embossed watercolored background

Hello crafty friends!  Here is another watercolor card – a little different technique this time.

I stamped the background with versamark ink and embossed it with white embossing powder.  Once that was set I sprayed two colors of Zia Color Wash Sprays over the embossed panel and let dry.  The same technique was used for the sentiment panel a swell.  Crochet thread was wrapped around the back panel before adding the sentiment.  If you look closely, there are tiny pearls on the scalloped portion of the sentiment.  The background is from Rubbernecker and the sentiment from Papertrey.  I used Canson 140 lb watercolor paper.

Having a fun time with my watercolors!

more backgrounds

It’s fun to play around with your background stamps and I used one here today.

I stamped the Wildflower background, from Rubbernecker, in white then embossed it in white as well on vellum.  Vellum provides such a soft look – especially with colored cardstock underneath it as shown with this card.

The sentiment is from Paptertey and I used the same blue cardstock for the matting and banner piece.   Just a few pearls were added for the final touch.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

 

 

down by the seashore

We had family visiting us from out of town last week and spent alot of time at the beach catching waves, collecting shells and soaking up the sun.    Here is my card inspired by those days.

The main panel was sponges with memento inks – summer sky, bahama blue, paris dusk and a heavy dose of desert sand on the bottom.  I tried to sponge some white pigment ink where the ocean and sand meet to give it a “surf-y” look, but it did not pan out too well.   I then tried all four of my white pens but none of them worked either!   The shell, from Fred Mullet, was stamped in cocoa and colored with copics in the E series with a tiny bit of RV.  The sentiment is computer generated and I got it and several another from a digi scrap site – scrapsimple.

You can’t really see it in the photo, but the kraft cardstock is stamped with a nice shell background stamp.  I think it is from Rubbernecker, but I purchased it ages ago and never noted the manufacturer.   It was stamped with desert sand ink and I used my new tool – the mega mount – to stamp it.  The Mega Mount is a large curved acrylic block with a handle from Impression Obsession.  They created it for their large cover-a-card stamps (of which I have a bunch).  Here are some photos to give you an idea of how it works.    Here is the stamp on the mega mount:

This photo gives you an idea of the curved shape of the mega mount.

Impression Obsession has a nice video on how to use the mega mount.  You can find it HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

chill out

Hello friend  I’m still here.  Just been busy with life, but still stamping and creating. 

I hope you are having a wonderful 4th of July weekend – its hot and humid here as usual, but that is ok because the beaches are gorgeous and the water refreshing.

Over at Splitcoast we are having a Holiday Clean and Simple Challenge starting today and continuing tomorrow.  I hope you will join us!  I created this card for the CAS challenge with the theme of “grilling or picnics”.  I kn ow many of you have a nice cold beverage when you are grilling or picnicing – here is my beverage:

The drink and umbrella are from Rubbernecker stamps and were stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  The drink was sponged with all the colors from the Kaleidacolor Desert Heat rainbow ink pad.  The blueish tint on the glass and the umbrella were colored with copics in the lighter shades of BG markers.  The umbrella is popped up.  The word “chill” was computer generated because I could not find the right size and shape alphabet stamps in my own stash.

Thanks for stopping by today!

clean and simple monday

Today’s clean and simple challenge at SCS is the technique of “kissing”.  To do this ink up one stamp – a solid stamp works best – then ink up another stamp and press the second stamp onto the first, then onto paper. 

Here’s my card:

I started with one of those shadow stamps (from Rubbernecker) and inked it up with Palette Ballet Blue ink.  Then I took a Cherry Blossom image (from Stamp Camp) and inked it with a cocoa ink, and pressed it onto the inked shadow stamp.  Then I pressed the shadow stamp onto a piece of white cardstock.

Using a Martha Stewart “All Over The Page” punch (more on these punches later) I punched the label out of a piece of textured cardstock to make a window and sponged more  Ballet Blue ink around the window edges and outer edges of the square.  The stamped piece was placed behind the window and everything was mounted on a piece of chocolate cardstock. 

To add a little interest I used a stardust gel pen and highlighted the cherry blossom image, but you can’t see this in the photo.  It looks very nice irl.

The textured white cardstock is Bazzill, the blue and chocolate cardstock is SU, the ribbon is chocolate satin from Offray.

A note about the MS “All Over The Page” punch.  The punches consist of a top and bottom which are held together with strong magnets.  You separate the two pieces, place your paper in between them, then line up the top and bottom sections and punch.  Lining up the top and bottom is not as easy as it sounds – you need to be careful that the paper is straight and not off kilter.  Then to punch it takes two hands – and if the top and bottom magnets are not perfectly aligned it will not work.  I purchased the punch prior to getting a Big Shot Pro because I wanted to be able to punch anywhere on a piece of paper.  Now with the Big Shot Pro and its very large cutting platform, I can use my nestabilities dies anywhere on the page.  This MS punch may be banished to the “sell” box of my craft room. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you will join us at SCS for this weeks Clean and Simple challenge!

clean and simple – with fabric

If you are a quilter and have crossed over into cardmaking, then using fabric on cards is old news, and probably a given!  I’ve never set foot into any type of quilt store and always bypass the fabric sections in the craft store, but a recent card by Julie Ebersole, shown {here}, got me thinking.  So I stopped by a quilt store just a few miles from my house and found a small package of quilt squares from Moda Fabrics, called The Twelve Days Of Christmas.  I love the colors and patterns in this line and the 5″ square size would work well for cards.  Here is my clean and simple card using a strip from the fabric pack.

I started with a base vanilla card, cut a strip of the fabric and mounted it on cherry cobbler cardstock.  I left the “pinking” cut on the fabric because I thought it was a nice touch – and now I am wondering if I need pinking shears!  I used glue to add the fabric to the red panel, don’t know if that is the best way but it worked here.  The holly image, from Rubbernecker, was stamped using olive and real red markers, the sentiment, from Papertrey, was stamped in real red.   This panel was also mounted on cherry cobbler.

I tied some gold cord around the fabric panel and attached a dark red button to the front.

While this particular pack of squares is holiday themed, there were enough patterns that could be used throughout the year.  Here is a photo of some of the other patterns. 

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Shirt and tie

Here’s one for the guys – it’s for the Embellish Magazine challenge  which calls for paper piecing and using the colors yellow, light and dark green and kraft.

The shirt and tie images are from Rubbernecker and were paper pieced using Basic Grey’s Origins paper line – which is the perfect match for the colors of the challenge.  The green part of the card is also from the same BG series.  Everything was mounted on a craft top fold card.

Thanks for stopping by today!

just another tequila sunrise….

When I started playing around with the colors from this weeks SCS color challenge (durango, curry and bermuda bay) the two “hot” colors  put together reminded me of the tequila sunrise drink, so I just went with that theme.

i stamped the drink with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with a mix of curry along with the red and orange colors from the Kaleidacolor Desert Heat ink pad.  The colored section of the drink is actually paper pieced.

  The beachy background was created using copic markers BG0000, BG13 and E00, along with a little curry on the sand.   The sentiment piece was colored with E00 and curry and sponged with the red from Desert Heat.

The drink and sand stamps are from Rubbernecker, the sentiment from Flourishes. 

The background circle is Bermuda Bay, a fiskars  flower punch and Basic Grey brad were used to create the flower.

Although it’s rainy here today, we expect it to be sunny and hot for the 4th of July this weekend.  We’re in full beach mode here  – yesterday Jimmy Buffet surprised everyone with an impromptu concert down at Lulu’s – his sisters restaurant – and I’m sure alot of tequila sunrises, along with margaritas were consumed!  He’s giving a free concert in the area on July 11 – tickets were gone in about 10 minutes so no luck in getting them.   

Anyway – thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have having a wonderful day!

need a vacation?

Two clean and simple cards today – these were done for the free for all challenge where the theme is vacation.  Well, since I live in Florida the vacation theme is around here all the time!  And I have plenty of beach/tropical stamps to work with.

Also, in honor of Earth Day yesterday, I decided to use stamps that I have had for many years  – ones that have been just collecting dust but are just begging to be used. 

This first card uses stamps and the ready embossed card from Katiebug.  I saw this image at a stamp convention probably ten years ago and thought it was so cute!   It could be a beach umbrella or one of the umbrellas you find in tropical drinks.

 I stamped the image  in Palette Ink (blue), Memento Ink (cantelope), and SU in (rose and green).  I decided to have no sentiment on the front.  You can’t tell from the photo but each of the umbrella’s are highlighted with a stardust gel pen.

The next card uses stamps from Oh Domino (sandals), Katiebug (sentiment) and Rubbernecker (i think) for the background sand.  I don’t know if Oh Domino is still in business, but they sold some cute images that fit perfectly on Dominos.

The sandals were stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with prisma pencils.  I used teal, cameo coral  and blush blossom for the paper.  

Thanks for stopping by today!

one for the guys

For card makers it is so easy to whip up cards for women and girls.  Then you get to the point where you need something more masculine and look through your card stash only to find……nothing.  No “guy” cards.    So, here is a quick and easy one  – for the guys!

I actually made the four square panel about two months ago.  It was for another project that started one way, but ended up completely different (how often does that happen to you?).  I ended up not using any of my original pieces, but thought I’d keep them around for awhile  “just in case”.

Today was that day!  While looking through my room for masculine inspiration, I came across the four square panel and it was on top of a piece of green Bazzill textured cardstock.  The colors just looked so good together. 

The panel was stamped using Memento Rich Cocoa ink on Bazzill textured white cardstock .  I think the texture on the white cardstock gives the stamped images a look like they are on canvas instead of paper.  A square hand punch was used to punch out the four squares.

The stamps are from Rubber Stampede (the two left leafs), Stampin Up (the two right leaves) and Rubbernecker (the sentiment).   The sentiment is generic enough so that the card can be used for birthday, graduation or retirement.

The green panel was mounted on chocolate cardstock  with the green panel making up the majority of the front of the card (meaning the front only has about an inch border of chocolate cardstock.

The “dots” on the left  side are just pieces left over from a small circle punch from chocolate cardstock. 

Once I finished and photographed the card, I thought that the inside (which is just chocolate) could use a piece of green cardstock – the same shade as the front, in order to be able to write a message on the inside, so that will be added later!

Thanks so much for stopping buy!