Blue Forget-Me-Nots

Time to remind you that you only have until June 24th to enter a card in the CAS Watercolour "Something Blue" challenge!

Every spring / early summer, my garden is full of blue Forget-Me-Nots.  I'm always sad when they are finished and I have to pull out the dying plants - but as you pull them out, they drop their seeds everywhere, ready for next year.

I stamped the image on hot press watercolour paper with archival ink and watercoloured with my Gansai Tambi paints, using quite an intense blue for the flowers, a very pale bit of green for the leaves, a bit of very pale blue on the postmark, and adding an even paler blue wash around the flowers (so pale it doesn't show in the photo!).

I used a linen cardstock for the card base and for the stitched frame.  The frame is popped up on foam tape over the image.

I added a tiny drop of cream from a Viva Pearl Pen to the centre of each flower.  Here's a close-up:

Please head over to CAS Watercolour and check out the rest of the Design Team and June's wonderful Guest Designer, TaeEun (rainbow in november).

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - hot press watercolour paper, linen cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, cream Viva Pearl Pen, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, foam tape

Duck Egg and Plum

Less is More has a colour challenge going on right now:

 

I went with some ink blending to use the challenge colours.

 

I sponged Distress inks, getting the colours to overlap. Then I put my stamp and background in the MISTI and stamped the poppy. Leaving everything in the MISTI, I used a brush and bleach to remove the colour from the poppy, and then restamped to keep the outline distinct.

I framed it with a stitched window die, and added a sentiment and some dark irridescent gemstones.

I've really enjoyed using the bleach technique lately.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Simply Sketched poppy, Savvy Stamps sentiment

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Faded Jeans, Seedless Preserves, and Broken China

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Die-namics peek-a-boo window, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, dark iridescent gemstones, bleach

Santa Inchie

For the latest Jingle Belles Christmas Card Challenge, "Santa Baby".

I went with a Santa inchie:

I love the sweet little image of Santa riding a horse / rocking horse.

I stamped the inchies and punched them out. I mounted them on a scrap of dp, then bordered it with green cs.

It's good to pull out that old set of Christmas inchies!

Supplies:

Stamps - Darkroom Door Christmas Inchies

Ink - Memento Rhubarb Stalk

Paper - white and green cs, scrap of dp

Size - A2

Accessories - 1" punch

A Small Amount of Embossing

Less is More is asking for less than one third of the card to be either heat or dry embossed:

I went with a narrow strip of dry embossing under my image.

I thought that the dry embossed wavy line of snowflakes echoed the slopes and piles of snow, the plumes of smoke, and the snowflakes drifting down among the houses.  I chose a sentiment with a font with some wavy lines to complement everything.

The image is coloured with coloured pencils and Gamsol. I bordered it in black and popped it up on fun foam. 

Supplies:

Stamps - Serendipity village, Stampabilities sentiment

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, snowflake embossing folder border, fun foam

A Bear Bearing Gifts

June's CAS Christmas challenge is "Gifts".

I used a never-before-used stamp in a Penny Black set that I bought for one of the other stamps.  Not sure why I never inked up this adorable bear!

A very easy CAS card!  I watercoloured the image and went over the ribbons, bows, and polka dots with a silver metallic paint pen.  I bordered the image with silver mirri card, die cut the sentiment from the same silver card, and popped it up on fun foam.

Please head over to the CAS Christmas blog to see the lovely cards by the rest of the Design Team members and this month's Guest Designer, Leslie (Running with Scissors).  And then link up your clean and simple Christmas card featuring gifts!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, silver mirri card, ivory cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - watercolour paints, silver metallic paint pen, fun foam

Blue Butterflies

I love the new CAS Watercolour challenge!  Those of you who know me know that my all-time forever favourite colour is blue.  And that is this month's challenge!

I went with blue butterflies:

And I went back to an older watercolour technique - Wrinkle Free Distress.  Because it's an old technique, I often forget to use it, but it is so effective and such a great way to create backgrounds.

I swiped a few shades of blue Distress inks on my craft mat, spritzed with water until I got droplets of colour, and then pressed and tapped white cs into it.  I dried it with a heat tool.

I die cut the butterflies, layered them over the blue panel, and added it to my card base.  I stamped my sentiment on the butterfly layer but got it crooked so redid it on a scrap of cs, heat embossed it and die cut it with an oval die.

Wrinkle Free Distress is a Tim Holtz technique from at least ten years ago.  If you can't decide what to do for this month's CAS Watercolour challenge, why not revisit it?  Or head over to the CWC blog and get some inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and June's wonderful Guest Designer, TaeEun (rainbow in November).

You have until June 24th to link up your card.  It must be clean and simple, must use a watercolour technique, and must follow the theme.

Supplies:

Stamps - A Muse sentiment

Ink - ColorBox True Blue; Distress Faded Jeans, Broken China, and Tumbled Glass

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box reverse butterfly die, Spellbinders oval die, clear embossing powder