Diva Inspiration with Altenew

Hello Diva friends - I'm part of the last of the month inspiration at Die Cut Divas. Our August challenge with Altenew and watercoloring ends today at 9pm Pacific time. There's still time to play along!!

Here's my inspiration card:

Supplies: Paper - DCWV Ms Sparkle A2 card;

Strathmore 140lb Watercolor Paper

Stamps - Altenew Book Club;

Sunny Studio Inside Greetings Birthday

Dies - Altenew Book Club;

A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop

Other - CZ Design Sentiment Strips Reverse Christmas; 

Distress Reinkers - Festive Berries, Tumbled Glass, Lucky Clover, 

Peeled Paint, Worn Lipstick

Parklane (JoAnn's brand) gems

Thanks to Arlene for sending me a stamped/die cut bookplate - love this image and it was so fun to watercolor!! I popped it atop another piece of the print I had made for my August 21st card. I had watercolored one of the rose layers, as well as leafy ones, on this piece. It also got a spritz from my bottle of green reinker/water/perfect pearl mist I had made years ago (still good!!).

The Happy sentiment strip came from a Christmas packet that includes words Merry and Happy to go along with Christmas, depending on what side of the pond you live. I simply put all the Happys with the birthday sentiment strips! I stamped the birthday from a cute Sunny Studio set - love the font on that one! Added some gems - done!

Please check at Die Cut Divas tomorrow for another challenge and then on September 3rd for the winner of our August challenge ($20 gift card courtesy of Altenew).

Thanks for stopping!

Snowflake print making

TGIF and Friday the 13th, no less! Day 3 of Kathy's (The Daily Marker) Coloring Challenge and I decided to revisit her print-making coloring from a previous challenge. I had loads of fun with it this summer (see an example here) and thought it would be great using a large snowflake die.

Supplies: Paper - Ms Sparkle & Co A2 card;

Strathmore 140 lb Cold Press Watercolor;

CZ Designs Sentiment Strips Reverse Christmas

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle;

Hero Arts Snowflake Fancy Die (retired)

Other - Yasutomo watercolors; Twinkling H2Os;

Michael's gem

Basically all you do is die cut something from watercolor paper and paint it while it sits atop a sheet of more watercolor paper. Once painted you can spritz the object and use it as a stamp too. Cut a portion of the print you want to feature and away you go! Added my panel to an A2 card. Layered an unpainted snowflake behind the painted one for dimension and added a gem. Adhered to card and added a sentiment stripe - done!! This card works great for mass production - very quick and easy!

I had selectively die cut my print so it was off the edge. That way it would work for the current CAS Mix Up Challenge (second entry). Also used non-traditional colors so I'm adding to CAS Christmas (second entry) too. My card works at Watercooler Wednesday for All Occasions (my third and final there). Thanks for all the fun challenges!!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a crafty weekend! Stay safe out there!!

 

 

 

All About Occasions - Birthdays!!

Hey there - my friend Dawn (Dawn's World) hosts this week at the Watercolor Wednesday Challenge where it's All About Occasions #284! I'm working on birthday cards & they'll fit into the occasions category. Card two will also work for the latest Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge "Midsummer Blues" using Memory Box. Here are my cards:

Supplies: Paper - Core'dinations Ivory A2 card; 

Authentique Be(you)tiful 6x6; Momenta watercolor printed 8x8;

Strathmore watercolor paper 140lb; Grafix Dura-Lar (acetate alternative); 

Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips Birthday

Dies - Hero Arts DI133 Swallowtail Butterfly Fancy Die (retired);

Other - watercolors & alcohol inks; Honey Bee gem

Supplies: Paper - Anchor Paper card; Strathmore watercolor paper 140lb;

Paper Studio Glitter; Grafix Dura-Lar (acetate alternative); 

Momenta watercolor print 8x8

Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips Birthday

Dies - Hero Arts DI133 Swallowtail Butterfly Fancy Die (retired);

My Favorite Things Blueprints 13 (retired);

small butterfly - 2017 magazine freebie

Memory Box Bubble Circles; 

Other - watercolors & alcohol inks; Honey Bee gem

I made a watercolor print and an alcohol ink print during the Kathy's (The Daily Marker) last 30 Day Coloring Challenge. I combined leftover pieces of both for my backgrounds and added new butterflies cut from watercolor printed paper. I glued the "acetate" panels just on the left side and let static do the rest to hold them onto the watercolor paper - thought it gave another dimension to layer the prints. And if you haven't tried any of the sentiment strips sheets from Simon Says Stamp, give them a whirl - so quick and easy!!

Thanks to Dawn & to Simon Says Stamp for fun challenges and thanks to you for stopping by! Have a crafty day!!

Print-making coloring with a twist (Day 22)

Hi friends - another quick post as I'm off to have lunch with friends later today & I need to shop for something to take! It's Day 22 of Kathy's (The Daily Marker) 30 Day Coloring Challenge and I'm returning to the print-making coloring Kathy demo'd on Day 1 (same link as for the Challenge) but with a twist. Rather than using watercolors, I'm using Alcohol Inks!! Here's my print with colored diecuts atop a piece of ivory cardstock:

My friend Cindy (Escape to Stamping) was using AIs on a stencil and I got mine out (see the card I made here). I didn't do anything specifically for the coloring challenge with them until now. I didn't have large sheets of Yupo paper but I found some Grafix Dura-Lar (acetate alternative). I thought it would be fun to try making a print on it with AIs (others have probably done it; I just haven't seen it). I used Ranger's Adirondack Alcohol Ink cardstock to die cut the images because I couldn't find my Yupo after just using it the other day - so frustrating!! Later in the post you'll see some different colored cards behind a couple pieces of print for potential cards.

Here's a photo of the print in process with some of the AIs used (sorry for dark photo - it was taken just after 1am!). The Dura-Lar has a tissue sheet between each piece so I left one behind and then put a couple paper towels on my work surface. Didn't really get any bleeding through. As you can see, I ran out of the thin cotton panels used for inking - no worries, a cotton makeup pad worked fine. I also used a Q-tip for inking the thinner circles. Dies used - Spellbinders Elegant Twist Circles Etched Dies (enabled by my friend Virginia's post) and the same retired Hero Arts butterfly I used on my first print-making coloring on Day 11.

Alcohol ink colors: Watermelon, Red Pepper, Wild Plum, 

Sunshine Yellow, Butterscotch, Sailboat Blue, Stream, & Citrus. 

Plus Gold Mixatives and blending solution.

Finally, I cut up the print into pieces and laid a couple onto different colored card bases with some of the diecuts just so you could see the potential cards. Interesting how the print changes, isn't it?

How about you? What kind of print-making might you try? Distress paints might be fun or crayons? Anyway, this coloring challenge continues to be entertaining to me and you can still join in for the remaining 8 days! Hope to see you there & thanks for stopping by!!

A Music themed card and more Print-making coloring for Day 15!

Hello, hello friends! We've made it to "hump day" 15 of Kathy's (The Daily Marker) 30 Day Coloring Challenge - woo hoo!! Today I'm sharing a music themed card then some more print-making coloring per Kathy's Day 1 post (linked above).

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Poptone Black Licorice;

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb

Stamps - Hero Arts CG279 Musical Clef &

Raisin Boat Feel the Beat (both retired)

Dies - Hero Arts DI337 Nesting Oval Infinity Dies

Other - Recollections flowers (from Michaels)

I've mentioned that my chorus (City of Lakes Chorus) is relegated to rehearsing on Zoom during the pandemic. To help members connect, my chorus-mate & friend Debbie heads a "Stay in Touch" program. She gives us 8 names every two weeks and we can reach out by phone, mail, email, text etc. I've chosen to make and mail cards to over 100 members over the course of the program. Nuts, I know - that's more than my Christmas mailing list which I work on for 11 months of the year!! The card I shared above is a design I've used with slight modifications (different patterned papers & flowers) for the first 25 cards (Debbie slipped in an extra person one time!!). Another modification is that front row members (I used to be one until I got too slow & fat!) have both words Sing & Dance on theirs. I stamped, then fussy cut, the words and the treble clefs. I'm working this week on my next batch of 8 to be mailed out next Tuesday; then I'll have two weeks to work on the next 8.

I decided for my Day 15 coloring to revisit Kathy's print-making coloring (see it at the 30 Day Coloring Challenge link above which is for Day 1). I enjoyed it so much the first time (see my butterfly print here) that I decided to try again using some music themed dies I own. Here's my print:

I used Cheery Lynn Designs Whistle a Happy Tune and My Favorite Things Musical Notes dies (both retired), cutting from TH Distress watercolor paper. I then watercolored them (using Yasutomo watercolors and some Twinkling H20s), working on a large slab of Strathmore 140lb watercolor paper. I also painted watercolors on a Hero Arts sheet music cling stamp (from the same set as in the card above), spritzed and stamped in a few spots. The red in the corner was a bit too bold so I softened it in other spots by adding more water before stamping. Dribbled paint a couple times so figured I'd add some splatters while I was at it but not too many. The MFT dies were a bit small for this technique. Also, it seems to work better using a large symmetrical diecut. The butterfly I used previously was pretty much the same front and back so it was better for use as a stamp. I didn't want to stamp the music items because they'd be mirrored (did try a few partial clefs). I added extra color to the diecuts (off print) - they seemed a bit light. Figured I'd use some of this paper for future chorus cards.

I got enabled on the Cheery Lynn die by my friend Heather (Stamping and Stitching) who sent me a bunch of glittery treble clef diecuts. Loved them so much I had to buy my own die, though I've saved some of the ones Heather sent (you guessed it, the purples!!). You can see my gift bag project using the treble clef die here, if interested.

That's it for today - happy hump day - day 15!! Color something if you can & thanks for visiting!!

Twofer Butterflies including Day 11 Coloring!!

Hey everyone - having a good weekend? Beautiful day here - can't wait to get outside!! But first, here's my twofer for the latest Twofer Challenge - #29 Butterflies (warning - photo heavy post ahead):

 

My item in common is a beautiful, retired Hero Arts die (DI133 Swallowtail Butterfly Fancy Die). I've had it for many years. I've been planning to do Kathy's (The Daily Marker) print-making coloring technique since she posted it on Day 1 of her 30 Day Coloring Challenge. She used a butterfly and I was thinking of using one from My Favorite Things - just hadn't gotten around to it. Marcia Hill (Marcia's Stampin' Pad), tackled it on Day 8 - see it here. More inspiration and I still didn't jump on it. Then Darnell and crew announced the July challenge to use butterflies & I knew I could get it done! Last night I die cut a bunch of butterflies using the Hero Arts die instead of the MFT one. It was bigger and had an interesting pattern. I cut from pastel watercolor printed papers - beautiful 8x8 pad by Momenta (I have a huge stack because I keep running out of the blue!!). I arranged some butterflies on a piece of white card 4.25x5.5" - it wasn't working for me. Moved to a  5.5x8.5 piece of black card and liked it a lot! Here's a look at my arranging process:

I just took this quickie photo (sorry it was getting dark) so I'd be able to remember the arrangement as I took them off and glued them back down. I used Gina K Connect Glue - worked great. I usually put dots where there's room, then I squeeze glue onto the back of my hand and dab the back of the die to add glue to those teeny spots. Where I trimmed off, I added back in bare spots. Then I cut the background panel in half so I could use on two cards. Here's a closer look with supply list for card one:

Supplies:- Paper - DCWV A2 card; scrap of Neenah white;

Momenta Watercolor prints 8x8; Poptone Black Licorice

Stamps - Hero Arts It's Your Day (retired);

Clearly Besotted A Little Sentimental

Dies - Hero Arts DI133 Swallowtail Butterfly Fancy Die (retired);

My Favorite Things Blueprints 13 (retired);

Spellbinders Petite Labels One and Labels Thirty-Six (both retired)

Other - white gel pen; foam tape

Thought I share a photo of my print-making coloring process I used for card two:

Sorry, I did this early this morning and haven't had a chance to try and iron out the warping. Did pretty well on the pink side so maybe didn't spritz as much water around?? Anyway, just took a large sheet of watercolor paper (mine is 140lb Strathmore) and used it as a work surface to watercolor two butterflies cut from watercolor paper. After you've colored the dies, leaving various spotches of watercoloring, you spritz them, turn them over and press into the background for more images. I then chose a section, die cut it with a stitched rectangle and made it into card two. Here's a closer look with supply list:

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Strathmore Watercolor 140lb; 

Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Cardstock; Poptone Black Licorice

Dies - Hero Arts DI133 Swallowtail Butterfly Fancy Die (retired);

My Favorite Things Blueprints 13 (retired)

Stamps - Gina K Designs Natural Silhoettes (sentiment)

Other - Twinking H20s & Yasutomo watercolors; black pencil to shade

Bonus - a threefer! Since I had the other half of my black/pastel butterfly background, I thought I might as well make the second card with it. On this card, I used a smaller stitched rectangle and a scalloped mat with a different style of sentiment. Thus a completely new look, even though the background is similar. This one ended up with almost an entire purple butterfly so I broke that up with the white label.

Supplies:- Paper - DCWV A2 card; Neenah white;

Momenta Watercolor prints 8x8; Poptone Black Licorice

Stamps - Picket Fence Small Ways to Say Thank You

Dies - Hero Arts DI133 Swallowtail Butterfly Fancy Die (retired);

My Favorite Things Blueprints 2 and 20 (both retired);

Other - white gel pen; foam tape; Hero Arts flower gem

Whew - sorry for the long post! I had fun with this print-making coloring technique and will be uploading to Kathy's challenge. Still going strong on Day 11 - yay!!

Thanks to challenge hosts and teams and thanks to you for the visit!!