Fall Farm Scene for Watercolor Weekend

Hello!  The weather has turned a little frosty around here, so this will be my last fall scene for Art Impressions' Watercolor Weekend.  I did a farm scene, combining several different Ai sets:

 I wanted to make a masculine card, so I placed the barn from #4807 Old Barn Mini Set and the tractor from #5059 WC Harvest Set together on a large acrylic block.  I coloured them both with my #969 Chocolate Dual Brush marker from Tombow, stamped it off on scrap paper, and then onto my cardstock. (I had pre cut my Canson XL Watercolor Paper with one of the #5063 Double Stitched Rectangle dies already!).  I used my damp #4 paintbrush to soften the lines and pull out the colour.  I used a pencil to sketch in my mountains and the hillside, and after masking the barn, I coloured the tree image from #4807 Old Barn Mini Set in #969 and stamped it twice behind the barn.

I scribbled #837 Wine Red onto my palette, and picked it up with my brush, adding streaky colour to the barn, leaving lots of white areas for a weathered look.  I went over it a second time on the shaded sides of the barn to darken them.  I went in directly with the fine point of my #992 Sand marker to draw in the individual barn boards.  #992 was also used to paint in the path to the barn.  I used #N57 Warm Grey to add darker colour to the tires and seat of the tractor, and to darken up a few of the fittings on it.  Then I mixed the grey with #346 Sea Green to create a teal-y shade to paint on the tractor.  With my stamp positioner, I added the fence from the Old Barn set to the side of my scene, colouring it in #969 and stamping off on scrap paper first.  I made a pale wash with #158 Dark Olive and painted the grassy hillsides, then with the small grass from #4051 Foliage Set and the tiny green from #4867 WC Foliage Set 2 New, I stamped in grass and some greenery around the barn.  I switched to #076 Green Ochre to add in fall shrubs around the barn also.

Picking up #565 Deep Blue from my palette, I used it to paint in the mountains, and to add shadows to the windows and doors of the barn, going in several times to add darker layers.  I used it to add shadow lines on the fence posts, under the roof and on the undersides of the tractor.  And finally, I added a few longer grasses by directly using the fine end of my #992 marker on the paper.  Be sure to check out the Art Impressions blog on Saturday to see what Dot & Tricia have to share!

Click here for a sale on Tombow markers!

Crazy Birds cards

I haven't had the fabulous Tim Holtz' Crazy Birds out for a while!  And I needed a whole stack of masculine cards for a bunch of November family birthdays, so I stamped and coloured up five of them with Copic markers in a rainbow style. 

 I pulled out the remnants of some Doodlebug and Echo Park papers that I've used with the birds in the past, and set about making five variations, depending on what paper pieces I was using.  I also grabbed the Crazy Birds Add-On set, which has the hats, bow tie and balloons.

I would've loved to have a few of these in my stash, but they're all making their way out the door asap, all over western Canada!  Links to the stamps are below if you're interested!

Witch Wanda

I don't normally give out Halloween cards, but I have a coworker who celebrates the day (she's a witch!) and wanted to make her a card.  I've always loved colouring the Art Impressions Halloween images, so here is Witch Wanda:

I coloured her with Copic markers, and die cut her out with a stitched oval die.  The sentiment was cut with a stitched circle die, mounted on black and adhered to the base with pop dots.  The two little bats are added with pop dots, too.

Happy Haunting!

My Baby's Birthday

Not exactly a baby any more... she's 22 today!  She is my number one card making fan, and is always willing to give me advice when I ask her about cardmaking dilemmas!!  (Yes, there are cardmaking dilemmas.)  So I always put just a little extra effort into her birthday cards:

I got this adorable Lawn Fawn stamp set "Let's Toast" this summer, along with the Pop-up Add-On Die set which allows you to use the pull tab to make the pop tart or toast pop up out of the toaster.  Genius!  No one does it like Lawn Fawn.  I started by colouring the images with my Copic markers, then die cut them out with the matching Let's Toast dies.  Here is what it looks like before the tab is pulled up:

There are a few steps to creating and assembling the pop-up aspect, but they're not hard, and the card came together pretty quickly.  I added a little Wink of Stella to the edges of the pop tarts and onto the little hearts.  The inside sentiment is simply "Happy Birthday".

  I love it!  Pop tarts were an occasional treat around our house, so I think this will make Paige smile.

Smooches!

I don't often get the chance to make a birthday card for a two-year-old... so was thrilled to pull out my Chubby Chums set from Paper Smooches, and went to town stamping (and fussy cutting) cows:

I started by stamping and fussy cutting out the seven cows!  I added a little colour with my Copics.  Then I cut out a cloud stencil from scrap paper and ink blended some Broken China Distress Oxide ink lightly over it to create my cloudy sky.  I used my Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside dies to cut some green cardstock for the grass.

I glued down all of my herd, popping up a couple with 3D foam squares.  I'm thinking that my little great nephew will know how to make a "moo" sound!

Watercolor Weekend Scroll

I really love the Scroll Set that is part of the newest Bible Journaling release from Art Impressions.  I pulled it out, intending to make some Christmas tags with it... but I spotted this sentiment from the Gates of Righteousness Set that fit perfectly in the medium sized scroll... which led me to using the gate image, and was supposed to be a fall scene, but has ended up looking a little more springy.  So there we are.

I began by cutting out my Canson XL watercolor paper with two sizes of the 5062 - Double Stitched Rounded Rectangle dies.  I coloured the gate image from 5067 - Gates of Righteousness Set first in Tombow #565 Deep Blue, then #969 Chocolate overtop.  I stamped it off on scrap paper, and then onto my panel.  Since I knew that my card design would have the overlapping sentiment panel, the gate is positioned a little to the right of center.  I added the clay pot image on the left side, slightly below the gate so that it would appear in front of it.  With my damp #4 paintbrush, I softened the lines and pulled out the colour into the shadowed areas, as I wanted the gate to be white.  I did the same stamping method with the medium scroll image from the 5202 Scroll Set on the smaller rectangle.  I used a pencil to faintly sketch in the overlapping hillsides, having them meet right in the middle of the gate, as I wanted a sunrise to be centered there, and sketched in the narrow path also.

Using the vine image from 5073 - Bible Foliage Set, and #158 Dark Olive, I stamped the vine so that it wrapped up and around the gate, and spilled over the top, sometimes colouring only part of the image if I wanted a smaller sprig of greenery.  I filled in a few areas with the small leaf image from 5074 - Bible Flower Set, and used this to add foliage to the clay pot.  The spiky trio of blooms from the same set was coloured with #946 Gold Ochre and stamped in the pot and around the vine to created the floral clusters.  I used the Mini Foxglove stamp from Flower Set 4052 coloured in #565 to stamp the longer stems in the clay pot.  I picked up #947 Burnt Sienna from my palette, and painted it onto the pot, adding several layers to the edges to deepen the colour.  Using the shrubbery image from the Bible Foliage set, I coloured it in #249 Hunter Green, and stamped it on either side of the gate - wanting to create a bit of a hedge.  I touched all of the flowers and foliage with my damp brush, then picked up #158 from my palette and painted in the hillsides and grassy foreground.  I used it with the small grass image from the Bible Foliage set to add tufts of grass in and around the cobblestones.  The path was painted with #992 Sand.  I used #565 to add shadows between the slats of the gate, and as texture on the stones. With my scene pretty much complete, I used my fine point Twintone marker in 42 Navy to add definition and shadows to the stones, bushes and gate.  I also used the finer point of my #946 to add darker yellow shades to the flowers.  I used the #946 to paint the sun and it's glow, and added #565 to the sky.

My scroll was looking a little grey and gloomy next to my image, so I added in touches of the #946 Gold Ochre, which really brightened the scroll, and I added a little of the 565 and 158 around it to mimic the grass & sky - I quite like the effect.  

 Both images were given an 1/8" soft grey matt, and glued onto a subtly patterned background paper.  The sentiment is adhered with pop dots, and positioned about 3/8" above the top edge of the 5 1/2" square card.  Be sure to check out the Ai blog on Saturday to see what Dot & Tricia are sharing for the Watercolor Weekend post.

Golfer Birthday card

I needed a birthday card for my brother-in-law who is enjoying hitting the links during his retirement, so I pulled out Par-Tee Golfers Set from Art Impressions and my Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Fall papers were still on my craft desk, so here's what I came up with:

 I stitched around the image with my sewing machine, die cut the sentiment, and mounted them both with pop dots.

Happy stamping!

Birthday Love!

I took a wee break from holiday cards to use a sketch from Sandy Allnock - using this fun tennis gal from Art Impressions.  I used the colours from these bright fall Lawn Fawn plaids as my inspiration:

 I used my sewing machine to stitch around my white panels, and the image & sentiment are both adhered with pop dots for a little added dimension.  It was great pulling out my Copics for a change!

Here is Sandy's sketch that I used:

Advanced Class

A few days ago I shared my beginner's watercolour class using the Art Impressions line of stamps, so here is the advanced class that I'll be teaching at the Papercrafter's Workshop in Stouffville on Oct 15th & 20th:

The class is centered around the WC Fir Tree set (which you get in the class), and we will be using it to create two holiday cards featuring a wreath and a festive urn:

The stamp set comes with two tree trunks and six differently shaped branches... and while it's supposed to be for trees, it makes excellent greenery just like you would decorate with for the holidays!

And as a bonus project, we will be using the stamps as they were intended, to create a scene with several fir trees in it.  We'll also be talking about scene building with your stamps, drawing in backgrounds and a lot of discussion about shading & shadows!

The class is being held on the evening of Oct. 15th, or on Sunday afternoon - Oct. 20th, so that you can take the beginner class in the morning, and then the advanced class that afternoon if you like!  You can get all the details here on the Papercrafter's Workshop website (look around and shop while you're there!).  Hope you can join us.