Faux Watercolor in Rich Razzleberry with Tutorial

Rich Razzleberry is another color that I forget to use more often.  It truly is beautiful.  Looking back at a couple of posts, I realize that I've unconsciously put forth an effort to use more of a variety of colors.  We can't have any colors feeling left out.  Right?  Today's card is done with a Faux Watercolor Technique.  I love how it turned out. 

I've seen several versions and varieties of this technique and decided that this leaf stamp would lend itself very nicely to this technique.

Here's how you do it:
- Cut a strip of watercolor paper to use for your card.
- Stamp a leaf image using Rich Razzleberry ink.
- Immediately color in the leaf using an Aqua Painter.
- Continue stamping, one leaf at a time, and coloring it in.
- Stamp off for a few of the leaves, to create a lighter image.
- Color in the leaf after stamping off, as well.
- Stamp a few 'speckles' (Gorgeous Grunge) with VersaMark ink.
- Emboss the speckles in gold.
- Add a text and emboss it in gold, as well.
Want even more sparkle?
- Try coloring in a few of the leaves with Clear Wink of Stella.   
Why do you need to color each leaf immediately after stamping it? 
If you stamped all the leaves before coloring, they would dry before you could 'spread' the ink with your Aqua Painter.  You would lose the effect of them being watercolored. 

I could have added other embellishments but, when I tried them on the card, I decided I liked this one just clean and simple.
Tip:
Be sure your Aqua Painter is not too wet or you'll have a real watercolor mess instead of a faux watercolor:)

Can you think of other color stories and/or other stamps that would work well for this technique?  If you come up with some, be sure to share.  

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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.

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Blooming Trees

... and just like that, Winter is over (in my head) and the trees are starting to bloom.  I know, I'm probably a little crazy right now.  It is actually 66 here in Central Illinois right now, so it's impossible to not have a bit of Spring Fever.

For this card, I die cut the tree background from watercolor paper and then sponged it with ink.  I rather like the look.  It's different:)

I punched the 'leaves' using my mini heart punch, cut each heart in half, and then shaped them with my paper snips.

The little blooms are from a mini punch, as well.

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My Last Winter Card for This Season

I really mean it.  This is my last card for Winter.  We've been having some unusually warm weather lately, here in Central Illinois.  It's 61 here right now:)  This makes me want all the more to get into Spring.  Well... I can dream:)

This is a subtle tribute to Valentine's Day in that I used it for February birthdays.  Therefore, I added a tiny heart from glimmer paper.  Cute! 

I wanted the trees to have a nice texture, so I cut them from watercolor paper.

I promise you, I am finished with anything Winter ... cards, projects, decor ... anything.  I do like my card ... a lot ... it's just that I'm over Winter.

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My Next to the Last Winter Card for This Season

Before I share today's card project, I'd like to say a humble and sincere thank you to all those who have kept me in their thoughts and prayers.  Never underestimate the power of prayer!  I do have an entire list of serious problems with my back but I really like my new doctor (a spine specialist) and appreciate that he is taking a cautious approach by starting me on physical therapy.  After that, he'll evaluate my progress and see what the next step will be.  I'm hoping there will be no injections and no surgery.  Time will tell.  So... thank you, dear friends, and on to today's card project.

You may have figured out by now that I really do dislike Winter.  If I had my way, I would have it snow on Christmas Day ... one of those beautiful snows where the trees have snow clinging to every branch.  Kids of all ages could go sledding and build snowmen.  Then, I would want it to go right into Spring.  All the slush and messy melting would happen overnight and be gone by the time we got up the next day:)  I wouldn't even mind if it was in the 50's or 60's.  Then we would have a long, leisurely Summer (never above 90) followed by a long, leisurely Fall, in all it's glorious colors and textures.  Oh well, I can dream.  So, in honor of a season I wish was over, I'll share my next to the last winter card.

If you remember my tips for attaching vellum from one of my previous posts, you know how ugly it would look to attach this vellum with adhesive where it would show.  Instead, I chose a stitched rectangle frame to go over the outside edges of the vellum.  Problem solved! 

It's sad that some people have to celebrate a birthday in the Winter cold, but they still deserve a pretty card.  When you emboss vellum, it takes on an etched look --- very pretty.

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2017 Scriptures Calendar, Part Five

Today, I'm sharing the final pages of my Scriptures Calendar project.

I cut the string of little dragonflies out of vellum and sponged the back of them, to add color.  I heat set the sponged side, attached the dragonflies to my calendar page and then added Wink of Stella to them.

The beautiful snowglakes are cut from white glimmer paper.

I had one more favorite prayer that I wanted to include in my project.  I decided that it would be perfect for the final page.

This was a fun project and now I can enjoy it all year.

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2017 Scriptures Calendar, Part Four

Here we go with 3 more pages from my Scriptures Calendar.  I hope I'm inspiring you to try a project like this one.

The angel is a Tim Holtz die cut.  I wanted/needed something like this for the August page and this one worked great.  I sponged over the angel, added gold to her horn and white shimmer to her wing.

Believe it or not, the September page is the only page where I used stamping.  It's difficult to see, but I have a lot of mountains in the background.

Be sure to come back for my next post and see how I wrap up my sharing this project with you.

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2017 Scriptures Calendar, Part Three

Here are 3 more pages from my Scriptures Calendar for you to enjoy.

Once again, I enjoyed adding some die cuts to each page.  A lot of these had just arrived (in that wonderful brown truck:) so I enjoyed trying them out right away. They're all from our 2017 Spring Occasions Catalog.

All the scriptures are typed onto vellum CS and then wrapped around the back of the page to attach them.
Tip:
Never put adhesive directly onto vellum to attach it to your project.  It will show and ruin the entire look of your project.     

We're still not finished, so you'd better check back in for my next post.

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2017 Scriptures Calendar, Part Two

Here are a few more pages from my Scriptures Calendar.  

On these 3 pages, I enjoyed adding some die cuts.  

I painted my formerly red stand to coordinate with my 'revamped' studio. 

We're not finished yet, so come back for more:)

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2017 Scriptures Calendar, Part One

This year, I decided I wanted to make a Scriptures Calendar using our gorgeous Falling In Love, DSP.  I keep my calendar on my desk to inspire me each day as I prepare for my day's activities.  I chose some of my favorite scriptures for each page.

I began with a favorite prayer and quote.  They are quite inspirational.

... and then I began adding a page for each month.

In my next post, I'll share a few more pages.

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Hold On! Classes on hold / My life on hold...

You may have noticed that I've not been around much for several weeks now.  My new mantra ... Hold On.  I knew I was born with a bad back and come from a long line of bad backs, but mine chose this time to fail me .... big time.  I'm holding onto the idea of getting help and getting better.  It's not much fun.  I'm fighting a compression fracture, 2 ruptured disks and other problems too numerous to remember or need to share.  (My notes filled up an entire page!)  My spine is seriously arthritic.  I knew that I had stenosis of the spine for a long time now, but was living with it fairly well ... until now.  I'm so sad to say that I'm putting my February classes on hold for now, until I see what I find out from the next specialist I will see (on Monday).  He is a spine specialist, so he should be well used to dealing with messed up backs like mine.  I will keep you posted on my progress and my class schedule.  If you've earned a coupon, hold onto it until we see how this plays out.  I will make sure no one is forgotten.  I'm hoping you'll say a few little prayers for me.  I'd much rather be stamping than dealing with all this. 

Yay ... More Sale-A-Bration Goodies Coming Soon!

I just heard the news that 3 more wonderful Sale-A-Bration goodies are coming our way.  They all look amazing, especially more glimmer paper ... in 3 more colors!!!

These will be available on February 21 through March 31.  You can choose 1 free item for every $50. you spend (from our annual catalog and/or our Occasions catalog.  The fun just keeps getting better.

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