Simple Things

The Hooray Kind of Day set from Stacey Yacula for My Favorite Things has been in my to use pile for a while, and I finally inked it up.  There are several really cute images in the set, but this little foxing pulling the wagon is my favorite.

He was stamped with Gina K Amalgam ink and then colored with Copics.  I used Warm Grays (W5, W3, W2, and W0 (I can't seem to find my W1!)) for the fox, and R37, R35, and R32 for the flowers, and G28, G24, and G20 for the leaves.  The pot was colored with E09, E15, and E11, and the wagon with E59, 57, and E55.

Once the coloring was done, I fussy cut the image.

I am a bit of a journaling card hoarder.  I have them for scrapbooking and love them, and I try and work them into my cardmaking from time to time.  This simple little peachy pink frame card from Studio Calico seemed perfect for my fox.

Next step was finding the right sentiment.  There were a few that I found, but this one from The Greetery's Simple Things set seems to perfectly balance the card as well as the image.

I couple of patterned paper mats finished things off.  

More Circle Backgrounds - Faux Watercolor

I've been pulling on this solid circle image thread lately.  A couple weeks ago I created a circle background for a Pinkfresh card by free hand watercoloring circles.  Last week, I used solid stamp images to create backgrounds, and today I'm blending the two techniques, using a solid stamp to create a faux watercolor background with Distress Inks.

These backgrounds were all created using the medium sized circle image from Ellen Hutson's Wonky Backdrops set.

This technique is basically this:  I stamped the image with Distress ink, spritzed it once with water, stamped it off on a scrap piece of watercolor cardstock, spritzed it again, and then stamped onto my watercolor panel.  I spritzed it again with water and then stamped a third time on my watercolor panel.  Each time you spritz/stamp the image gets less saturated.  I wanted a lighter look with more variegation in the look so except for the second card shared below, I didn't use the initial stamping with is much more saturated.

The process is so quick and easy and makes some lovely card backgrounds.  For this first card I just created a nine by nine grid using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.

Once dry, I stamped a sentiment from an old Studio Calico set I have with Versafine, and embossed with Ranger Frosted Crystal Antiquities embossing powder.

The finished panel was popped up over my card base with foam tape.

Next, is the card where I did use the initial spritzing for my panel.  Note, when creating these panels, I did not wait for anything to dry.  The stamps are very wet/saturated when you stamp, so they haven't fully dried when you stamp the next time.  I really enjoyed the play between the circle images where the ink blends from one circle to the next.  This card again uses Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.

In this detail shot you can see pretty clearly in the first row the difference between the first, second, and third spritzing/stamping.  

I trimmed the panel down and constructed a sentiment using The Stamp Market's Skinny Upper Alpha dies as well as part of a sentiment from Neat & Tangled's Typed Sentiments set which was embossed in white on a black banner and popped up with foam tape.  The 'YOU' is three layers, one a dark gray and two layers of watercolor cardstock.  The finished letters were adhered directly to the panel.  I think using the gray for the first layer helps to set the letters off a bit more.

For this next card,  I switched over to Dusty Concord Distress Ink

After creating my four by three grid, I trimmed the panel down and finished it off with Altenew's Waterbrush Hello die.  This was cut three times, adhered together and then to the panel.

Super quick and easy.  This hello might be my favorite hello die!

This is a really fun technique where you get unique results every time.  No two panels will ever look exactly alike, which is something I love.

Friend Like You

Hi friends!  Today's card started out with this adorable little lamb called Wooley by Stacey Yacula for Purple Onion Designs.  I originally had him stamped dead center on a panel, but then I decided I wanted to do something less boring.

So, I colored him in (white animals might just be my favorite thing to color) using Copics: N0, N1, N5, and R11 for his cheeks.  Then, to mimic partial die cutting, I cut my panel using my paper trimmer to either side of where his feet hit the ground line, using detail scissors to trim around him.  

The background was created using Paper Smooches Power Rays die.  I inked a piece of white cardstock with Scattered Straw and then Mustard Seed Distress Ink, and then die cut.  This was adhered to a piece of light blue cardstock that I inked with a bit of Faded Jeans and then Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.

I cut a piece of dark blue cardstock and adhered it over the bottom of the faux partially die cut/stamped image, and added a sentiment from a retired My Favorite Things set.  This was then popped up over the Power Rays die cut piece.

To finish things off, I added a little red die cut heart, also from Paper Smooches.

It's always kind of ufn to see where creating takes you when, and I love being able to mix and match old and new products.

Hope you are having a lovely week!

More Easy Christmas Cards with The Stamp Market and Ellen Hutson

Hi friends, I've got some more really quick and easy Christmas cards to share today.  I wanted to use my Tiny Trees sets from The Stamp Market.  

I've made sets with these trees before by varying the color of each of the trees.  This time, I wanted to leave the trees in black, but needed some color to ground them.

To do that, I used some solid images from a couple of my favorite Ellen Hutson sets.

For this first pair of cards, I used the oval image from the Abstract Paint Strokes set.

I played around with placement and overlapping, using lighter inks so that you can better see the overlap between the solid images.

Once the ovals were stamped, I went back with my Tiny Trees.  I used a MISTI for this, so I could place them all at the same time and stamp them all at once to save time.

The sentiment on the top card is from Simon Says Stamps' Holiday Greetings Mix 1 set, and on the bottom, from Hello Bluebird's Typed Christmas set.  The were both embossed in white and popped up with foam tape.

For this second set of cards, I used the large circle image from Ellen Hutson's Wonky Backdrops set.

These were done in the same manner.  I did rotate the solid stamp for each stamping to give it a more dynamic look.

The sentiments for these two again used Hello Bluebird's Typed Christmas set.

These were so easy to create, and very easy for mass producing!

Pinkfresh WCMD Monochromatic and Sympathy Challenge Card

Hi friends!  Popping in quickly to share another card for the Pinkfresh Studio WCMD challenges, this one fits both the monochromatic and sympanthy challenges.

Sympathy cards are always hard to make, I tend towards simpler cards for them, and so I was looking for a patterned paper that would do most of my work for me.

Enter this gorgeous print from the Indigo Hills 2 paper pad.  I trimmed it down to create my main panel, and selected a couple other prints from the pad for mats.  

Before adhering my papers together, I wanted to personalize the print a bit, so I used journaling pens to add some details to the greenery images.  I used an 03 pen for the plum colored leaves and an 01 pen for the gray leaves.

The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Clean Line Faith set, and it was stamped on a scrap piece from of the prints I used for a mat which was backed by a scrap of the print I used for the front of the card.

I knew the sentiment piece would cover up the top leaf of my patterned paper, so to create a little dimension, I used a craft knife to cut out the top of the leaf so I could slide the sentiment piece beneath it.

I added a bit of thread behind the sentiment for some extra texture and interest, and then assembled the card.

The paper is really the star of the show here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pinkfresh Studio WCMD Watercoloring/CAS Challenges

Super quick and easy card today that does double duty as an entry to both the watercoloring and CAS WCMD challenges at Pinkfresh Studio.

I used my Gansai Tambi watercolors to paint a grid of circles. They look like they are just three different colors, but I used a 2-3 shades of each color, it's a little hard to tell because they are pretty close and less saturated since they were more like circle washes.

This was done pretty organically, just by eye, and I wasn't pausing to let them dry in between so there's a little bleeding, but I was looking for that to happen.

Once the panel was dry, I added some stamping using an oldie but a goodie, one of my favorite Pinkfresh sets, Semi Circle Pattern.  The half circle sections were stamped with Versafine. 

The sentiment is from the Dream Big set.

To finish things off, I trimmed my panel down, then added a vellum and black mat.

Love the modern feel of this, and it was such an easy card to create!

Simon Says Stamp Make Merry Release

Hey everyone!  Simon Says Stamp just released a new collection called Make Merry and I have a couple cards to share with you today using a new 6x8 stamp set called Autumn Leaves.

For my first card, I embraced the Autumn theme of the set, and randomly stamped a bunch of the leaves onto a panel of watercolor paper using Smoky Gray Versafine ink.

The panel was then watercolored very loosely using Gansai Tambi watercolors.

For the sentiment, I cut the 'fall' from dark brown cardstock using Altenew's Bold Alphabet dies which were popped up over the card panel with foam tape.  I then added a secondary sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's Clean Line Faith set which was stamped with Smoky Gray Versafine as well and popped up over the alpha dies.

Since I'm in Christmas card mode, I decided to create a Christmas card as well.

For this card I used just a couple of the clusters of smaller leaves and the berries.  

I didn't feel like masking, so I started by lightly drawing a rectangular outline in the center of my card so I could place my stamps so that what shows doesn't overlap.  

I used a MISTI, so I could place each of the stamps around the frame of that rectangle, stamp, rotate ninety degrees, and stamp again.  

I then colored my images (only the parts that would show) with Copics.  I normally color with three shades, using the lightest first, then going to the darkest in the shadow areas, and blending out with the medium color and then the lightest color again.  For this card, I tried coloring from dark to light.  I really like the results, they look much brighter and more luminous, but I think you do need more shades to create this look. For the greens, I used G29, G28, YG17, YG23, and YG13.  For the reds, I used R89, R29, R24, and R22.

I wanted to fill my frame out a bit more and get some more red in, so I colored and fussy cut two additional berry sprigs.  These were adhered directly to my colored panel.  

The sentiment is from the Holiday Greetings Mix 1 set and was stamped with Versafine.  I added a black mat and popped the entire piece up over the colored panel with foam tape.

That's all for me, but be sure to head over to Simon to check out the rest of the release!