Watercolour Class Day 1 - another project

Here's a sample I did for the Vibrant Watercolor Wash technique in the On-line Watercolor class I'm taking (link on sidebar).  I used Distress markers and the paper is white shimmer.  The stamp is one of Fred B. Mullett's stamps from nature prints, and the sentiment is Stampotique.  The stamps are embossed in black, except on the notecard (Memory Box in squash), which are stamped in Soft Olive (Hero Arts Shadow ink).  I love this technique and will try it again.  It is really quick and easy.  I am enjoying this class so far, and learning new things, which is always fun.

January Stamping Challenge #5

Hello!  Here's today's card for my January stamping challenge.  This card is made from a number of scraps as well.  The main panel was in my box of scrappy treasures, leftover from an experiment with watercolour paper, distress markers, and embossing.  I've done a gradient of various distress markers and blended with water.  The stamp I used is called Looped Flower (Hero Arts).  For this card, I added some clear Wink of Stella (caution - use of this product may be habit forming!).  The sentiment is a rub-on (Stampin' Up), mounted on scraps.  In fact, it's on a scrap left over from trimming the accent strip (scrap) down to size for the card.  The white mat is the last scrap from a scrap of white linen.  The card base is bordering blue (Stampin' Up) and I still haven't forgiven them for retiring this colour... still, they occasionally bring back favourites (hello again soft suede!) so I live in hope.

All in all, this is a fun little scrappy card.  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have time to do some stamping too.

More poppies

Hello!  I have a real weakness for poppy stamps.  I have quite a few in my collection.  Not as many as my pear stamps, but I still have quite a few.  I love to use my poppy stamps so here is a variation on a project I've taught at Heather's Stamping Haven, but in a different colourway.  I quite like the smoky sage and dark teal with the red poppies instead of the golds and oranges of the class project.  I like both, but it's fun to experiment with different colours.  Red, teal and kraft are a particular favourite combination of mine.

All stamps are from Heather's Stamping Haven's line of stamps.  The focal image of poppies is embossed in Bavarian Bronze embossing powder.  The background stamp is a Shakespearean sonnet in script, and stamped in Bundled Sage I believe, or possibly one of the soft shadow inks from Hero Arts.  The background on the poppy panel is one of the genealogy stamps from Heather's line.  The poppies are coloured with Distress Markers and some more Distress ink is sponged around the edges.  The whole panel is covered in Distress crackle paint (rock candy) and when it dried, more ink was rubbed into the cracks.  The dark teal strip was embossed with one of Tim Holtz' texture fades folders and all the card stock pieces were edged in Memories Art Print Brown.  Lastly, some dots of Adirondack liquid pearls completed the effect.

Well - it's time to get ready for church!  Must dash.  I just looked at the clock and it's 9:00 and the girls need to be there at 9:15 for choir practice.  I'd better get moving!

Thanks for stopping by.

Father's Day

 Hello!  Now that Father's Day cards have been distributed, I can blog about them here.  The top one was for my husband, and the bottom one was for my dad. 

The top card is done with a coloured panel that has a Hero Arts background stamped on watercolour paper and embossed in white and then coloured with Distress markers and blended with a brush and water.  I gave it a small accent strip on one side, from my treasured stash of iris cardstock, which is now discontinued (can you believe it?  I couldn't - it was the best almost purple-almost blue cardstock ever).  It was mounted to a blue linen card base (which Sauron the Scanner has auto-corrected into something very peculiar) and stamped with "Happy Father's Day" (A Muse).  I stamped it in Chipped Sapphire and accented it with a Sakura Glaze pen.  It turned out that it was a white Sakura Glaze pen, and this treatment rendered the stamping almost invisible so I traced over with the Chipped Sapphire Distress Marker and took the liberty of adding some kisses underneath.  My younger daughter felt strongly that there should also be "o's" with the "x's", but I wasn't really seeking design input at this point.   I added white opal liquid pearls to the dots at the circles' intersectins. 

The card for my dad was a fun one. We used this stamp (Impression Obsession) in Krista's classes recently, so I did a different take on it and stamped it in white on kraft cardstock and coloured it with Bryunzeel pencil crayons.  I put it on a Bordering Blue card base with some Stampin' Up paper that coordinates with these two papers.  Some mushroom adirondack dimensional pearls completed the look.  I asked hubby if it was too feminine and he said, "It's just feminine enough."  You would think I would know better by now than to ask him, but there you go.  I might just have learned my lesson. 

We've had a great Father's Day - a trip down to Brockville to see the tall ships, and a lovely dinner out. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you got some stamping in this weekend too.

Another Distress Marker Project

Hello!  Here's another project I made with Distress Markers.  I used them with the LaBlanche specialty stamping paper (same was what Ranger sells).  The markers work really well with this paper and I was able to blend them very easily.  I will be doing this card as a class in June at Heather's Stamping Haven, so I won't go into too much detail here.  The image is one by Magenta.

I will say that I really liked the combination of Distress markers with that super-smooth paper.  The background patterned piece is one I made, thanks to a new technique I learned from my mother (thank you!). The card base is my favourite - tsumugi paper.  Beautiful stuff!  I love the colours and the texture.

Well, I am off to steal a few minutes in my stamp room before I get going on the weekend chores.  I might even turn on the hockey game to listen to the playoffs while I stamp.  We'll see.  Hubby's playing his guitar and I'm enjoying listening to that.

Ok - Blogger has upgraded and won't let me attach pictures without using the new version.  But I can't see where to add labels.  I hate these "improvements" that make it hard to do things that used to be easy.  ---later-- I found the labels under an icon that looks greyed out, but turns out to be active with the right incantation.  I don't understand this move to icons everywhere.  This a blog.  That implies a certain level of literacy right there.  Why use impenetrable icons when a label would work?   Speaking of literacy, or lack thereof, I was walking downtown down a road I hadn't used before on my way back from a meeting. I went past an electric company installation and they had a big sign on the fence (big, imposing, serious fence) that said, "NO PARKING.  VILATORS WILL BE TICKETED AND TOWED."  This sign was repeated again, about 10 feet away.  On one sign, someone had turned the I in vilator into a flower, and on the other sign, some punctilious vigilante had added an O.   Here's a picture of the sign - it must be at a different location since it's on a brick wall, unlike the ones I saw.  http://boerishbwoy.blogspot.ca/2010/06/title-warning-to-all-vilators-location.html#links  I wonder if one could appeal one's ticket on the grounds that they are not a vilator, and are therefore exempt from this exhortation.  I'd hope so, but I wouldn't want to be the one to try it out.

Class sample - Distress Markers

Hello!  Here's a card I made for an upcoming class at Heather's Stamping Haven.  The class will be called "Fun with Textures" and will feature this card an another one, and some different techniques (creating texture with UTEE and the new Donna Salazar Mixed Media Inx).  The class is Saturday, May 5 from 2-5. 

The poppy stamp image and background stamps are all from Heather's Stamping Haven and the image is coloured with my .... (insert deep, sonorous, game show host voice here) Brand, New Markers!!!  (cue applause and raucous cheering).   That's right, I got my new Distress Markers and I was prepared to love them, and I do.  A lot.  I love my Tombows, I love my Copics, I love my pencil crayons, and now I love these markers.  The Distress colour palette will be a great complement to my Tombows from a watercolouring with markers point of view.  I'm looking forward to doing some experimenting with them and seeing what kind of things I can do with them.  Have you tried them out yet?

Happy stamping!