Watercoloured Stencil

Time for February's CAS Watercolour challenge and our host, Marcia, has picked "Red and Pink" as the theme.

Perfect for Valentine's Day!  I did something a little different and watercoloured through a stencil for my card.

I used a TCW stencil called "Confetti".  Here's a picture of it:

It seems I had it flipped over the other way but I don't think it matters.  I taped it down onto watercolour paper and just used the top section.

I took plain old watercolour paints and a small flat brush (a flat brush seems to work better with the stencil than a round one).  I dipped the brush in water and then dabbed off some of the water so it wouldn't run under the stencil.  I drag the flat brush head on an angle over the stencil openings, rather than painting into the openings (if that makes sense!).  I did all the blotches and dots in pink and the hearts in red.

To finish it off, I added an encrusted jewel heart out of my UFO box and a simple stamped sentiment.  The panel is popped up on fun foam on a red card base.  Here's a close-up of the heart and surrounding watercolouring:

We have wonderful examples of red and pink watercolouring from the Design Team and our fabulous Guest Designer, Darnell (djkardkreations) over at CAS Watercolour.  You have until February 24th to link up your cards.

Supplies:

Stamps - Tim Holtz sentiment

Ink - SU Real Red

Paper - watercolour paper, red cs

Size - A2

Accessories - TCW "Confetti" stencil, watercolour paints, encrusted jewel heart from my UFO box (heart die, versamark, red embossing powder, clear UTEE, various tiny beads and sequins, glitter), fun foam

Heat Embossed Cardinal

Squeaking in under the wire for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Heat Embossing" challenge!

I used an older Inkadinkado stamp that works really well for solid heat embossing.

I stamped with Versamark and then heat embossed with a mix of copper and sparkly gold embossing powders.  I fussy cut the image.

I had a piece of copper sprayed cs in my UFO box so stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on it and trimmed it down into a square for the background.

I taped the fussy cut image onto it, and added a border of copper glitter cs.

Now it's finished I'm wondering if it is too monotone.  What do you think?

Supplies:

Stamps - Inkadinkado bird / ornament, PTI sentiment

Ink - Versamark

Paper - white cs, copper glitter cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - copper spray, a mix of copper and sparkly gold embossing powder

Looking Back

I don't do vintage style very often, but I do have one stamp I love and it is perfect for the Double D Challenge "Looking Back in Time".

To go with the old-fashioned image, I used vintage colours and some lace.

I stamped the image on watercolour paper with Distress Oxide Vintage Photo - I used the Oxide ink rather than the regular Distress ink as it gives a sharper image.

I pressed a few colours of mini Distress inks on a palette and watercoloured the image with them. The Vintage Photo from the original stamping blended in with them a bit, making the colours seem even more vintage.

I pressed some Vintage Photo on my mat, spritzed it with water, and ran some lace through it. It came out darker than I wanted but I went with it anyway.

I went over the snow on the umbrella and in the sky with a Quickie glue pen and then added Rock Candy glitter for a bit of subtle sparkle (sorry, I couldn't capture the sparkle in my photo).

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Crafty Individuals

Ink - Distress Oxide Vintage Photo, various Distress mini inks

Paper - watercolour paper, tan and PTI Vintage Cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - SU lace, Distress Rock Candy glitter

Snowflake Patterns

I live in Vancouver, Canada, where our winters are mild and often completely free of snow, but my sisters live near Toronto - they just had a huge snowfall and it's -30 Celsius today.  So this card was made with them in mind!

And for these two challenges:

Christmas Cards All Year Round where the current challenge is "Let It Snow".

12 Months of Christmas - "Anything but a Rectangle".   I love square cards so it's a great challenge for me.

I used three different snowflake embossing folders. The different patterns are subtle but they are there!

I cut narrow strips of white cs and embossed them. Then cut the bottom edges to make banners. Spaced them out evenly on the card base, and added a silver die cut sentiment.

It's also perfect for two SCS challenges:

CAS518 = Pattern Mash Up - use three different patterns

SCSCCJAN19 = It All Starts Up North - snow, ice, north pole

Supplies:

Paper - silver glitter and white cs

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - Darice, Cuttlebug, and Sizzix snowflake embossing folders, Penny Black "winter wishes" die

Santa Brought Me a Snowflake

The Jingle Belles challenge is "Look What Santa Brought Me".  I got a new snowflake stamp I've been wanting for awhile.

On coated cs, I created a blue background with blue Brushos and a bit of silver Magicals spritzed with water.  When dry, I stamped and heat embossed the snowflake in white.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

I trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam.  I added a small heat embossed sentiment banner and embellished with a few sequins.

It's a very quick and easy card that would work well for making multiples.  And I do love that new snowflake stamp!

Supplies:

Stamps - Visible Image "Snow is Falling", A Muse sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white

Paper - coated cs, white and black cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - various blue Brushos, silver Magicals, white embossing powder, sequins, fun foam

Twofer Birds

I love birds as a theme for cards so had to squeeze in some time today to make cards for Darnell's Twofer Card Challenge:

Here's the Twofer photo:

I really love that bird stamp with the wonderful quote on its body.  The card on the left is a thank you card for my sister who has really inspired me to follow some of my passions.  The one on the right is a birthday card for a close friend who does bird watching.  The sentiments for the occasions are on the inside because I wanted to use the word stamps that came with the bird stamp.

First up:

I started with a piece of background I made at Loll Thompson's house using Jennifer Maguire's Distress ink monoprint technique (see video here).  It uses blue Distress ink with a leafy background stamp - this is the monoprint version (or what I think of as the negative version).  It came out a bit patchy so I decided to add some layering with the music background stamp and two of the words that came with the bird stamp.

The bird is stamped, heat embossed, and fussy cut, with its legs glued to the die cut branch and its body popped up with dimensional tape.  The whole panel is popped up on fun foam.

And the second card:

I put the bird stamp in my MISTI and coloured it with Distress markers, repeating until I was happy with the results.  Then I put the "happiness" stamp in the MISTI and got it close to the bird's feet to ground the bird.

I placed a leafy stencil over it and used a finger dauber to sponge around the bird with pale blue and pale green.

After I trimmed the panel into a square, I decided I needed something below the "happiness" stamp as I'd kept the stencil sponging above it.  So I wrapped twine around the bottom.  And then had an "ah ha" moment that it would be perfect on a kraft base - popped up on fun foam of course for some dimension.

I'm also adding it to Loll Thompson's new CAS Stencil Challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Fiskars "For the Birds" set, Impression Obsession music background, unknown leaf background stamp

Ink - various Distress blue inks, Adirondack Lake Mist, Vivid Cobblestone, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white and brown cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Sizzix branch die, clear embossing powder, foam tape, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Fiskars "For the Birds" set

Ink - Memento Sky Blue, Distress Bundled Sage, Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - Distress markers, Dina Wakely Little Birdies Leaf stencil, twine, fun foam