Water Color Class and much more!

I decided to take the Watercolor for Cardmakers class and the more I play with water colors the more I like them.  Can't say that I'm really good at water coloring yet, but it's fun to play with them.  Here's a couple of cards that I made for the class....

For this first card, I decided to paint a bouquet using the wet on wet technique (for painting the blooms).  I kind of like how this turned out...not too sure about the yellow background, but overall not too bad.  I used Koi water colors on this card.  Tied a ribbon around the water color panel and added a sentiment from Flourishes.

I wasn't sure where this was headed when I started painting it.  I think the most difficult part of water coloring for me is the lack of "control" I seem to have over it!  I do like having "control" over things I do!  I also find it very difficult to wait for things to dry, as I'm anxious to see the finished project! I used Koi watercolors and Canson watercolor paper.  I painted the sentiment tag with the same colors used on the "flowers", added a sentiment from SSS.

Now...I've mentioned before about making cards for the widows group at my church...well, this week I've really been playing catchup, because last week we mailed 15 cards!  I know we only mail out cards once a month, but I didn't realize that I'd need quite so many cards.  However, it these cards are an encouragement to some of the ladies, then we definitely need to keep sending them out...Fair warning...very photo heavy from here on...

I've left all the photos small, but if you want to see them larger, you should be able to click on them and see them larger.

The "hello, hugs, happy, and smile" cards were made with the Cameo.  I designed the panels in the Silhouette program and cut them out to layer on top of the card base.

The bird cards are all Tim Holtz crazy bird stamps colored with Copics.  The sending caring thoughts card was made by die cutting the flowers and adhering them to the back of the white panel.

If you have any questions about any of the cards and how them were made, just shoot me an email and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible. If you hung in there for all of this....bless you!  

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit!  Hope you'll come back soon!  Your comments are greatly appreciated! Until next time...

Online Card Class - Watercolor Exploring Mediums

I've thoroughly enjoyed the Online Card Class - Watercolor Exploring Mediums.  I've made a couple of cards from techniques shown in this class...and without further ado...here we go!

I have to say I LOVE how this card came out.  Jennifer Rzasa showed us how simple it was to "draw" our own image and watercolor it....and I'm amazed!

This card came out SO much better than I thought it would!  I will admit that I painted it twice.  The original is on the back of this finished panel.  I didn't like the feet and legs of the first bird.  Don't know if I could ever duplicate this card again...but I sure was happy with the end results.  The sentiment is from Winnie & Walter.  The flamingo was painted with Inktense watercolor pencils as was the "ground" at his feet.  I also used the pencils to flick splatters on the background.  I cut the painted panel down a bit and added a matching pink mat behind it then adhered it to a white card base.

I struggled with this one a little bit.  I stamped my flowers in Versamark and heat embossed them in white.  The flowers are the poppies from SU.  I ended up with half flowers on the left hand side and it didn't really look right, so I trimmed that side off a bit, cutting around some of the blooms and letting them hang off the edge.  The sentiment could have been stamped a little better...but I decided to leave it as it since I went to so much trouble to paint the flowers!  I needed something to make the front panel wide enough since I trimmed so much of it off, so I stamped some white card stock with a linen background stamp, trimmed it to fit the length of the panel and then added a small strip of black between the water colored piece and the linen background.  I think it's kind of growing on me now and I like it much better.

This was a great class, as are all of the Online Card Classes.  If you haven't taken any of these classes, you really should give them a try. I learn something new in every class!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit!  Hope you'll come back soon!  Your comments are greatly appreciated! Until next time...

Hello....Hello!

 A-choo!! Boy, it's been a while! The dust has settled over my blog....let me dust things off and show you a bit of what I've been up to lately!

I've made quite a few cards, some were even for challenges...unfortunately, I didn't get them photographed in time for the said challenges...so I'll just share them with you now.

This card was made by cutting out the roses with the Cameo, then I paper pieced the red and green behind the cut outs, added a strip of red down the side and stamped on a sentiment...super quick and easy! 

This card was from waaaaaay back during the online watercolor class I took.  I used stamps from PTI and stamped the image on watercolor paper with versamark ink and them heat embossed the image in white.  Added some water to the paper and then touched each area with a little color.  The sentiment is also from PTI.  This card was made entirely with watercolor paper as a one layer card. 

This card was also made during the online watercolor class.  It's difficult to see here, but I mixed a little perfect pearls with my water colors and used that to paint the flower and leaves that had been stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white.  I cut around the edges of the image and then cut the rest of the panel into a rectangle.  Sentiment is from PTI.

I've seen lots of cards lately with the layered angled cut piece, so I thought I'd give it a try.  Both this card and the next card were my attempts with this technique.  I think I like it!  The card above was super simple...just cut the "hello" from white card stock, then cut it again into the Kraft card stock and did a little paper piecing to get all the pieces back together.  Added a white stitching line around the Kraft piece.

This card was a little more difficult...more fiddly, but was done the same way.  The exception on this card was that I popped the angled layer up off the card base.  

I've also been "re-learning" tatting.  I tatted years ago when I was making clothes from my girls, but haven't touched it in years.  In re-discovering tatting, I've learned that it can actually be done with a special tatting needle...and I've been working on mastering tatting with a needle rather than a shuttle. I'll have to get a few pics to share with you some of the things I've made in the last few days.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your comments and your visits are always appreciated!! Until next time...

Watercolor Card Class...practice, practice, practice...

Warning...Warning....This post covers the first 5 days of class and is photo heavy! I have learned quite a bit, but I think the biggest lesson I've learned is that I'll never be very good at water coloring.  I'm too much a perfectionist to let thing "bleed" into each other!  I keep trying to get the colors to "line up"...which is totally NOT what I'm suppose to be doing! Anyway...off to my cards.  

This first card was made using techniques shown by Kristina Werner on Day 1.  I heat embossed the stamped image...but for some reason my embossing powder didn't seem to want to melt on the watercolor paper.  Then when I tried to "smush" the colors together, I got some muddy looking areas! I finally had to call it quits on this method (we won't talk about how much ended up in the trash!). The happy die cut is a Simon Says die.  I tried to heat emboss the word "birthday" but couldn't get good coverage with the white powder. Popped the whole thing up on a deep purple card base and called it good.

For this card, I tried to use a color wash background by coloring with watercolor pencils as we were shown on Day 2...I'm showing you this card...but I'm not really crazy about it!  I had to draw my flower pot with pencils, then tried to blend...that didn't work too well.  The flowers were made by stamping a stem stamp from PTI repeatedly, then added some blooms to some of the stems.  Sentiment is from HA. Popped the water color paper onto some pink card stock then called it finished! I also used some of the distress marker techniques from Day 3 

This card was me trying to stamp and color with distress markers....Pfff~!  This was similar to what I did above...and I still wasn't too crazy about the finished card!  I did, however, finally pull out my TH spritzer gizmo and give it a whirl to add a little color to the background...it's not too bad...but I do need practice!  I think the flowers are a HA stamp.  

The techniques for Day 4....hmmmmm...I finally gave up!  Everything I tried was just to "messy" looking for me.  So..here's a card which was inspired by the logo for the class...

I love the look of this....I just need to learn to "blend" my watercolors a little better!  

This card is just something I was playing around with.  I think I got my blending down a little better.  Funny thing is...I did this water coloring on a piece of plain card stock that I found in my scrap box. I had dry embossed it with a hexagon die at some time to use and then didn't use it, so I thought I'd see what water color would do to plain card stock.  It bucked and buckled like you wouldn't believe...but I zapped it with my heat tool after it was completely dry and it mostly flattened out.  The word "thanks" is a die from Simon Says. I cut it out 4 times and glued the layers together.  Then added a bit of sparkly with my wink of stella pen.  The stamped part of the sentiment is from a VERY old stamp set...no idea who makes it.  I added a few sequins and some pearls and popped the water colored piece on to a dark blue card base.  Kinda like how this one turned out.

Finally...you've seen just a few of the cards I kept...but oh so many went into the trash!!  On to my

FAVORITE!

This card was a technique shown by Shari Carroll...and I LOVE how this turned out. I heat embossed a partial background, then colored the shapes with my distress markers and added water....WA-LA....LOVE it!!  I popped it up on a dark orange card base and added a banner.  The "happy" is the same die cut I used in the above card, only I cut the top layer for this one from a teal card stock (even though you can't really tell that in this photo!).  The 'birthday' was from a PTI set.

WHEW!...That's a lot of cards, isn't it?  Which is your favorite...and why?  

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your comments and your visits are always appreciated!! Until next time...