I'm back, twice in one evening!! Had a very productive weekend at my Mum's, with lots of watercolour practice and the 'Anything Goes' theme at the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge is a great way to show you what I've been up too!
As I've mentioned a few times, my watercolouring skills are lacking ALOT and I get so frustrated not being able to get the colours in my head to be the same on my design. I've had a lot of tips sent to me recently from some incredible crafters and they have helped a lot.
I had a stamp set that I purchased second-hand a few months ago and hadn't used it at all, so what a fab way to give it some love and to practice my watercolouring:
For the first time ever I was able to get the paint to look how I wanted it and I'm in love with the finished result!! Yippee!!!!
I started by cutting a panel of watercolour CS the same size as my card base. I used a long, wavy image stamp from Waffle Flower 'Doily Circle' to heat emboss in white a frame around the edge of the panel. It fitted perfectly along the long edges and I only stamped the '3 humps' with Versamark ink to fit in the end gaps.
Using a water brush I wet the wavy areas one at a time. I then added the purple from a Zig Real Color Brush Pen along the heat embossed edge and faded the colour towards the outside edge. I then did the same with another Zig Brush Pen in blue, keeping the colour concentrated by the heat embossing and bringing the colour into the middle of the card. Once this had dried I adhered it to the card base.
The doily image was stamped and heat embossed in white on a piece of watercolour CS. I used the same blue and purple pens, along with a pink pen, fading the colours out. Once it had dried I fussy cut it out and popped it on some foam tape.
The 'celebrate' die (also from Waffle Flower) was die-cut from a dark pink CS and then twice more from black CS. I glued these all together and then on top of the doily. I then added lots of Wink of Stella to it. The sentiment (from Waffle Flower 'Congrats') was heat embossed in white on a strip of black CS, glued in place along with some sequins from Neat and Tangled.
I used to hate using the Zig pens but now I know how to use them a bit better, I think we are going to become friends....which means I might have to purchase some more.......eeek!
I'm also going to link this to the AAA Card Challenge #118 where the theme is 'Use a frame'. Hopefully my heat embossed frame will suffice....
My electric blanket is calling my name and need to tuck the kids in bed. Phoebe has said that a lot of her friends (she is 13yrs old) don't get tucked into bed anymore, the parents don't even know when they go to sleep. I think that's so sad and as long as Phoebe and Max want me too, I'm there with bells on. I have some of my best conversations with the kids at bedtime and wouldn't miss it for the world!!
Take care
Shona
Hi everybody!! Its Wednesday night here so that means its past halfway thru the week. Its been an incredibly cold one with this morning having a -3.3 degrees celcius frost!! I usually start gardening around 9.30am but had to push it out to 10.45am so I didn't freeze to death. As it was some of the ground was still frozen at 1.30pm!!
I spent this past weekend staying with my Mum and making LOTS of cards. It was a good chance to use some of the new stamps I've collected over the past few months and also try out a few designs and techniques I've had squirreled away in my brain. And with this weeks theme being 'Anything Goes' at the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge it means I can link all my experiments!
I find inspiration all over the place and one of my favourites is magazines about houses which cover interior, exterior, gardens and art. I recently saw this plate in a Your Homes and Garden mag:
I thought there was something really cool about the middle plate design, especially having the light pink background. I wondered if I could create a similar card:
Can you see the plate in this design?? I hope so. It was so much fun to do, not using a sketch or colour combo. And gave me a chance to use some older stamps and dies that haven't seen love in a while....
I started by die-cutting a circle of pink CS using a die from Couture Creations. I grabbed two stamp sets from Waffle Flower - 'Loved' and 'Leafy' and using similar colours to the plate, stamped images over the circle.
When I had finished I thought the circle on the card front looked a bit bare, so I die-cut the Waffle Flower 'Doily Square Die' from white CS and adhered to the card front. I then popped the circle on some foam tape.
For a bit of interest I used my Nuvo Crystal Drops in White to add some details to the flowers. The sentiment (from Waffle Flower 'Balloon Messages') was heat embossed in white on black CS, fussy cut out and put on foam tape. No need for sequins for this one for a change!!
Its dinnertime here so better go and rustle something up. I can hear the fire roaring behind me but unfortunately it doesn't really come into my little craft corner. I need a little heater under my desk but in the meantime I'll continue colouring and stamping from my bed where I can sit on my electric blanket!!
Take care
Shona
I've been sitting on this info for months and can finally scream it from the rooftops. I'm one of the July Guest Designers at Your Next Stamp!!
A few months ago one of my cards was spotted by Your Next Stamp and they put it on their blog. I was so excited and happy they liked it. A few days later I received an email inviting me to be a Guest Designer.....and of course I said yes!!
So you will get a whole month of me using their gorgeous products and even participating in the New Release. I'm so honoured to have been asked and really hope to do them proud!
My 'Welcome Post' is up on the Your Next Stamp Blog today with this card and a little blurb about myself:
You will have seen me use this stamp before, its one of my favourites because her name is Phoebe (the same as my daughter...), so she is extra-special to me!! All of the stamp images for this card come from the Phoebe and her Wagon set.
To start off I stamped the two paw images in black all over the card front. I then die-cut a circle (using die from Couture Creations) from Strathmore Bristol Smooth CS. Using the MFT Stamps 'Radiating Rays' stencil and my mini-blending tool with Distress Ink 'Picked Raspberry', I coloured it over the circle. I then turned the stencil a little so it slightly overlapped and blended again, this time more gently. The circle was then popped on foam tape on the card front.
Phoebe and her friends were stamped on white CS, coloured with pencils and then fussy cut out. I popped them on some foam tape for dimension. The sentiment was heat embossed in white on some black CS, which I adhered to some hot pink CS and created a frame. I put this on foam tape, along with some sequins from Neat and Tangled.
I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.
Thank you so much to Karen and the team for having me be part of the family this month. And I can't wait to share with you all the incredible products they have. I'll see you back here soon with another YNS project!!
Take care
Shona
