Red, White & Blue

Morning!  Sending wishes for a safe & enjoyable Independence Day!

This is definitely not your traditional Independence day themed card, but because I used red, white and blue I deem it is. hahaha!  It's a postcard I made using the same technique on the background that I shared here.  I colored Pua from Sister Stamps during #thedailymarker30daychallenge a few months back and I finally get to share her on a card.  She is inked up with Copic markers & fun cut out, boy was this one a doosie!   The Aloha sentiment is a laser cut word from Island Scrapbooking and I think it adds a nice touch to the CAS design I was going for.

God bless our troops, families and friends but most of all bless the USA!!  Thanks for stopping by!

More Underwater Fun

Hello!!!

Holy cow, it's July 1st!!  I cannot even remember what happened in June!  I wish time would slow down, because in no time it will be Dec!  Eep!!   Well I'm not inviting Dec in yet, let's just continue to enjoy July and the summer!  Here's the 2nd watercolor post card I made with the third turtle from Sister Stamps.  The stencil is the same, fyi the stencil is the same for all of the postcards, and I wanted to continue with the under water color scheme.

Sorry my photo skills for this one were way off!  It gets better, just wanted to show the single turtle... 

I colored this one with Distress inks too, looks much better.  I also spritzed some water drops, it's a pretty cool effect.  Last was adding another sentiment from the same Jillybean stamp set and using clear embossing powder to make it shiney.  I love the white border, makes it look like a snapshot.

Before I sign off I wanted to give a shout out to Sister Stamps!!  Hey ladies, congratulations on another amazingly kawaii release!!!   If you didn't notice yet, Jenny and the DT have been sharing the new adorable summer release images and I'm planning to head over to everyone's blog to catch up.  If you missed out head on over to the Sister Stamps blog.  I'll be back soon to share the rest of the postcards with my pre-colored images.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Distress Ink Water color fun

My mojo got a little jump start after I watched this video from Kristina Werner.  The video was a review on those popular new Zig Clean Color Real Brush water markers & the new release from Mama Elephant.  No, I don't have the markers, I don't think I need them and honestly I'm good with not having them, especially when I have spent a considerable amount of money on Copics.  But hey if anyone wants to send me some to test I wouldn't say no.  (hahaha!)  After watching the video I was inspired to try my hand at more Distress ink water coloring.  (I was also inspired by Eva's blog, she's been doing a lot with those adorable Mama Elephant stamps and water coloring with Distress Inks.)  A few weeks ago I purchased a stencil made by Hero Arts called large lotus pattern.  An idea popped into my head and I decided to run with it before it disappeared.

I cut down some Canson water color paper into 4 x 5 3/8 so that I could easily adhere them to A2 card bases.  Grabbed some washi tape, the stencil and some Distress Inks.  Since I had the turtles from Sister Stamps on the table I reached for those guys too.

As you can see I adhere the water paper to my board with some washi tape.  I made sure to tape over the edges to get a nice white border all the way around.  I stamped two of the turtles using Versafine Vintage Sepia, then I created masks of each.  In Kristina's video she mentioned Versafine was perfect for use on water color paper because it doesn't run.  A great tip to know!

Next thing to get washi-taped down was the stencil.  The stencil is much bigger than the paper, but it was ok because I had the edge of the paper covered with the washi tape.  No worries that I wouldn't get the effect I was hoping for.  Using the sponge tool I added color going from dark to light with the DI.  Here I used Peeled Paint, Mermaid Lagoon, Evergreen Bough & Tumbled Glass.  Once the colors were put down to my satisfaction I removed the stencil and because of the masks the turtles were saved!  (Yay!)

I used the lightest color, Tumbled Glass, and lightly went over the whole picture with it.  Next I used a few other DI colors to ink up the turtles.  I washed out the colors a little bit by spraying some water on a small paint brush and going over the whole picture with it.  Last I stamped the cute sentiment from Jillibean Soup (Item #jb0198) with Black Versafine ink and wet embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Once I removed the washi tape I was done!

I haven't mounted this one yet, I was thinking of maybe making it into a postcard instead.  They are sturdy enough and flat so they would definitely mail easily.  Something to think about.  I loved this technique, in fact, I loved it so much I ended up coloring 11 more backgrounds using different colored DI!  I have so many colors and with that awesome stencil I figured I could create a bunch more.  They make nice Aloha print backdrops, all I need to add are colored images and a sentiment.
Luckily I have a bunch of colored images handy (left over from the first 30 day coloring challenge) and can't wait to pair them up with a sentiment.  I'll be sharing those over the next few days.  Yay!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Happy Monday!!

What's Up? Dog day afternoon...

Hello!

Wow, it's been a few days since I last posted!  Life has gotten a bit more busy and I've been less active in the creative realm.  I don't know if it's the weather or the long hours at work, but there seems to be no interest in creating when I get home, it's as if my mojo has gone on vacation.  Sigh!

I realized that I never posted about this project I made for one of my friends.  It's actually a watercolor/die cut scene/portrait...

Obviously some of my mojo was working here.  hahaha!  I started out with the blue backdrop using gelatos and water on some Canson water color paper.  I believe the cute dog flying over the city is Silver from Tiddly Inks Flying High clear stamp set.  My friend has a dog, who resembles Silver a bit so I tried to color him the same.  I used multiple dies from LLLC and MFT to create this scene.  I also used a word backgroud stamp from MFT for the buildings and the tree.  Love the effect, it kinda looks like I used a newspaper.

I need to put this in some kind of frame so for now it's with me until I finish it.  I did show it to my friend and she loved it.  Yay!!  Here's a look at the annual birthday card I made, another adorable image of Silver and I actually decorated the envelope!

The sentiments on the card are from Paper Smooches.  Oh and in the background some wispy clouds made with Distress Inks.  Maybe this will jump start my mojo?!  We shall see!  I might need to go-around to everyone's blogs too, so I'll be sure to hop on the ole' computer when I get home to do some hopping!  Well breaks over, I better get back to "work".  Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Mothers Day

Hello!

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.  It was quite hectic here at our house, that's why I wasn't able to post these on Sunday.  My sis, her DH and their puppy, Sebastian, drove down for the weekend.  My older brother also came home.  It was nice to have everyone at the house.  My older brother cooked a late lunch and then it was soon after that my sis and her little family had to drive home.  While she was here she made my mom a beautiful, queen sized wreath!  My sister is pretty amazing when it comes to designing wreaths.  I'll share the one she made at the end of my post.

These were the mother's day cards I made for my mom & sister.  For the first two cards I had some fun with Distress Inks, watercolor paper, water, a Copic multi-liner and a white gel pen.  This first card I added a sentiment stamp from Taylored Expressions.

I wasn't really sure what I was going for here with the red blobs.  (hahaha)  Some of them turned in to cute hearts, others not so much so I made them in to a bunch of roses, the others I added white hearts.  Totally random, but I love how it turned out.  This next card was really fun to make, again not knowing the outcome of what I was doing I just went with it.

I was sooo surprised & happy after finishing this one.  Again not knowing what the red blobs would turn in to I decided roses would be fun.  The sentiment was cut from the Cricut.  This next one was a spur of the moment card, but I love it!

I used the cut sentiment from the 2nd card and Distress ink to create the cloudy message.   Keeping it CAS I added the tropical flowers using some stamps from MFT, I believe this set might be retired, Tropical Sensations.  The With Love sentiment is also in this set.  Hmmm thinking this layout might not be so bad for some other CAS cards.  Something to think about...  =D

Before I sign off here's the beautiful wreath my sis made...

IRL the flowers look so real!  Love her use of burlap, colored wire, Aloha fabric wire ribbon and those gorgeous flowers.  It's truly beautiful and HUGE!!  Now to find a the perfect spot for it.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! 

For the Bride...

Hi!

Hope you're all doing well.  Today's card was created for my friend's bridal shower.  Of course I waited until that morning to put it together!  

I sure did use a lot of different elements here, most of it pink, paper and pearls.  Lots of dies, and a very cute Uptown girl image.  Instead of the cake I fun-cut the present and popped it in place.  First I wiped away the cake so there were no other lines showing.  Now it looks like Ava is presenting the presents on a platter.   Does that even happen IRL?  Maybe for the queen!  LOL!  

I had fun with the rolled roses, took me a couple secs to start them, then it was quick to roll. The pearls are all from stick pins.  I cut them from the pin with wire cutters and used 3-in-1 glue to adhere.  The pop of green is a nice subtle touch and it matches the smaller gift.  I did not mean to have 2 different pink colors for the roses,  I actually ran out of the darker pink, but I think the contrast adds a nice slight contrast.  Below is the inside panel.  

I mimicked some of the front in the corrugated panel, but because I was running out of time used watercolor paper to create another quick Distress ink watercolor piece.  The sentiment is from Walter&Winnie and I hand-wrote the rest of it. The W&W sentiment was inked, stamped and embossed with white then heat set.  The hearts were stamped using the same pink on top.  It's so pretty!  Oh and that dark pink heart is covering the B2B's name.  

We had a wonderful time at the shower.  It was a beautiful day, full of fun, laughter, naughty things that I won't mention, lots of food, great friends and family.  The B2B was beautiful and she enjoyed herself so much.  The bridesmaids did a wonderful job!  I can't believe the wedding is next weekend!!  Yay!!  I better plan better, going to make the card the night before!  hahaha!  Thanks for stopping by, have a great Tuesday!! 

Distress Water coloring

Hello!!

I'm pre-posting today because I'm still hanging out with the ohana.  I have a couple of water color Distress ink cards to share.  Seeing these cute backgrounds on Eva's blog (Hi Eva!) really inspired me to give it a try for a quick and easy background.  Thanks again for the inspiration Eva!!

This first one uses some fun Spring like colors.

I added the kawaii stars from The Greeting Farm a grouping of stars from La-La Land Crafts, and a Walter & Winnie sentiment.  All were inked with black Versafine ink and embossed with clear powder.  Here's the inside, just a simple detail, but totally cute and fun!

I'll write a message in white with my new white gel pen.  The next one is a simple Congrats card I made for one of my co-workers who just celebrated her 25th anniversary!!  Dang!!  I hope I'm there that long.  (lol)  She likes pastel colors and Hello Kitty so thought this was a fun card for her.

Sorry about the picture, I took it at work prior to giving her the card.  I added some of my enamel flowers and found that cute HK with a paint brush in my stash.  Thought it looked like HK just finished painting that.  haha!  I used another Walter and Winnie sentiment with Versamark and wet embossed it.  Loved the pretty brush strokes.  Sorry no picture of the inside, I just printed a nice sentiment on some paper and adhered to the inside.

Definitely going to do this kind of cardmaking again.  They make great quick cards for any occasion. Thanks again Eva for all the inspiration!!

Okie dokes, have a great Saturday doing something fun and relaxing!  Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges: TGF FFF - Spring colors