Holly with a Robin

I got out a stamp I haven't used yet and inked it up for this Christmas card:

I stamped the stamp with Fadeout No-Line ink so that I could have a better idea of the image, then coloured directly on the stamp with Tombow markers, one colour at a time and spritzing lightly with water after each one.  I did the text stamping and background sponging with Distress Antique Linen and Vintage Photo, and added a sentiment in brown.  I popped the panel up on fun foam.

The method I used for the text stamping is in this video - inking up the stamp, spritzing it, laying it on my work surface rubber side up, and pressing the panel onto the stamp lightly, avoiding the image as much as possible.

Challenges:

Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Holly and / or Ivy"

 

Rudolph Days "Anything Christmas"

NBUS "Never Before Used Stuff" 

 

Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Anything Penny Black"

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black image, unknown sentiment
Ink - Fadeout No-Line Colouring Ink, Memento Rich Cocoa, Distress Antique Linen and Vintage Photo
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, fun foam

More Fuzzy Flowers and a Sparkling Star

Yesterday I posted this card using one of the two techniques I thought of for creating a card for the Less is More "Out of Focus" challenge. 

It was made by sprinkling brushos through a stencil and spritzing with water.  Today I am using the other technique -inking up a stamp with markers and spritzing with water.  

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked up with Tombow markers, spritzing lightly, stamping, and repeating until I was happy with it. I trimmed the panel and added fun foam to the back.

I used the same green marker to ink up the sentiment on a background panel and added fun foam to the back of it too.


I'm also posting a Christmas card today as I want to enter the Paper Players CAS "Sparkle" challenge before it closes.

 

I have a sentiment die that says "sparkle" so had to use it!

I stamped and heat embossed the star in white, then spritzed with a gold spray for sparkly speckles and to colour in the design on the star.

I fussy cut the star, scored and folded it, and popped it up with pieces of fun foam (3 pieces layered in the centre, 2 pieces layered in each point of the star so that I could get the centre higher than the points).

With a paint brush, I splattered a tiny bit of the gold spray on the white panel, bordered it with pale gold cs, and added a die cut sentiment cut from the pale gold cs.

It sparkles more in real life but was hard to photograph.

I hope everyone is well and getting through these strange times okay.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown wildflowers stamp, Rubber Soul sentiment
Paper - watercolour paper, linen cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Christmas Star
Ink - ColorBox White
Paper - white and pale gold cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - W Plus 9 "sparkle" die, white embossing powder, Heidi Swapp gold spray, foam tape

Comparing Markers on a Poinsettia

   It's the middle of the month so this card is to remind you that you've only got until March 24th to enter CAS Christmas "Winter Flower".

 

I stamped the flower by putting it in my MISTI, inking up with Tombow markers, spritzing with water and stamping repeatedly until I was happy with the results.  I added a gold sentiment and gold splatter (might have overdone the splattering!).

I did another one using Distress markers just to compare.  Here's the focal image (I haven't turned it into a card yet).

I was not as happy with the results with the Distress markers.  They are several years newer than the Tombows but they seem to have dried up a lot more.  I had a much harder time inking the stamp with them.  I had to go over the stamp several times with the marker to get enough colour, whereas the Tombow markers went on to the stamp much more easily.  Did way too much splatter on this one too!

   Guess what?It's CAS Christmas's second birthday!!

  And to celebrate, we're offering prizes:

Winner - $25 GC to Simon Says Stamp

Random Draw from eligible entries - $25 GC to Simon Says Stamp

  So please come and join us!  There is more inspiration for you from the rest of the Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, Linda (Scrappin', Stampin', Singin').

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Delicata Golden Glitz
Paper - watercolour paper, gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow and Distress markers, gold paint for splattering, fun foam

Wildflowers with a Large Sentiment

Seize the Birthday wants to see the sentiment as the focal image.

I'm not sure I quite got it right with this card but it is a much larger sentiment than I normally use.

I found a very pale image of wildflowers (inked up with Tombow markers, spritzed, and stamped while in my MISTI) in my box of unused pieces and thought it would be good for layering a bold sentiment on top.  The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed in platinum.  

I didn't have any card stock that matched the platinum embossing so ran my embossing dauber along the edges of a square of cs and heat embossed with the same platinum.

I embellished with a few tiny iridescent stars and sequins.

I'm also linking up with Krafty Chicks Challenge "Stamp Act" (make sure there is stamping on the card).

That's it for today.  The sun is shining so I'm heading out to do a bit of spring garden clean up.

Supplies:
Stamps - Magenta wildflowers, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versamark for the sentiment
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Tombow markers, platinum embossing powder, fun foam, tiny sequins and stars

Swallowtail Coloured Three Ways

I was at my Stampin' Up rep's catalogue release party last weekend and she offered a great deal on retired stamps so I picked up the very large Swallowtail stamp - I've always admired cards made with it but was never sure how I'd use it.  So I bought it and decided to use it right away, and experiment with inking it up with three different mediums (other than straightforward ink).

This first one uses markers so I'm putting it in as my reminder card for the CAS Mix Up Design Team, since this month's challenge is markers.

For my July 1st CAS Mix UpDesign Team card here, I inked up my stamp with markers and then stamped immediately.  For this card, I inked up with Tombow markers and then spritzed with water to get a soft watercolour look.

I used my MISTI to make sure I got it stamped well.  I made a mask of the stamp and covered my image and splattered some brown watered down Vintage Photo ink.

I trimmed it down to a square and added a very narrow brown border and the white heat embossed sentiment on brown.  Two iridescent gemstones filled in the holes in the die cut sentiment label.

Staying in a similar colour range, I then tried inking up the stamp with watercolour crayons and spritzing with Tsukineko Shimmer Spritz spray instead of plain water.

Either I used less water or the watercolour crayons don't react as much with water, but I got a lot more detail and less of a watercolour look than I achieved in the first card.

I bordered it with a Spellbinders decorative border for the SU Ways to Use It challenge "Decorative Borders", used a shimmery copper card base, and die cut the sentiment from the same cs.  Some iridescent sequins finished it off.

My third medium was gelatos - and I totally changed my colour scheme as I only have a few gelatos.

Again, I scribbled on the stamp with a few colours, spritzed with water, and stamped on watercolour paper.   I prefer the results I got with the Tombow markers and the watercolour crayons to this.

I masked the butterfly, added a bit of pale blue text and some black splatters in the background, and made a white heat embossed sentiment.  I bordered with black to tie in the sentiment.  My embellishments are tiny flower sequins.

My favourite of the three is the first one - I love the watercolour look I got from using the Tombow markers.  How about you?

You have until July 24th to join us at CAS Mix Up if you want to try your hand at a clean and simple card using stamping, markers, and at least one other element.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Swallowtail, SU sentiment, Wendy Vechhi text background

Ink - ColorBox white, ColorBox Cape Cod, Distress Black Soot and Vintage Photo

Paper - white, copper shimmer, brown, and black cs; watercolour paper

Accessories - Tombow markers, SU watercolour crayons, Gelatos, white embossing powder, iridescent gemstones, iridescent sequins, flower sequins, Memory Box label die, Spellbinders fancy border die, Nesties label die