random reflections

I love it!

On my creative calendar was to try another technique from the Online Card Class, Heat Wave. Kristina Werner created a card that combined stamping some images with colored inks and embossing others. I ended up using three different stamp sets to create the flower border: "Build-able Bouquet" by My Favorite Things, "Handwritten Floral Greetings," by Simon Says, and "One Big Happy," by Papertrey Ink.

The sentiment is from Penny Black's "Kind Words," and you'll see in a moment how very appropriate it is. After embossing the sentiment, the centers of some of the flowers, and  leaves with Liquid Platinum embossing power, I attached the card to some fun foam, and then to a card made with Hawaiian Shores.

The card is for the mother of a close friend. Ruth is a wonderful quilter who is now in her 90's. She had a collection of over 40 quilts that she hadn't already given away, and decided it was time to share them. (She made a beautiful quilt for Sarah from quilt squares created by my great-grandmother and great aunts, and gave it to her as a high school graduation gift.) This time I was the lucky recipient. Since red is my favorite color, it was a perfect choice. Here it is folded on a chair in my living room.

And spread out on the back of my couch.

It's entirely hand-stitched and here's a close-up:

I've yet to find the perfect spot to showcase it, maybe on my bed---although I'd love to hang it. It was a very special gift, and I'm very grateful to have received it. It's not often that I post twice in one day, but I wanted to get the card posted to the class gallery before it closes this week.

 

Heat Wave: Day 2

Day 2 of the Online Card Class focused on heat embossing techniques. Who knew you could emboss with a Quickie Glue pen? Not I, but I decided to give it a try.

I stamped the image from Penny Black's "Blooming Garden," and colored it with Copic markers. Then I added the gold dots by applying tiny dots with the Quickie Glue pen and sprinkling them with gold embossing powder. Worked like a charm. I didn't intend to cut the stamped panel, but made a mess of the sentiment, and decided that the design technique I used for Day 1 would work here as well. It's actually a better design all the way around. Sometimes a mistake turns out for the best! I added a strip of 1/8" Scor-tape to the edge and embossed it as well. It's a technique I'd totally forgotten about and added just the right touch.

 

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Friendship Jar Flowers." I love the script font in this one. I have at least one more technique I want to try, so likely I'll be back with another card over the weekend.

A Happy Hello!

The Online Card Classes are among my favorites, and I'm currently enrolled in "Heat Wave," a class on embossing. The first day was lots of quick tips for embossing with different inks, embossing powders, and different kinds of cardstock. I picked up a few tips, even though I've been embossing for nearly 20 years now. At the same time, Papertrey Ink is in the midst of their July release. They host a challenge, "Create Along with Us," where you choose a card one of the designers posts to use as inspiration. I always love Maile Belle's designs and had already pinned one of her cards. So here's an embossed design, inspired by Maile Belles, and using one of her earlier stamp sets, "Splits:  Just a Note."

I used just half of the stamp design and turned it on its side, trimmed the white cardstock to the stamped design and fussy cut around it. I colored the petals with Copic markers, and added a sentiment from Papertrey's "Delightful Dahlia Additions." Then I adhered it to a Tropical Teal card. I'm pretty sure I'll use this design concept again.

 

Playing with Vellum

I enjoy using vellum in my card making so when I saw the latest Online Card Class, Sheer and Clear, I signed right up. The first lesson dealt with different ways to attach a vellum piece to your card. This can be quite tricky at times, but Yana Smakula demonstrated 11 different ways to consider in the first video of the class. Some I knew, some I had forgotten, and a few were new to me.

The first card is one I actually made before class begun and gave to my niece and her husband at their wedding. I attached the vellum piece with a thin line of matte adhesive under the silver thread and then added a dot or two under a few of the rhinestones.

This card uses a new die I purchased recently from a new-to-me company called Concord and 9th. There are several other pieces to the die set as well as an accompanying sentiment set which I didn't use. The striped vellum is from Papertrey Ink as is the Tropical Teal cardstock. The die-cut sentiment is from Simon Says, and the silver thread is from a spool that's been in my stash for years.

Next up is the first card I made for class. I needed a couple thank you notes, so it was a good opportunity to try some new things. 

I embossed the beautiful flower from Clearly Besotted's "Fresh Flowers," and then colored them in with some white Prismacolor pencil, and added some Wink of Stella. I've never tried this technique, but Jennifer McGuire demonstrated it in a Day 1 video, and I like the extra oomph it gives the card. 

This time, I attached the vellum piece behind the Simple Stories, "Life in Color" tag, and underneath the sequins from Simon Says.

Last is a card I made last night after seeing a video by Dawn Woleslagle. Her cards almost always blow me away, and the card she presented in class was truly elegant. My first attempt leaves a LOT to be desired, but I'm posting it in hopes that a later attempt will show some improvement. For this technique, you trace a stamp's outline in white on the back of a piece of vellum and then dry emboss it. It creates a raised white line on the front of the piece. Dawn recommended using parchment paper, which I don't have, so maybe one part of the problem is that I used vellum. Then the design was colored with Copic markers from the backside. The stamp I traced is one from Penny Black's "Blooming Garden."

In looking for some spray adhesive to attach this piece, I found a can of vellum spray adhesive I'd totally forgotten about. It would have saved me a lot of frustration with the wedding card if only I'd known I had it. (I've started a new purge of my workspace, and this would be one reason why I need to do a good clean-out every year or so!) I scored three lines on the Raspberry Fizz card, and die cut the vellum piece with Simon Says "Stitched Rectangles." The die-cut sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Mini-Market kit, "Still Life: Summer." Finally I added a few Rainstones from Papertrey to finish it off. Not a fave, but I can live with it.

Online Card Class: Exploring Watercolor Mediums

One last post with some cards for the current Online Card Class. This one has been very interesting, and I spent quite awhile yesterday playing with different kinds of watercolor mediums and different techniques. A few ended up on cards, and more than a few ended up in the wastepaper basket, but that's to be expected. I learned quite a bit in the process, and enjoyed it, regardless of the outcome.

The first card ended up being one of my favorites despite the fact that about half-way in to watercoloring the heart, it was simply awful. Instead of tossing it, I started dropping in more color and it ended up totally different (and much better) than what I expected. This came from the Day 1 lessons using watercolor markers. I played around with Akashiya Sai Watercolor Brush pens which I received as a Christmas gift last year. Because I owned those, I was reluctant to order any Zig Clean Color markers, but I'm glad I did as I find them much easier to use. Both were ultimately used on the card below.

I white-embossed the heart from the new Simon Says card kit stamps, " Here's Looking at You," and then watercolored it. The sentiment is from Papertrey's "Round and Round" set embossed in Liquid Platinum. Since none of my metallic cardstocks matched, I used a technique Jennifer McGuire showed in a Day 1 video---edging a piece of cardstock with Versamark ink and then sprinkling on the embossing powder. Voila! A perfect match.

The next card uses the traditional watercolors in pans or palettes (Day 2.) This time I used the Kuretake Gansai set which I love for it's bright colors. The card itself was inspired by one that Debbie Hughes created for this month's Simon Says card kit.

The stamp is from a free set sent to me by Simon Says called "Your Birthday," and the die cut is from Papertrey's "Swoosh" set. I carefully (learning from earlier in the week), dropped on some Heidi Swapp gold spray and added a few sequins.

There are actually two cards (just different embellishments) for the Day 3 technique of using watercolor pencils. Most of them were Inktense pencils, but a few are from a set I bought years ago by Staedtler. It was a bit of a challenge to find the kind of image I wanted, but I found this old wooden stamp by Stampington which worked out perfectly.

The sentiment is from Simon Says (another favorite card kit set) called "What's Brewing?" The die cut (also Simon Says) was cut from a failed watercolor background. (Actually there are no failures with that technique. I save them all for exactly this purpose!)

I started the last card first, and abandoned it, but finally decided I could "save" it. The only change from the first card is that I die cut some banners (Papertrey's "Sketched Shapes") from some DCWV vellum I picked up at Michaels. I adhered a MME enamel dot on top.

Now I need to get back to Project Life, and our trip!

 

 

Papertrey September 2015 Blog Hop

When I first saw this inspiration piece ten days ago, I was determined to participate in the blog hop this month. It's been quite a few months since I've been able to.

Nicole challenged us to try Betsy Veldman's chalkboard technique, and that's one I've never tried. It took awhile to find appropriate stamps and to get the design the way I wanted it, but after that it went pretty quickly. I used stamps from the "Wee Folks" Mini Market kit, "Modern Wood Mats", and "Natural Beauties." It's definitely not my CAS style, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

To keep with the fall color scheme, I mounted it on a Canyon Clay card, and added three small leaves punched from scraps. A wooden button from MME holds them together.

While I had my supplies out, I decided to try a much more traditional card, using one of the techniques from the Online Card Class on watercoloring. I tried a couple of things, but finally inked the image, then spritzed it with water before stamping it on the watercolor paper. The wreath didn't really bleed that much, but the berries did enough to give them a sense of dimension. 

This card is very much CAS, and definitely my style. I added a bit of Clear Star gelly roll pen to the berries which give them a nice shimmer.

 

This card uses one of my favorite sets:  "A Wreath for All Seasons", and "Think Big Favorites #16."

I also spent quite a bit of time trying to create a card with this week's Make It Monday technique. I finally gave up for today, but may be back if I can find a sentiment that will work better than I one I wanted to use.

 

More From the Watercolor Card Class

I haven't quite finished watching all the videos from the last day of the Online Card Class:  Exploring Mediums, but I have two more cards to share. The first one is another from Day 1, using gold embossing and watercolor markers.

I've become a fan of Simon Say's "One With Nature" set. I die cut the solid leaf shape from a piece of Memory Box paper in my scrap pile. After embossing and watercoloring the leaf on Tim Holtz watercolor paper, I mounted it behind the green layer and bumped it out onto a white top-folding card. The sentiment is from Papertrey's "Petite Pots." A rather artsy interpretation of a fall leaf.

When I was watching Jen Razsa's video yesterday for Day 3 on using colored pencils, I had no intention of trying to draw a design for a card. Later, though, I came upon a pumpkin image on the internet, and thought I'd give it a try. Like most new techniques, I learned a lot doing this, and would make some changes the next time. 

I drew and colored the pumpkins with a combination of Inktense and Staedler watercolor pencils. The sentiment came from two Simon Says sets, "Giving Thanks," and "Happy." I'm a little happier with the splatter on this card than I was on the last one.

I tried a couple of other techniques but didn't come up with anything that was worthy of including on a card. There's still a lot to try. All of the Online Card classes include a lot of content!

Online Card Class: Watercolor-Exploring Mediums Day 2

Let's just say that Day 2 of the Online Card Class on watercolor was a lot more challenging than Day 1. I'm a huge fan of the no-line watercolor technique, but find it nearly impossible to execute. I must have watercolored ten little animals tonight before I finally got one I was willing to use on a card! Not that I think it even looks easy to do, but it never looks as difficult as I find it to be. But eventually I ended up with one little piggy and made a birthday card.

I used a combination of tube watercolors and Zig Clean Color markers that I swiped onto my craft mat and picked up with a watercolor brush. The stamp set is Baby Party Animals from Simon Says which has the cutest little animals, and a font I like a lot for the sentiment. I used a piece of Summer Sunrise card stock to mat the watercolor piece (Fluid Hot Press) and then mounted it with some fun foam to a top-folding card made from Orange Zest.

In the midst of watercoloring baby animals, I got so frustrated I pulled out Papertrey Ink's Happiness in Bloom to try Jen Rzasa's technique of swiping your stamp with Distress Inks and then misting them before stamping on the watercolor paper. I'm not a huge fan of the end result, but like the little animals, it was a learning experience.

I used Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks on a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper. Then I sprayed the card with some Heidi Swapp gold Color Shine. That's another technique I could use some practice with. The "birthday" sentiment was stamped on a piece of watercolor paper that I'd use to create an ombre effect. It just happened to match perfectly.

 

Online Card Class: Watercolor-Exploring Mediums

I'm in the midst of Liz Steel's new online sketching class, Edges, which is (no surprise) very thorough and very challenging. So it's probably not in my best interest to have enrolled in a second, concurrent, course. But since my biggest challenge in the sketching class is watercolor, this has applications for both cards and sketching.

Today was the first lesson in the Online Card Class, and it focused on watercolor markers. I loved Jennifer McGuire's first card, and after watching the first few videos (there are five today), I took some time to try out the techniques she demonstrated.

I used some new watercolor markers, the Zig Clean Color markers, and like most of the reviewers, I like them very much. After embossing the flowers in gold, I used just three markers to watercolor the flowers and leaves.

The flowers seemed appropriate for a simple sympathy card, and I never seem to have one on hand when I need it. 

I used some new Fluid hot press watercolor paper which I love. It's a lovely, very pale cream color and very smooth. I matted it with some gold card stock by Paper Source and mounted it on a top-folded Vintage Cream card. The floral design is from Clearly Besotted's "Fresh Flowers," and the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Round and Round."

 

Two More for Class

Today is the last day you can upload cards to the galleries for the Online Card Class:  Stretch Your Stamps 2. I have a LOT more things I want to try, but this morning I took time to try two more. The first is a card based on a tag created by Laura Basson using a technique, "over the edge." The stamp itself is quite a bit bigger than what is stamped on the tag, but it works perfectly. I love just about everything Laura Basson creates and her tags (using watercolor for one, and Copics for the other) are no exception. I decided to go with the Copics this morning as it's been awhile since I colored an image.

I didn't have the same Copics Laura used so I ended up blending a bright orange with a bright pink---never tried two such different colors but it worked very well. The Sakura Gelly Roll white pen really made the flower centers pop.

I used a new Papertrey Stitched Rectangle die cut with New Leaf cardstock (PTI), and mounted it on a top-folded white card. The twine is from a large roll I bought at a gift shop earlier this spring. Both the floral stamp and the sentiment are from Clearly Besotted "Fresh Flowers." It's a gorgeous set. I'm linking this up to the Fusion Challenge: Floral Brights, and the Simon Says Monday Challenge: Anything Goes.

 

The second card uses a new (to me) Avery Elle set called "Rounded Diamonds." It took longer to find three ink pads I could layer than it did to create the rest of the card. This one follows very closely the design of Nicol Magouirk's card in class. She die cut a window into hers, but I don't have the dies for this set so I stamped on a white card, and mounted it on a card made from Simon Says' Smoke cardstock. It's another gray/yellow combo.

The sentiment from Paper Smooches "Sentiment Sampler" fit right onto one of the rounded diamonds. Some Studio Calico and Pretty Pink Posh sequins were layered to finish off the card.