Hi everyone.  I'm going to take a break until January, so I will be posting cards that I made throughout the year that I couldn't fit into my post schedule.

Sharing two cards I made a while ago using the same stamp set.  The one above is coloured with Prismacolor pencils.

Stamped the leaf image a few times in soft brown on kraft paper for my main panel.  Stamped another leaf on a scrap of kraft and used my pencils to colours the leaves.  Fussy-cut leaf (it was a bit challenging) and adhered on top.  Stamped the sentiment in same ink as background leaves to pull it all together.

The second card ...
Started by adding white embossing paste through a tiny dot stencil for the background.  Stamped two leaves in kraft ink and heat embossed in clear.  Fussy-cut both leaves and smooshed in distress inks.  Cut a small strip of cork and stamped the sentiment on top.  Popped up the cork over the embossed background and tucked the stems of the leaves in behind.

Thanks for stopping by!






Stamps:  Leaves (AliExpress); Sentiment (unknown)
Paper:  White (Neenah 110 lb); Kraft (SU!)
Ink: Baked Brown Sugar (SU!)
Accessories & Tools: Prismacolour pencils, paper stump for blending

Please create a CAS watercoloured card including a Maple Leaf or Leaves.  Then join the linky on the challenge blog!

For my card above, I pulled out my very favourite maple leaf stamp that is about 20 years old.  It's called Gently Falling (Stampin' Up!).  I have used it so many times ... but it's been a while. :)  I wanted to have three maple leaves to celebrate our 3rd birthday. :)

This is a 2-part stamp.  I placed the "inside" of the leaf in my misti, inked with distress markers, spritzed with a little water and stamped onto mixed media paper.  I repeated until I was happy with the colours.  I did that three times.  I then lined up the outline stamp over top of the images and stamped in green.  The leaves were fussy-cut before adding to the card front along with a  thin (1/2") border of cork, securing the stems of the leaves underneath.  Finished the card by stamping a Penny Black sentiment using the same green ink I used on the leaves.

Close-up ...
I hope you'll check out the challenge blog to see the amazing watercoloured maple leaf cards from our fabulous Designers, and from our wonderful Guest Designer, Ros (Mikey's Mom).

The challenge is open until October 24th at midnight (Pacific Daylight Savings Time).

Hope to see you in the gallery!






Stamps:  Gently Falling (Stampin' Up!); special sentiments (Penny Black)
Paper:  Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.);  White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Crushed Olive, Wild Honey, Ripe Persimmon (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  water mister, cork

Challenges:
CAS Watercolour October Challenge - Maple Leaf

Hi everyone.  Today I'm excited to be a Guest Designer for STAMPloration's June CAS Challenge.  I have really enjoyed joining in their new CAS challenge which just started at the beginning of 2016.  I love that it is an anything goes, with an optional twist of colour.  Here's June's challenge ...




I have a lot of STAMPlorations stamps.  This is another freebie that I got with an order (yes, Shery is very generous!).  When I saw the optional twist was blue, I thought about ocean and blue sky, and immediately thought of this stamp that I've had for a while, but haven't inked up yet.  There's a lot of those in my studio. :)

I used a sprayed background from my background stash, masking the bottom and adding more blue watercolour paint to deepen the colour.  The bucket and shovel were watercoloured, fussy-cut and popped up on top of a torn piece of cork.  More cork was used to paper piece the piles of sand and sand in the bucket.

The sentiment (from the same freebie stamp set) is stamped in black.  A die-cut and popped up watercoloured sun finishes this fun, summery card.

Thanks so much to Shery and the girls for giving me this honour of being a Guest Designer this month for the CAS Challenge.  I hope you'll come play along. Anything goes, so as long as your card is CAS.

This is also perfect for the CAS Mix Up June Challenge - Die-cuts.  My CAS Mix Up card above uses a die-cut, stamping, sprays, watercolouring, masking, fussy-cutting, paper piecing, torn edge, and cork.


Thanks for stopping by!






Stamps:  Beach Life (STAMPlorations)
Paper:  White (Neenah); Mixed Media (Strathmore 400 series); Watercolour Paper (gift from Shirl)
Ink:  Black Archival (Ranger); Black (Memento); Zigs
Accessories & Tools:  Blue watercolour spray from Liquid Concentrate Watercolour (Dick Blick), masking tape, white gel pen, cork, Sunshine small die (Lil' Inkers)

Challenges:
STAMPlorations June CAS Challenge
CAS Mix Up June Challenge - Die-cuts

Hi everyone.  Today I'm sharing a birthday card that I gave to my son-in-law, Alex. His birthday isn't for a couple more weeks, but they are heading for a long weekend away in Seattle soon and wanted to give him some $$ to treat himself while he was there. :)

I made this background a long time ago and was waiting to use it for someone very special ... and that's Alex! :)  I made the background using the Saturated Watercolouring technique (click link to see my video tutorial on this).  It is basically smooshing using re-inkers so that you get more vibrant (or saturated) colours. :)

I used turquoise and orange reinkers for this and was really happy how it turned out. There's always a risk when using complementary colours (opposites on the colour wheel), as sometimes they will mix together and you end up with a brown, muddy mess.  You'll see that there are a little bits of brown in spots, but I'm happy with it.

I added more layers by stamping script over top in medium brown, and then added a stencil, randomly covered in matte heavy gel.  It's hard to see, but it adds another layer.  I popped up the watercolour panel onto some cream linen-textured paper that was a gift from my friend Christine (thanks Christine!).  To finish the card I added two die-cut cork leaves and stamped sentiment.

I'm entering this into Virginia's View #17 - All Things Embellished.



Hope you enjoyed my card and thanks for coming by for a visit.








Paper:  Cream Linen (Spicers), Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar; Re-inkers:  Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  water mister, Cubist stencil (Crafter's Workshop), matte heavy gel (Golden), Meadow Leaf die (Poppy Stamps), cork

Virginia's View #17 - All Things Embellished

Hi everyone.  Sharing a card I made a little while ago to celebrate my oldest son's birthday.  I wanted to make a CAS card for him, and I thought he'd love the crackled oak leaves.  The strip of cork adds lots of texture.

Also thought I'd share a recent photo of Cooper (Evan's son).  He's eleven month old now ... time is flying by! :)  This was taken at the end of October .... :)






Hope you're all having a great weekend!  :)



Paper:  White (Neenah); Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Black Archival (Ranger);  Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Fired Brick, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain (Distress Inks - Tim Holtz); Early Espresso (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Water brushes, Cork, Rock Candy Clear Crackle Paint (Tim Holtz), paint brush

Hi everyone.  Today is the start of the new challenge from ATS&M - #106 - Anything Goes.  This is one of the most popular challenges because it's wide open for you to make any type of card/project you'd like.






I did a little experimenting recently and this is what I ended up with :)  The cork sheets I bought have a backing sheet that gets removed to expose a sticky surface. The cork is fairly thin and pliable, so I first mounted my rectangle of cork onto a white card stock piece the same size to make it sturdy.  Then I swiped my distress ink pad (Vintage Photo) on the inside of an embossing folder (raised pattern side).  I placed my cork on top and ran it through my big shot.  The pattern was embossed and inked at the same time - love how it turned out.

Because there is a lot of design with the embossing pattern, I wanted to keep the rest of the card very simple.  I added a two-layer butterfly, with the top layer coated in Wink of Stella for some glittery shine.  A simple sentiment finishes the card.

Here's a close-up of the card so hopefully you can see the cork design better ...









And while I was at it, I made a second card ...





The challenge is open for one week.  I hope you'll join us ... click here to check out the challenge and see the rest of the DT's beautiful cards.






Stamps:  A Little Sentimental (Clearly Besotted
Paper:  110 lb. white (Neenah); black (SU!)
Ink:  Vintage Photo (Distress Ink by Tim Holtz); Black (Memento)
Accessories & Tools:  Cork, Musical Flourish embossing folder (Cuttlebug), Moonlight and Kaleidoscope Butterfly dies (Memory Box), Clear Wink of Stella

Hi everyone.  Today's card is for the Splitcoaststampers CAS challenge (#266 - design seeds color chart - still life blues).  Don't you just love these colors - they are so pretty!!



I really wanted to watercolor, so decided to pull out my favorite two-step stamps from Stampin' Up! - Gently Falling.  This set is perfect for using with watercolor paper.  I inked my solid stamp (using markers) with three shades of blue from the color palette, misted with water and stamped onto watercolor paper.  Once dry, I used the dark blue to ink the outline stamp, misted with water and stamped overtop ... using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line things up.

I fussy cut the leaves and layered them on top of a piece of cork ... I'm happy with how this turned out.  But I can just imagine my son saying "Blue leaves Mom ... really??!" :)  Thank goodness we can take creative license with our images and colors because I LOVE my blue leaves :)



On another subject ...  I'm going to share a photo of my beautiful grandson, Cooper which was taken a couple of weeks ago.  It's not the best because there are shadows from his bassinet, but I LOVE the look on his face - makes me smile.  He's so happy and content ... and he brings so much joy to our family :)











Stamps:  Gently Falling (SU!); Autumn Sentiments (Amy R)
Paper:  White (Neenah); Watercolor
Ink:  Soft Sky, Baja Breeze, Island Indigo (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Water mister, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Cork


Challenges:
SCS CAS #266

Hi everyone.  I have a simple CAS card to share with you today that covers three challenges - love when that happens! :)

This is for the Less Is More challenge (#159 - masculine), CAS on Sunday (#27 - masculine), and the CAS[E] this sketch! (#64 - sketch by N@ Ali).

Here's the sketch:



I just bought some cork sheets and wanted to give them a try.  They have an adhesive backing which makes them really easy to use.

I went with a graphic design today, creating a rectangular panel that has one side (exactly half) with a piece of cork.  I die-cut the leaf and then glued the stem on the right edge of the cork.  Since the panel was fairly large, I went with a small sentiment to balance it out.

Easy and quick card to make.





Stamps:  Bitty Birthday (SU!)
Paper:  White, Black
Ink:  Black
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Meadow Leaf die (Poppy Stamps), cork adhesive sheets, Stamp-a-ma-jig


Challenges:
Less is More - #159 - masculine
CAS on Sunday - #27 - masculine
CAS[E] this sketch! - #64 - sketch by N@ Ali