A Threefer!

I don't very often post three cards at once but I'm trying to get a few challenges done and I had plenty of time to craft on the weekend.

First up for Stamping Sensations ("things with wings") and Once Upon a Time ("Harold and the Purple Crayon"):

I chose the colour combination from the Once Upon a Time challenge book cover:

I sprinkled blue and purple Brushos on mixed media cs and spritzed with water.  The stamped the butterfly collage over it. The Brushos made some nice shades of colour so I chose similar pink and blue sprays to use on the background. Once the sprays were dry, I stamped the background with a small font script stamp.

Next for My Time to Craft Christmas ("something starting with R"), I went with a reindeer and for Christmas Cards All Year Round ("3 of something"), I went with 3 trees:

I used a technique I learned from Karen Dunbrook of tearing many strips of scrap paper to use as masks, starting at the bottom with the first sponging of ink, and then moving up the card. Once my background was dry, I stamped my images and sentiment. Then once they were dry, I sprinkled chunky white Frantage and White Diamond embossing powder over the panel, and heated it from underneath so it wouldn't blow away - a great way to create snowfall.

And finally for Sweet Stampin' Challenge ("spring or Easter"), I went with spring and for Cardz 4 Galz "Spring Flowers" and My Time to Craft Challenge "Springtime":

I watercoloured the image, trimmed it, and popped it up on fun foam on a dry embossed panel.

Challenges:

Stamping Sensations - things with wings

Once Upon a Time - Harold and the Purple Crayon

Christmas Cards All Year Round  - 3 of something

My Time to Craft Christmas - something starting with R

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - spring or Easter

Cardz 4 Galz - spring flowers 

My Time to Craft - springtime 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Hampton Art Windowpane Monarch, unknown script stamp
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - mixed media and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - various pink and blue sprays, blue and purple Brushos

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Tim Holtz
Ink - various blue Distress inks, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Frantage Chunky White Embossing Enamel, Judikins White Diamond embossing powder

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Stamplorations tulips, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, white linen cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, SU embossing folder

 

Yellow Tulips

Just one card today, something bright and cheery for Vancouver's grey rainy day:

I watercoloured the image, trimmed it, and popped it up on fun foam on a dry embossed panel.

I'm linking it up with the Colorful Options Challenge "Yellow"

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Stamplorations tulips, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, white linen cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, SU embossing folder

Tulips and Ribbon for Penny Black

I'm thrilled to be Guest Designing for Two Different Challenges, but both of them go live on the same day so I have to subject you to two blog posts today!

This post is for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  The challenge is Anything Goes with an Optional Twist of Ribbon or Twine.

I went with the optional twist of ribbon.

This beautiful tulip image lends itself perfectly to be tied with a bow!


Steps:

• Stamped it with Versafine and heat embossed it with a pearl lustre ep - in real life, there is a nice sheen to the stamping.
• Watercoloured the image, working on the shading as best I could.
• Stamped the sentiment in a similar green.
• Cut small slits each side of the stems and wound the gingham ribbon through it twice, tying it in a bow when finished.
• Die cut with an A2 stitched rectangle and mounted on the card base.
• Embellished with a scattering of various coloured gemstones.

Looking forward to seeing what you make for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this month!

I'm also linking it up over at The Flower Challenge where they are asking for spring flowers if we live in the northern hemisphere or autumn flowers if we live in the southern.

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black Flutterby tulips, Judith sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Memento Bamboo Leaves
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, yellow gingham ribbon, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, various coloured gemstones

Tulips for Spring

I've been playing along with some of the VSN challenges over at SCS and made this card for the "Tulips from Amsterdam" challenge.

I created the background with red and green brushos. When dry, I put it into my MISTI and angled the stamp to get most of the leaves on the green and the flowers on the red. I stamped and heat embossed the tulips and the sentiment.

I'm going to send it to a friend with the message inside following on from "delight" on the front, and say "delight in the little things" - seems a good message when all of the big things are out of our control right now.

The card is perfect for the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Think Spring"

Penny Black and More Challenge "Spring Flowers"

Just Us Girls Photo Challenge - be inspired by this photo:

 Seeing spring flowers is one of the simple joys in life right now.

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black tulips, SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves
Paper - white cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - red and green brushos, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Flowers Instead of Christmas

I was inspired by a couple of challenges to make flowery cards instead of Christmas cards!  (Though I do need more Christmas cards!)

First up, Penny Black and More "Flowers All Over" - flowers as the predominant focal element of the card.  I have a friend with an early January birthday and tulips are her favourite flower so it's good to get her card made well before the busy holiday period.

I inked up the tulips in my MISTI with mini Distress inks, then spritzed lightly with water, and stamped onto watercolour paper - I repeated until I was happy with the results.

I used a matching green cardbase, a white heat embossed sentiment on black, and added a scattering of pearls.


Second up, The Flower Challenge "Use a Die".   I needed a card to send off to one of my sisters who's going through a rough time.

I recently bought the Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp and die set after looking at it for a few years.

This is my first time using it. I actually layered three stamps so got a nice variation of colour.

I used the matching die cuts and taped the leaves flat to the cs and popped the flower up on foam tape.

A simple sentiment and three sequins finish it off.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black tulips, Chocolate Baroque sentiment
Ink - various small Distress inks, ColorBox white
Paper - black and green cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder, pearls, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Altenew Peony Bouquet, PTI sentiment
Ink - various greens, pinks, and red Distress ink
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Altenew peony dies, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, foam tape, white sequins

One Image of Tulips

AAA Cards wants one image only, with an optional twist of spring.

I think tulips are one of the best images for spring so I pulled out an old stamp and made this card:

A very quick CAS card - stamped and coloured, trimmed with a wonky stitched rectangle, bordered with green, and popped up on fun foam. And a few pink sequins for embellishment.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white and green cs

Size - A2

Accessories - MFT Wonky stitched rectangle die, Tombow markers, pink sequins, fun foam

The Tulips are Finally Blooming

We've had a cold wet spring so far but things are finally starting to happen in the garden - lots of my spring bulbs are blooming, the lilac is about to flower, the perennials are growing very quickly now that it's warming up.

So when I saw the Paper Players Tic Tac Toe challenge, I had to go with one of the lines that included flowers.

I went with the left hand vertical column - flowers, birthday, yellow.  And chose tulips for my image.

I stamped the image and watercoloured it, using yellow for all of the tulips in the foreground and more muted oranges for the background ones.  I trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die and mounted it on fun foam on an embossed panel.

It's getting tucked away in my birthday card file for a friend who loves yellow and orange!

Supplies:

Stamps - Stamplorations tulips, SU sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, SU embossing folder, fun foam

Pink and Red Tulips

I came across a challenge I hadn't seen before - the Color Throwdown.

I need to build up my stash of thank you cards so thought I'd use these colours for a spring thank you.

I stamped on watercolour paper with archival ink, then watercoloured with my Inktense watercolour pencils - pink and red tulips with a grey background.

I popped it up on fun foam and added it to an embossed panel.

Now back to watching some more Winter Olympics!!

Supplies:

Stamps - Stamplorations Framed Tulips, Savvy Stamps sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - SU embossing folding, Inktense watercolour pencils, 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

Classic Spring Watercolour

The March challenge for CAS Watercolour is "Spring".

What could be more evocative of spring than a vase full of tulips?  I decided not to use any fancy watercolour techniques, but rather to keep it just classic watercolouring so that the image can stand in its own right.

After I'd watercoloured the vase and flowers, I was planning to watercolour a background or do some splattering, but decided either of those would take away from the image and make the card less CAS, so simply watercoloured a bit of grounding for the vase, used a stitched rectangle die to trim it down, popped it up on fun foam, and added three sequins and a sentiment.

Please come over to CAS Watercolour to see the cards posted by the rest of the Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designer, Heather Telford of bits & pieces.  You have until March 24th to post your card - please be sure to stick to the theme of spring and keep your card CAS (clean and simple).

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black "Tulips in Porcelain", PTI sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, blue and yellow sequins, fun foam

Seasons, White Space, and Birthdays

When it comes to challenges, I mostly do Christmas ones but I also try to do at least a couple of Splitcoaststampers' challenges each week.  This week they had three in a row that appealed to me and I came up with this card combining all three in one:

The Free for All challenge "Happy Birthday to Me" is to make a birthday card that I would like to receive. I've got everything I like here - some stencilling, some glitter, flowers, a nice quote, and not too fussy.

The Mixability challenge "White Wash" appeals to those of us who like more CAS cards - it is to have lots of white space but still have mixed media. My media are ink, watercolour paints, wink of stella, embossing paste, and glitter.

But the challenge that started the card was the Ways to Use It challenge "Seasons" - make a card associated with your favourite season. Mine is spring - just love the garden coming back to life and all the wonderful spring flowers cheering things up after the winter. Bunches of tulips and daffodils in the grocery store are one of my favourite signs of spring.

The image is watercoloured with Wink of Stella over the flowers. The flourishes are done with a homemade stencil kindly made for me by Loll Thompson. I sprinkled gold glitter on the wet embossing paste. And I used a technique I've seen Sallie (aka hobbydujour on SCS) use a lot lately - instead of using gold cs to border an image, just draw gold lines around the edge.

I'm also taking it over to Happy Little Stamper's CAS challenge "Colouring" as I coloured my image with watercolour paints and coloured the embossing paste with glitter.

 Supplies:

Stamps: SU Love is Kindness, unknown happy birthday

Paper: watercolour paper, white cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Ranger Archival Black

Accessories: watercolour paints, clear Wink of Stella, homemade flourish stencil, Dreamweaver embossing paste, Glitter Ritz light gold glitter, Nesties rectangle, foam tape, gold Marvy Opaque Stix