A Variation on Autumn Watercolour

The other day I made a card for the new CAS Watercolour challenge.  I mentioned in that post that my first attempt had too much water and it flowed all around the leaf images.  I was going to toss that attempt but I really liked the leaves so decided to fussy cut the leaves to get rid of the excess colour all around them.  Here's the card I made with those leaves:

For the technique of colouring the leaves, see the earlier blog post here.

The background is a sprinkling of blue bister on coated cs, spritzed with water and allowed to air dry.  The leaves are popped up on it with foam tape.

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in white on a scrap of dark brown cs.

The whole panel is popped up on a piece of fun foam.

I'm entering this version in the CAS Watercolour challenge along with my earlier version.  You have until October 24th to come and join in with a clean and simple watercolour card with an autumnal theme.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU French Foliage leaves, unknown sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white

Paper - white and brown cs, coated cs, watercolour paper

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - blue Bister, white embossing powder, foam tape, fun foam

Christmas Embossing Two Ways

The October Christmas challenge over at Happy Little Stampers is "embossing".

For my Design Team contribution, I went with a fairly traditional card that has a dry embossed background and a heat-embossed focal image and sentiment.

The poinsettia is heat embossed in gold on red vellum and then fussy cut.  It is layered on the dry embossed background and given some dimension with foam tape under the petals.  The sentiment is heat embossed on a label die and attached with red and gold ribbon.  Gold gemstones carry on the gold colours.

I'm going to enter it into the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown sketch challenge as well.


While I had the stamp and the red vellum out, I made a second card and I'm going to enter it into Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge "Embossing on Vellum":

The poinsettia is done the same way but embellished in the centre with gold stickles and  set inside a circle die cut frame with a gold heat embossed sentiment.

Happy Little Stampers is offering a prize for the best entry into the challenge.  You have until the end of October to enter a Christmas card that uses some kind of embossing.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Joyful Christmas, A Muse sentiments

Ink - ColorBox gold

Paper - white cs, red vellum

Accessories - gold embossing powder, Spellbinders label die, red / gold ribbon, SU Sizzix embossing folder, foam tape, gold gemstones, Nesties circle die, gold Stickles

Autumn Watercolour

Loll Thompson and Bonnie Klass have started a fabulous new challenge - CAS Watercolour.  Each month will have a theme or occasionally, a specific technique.  For October, it is Autumn.

I took my French Foliage stamp set and decided to watercolour right onto the stamp with Brushos.

I sprinkled some red, yellow, brown, and orange Brushos onto my craft sheet and spritzed them with water.  Then using a paint brush, I added the colour to the stamp, and stamped onto watercolour paper.  I was using my MISTI so if I didn't get enough coverage, I was able to add more colour and restamp.

Once the Brushos were dry, I inked up the stamps directly with brown ink and overstamped the watercoloured images.  I added a sentiment and some splats, and then popped the panel up on fun foam.

This version is my second attempt.  The first attempt ended up with Brushos flowing all around the images - I put way too much water / Brusho mixture onto the stamps.  So the trick is to go light on the water / Brusho mixture the first time and know that you can go back again if you're using the MISTI.

If you feel like celebrating autumn with some kind of watercolour technique, you have until October 24th to link your cards up at CAS Watercolour.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU French Foliage leaves, unknown sentiment

Ink - Archival Potting Soil, Distress Antique Linen

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Brushos, fun foam

Ghosting a Snowflake

It's time for a new CAS Mix Up challenge!  For the month of October, it is "Ghosting".

I am in Christmas card mode as time is passing by so quickly and I need to get lots of Christmas cards made.  So I came up with this card as my Design Team contribution:

I started out by taking a piece of glossy cs and adding a couple of shades of blue alcohol ink and some silver mixative to it.  I then took a snowflake stencil (one of the good old Dreamweaver brass stencils) and went over it with alcohol blending solution to remove the alcohol inks in order to "ghost" the snowflake image.

I cut it out with a circle Nestie die and framed it with a Memory Box circle / snowflake die cut out of silver cs.  Mounted it on a white cardbase, heat embossed the sentiment, and embellished with a few sequins.

There are many different ways to do ghosting.  Head on over to the CAS Mix Up blog for more information and to link up your card.  You have until October 24th.  Please remember that your card must be clean and simple, as well as including stamping, ghosting, and at least one other thing from our list of suggestions in the right hand column.  In my case, my other things are heat embossing (my sentiment), alcohol inks, and die cutting.  Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Supplies:

Stamps - Hero Arts sentiment

Ink - Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue for sentiment; various blue alcohol inks

Paper - white and silver cs, glossy cs

Size - A2

Accessories - alcohol blending solution, silver mixative, Nesties circle die, Memory Box snowflake circle die, Dreamweaver snowflake stencil, clear embossing powder