Card Concept Challenge #4

I’m playing along with the Card Concept Challenge – Use a Floral Theme with a CAS card. I was inspired by the coral color in the inspiration image, as well as the floral motif.

CardConcept4

I colored watercolor paper with three colors of Distress Ink. I simply smooshed the ink onto my craft sheet and lifted the color with a brush that I had dipped in water. (I tried this technique on cardstock and it did not work nearly as well as with the watercolor paper!) After the paper dried, I stamped the Blooming Meadow stamp with Versamark ink and heat set it with white embossing powder. I added a sentiment heat embossed with gold powder on vellum and attached the panel to a kraft card base.

Supplies:

Tim Holtz November Tags

Since taking the Online Card Classes Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 class, I am continuing to play with the techniques. For this month’s 12 Tags of 2013, Tim Holtz demonstrated the chalkboard technique we covered in class. I’m sharing two tags using this technique.

Tim Holtz November TagsFor the first tag, I stamped the sentiment and fun retro snowflakes onto the tag. The Santa was silver embossed, cut with the matching Sizzix die, and added to the tag with dimensional adhesive. I finished the tag off with tinsel twine, trimmings, and a Christmas Muse Token.

Tim Holtz November Tags

For the second tag, I stamped the blueprint onto the black tag with Versamark, and again on Ranger watercolor paper with Archival ink. I colored the toy soldier with a variety of distress inks, both from the pads and from markers. I prefer to scribble onto my craft sheet and lift the ink off with a water brush, rather than put the ink directly on the paper. I added some Seasonal Chitchat that I distressed around the edges with Black Soot distress ink. For the top and bottom of the tag, I dry embossed red Core’dination cardstock with the Candy Stripes folder to which I’d applied Distress Embossing Ink in the way that Tim shows in this post. I heat set white embossing powder and then distressed it lightly with a sanding block.

Penny Black: Just Relax

Although I can tell fall is in the air and Labor Day is just around the corner (the unofficial end of summer), I wanted to create another card with the Penny Black Summer Fun 30-107 stamp set.

Penny Black: Just Relax

I stamped the lawn chair with Versafine and heat embossed it with clear powder. Using Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils and Ink Potion No. 9, I colored the chairs in bright colors. In my previous card with this set, I used circles of different sizes to create variety. In this case, I used repetition to strengthen the design.

Have a terrific week and enjoy these last few weeks of summer!

Penny Black Homemade

Cute mice in the kitchen!? What? The one time I did have mice in the kitchen, in a Victorian home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, there was nothing cute about it. But with the Penny Black Homemade (30-119) stamp set, which is part of the Margaret Sherry Collection, there’s nothing but fun!

Penny Black Homemade

I watercolored the mice, stamped with Versafine ink and heat embossed with clear powder, with both Prismacolor and Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils. The patterned paper is from the Echo Park Sweet Girl collection.

Hello, Friend

I purchased the Mama Elephant Tree Friends stamp weeks ago and have just now gotten a chance to play with it.

Hello, Friend

I was inspired by the way that Mariana Grigsby used this set on her card, and set out to replicate it. However, I struggled with adding the Distress Ink with embossing brushes (it might be because I don’t own the same brushes she used). After admitting failure (and restamping the tree!), I decided to watercolor the tree image with Distress Inks using a water brush. Rather than use water, I used the Ink Potion No. 9, which seems to help with warping. I added a few glossy accents like Mariana did. I like the effect and it definitely adds some texture and shine. I’ll have to remember to use them in the future on similar projects.

I’d like to revisit this stamp set with a different set of colors for the flowers. Maybe something in an autumnal color palette. 🙂