Stencils, Masks, Spritzing, Daubing and More ... It's All Fun!

I have a card to share with you today where I used my Brusho Crystal Colour and a stencil for some creative fun.  There are many ways you can use stencils/masks in your projects.  Gee, if you'd like to learn more about some of these fun techniques, I just happen to be having a class on Saturday, March 18 and I'd love to have you come and join us.  We'll be using stencils creatively.

For this card, I covered my watercolor paper with an old Stampin' Up! (retired) stencil.  Then I sprinkled 3 of my Brusho Crystal Colour powders over the areas where I wanted to add the design.  (You only need a teeny tiny bit of the powders.)  Then I lightly misted over it with a fine misting bottle.

After removing the stencil, I let it air dry.  I then took another piece of watercolor paper and just added powders and water mist, until I got a nice effect.  I let this one air dry, too.  When it was completely dry, I punched out the butterflies, using 2 sizes of punches.  I punched 2 extra of the larger butterflies --- one for the inside of the card and one for the envelope. 

Adding the black layers behind the stenciled piece and behind the butterflies really makes the colors pop.  Please note --- This is not really intended to be a perfect design.  It's just to give a fun, random effect of adding colors to your project... more of an abstract art style.  It is super fun, too!  Once the butterflies were punched out, I added shimmer mist to them to give them a beautiful shimmer.  Love it!!! 

In my next post, I'll be sharing some hexagons in bright blues and greens.  See you then!

My next classes and events:
Monday, March 13 --- 
Scraps and Prayers / 5:30-7:30 / Beautiful Spring cards / $15.00 / Pay to register at least 2 days prior to the class.  See sneak peeks on left side here.
Saturday, March 18 -- 
Saturday Stampers / 1:00-4:00 / Using stencils creatively (on cards) / $20. / Pay to register at least 2 days prior to the class. 
See sneak peeks on left side here.
Sunday, March 26 -- 
Spring Open House Party / 2:00-5:00 / a 'no fee' event / RSVP by March 24 and I'll have a special gift just waiting for you.  Come and join us for an afternoon of creative fun! 

Special Reminders:
As always, you must pay to register at least 2 days prior to each class.  If you are using a coupon, you still need to register at least 2 days prior to the class and present the coupon at that time.  I need it for tax records, please.
See the left side of my blog for sneak peeks on upcoming classes and events.  Class schedules and descriptions can be found by clicking on 'my classes' at the top of my blog.

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top to see my class schedules. 

- Look on the left for sneak peeks and registration policies. 

- Please sign up to follow my blog and/or leave a comment. 

- Come  back often for more creative inspiration. 

Dragonfly Love ... It's No Secret

I call today's card my soft dragonfly card because the colors and the stamping are quite intentionally created to look just as soft as can be.   We'll be making this one at my March 13 Scraps and Prayers Class, so I'll wait until then to share how I did it.

Usually, at my Open House parties that involve any kind of new catalog, I play a little guessing game contest and have everyone try to guess my new favorite stamp set.  At my March Open House Party, I won't be able to play that game.  The reason is that I love our new Dragonfly Dreams stamp set so much that there's no way I could hide it.  It wouldn't be much of a game:)  I'll confess right now ... that's my favorite stamp set and I think I'll love it forever!  I will come up with some other new game to play, so we won't miss out on the fun.  In the meantime, I'm making tons of cards and projects with this gorgeous stamp set and coordinating dies, but having to do it a bit at a time or my back goes into spasms that are absolutely no fun at all.

Today's card is done with all soft colors in mind.  I don't use Wisteria Wonder nearly enough and knew it would be beautiful for this card.  I've actually gone back and forth between very bright and vivid colors for this stamp set and very soft colors for it.  I've loved them all.

I added Wink of Stella to the wings.

I love the soft, muted look of the stamped background.

I really like how this card turned out.  I'll have to think of some more cards to make using Wisteria Wonder.

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top to see my class schedules. 

- Look on the left for sneak peeks and registration policies. 

- Please sign up to follow my blog and/or leave a comment. 

- Come  back often for more creative inspiration. 

Copper Embossing Card and a Special Surprise

I am happy to be back to sharing with you today after a week's illness.  I have a heat embossed card for you, using our new Copper EP.  Love it! 

My color story:
Night of Navy
Crumb Cake
Copper (heat embossing)

My special surprise ... 
How did I get the copper pearls?  I colored 3 pearls, using a Copper Sharpie.  Super fun and super easy!!!

I'll be working all day today, to catch up on projects for my next classes.  Be sure to check out some fun sneak peeks soon!

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top to see my class schedules. 

- Look on the left for sneak peeks and registration policies. 

- Please sign up to follow my blog and/or leave a comment. 

- Come  back often for more creative inspiration. 

I See Music, Part 2

Sometimes, when I have a completed card or project up on display in my studio, I get an idea of something more I can do with it.  That's what happened with my 'I See Music' card.  I was working with some DSP that had bold black and white stripes and my little brain said:  "Piano keys!" so I had to go back to my card and add a strip of 'piano keys' to the inside.  Super fun!!!

Click here to see my first post: 
http://nannastamps.blogspot.com/2016/06/i-see-music.html

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top to see my class schedules. 

- Look on the left for sneak peeks and registration policies. 

- Please sign up to follow my blog and/or leave a comment. 

- Come  back often for more creative inspiration. 

Crazy Fun Flirty Flamingo Work of Art Card

I used some odds and ends of old products from my 'stash' to add to all my SU goodies and created this super fun card.  This card features all the new In Colors --- on my artist palette.  I added Crystal Effects over each of the paint palette colors to give them dimension and some shiny goodness.

The text and the background speckles are embossed with gold EP.

I offset the top layer, just to give it some added interest and added a ribbon between the card layers.  In the close-up, you can see that I added ink and Crystal Effects to the tip of the brush to make it look liked it had been dipped into some of the paints.  I colored in the part of the brush between the handle and the bristles with a silver metallic marker.

This was super fun!

I still have two openings for Saturday's class:

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top to see my class schedules. 

- Look on the left for sneak peeks and registration policies. 

- Please sign up to follow my blog and/or leave a comment. 

- Come  back often for more creative inspiration. 

Going Global Card

Here's a sneak peek at the 3rd Make and Take for my Spring Open House Party.  This one is done using a Crumb Cake note card set.   I wanted to show off our new embossing folder --- World Traveler.  It's a great one.

I lightly sponged over the raised areas of the embossed piece to bring out the beautiful texture.  This larger stamp (Going Global) is great for the envelope and the inside of the card.

Adding the Linen Thread before attaching the heart focal piece just adds a lot of interest to the card.  Linen Thread is one of my favorite 'go to' embellishments.

Other sets that coordinate with this embossing folder:
Going Global
This set is in our Spring Occasions Catalog.
World Map
Traveler
The Open Sea
These sets are all in our Annual Catalog

If you live in the area, I hope you'll contact me to come join us for the party.  If I receive your RSVP before the end of the day today, I'll have a free gift awaiting you at the party. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration. 

Balloon Birthday Cards

Are you ready for more birthday cards today?  These could even be changed to be a cute note card for most any occasion, just by changing the sentiment.

I've made male and female versions.

The sponging is done with Melon Mambo and Island Indigo.  I used a very light touch to bring out the raised embossed areas.  I love this new embossing folder.

I colored in the balloons with my Aqua Painter and reinkers.

After the coloring on the balloon dried, I went over it again with Wink of Stella.  These were also cards that I needed to make in multiples (See previous post.) and they went together fairly quickly.

I've been trying to work ahead a bit for upcoming classes and my Spring/Open House Party.  Keep checking back to see sneak peeks of lots of super fun projects.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration. 

In the Meadow Birthday Cards

For the male version of last month's birthday cards for my church to send, I pulled out a brand new stamp set.  Our In the Meadow stamp set has beautiful nature stamps.   I knew I'd love this set.

For this set of cards, I broke out my new Japanese watercolors set.  Sorry I can't site the name, but I don't read Japanese.  They are wonderful colors.

I mixed some of the colors in my little paint dish.  I used my Aqua Painter instead of a paint brush because it was within reach and I was used to using it all the time.  It's becoming almost a reflex to grab it for projects:)

I used 2 designs from my S-A-B Wildflower Fields DSP.  This is beautiful paper! 

I embossed the greeting.  It's fun to do this directly onto DSP, when you have a design that will let it show up to easily read it.

I varied how I used the baker's twine on each design, just for fun.  And, yes, this is the SAME DSP as I used in my previous post for a female version of a birthday card.

Whenever I make birthday cards for our church to send out, I always make an extra of each design to display in my studio.  Sadly, I forgot to make extra of these, so you can only see them here.  I'll revisit this stamp set soon and whip up another design or two.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration. 

Botanicals Birthday Cards

I made 2 batches of birthday cards using our new Botanicals products.  Today, I'll share two female versions of my cards.

I used two color stories, with 2 different DSP designs.

As always, all my supplies are listed at the end of each blog post.

Using Wink of Stella for the flower center, keeps it easier to mail.  Since I made these for our church to send out for our birthdays this month, I didn't want them to have to pay extra postage for mailing them.

I absolutely love the new Botanical Builder Framelits Dies.  They are at the top of my list of favorites!

These will surely be a day brightener for the lucky recipients.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.