Welcome to my blog! I’d like to share two cards I recently made using brand new stamps from Stampendous! The larger blossom stamp is called Small Hellebore and the floral spray is from another set, Hummingbird Vine! I didn’t intend to combine them originally, but they just seemed to be made for each other, so here they are! I actually colored the floral spray while visiting my Mom a few weeks ago and later colored in Small Hellebore. I searched through my patterned paper scraps and found this beautiful brown, pink and green paisley print and although you can’t see much of it, I think it beautifully enhances the colored image, don’t you? I embossed an ivory card base with the lovely Floral Tapestry embossing folder by Sizzix then attached the layered panel and finally, mounted the larger flower with some bits of foam tape. I stamped the sentiment in brown ink directly to the card base. Here’s a close up shot of my water-bespeckled blossom! I used Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to color it because they’re so juicy and inky and water-reactive! In retrospect, I can’t believe I didn’t add my usual spatters of paint!! Can you see my mistake on this photo?! I’d stamped the sentiment (from Unity Stamp’s My Condolences set) onto the inside panel, but it was crooked so I flipped it over and stamped it on the other side, not noticing that the first one shows through! Argh! But don’t worry! I’ll redo this inside panel which shows a larger portion of that pretty patterned paper I used on the front! In case you’re wondering if this is the exact same card, I assure you, it isn’t! I decided to make two of these because I liked how the two stamps paired so nicely! The background on this card is a piece of patterned paper from Simon Says Stamp’s June 2018 Card Kit! I stamped a few Small Hellebore over it and attached it to my white card base. Again, I used the same patterned paper behind my floral spray panel and mounted the larger blossom in the same manner as well. So….an interesting thing about THIS card!! I didn’t see that a brown ink pad had dropped onto my layered panel until AFTER I took pictures and then began my editing!! I couldn’t believe it!! My beautiful panel, ruined!! But I decided to go with it as it does look as though I did it on purpose to add shading! But, ARGH!! Oh well! I stamped the sentiment onto the front and called it a day! I hope you enjoyed this and be sure to go check out all the beautiful stamps by Stampendous! As always, thank you for your visit to my blog!
I recently received a big fat package of goodies from Stampendous and was so tickled to see these beautiful images! I immediately got busy and have been making cards with Little Mushroom and it’s coordinating dies plus this amazing background stamp called Fern Garden! I’m in love!!! The first thing I did was to ink up Fern Garden with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss distress oxide inks, then spritzed with a fine mist of water. I stamped it out onto a panel of Bristol Smooth card stock, then stamped it again onto a second panel so as not to waste any of that delicious color! Next, I stamped the Little Mushroom onto another piece of Bristol Smooth and had so much fun coloring it in with my Zig markers! I spattered droplets of water to create “texture” on the image then used the handy-dandy die to cut it out! Lastly, I added some bits of foam tape to the mushroom and attached it to the Fern Garden background then adhered that to a white base card. I stamped the sentiment directly to the card front with Versafine Onxy Black ink. This was a simple card and I just love the woodsy-ness of it, don’t you?! For my next card, I decided to play around with the Fern Garden background using the Floral Garden Embossing Powder kit which I also received! It has twelve little containers of colorful embossing powders and little scoops for using with it. I inked up Fern Garden with Versamark and stamped it onto a piece of Bristol Smooth then scooped the two shades of blue powder onto a section of the inked design, tapped it off and heat set it. I did this again but used the two greens next! I inked up Fern Garden again with Versamark, then turned the stamp so the design was going in a different direction and stamped it directly onto the first heat-set layer of colors! Again, I scooped additional colors of powders (orange, red and yellow) but this time I placed each color onto an area of the Versamark’d image, gently removed the excess and then heat-set them all at the same time. I hope all that makes sense! The result of all that layering, scooping, heat-setting and repeating is quite vividly beautiful, I think! I have a stamp set by Papertrey Ink called Meadow Greens with fern stamps and dies, so I stamped one out onto Bristol Smooth using distress oxide inks (Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn) then die-cut it. I also die-cut a fern of olive green card stock and placed that beneath the stamped fern. To complete my card, I adhered the Fern Garden background panel to a white card base, added a little Vintage Note script stamp to the bottom then attached my ferns to the lower corner using foam tape for dimension. The sentiment is from Pink Fresh Studio’s Let’s Flamingle set! I had a lot of fun playing with the embossing powder kit and the Fern Garden background and have several ideas for more fun cards, so stay tuned! Thanks for visiting!
Welcome back, friends! I started writing this post almost a week ago, and realized I hadn’t finished it so here we go! I’m featuring some oldies but goodies from my collection of Stampendous images! This series of scenes in Tuscany is called Scenic Serenity and although they’re long retired, you may still find them on ebay or etsy. I was fortunate to have collected several of them some years ago, and love to pull them out to play with occasionally!
After stamping Grapes Scene onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock using Versafine Onyx Black ink, I began coloring with my Zig markers. As always, I use many colors and layer them on, squiggling the brush into the prior color to blend them together. The colors I used here are as follows: Olive Green, Mid-Green, Yellow Green for the grape leaves and grass and trees. Violet, Purple, Mustard for the grapes. Mid-Brown, Oatmeal, Beige on the plowed earth. Ochre and Dark Oatmeal on the house, shaded with Green Gray and roof is Black with Blue Gray. The sky was colored with Persian Green and I used Light Blue to bring the color down toward the trees and to soften and lighten it. I always use my Flesh Colour to blend and add a little visual interest. I also colored in squiggles around the outside edges of this image with Flesh and Light Gray. I trimmed around the colored panel, then added a layer of black behind it. A crisp white card base enhanced with a vine-y embossed design completes my card!
This next image is called Poppy Scene and I colored it in the same squiggly manner using the same shades of green for the grass and tree, then colored the poppies with Wine Red, Red and Bright Yellow which is actually a light orange. I added a glaze of Crystal Effects on each poppy to make them shine! The background hills were colored with Dark Brown and Oatmeal and I colored the house with Mustard, then added some Light Gray to tone down the yellow. Roof is Black with a touch of Light Gray. To create the sky, I started at the top of the image with a thin line of Deep Blue and then brought it down to lighter shades with the Light Blue marker.
Again, I squiggled Flesh and Light Gray markers all around the edges to create a mottled background . I die-cut the colored panel with a Stitched Rectangle die, mounted it to a layer of black then lifted it up using foam tape. The white base card is embossed with Brutus Monroe’s Petal Lace embossing folder.I kept the colors quite muted on this card which features the Stampendous image called Olive Scene. I rather love the brooding dark sky and the dusky hillside! To color the olives I used a touch of Brown, then Wine Red and colored the leaves with my favorite trio of greens, Olive Green, Mid-Green and Yellow Green. I used the same colors on the background bushes and tree and colored the plowed earth with Mid-Brown and Beige. To create that brooding sky I started with a line of Gray Brown at the top, then used my Flesh Colour and Light Gray to blend the color down, really working the marker to depict the movement of clouds. The hillside was colored first with Light Blue and then a blending of more Flesh and Light Gray to tone it down.After trimming around the colored image, I mounted it to a little panel of black and then to a white base card upon which I’d dry embossed a border of flowers. I then added a touch of Crystal Effects to the olives, giving them a sheen and making them pop out a little.Since I’d already colored this Poppy Scene in traditional colors, I decided to get creative and use a brighter, unexpected color palette this time! I always fill in the grassy background first and this time I used a mix of Emerald Green, Light Green, Mid-Green, Yellow Green and Pale Green. I colored the poppies with Cornflour Blue, added a touch of Blue and then a touch of Light Violet. The trees were colored in using Cornflour Blue as well. Isn’t that sky gorgeous?! Again, I drew a line of Wine Red at the top then pulled the color down using that Bright Yellow marker. The house was colored with Ochre and the roof with Dark Brown. The Black I filled in the windows with was pulled into the Ochre to tone it down some. That’s what I love about Zig markers; they’re so juicy and blend together so beautifully!I love the white base cards with embossing which frames them beautifully. I spattered some black paint onto this one . I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of Scenes from Tuscany! Perhaps you’ve been there and my little images are a sweet reminder of a far away place and a magical time! And perhaps I’ll go there someday too! Until then, I can color and dream!
Welcome back! As promised, here’s Part Two of my Mixed Media Canvases series! I can’t decide which of the canvases I like the most! But why choose just one?! I love them all, each for their own beauty and style! The style of this canvas is definitely vintage/feminine and a little shabby-chic! This time I began with an 8X10 hard canvas board, and coated it with a layer of tan craft paint. I then tore up some patterned papers and glued them down with Mod Podge. You can still see the striped piece toward the bottom and the vintage book page near the center top.
Again, I forgot to get my camera set up in order to make a video and now I have to try and recall what on earth I did to make this! Yikes! I think that, after applying the torn pieces of paper, I just started using stencils and stamps to embellish the background. In this section I stamped out Tim Holtz’ Flower Garden blossoms and heat-embossed them with Brutus Monroe’s Coffee Grounds embossing powder. The butterfly ephemera was given to me by my crafty friend, Theresa! The sentiment is also by Tim Holtz and I heat-embossed it in white.
I found the scroll-y die cuts in my stash, and added them with more Mod Podge, then smeared paint over them. In the center of the frame is another piece of ephemera from Theresa. I stamped and embossed Vintage Note from Stampendous over it. I love the white against the dark frame, don’t you?
The larger white die-cut has a coat of Martha Stewart Pearl White craft paint, then some gray rubbed over it, and finally, another word stamp partially impressed onto it. I painted my blossoms with Gansai Tambi watercolors.
Along the top and sides, I stamped Lace Borders from Stampendous, using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and added another stencil impression with pink paint. How about that lovely textured paper in this picture?! I didn’t really know it had that texture till I smeared paint and ink over it!
I really like the dimension that the raised frame die-cut adds. I can’t wait to make some DIY gesso this weekend and add more texture and dimension to my next canvas!
I’m sharing this canvas even though it’s not mixed media. I got a wild hair idea to pull out my alcohol inks and ended up making this instead! And I’ll write yet another post with more pictures to share the process for it! Thanks again for stopping by!
I love being inspired by other artists, and these cards were totally inspired by someone I just found on Instagram! Afia, whose blog is here and Instagram here, just posted some cards that blew me away!! Here’s the first card which I fell in love with! Just look at that gorgeous color and the beautiful butterfly and that gold embossed detail! I decided to follow Afia’s process which she shared on her blog and made my cards in the same manner. I used my retired Stampendous Jumbo Dahlia and their current Mixed Mesh background stamp plus the Vintage Note stamp as well.
My first step was to stamp the Mixed Mesh background stamp onto a panel of watercolor paper using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I dried it with a heat tool, then heat-embossed the Jumbo Dahlia using black powder.
Next I painted the blossom and the background with Gansai Tambi watercolor paints, drying between layers. I mixed shades of reds, pink and orange for the Dahlia and greens and yellow for the background. When it was completely dry, I spattered some watery white paint over it. Next I heat-embossed in gold the Vintage Note stamp along the left hand side. Afia used gold embossing on her butterfly card and I love how it looks on mine! My watercolor panel was a little short, so I visually “extended” the panel by gold embossing a Lace Border (also an old Stampendous stamp!) along the bottom of my ivory base card.
I cut a panel of gold metallic card stock to border the watercolor panel, then attached it to the card base. My final touch was to add a few sequins and adhere a sentiment which I heat-embossed in gold onto a scrap of black. I LOVE this card and although it looks nothing like Afia’s butterfly card, I thoroughly enjoyed copying her process!
This is my second card following Afia’s process. This time I used a panel of Bienfang Canvas paper and stamped the Mixed Mesh background stamp onto it with Versafine Onyx Black ink then dried it with a heat tool. I heat-embossed in black the retired Jumbo Peony by Stampendous and then painted both with Gansai Tambi watercolor paints, drying between layers.
Again, I used Stampendous Vintage Note and heat-embossed it in silver down the left side of the card. I added a strip of rose-colored Glitterstock as an accent, along with a few silver sequins.
I think this textured card stock is the bomb, don’t you?!
I embossed the sentiment in silver onto another scrap of black card stock and attached all the layers to a card base of white. I love both of my cards and now am heading over to Afia’s blog to see what will inspire me next! Thanks for stopping by!
Wanna know what makes this card artist’s heart go pitter-patter?! New stamps from Stampendous!! I just received a big fat package filled with wonderful new goodies and this baby was the first one I inked up! It’s called Dahlia Collage and it’s HUGE!! You may recall my obsession with their gorgeous Pointsettia Collage background stamp and can just imagine my excitement to play with this one!
In my package was a container of Rose Gold Embossing Enamel and I used it to emboss my image onto a panel of watercolor card stock. Isn’t it gorgeous?! I then began to color with Aged Mahogany and Tattered Rose distress markers, blending the inks with a waterbrush. I used Pumice Stone around the edges of the image and now wish I’d softened it a bit more. The leaves were colored with Bundled Sage and Shabby Shutters and I colored the center of the dahlia with Fossilized Amber and a touch of Gathered Twigs for depth.
I dug through my stash and found a strip of French Rose Glitterstock by Brutus Monroe which added a little more visual interest to my card.
Here’s a final peek at my beautiful, complicated-looking card which actually was REALLY easy and quick to make!! I encourage you to search the Stampendous website to see what a vast selection of stamps and products they have to appeal to every crafter’s style! As always, I very much appreciate your visit here and your comments!
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