Saturday, March 29, 2014

Another Happy Camper

I posted this same card using the Lollydoodle papers last week, and today I've made up the guy version using Avonlea.  It's not the most masculine of cards, but the guy I've made it for will appreciate the sentiment:
Patterned papers are Avonlea; Stamp sets are A Little Everything & Camper Crazy; Cardstock is Slate & Colonial White; Green button - all Close To My Heart; American Crafts twine; Copic Markers, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Mojo & Merry Monday

This is actually going into three different challenges... I'm making a Christmas card for Merry Monday, using red, grey & white this week, and I've used the interesting Mojo Monday sketch.  I've also incorporated March's Diva Dare on the Verve blog, which is "Do the Polka" - where you must have polka dots on your project.  I made two of these, one has all silver sparkles, and the other has a mixture of red & silver:
Patterned papers are Very Merry by Echo Park; Cardstock is Grey Flannel & White Daisy, CTMH; Stamp set is Merry & Bright, Verve; Dies are Pennant banner, Verve & Let It Snowflake, MFT; Ink is Black, CTMH.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Mocha, vodka, valium latte to go...

 I am posting on the Art Impressions blog today!  Now, if you're a scrapbooking Mom who has taken your kids to the zoo... chances are you have some giraffe patterned paper kicking around... (raise your hands, you know who you are!).  So when I sat down to make today's card, I thought hmmm... and sure enough, I had not one, but two pieces of giraffe patterned paper!  He was so much fun to colour - here's what I came up with using Giraffe Set (Sku #4190):

 
A short and sweet post from me today!  There is still time for you to enter our Take a Peek challenge - you can find that post here.  Happy stamping everyone!
Copic markers used: E31, E33, E35, E37; W1, W3, W5

 
 


Saturday, March 22, 2014

Balloon Ride

Oh, my - these are the most gorgeous papers!  They're so soft & pretty, I think you'll see me using them frequently over the next while.  I got the coordinating stamp set Up in the Air to use with them.  I've used this week's Deconstructed Sketch:
And a closeup of my balloon:

 
Patterned papers are Balloon Ride; Cardstock is Saddle, Crystal Blue, Cashmere & Colonial White; Hemp; Stamp Set is Up In the Air, Cricut Art Philosophy - all Close To My Heart; Ink is Rich Cocoa, Memento; Copic Markers.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Happy Camper

This was a fun card to make - bright and happy is pretty much my favourite kind of card to make... add in some fun patterned paper and a cute & trendy stamp set, and I'm a happy camper.  I've used this week's Mojo Monday sketch:
and a closeup of my little camper:

 
Patterned papers are Lollydoodle; Cardstock is Slate & White Daisy; Stamp sets are Camper Crazy & A Little Everything; - all Close To My Heart; Copic Markers, Baker's Twine, The Twinery. 

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Mini Front & Backs Blog Hop

The Art Impressions design team is hosting a blog hop today, as we are launching a new Ai line: Mini Front & Backs!  These little critters are seriously adorable... and make the sweetest cards.  You get an upper body, a full rearview body of two animals (or people!) plus a sentiment for each.  The intention is for you to make a 'window' card so the critter looks like he's peeking out at you.  Here's what I've come up with using Bunny & Ducky Mini Set (Sku#4404):
My cards are little - just 3 1/2" square... and I've used double sided printed cardstock so that the reverse print is visible through the window. 


Here are the insides:


 
After fussy-cutting around the front head piece, and the inside body piece, they fit perfectly together, so I glued the head to the back, then secured the lower body to the inside of the card.  I stamped my sentiments through the window onto the inside of the card so that it's visible with the card open or closed.  You'll want to check out what the entire design team is sharing today to see all the sets in the collection - next on the hop is Kerry!  Here's the hop list in case you want to start at the beginning:
 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Tuscan Summer Watercolours

 I'm very excited to be sharing something new with you today!  One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was "I will watercolour in 2014".  I have had the Art Impressions Watercolor Series 9 sets for a while now, have experimented and practised a bit... and now that I finally have all the tools & supplies organized - I played with them all day on Sunday.  I'm going to share my favourite project first:

This was actually my third attempt at watercolouring!  Here is a closeup of my scene:


If you aren't familiar with the Ai Watercolor sets - they are scene builder sets, where you get approx 6 different stamps in each set that can be used together in different combinations and arrangements to create your own scene.  These are all 'outline' stamps - so in my scene above, I'm using the outline of the grapevine, the outline of the basket of grapes and the small cluster of grapes.  You colour the stamp with a water soluable marker, and after stamping it, you use a wet paintbrush to soften the lines of the image, pulling the colour from the stamp to fill it in.  So on my basket of grapes, I used a green marker on the leaves, a purple one on the grapes and brown on the basket.  The grass, leaves on the vine and background are all my freehand work with the markers/brush.  Here was my second attempt:


 And finally my first attempt... I liked the design, but the colours were a bit too vibrant for me - I haven't quite decided how to make it into a card yet:


The first card I shared was my own creation, but the next two were done with a little help from my friends at Art Impressions.  When you purchase the Watercolour sets - I highly recommend getting one of the Instruction Guides (you can find the one I used, Tuscan summer, here!).  This is a full colour, six page booklet with step by step instructions on how to build your scene, complete with colour info:

If you would like to be able to paint, without having to draw out your own scene - this is the perfect choice for you.  I'm going to share a few things that I've learned in my experiments:
1) Have all the right supplies: 140lb Coldpress watercolour paper, Watercolour markers (I used both Marvy & Tombow), a decent quality brush.
2) Don't hesitate to use your markers directly on the paper - I added foliage, extra shading to the vines, and freehand drew in the grass and hilltops.  I found that I had better control with the markers than trying to paint freehand with my brush (I'll get better with practise!)
3) Layer colours overtop of each other to create different shades (I only had a vibrant pink/red shade that did not look good on my rooftops, so I found that by layering brown over the red, I achieved a more subtle shade that worked)
4) Watch Bonnie's videos!!  You'll see links to them on the sidebar of the Art Impressions blog.
5) Start with the examples in the instruction guide, and as your skills improve along with your confidence, you'll start creating scenes of your own.
Happy watercolouring, everyone!

 


Saturday, March 15, 2014

Viva La Verve - week 2

As soon as I saw this week's Viva La Verve sketch, I knew what I was going to do!  I own the Verve set Lucky You... and I pulled out some new Close To My Heart papers that I haven't used yet.  Here's what I came up with:
Patterned papers are Lollydoodle, Cardstock is Slate, Cotton Candy, Pear & White Daisy; Inks are Whisper and Pear - all Close To My Heart; Stamp set is Lucky You, Verve; Shamrock Die set, Verve; Sequin mix, Verve.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The Challenge #2

Lesley Croghan has started a new sketch challenge on her blog, called simply "The Challenge"!  I loved the simplicity of the sketch, and decided to play along - and I didn't veer too far from her own inspiration, I stuck with the butterfly theme.  I used some papers I've had kicking around for a while, and a delicate Memory Box die:
Patterned papers are Florentine, Cardstock is Goldrush, Twilight & Colonial White; Stamp set is Say It In Style, Ink is Cocoa - all Close To My Heart; Pippi Butterfly die by Memory Box.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Main Squeeze

I am posting on the Art Impressions blog today...
I have a couple of cards to share, using a set from our Valentine 2014 release - Main Squeeze Set (Sku#4360).  There are four sets in this collection that are all intended to be used with an action wobble!  The set includes the full body image, a sentiment, and just the upper body, which you pop up on the action wobble, and it gives the impression that the image is hugging itself :o)
I often make two of the same cards when I'm in my craft room, and I'll switch up the papers, and maybe the hair colour:



 
The best thing about this set, is that it's not just for Valentine's Day... it works all year long!  There is still time to play in our Sheer Perfection challenge, and we'll have a brand new challenge for you on Thursday.  Happy stamping everyone!

 
 
 


Friday, March 7, 2014

Little Man

I really love the Art Impressions Babies!  So when I needed to get a couple of baby cards made, I pulled out Little Man (Sku#UM4321) and used the CTMH Babycakes papers for the first time.  I've used the fabulous sketch on the Fusion Card Challenge:
Here's a closeup of my Little Man:

Patterned papers are Babycakes; Cardstock is Chocolate, Sunset & Colonial White - all CTMH; Inks are Chocolate, CTMH and Tuxedo Black, Memento; Stamp set is Little Man, Art Impressions, Copic Markers, American Crafts twine.
 

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Mojo Monday & Merry Monday

I've combined the Mojo Monday sketch challenge with this week's Merry Monday challenge which is to use stitching & buttons on your card, for a bit of a country feel.  Well stitching on cards is what I do best :o) so I pulled out the Christmas Poinsettia stamp set from Verve, and used a small green button for it's center:

Patterned papers are Handmade Holidays, by Simple Stories; Cardstock is Cocoa & Colonial White, CTMH; Inks are Barn Red and Cocoa, CTMH; Stamp sets are Poinsettia Christmas, and Glad Tidings, by Verve;
This is my second post for today!  Scroll down to see my Art Impressions Sheer Perfection challenge card.

Vellum Christmas card

Oh my goodness did this card ever start out differently!  The challenge over on the Art Impressions blog is "Sheer Perfection" - we want to see your creations using vellum.  Well I was going to die cut a few butterflies, and make a soft, springy card... but when I dove into my basement to hunt down my vellum, I came across this piece of vellum with white flecks through it, and instantly thought "snow!"  So I pulled out Caroling Tots (Sku#T3607) and made my vellum piece into a snowy sky:

This is the ultimate "use your stash" project, as I'm pretty sure I've had this piece of vellum since before I had children... and my oldest is finishing his first year of university.  (Can you say 'hoarder'?)  I'll give you a close up of the tots - sorry for the streaky snowsuit on the little girl, I used a Wink of Stella pink marker so she is actually quite sparkly in real life.  The photo makes her look more streaked than she actually is!

Enter your vellum creation over on the Ai blog for a chance to win a stamp set of your choice!
 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Your Day Set

I am up on the Art Impressions blog today!
If you're like me, you can just about always use a few more generic birthday cards to keep in your stash!  Today I grabbed one of the Art Impressions "Say It Loud" sets to make up a couple of bright, graphic cards.  I am using Your Day Set (Sku#4221):
I love putting bright papers against black... they really pop that way!
I added a little twine, a button & some machine stitching, and we're good to go:


Happy stamping everyone!

 
 
 


Monday, March 3, 2014

Skippy and Bobbin

One Crazy Stamper is featuring Whimsy stamps all month on the OCS blog, so I am sharing the sweet Skippy and Bobbin stamp today!  It's about -20 outside right now, with a wicked windchill, so it was lovely to pull out some bright & summery colours today to chase away the nasty weather...
I tried something a little different with this image, I stamped it in London Fog Memento ink (a medium grey) instead of my usual black, and it made for a much softer image overall.  And since she's gazing away from us, I made the light source coming straight at her from the distance (clear as mud?)  Here's a close-up:

I've popped her up on pop dots, and added some pearls and a little twine. 
 
 Here's what you can find in the OCS store:
Sand, hair & puppy: E51, E53, E55, E57
Hat & sandals: Y21, Y23, Y26, Y28
Skin tones: E000, E00, E02
Romper: R81, R83, YG61, YG63, YG67
Water: B32, B34
Sky: B0000, B000, B00

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails