Hello there!
Today’s card features the Gemini stamp from the Cosmic Stars set from Mama Elephant. I’ve also used elements from other stamp sets, including the sentiment from Mama Elephant’s Sweetest Greetings set, the heart constellation from Lawn Fawn’s Upon a Star set, and the small trio of stars from Simon Says Stamp’s Seeing Stars set. Continue reading “Birthday Wishes”
Hi there, I hope you’re having a great week!
Sometimes, when my mojo is lacking and I just want to play with color, I fall back on a big sentiment that can stand on its own. Today’s card uses the Wishing You stamp set from Mama Elephant which has a beautiful scripty sentiment and a number of supporting smaller sentiment stamps. Continue reading “Wishing You A Happy Birthday And Many More To Come”
Hi there, I hope your day is going well!
Today’s card uses the Sweet Sprinkles from Concord and 9th, made especially for Essentials by Ellen. I love the large cupcake image and the set also includes an ice cream cone for versatility. Continue reading “Hope Your Day Is Sprinkled With Every Happy Thing!”
Hi there!
Today’s card uses the colors from Color Throwdown Challenge #488. When I saw these colors, I immediately thought of the Birthday Chicks from My Favorite Things.
I started by using Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink to stamp the chicks, giant cupcake, and balloon onto Neenah Solar White #80 Classic Crest cardstock. Then I got down to coloring. I used Y15 and Y19 for the chics, B01 and B04 for the cupcakes, party hats, and candles, and YG23 and YG25 for the candles and balloon. I used a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen to add details to the hats, cupcake frosting, candles, and balloon. Then I cut out the images using a Brother ScanNCut2 and set them aside.
For the grass I blended Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks onto an A2-sized piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock. Then I trimmed that piece using Lawn Fawn’s Grassy Border die. I stamped the sentiment using the same black ink as earlier.
For the background, which is a piece of Neenah Solar White, I very lightly blended Tumbled Glass Distress Ink along the edges of the Cloud stencil from My Favorite Things. I used the same color to lightly go around the edges of the clouds which I cut out from scrap cardstock using Lawn Fawns Simple Puffy Clouds dies. The sun is cut from yellow Recollections cardstock using the Sunny Skies die from My Favorite Things.
I assembled the card using liquid adhesive to adhere the grass, largest cloud, chicks, and giant cupcake. I applied the adhesive to the center of the sun, but left most of the rays unglued so that they stand up a little. I trimmed bits of the sun rays and clouds that were hanging off the edge of the card front.
The two smaller clouds and the balloon are popped up using foam tape. I used a Copic C1 marker to ground the chicks and giant cupcake by adding what I hope look like shadows. And finally, I adhered the entire card front to an A2-sized card base.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hello there! I hope you’re weekend has gotten off to a good start!
Today’s card uses the Butterfly Beauty stamp set from Concord and 9th. I wanted to use the detailed butterfly stamp to try a version of no-line coloring, where I wanted the outline of the butterfly to fade away but the detail of the butterfly to remain. I wasn’t entirely successful, but it was a fun experiment and I have an idea of what to try next time!
I started by die-cutting the card front out of Ranger watercolor paper using the largest of the Wonky Stitched Rectangle die set from My Favorite Things. Ranger watercolor paper is a nice bright white compared to other watercolor papers, and it has a rough and a smooth side (which is not uncommon, in my limited experience). I used the smooth side for my stamping and painting.
Then, I stamped the butterfly image in Antique Linen Distress Ink. This ink color is very light and since Distress Inks react with water, I knew that the stamping could be made to fade as I added water and watercolor.
I used painter’s tape to tape down the card front to my desk and then I used an 8 round brush to apply clean clear water over the butterfly, being careful to follow the outline, and avoiding the body and antennae. I chose Golden Yellow and Chrome Orange from Peerless Watercolors and laid down a layer of the Golden yellow with a 8 round brush. Then I added Chrome Orange around the edges, blending inwards. Peerless watercolors are very easy to blend and I find that I could go over areas that had dried a bit without pulling up the color. The result is a relatively smooth layer of color. Using a 1 round brush, I added more Chrome orange to the edges for some color variation. Finally, I used the same brush to add Pearl Gray to the body and antennae.
I then decided that I wanted to add some splatter to the card, but not to the butterfly, so I created a mask by stamping the butterfly onto a piece of Judikins Eclipse Tape* that I stuck on to a piece of scrap cardstock. Then I cut out the butterfly, peeled-off the cardstock, and masked off my watercolor butterfly.
I smooshed a bit of Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink onto an acrylic block and then, with a lightly wet brush, picked up some color and splattered it onto the card. I removed the mask and stamped the sentiment in Versafine Black Onyx ink.
Finally, I added Scor-tape to the back of the card front and adhered it to an A2-sized card base and that finished up the card.
The next time I try this, I think I may choose a very light dye ink. While I was able to retain some of the detail of the butterfly, the veins blended away a bit too much and are harder to see where I used darker orange.
Thanks for visiting!
*Eclipse Tape is a 6″ wide roll low tack tape (it feels like Post-It tape to me). It can be used like Stick It Adhesive Sheets or Inkadinkadoo Mask Paper, but I find it to be much more affordable since the roll contains 33 feet of tape. It doesn’t have release paper, but I apply it to cardstock and find that it peels off cleanly.
SkyPaperScissors 