Stamping Bella Birthday - Shaker Card Drama

                                        

The minute I saw this cute happy birthday die I knew it would make the perfect shaker card for my friend's birthday. For this card I colored my Stamping Bella image with copics, die cut my Spellbinders border and created my shaker card element...easy peasy.  But it didn't start out that way....

This was my first attempt.   How hard could it be? I've made shaker cards before. I had already water colored the peonies from Altenew's Peony Bouquet stamp set and they were the perfect colors for the Splitcoaststampers Tuesday color challenge.   I often struggle with layouts, but usually things fall together in the end. In this case, I think my  peonies just didn't want to live on this card.  Those gray looking elements are actually silver and I don't hate them.  The most frustrating part of this card was the shaker doohickey!  Apparently I'm not patient enough to let glue dry and my sequins like swimming in it.  I was glad when this card was finally finished and, happily, when I woke up this morning I was ready to give it another try.  My husband likes this one best.  I like the Stamping Bella one way better. What do you think?

Thanks for visiting.
Go forth and be fabulous.
Nancy

Playing along with:
   
         Word Art Wednesday
         Glitter and Sparkle
         Addicted to Stamps
         Crafty Creations
         The Paper Shelter
         The Crafty Addicts

Brushless Watercolor Class - Tim Holtz Distress Markers

A while ago I took an amazing class from Susan Porter, one of my favorite artists, and I'm just getting around to posting the four lovely cards we created.  The brushless watercolor technique has been around for a while and is relatively easy with beautiful results.  The background in each of these cards uses a little different technique. For this card, I used Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord distress markers to color the flowers directly onto the stamp and Peeled Paint and Forest Moss to color the leaves and stems.  After coloring the stamp, I spritzed it with water using a fine mist spray bottle and used gentle pressure to stamp the image onto watercolor paper.  I added Distress Stickles in Dusty Concord to the centers of the flowers and Peeled Paint Distress Stickles to the leaves.

The second card was stamped on Mattekote stamping paper. I colored the flowers with Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves distress markers, the flower centers with Scattered Straw and Wild Honey, and the leaves and stems with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss. I spritzed with a fine mist before stamping. The result was a little less textured than the watercolor paper, but just as pretty, I think. 

The third flower has a pallet painted background. I scribbled Scattered Straw onto an acrylic block and spritzed with a fine mist.  On watercolor paper, I used a large flat wet paint brush to paint the rectangular area I wanted for my flower background.  Using the same brush, I picked up the diluted Scattered Straw distress ink from my acrylic block palette and painted in my defined rectangle.  I dried this area with a heat gun and then stamped my image using the brushless watercolor technique.

My final (and favorite) card has a  resist block stamped background.  I embossed the image of the tall foliage on watercolor paper with white embossing powder.   I colored the surface of a 3" x 5" acrylic block with Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint distress markers.  With the block facing up on my table, I spritzed with water and let the colors run together.  I carefully flipped the block over  and pressed it onto my watercolor paper. I dried it with a heat gun and then stamped my image using the brushless watercolor technique.  

I always forget how fun and easy this technique is.  Have you tried it? You absolutely should!

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and be fabulous.

Nancy

Class-y Tuesday - Water Colored Spring Flowers with Distress Markers

On my walks in the beautiful wetlands near my home, I can finally see gorgeous blossoming trees everywhere. The California drought is over and Spring is in the air.  Time to get out my embarrassingly vast array of flower stamps and make some pretty cards to match my mood.

I made these cards in a class taught by talented designer and teacher, Susan Porter. I had forgotten how fun and easy this distress marker water color technique is.  

These cards were all colored using Tim Holtz distress markers blended with a water brush on water color paper.  With a little practice, it's a fairly simple blending technique that gives amazing results. Here's a You Tube video that shows how it's done.  This technique works great with any water based markers like Tombow and Marvy, but I prefer distress markers  because they blend so easily.  If you haven't tried this technique, give it a try.  I think you'll love it!

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and be fabulous.

Nancy 

Class-y Tuesday - Sandy Brien Asian Blues

I had a delightful time creating these cards in a class taught by one of my favorite teachers, Sandy Brien. She is a brilliant artist and I love everything she does, but she has a special flair for Asian designs.

I stamped all of the images with Blue Print Sketch distress ink and blended color from the stamped lines with a damp brush.  I used Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot inks for shading.  Sandy's samples looked like actual water coloring and although I definitely need some practice, I really like the result I got from this technique.

I lightly misted the inked bird stamp before I stamped it on water color paper and then blended with a paint brush.  I like the soft water color effect it creates.

The dancing crane is gold heat embossed on navy paper and then colored with colored pencils. A few flowers and stamps for embellishments and I came away with some beautiful cards and fun new skills to practice.  I'll bet you have some stamps in your stash that would work beautifully with this technique. Time to go on a treasure hunt! 

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and be fabulous.

Nancy 

Class-y Tuesday - Pretty Posies

I'm very fortunate to live in an area where some extremely talented artists share their skills with our paper crafting community.  The Stamp Art Shoppe was the host to some wonderful teachers for many years and we were all very sad when it closed it's doors recently, Happily, some of my favorite teachers are still offering classes in the area.  I created these cards at the Stamp Art Shoppe in a class taught by Susan Porter.  I will be posting more of the cards from Susan's and other artist's classes in my "Classy Tuesday" blogs.

All of these cards were created using the Stampendous Build a Bouquet stamps and dies. I used distress markers on the flowers and blended them with a paint brush and water to achieve the water color affect. 

There are several types of flowers and two different cute glass containers in the set. The coordinating dies make it easy to cut out the images.

Stampendous also makes dies to create pop ups for the inside of cards.

I love tools that can be used in a variety of different ways. This has become my "go to" set for fast and fun cards for all occasions.  

Thanks for visiting. 

Go forth and be fabulous.

Nancy