Watercolored Poppies for Sherry

Happy Thursday!  I looked out my window this morning to see that God has blessed us with rain.  We've been in a drought for quite awhile now, so rain is most welcome where I live!  (Since I use natural light for photographing my cards and today was quite a dreary day, I hope you'll forgive the poor photo quality on this post.)

I'm running behind on my Teapot Tuesday challenge at Splitcoast Stampers this week, but I finally finished my card last night.  This week's recipient is a lovely lady whose husband died last year and she needs some cheering up.  We were asked to make "thinking of you" cards with flowers, and perhaps a butterfly or two.  After I went to bed last night I realized I forgot the butterflies!  So I will add a couple to the inside liner of my card before mailing it to her.  I am also submitting this card for the current Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge, where the theme this week is "nature".  In the midst of winter, it was nice to take a break and make a flower card!

Here's my card: 

While I usually make A2 sized cards (4.25" x 5.5"), this time I wanted to make something a little different.  This card is 3" x 5 3/8", a rather odd size, but I liked the way it worked for my design.  Sometimes you just have to mix things up a bit!

I started by stamping my image and sentiment in StazOn Timber Brown on watercolor paper, then I watercolored my image.  I attached the stamped panel to a piece of brown card stock and trimmed to fit.  I made a card base from some lightly textured dark green card stock and cut a smaller piece of the same card stock to put in the middle section of my stamped panel.  I embossed the smaller green piece using the Square Lattice embossing folder, then adhered it to my watercolored panel.  I wrapped jute around the center section and secured it with a decorative brad.  (The brad is a bit bulky and heavy so I also used a mini glue dot to hold it in place.)  I attached the panel to my card base and added a liner to the inside for writing.       

It's been a busy week at my house, and I'm so glad we've almost made it to Friday!  I hope you have a wonderful day.  Thanks for stopping by!

Products Used:

Ink: Timber Brown (StazOn)

Stamps: Poppies (Penny Black); Sincere Salutations (Stampin' Up!)

Paper: Watercolor paper (Strathmore); dark green card stock, dark brown card stock (unknown)

Tools and Accessories: Watercolor crayons (Staedtler); watercolor pencils (Prismacolor);
Square Lattice embossing folder (Stampin' Up!); brad (Recollections); jute (unknown)

Joyful Trees for Christmas

Yay, it's Friday!!  I don't know about you, but I could sure use a weekend! 

This week's Ways to Use It Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers asks us to use "fussy cutting" on a card.  Fussy cutting is cutting very carefully (usually with precision scissors or a craft knife) around an image, so it takes some extra time and effort.  I've also been a bit fascinated by a technique I've recently learned about called "inlaid embossing".  This technique involves adhering die cuts, layers, etc. together and then dry embossing those elements right into the paper.  There are so many possibilities for this technique, but for today's card I combined fussy cutting with inlaid embossing and kept my design fairly simple. 

Here's my card:

 

I started by fussy-cutting the trees from some patterned designer paper I had in my stash.  I tried to keep just a tiny bit of the border around each tree to help it stand out against the background.  I adhered the trees to a piece of dark green card stock in slightly uneven rows (intentionally this time!) and then ran the whole panel through my Big Shot using the Bow Strings embossing folder horizontally.  I stamped my sentiment in Pine on a piece of Natural White card stock (which is a lovely off-white color), then adhered the sentiment to dark green and kraft card stocks.  My kraft card stock isn't very heavy, so I lined the inside panel of the card with Natural White card stock to add support. 

 

I pulled a fiber strand from some off-white burlap I have in my materials stash and adhered it over my inlaid embossing panel. ( I love the slightly frayed look I can get from burlap.)  I attached the embossed panel to a card base made from kraft card stock.   I added some Glossy Accents to the "joy" sentiment and set it aside to dry.  I wanted this card to be understated, but just couldn't resist a tiny bit of shine!

 

I hope you are having a blessed Advent season  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Products Used:

 

Stamp: Naughty or Nice (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Ancient Page Pine (Clearsnap)

Paper: Solar Crest Natural White 80 lb. (Neenah); Cutesy Christmas Trees patterned paper (The Paper Studio); dark green card stock (unknown); kraft card stock (unknown)

Other: Burlap fiber; Glossy Accents (Ranger)

Simple Sympathy Cards

Happy Tuesday!  We're a bit under the weather at my house right now (in the midst of Thanksgiving preparations...how unfair is that?!) so I'm spending more time wiping noses and soothing unhappy children than I am crafting.  However, I needed to make a sympathy card this week, so I squeezed in a little stamping time while the kids were sleeping.

I am going to show you a few different versions of this clean and simple, quick sympathy card.  I'm using a stamp set you've seen me use before.  It's not my only sympathy set, but it's definitely my favorite. 

Here's my first card:

For this card, I started with a panel of Whisper White card stock and applied Memento Lulu Lavender using the "direct to paper" technique.  With this method, you apply your stamp pad directly to the paper.  I used a small dewdrop pad and I find this works better (for me) than using the larger pads.  To avoid getting ink lines from the edge of the pad (or depositing too much ink on the card edges) I started my ink pad off the panel (on the scratch paper underneath) and began swirling the ink on the scratch paper, then moved inward onto the card so the "impact" point was not on the card itself.  I sometimes use chalks or sponging to create this effect, but I think these Memento dewdrop pads work really well for this background.  After I achieved the depth of color I wanted, I used an old towel to rub off any excess ink.  I then stamped my image and sentiment in Elegant Eggplant, and attached the panel to an Elegant Eggplant card base.  This card took less than 5 minutes to make. 

I wanted to try other color options while building my supply of sympathy cards (I seem to need too many of these lately).  This time I used Memento New Sprout for the background, using the same technique as above.  I like the combination of Elegant Eggplant and New Sprout:

 

 

I'm also challenging myself to make more one-layer cards, so I tried making a card without the Elegant Eggplant card base.  I think this works nicely as another option:

You can easily use these techniques to make sympathy cards as well as cards for other occasions and with other stamp sets.  I love having go-to card ideas for those last-minute cards, and any card that can be made in 5 minutes or less is a winner in my book!

One tip: Although dye ink should be fast-drying, I had a few issues with Elegant Eggplant smudging this time (so there are a few card fronts in my recycle bin now!).  I'm not sure why it wasn't drying immediately this time, but a quick fix is to use your heat tool for a few seconds to set the ink before moving on to the next step. 

Thanks for visiting! 

Products Used:

Stamps: Close as a Memory (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Memento Lulu Lavender and Memento New Sprout (Tsukineko);
Elegant Eggplant Classic Dye Ink (Stampin' Up!)

Paper: Whisper White and Elegant Eggplant card stock (Stampin' Up!)

Technique: Direct to Paper

Acrylic Block Collage Cards

For the past couple of days I've had a lot of fun playing with a new (to me) technique, Acrylic Block Collage.  This technique was introduced in the Try a New Technique challenge this week at Splitcoast Stampers (you can see the challenge HERE).  With the Acrylic Block Collage technique, you color with markers or stamp pads on acrylic blocks (the same blocks you use to attach stamps that are not mounted on wood) starting with the lightest color and progressing to the darkest color.  You then spritz the ink with water and stamp directly onto paper.  Once the ink has dried (it only takes a few minutes), you can stamp random images on the collage area and then use a larger image and stamp it in a dark color over the area.  There are so many possibilities with this one, and I have had a wonderful time trying lots of different options with this technique.

The Clean and Simple Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers this week required us to make a Harvest-inspired card.  I decided to combine the two challenges for this card:

For this one, I inked shades of yellow, brown and green all over the block, then added a little orange in the center section.  I misted the block lightly with water so the colors would start to blend and provide this multi-hued Autumn background.  After the ink dried, I lightly stamped some leaves over the background, then added my large sunflower and sentiment. 

I really loved the colors on this card, but wondered how it would look without the orange, so I made another card:

I kept everything almost exactly the same but eliminated the orange.  I like the effect but still feel like it needs more color to help it "pop" off the card.  I would like to revisit this card and use more distinctive color blocks (one yellow, one green and one brown, for example).  Since these are CAS cards I had to restrain myself from adding anything else to these cards!

While I was playing with this technique I tried several different markers and ink pads, and I apologize for not capturing the specific ones used on these cards.  What worked best for me was to use mostly markers (especially for my lighter colors), scribbling and drawing and thumping on the block with them.  I did use ink pads, but mostly for the darker shades.  I also learned it takes a lot more ink than I expected.  I really had to get the ink built up on the block before I could get a good impression.  I only needed one or two pumps of water mist to get a good result (too much water just led to water spots).  I use a little travel-size mister bottle (I pick mine up in the travel-size products section at Wal-Mart or Target).  I held the bottle 8-12 inches from the paper and stamped immediately after misting.

Tomorrow I will share more cards using this technique.  I'm having so much fun playing with this one that I just keep trying new colors and designs.  I hope you'll give this technique a try and discover just how much fun it is to play with water and ink!

Thanks for visiting today!

 

Products Used:

 

Paper: Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)

Inks on background: Various markers and dye ink pads

Ink on sunflower and sentiment: Colorbox Chalk Chestnut Roan (Clearsnap)

Stamps: Sunflower from "Friendship Bouquet" (Close to My Heart), Delight from "Paint Prints" (Stampin' Up!)