Wildflower Sunrise

Today I'm sharing a sunrise wildflower card that I made with Sheena's A Little Bit Scenic Silhouette Grasses.

I started by brayering in shades of pale yellow and apricot on coated card stock.  (How long has it been since you dusted off your brayer?  It is great for quick, easy backgrounds.) After the ink dried, I used the large wildflower image and heat embossed it in black.  I layered this on to a black mat, and then on to a folded A2 apricot card base.


The greeting is from the Mulberry Woods Friend set.  I thought that it went with the wildflower image perfectly.  I stamped it, then scanned it to reduce the font to fit better in to my design layout.  I love it when I can mix and match sets like that!  Then I oval-punched it, and sponged lightly before layering on a pale yellow oval scalloped mat.

The punched butterflies were added as a finishing touch to add some motion and dimension.  Can you see that the large butterfly was punched from a scrap of polished stone paper?  A few rhinestones and they were done.  Tip:  when adding accents like this, usually odd numbers work best, unless your design is formal and symmetrical.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Flower Power Puppy

Today I'm sharing a 5.5" square card using the new "Friend" set from the Everyday in Mulberry Wood line.

I started by stamping the image in black ink on to white card stock.  I colored him with my Spectrum Noir markers, and then die cut him with a large circle.  I die cut a scalloped circle in turquoise as the mat.

Next I shifted gears to the card base, which was a folded 5.5 card in saffron yellow.  I prepped the next two layers of the 5" square flowered designer paper matted on a 5.25" square of pumpkin card stock.

I then ran ribbon through two slot-punched openings in the circle.  I used saffron grosgrain and rust colored rick rack from my stash.  A friend who sews gave me a bunch of leftover pieces of rickrack and it is fun working them in to designs.  After adhering dimensionals behind the circle, I taped the ends of the ribbon to the back of the pumpkin layer.  Finally this was all adhered to the base folded card with glue dots.

Final touches were an oval punched greeting accented by a turquoise flower and pumpkiny-orange brad.  (Tip on the greeting:  I stamped it regular size, then scanned it and shrunk in in Word to better fit in to my small oval punch.)  The greeting itself is from the Birthday Wishes set.

Because it is a large square card, I made a coordinating envelope to go with it using the Envelobox Creator.  Just start with a 8.25" square piece of paper and score all four sides at "G" on the tool.  So easy!

Even though it is floral, I think the colors make it perfect for a cheery autumn birthday card.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Autumn Leaves

Today I'd like to share with you a card made with Sheena Douglass' Paint Fusion "Ivy" set.

I started by heat embossing the ivy spray in black on to confetti cream card stock.  Then, I heat embossed two extra large leaves and two extra small leaves.

To color, I misted the leaves very lightly with water, and then applied ink with a watercolor brush.  I kept the palette mainly to autumnal tones of oranges, rusts, and red.  When dry, I cut out the extra leaves.  I used gold Smooch to add some shiny highlights.  Once colored, I think the leaves look like autumn maple leaves, not ivy.  I love versatility like that in a set!

The greeting is from another great set from Sheena, "Milestones and Moments".  I used a circle die cut to cut the greeting, dry emboss it, and layer it on to a larger black circle.  This was then glued to the card front to the right of the ivy spray.  I then layered this on to a rust mat, and then on to a cream A2 top-folded card base.

The final touch was positioning the extra cut out leaves with dimensionals.  Be sure to overlap the leaves on to the greeting circle for cohesion.  I am really pleased with how it turned out; it was fairly quick and easy; and it's the perfect autumn card for any number of occasions.

Distressed Destination

I loved this Destination image from Sheena's A Little Bit Sketchy line ever since I saw the beautiful cards that stampin' sister and fellow design team member Trena was making with it this summer. To make it my own, I did heavier distressing and added twine and beads.

A little back story.  I have a colleague, Kate, at work who has been working on a major project for about 18 months.  Tonight, we deploy.  (In fact I'm writing this as we wait at 2:00 am for the OK from IT to go in and test it and give the final green light.)  Throughout the whole time, she kept focus despite all the windstorms that threatened to throw the project ship off course.  I thought this card was destined for her.


First I stamped the image in black on to white card stock.  I used walnut ink (you dissolve the crystals in water; more water gives a less intense brown) to heavily sponge the edges.  Since it is a liquid, it tends to soak in and spread, giving a more saturated, vintage feel.  I then used my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to shade pale grey on the sails, and tan on the land where the walnut stain hadn't hit.  A touch of grey-blue defined the ocean shore.

I distressed the edges and layered it on to a white mat, also distressed.  Because the walnut ink was so dark, I wanted the white for a bright contrast. This was then mounted on a side-fold A2 tan card base.

To finish it off, I added twine around the left fold, and beads, including some rolled paper beads that I made from scraps cut into long thin triangle shapes.  (Yes, I save my scraps, LOL).  I frayed the edges of the twine, and it was done!

Faith Bird at Dawn

Today I am using the Faith Bird image from the lovely Stamp-It Discovery collection.  And I decided to use it along with the watercolor background technique that I shared last week.

 

 My first step was to heat emboss the bird image onto a watercolor background, to simulate dawn as the beautiful words reference.  I used detail black embossing powder.  Can I tell you a story about the background?  I was stamping with friends a few weeks ago and we were all trying our hand at the watercolor technique.  One of the ladies, Carol, was frustrated and thought that hers did not turn out well.  She threw it away.  Well, being as frugal as I am, I fished it out of the trash can and said, at least some flowers or leaves could be punched from it.

Anyway, it sat on my craft table a few weeks.  Part of it had very nice color -- and the faith bird image is not that large -- so I used it!  I love how it turned out.  And I did use the sections where the color was not as nice to punch the accent leaves!  So the moral is, never throw anything away, LOL!

I then used my oval die cut to cut the image.  On a quarter sheet of moss green card stock, I used the Darice Leafy Branch embossing folder for more background texture. (Have you seen all embossing folders that Crafter's Companion carries now?  They have some amazing square sizes too!)  The oval image was adhered to the moss green background, and then on to a black mat, and finally on to a folded A2 cream card base.  You may have noticed that I use black mats a lot -- I think they really give great contrast and set off a design.

The final touch was to punch leaves from the watercolored 'discard' paper and arrange them in a gently falling pattern.  The hardest part of this card was getting those random falling leaves "just so"!  Hope you enjoyed this, and see you next week.

Pine Tree and Watercolor Sky

Can I tell you how much I love this asymmetrical pine tree image from Sheena Douglass' Pinescapes set?  It is bold, yet has enough open space to let backgrounds shine through.  Plus, it can really stand on its own for clean and simple cards.

I started with watercolor paper, and spritzed it with water to get it wet.  I then used an aqua pen and reinker drops to add the colors, working from the bottom up with tan, green, lavender, pink and blue. 

If your colors aren't "runny" enough, squeeze the aqua pen for more water; if too runny you may need to blot it.  My paper was pretty soggy when I was done.  I let it dry overnight.


The next step was to use Versamark ink and black embossing powder and heat emboss the pine tree image.

Then, this was layered on to a black mat and then on to a folded A2 moss green card base.

That's it!  No ribbon, no embellishments, no glitter (ack!).  Just let the image and the colors in the background do the talking.  When I know what occasion it'll be used for, I'll probably add a small greeting in the bottom right corner.

Shimmery Butterflies and Other Cards

Had fun on Friday night at hostess club with my SU! demo, Jo Bengtsen, and all the lovely, chatty ladies in the club.  Here are the lovely cards we made.

I especially loved the watercolor background on the butterfly card.  Here's a closer look at it.  Was thinking how stunning this would be done in autumn watercolors, with falling leaves in place of the butterflies.

We spritzed shimmer paper with water to moisten it, and then used a water pen to drop reinker for the "runny" effect.  Everyone's turned out differently -- but they were all lovely.

I think next time, I'll emboss the greeting so that it stands out a bit more, and I need to practice my "doodle trail" for the butterflies path.