Rusty Teapot

Today's Ways to Use It challenge over at SCS is "Two for Tea" (to feature tea on your card), and with tea being my favourite beverage, I had to take part!

A while back I was at Loll Thompson's house and we played with her rusting powder. I used it to edge a couple of panels, and I still had one sitting in my UFO box. It was the perfect size for the stamp I used (teapot and sentiment all in one stamp), and also the rusty colour is the colour of tea (regular black tea at least!).

I stamped in Distress Oxide Vintage Photo (the new oxide inks stamp nice and sharp compared to the regular Distress inks), heat embossed, and then coloured in the teapot with a bit of the ink.  I sponged a bit of regular Antique Linen around the stamping so it wasn't so stark white - I wanted quite a vintage look.

I mounted it on fun foam on a piece of text dp.

In case you're interested in how the rusting powder is used: you paint gesso around the edges of the cs, then sprinkle on the rusting powder, let the gesso dry, then spritz with vinegar, let it dry, and repeat the vinegar a couple more times. It streaks and runs just the way something does when it goes rusty. Quite a neat effect but it has a really horrid smell during the process!

Supplies:

Stamps - Hampton Art

Ink - Distress Oxide Vintage Photo, Distress Antique Linen

Paper - white cs, unknown dp

Size - A2

Accessories - rusting powder, gesso, vinegar, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Clingy Thank You

This week's SCS Technique Lovers' Challenge is "Let's Get Clingy" - make a cling wrap background.  I used the technique seen here in Lydia's tutorial. 

I used red brushos, spritzed with water, and scrunched up cling wrap on top of it. It made a perfect background for the die cut leaves and sentiment (both of them cut twice and glued together for more substance). I embellished with a scattering of sequins.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - cling wrap, red Brushos, Memory Box leaf die, Tattered Lace sentiment die, sequins, fun foam

Inlaid Snowy Trees

Just enough time to get one last card made for April's CAS Mix Up challenge "Inlaid Die Cutting".

I had a small piece of Distress ink watercoloured background in my scrap box that I thought would make a nice wintery sky.  I die cut the Tim Holtz tree line out of it, and then die cut it again out of glitter cs.  Fitted the glitter one into the blue one.

And then stamped some snowflakes and a sentiment on the blue part and heat embossed with sparkly white embossing powder.

I popped it up on fun foam on a dry embossed background.

You have just a couple more days to enter CAS Mix Up.  Entries close on April 24th.  We'd love to see some more CAS cards with inlaid die cuts - and don't forget some stamping and at least one other element (for example, I have heat embossing and dry embossing on this card).

Supplies:

Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment, Rubber Stamp Tapestry snowflakes

Ink - ColorBox White, Distress Faded Jeans and Broken China

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs, white glitter cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Tim Holtz Tree Line die, white sparkly embossing powder, Embossalicious embossing folder, fun foam

Inspired Peonies

Yet another card for the CAS Watercolour April challenge of Green and Pink.

 

It's also for the SCS Inspiration Challenge to choose an image from a Pinterest board called Floral Arrangements.  I chose this image:

And here's the card I was inspired to make:

I stamped my Penny Black image in Versafine Smokey Grey so that it was a bit lighter than stamping in black. Then watercoloured the image, splattered a tiny bit around the edges, added a sentiment, die cut with a stitched edge die, bordered in green, and popped up on a cream card base.

I used a new sentiment stamp that I really like.  I recently spent a few days with my sister who lives 3,000 miles away so I'm going to send it to her.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black Centerpiece, Impression Obsession sentiment

Ink - Versafine Smokey Grey

Paper - watercolour paper, green and cream cs

Size - 5.75" square

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam, Lil Inkers stitched square die

Remember the Green and Pink

It's the middle of April already so time to remind you that you only have until April 24th to link up a card featuring watercolouring in green and pink in the CAS Watercolour challenge.

My garden is finally coming to life after our longer, colder, and snowier than usual winter, and the beautiful ornamental cherry trees are starting to bloom, so I was inspired to pull out a stamp that includes some spring blossom.

I stamped in Archival ink and then painted with my Gansai Tambi watercolour paints.  A simple sentiment, a trim with a stitched square die, and a piece of fun foam to pop it up on a kraft card base, and it's done!  A fun image to watercolour and detailed enough that it needs no embellishments.

Head on over to CAS Watercolour for more inspiration and to link up your card.

I'm also entering my card in the new Less is More challenge "Spring Walk" - I love seeing the blossoms and the birds building their nests when I'm out walking the dogs at this time of year!

Supplies:

Stamps - B Line Designs bird and nest, PTI sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - kraft cs, watercolour paper

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Lil Inkers stitched square die, fun foam

Christmas Scene for Merry Monday

The Merry Monday challenge is asking for a Christmas scene this week.

It was a good opportunity to ink up a NBU stamp of a Christmas village.

A pretty straightforward card - stamped, watercoloured, bordered with black, and popped up on fun foam.  

Thanks, Merry Monday, for inspiring me to use this stamp!

Supplies:

Stamps - Crafter's Companion Nordic Christmas, A Muse sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - white and black cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam

Inlaid Ornament

It's time to remind you to enter the April CAS Mix Up challenge!

I'm falling behind on getting Christmas cards made throughout the year so decided to do a Christmas card for my reminder card.

I spritzed my focal panel with some gold spray, stamped the pine branch and sentiment, and then die cut the ornament out of the panel, and two more times out of green shimmer and gold cs.

I stuck a piece of self-adhesive fun foam to the back of the panel with the adhesive against the panel - that made it easy to inlay the green ornament outline and pop in the gold pieces like a jigsaw puzzle.

I poked holes to run my gold cord through, taping it to the back of the fun foam, and then taped the whole piece to my card base.

It was hard to photograph the card and get the lovely effect of the gold spray so had to be happy to have just part of it shimmering - it's much better in real life.

You have until April 24th to get your CAS inlaid die cards linked to CAS Mix Up.  Remember to include some stamping as well as one other element from our list (mine is the gold spray).

I'm also entering my card in the Merry Christmas Challenge where the April challenge is "ornament".

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Ornament Pine branch, Rubber Soul joy

Ink - Memento Cottage Ivy

Paper - white cs, green and gold shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Simon Says Stamp Holly Ornament die, gold spray, fun foam, gold cord

Three Versions of the Same Poinsettia

The suggested theme for the SCS Christmas Card Challenge for March was poinsettias. I do a quota of 10 each month and I didn't get my March quota finished so sat down today and did three variations using the same stamp.

And the April Christmas Cards All Year Round challenge is flowers.

For each variation, I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia on watercolour paper, but used different colours each time.  I used Inktense watercolour pencils to colour all three versions, fussy cut all three, and mounted them on fun foam but on different colours or styles of cardbases. This one is on a red panel die cut with a stitched square and then on a square white cardbase.

This one is stamped and heat embossed in gold.  It is on a red cardbase, with a gold die cut sentiment, and some gold gemstones in the centre of the flower.

Next up is one stamped in black ink and heat embossed in clear ep, on a white cardbase, with a stamped and heat embossed sentiment.

And lastly, stamped and heat embossed in white, on a red panel die cut with a stitched square and then on a square white cardbase.

Interesting to see how the different colours of ink and embossing powder change the look!

Supplies:

Stamps - Stamp Oasis poinsettia

Ink - gold version - ColorBox Gold; black version - Versafine Onyx Black; white version - Hero Arts Snow

Paper - red and white cs for the card bases, watercolour paper, scrap of gold cs for the die cut sentiment on the gold version

Size - A2; 4.75" square

Accessories - gold, clear, and white embossing powders; Inktense watercolour pencils, gold gemstones, Lil Inkers stitched square die, fun foam

Smiling Bear

The latest Addicted to CAS challenge is "smile":

I struggled with this for awhile and then thought of this cute Penny Black bear who has a big smile on his face - perhaps because he succeeded in finding all the gifts he needed!

I stamped him, watercoloured him, bordered with a bit of festive dp, and added to my cardbase!  A fun and quick card that is nice and flat for mailing!

Love getting Christmas cards done well ahead!  And challenges inspire me even if they're not specifically Christmas ones.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black bear, Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs, Colorbok dp

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour paints

Three Variations on a Vintage Rose

I've never used washi tape before (and hardly have any) but I do have some by Tim Holtz so pulled out his rose design tape to use for this week's SCS Ways to Use It challenge "Tape, Tape, and More Tape".

I stamped the image in brown archival ink and then watercoloured it by pressing a bit of various Distress inks on an acrylic block and picking it up with water and a brush. I sponged around the edges of the panel with Distress Frayed Burlap as it is close to the background colour in the washi tape.

Added a sentiment and a few champagne coloured pearls.

As well as using the washi tape, I used a rose stamp I've had for years and never used. And a new sentiment stamp I got recently. So everything on the card (with the exception of the inks and the pearls) are "NBUS" so I'm adding my card to Darnell's NBUS challenge.

And because the rose is watercoloured in pink and green, I'm also adding it to the CAS Watercolour challenge ("pink and green").


The Flower Challenge has a sketch challenge this month.  I don't really like sketch challenges but I had the idea that I could use an earlier stamping and watercolouring of the same rose stamp that had a smudge down at the bottom.  I cut out the flower with a circle die, cut another circle in blue to match the dragonfly, and placed it over some pink dp with a bit of blue in it.  Die cut the sentiment and added a few pearls. 

And one more with the same stamp that I've made for a friend whose birth month flower is the rose and whose favourite colour is yellow.  This time I coloured with copics and sponged the edges with the same archival ink I had stamped with.  I wanted to use my rose embossing folder with it.  It is a British ef so its proportions are different to our North American A2 cards.  I tried to trim it down to fit an A2 card base but it looked wrong so I cut a British size card and it works way better.  The overall card is the same width but taller.  I added a few heart-shaped gemstones to tie the colours in the focal panel to the rest of the card.

Nice to get three cards done for my stash!                                          

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Hampton Art rose, Chocolate Baroque sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Potted Soil; Distress Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, and Frayed Burlap

Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz washi tape, pearls, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Hampton Arts rose

Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil; Distress Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles

Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs, My Mind's Eye dp

Size - A2

Accessories - pearls, blue marker, Spellbinders circle dies, Tattered Lace sentiment die

Supplies for card 3:

Stamps - Hampton Arts rose, Hero Arts sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil

Paper - cream and white cs

Size - 6x4.25"

Accessories - Copic markers, heart shaped gems, Crafts Too embossing folder

April Showers = Dandelions

I made a card today for two recent SCS challenges - the CAS challenge "April Showers" and the Ways to Use It challenge "That’s What the Doctor Ordered".

Because I'm using a stencil and two stamps that I've never used before (and I've had the sentiment stamp for many years!!), I'm also entering it in Darnell's NBUS challenge.

April showers is definitely what I'm experiencing today - very dreary and drizzling all day. So a good day to make a card!

 

I started by stamping the dandelion in black ink. Then I laid the raindrops stencil over it and sponged with two shades of blue ink. I added the sentiment once I removed the stencil so that I could think about its placement amongst the raindrops.

I trimmed the panel down and added a thin strip of black cs to the right side to balance the sentiment. The panel is popped up on fun foam and a bit of Wink of Stella added to the centres of the dandelion seeds and to the little sprigs at the bottom.

I know the showers help my flowers to grow but they seem even more successful at getting the dandelions to grow! I need to get out and weed the garden!

Supplies:

Stamps - Magenta dandelion, Gina K sentiment

Ink - MFT Black Licorice, Memento Summer Sky, Distress Tumbled Glass

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Simon Says Stamp raindrops stencil, Wink of Stella, fun foam

Pink and Green Tulips

The CAS Watercolour challenge for April is a colour challenge:

Very appropriate colours for this time of year, I think, as I immediately thought of lovely bunches of pink tulips.  So that inspired my card.

It is so much fun being on the Design Team for CAS Watercolour.  It's really making me explore all the different ways of doing watercolouring.  For this card, I turned to Heather Telford's tutorial here of colouring the image with Distress stains and then pulling the colour inside the lines with a brush and water.

Doing it in the MISTI makes it so much easier.  I inked up my outline stamp of tulips with three shades of pink and and two of green Distress stains, and then stamped onto hot press watercolour paper.  I took my paint brush and water and pulled the stains into the image to fill them in, add shading, etc.  I lost a bit too much of the outline so, when dry, I reinked the stamp with the same stains (luckily I'd left it in the MISTI - if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to do this step) and restamped.

I watered down a bit of one of the green stains and did a tiny bit of splattering.  I trimmed the image down with a stitched rectangle die.  Then I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on vellum and cut it out with a banner die.  The panel is popped up on fun foam.

Since this was a new technique to me, I wasn't totally happy with my first attempt.  It wasn't bad enough to toss so I turned it into a card too.  Here it is:

I used a bit too much water on it which makes the flowers look a bit too faded out, and I restamped the image while the flowers were still wet so even my restamping bled out a bit.  I also added more splatter and a different sentiment treatment.  I like this version, but prefer the one above.  How about you?

You have until April 24th to join in at CAS Watercolour.  Please be sure to follow the parameters of the challenge - your card must include watercolour of some sort, have a colour scheme of pink and green, and be CAS (clean and simple).

For more inspiration, check out the other cards by the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Marcia of Marcia K Designs.

Supplies:

Stamps - Technique Tuesday Tulips, Stampendous sentiment

Ink - Versafine Olympic Green (sentiment on first card), Distress Peeled Paint (sentiment on second card)

Paper - white cs, hot press watercolour paper, vellum

Size - A2

Accessories - Distress Stains (Peeled Paint, Forest Moss, Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick), Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, banner die, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Inlaid in Stick Frames

Another month flown by and it's time for the April CAS Mix Up challenge - Inlaid Die-Cutting.

I used a new (to me) die called Stick Frames and I inlaid it with some Inka Gold smooshing.

I used blue, green, and gold tones of Inka Gold and followed Loll Thompson's Inka Gold video here.

With the Sticks Frame die cut, I cut once from my Inka Gold piece, once from gold shimmer cs, and once from a scrap of ivory cs.  I layered the gold and ivory stick frame part of the die cuts together - it's a very flimsy die so needs the extra strengthening of two layers.  I then glued that onto white cs and took the negative space Inka Gold pieces and inserted them into the stick frame (the teeny tiny pieces were very fiddly!).

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment below it, die cut the panel with a stitched rectangle, and popped it up on fun foam for dimension.  I played around with some blue and green sequins as I felt the upper left corner of the panel needed something but could not get an arrangement that made me happy so left well enough alone.

There are other great examples from the Design Team and our April Guest Designer Maria (of the White Mood blog) over at CAS Mix Up, as well as some links to videos to give you ideas for Inlaid Die-Cutting.  We'd love to have you join us but please be sure your card is CAS (clean and simple), and includes stamping, inlaid die-cutting, and at least one "your choice" from the list on the right hand side of the CAS Mix Up blog.  For example, my choices on this card are Inka Gold, smooshing, and heat embossing.  You have until April 24th to link up your card.

Supplies:

Stamps - Savvy Stamp sentiment

Ink - ColorBox gold

Paper - watercolour paper, gold shimmer cs, cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - PoppyStamps stick frames die, Inka Gold, gold embossing powder, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam