Hello from hot-hot-hot Florida

Hello!  It's been awhile since I posted, but it's been a busy summer. And hot. Extremely hot. The temps have been hovering near the 100 degree mark for a couple of weeks.  It's brutal.  So I made couple of seashore cards to help cool off.

This card was mostly sponged for the sand and the sky. The lighthouse was stamped and cut out and has pop dots to give it dimension.

The adirondack chairs are embossed with white embossing powder. The rest sky, sea and sand are watercolored. The sea gull is stamped with white Brilliance ink. I used a white Pitt's artist pen to make the white caps and the waves breaking on the shore.  The sea oats are stamped with kraft dye ink.

Pretty simple cards.  I hope you enjoy.

These cards were submitted to the Mod Squad Challenge.

Birthday Challenge

Good morning!

I am having so much fun entering challenges at the Mod Squad Challenge Blog.  The challenge this week is to make a birthday card.  Here are the two I made. I hope you (and they) like them.

For the first card I masked off a piece of white cardstock and sponged ink on the right hand side. Then I used a script stamp and stamped over the sponged ink. I wasn't careful and didn't care if the script stamp was perfect or not, but it gives the look two layers, a white one that's stamped over a tan one with script. The other stamps were stamped on the white cardstock and colored with copic and spectrum noir markers. The flower, sentiment and butterfly are Gina K. Design stamps, the flourish is Cherry Pie Art Stamps, and the script is unknown.

For the second card I made a latch card, which was just featured on Splitcoast Stampers yesterday.  It was fun to make, and in retrospect I would put a butterfly where the latch flower is, but since this was my first attempt, I'm happy.  The flowers and sentiment are from Gina K. Designs.  

Hope you like my entries.

Another challenge entry

Good morning.  I got to play some this weekend (it was my birthday), and I made another card for the Mod Squad Challenge .  I never really entered challenges before because I just didn't have time to figure out what I was doing, then do it, then post it, but these are kinda fun.

Anyway, the challenge was to use 2 or more sets of stamps in the entry.  I used two of Melanie Muenchinger's stamp sets, which are available from Gina K. Designs.  The first was Triple Play Frame, and the other was Gifts from the Sea.  I love both sets, so it was easy to combine them.

Here is my entry:

 

I embossed the turquoise cardstock then bunched it with a circle punch to fit in the circles.  The shells are cut out and popped up, and the gems between are turquoise.  I put a tiny bit of glitter on the sand part to reflect the light (but you can't see it here).  I love the way this card turned out and have just the person in mind to receive it.  :-)

My other entry I made last week also uses the Triple Play Frame, Fabulous Frame, and the Flowers and Frame Stamp TV Kit. I don't know who made the script stamp.  I just rotated the Triple Frame Stamp to get the side view.  I punched the butterflies and but little gems on them. The flowers have gold micro beads for the centers.  They are popped up off the fram.

I hope you have enjoyed, and I hope you get to do something crafty today.

More watercolors....

I had to do it....

I made a couple more watercolored DTS (Direct-to-stamp) cards for the challenge over at the Mod Squad Challenge Blog.

The first one uses the carnation stamp from the Frames and Flowers Stamp TV kit from Gina K Designs.  I used markers to watercolor the image and spritzed with water before stamping on cardstock.  I like the crisp, clean image and the clean and simple card.  I bought this set as an anniversary present to myself. (Today's my anniversary).

The next card features the same seashell stamped 3 different times with different colored markers. I matted on black then on white cardstock. 

The last card also features a rose stamp from the Frames & Flowers Stamp TV kit, Gina K. Designs. The underneath part of the rose is stamped with inks that have been spritzed with water, then the top part used a different color ink. The same goes for the leaves.  Two-step watercoloring. 

 :-)

I hope you have enjoyed my final watercoloring endeavors. I really like the look, so I'm sure you haven't seen the last of it.  But enough for now.

I hope you get to do something crafty today.

Watercolors

Hello!  I've been playing with my watercolors again.  There is just something that I like about the look that I love, and even though I haven't mastered the technique yet, I'm getting closer.  I just need to practice more (a good excuse to stamp, I'm thinking).

I wanted to enter the Mod Squad Challenge, so this is what I came up with:

I used a Hero Arts stamp and colored it with markers.  Then I spritzed it and stamped it on a watercolored background.  I spattered the blue with my paintbrush.  I love the softness.  It's just a clean and simple card, and I like that the watercolored image is the focal point.

The next card is on a watercolored background.  I used the flowers from Gina K Designs Frames and Flowers kit and a Heidi Swapp sentiment.  The centers of the flowers are watercolored and I used gold micro beads for the centers.

The next card is also from the Frames & Flowers set from Gina K. Designs.  I colored the carnation stamp with markers and stamped, then I stamped the jar with a black Palette stamp pad and watercolored the water, along with more watercolors on the carnation.

On the following card I heat embossed the image with black embossing powder then watercolored the background.  I like the way it turned out.

The fish stamp from My Paper Moon was stamped with Noir (black) Palette ink. I have found it doesn't run like the Memento ink when it's spritzed with water.  I watercolored the fish and his background, then matted it and placed it on a watercolor splatted background. I used various shades of blue sequins for the air bubbles.

So, as you can see, I got to play a little bit this weekend.  Practice makes perfect, so I'm hoping to get a little more practice in this week.  :-)

I hope you get to be crafty this week!

Watercolor Drips

Good afternoon and Happy Friday!  I hope to do some stamping and crafting this weekend, but we shall see...I also would like to go fishing with my husband and just chill out.

I was looking on the internet for some techniques to use with my Gelato's, and I fell in love with this technique. And it's really simple.

I just applied gesso to plain white cardstock, and let dry. Then I scribbled different colors of gelatos on the top.  I kind of blended them together with my fingers a little bit so there wouldn't be any bare spots.  Then I spritzed with water and held the cardstock up so the water would run down the page. Let dry. While I was waiting for my card to dry, I punched butterflies from white cardstock and colored them with markers to match the water drips. I added a few sequins in the same color to add a little texture and interest.  I stamped "fun" on white cardstock with a blue ink, but it didn't show up very well, so I overstamped it with black ink, punched it out and layered it on a larger circle.  Card is complete and can be used for a birthday, anniversary, mother's day, thinking of you, or just about any occasion.  You could use any color scheme for the drips, then punch out or stamp flowers, leaves, balloons, or other fun images to make fun cards.

I hope you've enjoyed my card today, and you have a fabulous weekend. Till next time...

Envelope Art

Hello.

I love making decorated envelopes, and found myself with a little time recently, so here are my latest two creations.  I hope you like them.

I colored both envelopes with markers. The bottom envelope also has glitter on the bubbles and some of the seashells.