CAS Watercolour and CAS Mix Up Card Challenges

Can you believe it!  Two days in a row!  

I finished a card yesterday that works perfectly for the CAS Watercolour Challenge and the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge.  I'm really starting to enjoy doing more water coloring!

This is probably one of my best to-date water color cards!  I used a NBUS stamp set from Altenew called Garden Treasure.  I stamped the flowers and leaves in versamark and heat embossed with white.  Then I used some Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils to add bits of color to the blooms.  After coloring with the pencils, I used a Silver brush to move the color around a bit.  To get the splashed background, I simply wet my brush and flicked it over the point of the pencil.  Too cool! I trimmed the finished piece down to 4 x 5.5 inches and mounted with craft foam over a pink card base.  The sentiment is stamped in Versafine Black and is from SSS Uplifting Thoughts.  A few sequins sprinkled around and it was complete!

Also from my NBUS stack, was this marbling layer stamp from Waffle Flower.  I struggled a bit getting the pieces lined up, but I still think it turned out okay. I mounted the marbled piece over gray card stock, then added a strip across the top with foam tape.  I used foil paper to add a stripe over the dark gray strip and then die cut the oval from the shiny foil paper to add a sentiment.  I heat embossed the sentiment on the shiny foil oval...and I can tell you...It is NOT easy.  Even using an embossing buddy, that embossing powder stuck to everything!  I finally got one that looked "okay"....

That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

Four Challenges...

I've made a few cards this week, and thought I'd link them up to several challenges.  I even made a card or two that would fit more than one challenge!  Yay, Me!

I will be playing along with the following challenges:  CAS(E) this Sketch, Happy Little Stampers, CASology, and Merry Monday!  Whew! That's a LOT of challenges for me!

So, let's get started....

This first card is for CAS(E) this Sketch.  I used a really old "Magnolia" stamp.  When I saw this one, I just had to have it...and I probably haven't used it 2 times!  The little girl was facing the wrong way, so I scanned the stamped image into my Silhouette program and flipped her horizontally, then used the trace feature to trace her and then welded the image into a rectangle, so that I could cut out just her legs with the Cameo.Much easier to do than to explain! LOL! I cut the cloud (SSS) from the rectangle, then ink blended the blue sky before popping the cloud back in (raised with foam). The little girl is colored with Copics and the sentiment is computer generated.

This second card is for the CASology challenge with a cue word of "hero".  My youngest grandson is a HUGE fan of Batman, and even though his birthday is a ways away, I thought I'd get his card done for him.  The Batman image is from the Silhouette Store.  I created the "Bam" accent in the Silhouette program as well as the sentiment.  I printed all of this out and cut it to 4 x 5.25 inches.  I colored in some "ground" under Batman.  I also printed out another of the "Bam" stars and popped it over the one on the card.  I added a very small black border and adhered it to a white card base.

This third card is for a couple of challenges - Merry Monday and HLS - Anything Goes with Dies.  I used a Christmas tree die that I've had for a while and cut it from a card panel.  I had to add a piece of acetate behind the aperture so that I'd have something which I could used to adhere my tree back in the aperture.  I then popped that panel over a inked panel.  To make the inked background, I used the TH spritzer, and my Tombow markers and spritzed two different colors of ink on a small panel that would fit behind the tree.  I then used my WOS silver and gold pens and flicked some of the sparkly WOS onto the green.  It's difficult to see, but there's really a lot of shine behind the tree.  I cut the sentiment "merry" (SSS) from card stock and from foam, then added a bit of glitter to the bottom portion of the letters.  The "Christmas" is from DRS Designs.  The star is popped with foam tape, and painted with gold WOS. (Cut with a SSS die)

This last card is just me playing around with some water colors again.  I wanted to create a "scene", but this one fell a little short of what I was trying to do...but it's okay.  If practice really makes perfect, then I should be getting better at this, don't you think?! LOL!

That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

CASology and HLS January Challenge...and much more!

I've been really busy making cards this week.  I need a boxed set for a gift and then just some birthday cards for upcoming birthdays...so get ready...lots to see!

               

This first card works for the cue card at CASology and Happy Little Stampers January "anything goes with dies" challenges.

The flowers are die cuts from Penny Black that I cut out of watercolor paper and painted with watercolors.  I had to paint them several times to get the deep red color I wanted. On another piece of water color paper, I loosely painted the background with green and blue.  I really love how the background turned out! I then cut the background with a stitched rectangle die from SSS and popped the flowers on top of the painted background.  The sentiment is from Sugar Pea Designs.

This card could also work for both challenges.  I cut a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of water color paper and added my watercolors in blue and yellow.  I "think" I might be getting the hang of water colors! I die cut the word "Kindness" from the painted background and also cut it from a piece of craft foam and popped it back in the water color base.  The die and the rest of the sentiment are also from Sugar Pea Designs. (Oh...and don't forget to pop the little pieces from the middle of the letters back in the appropriate places!)

Ok...now comes the "photo heavy" part....LOL!

This one is entirely hand painted

The first ten of this last group of cards will be used as a boxed set that I'm giving as a gift.  I've also made a cute little purse (Thanks for the link [for the purse by LeeAnn Greff] to the tutorial, Loll!)

Whew!  I think that's all for right now...

Sorry for such a LONG post, but I really wanted to share my burst of inspiration! For the sake of space and time, I didn't put a description of the cards in this post, but as always, if you have any questions about how something was done, or what products were used...just drop me an email and let me know. (You can click on the contact me button on the right hand side of this blog.)

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

Whoosh....It's Almost Christmas!

Seems as though we just got started on 2016....and here we are at Christmas 2016 already!  WHERE does the time go!  I've been SO busy since Thanksgiving!  There were presents to buy, house to decorate, food to cook, presents to wrap, company coming, baking yet to be done, birthdays galore...and more! I hosted the annual Christmas party for the widows group from my church...we had 16 in attendance.  I cooked a great meal for everyone, we played games, wrote Christmas cards to the home bound folks from church, and did a lot of talking and visiting.  After 4 hours, I was exhausted!...but a good kind of exhausted ♥

In between all these chores (okay, some of the chores were fun☺), I managed to make a few Christmas cards (which I've yet to address and mail!)...Thought I'd share them with you today.  This will be a PHOTO HEAVY post for sure! To view any of the cards larger, just click on the image.

 
I'd list all the products used for the cards, but you'd still be trying to read through this blog post next week!  So....if you have any questions about products or techniques on any of the cards, just click on the envelope at the top of the blog that says contact me, and shoot me an email with your question and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

If you've hung in this long...you're a real trooper!  Thanks a $Million!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

CAS Watercolour Challenge #1 and One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #32

There's a new challenge this month - the CAS Watercolour Card Challenge.  I've been working on my water coloring skills.  I'm beginning to see some improvement.  I also love the colors of Autumn! The second card also meets the requirements for the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge this month.

    

Here's my first card for the challenge....

I LOVE this card.  The colors are so rich and vibrant!  For the water color on this card, I used a panel of Bristol paper and stamped the image multiple times (using a mask for some of the leaves) in Versafine black ink (which is a great ink for water colors).  I colored the leaves with a red, orange, yellow, and green Zig Clean Color markers, then used my Silver #4 brush and water to blend the colors together a bit.  You might notice that there is one leaf popped up over the other leaves...that one was stamped on another piece of Bristol paper and hand cut.  The stamp is from SU...one I've had forever in my stash...but I use it often. After coloring all the leaves, I used a stitched rectangle for SSS to trim it down a bit.  I backed it with a piece of dark brown and adhered it to a white card base.The sentiment is also from SSS. It's a little difficult to see on here, but I added some Wink of Stella to each of the leaves.  

And...here's my second card for the CAS Watercolour Card Challenge...which also works for the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge this month.

Same leaf stamp...different water coloring technique.  I colored the leaf with water color crayons in red, orange, and yellow.  I haven't really tried using the water color crayons before and wasn't sure what I would get.  I practiced on some scrap card stock first...and trust me...it makes a LOT of difference how much water you spritz on the stamp after you color it with the crayons.  You really need to let the water sit on the stamp for a little bit before you try to stamp with it.  You can also get second and third generation images with this technique.  After I had stamped each of these leaves, the card just seem to need something else, so I added some splatters with "ink" I created with the same crayons used for coloring the stamp. This is also a one layer card.

I'm really going to love this challenge because it keeps me using my water colors!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

Lots to Share....

First of all...I must warn you....this is a VERY photo-heavy post! 

I've been extremely busy making cards, and just never could get around to posting them.  I needed quite a few cards for the widow's group meeting this month, as we ended up mailing out almost 30 cards to the home bound members from our church.  

So...off we go...and I'll give a brief description for each card, but as always, if you have specific questions, use the contact me button on my blog and I will get back with you as soon as possible.  

Water color with Zig clean color brushes on Bristol paper, mounted on a pink background. Added drops of irResistable.  

One layer card, stamped with Harvest berries from PTI in shades of blue from Hero Arts.  Sentiment is from a very old Flourishes stamp set. Berries are coated with glossy accents and a little wink of stella added to the leaves.

Image cut with Silhouette Cameo, colored with Copics and adhered to card base...with flowers popped off the paper with foam tape.  Sentiment is from SSS.

Image from SU on Bristol paper, and colored with Zig Clean Color brushes.  Sentiment is from Hero Arts.  Added wink of stella on the blooms.

Same image...another color and colored this time with Copics.

Image from SSS and sentiment is from PTI.  Stamped on Bristol paper and colored with Zig Clean Color brushes.  Popped on a deep purple background.

Image from Power Poppy, brought into Silhouette program and made a cut file to cut the flowers out. Printed the sentiment from Silhouette and cut out the oval on the card panel. Put the flowers inside the oval and inked the card base (background) with Distress Inks.

Image from Uniko. Stamped the flower in black, and added the stem with a Copic multi-liner pen. Sentiment is from Jillybean Soup and is stamped in Versafine black.  Added quite a few dots of irResistable drops.

LOVE this (digi) image...from Power Poppy.  I also have this as a Flourishes stamp that I bought years ago (same artist), but I'm able to resize the digi to fit (can't do that with a regular stamp).  Printed this out on water color paper (Canson), and colored it with Inktense water color pencils and then used a water brush to smooth out the pencil and add shading. Sentiment is part of the digi image download. To be able to print both the image and the sentiment at the same time, use something like Photoshop Elements to change the background on the apples to transparent, then when you put the sentiment to the back layer, the two images do not overlap.  When changing the background to a transparent background, you have to save the image as a .png file.  I wasn't able to change the background on the sentiment as the lines are so small, but just taking the white background off the apple image allowed me to print both images at the same time.  I'm sure to some of you this sounds like a foreign language...LOL! But...to those of you that use Photoshop Elements, you'll know what I'm talking about.  Remember...you can learn almost anything watching YouTube videos!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!