Water colour

Cardz 4 Galz – Water Colour

A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz. Billie A has chosen the theme of ‘water color – background, or image – or both’. Here is my card:

As you can see, I went with the watercolour background. I wanted a messy background, and tried to achieve a kinda rainbow messiness………….I think the colours need to run together a little more, but I like the colours I used. Once dry, I matted that with black onto a white card base using Gina K Designs master layouts.

On top of this I die cut a butterfly from The Greetery in Spellbinders gold card stock, the centre portion out of black, and adhered as you see.

I chose a more generic sentiment – white heat embossed.

I hope you can come and join us with your water colouring creations – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cupcake Inspirations – anything goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Take Time To Smell The Flowers

Hello. I have a card to share in which a water-coloured the main floral image – something I haven’t done for absolutely ages:

The flower is from a collaboration stamp set with Altenew and Hero Arts. I stamped the flower and the two leaves onto a piece of white water-colour card, then heat embossed in white.

I then sprayed water onto the images and used Distress Inks to colour – well – I dabbed the colour onto my glass mat, picked it up with my wet brush and kinda just let it go and flow……I ‘helped’ the flow a little to reach the ends of the petals and leaves, but generally let the water and the inks do their thing…..my idea of water-colouring!

Once dry, I fussy-cut – my least favourite crafty job – and I think the white heat embossing helped cover a few little flaws with the scissors – but it also helped to guide the scissors somewhat.

I found some matching lilac/purple card stock, and then layered the WPlus9 trellis onto the top. I did have to cut the trellis twice and layer it to make it longer, trimming off the bottom of one and the top of the other – the flower and leaves cover the join quite nicely.

I placed the flower and leaves as you see, and then the sentiment, all added to the card with 3D foam.

I added some clear cabochons, and as I had stamped the sentiment in black I also added some black gems too.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Catz – anything goes – option to say it with flowers

Allsorts – flora or fauna or anything goes

The Paper Players – green thumbs – plants/flowers/foliage

Colour Crazy – week 26 – anything goes with colouring (any medium)

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

ABC Christmas Challenge – Y and Z

Hello. ABC Christmas Challenge has started their last challenge for this year. Having reached the letters ‘Y‘ and ‘Z‘ we want to see your Christmas creations using the theme of ‘Yummy’ and ‘Zigzags’. Here is my card:

I chose to go with the zigzag theme – as you can probably tell – and used the Altenew ‘Pattern Play: Hexagon’ stamp set to create my zigzags. I stamped in black the clear heat embossed the lines onto watercolour card stock, then used a couple of Distress Inks to water colour the zigzags.

I went with a couple of less traditional colours, but I like the effect this created.

I then used a Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design set for the sentiments – heat embossing in gold the outline for the ‘jingle‘ words in a bronze colour. I then used some glue to fill-in the larger words, and added Lawn Fawn Prisma Glitter.

I felt the background was a little too bold for the words, so I added a small piece of vellum and stamped the smaller sentiment towards the bottom of that piece.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge – please follow the themes to be in with a chance of winning the prize offered up by Samantha, who is hosting this challenge. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – atg Christmas option of non-traditional colours

Dragonfly Dreams – Christmas/Winter

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – atg

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Snowy Season’s Greetings

We are starting a new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas/festive’. Here is my card:

This stamp is from Pink Ink – and is quite large……so the card ended up being a substantial size – but fun to make.

I stamped then heat embossed the image, then stamped another to make a mask for the top portion – the tree and top of the card.

I then ink blended the background with Distress Inks, before water-colouring my image. Some of the smaller details I coloured with Copics. Once it had all dried, I splattered some Copic Opaque White all over – I mean all over – to get a blizzard effect – the snowman is still taking this tree home despite the weather!

I decided it needed a frame, so I used die-cut a frame using some stithced rectangle dies, then ink blended with Distress Inks to match the background.

I quite enjoyed using the variety of medium to create this card and will definitely have a play again.

I hope you can come and join us in our challenge – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

Mix It Up Challenge – anything goes mixed media

Christmas Craft Creations – anything goes Christmas

Avenue 613 – anything goes with optional twist of water-colour

Eeek! It’s Your Birthday

Hello everyone. Once again it is the beginning of a new challenge at Seize The Birthday, where I am surprise party guest for a couple of months. This time the theme is ‘Birthday and Furry Friends’ – here is my card:

I started by stamping, colouring, and then die-cutting the images from the MFT stamp set.

The scalloped circles die was used as the background, and to add some colourful interest behind each circle I die cut three ink-smooshed backgrounds with three circles and placed them behind.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set from MFT.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘Furry Friends Birthday’ creations – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Beyond The Blue Challenge – water-colour background

Die Cut Divas – window or aperture card

Aud Sentiments Challenge – use a birthday sentiment

Colour Crazy Challenge 16 – anything goes colouring

Floral Spray Birthday

Hello there. Once again I am privileged to be Guest Designer on the Seize the Birthday challenge again.

This time the theme is ‘Birthday and Spring Flowers’. Here is my card:

For these flowers I stamped and heat embossed with white, and water-coloured using my Zigs. I went for soft colours, one colour of each, and just a little blending with water. I am really quite pleased with how these turned out as I haven’t water-coloured like this for ages.

I then used the matching dies – something Clearly Besotted have stopped doing now, but I’m glad I had them for this set of stamps.

As these were soft flowers, I went for a dramatic background – a grey cardstock using a Crafters Companion wood grain embossing folder on Concord & 9th Mushroom card stock. . The sentiment is from Stampin Up – stamped in mushroom ink – again from Concord & 9th, then die cut with a stitched oval.

Some little clear drop thingies – no idea what they’re called – and the card is done.

I hope you can come and join us – It would be great to see your there with your birthday spring floral creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes with colouring

The Flower Challenge – flowers and pretty pastels

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Love To Craft Challenge – anything goes

Long Distance Fox Hugs

Hello there. I have a CAS card to share today using masking, water-colouring, ink blending, stamping:

It took me a while, and a lot of thinking, on how to create this card. I knew I wanted to use this stamp set, knew I wanted some ink blending, knew I would need to do some masking – but once I had decided what needed to be stamped and ink blended in which order – off I went.

I’ve tried a ‘gallery’ setting to demonstrate the process – does it work ok?

I first stamped the fox and light images onto Distress Water-color card stock – smooth side – using Gina K Amalgam ink, stamped again and created a mask for the images, Then a circle stencil added from Honey Bee Stamps, lots of masking tape so I didn’t go outside the circle, ink blended Spun Sugar then Picked Raspberry, and removed the masks to reveal the images again. I always love that part – especially when it works!

I dried that with the Ranger Heat Tool – I was ‘Jennabled’ by Jenn Shurkus after doing a few of her online classes. The use of Distress Inks again for colouring, and the use of the heat tool – well worth it. I can’t seem to stop using them. I then used the other two colours of Distress Ink to water-colour the images.

After drying the water-colouring again, I stamped the sentiment which comes in the same stamp set.

I currently like to send ‘just because’ cards, as we haven’t been able to meet our friends for quite a while. I have found that making these kinds of cards helps me to have a reason to create, and also sends just a little bit of love and best wishes.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Turquoise, rust, pink, megenta

CASology – FOX

Jan’s Digi Stamps challenge – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring (week 7)

As You Like It Challenge – favourite reason to send a card and why

Hootiful Christmas

A Christmas card featuring owls in their Christmas outfits:

This time I coloured all the images with Zig Clean Colour Brush pens – which I haven’t had out in absolutely ages – so I thought I’d give them a go.

The images from Clearly Besotted were stamped in Gina K amalgam ink – a brown colour this time – and then coloured with my Zigs – a couple of browns and a couple of greens.

I have no idea what water-colour card I used – but it started to ‘pill’ a little when I tried to blend, so I didn’t really do much blending, and just went very gentle – I must remember not to use this stash again!

Once coloured and die-cut with the matching dies, I added some glossy accents to the eyes, and left them to dry whilst putting together the rest of the card.

A slimline card using Pinkfresh Studio scalloped windows, and adding some white glitter card behind each window. When I added my owls for placement, I decided they looked a little lost, so I used Heffy Doodle ‘Hootiful’ stamp and die set for the tree stump and branch.

The sentiments are from two different sets – selective stamping with some masking of part of the whole sentiments, to create what I wanted.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

52CCT – Christmas using white, green, and brown

Watercooler Challenge – occasions

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics – anything goes festive

Life Can Be Tough – But So Can You………

Hi there. I have made a card today just for the fun of it. I took inspiration from several challenges – but I wanted to create a fun and colourful card, with some inspiring words. Inspiring for me – and for everyone else.

I wanted to play around with colour, I wanted to play with some water-colouring, I wanted to just play. I didn’t want to particularly think about what I was creating. I knew I wanted to use this stamp set from Hero Arts, and I knew what sketch and colours I wanted to use – so I began.

I played, I water-coloured, I used colour, I used dies. No shading, no thinking about which way the light was coming from – just played………..and in the end I am pleased with what I created!

I stamped the turtle onto Arteza water-colour card in Altenew Obsidian ink, let it dry a little, then collected the four colours together I was using from the current challenge at Color Throwdown.

I did colour a turtle in pink – but didn’t like that, so here is what I did the second time around. I used a little water with each colour, to spread things around a little, and I’d forgotten how pigmented these zigs are……..

The stitched waves were pieces of card coloured again with zigs and die cut using a Lawn Fawn ‘stitched wavy borders’ die, and they remind me of some sea-weed drifting in the motion of the sea.

I have just receievd some Tracy Hey Designs stamp sets – and this sentiment was just sat there looking at me………………it’s almost as though I am saying this to myself – and saying this to others. I may have to use this sentiment again…….

So – a fairly basic yet colourful card, I enjoyed the process, and I’m already planning what to make tomorrow…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – orange, pink, yellow, green

CAS(E) This Sketch – sketch

Hero Arts Challenge – self care

Addicted to CAS – CAS Animal

Happy Little Stampers watercolour challenge – water-colour atg with option of stars

Watercolour Poinsettia

Hello once again. I have a card to share for the new challenge beginning at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is anything goes as long as it’s Christmas related.

Here is my card:

I began by stamping and heat embossing in white the Thirsty Brush and Co ‘Sparkle to my world’ stamp set onto Arteza water-colour card. I used the rough side of the card as I like the look that gives with watercolour. I then used the Arteza Real Brush pens and a combination of several reds for the poinsettia itself, and several greens for the leaves.

I just played with the colours and the shading – not particularly taking any notice of light source – just playing and colouring, adding water, then taking some away – I do tend to add too much water sometimes – until I was happy with the result.

I did colour some of the stamped berries, but I didn’t like how they turned out, so I went into my Tonic Nuvo drop stash – I seem to have a lot of these drops – and found a colour that matched. I also found a lovely green – so I added that too.

For some reason, I just can’t stop adding these drops once I start:

I layered some red and green card and as I wanted to stamp the sentiment in black to make an impact, I used a black card base.

I hope you can come and join us, as I’d love to see what Christmas creations you can add to our gallery. The Design Team has some fabulous and varied inspiration for you xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – atg with option wet or dry embossing

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas with option of cute

Joy Of sets Tic Tac Toe – watercolour/embossing/floral

Happy Little Stampers watercolour challenge – watercolour with option of bling