Strawberry Postage Due

I still remember when Shelli first revealed this gorgeous stamp set at stampin' Up! Convention a few years ago. In her signature vintage style she punched the wheel circles from patterned paper.

So Shelli - circa 2012 - in her simple vintage style.

I have been meaning to make a card like hers for a while... When a friend asked could we do a French styled card in pretty vintage colours I thought of this card from a few years ago. I have updated the colours and added an extra layer, combining Strawberry Slush with Early Espresso ink and the new watercolour wonder DSP (Designer series paper).

Card Recipe:

Stamp set: Postage Due, hostess Simply Sketched.

Cardstock: Strawberry slush, Crumb cake, watercolour Wonder DSP

Ink: early espresso.

Tools: 1" circle punch, postage stamp punch, 1" square punch.

Watercolouring my Secret Garden

 It is such a long time since I watercoloured on  a card. Perhaps a year atleast. But it is one of the easiest ways to step up a line art stamp.
I have been featuring the same stampset "Secret Garden" all this week from the seasonal mini catalogue. It makes me happy to stamp, and cut, and stick a few flowers onto a textured card, so why stop at one?

 The centre of the flower is gently painted with Wisteria wonder ink on an aquapainter brush.
While the outside petals are painted with Rich Razzleberry ink. You can vary the depth of the colour depending how much ink is on your brush. And these stamps make it just a simple task of staying "almost" within the lines.

Keeping the purple theme going I have used some spotted Elegant Eggplant ribbon tied around the card.
And some Rich Razzleberry printed paper on the bottom third of the card.
The top third is filled with Honeycomb textured embossing on Naturals white cardstock which is very nice to watercolour on.

Feature: Elements of Style stampset

This is just one of my all time favourite stampsets.
I love that you can watercolour the roses, background stamp with the swirly flower, hilight the bird (perhaps with embossing) and it comes with two sentiments: "for you" and "Life is a matter of moments".
At $39.95 Clear, or $49.95 Wood mounted it is reasonably priced for 5 useable stamps.
You will possibly need the Clear Block E (when you choose clear) because the roses are larger than the usual stamp size. But you will use the block for many other sets aswell.

 The roses stamp is a beautiful stamp to watercolour.
I have used my Wonder watercolour crayons for this card.
Black Stazon Ink is the best ink to stamp it in, when you want to watercolour as it doesn't smudge if it gets wet by the brush or aquapainter that you use.
The crayons are very simple to use, just touch your aquapainter brush to the crayon and lift off some colour and paint the flowers.
I usually try to leave some white sections to show through and add a darker colour for depth.

The background swirls are also inked with my watercolour crayons. Using the aquapainter brush I added the paint direct to the rubber and then stamped the swirl onto the cardstock. Its quite a soft wet look that I like.

As it was late at night, and the light wasn't very good, I thought it needed a little bit of shimmer paint.

So I picked up some of that and painted it on some petals... perhaps I over did it,

more white less paint next time I think.

A single layer card  needs a ribbon and a punched label.

I have recently discovered the "Four Frames" stampset and this one has roses that work well with a little watercolouring too.

Card Recipe:

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, Old olive, Black stazon.

Cardstock: Whisper white and Confetti white (page.125 of the catalogue, might be retiring at the end August and its great to water colour on).

Ribbon: organza

Stampset: Elements of Style p.94 $39.95

 Four Frames. p.95 $32.95

Watercolour Wonder Crayons (Bold Brights) $37.95 (10 crayons).

Aquapainter brushes 2 for $19.95

Congratulations on making a new home...

Ok, so I borrowed this stampset too!
The grass is always greener on the other side of the table ...
Or is it that I buy the stampsets that seem to suit my style and then I want to experiment with other people's style and that means borrowing their stuff!

I really liked how these colours go together:
Lucky Limeade, Concord Crush and Very Vanilla.
The background is stamped with Lucky Limeade ink using a Sale-a-bration stampset called "Fresh Vintage".
And you saw the Lace Ribbon border punch on my previous post...
The only thing new here is the NEW hostess stampset called "up in the Air" it has 3 images of flowers, butterlies, words,  and birds making nests in tree branches .. perfect for new homes, new neighbours, new baby, engagement, and easy watercolouring.
You can see it in the Summer mini catalogue on page 5.

Looking for a cute Teacher's gift idea?

I have just finished making this cute little box on wheels.

It is a Stampin' Up Make and Take project from the last Convention.

And I was thinking it is a cute little gift.

Inside it fits 4 little cards. Like this one:

 The elephant is stamped and cut out to sit ontop the patterned paper oval.

It says Celebrate! You deserve it.

 The colours are Bright as you'd expect at the circus:

Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and Daffodil Yellow. 

The box on wheels is made using the Scallop envelope BigZ die that you cut out with your Big shot machine.

 The stampset is called "Under the Big Top".

My Lion is painted with the aquapainter brush using Daffodil, Red and More Mustard inks.

Then the ever resourceful Jessica made her own version with the off cut extras left on my table.

She's done a brilliant job, don't you think?

Fabulous Folds (2) Growing Green and Easy water colouring technique

Is this another fabulous fold?

So simple, to fold half a piece of A4 cardstock into a zig zag shape and add a square of mounted cardstock on the centre panel to stamp on.

The Pretty in Pink cardstock with Perfect Plum inked flowers and Certainly celery leaves is very soft and subtle for a feminine card.

 For texture there is Big shot Embossing on the back fold of the card using the Elegant lines textured folder.

A Crimper strip on the front fold is edged with the Eyelet border punch, and the three jewelery tag punches are stamped in black stazon ink with the Tiny tags stamp set.

The technique I have used is called Easy water colouring.

Why is that you ask?

You take a piece of glossy white cardstock, stamp it with an outline stamp (using white stazon ink), spritz it with water and put drops of re-inker into the flower segments.

The water runs the ink around in patterns, then you can cut them out or leave as is.

Once its dry the flowers have a mottled water coloured look.

No two flowers are ever the same with this technique. 

Recipe:

Stampsets:

Growing Green (p.78) $29.95 Clear mounted

Tiny Tags (p.93) $28.95 Clear mounted

Jewelry Tag punch (p.146) $20.95

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum,

Gloss white (25 sheets) $9.50

Ink: white Staz-on ink, pretty in pink

Black staz-on ink

Perfect Plum and Certainly celery re-inkers

Crimper, Eyelet border punch, small heart punch.

Big shot, Elegant lines embossing folder, Pearl Jewels.

Another Crafter's Anonymous project - Tea caddy

I look forward to Monday night classes over at Crafter's Anonymous...
You never know what the project is going to be. 
Prior to the class we receive a list of supplies needed and only get to see the completed project towards the end of the class - it's very exciting!
So enough chat - here is what we made:

 I chose to use the Lap of luxury Designer Series papers: Just love how they combine Concord Crush and Pretty in Pink.

 The Box is made out of a piece of 12 x 12 Cardstock, patterned paper and some contrasting cardstock for the top and bottom. Reinforced on the base and lid with some thin cardboard (from the DSP packaging).

 The Tea caddy would hold a whole box of Tea bags... I just chose this brand because they were purple and matched my colours.

 My box opens with a hinged lid at the top so you can continuously add more if you wish to.
This one is definitely for tea bags as the stamping is from the lovely "Morning Cup" set.

A quick dab of water colouring and Stampin' Write marker work and I was done.

Recipe:

Cardstock: Concord Crush 12x12 smooth, Pretty in pink, whisper white.

DS paper: Lap of Luxury

Stampset: Morning Cup Clear mounted

Inks: Concord Crush.

Markers: Pretty in pink, marina mist, daffodil delight.

Aquapainter (for water colouring)

Word Window Punch, XL Scallop circle Punch.

Sponges, Sticky strip, snail and Dimensionals.

Botanical Gazette

 This designer series paper is like leafing through a vintage book of botanical pictures. I love vintage in a modern style with the birds and plants, bees and butterflies that are lovely images to work with.

The Botanical Gazette patterned paper coordinates with a stampset called Nature walk. My daughter has already sent out some cards with the eggs for Easter.
The colours in the paper are Old Olive, marina Mist, Cherry Cobbler, Not quite navy, Early Espresso, so saffron and Vanilla.

I think these will be very versatile: its warm, its muted, real and natural.
To give my card a feminine twist I added the new Framed tulips embossing folder on Blushing Bride coloured Cardstock.

 I water coloured the flowers on the paper with marina mist and Old olive inks, then added the crystal effects on top to give a glossy dimensional lift.

 So much on this card. Note the new Decorative label punch that can be used in a variety of ways to make frames for our sentiments.

And lastly, I have used the Boho Blossom punch flowers to make the Vanilla, Marina Mist and Blushing bride flower with some sponging and a pearl for its centre.

Card Recipe:

Paper: Botanical Gazette (12 double sided sheets) $16.95

Cardstock: Blushing Bride, Marina Mist,Very Vanilla

Ink: Marina Mist, Old Olive.

Tools: Decorative label XL punch $33.95, Boho Blossom punch,Word window punch.

Big shot machine $179.95, Framed Tulips embossing folder $15.95

Crystal effects $11.95, half backed pearl jewells, sponge.

Water colouring in Rich Razzleberry

If there is one thing I like to do is to sit on my own on a cool day and water colour some pretty flowers.

Time just disappears.

All the stressors of the day just melt away and creating layers of colour and light on paper is all that matters.

Indulgent perhaps but then you can put it in an envelope and give it to someone to say thank you for the time and care they have given to others.

It's worth it!

Perhaps I wasn't making any money today - But somebody's day will be a lttle bit happier because there was a thank you card in their mail box that they weren't expecting.

 ****

This is a one layer card.

One layer of Sahara sand cardstock with sponging and stamping...

I really like this stampset: Elements of Style.

I have used three ink colours: Black, Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive.

A sponge and an aquapainter.

Every Moment gift box - water colour crayons and stazon ink

Ever have a project that is half done but just takes for ever to finish...

This little box is part of a project from the Regional training I went to last year. I finally watercoloured the little bird and made a tag for my gift box. 

 I have watercoloured this little bird using my water colour crayons.
The colours are soft suede, old olive, marina mist and Pacific point. I may have dabbed some Baja Breeze crayon in there too.
Water colouring with your aquapainter and water colour crayons is just the quickest way to colour in one of these line art images. No mess, no water dishes, no mixing paint or plastic pallettes.
I simply held the crayon in one hand and wiped my aquapainter brush tip over the crayon (to pick up the colour) and placed it on the paper, within the lines...
In watercolouring you can use layers of watercolour to build up several tones to the depth of colour you want.

 The tag is simply a rectangle of baja breeze cardstock with three corners rounded off with the "corner rounder" punch. Then I've placed a "lots of tags" shape in soft suede cardstock behind it.
The sentiment is from the Every moment stampset and i have stamped off the butterfly once to give a soft texture behind the black stazon words.

Notice that spattering of soft suede?

 It is meant to be there!

I learned a new trick the other day - you can get this effect with a spritzer tool,  

Or, you can hold your aqua painter a few centimetres away from the paper and flick ink ... I tapped the pen on my finger and let it splatter on the cardstock...

...just use a large piece of paper beneath you to catch any stray splatters.

Project Recipe:
Big shot, Fancy favour die, lots of tags sizzlit die.
Stampset: Every Moment $25.95 Clear. $31.95 wood. p72.
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Baja breeze, Soft Suede.
Ink: Stazon black, baja breeze.
Watercolour Wonder crayons: Brights (10) and
Neutrals (10) $37.95 p.142 (IB&C2011)
Ribbon: Old Olive grossgrain, Crop-a-dile (to punch holes), aquapainter pen (2 for $19.95), twine.

Every Moment card ... when we see

 "When we see with our hearts,

every moment is the most wonderful gift in the world."

That's the sentiment on the first card we made in our make and take at Regional training.
We watercoloured the yellow daisies (it was fairly quick) and we talked and shared ink and tools...

 What do you think of this one?
 The daisies are on stampin' up water colour paper, stamped with black stazon.
We tore the edge of the water colour paper - always a great sylish look!

The second daisy is masked, so that the other daisies appear to sit behind it. Then accented with a small half backed pearl.
And to finish it off we spattered it with soft suede ink using a Colour spritzer tool.

All products used are Stampin up supplies:

Watercolour paper 10.5 x8cm

Old Olive, very vanilla and soft suede (textured cardstock)

Ink: Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, soft suede, Jet Black StazOn and a soft suede marker.

Daffodil Delight 3/8" taffeta ribbon,Old Olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon, Pearl basic Jewels, Clip assortment, Aqua painter, colour spritzer tool, Scallop edge border punch, paper snips and Stamp-a-ma-jig.

Technique: Spotlight with watercolouring

Have you tried this technique?
Stamp a card front or ATC (thats an Artist Trading Card) with monotone colours (I've used Sahara Sand and close to cocoa ink for the back ground stamping). You could use black or grey.
Then, stamp another of the same image on cardstock and punch it out.
Mount it on a coloured circle (a little larger than the image circle), and water colour in the details.

I have used Rich razzleberry ink to water colour my rose bud using an aquapainter pen. The more water you use the lighter the colour.
Doesn't it bring out this lovely "Embrace life" Rose bud beautifully?

I have made eight of these ATC samples to swap with.

 It was the June technique of the month.

With water colouring every one is definitely different.

Project Recipe:

Stampsets: Embrace Life, En Francais background stamp.

Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Sahara Sand, Rich Razzleberry.

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Sahara Sand, Rich Razzleberry.

Ribbon: Kraft tafetta

Punches: Word window, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circles.

Nature's Nest - Turtle card

You may have seen this card layout before. It is a direct CASE (copy and share everything) from the one on page 17 of the Stampin' Up Summer mini. It  is a card with a conga line of turtles with layers of torn cardstock and the middle turtle is water coloured. As I have explained watercolouring can be dead easy if you emboss the image first. This one is embossed in gold. I have watercoloured with an aquapainter pen and outlined the image in sahara sand marker for shadow.

You just pick up the classic ink from inside of the lid of your ink pad and start at a point where you want the colour to be darkest. The longer you paint, the lighter the ink colour on your brush.
I have used both Old olive and kiwi kiss inks and some close to cocoa on his face and body.

For the background I just stamped the progression of turtles on whisper white cardstock. You can see what a crisp clean stamp impression you get using just old olive classic ink on the whisper white.
I have used a piece of tafetta ribbon in the gorgous chocolate chip and played with a couple of different button combinations before deciding on the single Old Olive button attached with a mini glue dot.

What you need to make this card:

Stampsets: Nature's Nest $39.95 Summer mini, Short and Sweet $29.95.

Cardstock: Whisper white, Chocolate chip, Kiwi Kiss.

Ink: Kiwi kiss, Old olive, Choc chip, close to Cocoa.

Other: Tafetta ribbon - Choc chip, Designer Buttons Bouquet, embossing powder - gold, heat tool, mini glue dots, Sahara sand Stampin' write marker.

Techniques used: heat embossing, water colouring, tearing.

Enjoy!!!