LEAF SILHOUETTE

The challenge this month at CAS Watercolour is to use a silhouette.  I finally thought of something that wasn't just a black or white silhouette in the regular sense of the word.  So I went back to my new Altenew striped leaf cover die and tried to work out what I was originally trying to do in this post.

I wanted just the die cuts bits all back on my card (without going mad) and finally figured out how to accomplish this.  First I die cut the leaves on a piece of watercolor paper using 3 layers of dryer sheets on the back so all the bits would stay in place.  Then I did a watercolor wash mixing my paints so I would get this peachy color.  After it was dry I covered it on the front with a piece of Press' n Seal.  Then I carefully removed the dryer sheets from the back making sure the bits of the die cut stayed stuck on the Press 'n Seal.

So now all the little pieces are stuck in place.  The other piece is warped from being wet and peeling it off.  Added dots of glue to the back side, positioned it over my card base and pressed all in place. Let it dry for a few minutes with an acrylic block on top. Again, gently and carefully, I peeled off the Press 'n Seal.  The larger pieces adhered really well, but did have to add more glue (used a glue pen) to get the bitty dots on the top and bottom and also some of the skinny pieces to stay in place.  Finished it all off with a simple sentiment on copper metallic paper and some copper Nuvo drops. I didn't time myself doing all this (am used to putzing around on a card) but would guess it  took about an hour.  Hope all this makes sense.

I ironed the other piece between two sheets of copy paper to flatten it, and made a shaker card which took no time at all.  

 Thanks for visiting and maybe reading all that description.

FALLING LEAVES

The challenge theme at A Blog Named Hero this month is "one layer" - and I must admit this is not easy for me to do.  So I put on my thinking cap and thought of ways I could give my card some dimension, texture and interest without adding layers.

First I used a large woodgrain stamp with a light tan ink to create my background.  Then added a variety of leaves - the little ones are from 2016 September MMH and the large one is a wood block stamp (HA) I've had for ages.  HA also has Color Layering Grateful Leaves which has lovely fall leaves which could also be used.  Picked out a selection of orange and gold inks and stamped my pattern.  The sentiment (also from September 2016 MMH kit) was stamped in black and embossed in clear.  Added some Spectrum Noir to all the leaves and a few copper Nuvo drops and done.

Hope you will find some wonderful ways to create a one layer card and enter our monthly challenge here - and be eligible to win a great prize from our sponsor this month.

Thanks for visiting today.  Happy creating,

A CHALLENGE WEEKEND

I went a little crazy this weekend in making cards for various challenges.  So here goes!!

This card is for two challenges - Ellen Hutson's Mix-It-Up (use EH and Honey Bee products) and The Paper Players (pink, green, silver and white).  The flower is EH Mondo Peony loosely watercolored and with Nuvo drops in the center.  The sentiment is from Honey Bee - cut from vellum and silver.  It's all on a green SU base (I think it's called moss).  

I made this card for CAS Mix-Up (watercolor wash, stamping and heat embossing).  After doing the peachy watercolor wash, I cut my piece down, stamped the magnolias from Clearly Besotted and embossed with HA copper powder.  Added some definition to the flowers with a Prismacolor pencil and copper Nuvo drops and finally added the sentiment.

CAS on Sunday's challenge is to use markers or pencils.  I first made my background with the same CB stamp embossed in the Altenew peach. I used Zig markers to lightly color three of the flowers and gave them more color with a Prismacolor pencil.  Added the little sentiment and some more Nuvo drops (I'm certainly loving them) and done.

Thanks for looking at this long post and love to read your kind comments.

MORE SKETCHY FLORAL

Both the Muse Challenge and the September Altenew Challenge have similar colors and mostly because my friend, Cat Craig, is the guest designer on Muse, I made one card for both.  I am also going to enter this in Kathy's 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

After stamping Altenew's Sketchy Floral with their black crisp ink on Bristol paper, I colored my flowers and leaves with watercolor pencils and blended with a little water. Am loving copper these days - especially with shades of pink - so added it to the side strip and the sentiment along with some Nuvo copper for the flower centers.

 Thanks for stopping by and all your kind comments.

STRIPED LIEAVES

I received my new cover die from Altenew yesterday and couldn't wait to try it out.  Had this great plan in my mind about how I was going to use it - well, that never happened - several little glitches ocurred along the way.  So on to the rescue operation!!

 

First of all, I embossed two pieces of cs - one in HA copper and the other in Altenew golden peach.  I didn't put a dryer sheet under the peach one and the little pieces went all over the place.  I did use the dryer sheet method on the copper and ended up with just embossed leaves.  That was last nite and I just didn't want to deal with it anymore.  So this morning (from all the scattering of leaf bits) I adhered one leaf to the copper background - this was rather tedious - hence one leaf!!  Also some of the peach embossing came off so I covered it up with some Nuvo drops.  After adding another coat of embossing powder, the peach piece became a shaker card with a simple sentiment.  I'm happy with the way they turned out - ever since my accident tho, my favorite quote is "man plans and God laughs"!  I am "planning" on having another go at my original idea - we'll see how that works out!!

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.