More stencilled backgrounds!

I am still working my way through the pile of fun stencilled backgrounds that I created a few weeks ago.  And I promise that I will find other word dies to begin using!  I just really love the Beautiful Word Die from Pinkfresh Studio, and I've combined it with their Leafy Branch die and Diamond Motif stencil.

This is a slimline stencil, but it was so easy to just ink it up, then move sideways to be able to cover the whole card front.  I used a mixture of Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey and Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide inks on both the stencil and the Word die.  I die cut the word 3 times, and glued them all together to make a more substantial embellishment.  The Leafy Branch diecut was coated with Wink of Stella, so it's quite shimmery in person!  A few champagne coloured pearls finished things off.

I am entering my card into the Pinkfresh Studio Monthly Challenge for May - which is "Anything Goes".

Floral Notes

 I am really loving my new Pinkfresh Studio stencils!  This is Floral Notes, along with Beautiful Word Die and the Slim Diagonal Stitched Rectangle dies - also from Pinkfresh Studio:

I used a mixture of Distress Oxide inks with the three-step stencil. Spun Sugar & Kitsch Flamingo for the large blooms, Picked Raspberry for the centers & small blooms, and Crushed Olive & Mowed Lawn for the foliage.

I used the 3 different layering slimline dies with my coordinating cardstock and adhered them to my base.  The Beautiful word die was cut out 3 times, and layered to create a more substantial word, and some glittery gold Stickles were added to the flower centers.  I love the end result!

I am entering this into the monthly challenge on the Pinkfresh Studio blog - this month is 'Anything Goes'.

Oopsie Daisy

 This card has been on my desk for a month in various stages!  Finally fixed it and got it assembled today.  Yes, fixed it - as I can't seem to spatter paint to save my life.  Everyone else seems to effortlessly spatter a little paint on their projects for that perfect finishing touch.  Me, not so much.  

Take a peek at the photo below, and you'll see the remains of my grey paint spatters on the flowers.  I managed to salvedge the bow and flowers, but had to completely redo the stencilled background - it wasn't pretty.  Happy with my end result, though!  Background stencil and dies are Pinkfresh Studio, floral stamps are The Greetery.

Critter Cubbies!

 This is the cutest line of stamp & die sets that Art Impressions has out right now - Critter Cubbies!  I have a couple of little nephews in my family to make cards for, so I pulled out 5226 - Bus Cubbies to make a card to accompany a little gift I was sending:

This was so fun & easy to do!  I started by keeping the dies all together and die cutting the pieces out multiple times.  I put the negative die cut into my Misti, and lined up all the stamps in each space.  Then I filled in the negative with all my cut pieces, and was able to stamp enough for 3 cards quickly.  All of the pieces were coloured with Copic markers.

After colouring, I was able to adhere the animals, having them peek out different windows, and I adhered the bus to my card base with 3D foam adhesive.  I made my own cloud stencil, and ink blended 4 different inks to create my sky, and added some green to the bottom of the card to suggest grass.  A strip of grey cardstock created my road, and I added some motion lines behind the bus.  The best part, is that you can open up the bus doors... and see the little koala waving at you :o)

Try Something New

This week on the Art Impressions blog, our Watercolour Weekend theme is "Try Something New".  I've been wanting to combine stitching with my watercolour scenes for a long time, and this week's theme meant that it was time to give it a shot!  This took a little bit of planning:

I wanted the stitching to simply be an accent, not be all throughout the scene, so once I decided on a sunrise, I sketched it out on scrap paper, marking out the size of rectangular die I would use.  I picked my cottage, stamping it on the scrap to determine placement, where the stream would be, and even how the sun rays would look.  

I diecut my 5063 A2 Rectangle Double Stitched Die from Canson XL Watercolor Paper, and stamped my cottage from 4961 - WC Mini Cottages Set, colouring it first in #969 Chocolate, with #565 Deep Blue overtop.  Next I sketched in my scene (you could definitely do this with one of the Ai scenes, but I used a pencil!).  I painted the sun and some of the sky with #993 Chrome Orange, adding several layers to darken the sun.  I added in #912 Pale Cherry and #451 Sky Blue to create my sunrise sky.  Since the light is coming from the back of my scene, I painted #993 along the top of the hillsides, around the edge of the house, and into the stream as a reflection.  It also meant that the front of the white cottage was in shadow, so I added shades of #565 to show that, and painted it into the stream also.  Using my stamp positioner, I stamped the tree from 5010 - WC Tree Set 1 beside the cottage, and did two smaller trees from 5372 - WC Mini Foliage to the left of the stream.

I did my foliage in layers, starting with the very light #126 Light Olive, using the foliage from 5372 - WC Mini Foliage, and the row of shrubs from the same set, below the trees - and dabbed them with a damp brush.  I stamped the foliage again in #158 Dark Olive, to add a few darker tones.  A wash of #158 was painted on all the grassy hillsides.  To balance the sun in the upper left, I stamped the spiky flowers from 5258 - WC Flower Set 4 in #993/#158, and added some foliage around the base of them.  Before darkening in the door and windows of the cottage, I went in directly with my markers to add some dots as flowers in window boxes.

For the stitching, I used a very fine hand sewing needle, as my thread was a very fine gold fillament.  I used my needle to pre-pierce all of the holes around the sun, and then did my long stitches to indicate the rays.  I went over the small flowers with stitches, and on the taller wildflowers I did some french knots - and I'm pleased to say that I only had one re-do!  My embroidery skills are a little rusty.

I mounted my scene on some matte gold cardstock, and adhered it to my base with 3D foam adhesive.