WATERCOLOR CLASS

Recently I took a watercolor class from Altenew taught by Jennifer Rzasa.  I was sort of a lazy student and only got three of the homework assignments finished.  Besides making a swatch page for my watercolors, I did manage to make a couple of cards.

For this assignment we were to do a watercolor wash and then overlay a stencil, weight it down and let it dry.  When dry and you removed the stencil, the imprint of it should be visible.  I used the Dahlia stencil but it didn't really show up too much.  So I just stamped over it with the Sketchy Floral stamp and added it to a card base with a little sentiment.

On the next cards we were to put watercolor directly onto a stamp and then stamp.  I used my MISTI with a layered stamp so I could get some variation in colour.  Did some spattering on both cards before adding to a card base.  On all of my cards today, I was using the new Altenew watercolor set.

All the Altenew classes are so good and I've learned so much from their various instructors.  They're worth checking out.

Thanks for stopping by and love to read your kind comments.

AUGUST CCC

This month I sent my Card Chain Challenge card to my friend, Cat.  The challenge colors were a bright pink, bright blue and sort of a lime green.  I loosely followed the colors and used the theme of friendship.

I die cut the rose garden background in white and laid that over a piece of blue watercoloured paper.  Stamped and die cut the flowers and leaves, added some Nuvo drops to the centers and attached the sentiment to a strip of vellum

Thanks for dropping by today and always love to read your kind comments.

SPARKLE AND SHINE

This month our challenge at A Blog Named Hero is "sparkle and shine" - so I made two very sparkly, shiny cards for you today.  But first must tell you a little story about them.

I have two teenage granddaughters who live in England. Since it's easier for me (and I'm sure they like it better), I send my son some money and he buys them gift certificates.  So last Christmas I made two really cute slider cards with room for a gift card to be inserted.  Mailed them on 1 December and between the U.S. mail and the Royal Mail, they never ever arrived!!!  So this year I am trying again - only this time I made them in the beginning of July and gave them to my son while the family was visiting these past few weeks.  Now my only worry is that he'll forget where he put them and can't find them at Christmas!!

This isn't an original idea for making a slider card - you can find out how to make it by viewing this video.  I started by die cutting two ornaments - one from gold glitter paper and the other in silver (saving all the little bits).  (BTW, Hero Arts has a new ornament that would work just as well.) Then cut out a circle and attached on the back of the ornament with lots of tape and fit all the silver bits into the gold ornament and gold into the silver one.  Then I followed Dawn's instructions for making the card slider part.  Die cut a red "K" (for Katie) and an "A" (for Anna) and glued to the center of the ornament.  Added some gold twine to the ornaments and attached to the front of the card per instructions in the video - only attached at the bottom part of folded center part of the slider. You can see what I mean by looking at the photo on the right. Stamped the little sentiment on the inside and also added a little strip of double sided tape above the sentiment so Mike could add the gift card inside.  I put two layers of foam tape on the sides and bottom between the base and slider piece so there'd be room for the g.c.  My explanation is probably clear as mud, but hopefully if you are interested in trying this, the video will help a lot.

I had lot of fun making these sliders for my girls - I tried to figure out a way to detach the ornament so it could be hung on the tree, but nothing seemed to work.  Maybe someone out there has a good idea!

Hope you can create a sparkle and shine card for this month's challenge and enter it here.  There are two gift cards to be won from Hero Arts, so be sure to have a go.

Thanks for visiting today and love to read your kind comments.

FUSION CHALLENGE & ALCOHOL INKS

The photo for the newest Fusion Challenge immediately made me think of my new alcohol ink lift pad from Tim Holtz and Ranger.  My card doesn't really have anything to do with "galaxy" but it was inspired by the Fusion photo.

I first created the alcohol inked background piece and while sections of it were still sticky, added gold foil.  Then using the alcohol lift ink, I stamped the "sending you" part of the sentiment - I used my MISTI and stamped several times to get a clear impression. Matted this with some gold metallic paper, added the little "birthday wishes" and mounted it all on a white card base.  Jennifer McGuire and Carissa Wiley each have good blog posts on how to use alcohol lift ink.

Thanks for visiting today and always love to read your kind comments.

MFT SUMMER SCHOOL 2018

MFT Summer School 2018 this past week gave me just the impetus to get creating again.  Each lesson was such a good reminder of the elements of good design or ways to make your cards more pleasing to the eye.  I really enjoyed all of them.  So here goes my homework!

Day 1: Monochromatic

Day 2: Visual Triangle

Day 3: Focal Point

Day 4: Rainbow

Day 5: Ombre

On several I didn't add a sentiment merely because I wanted to save them for a suitable occasion.  Since this post is so photo heavy, I'm not adding any other explanations.

Thanks for stopping by and love to read your kind comments.

AUTUMN LEAVES

The challenge this week from The Paper Players is to use some lovely fall colors.

 

I stamped the background leaves with a variety of inks - used my MISTI so the colors would be nice and crisp.  Die cut the copper metallic leaves and arranged along with the copper sentiment which has a black shadow.  Matted this piece on black and then onto a white card base.  Nuvo drops finished my card.

 

 

Can't wait for cool, sunny autumn days to arrive - how about you???  Thanks for stopping by,

A MIX OF THINGS

My card today for A Blog Named Hero is a mix of ideas from several places - awhile back Laurie Schmidlin did a post for Make-It-Monday called shadow backgrounds and Emily Midgitt has been doing some pencil coloring on Hero Arts layering papers. The coloring on the layering paper is so easy and fast - love love it - am going to need to buy some more of that paper!!!

I first stamped my background with soft brown ink on sort of a medium gray paper, cut it down to 4x5.25 and adhered to a base of the same color.  Then I spattered it with white acrylic paint that I had watered down a wee bit.  Next, I stamped the flower and leaves (from a My Monthly Hero Kit - but any flower would work) - again on the same color paper.  I used my MISTI and black ink leaving the stamps in place.  Prismacolors were used for coloring.  The reason I left the stamps in the MISTI was to again stamp in black when I had finished coloring.  This gives a nice black crisp outline.  Fussy cut the flower and leaves, popped up on my background, added a little sentiment and some black Nuvo drops on the stamen and done!

I am also entering my card in Kathy's coloring contest - she has 3 categories and I'm putting this in the intermediate category. 

A new challenge begins tomorrow (15 August) on A Blog Named Hero, so be sure to check it out.  Thanks for visiting today.

BEEN GONE

Just a little update today - I've been gone for a few weeks and unfortunately my friendly muse seems to still be lost in the north woods of Minnesota - so will just show a few pics of where I've been.

Katherine and John's cabin is in the front and Kevin and Diane's place is in back

 

View from the deck

view from deck

 

lone loon

Will have a post for ABNH up on Tuesday and am going to my craft room this afternoon and see if I can find Miss Muse back there!!

All for now...