WISHING YOU A...

Our challenge theme this month on A Blog Named Hero is watercolor.  Today I have an easy way to make a watercolored card thanks to Erum Tasmeen and her video here.  Even though she uses watercolor brush markers I think you could use any type of watercolor medium.

I began by stamping my peony and multiple leaves in Versamark and embossing them in gold on some heavy watercolor paper.  Then I die cut them with the matching dies.  Next I just played with colors by daubing on concentrated pinks, reds and yellow for the flower and green and aqua for the leaves.  Spritzed with water and let the water do the work.  If I had a little too much water in places I just picked up the excess with a paper towel.  Then I let it all dry naturally as using a heat gun would move the colors around too much.  I spattered some black for the background on the card base, attached the flower with some foam tape, added the leaves and little sentiment (the rest of it will be inside) along with a few enamel dots and done.

Be sure to try your hand at watercoloring and enter our challenge for this month here.  There are two Hero Arts gift certificates waiting to won.  Thanks for stopping by today and always love to read your kind comments.

SEASONS GREETINGS

Last minute entries for a couple of challenges today - Retro Rubber (anything goes) and Christmas Kickstart (create a scene).

My bridge card began stamping the trees using my MIsti and adding different shades of green.  Used some distress inks to color the sky, die cut my deer and put it all together with the little sentiment.  The trees are from about 2018 and the deer dies are really old.

Thanks for visiting today - keep well.

 

OPEN BLOOM

I had several challenges in mind when I created my card.  I used colors from Altenew's inspiration photo, the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and blooms, designer paper and layers from the Tic Tac Toe Challenge.

I began by going through my patterned papers and found the perfect colors in pink shades for die cutting my Open Bloom flower.  The leaves are from a very old Papertrey Ink pp.  For both the flowers and the leaves I used a copic marker to darken a few parts like the veins in the leaves and also parts of the flower - but you can still see the pp in the background.  I die cut my circle and strip from gold cardstock, put it all together on a soft gray card base, added the little sentiment and done!

Thanks for stopping by today and keep safe.

RED BALLOONS

Haven't made a card with anything but flowers for awhile and Festive Friday's challenge inspired me to do something with balloons.  The elements I included are red, blue, balloons and an appreciation sentiment.

I went through my stash of alcohol inked backgrounds and found this red with gold bits and die cut my balloons.  Also die cut the "thanks" sentiments to use as the balloon strings.  Used a stencil and blue ink to make the cloud background and put that on a soft gray card base.  Put it all together with some little bows made from a couple of strands of floss and done.  

Thanks for stopping by and pray you are safe and well.

TWOFER

Have had these poppy dies for awhile and never used them so decided that had to be rectified and ended up with two cards which is always a good thing.

I began by smooshing worn lipstick, picked raspberry and mustard seed DO inks on my glass surface and spritzing with water.  Then smooshed my watercolor paper onto the wet inks until I had a nice blend of colors.  Did the same with peeled paint and shabby shutters inks.  Also die cut the flowers on cream card and then inlaid the pieces to make two flowers.  Made some backgrounds and arranged my flowers with a little sentiment and done.

I am entering my cards at CAS Watercolour (spring flowers), Virginia's Show and Share and Darnell's NBUS Challenge.  My friend, Dawn, is hostess at Watercooler Wednesday (All About Occasions) and will enter my card there too.

 Hope everyone is staying well - thanks for stopping by.

MORE SPRING FLOWERS

Another card for CAS Watercolour and their spring flowers challenge - can't really say what kind of spring flowers these are but that's what I'm goin' with!!!! The Flower Challenge wants spring/autumn on a card so will enter there also.

The flowers were stamped in black and clear embossed - then loosely watercoloured.  Foam mounted on a black mat and then onto a white card base.  Added the little sentiment and some black Nuvo dots to the flower centers and done!  Stamping and embossing are my added elements.

 Thanks for stopping by today - stay safe!

BLEACHED LEAVES

The CAS Mix-Up Challenge this month is to use a bleaching technique on a card.  I have done this before with large flowers so wanted to something a bit different today.  My card includes bleaching, dry embossing, embossing and stamping.

I blended DO blues and greens on a piece of cardstock.  Made sure it was very dry before stamping the leaves with Versamark and white embossing.  Then I just used water to do my "bleaching". Next I went over the whitened leaves with a Spectrum Noir sparkle pen which when blended on made the leaves a very pale green. Used a square double stitched die to cut out.  Then I use the same square die and the next largest one to dry emboss the light gray card base.  Mounted my colored piece with foam tape, added the little sentiment and few gray enamel dots and done.  Love the simplicity of the design and think I'll do a few more in different color and/or leaf combos.

Always good to see you visit my blog - thanks so much.

TIC TAC TOE CHALLENGE #60

There's a new Tic Tac Toe Challenge out today and I was again asked to guest design for them - and happily accepted!!

I couldn't decide which way to go, so went with down the left side (tilted, stitched and blue) and across the top (tilted, enamel dot and butterfly).  My blue alcohol inked background was die cut with a stitched rectangle and added to a blue stitched mat.  Added some wispy gold thread behind my gold (tilted) butterfly with an enamel dot on the body.  Decided to leave off a sentiment for now as this design could be used for a variety of occasions.

So many ways to go with this fun board so join in this challenge - would love to see what you create.  Thanks for stopping by and always love to read your kind comments.

SENDING...

Spring flowers and spring colors for a couple of challenges today.  Making a card or just coloring has kept me going these days 'cause really sometimes I just want to sit and binge watch some old TV series on my laptop.  The challenge world is the best for giving me some ideas and actually rather forcing me into action.

My colors are from the current Paper Players challenge to use yellow, blue and gray.  I watercolored the flowers and leaves with my Zigs and die cut.  Created the background with DO mustard seed on some light gray cardstock and spattered with drops of water.  Arranged my bouquet and then added the die cut sentiment, some black enamel dots and done.  Thought the "sending" could be used with "birthday wishes", "love and hugs", "happy thoughts" - or a great variety of sentiments on the inside of the card. The CAS Watercolour theme is spring flowers, so my card is for their challenge also.  My card will also go to the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge which is "anything goes".

Thanks for visiting today and keep safe and well.

CHRISTMAS IN APRIL

Even though the "Anything But a Card" challenge at A Blog Named Hero ended yesterday, I have a tag as one last idea for this challenge.

 

I love to add pretty tags to my Christmas gifts or even put a little pocket on the back of a large tag which then can hold a gift card.  I used an older HA poinsettia stamp on my tag today - actually I made four of these as I had the stamps in my MISTI and had the time (for sure!!).   I stamped the flowers and leaves in Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder onto kraft cardstock.  Then used a slightly damp brush and watercolored only some of the petals on the poinsettia.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set and it was stamped with Versamark and gold heat embossed.  Added some gold Nuvo dots and then spattered with white gouache.  Finally used twine for a little bow and streamers for my tag.

A new fun challenge begins tomorrow at A Blog Named Hero with great inspiration from the design team - be sure to check it out on the 15th!

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

SPRING FLOWERS

Spring in Nebraska is rather erratic to say the least - yesterday hail the size of golf balls and gale force winds!  Bright, sunny and 23 degrees this morning!!  But it is spring and I decided to Copic color some spring flowers on vellum.  Not a good idea if you want to arrange a bouquet,

 

The green leaves showed through under the flowers and looked weird.  To remedy the situation, I ran the flowers through my Xyron and then adhered them to a piece of white cardstock.  Fussy cut the flowers and then did my arrangement.  Did a little light blue watercoloring around the flowers, added the sentiment, a few enamel dots and done.

Will add my card to several challenges - Tic Tac Toe (orange, pink, yellow), Color Throwdown (orange, pink, yellow, green), Simon Says Stamp (colors from egg photo), Seize the Birthday (spring fling) and SSS Flickr Challenge (anything goes).

Thanks for visiting and love to read your kind comments.

 

HELLO FRIEND

I have a friend who broke her hip this week and after surgery has to spend time at a rehab facility with no visitors of course - so she's going to need cards to cheer her up.  Besides making this card for her, I also am entering it into a few challenges.

I used a MFT stamp and stamped it onto a 5.5x4.25 card base and also onto another same size single piece which I colored with my Zigs and die cut with the stitched circle die.  Added foam tape to the back and adhered to the card base getting everything lined up to match.  Added the little sentiment and a few enamel dots and done!

The design is for MFT Sketch #484 challenge, the pink, orange and yellow flowers  are the center row down in the Tic Tac Toe #59 challenge, and the colors are also for the Color Throwdown Challenge.  Will also add to Virginia's Show and Share for April.

Always enjoy reading your comments and thanks so much for stopping by.