Altenew City Scene Stencil

Hey everyone!  Creative time has been a bit scarce for me lately - the school year and fall sports are keeping my free hours less free!  I did have a bit of time to create this weekend, and pulled out the City Scene Stencil from Altenew.  I just love this stencil and wish I had thought of it first!

I placed the stencil down over some dark gray cardstock and spritzed it with Brushed Pewter Distress Stain.

The stencil was removed, and then I flipped it to use the other skyline, and placed it back on the panel, but shifted down a bit.

I sprayed again, but I didn't get the contrast I wanted, so I used a paper towel and brushed with downward strokes to kind of spread the excess stain that was left on the stencil to get a sharper edge/distinction.

To add even more of a contrast, I used a Versamark pen to trace that portion of the skyline (after I dried the stain with a heat gun), and embossed with Liquid Platinum embossing powder.

I went back and forth on sentiments, but ended up using this one from my Layered Landscapes set for Neat & Tangled.

I trimmed off 1/8th of an inch from the edge and popped the panel up.

It's a really CAS card, but has a wonderful shine to it.

Hope your week is going well!

*Affiliate Links Below to Ellen Hutson and in text to Altenew and Neat & Tangled

Altenew Stencils, City Scene

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Layered Landscape

VersaMark Watermark Pen

Ranger Embossing Powder, Liquid Platinum

VersaMark Ink Pad

WOW Embossing Powder, Super Fine - Opaque Bright White

Scotch Foam Mounting Tape

Three Cards with Technique Tuesday's Lovely Lavender Set

My mom's favorite color is purple, and she really loves lavender, so I was really happy to see Technique Tuesday's latest Greenhouse Society set, Lovely Lavender.  The set has an image of a bundle of lavender and also several really great sentiments.

My first two cards use a watercolor 'cheat' technique.

Stamping with my MISTI, I colored the image with several shades of distress markers in the purple family (Shaded Lilac, Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord, and Picked Raspberry). Then I 'watercolored' by wetting the stamped image with a waterbrush and kind of spreading/mixing the color.

The same thing was done to the stems using a couple of greens (Cracked Pistachio and Forest Moss).

The waterbrush actually provided me with a little less control than I anticipated, I had a hard time controlling the amount of water and so it ended up being a little more blobby than I wanted (very technical term). 

To add some of that definition back in, I repeated the process - coloring the image with markers and stamping it until I was happy with the result.

Then I stamped the sentiment with Versafine, and added a couple mats and stitching to complete the look.

I wanted to see if I could get a better result using just a regular paint brush, so I repeated the process on a second panel using a paint brush instead of a waterbrush.

It was a little bit better, but not a ton.  I thought for this one I would change things up and instead of stamping over top with the distress markers again, I used Versafine.

This time I opted for some slightly offset mats to finish things off.

For my last card, I decided to color outside the lines.  Literally.

The image was randomly stamped on a panel, and then I colored around it using my B99 Copic marker.  This was a little tricky as there are some very tight spaces in the image, but I only sliped a couple times and a strategically placed sentiment covers the worst of it.

I love this look - it reminds me of fabric, and I wanted the pattern to be the star, so I kept the sentiment simple adding just a thin strip of cardstock to ground it.

That's all for me today.  Would love to know which of the three you like best!

Neat & Tangled STAMPtember Set Reveal

Happy Wednesday!  Today Simon Says Stamp is revealing the exclusive Neat & Tangled STAMPtember set, Holiday Helpers, designed by Elena.  You can order just the stamp set, or the set with coordinating dies.

It's such a cute set and perfect for scene building.

I stamped and colored several of the images with Copics, and then fussy cut them.  Then I just played around with the pieces until I came up with an arrangement that I liked.  

I did use a craft knife to cut around the bear's right paw a bit so that I could tuck the snowman's head in there.

So fun!

The STAMPtember exclusive sets are available while supplies last, so if you you want one, don't wait too long!

Simple One Layer Card with Pinkfresh

Hey everyone!  I'm sharing a quick and easy one layer card using one of my favorite stamp sets from Pinkfresh - Semi Circle Pattern.

I just love all the possibilities with this set - it's great for creating repeating patterns, or in this case a kind of abstract grouping of shapes/patterns.

I used three light shades of ink in addition to black - Pixie Dust from WPlus9, and Buttercream and Sea Glass from Altenew.  Pixie Dust was stamped directly onto the paper, but the other two colors were stamped in second generation to get a softer shade.

Once I stamped the solid colors, I added the black and white patterns/images, which were stamped with Versafine.

There wasn't a specific plan, I was just going for a balanced composition.

The sentiment is from another Pinkfresh set called Always Flowers.

I really love this set, and can't wait to pull it out again!

*Affiliate Links Below

Pinkfresh Studio Clear Stamps, Always Flowers

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Buttercream

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Sea Glass

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

Neat & Tangled September Release Recap & Winners

Hey everyone!  The N&T September Release is now live in the store!  Here's a look back at my projects:

I also have a couple of winners to announce:

StarSpry wins the Birch Leaf Stamp set
@_country_home wins the Birch Leaf Dies

Congrats ladies!  Please shoot me an email with your details and I'll get your goodies mailed out.

And if there's something in the release you've got to have, head on over to the N&T store!

Neat & Tangled September Release Week & Giveaways - Day 4

It's the final day of release reveals and today we get to show of my newest leaf set/coordinating die - Birch Leaf.  It's done in the same style as my Maple Thanks and Oak Leaf sets - a 3x4 set with a die set that consists of a detailed leaf image as well as a coordinating die for the stamp.

For this first card, I started by painting a watercolor panel with three 'washes' of color. Rather than a flat wash, I let the initial wash dry, and then painted a second, slightly darker across the bottom of the initial wash, repeating this one more time so I have essentially three shades of color.

It's a really lovely look that is easy to achieve.

Once the panel was complete and dry, I adhered the leaf die piece which was actually four die cut pieces adhered together, and then stamped the sentiment.

My second card features the stamp itself.

I decided I wanted to try no-line coloring.  I started by stamping the leaf with WPlus9 Pixie Dust ink, and then got to work with my Copics.  I used several different color combinations - three shades each - and just alternated the colors as I went.  

It took a while, and I started at the bottom carefully working my way up the leaf and alternating sides so I could wasn't coloring a section right next to where I had been before to minimize ink bleed from section to section. 

Once the panel was complete I popped it up over a previously created panel where I had dome some color block inking.

I have one more card to share featuring a new 3x4 set from Elena called You're a Treat.  I love this cute little witch.

The witch, cat, pumpkin, and spider were stamped, colored with Copics and die cut.  I created a bit of 'ground' using some inking on my main panel.  The sentiment was then stamped over top.

To soften the panel a bit, I stamped the spider web at the top border and then the string for the spider.

The die cut pieces were all adhered into place and I added a couple of patterned paper mats.  So fun!

Ok head on over to the Neat & Tangled blog and leave a comment there to be entered to win today's featured sets.  Leave a comment here too.  I'll be picking some winners for my new release goodies.  For an additional chance head over to my Instagram (@mprantner) and follow the directions there.

Release goes live tomorrow morning at 8 AM EST!

Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash

Hey everyone!  It's great news for our community/industry when companies are surviving and thriving, so I'm really happy to be one of almost 50 designers helping Taylored Expressions celebrate 10 years in the business today.

I've been a fan of TE for many years and guest designed for them in the past, so it was lots of fun to be invited to be part of the celebration.  TE just released some new products last night which you can see here.  

At the heart of Taylored Expressions is a mission to share joy through the gift of handmade cards. As part of their 10th birthday TE is continuing that mission with the launch of a special Share Joy campaign focused on providing birthday cards to those in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities across the U.S. To make as deep an impact as possible TE is inviting card makers everywhere to join the campaign. Will you join us? Find out how to participate by viewing their Share Joy page here: https://www.tayloredexpressions.com/share-joy-birthday-2018

For my card today, I'm using a previously released birthday set called Give Me a Sign stamp set as well as the Rise and Shine stencil.

I started by inking up a panel with some distress inks - Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean, and Dusty Concord. Once that was done, I placed the stencil over top and then used a wipe to remove some of the inking.

Then I stamped and colored the critters with Copics, stamped the sentiments in their signs, and fussy cut the images.

I wanted the focus to be on the stenciled piece and the critters, so I went with a plain black panel for the bottom of the card embossing the secondary sentiment in white.

I'm keeping this pretty short since it's a long hop and there is a lot more to see.  For the full blog hop list, head over to the Taylored Expressions blog.  Happy hopping!