Colorfully Inspired!

Today’s card is again inspired by the colorfully creative Alex Syberia and this card I found on her Instagram feed!  I love the unusual size of the card and of course, the bold, bright colors!  So, I decided to make one similar to hers!

I began by cutting a four inch wide strip from a nine inch long watercolor pad, thus getting a 4″x9″ panel to work on.  I dusted it completely with my anti-static pouch in order to stamp Altenew’s Crown Bloom and Beautiful Day sprig using Brutus Monroe’s Gilded embossing powder.  I had to do a bit of masking to achieve the elongated design similar to Alex’s.

 

When my design was in place, I pulled out my darkest teal Zig marker and began by lightly “scribbling” a little color into each nook and cranny, then adding water with a water brush to soften and spread the color.  I did this section by section until the whole design was surrounded by a soft sea of color!  I decided to color my blossoms with shades of orange, red and yellow as they’re opposite blue on the color wheel and pack a vibrant punch!  I can’t even list the colors I used as there were so many; I kept adding layers upon layers, drying often in between.

Initially, I’d colored the little “seedy” looking things in the flower center with black and brown, but went over them with the same purple I’d colored the tiny blossoms on the sprigs.

You can really see the pretty purple centers in this photo!  When I was satisfied with the depth of color in the Crown Blooms I began to add to the background by spattering on wet purple, aqua, red and black ink and used my markers to fill in some of the crannies with additional dots.  After stamping lightly my new Vintage Note stamp from Stampendous around the images, I heat-embossed the Unity Stamps sentiment in black directly to my watercolored panel then mounted it onto a base of ivory card stock.  I am SO loving how this card turned out!  And I already have my next Alex Syberia project planned!!  Stay tuned!  😀

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Colorful Dots!

Welcome!  I’d like to share two cards I made this week using a “dots” technique inspired by the amazing Alex Syberia!  I’ve been fascinated by her work and her riotous use of color plus the unique way she incorporates dots into her cards!  You won’t believe your eyes when you check out her blog!  In the meantime, I recently printed off a couple of floral images I found on Pinterest; I resized the image down to fit an A2 card and then just got busy coloring with my Copic markers!  

Isn’t this floral spray beautiful?!  I enjoyed branching out a little with my colors, trying to loosen up and be more creative!  I opted for muted tones and layered color upon colors.  

This particular image came with a pale gray background so all I did was use the colorful “pointillism” style which Alex is known for to fill in around the blossoms and leaves.  Isn’t it fun?!  

Here’s the second card I made, using another floral spray image from Pinterest and a slightly less colorful use of the dots technique.  I began coloring with my Tim Holtz distress markers, Rusty Hinge, Dried Marigold and Tattered Rose for the blossoms and Peacock Feathers, Broken China and Evergreen Bough for the leaves!  

I wasn’t satisfied with the depth of color from just the distress markers so went over the images again with Copics.  I use so many different Copic markers that I feel it would be too overwhelming to list them all. But the Copics definitely boosted the color!  You can see that I made dots of black, gray, peach and aqua, then added white gel pen dots afterwards.  I also added shading to the leaves and flowers with a pale gray marker.   

To create the background I added more gray with Hickory and Pumice Stone distress markers and used a water brush to spread it in a lovely watercolor-y manner!  (That buckled my paper a bit as it’s only 110# card stock.)  The next steps were to stamp the beautiful Vintage Note by Stampendous with Pumice distress ink around the main image, then heat-embossed the sentiment (from Altenew’s Beautiful Day set) using Brutus Monroe’s Golden Gourd embossing powder for a perfect match!  I mounted this panel onto a soft gray base card and attached a strip of Tangerine Glitterstock along the edge for a little bit of bling!  Three shimmery sequins were my final touch! 

I leave you with this very closeup photo of my card, showing off the lovely colors and interesting dots!  I hope you enjoyed this post and my cards, and that you’ll have a look at Alex’s gorgeous creations as well!  

Glorious Rose and Gold

It’s been wickedly hot here in Vermont the last few days and will continue to be so for the rest of the week!  We don’t own a pool so I’m keeping cool in my stamp room!  Sometimes I have no idea which direction my creativity will take me and today was like that.  I sat at my desk wondering what on earth to work on, so began searching through my stamps for something I haven’t used much.  I came across this wonderful striped background stamp called Cabana Stripes by Echo Park Paper Co.  One of my favorite design combos is stripes with florals so that’s what I decided to do!

Upon further searching around, I came across one 12X12 sheet of this beautiful soft rose cardstock and it inspired my color choices for this card!  Rose and gold!!  So feminine and so elegant!  This called for Altenew‘s Beautiful Day set!  I began by heat-embossing the outline images in gold onto Bristol Smooth card stock, and chose Zig colors of soft pink, peach, flesh and ochre.  (I’ve been using my Copic markers so much lately, that I forgot how much I love Zigs!)  When I finished coloring, I used Beautiful Day dies to cut them out.

Anyway, setting the blossoms aside, I inked up Cabana Stripes with Versamark and stamped it onto another piece of Bristol Smooth paper, then added gold embossing powder.  I LOVE that the stamp didn’t adhere 100% so it left these wonderful “distressed” looking spots with no color!  I just bought Tim Holtz’ Tattered Rose distress oxide ink, so tapped some onto my craft mat, spritzed with water then tapped my panel into the ink.  After drying it, I trimmed the panel down with Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle dies and adhered it to my base card upon which I’d used Stampin Up’s Manhattan Flower embossing folder.  I think that nicely compliments the blossoms and adds even more texture!  Next I arranged my die-cut pieces and mounted them with layers of foam tape.  Lastly,  I gold-embossed the simple yet sweet sentiment from Brutus Monroe‘s Super Sentimental set onto a strip of the rose card stock and tucked it in along the left side.  Voila! A combination of stamps from a variety of companies to create one gorgeous card!  Now…who’s birthday is coming up…?!  😀

 

 

Altenew Beautiful Day + Copics = FAB!!

I’ve been so anxious to color Altenew’s Beautiful Day stamps with my new Copics!  The first step was to stamp out the images onto a piece of special marker paper meant for alcohol ink using Memento Tuxedo Black.  I then began to color my rose with the darker shades of red, but added many layers of other colors including pinks, orange, yellow and even a little tan.  I currently own just three shades of green (what was I thinking??!!) so added light and dark yellow to my leaves for added dimension.  I kept wanting to add water to move the ink, but instead kept adding layers of color!  It actually reminded me of how I color with my Zigs but use no water.

When my images were all colored, I cut them using the coordinating dies for Beautiful Day.  I don’t mind fussy-cutting but it was great to have the dies for these!  

Look how beautifully this came out!!  And how about those lovely shadows??  

 On a separate piece of white cardstock, I had stamped the outline images from the set in Versafine Onyx Black ink, then mounted it to a layer of black.  I added a strip of black and white patterned paper along the side, then mounted the flowers and leaves using foam tape.  Finally, I adhered that to a base card of light green.  I’m really happy with how these images look and I know I’m going to LOVE coloring more with Copics!

For my second card I used the three shades of yellow I have and then added layers of flesh, tan and a pale gray to the rose.  I created this in the same manner as the one above.  I’m looking forward to adding more colors to my new Copics collection!

Some of My Favorites!

I pulled a number of cards from my photo files to share some of my all-time favorites!  I think you’ll like them too!  This card was copied from one I saw on Pinterest a couple years ago and LOVED!  I had to improvise a bit to create the gold frame behind the flowers; I used Altenew’s Beautiful Day set, heat-embossed in gold onto Bristol Smooth watercolor paper and fussy-cut them out.  I embossed the leaves onto vellum.  I didn’t have a frame die back then, so instead embossed the frame stamp and cut it out by hand.  I think the geometric black and white paper makes an interesting backing for the organic florals!  

I’ve always loved the vintage feel of this card!  I used an old Stampin up set called Nature Walk and stamped the images onto a vintage book page, then cut it into panels.  I mounted them onto a layer of dark brown card stock, then onto a pretty yellow card base.  The flower is one I picked up at Michaels and after I scrunched up a length of silk binding tape and glued it to the strip of dark brown card stock, I glued the flower over it.  The Happy Birthday sentiment is from another retired Stampin Up set called Warmest Regards and I stamped that onto a punched out label, sponged brown ink around the edges to soften and added a brass brad.  

Here’s another favorite vintage/shabby chic styled card I made some years ago, using torn patterned paper, a bit of vintage book page and Stampin Up’s retired Toile Blossoms which I stamped in pink and brown ink onto a piece of card stock.  I smudged brown ink around the edges to soften, then roughed up the edges with my scissors.  A length of sheer ribbon, then velvet ribbon tied on completed this beautiful card!  

I was really into vintage/shabby chic!!  Using patterned papers add interest to a card and I love the colors in this one!  Stampin Up’s retired Bloom With Hope blossom was colored with markers then clear embossed for shine.  I added a die-cut sprig of leaves, a length of crocheted lace and a twist of black string.  The sentiment is a Stampin Up stamp and mounted using a Stampin Up punch.  Two little golden jewels added the final detail!  

I have several Stampendous scenery stamps and I’ve always loved this one, as it reminds me of Vermont!  I colored this with Zig markers, fussy-cut it out, mounted it onto levels of patterned paper then onto a dark brown base card.  The sentiment is from Stampin Up’s retired Botanicals set; I smudged brown ink all over it to “distress” it.  Copper brads add a little extra touch.  

This Inkadinkado stamp was given to me by my step-daughter a number of years ago and I think it’s so beautiful!  I stamped it with Versafine Onyx Black permanent ink onto a piece of card stock then colored it using Zigs.  I cut the panel down and layered it over a piece of red card stock, then onto a base card which was layered with patterned papers.  I looped a length of narrow red ribbon and attached it along the edge to add a fun bit of texture!  

Oooooo!!  More beautiful patterned paper!  I stamped, colored and then glazed with Glossy Accents the blossoms from Stampin Up’s Fabulous Florets set, die-cut the green leaves and layered them onto a strip of blue textured cardstock to which I’d added two little eyelets.   I stamped the Thinking of You sentiment over the patterned paper.  

This is probably my favorite of ALL of these cards!  I made this for my daughter, Sara, a long time ago.  I embossed the base card with a folder then smudged a little gray ink onto it.  Layers of patterned paper, die-cut leaves, a store-bought paper rose and a length of ribbon held down with brads made for a very easy, but very beautiful card!  The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz set.  

Prismacolor Pencils on Black

Last summer I was inspired by a card from Yana Smakula, made by using Prismacolor pencils on black card stock!  I never would have thought of this technique and couldn’t wait to make one myself!  To begin, I heat-embossed in gold the leaves from Altenew’s Beautiful Day stamp set onto black card stock, and began to color them in.  It was a little challenging to work around the raised lines of the embossed images, but loved how the color popped on the black!  When I finished coloring in the leaves, I simply cut the black panel down to layer over a piece of metallic gold card stock, then mounted it onto a white card base which I’d run through the Cuttlebug with Stampin Up’s Petal Burst embossing folder.  Finally, I embossed the sentiment in gold onto a scrap of black, lifted it with a piece of foam tape, then attached a few gold sequins to the card front.

After making the card above, I wanted to try it again with another set, so I pulled out Winter Flowers by Simon Says Stamp, heat-embossed the images in gold onto the black card stock, and again, colored with Prismacolor pencils.  I just love how creamy and translucent the color is on the black!  The Greetings stamp was heat-embossed in gold as well, and mounted onto a strip of the gold paper.  I put this card together in the same manner as the first, but without embossing the base card.  Thanks to Yana for her continual inspiration!