MIM: Stamping with Watercolor Mediums

I think I am in love with the watercolor look on my cards now. I immediately knew that I wanted to paint the flowers from the Botanical Silhouettes set because of the whimsy and beauty in those flowers. I started with a black card base, which I very rarely do but I really wanted the floral image to pop from the card. I got out my cheap watercolors that I borrowed from my son's IKEA craft set that he got for Christmas. I was ready to get started with my glass of water, a paintbrush and the watercolors. Speaking of which, I only have the cheap watercolors from the IKEA set and another inexpensive set that I found at Dollar General. For those of you that like to watercolor, what brand do you use? I'd like to invest in watercolors because I have really enjoyed using them on my cards.

Thanks for looking!

Make It Monday: Make Your Own Cover Plates

Boy, do I like this challenge. Betsy is genius! Her video on making your own coverplate with dies is just such a brilliant idea. I have really enjoyed all of the MIM challenges; it's getting me back into my craft space after a hiatus due to job changes, moving, and a new addition to our family. It's been a couple of crazy years so it's nice to be in our house and be able to have a space to call my own for crafting. Anyway, back to the challenge. I used the Lock & Key die and stamp set. I will be honest; I had never even inked up the stamp but now that I made this card, I do believe it will be inked up a lot more often. I ran the keys through twice on the card front. The really nice part about this die is that they are on one die so it was just two swipes through. I wanted to dress up the bottom of the card so I used three different borders, a Smokey Gray ribbon, and then tied on the lock. I wet embossed the lock with clear embossing powder to give it a bit of shine, after enjoying the shine challenge on the most recent blog hop. I also used a color combination that I wasn't sure about but I really like the outcome. I combined Hawaiian Shores, Hibiscus Burst, Smokey Gray, and Canyon Clay. I finished the card with the sentiment in the corner.

A close up of some of the pretty details.

Blog Hop: Shine On!

High Gloss is the name of this month's blog hop over at Nichole's blog for PTI. I immediately thought of layers of color and using the Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) to gloss up my card. Then, I thought about how neat it looks to emboss a background image before finishing the card. Out came this card from the combination of those two ideas. I embossed the Circle Spirals after cutting one inch strips of four pretty, pretty colors. After embossing the scribbly circles, I covered the entire sheet with Frost Versamark and the UTEE. I wasn't sure how it would look but I love the result. The UTEE looks like raindrops in places because it doesn't cover perfectly since some of it blew off as I was embossing the card. I really like the effect though with the scribbly circles in the background. To take the shine challenge on step further, I embossed the edge of the frame with silver. I stamped a sentiment from Framed Out #2 in the center in Royal Velvet. Wow, What a beautiful purple that is!

Here's a close-up of all the shine and gloss on my card.

Make It Monday Challenge: 3D Stamp Paint

What a messy challenge this week! I'm still washing paint off my hands. I love it though because it gets me thinking creatively and allows me to try new and different techniques. I painted the impression plate with a green similar to Spring Moss and used it as my background on the card. The imperfections in the paint gives the background a bit of a shabby feel. Then, I used some kraft paper and cut out a scallop border. I used white paint around the edges of that and also on the Building Blocks rectangles...can you say new favorite stamp set?!?! I also used Garden Grace and finished the card with the white ribbon bow and a couple of pink rhinestones. This card came together in the end and it makes me want to go buy more paint and continue to incorporate paint into my cards. I really like how the greens, pinks, and kraft came together on this card, especially since it's spring (Even though it's still cold here!).

Make It Monday: Confetti!

I am going to be honest and say that this isn't my favorite card. I'm not sure if it's the color, the monochromatic scheme, or if I feel like it's just missing something. I'm posting it anyway and it does seem to be growing on me a bit. The Make It Monday challenge was to incorporate confetti into a card. I, for some reason, thought that the bees in Honey Bees stood out for me as I flipped through my dies. I think a strong desire for spring weather to stay would have something to do with that. I used the plastic container from a PTI set that I bought and scored it so that it would make a little square on the card to hold the confetti. My confetti is made up of glittered bees from Honey Bees, hexagons from the cover plate (stamped them with Mini Blooms flowers), glitter, and orange sequins. I cut a square out of the card front and tied a bow in the ribbon. I added a sentiment from the Honey Bees set along the side. Thanks for looking! Not my favorite but I'm sure someone will appreciate it.

A better picture of the box of confetti on the card.

Sweet and Simple

After last week's Make It Monday challenge, I was on a sweet and simple kick. I made a card using the Doodlie-Do stamp set. I am loving all of the recent floral sets from PTI. Of course, I love all of their stuff period. Can you tell? :) Anyway, I got my Copic markers out, some glitter, and made this quick card. I like the simplicity of the card and the sentiment is just perfect. Here's a closer picture of the flower so you can see all of the glorious glitter. I'm working on this week's Make It Monday challenge but I'm devoting tonight to knitting :)

MIM: One Layer Card--Take Two

I have really enjoyed making one layer cards. I actually made two tonight but will just share one tonight and you'll have to come back later in the week to see my other one layer card. I had such a great time figuring out which flowers to use and how to place them on the left of this card. I tried to use a variety of flowers, leaves, and colors. I used the Circle Scribbles stamps in the background in Fine Linen. I can't wait to use those stamps on other cards as well. Who knew that scribbled circles would be beautiful? I used one of the fillable frames and die cut the frame. I cut a piece of plastic from one of the stamp containers, added a bit of glitter, and stamped the sentiment onto white cardstock. I like how the card came together.

Here's a close up of the pretty flowers.

This shows the sentiment with the glitter under the plastic piece. I love using the stamp containers for all sorts of purposes...this is just one of them!

MIM: One Layer Card

We had another snow day today and teachers actually got to stay home. We usually have to go in since we are contracted a certain number of days but today was too bad for even us to go to work. Tomorrow, we go to work but we won't have students. I love those days now because I can get papers graded and plan ahead. Anyway, to today's card. First of all, the challenge was issued today and I'm actually posting the card today. I have a hard time with one layer cards but the MIM video that Erin made really had some great tips. I ended up making a simple "hello" card. I did an inlay of one of the butterfly dies from Beautiful Butterflies and combined that with the chevron border, Spot Dots and a "hello" sentiment. The texture on my card came from three places: the die inlay, the glittered chevron border, and the clear embossing on the sentiment. Thanks for looking!

Here's a close up of the three examples of texture. I guess it's actually four because I did put a bit of twine in the center of the dot on the butterfly too. You can click on the picture to see it larger also because it's hard to see the embossing.

MIM: Watercoloring

The Make-it-Monday Challenge for this past week was to watercolor a background and use a heat embossed sentiment. I needed some simple birthday cards so I pulled out some birthday sentiments and the watercolors from the kit my son got for Christmas. I wanted to see what I thought of water coloring before I spent a lot of money for a set from the store. I really enjoyed it because I was able to mix painting with card-making. I'm definitely not saying I'm a painter; I certainly am not but it was fun to pretend for a bit. On the celebrate card, I used silver embossing powder, sequins (First time I've used these and love them!), and the red shades. I do think I got too much water on the card because you can see how the paper is starting to pill if you look at it closely.

On the birthday card, I simply brushed the shades of the rainbow along the white embossed "happy birthday" sentiment. The card literally took five minutes to make. I think I spent more time taking pictures than I did making the cards. It was nice to make a couple of quick cards.