More Gnome Fun!

Last week I shared one of my gnome cards using a new set of stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry called Fairy Garden.  Well today I have a couple more cards using this set...

This card was stamped on a bit of watercolor paper that I had taped off the edges.  After it was stamped n colored I removed the tape and splattered a bit more of the sky blue over the entire panel.

I had fun with color on this card. I stamped the circles all over the card using various colors of VersaMagic (chalk) ink.  After I had them all stamped I went back and stamped the images inside each circle with VersaFine Clair ink. Finally I stamped little sentiment and added the die-cut "hello".

Hope you all have a lovely week!

A Little Gnome Told Me....

August 1st, 2018!!!

Can you believe it?

I don't know where the year has gone...

It sure doesn't feel like  it should be August already.

Well I thought I'd share the first of a little series of Gnome cards I've made for you all...

A little gnome told me that

Gnome is where the Heart is.

And here are 3 little guys to prove it! 

I had so much fun making this card using stamps from the Fairy Garden set. I started off by stamping the stump from the Budding Spring UM set, from there I stamped the 3 little Gnomes and went on from there. Everything was watercolored after I was satisfied with all of the little mushrooms, critters and such.  This is such a fun stamp set I don't know if I'll be able to wait to show you the other cards I made.

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Fairy Garden, Whispers from the Garden, Budding Spring 
Imagine - VersaFine Clair

Kuretake Watercolors
Watercolor Paper

Cardstock

MFT - Stitched edge rectangle die

Watercolor Cotton Card

Hope all of my USA friends had a nice holiday yesterday.  It was a scorcher but we all made it through.

I have been wanting the cotton set of stamps from Altenew since they came out.  Well I finally got them and couldn't wait to play...

We were recently down in Alabama and got to see real cotton in the fields. I was able to purchase a couple stalks of cotton at a flea mall (that's what they call them down there...that's a whole nother story) and they are in a vase on my kitchen table.  I love it...it's so organic, just beautiful.

So I saw that this weeks challenge at  CAS on Friday/Sunday (it's called both for some reason) is #136 Watercolor so I thought I'd give it a go.

The "frame" around part of the cotton was just a swish of water then a bit of color added.  So easy yet very striking don't you think?

Supplies:

Altenew - Cotton Stamps

Watercolor Paper

Imagine - VersaFine Clair - Acorn & Nocturne
Prima - Watercolor Confections

Niji Waterbrush

Spread Your Wings...

Hello Friends!  I hope you're all having a lovely week so far.  Today I wanted to share a piece that I made just for the heck of it.  A bit of Art Therapy if you will.  It's been a stressful couple of weeks and I just wanted to stamp and ink and futz around so that's just what I did.  I had no real plan so this took a few days to come together but I am so happy with how it turned out.....

Stamps - Lost Coast Designs - Butterflies, Butterfly Lady, Circles Background
Rinea - Oma's Postcard (writing)
Viva Las Vegas - artys elements (can't find the names on their web-site...too many stamps to sort through)

So I am playing with my Marabu Art Crayons again...

they are just too much fun!

A bit of scribbling, blending

water spritz - but as you'll note in the photo below, this was covered.

And here's how it turned out.
I should note that this is a piece of foam core board.

Before I added color I used a piece of tape to tear away a couple of the top layers of paper just to give it some character.  You can sort of see it in this photo.

Used a pretty stencil from Club Scrap to pick up some of the color off of the board.

This is what it looked like...

Now, here is where I really started getting into it and forgot to take photos of the process.

I added several layers of stamping using VersaFine Clair Morning Mist, Golden Meadow, Summertime (orange) and Tulip Red.

I then spritzed the left 2/3rds with Frost Shimmer Spritz.  I adds the shimmer of glitter without having to explain why there is glitter everywhere ;)  LOL!!

Next I spread some Creative Medium through a stencil and let it partially dry. I then sprinkled on metal leafing flakes and used a paint brush to gently brush away the excess.  

I then applied VersaMark ink around the edges and embossed using Seth Apter's Rocky Road Baked Texture EP.  LOVE this stuff!

I stamped the butterfly fairy, water colored her plus a few extra tiny butterflies.
She and the sentiment were the affixed to the panel.

A few more looks

You can see the Shimmer Spritz near the tiny butterfly and "wings" area.

Amazing texture from the Rocky Road huh?

Hope you enjoyed the journey...

Supplies:

Imagine - Shimmer Spritz; VersaMark; VersaFine Clair - Nocturne, Morning Mist, Summertime, Tulip Red, Golden Meadow, Creative Medium
Lost Coast Designs - Butterflies, Butterfly Lady, Circles Background
Rinea - Oma's Postcard Stamp
VivaLasVegasStamps - Art circle, Dots, BubbleWrap
Marabu - Art Crayons
Seth Apter - Rocky Road Embossing Powder
Club Scrap - Flower Stencil
Kuretake Watercolors
Prima Watercolor Confections
Stencil
Double Stick Tape 

Marabu Art Crayons

Hello Friends!  Recently I've been seeing lots of fun new mediums from Marabu and one that particularly caught my eye were their new art crayons. Similar to Gelatos and other water soluble color mediums I couldn't help but wonder if they were different.  Well, recently Joggles* had an amazing sale on them so I snagged 4 different sets of colors. 

*Note - I am not being compensated for posting a link to Joggles...they just have REALLY great sales and I shouldn't be the only one spending my $'s there - LOL!!  ;)  Always happy to help out spending your art $'s too!

So what's the scoop....  First off I have to say that these are the creamy-est sticks I have ever tried! Far smoother than the rest. There is also LOTS of product in this lipstick style tube making them a great bargain.  I will be doing a side-by-side comparison very soon but I just whipped up this card with some goodies laying on my table...

I just scribbled some color onto kraft colored cardstock.

Swished the medium around with a watercolor brush and then stamped over top with VersaFine Clair inks and Joy Clair stamps.  So easy and the colors are so vibrant even on the kraft. I can see these being loads of fun in the near future!

Supplies:

Marabu Art Crayons
Imagine - VersaFine Clair Inks
Joy Clair - Happy 4th
Waterbrush
Kraft Cardstock

Spring Flowers Challenge

Hello Friends!

I hope you're having a good day today. 

I wanted to share the new April challenge over on 

Just For Fun Rubber Stamps...Spring Flowers!

I wanted to share a few...o.k. several flower cards with you...

Hope you stop by and give it a try!

Supplies:

Just For Fun Rubber Stamps - all images n sentiments

Imagine - Memento Dye Inks, Memento Dual Tip Markers, VersaMark, Clear Embossing Powder, On Point Glue, irREISTible Pico Embellisher, Sponge Daubers

Kuretake Watercolor Paints 

Niji Watercolor Brush

Painting Negative Space

Oh my...recently I saw a really cool video from The Pigeon Letters - Peggy Dean where she painted the negative space instead of an image.  It was very inspiring and despite never having tried it before I wanted to give it a shot.  It's way harder that I thought it would be.  I made 2 so far and I like the first one the best (orange). 

I did far better on my first attempt because I actually drew out what I wanted it to look like on paper before I began.  The pink version was just painting stuff...no real plan to go by.  I often have a war  going on between the left brain/ right brain. One side of my brain is very organized and I like to have structure - a plan - a guide if you will but then the art side wants to be free and just do whatever. It makes it difficult to actually produce what I see in my head.  This is one exercise I need to continue with so I can mesh both into one.

I started off with the yellow...

And added the pink. 

You can see some of my ideas didn't quite work out...the upper R flower was supposed to be spikey but my brush was way too wet, I ran the flower in the upper L a little too close to the edge so I had to smoosh it up a bit.  I do however like how my tulip and a couple of the leaves turned out.

Now see how a pro does it....

The Pigeon Letters - Painting Negative Space

Sweet Song of Spring...

Happy Friday!  Today I wanted to share some fun I had recently with Rubber Stamp Tapestry's new stamp set Sweet Song of Spring.  I was so inspired by this set of stamps that I decided to create little scenes by incorporating a bit of free-hand drawing and watercolor painting with the stamps...here's what I came up with...

My first card I made this little home for the Spring robin...I wanted to give him a nice secluded home in a secret garden to live. All of the flowers and foliage were stamped using VersaFine Clair then embossed with clear EP.  The bird was stamped using VersaFine ink and I drew the birdhouse and pole in free-hand.  The remainder of the image was watercolored using Kuretake Watercolor.  The sentiment is from Club Scrap.

This card is my attempt at a clean and simple watercolor card...not sure if it fits the "C&S" police term but it's pretty simple for me.  I started off by penciling in the mailbox to give myself a rough idea on where to add the foliage.  Next I stamped the greenery and added the flowers with VersaFine Clair inks.  I then went back and watercolored the mailbox and pole.  The final step was adding the sentiment (Club Scrap).   I messed up though - I wanted to sit the bird on top of the mailbox but my proportions were off and he looked like a giant next to the mailbox so I left him off ;)  LOL!!

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Sweet Song of Spring
Imagine - VersaFine Clair
Kuretake Watercolors
Club Scrap - Sentiments

Sparkle & Shine

Hello my inky friends!

I hope you're week has been going great so far. Today I wanted to share a few cards using one of Rubber Stamp Tapestry's newest sets - Sparkle & Shine!  I love these stamps because the flowers come in multiple sizes AND there are solids and outline images - perfect blend for all sorts of projects.

My first card I made a grid pattern using a pencil and ruler to place dots where I wanted the flowers to be located. I stamped the solid and outline flowers both using VersaFine Clair Warm Breeze then stamped the leaves with  VFC Verdant.  I sprinkled clear ep over the entire panel and embossed.  I added faux gemstones in multiple colors of blue over top.  The sentiment (clubscrap.com) was stamped on a banner which was affixed to the card with double stick foam tape.

I love this card...it's one of my fav's, so easy but it turned out so pretty.  The flowers were all stamped with VF Clair as were the leaves.  I stamped the sentiment along the bottom then flicked a lavender watercolor paint over the panel.

My final example looks a bit tropical don't you think?  It was a total surprise because it wasn't at all what I was going for.  My original intent was to do something similar to the circle card I made yesterday where the circles were "bouncing" along.  When I started stamping I just got carried away and it ended up like this...that sometimes happens - LOL!! Does that ever happen to you?

So there you go - can you tell I was having fun with it?

Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did making them.

Have a great day friends!!

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Sparkle & Shine

Imagine - VersaFine Clair; Clear Embossing Powder

ClubScrap.com - Sentiments

Prima- Watercolor

Cardstock

Gemstones

Happy Halloween!

Hope you have a wonderfully spooky day my friends!!