cards into two challenges.  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes.   The second challenge is  the Sisterhood of Crafters where their challenge is to use patterned paper.

Thanks for stopping by.

My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge

I am attempting to play along with the weekly sketch challenge at My Favorite Things Blog.  You can find the current sketch at this link.  This sketch has lots of creative possibilities.

I had the patterned paper that I used for my card laying on my creative mess pile from another project and chose the orange and green colors to work with. I like how the small checked paper has ombre coloring making it more interesting than a piece of plain orange paper.

I decided I wanted to build a little scene with the moose stamp.  I stamped the tree from the same set.  Both the tree and moose were colored with Copics.  I used distress oxide inks to add the sky and grass.  To give more texture to the grass area I took several different green copics and made little marks to look like tufts of grass.  I like how the grass turned out.  I stamped some orange hearts to bring the orange color into the focal image.

My youngest daughter and her husband live in Alaska so I am mailing this card to them.  I really do "moose" them a lot. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I needed to make some masculine birthday cards for a friend's niece who provides them to nursing homes and meal on wheels. 

This particular pad of 6 x 6 paper was laying on the design table and I decided to make some cards since I loved the thermos paper and the paddle paper.  I knew they would make great masculine cards.  I also used some old birthday sentiments for the cards.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.  They still make great cards.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Hippo Hooray

Recently I was out with a friend and we stopped in at a thrift store and I was wandering the craft aisles and what did my eyes spot - three sets of Paper Smooches stamp sets rubber banded together for the incredible price of $1.99.  I did not have these three sets so I immediately grabbed them and felt so proud of myself for my lucky purchase.

I am using a stamp from one of these sets to participate in  the current challenge at Paper Smooches.  The challenge is a color challenge - I so struggle with this type of challenge but I attempted it and did used many colors from the pallet.  They are probably a little different shade.

The little hippo is colored with Copics.  The white panels has a blue blended background to represent sky along with the stamped leaves from the same set which are used to ground the hippo.  I stamped the sentiment and then added a couple pink stamped hearts to complete the focal point of the card.  This was mounted on a lavender, yellow, blue and pink plaid on a white card base.

This card will be going to a Foster Care home in South Carolina.  The staff used the cards to brighten the children's days.  Some of these children have never received a card - let alone a hand made card.  I feel so good when I make cards and send them to the home.  They are so appreciate of the hand made cards.  They also like thank you cards which the staff can use to thank all their supporters.

Thanks for stopping by.

Red and Black and Watercolor

Recently I have been trying my creative hand at watercoloring.  I have tried to do very simple things and this is pretty simple watercoloring.

I have colored circles around the perimenter of a rectangle in red watercolor and then I have added lines radiating from the center to outer edge of red circle.  In the center I added dots of black ink to replicate a floral center.

I stamped a Thank You sentiment from The Stamp Company.  I stamped in black ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I die cut the rectangle and added it to a black card base.  Should I have added black splatters???

I am entering this card into two challenges.  The first challenge is CAS Watercolor Card Challenge where the challenge for the month of February is a CAS card using red and black.  I do believe I accomplished this.

The second challenge is Creative With Stamps where the February challenge is to use Red.  You do have to stamp on your creation.  I believe this is the first time I have entered this challenge.

It feels good to be home and have some time to create.  Thanks for stopping by.

CAS Christmas Card

I am trying to be diligent and make Christmas cards ahead of December 2020.  I find that if you find challenges for Christmas cards - this inspires your creativity.

At the CAS Christmas Card Challenge for February 2020, the challenge is the word JOY.

I had been sorting some wood mount stamps and I had a "Joy Christmas stamp" so I had the most important part of the challenge.  Now what would I do with the stamp.

I knew that I wanted to heat emboss the image so what color would show in either the background and in the embossing powder.  I masked off a rectangle on Bristol smooth card stock and used two shades of oxide ink to make the colored square on my card.  I then debated between white and silver or the embossing.  As you can see I settled on silver.  I die cut the image with a rectangle die and then matted it with silver card stock and added to a white card base.

It is difficult to photography the silver embossing and the silver mat.  I made two of this design.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I wanted to make 20 birthday cards for a friend who's niece provides birthday cards to Meals on Wheels and several nursing homes.  These two cards completed my 20 cards although I might try to make a couple more masculine cards.

Two very simple cards. 

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Watercolor Thank You

I recently returned from a trip to South Carolina where I visited friends.  I wanted/needed to send them a thank you note.  I always appreciate being able to get away in the winter to someplace that is warmer.  Of course, we experienced all kinds of weather while I was there.  Beautiful days with temperatures in the 70's and we even went boating several days.  We had torrential downpours with almost 7 inches of rain in one day.  We also had about 4 to 5 inches of snow one day.  But I was a good guest, and I took the snow back to Wisconsin.

I am entering this card in the monthly challenge The Flower Challenge.  The challenge this month is to add leaves to your flower card.

This card was water colored by me.  I spent some time in Florida in November and December and all I took with me was watercolor supplies.  I colored many images that I had stamped but I also tried my hand at freehand designs.  Most of these freehand designs were inspired by art from Pinterest.

I just painted four circles in different colors.  I painted a few leaves on each stem.  After the paint had dried I came in with a black pen and drew the swirly lines in the circles.  I drew stems and added and outline around the leaves with a line in the middle.  I colored the background with some blue watercolor (because I have a terrible time with a plain white background). 

It is a very basic floral watercolor but it is a start in helping me learn a new skill.

I die cut the floral image with a rectangle die and matted it with black.  I die cut several layers of  the thank you out of pink card stock .  After the card was assembled, I had to add black splatters because splatters completes almost everything.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Sending Happy Thoughts

I am back from vacation so I need to post some things to my blog.  I do love retirement and being able to travel plus escape winter for a few months.

The current challenge at Wednesday's Simon Says Stamp is to use two or more patterned papers.  I use to be queen of pattern paper usage so it was fun to see if I could still combine patterned papers and make a good card.  One of the secrets to this is to use papers from the same paper grouping.  These papers are from a 6 x 6 pad from We R Memory Keepers.  This really should be an Oldie Moldie Monday post because this paper is well aged and the stamps is a favorite oldie.  I am making two of this card - one will go to a foster care home and the other will go in a military box.

I think the colors are so pretty in this grouping.  I did use four different patterned papers on this card.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

This pad of paper was on my design desk so I decided to make a few cards out of it.

I love double side paper.

Thanks for stopping by.  Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

February Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

It is hard to believe that it is already February - how did we already complete one month in 2020.  It is time for a new Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers. 

The challenge for February is as always "anything goes" but you can add the optional twist of wings.

I started another card but had issues with the stamp stamping correctly and then I remembered I had bought this cute new bee stamp from Honey Bee Stamps.  A bee has wings.  Yay - I can play with the optional twist this month.  I stamped the bee with Memento Ink and colored with Copics.  The lights, Christmas ornaments, antennas and feet also have a layer of Glossy Accents on  them.  The wings have a layer of Wink of Stella clear glitter on them.  The star was colored with a gold gel pen.  I cut the bee out with my Scan n Cut (actually I stamped and cut out a dozen of this image) 

I dug though my Christmas paper and found a plaid  that was the same color as the wings of my bee. I colored some white paper with a yellow distress oxide to give it a little color.   I matted the white/yellow card stock with red and added a small strip of striped paper.  I then took a stencil and added small dots of clear glitter gel to add some more interest to the background.  The bee and sentiment was added to the card front with foam tape.

Here is a close up of the bee.  She is so cute.

Please join us at Happy Little Stampers for our February challenge.  

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

The paper used on these two like but different cards is very well aged.  It is a beautiful grouping of paper and I had a bunch of it.  I don't know if I did get rid of most of and just kept one sheet of each design.  Well whatever, I made some cute cards (I think so anyway).

I needed Winter cards since I did not get my Christmas (all) sent this year.  This is part of the last batch of cards I did.

I am in love with this Gnome die from Simon Says Stamp.  He is the new man in my life.

This card is the leftovers from the other 6 I made of the design below this one.

Remember to show some love to your old supplies.