Shimmery Thinking of You

 

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (blue, brown, copper, cream) Techniques (die cutting, stamping) Elements (flourish, daisy, die cut flower with circle frame, ribbon)

INCLUDE: blue, copper, die cutting, circle frame

MODIFY: water stamped background, stencilled daisy, one daisy, added sentiment

EXCLUDE: ribbon,

SPIN:

I was really attracted to the tone-on-tone look of this card, even though it has more than one colour. I started by blending a panel with blue and orangey-brown, and then masked a circle and water-stamped with a background stamp. 

I stenciled my daisy with Lisa Horton Interference ink (shimmery ink that changes colour depending on what's underneath it), and added a heat embossed sentiment.

Thinking of You Poppies

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

 LIST: Colours (orange, yellow, red, teal, white, black), Techniques (stamping and watercolouring), Elements (poppies, snow, thank you stamped  sentiment, teal/blue edge, watercolouring with a loose feel).

INCLUDE: orange, yellow, red, teal, white, poppies, teal blue edge

MODIFY: stenciling, spritzing technique instead of stamping and watercolouring, gold splatter instead of white, thinking of you sentiment higher on the card, trimmed panel down to leave white border

Micheline's work is absolutely stunning - she uses stamped outlines and watercolours to create little pieces of art that look hand-drawn and painted!

I had a crazy idea that I would stencil some poppies, blend a blue background and then spritz water over the whole thing to get it moving. AND IT WORKED! lol!

I used a Simon Says Stamp layering stencil set, and masked it off so that I only had two of the poppies showing. I blended yellow and red and brown ink onto the petals, and then two shades of green on the stems and leaves. 

Then it was time to spritz it all with water to get that 'loose' look that Micheline had. And I'll be honest. I was scared! lol!

It started moving and then it kept moving and I grabbed my heat gun to dry it before it lost all the details. The colours did get a little paler with the water, but I think it's still really pretty.

Once it was dry, I splattered gold watercolour over top and then stamped my Catherine Pooler sentiment.

3 Card Making Experiments

Today, I'm sharing the results of 3 cardmaking experiments:

1. how to double your colours with one ink pad
2. how to use a gel plate instead of a sticky mat
3. how to use your stamp positioner for repeat stamping in a completely NEW way!

With Deepest Sympathy

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (green, cream, brown), Techniques (die cut, stamping, blending, splattering), Elements ( stitched frame, tree, ribbon, stamped sentiment)

INCLUDE:  die cut, stamping, blending, splattering, tree, stamped sentiment, tree going over the edge

MODIFY: colours to blue/white, black, frame layout to blended strip in centre, 

EXCLUDE: ribbon, stitching, 

Seems like I rarely choose sympathy cards as my inspiration - like most of us, I prefer happy cards with bright colours. But this inspiration just radiates peace, doesn't it? 

I masked off two edges of my white panel and blended 4 blue/green inks and then splattered them with water.

My original intent was to make the tree die cut the same colour as my darkest ink blending, but I liked the white (although maybe with pine trees, it looks a little Christmassy?). 

I stacked up two tree die cuts and stamped a sentiment from a recent Catherine Pooler Sympathy set.

Mad For Plaid!

 
Today I'm trying out 10 different ways to get the look in your cardmaking from some DIY options to the latest tools. and here's a spoiler alert - some are more successful than others.....

Blue Coneflowers

 Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (red, green, white), Techniques (misted watercolour), Elements (3 flowers, leaves, slimline, hugs sentiment)

INCLUDE: flowers

MODIFY: blue instead of red, die cut instead of stamping, inkblending instead of watercolour, white splatter instead of white gel pen highlights

EXCLUDE: sentiment

SPIN:

I love the loose watercolour look of Dina's flowers! The soft bleed of the colours onto the background is so pretty! 

I have this coneflower die set from Honey Bee Stamps - it was one of those 'I MUST HAVE THIS' items at the time, but I haven't used it much after that initial honeymoon period. lol! I dug it out and blended ink onto just some of the layers. My blending was very patchy, in two colours of yellow for the centres (plus brown) and two colours (plus a yellow-green) for the flowers and leaf. I drew the stems with a black marker.

I spritzed water onto the flowers and leaves, and lifted some of the colour. Then I splattered white acrylic paint, navy ink and gold watercolour on the flowers and also onto a panel of white cardstock and navy cardstock. I cut a narrow frame from the navy cardstock to go around the white panel.

Craft Roulette #144 - Thinking of You

I was the guest on Craft Roulette last Friday (my 9th time!!) and it was so much fun! Craft Roulette is a live crafting challenge where wheel spins decide the parameters of our project. Luck was with me this time! 

Project: Card for someone special

Colours: Christmas Tree

Element: Wreath

Random: Hand-drawn border

I used greens, teals and yellow to make my wreath using my Stencils 360 tool and the Mandalas stencils. 

If you watched on Friday night, you saw me cut my sentiment from gold metallic cardstock, but it really disappeared in the busy-ness of the stencilled wreath:

So I added another layer that I had swiped Uptown ink onto.

I used a scrap of Inca gold cardstock to make some little round embellishments with a polka-dot cover die. I placed them on each point of my wreath

I used a Karin marker for my squiggly border and added some Emerald gems from Crafty Meraki.

Crafty Meraki Video Hop (& Glimmer Giveaway!)

 

I love the look of Clean and Simple cards. But I also love to try techniques, and some of them can get pretty messy. 

Today's video shows 4 ways to use watercolour powders and then how I used the panels I created with these messy techniques to make clean and simple cards.

This video is part of a video hop to celebrate the latest Crafty Meraki release, and they are giving away a Spellbinders Glimmer hot foil machine to ONE randomly chosen lucky winner! Head to my video here and then hop and comment for a chance to win!

Thinking of You (in Blue)

Congratulations to this week's Featured Stamper, CAR372.

I chose this card as my inspiration:

LIST: Colours (green, black, white), Techniques (die cutting, stamping), Elements (botanicals with black outlines, 3 panels, semi circle sentiment strip, gems)

INCLUDE: Monochrome colour scheme, botanicals with black outlines, 3 panels, semi circle element, gems

MODIFY: green to blue, stamping and watercolouring instead of die cuts, 2 cards, orientation of cards, 

EXCLUDE: Die cut leaves

SPIN: 2 for 1 design

I started by stamping my floral image on a piece of watercolour cardstock and then coluring it in with Karin markers (any watercolours you have will do, I just wanted to practice with these). I used 3 blues and a deep indigo to add colour.

Then I spritzed the whole panel with water, and sprinkled some blue watercolour powder over top to create my background. 

I cut the panel in half and then cut out a half circle frame from one, and trimmed the other into 3 panels. I finished with a Taylored Expressions sentiment and some Crafty Meraki gems.

One Stencil, Two Looks!

 I had some fun just playing with a stencil this weekend, trying different mediums to get different looks. 

For this one, I used targeted ink blending through the stencil and then added more ink blending after I removed the stencil. I also splattered some white ink over it. I love the art-deco feel of this one, and I finished it with the Thanks Shadow die cut from SugarPea Designs.

For this one, I used my gel plate, and some shimmer spray. This technique was similar to my video from a couple of weeks ago but I added a stencil into it to get the watercolour look along with a pattern.  I finished this one with a Waffle Flower sentiment heat embossed onto a vellum circle.  I backed the vellum with a white cardstock circle that was smaller and popped it up. 

Thinking of You

Congratulations to this week's Featured Stamper, ME! What a wonderful surprise and honour! 

I went way back to 2012 to choose my inspiration:

LIST: Colours (aqua, blue, green, white, yellow), Technique (ink blending, heat emboss resist), Elements (daisies, yellow dots, white frame, tall green stems)

INCLUDE: Colours (blue, green, white, yellow), ink blending, yellow and white flowers, white frame, tall green stems

MODIFY: inkblending is vertical, rather than horizontal, flowers are tulips, not daisies, die cuts rather than stamped, grouped together rather than spread out. Added a sentiment, heat embossed the sentiment rather than the flowers

EXCLUDE: resist, texture on the background

SPIN: square card, stickles

So in 10 years, I'm happy to say that I think I'm better at inkblending! lol! 

I used my 5 rules for getting a smooth blend:

1) smooth cardstock  I use Hammermill 100lb Digital Color Copy Cover

2) blending brushes (I find these easier than blending foams) 

3) juicy ink pads (Catherine Pooler inks are my go-to!)

4) lots of colours - there are 5 colours on this panel. It's easier to blend colours that are close together

5) lots of layers of ink - this cardstock was quite saturated with ink by the time I was finished!

The tulips and leaves were die cut from white cardstock and coloured simply with Copic markers.

(Click here for Jan 31, 2012 blog post)

Thinking of You

Congratulations to this week's Featured Stamper, Rosemary (rcuccia).

I chose this card as my inspiration:

LIST: Colours (white, red, orange, yellow, green), Technique (stamping, die cutting), Elements (Thanksgiving theme, botanicals, horizontal sentiment strip within the florals, red frame, die cut leaves)

INCLUDE: white, red, orange, yellow, stamped sentiment on horizontal strip, botanicals, red frame

MODIFY: die cut leaves instead of stamped, shorter sentiment strip, occasion

EXCLUDE: green, 

SPIN: square card, lots of gems/pearls

I used a die cut floral strip rather than stamping my botanicals, and to create the look of abundance from Rosemary's card, I added a white die cut behind the colourful one. After stamping my sentiment onto a narrow strip and attaching it, I added white pearls to the pink/red/orange flowers and some Rose Garden colour-changing gems to the white ones.

Black and White cards for Any Occasion

Today's video is all about using black and white to make high-impact cards for any occasion! I explored different techniques and supplies to add lots of visual interest! 

And after watching, if you're craving colour, you can head to Inkhill Revival, where Kerri is showing unexpected and exciting ways to add colour to your cards!

Start with my video here:

Ink-blended Sympathy Card

Congratulations to this week's Featured Stamper, Angela (Arizona Maine).

I chose this card as my inspiration:

I focused on Angela's:
-colours - orange/brown blue green
- stripes on one half
-square card with circular focal point
- branch
- leaves

I changed:
- no fancy fold
- no patterned paper
- die cut branches
- stamped sentiment instead of image

I found myself in need of a sympathy card this week, and this fall-coloured inspiration was the perfect starting point!

I started by blending ink onto a square panel of white cardstock. Then I masked vertically down the centre and used a striped stencil to inkblend more ink and achieve a tone-on-tone look on one half.

I cut the panel with a circle die and then embossed a sentiment with gold embossing powder.

The branch die cut was created from a panel of cardstock I had blended green ink onto. I used a sponge dauber to darken the edges and then splattered metallic gold watercolour over for some interest.

My cardbase is kraft with gold pigment ink swinked* over the edges for an elegant but subtle finishing touch.

*swinking is our new word for ink-swiping! Check out my video on my YouTube channel to see how swinking is the Easiest Cardmaking Technique ever!

On My Mind (Summer of Stamping)

Today's Summer of Stamping card has a completely different look and feel. This time, I stamped the image twice on my panel, and I used Copic markers and no line colouring.

For a fun touch, I added some Nuvo Crystal drops to the flower centres and then sprinkled them with Studio Katia chunky glitter.

Wall Flowers Thanks

We're having a cross-over weekend, and the Featured Stamper hostess team is playing along with the Inspiration Challenge!

I chose this image from the project section of the site:

I focused on:

-pink roses

-blue and pops of green

I've had this Catherine Pooler Wall Flowers coverplate for a while and this was the perfect time to pull it out! (and it's on sale at Ellen Hutson this weekend, along with everything else - hurry!)

I cut it from white cardstock and then I masked each rose and stem/leaves combination and blended Catherine Pooler inks onto it. I spritzed it with Avery Elle Shimmer Spray - this softens the colours and gives a very pretty sparkle to it. I trimmed it down so that the edges are more 'raw'.

I cut tiny pieces of foam tape and I popped it up over a slightly smaller panel of navy blue cardstock. My sentiment is an old Catherine Pooler thanks die, stacked 3 times.