Rainbow birthday and faux letterpress

The card I worked on today was inspired by the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday  Work-It challenge. Their theme was things that are rainbow colored. I started this yummy card off with blending three distress inks: Peacock feathers, Worn lipstick, and Squeezed lemonade. After that I stamped over my blended piece with white pigment ink. When the pigment ink was finally dry I die cut my rainbow panel with a stitched outline. Then I die cut a stitched circle out of vellum, and also the word, "Birthday" out of silver poster board. I matted my rainbow panel on black card stock and adhered it to white top folding card base. 

For the cupcake I colored it with Copic markers and covered the frosting with a Wink of Stella. I assembled my card as seen above and added some tiny stars die cut from silver glitter tape trim. 

Supplies:
White 110lbs paper, white 65 lbs paper,  vellum and black card stock
Distress inks: Peacock feathers, Worn lipstick, and Squeeze lemonade
Copic markers
Wink of Stella clear
CTMH silver glitter tape trim
CTMH White pigment ink
Heidi Swapp Zig zag stamp
Silver poster board (Hobby Lobby)
Simon Says Stamp Birthday die
Mama Elephant outline die and tiny stars
Lawn Fawn (circle) Party Banner die

This next card is something new I tried. Jennifer McGuire had a post recently about how to do faux letter press with die cuts. (Check out the link) A very neat video she had on her website. So, I tired it for the first time and this was the results.

Greens, greys,and cupcakes

The Card Concept blog is a challenge blog that I discovered not long ago. I finally was able to take part in their last challenge. What is great about their challenges is that you can use any products you want. They give you a photo at the beginning of each challenge to inspire your card. You can use textures, colors, patterns, and objects in their photo for inspiration for your work.
Challenge #36 had a photo a counter top with a glass milk bottle with a green and white paper straw, and cupcakes with yellow cake, white icing, and green and white cupcake wrappers. To start with I gathered some supplies I thought I would using making my card.

I grabbed a mini cupcake wrapper, dark grey card stock, grey and white dot patterned paper, lime sequins, and some leftover water colored leaves. The first thing I began was to work on was the background panel; I water colored it in various shades of green. When that was dry I took my deckling tool and tore the edges of my water color panel. Then I adhered it to a plain white top folding card base. 

After that took my mini cupcake wrapper and cut it in half. Then I cut my printed strip a little wider than my card base so it wraps around the edges. I also die cut the dark grey card stock with a banner die removing one end. For the sentiment I clear heat embossed white paper, so it looked like milk in a shiny glass bottle. Then I die cut the word wishes, popped the banner up on foam tape and glued everything into place.  The final touch was to add the lime and moonshine sequins.

So, here is a list of things I drew from for inspiration for my card. 

The cupcake frosting: torn edges of the water color panel.

The speckles on the counter top: dots and sequins.

The grey on the counters: dark grey and patterned grey paper.

Green straw and green cupcake wrappers: green water color, green sequins, and leaves.

White cupcake wrappers: White mini cupcake wrapper.

Stripes on straw: stripes on leaves

White milk in glass bottle: White glossy sentiment and moonshine sequins.

Yellow cake: gold outline on leaves.

I would say that my card would be mixed media since I used several mediums, and a non-conventional embellishment with the cupcake wrapper. This was so much fun I encourage you to try this challenge blog if you haven't before. 

No-line Water color with Bubble talk

I love this Elephant from Wplus 9's Bubble talk stamp. He is very cute. Today I wanted to try some no line water color. So to begin with I stamped the elephant on water color paper with Wplus 9's fairy dust dye ink and I also cut a mask of the bubble that was heart shaped from the stamp set. Then I took and water colored washes of green. yellows, and blues for my back ground. 

After the background was mostly dry ( I do admit it's hard for me to wait for things to dry.) I went back in and painted the elephant. Shading is a little bit harder to do with water colors I think than a medium like color pencils and Copic markers. For the bubble I lifted the mask when the background was dry and did touches of white pearl water color. I set the water color piece a side to finish drying.

  Hand lettered Thanks was the next stamp I pulled out to use for my sentiment. I heat embossed it on some white paper, then I stamped around it with some leaves from the Spring Blooms stamp with fairy dust dye ink. Next I trimmed both pieces to size. I decide to take the inspiration for the curve on the water color panel from one of Maureen's cards on WPlus 9's Stamp Away with Me blog. And for some final embellishments I added Lawn Fawn cloud trim and Simon Says Stamp moonshine sequins.  This my throw back Thursday card using several WPlus 9 's stamps, even if it is only Tuesday.  : ) Have a happy Tuesday, and Thursday will before you know it.

Supplies:
W Plus 9 stamps: Bubble Talk, Hand lettered Thanks, and Spring Blooms
W Plus 9 Fairy dust dye ink
Zig Gansani Tambi  36 count water color set
Hero Arts silver embossing powder
Lawn Fawn stitched hillside die and cloud twine
Simon Says Stamp moonshine sequins
White 110lbs paper
Artist Loft 140lbs  water color paper

a new technique, a little bit of shabby chic.

Shabby chic to me is feminine and a little bit of rustic all rolled together. I like the look of shabby chic things.  My card draws on those two things and puts them together. I just got a stamp set that is new to me, Flutter By from Lawn Fawn. 

For the background I primed a sheet of white 65lbs paper. Then I used gelatos and blended them with my fingers. The effected I was going for was a soft weather wood.  I cut a 4.25x 5.5 piece of brown card stock and adhered it to my card base. After that I cut my weathered wood paper to 4x 5.25 and also cut it so it looked like planks of woods with a small gap between them. The flowers, leaves, and butterfly were made by heat embossing them on water color paper with Hero Arts gold embossing powder. After which I water colored them . When my water color pieces were dry I die cut them with 

the matching dies. I also die cut a vellum doily on my cricut machine.  

Then I assembled my card, doily on the weather card piece, after that I put my flowers, butterfly, and the larger leaves up on foam tape. For the finishing touch, I added Lawn Fawn gold twine and Simon Say moonshine sequins. 

This card could was fun to make and so was trying something new, I will be entering this in Lawn Fawn's Lawnscaping challenge. Their current challenge is try some thing new. The Flutter By stamp and die were new to me in making this card. Using gelatos on a card and gold heat embossing with water coloring was also new to me. 

Supplies:

Paper : White 110 lbs, White 65lbs, and brown card stock 

Artist Loft 140 lbs watercolor paper and vellum

Faber Castell gelatos: earl grey, chocolate, and silver ice

Liquitex white gesso

Zig Gansai Tambi 36 set water colors

Hero Arts gold heat embossing powder

Lawn Fawn Flutter By Stamp set and matching dies

Lawn Fawn gold twine

Simon Says Stamp moonshine sequins

Penny Black t-time

Here are some adorable little girls from a stamp set that is new to me; Penny Black's t- time stamp. It is great to have some images stamped and heat embossed on water color paper ready ready paint for whenever you have a spare moment. I had busy day and needed some de-stressing time in the evening. Coloring of any kind is good for helping you relax and clear your mind. 

 This first little girl I decided I wanted to paint her dress so it was like a watermelon. I tried mixing my own colors for the browns and the skin tones. The background begged for a cheerful color, so I went with a wash of yellow.

The second little girl's hair was a little more of a challenge. I decided to go back over her hair with a second layer after the first had dried, then I was finally satisfied with her hair.  The colors for this card have more pale and a shabby chic feel to them. I also to set a scene with the background with this card too. You can just see a little girl in her dressiest dress have a tea party in the back yard cupcakes and all.

Both cards have a wink of Stella on them. The first little girl's sheer apron has the wink of Stella on it. And the second little girl's girl dress is all shimmery with a wink of Stella and also the pink cupcake icing. It is so hard to get the shimmer to show in the photos. So, go color something and relax.

Supplies:
Artist Loft water color paper
Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36 count water color set
Blue printed paper CTMH
Mint printed paper DCWV
Mama Elephant dies femme frames
Hero Arts silver and gold embossing powder
Zig wink of Stella clear
Iridescent and buttercup sequins

Trying Something New

Trying something new is the theme of the Lawnscaping Challenge #106. This is a great challenge idea, trying something new is how we learn. I tried a few things new on this card that I made today.
  The first thing new I tried was a technique to iron off clear embossing powder.  After heat embossing the "oh deer" sentiment from the  Into the woods  stamp set. I used my blending tool to color the background with yellow.  I had read about this on Jennifer McGuire's blog and had not tried it yet.  It was pretty simple all you have to do is sandwich the panel between a folded  piece of printer paper and iron it on low.  Then the embossing powder comes off on the printer paper. After that  I stamped the deer  and the speech bubble with the heart on some water color paper and used my distress inks to color them.  Popping the the yellow panel, deer, and the speech bubble up on foam tape gave it dimension.
  Also I used a new supply in making my card, the pink and yellow washi tape was something I got at Hobby Lobby. Lawn Fawn has great stuff and they are coming out with their summer release soon. (Can't wait and I am sure I am not the only one that is excited about that.)

Supply List
Lawn Fawn: Into the Woods stamp and die, gold lawn trimmings
Distress inks: squeezed lemonade, vintage photo, tea dye, rusty hinge, and worn lipstick
Paper Studio: wash tapes
gold sequins

  I am hoping to get the Flutter By stamp and die sets in the mail this week. Then I would maybe like to try some water coloring with it and the die cuts. Maybe I am the only one that does this but I have to admit I hover at the window watching the mailbox when I know I have new paper crafting goodies on the way.

update

It has been awhile since I have posted. Now that I have Internet back, I hope to begin to post more often. I hope to have cards as well as art journaling to share with you. Art journaling is a new outlet of creativity that I have been trying. It has been enjoyable to have an outlet that I can have creative out bursts on. Art journaling is also good place to try new techniques that I want to use in my card making too.
My attitude towards card making is changing too. Some times its hard not to compare your work to others especially in challenge blogs. It is difficult not to become discourage with the out come at times. But then I have to remind myself why I am doing what I love. I love making card. It is a love of mine because I want to be creative, but more importantly I want to encourage and up lift others. When I make cards I want to  have fun and make art. At times I admit I get tense when I have an idea and it just  doesn't come together the way I want it to. That is part of learning and some times you just have to learn what doesn't work. Hopefully when I look back at the end of the year I can say that I have grown.   I am not to proud to say that I have a lot to learn and God is still working on me.