Happy Little Stampers February Watercolor Challenge

 Yes - it is February in Australia where this challenge originates.

In the Watercolor Challenge at Happy Little Stampers, the February Challenge is Anything Goes.

This beautiful stamp is from Simon Says Stamp called Sketched Flowers.  I heat embossed the stamp on watercolor paper.  I colored the image with a set of watercolors from Altenew Stamps.  I wanted some of the flowers to be a lighter version of the pink and teal color.  I achieved the lighter color by mixing the original watercolor with white gauche.  I came up with the perfect color complement for my bright florals.  I did add some light pink highlights to the bright pink flowers.  I also colored some cardstock this same shade of light pink so I could stamp my sentiment on it.

I did a light blue wash to add color around the image.  I die cut the image with a stitched rectangle.  Matted it with black card stock and adhered to a white card base.  The sentiment was added to card front with foam tape.  Clear crystal drops were glued to the card front.

Here is a close up of the bright and lighter pink colored flowers.  You can also see the crystal droplets.

Here is a close up of the teal flowers.

Please join us at Happy Little Stampers February watercolor challenge.

Thank you for stopping by.

Guest Designer - Tic Tac Toe Challenge Blog

I am excited to be the guest designer on the Tic Tac Toe challenge for this upcoming week.  They have a fun challenge board for you to choose from.  

I chose to use the diagonal line with red, square and die cut.

I had just purchased this brand new heart die from Scrapbook.Com and wanted to use it for my Valentine cards this year.  I only make a few Valentine cards.

I first colored my background with Speckled Egg Distress Oxide ink (this color is very difficult to photograph since it is so light).  After it was dry, I added a layer of sparkling embossing paste through a stencil to dress up the background.  Unfortunately I do not know who the stencil is from.

I die cut the heart out of three pieces of white card stock and then one layer from a shiny card stock I had in my supplies.  I glued all these layers together and then adhered it to the center of the background.

The sentiment hugs was die cut from several layers of white card stock and one layer of black glitter cardstock, layered together and adhered to the right of the heart.  I stamped the sentiments in black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I adhered them to the heart.

The background was added to a black square card base.

I now have one Valentine card made.

Please join us at Tic Tac Toe Challenge and play along.  

Thanks for stopping by.

Wanderlust Week 4

 Yes - I did not post Week 3 because I did not do Week 3.  I gave myself a break because I knew I could not do it.  In my defense I have tried to draw faces and I can not do it.

Week 4 I could handle.  Our instructor for the week was Shay Michelle.  We played with kraft lunch bags, gesso, watercolor, pens, paper, glitter, vellum, and ribbon.

Here are my pages.

We added gesso to our kraft lunch bags.  We were suppose to leave a border of the kraft showing - oops - I forgot to do that.  After the gesso had dried, you added a layer of watercolor over the gesso.  While the watercolor was still wet, you shook on kosher salt. The kosher salt absorbs moisture and color and leaves an interesting design on the page.  I did not get a good design from the salt.  

I then drew on the dandelion with a white marker.  I added the gold dotted center.  Later on I came back in and outlined the center of the flower.  I also added fine black lines in the design area.  

I made a collage area on each page (the left page has two areas of collage).  The collage consisted of washi tape, tissue paper that has a bee on it (each page of do will always have a piece of this tissue paper on it), old dictionary and a piece of canvas fabric left over from a project.  It had a section of color which was dark blue (somewhat the same as the ribbon).  

I added areas of glitter.  I do not have loose glitter so used some Stickles I had from Ranger.  You can see the spots of glitter on the page.  

I added my word on the left page.  We were suppose to stamp with alphabet stamps.  I don't really have any so I did my word on the computer and printed it on vellum.  It comes out with the ink still wet and so I then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  The other strip of words is a piece of kraft bag with gesso on top.

I have a small stapler from Tim Holtz so I used it to add my word strips, ribbon and a few places for an accent.  I took a piece of ribbon and tied it in knots down the length.  I attached a small silver heart which coordinates with the heart on the vellum strip.  The hearts go with the Kindness.

To complete the pages and make them somewhat cohesive (in my mind) I added gold splatter.

Here is a close up of the collage.  See the staples mixed in with the paper and washi tape.

Here is a close up of the dandelion.  You can see the white and black lines, the gold dots in the center, glitter and gold splatter.

Here is a close up of the word strip and the two hearts and more of the staples.  You can see the collage in several different spots.

I am find Wanderlust to be fun and I am learning and trying new things.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I used  the current sketch from Paper Players for inspiration for my card today.  I found everything for this card sitting on my design table and the sentiment circle paper in the scrap bin.

I flipped the sketch and adjusted where the banner and circle were sitting on the rectangle.

The colors are so pretty in this patterned paper.  The green check is the back side of the floral.

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

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

This is a continuation of the Christmas sample cards I gave to a young lady I shared my ample supplies with.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Wanderlust - Week 2

 I am participating in Wanderlust 2021.  Each week we get a new lesson to try our hand at.

This second lesson was led by Laly Mille.  She incorporated reflection and wishes into the lesson.  We were encouraged to think about our wishes.  I know that art is good for the soul and you feel better after creating but I have never done a piece thinking about specific things such as wishes.

Here is a step by step break out of my steps.

Here is the first step where we wrote down our wishes.

I added some swipes of paint across my wishes.

I collaged pieces of paper onto my page with gel medium.

I colored the top of my page with a buff color and then came across the top with white acrylic.  

Here is a picture of the page with the top at the top of the page.

I added white ink at the top and sprayed it with water so it would add drips to the top of the page.  I cut odd shaped small circles and glued to the page.  These are the center of our flowers. 

You then swirled white acrylic paint around your centers.  I added color to my circles.  I decided I did not like those few black centers so I added white paint to cover them and more color for the centers of my flowers.

Here is my finished page.  White ink splatters were added to the pages.  I think it needs something yet but I don't know what.  I will think about it.  

Here is a close up of my flowers.

Here is a close up of the top of the page with some of the flowers.

Thanks for stopping by.  I look forward to Friday to see what new process we are going to learn.

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

Last week I spent a good amount of time gathering together Christmas paper and sentiments for a young lady from my home town who is making Christmas cards for nursing homes.  I have ample supplies and was so happy to give them to someone who was doing something so wonderful to bring a smile to our elderly who live in nursing homes.

One of the things I did is make some sample cards for her using some of the paper.  I used some of the designs from Sheetload of Cards.  I wanted to introduce her to Crafty Al's monthly design.

Here are some of the cards I included in her two boxes of supplies.

See they are wonderful cards - even though the paper is somewhat old - but no mold was found.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.  Stop by next week to see more samples of the cards I gave her.

Wanderlust 2021 - Week 1

 I decided to embark on the year long mixed media journey called Wanderlust.  Every Friday we have a new video for inspiration and we  then can take what we have learned into our journals.  

The first week was taught by Kasia Avery.  She is also the founder of Wanderlust.

I am using a small Dyan Reaveley journal for my journal.

The first thing I did in prepping my journal was to take a roll of  wide white washi tape and taped the center seams of  all the pages.  This will help whatever medium you are using from leaking through to another page - or at least it will help eliminate some of the seepage.

I first added a light layer of gesso to my two pages.  I wrote with a black Dina Wakely scribble stick my thoughts on 2020 on one page and on the other page my hopes for 2021.  I then used a wet brush and muddled what I wrote.  I applied another coat of light gesso.

I then added pieces of tissue paper, music sheets, patterned paper, etc on my page.  I used a glue stick to stick it down and then added gel medium over the top to seal it in place.  

I added another layer of light gesso.

I added some stenciling with Dina Wakely midnight acrylic paint.  After that I used lemon, turquoise and magenta to add color on the page.  I made the yellow dots by just putting the end of the tube of paint on the page and pressing down.  You will see in the final picture that I added another two rows of yellow dots on the bottom of the left page.

I cut out an image from a clothing magazine and created my sentiment on the computer.  The sentiment was inspired by a quote I saw on a video by Karen Burchill which said:  Inhale the future; exhale the past.  I changed it to reflect my theme and hope for 2021.  I added white gesso around the image to make it stand out a little more from the background.  

I took a blue stablio pencil and colored around my sentiment and a damp brush smoothed out the color.  I decided to use the same pencil around the outside border of the page.  This is when I decided I needed to add another row of yellow dots.  I then scribbled around all the dots or circles on my pages.

Here is a close up of the sentiment.

It felt good to get messy and painty.  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Little Stampers January Christmas Challenge

 Happy Little Stampers is once again offering challenges after a six month break.  Are you ready for some new challenge and the big question is, are you ready to make Christmas cards.

The January Happy Little Stampers Christmas card challenge is always Anything Goes but the optional choice this month is Stockings.

I looked through my Christmas supplies and I did not really find too many stocking things but then I looked through my dies I found one I had bought on clearance and never used.  I decided today was the perfect day to use that die.  I used the paper from an old Penny Black 6 x 6 pad to cut my elements.

I dry embossed a white background with snowflakes for some texture for the stocking to sit on.  The snowflakes are various ones I have in my supplies.  I wanted to bring in a little more of the light aqua color into the overall design of the card.  I added a small word to the tag and a sentiment to complete the card.  In hindsight, I wouldn't put a word on the tag.

I am pretty pleased with how the card turned out and it really was not that difficult to put together. 

Please join us at Happy Little Stampers for our January Christmas Challenge.  It will help you get a head start on your Christmas cards for next year.  

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I have many images that have been stamped but never colored.  I dug one out and water colored it, added some white highlights to the balloons.  Picked up some of the color from the balloons in the mats.

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

Thanks for stopping by.

Time to Start 2021 Christmas Cards

 It is time to make Christmas cards for 2021.  Luckily I had enough for 2020 and was not making any at the last minute.  I actually have some leftover.  I got sick of addressing envelopes and writing notes so I just quit.  I now can make winter or valentine cards for the people on my list who did not get a card.

The current sketch - the first one of 2021 at Christmas Countdown is a fun one.  

I found a very old 6 x 6 pad from Prima.  The papers were interesting to work with.  I do like the colors.  I couldn't think of any stamp or design I had that would fit in an oval so I used patterned paper for everything on the card.  I had to really dig to find my oval dies.  The sentiment strip was even part of the 6 x 6 pad.

I did a little distressing on all the edges of the paper.  I used extra layers of paper to add a little dimension to the oval and the sentiment.  It is still flat for mailing.

Here is a close up of the tree.  I took a gold gel pen and added gold lines to the branches of the tree.  I also added some gold splatters to the card front.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year

 Out with 2020 and in with 2021.  I hope it is a year when we can return to a more "normal" life.

I made a few cards to mail to family.

I used alcohol ink backgrounds from my background box.  (I did some organizing in 2020 - I put all my backgrounds in one box.)  I glued a layer of cardstock on them and then used a cover plate die.  With the thicker image, the design was impressed into the background but did not cute.  I learned this after I did the first one.

The sentiment was cut from mirror cardstock.  I finished the cards with a splatter of gold or silver.

Happy New Year.