Paper & Stamps & Ink, Oh My!

Thanks so much for coming to my blog!  I’ve been sharing some cards I’ve made using new products by Ranger Ink & Wendy Vecchi from her Make Art collection, including Blendable Dye Ink Pads, a Stamp/Dies/Stencil set, Makeart Washi Tape and Perfect Cardstock Panels!  Today’s card is not my usual style but I really had fun with it!  I don’t often use my patterned paper ( but I should!) so decided to dig through my stash and see what caught my eye!  This fun paper is from Stampin Up and I was immediately drawn to the whimsical designs and soft colors!

After creating a background using two of the coordinating papers I added a scalloped border which I made with an old line punch.  I adhered these to a piece of Crumb Cake card stock, also from Stampin Up.  Now it was time to color in my flower pot and blossoms, which I did using Copic markers.

As you can see, I added some glittery Stickles to each of the flowers as a fun detail!  Finally, after mounting the flower pot to the panel with foam tape, I adhered my little sentiment stickers from Tim Holtz’ Chit Chat Stickers.

This was super easy to make and didn’t take much time!  I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a variety of ways to use the products by Ranger Ink and Wendy Vecchi!

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Outta This World With Ranger Ink!

This card kinda makes me laugh!!  Like, whut?!  Succulents floating in outer space?!  Really, Sharon??  Yes, really!!  😀  As I was playing with my new supplies from Ranger Ink and Wendy Vecchi I decided to go out of my comfort zone and do something a bit silly!

It all started when I made this galaxy background by blending all of my new Wendy Vecchi’s Blendable inks onto a panel of Perfect White cardstock and covering them with a layer of Black Soot distress ink!  I added spatters of white craft paint and then gold from Gansai Tambi’s Starry Colors palette! 

 But what next?!  The sweet succulent from Wendy Vecchi’s Flower Pot Stamp/Die/Stencil set was just begging to be featured on a card again, so I heat-embossed a bunch of them in gold, colored them with Zig markers then cut them out.  Before I adhered them to the panel, I added strips of washi tape from Wendy Vecchi’s Washi Tape Assortment 2– the watercolor-y design just perfectly coordinated with my card!  I also like how the straight lines of the tape nicely balanced out the organic shapes of the succulents and the flowy script of the sentiment!  

“Dreaming of You” seemed the most appropriate sentiment for this galaxy card and it’s from Simon Says Stamp’s Seeing Stars set.  I embossed “Dreaming of” in gold onto a strip of black card stock then trimmed it down and mounted it with a bit of foam tape to my card.  Just below it I embossed the “You” directly to my panel.  

I really love this whimsical card with floating succulents and hope you do too!  Thanks for stopping by!  

 

Blended Moonlight with Ranger Ink & Wendy Vecchi

Welcome back to another post sharing a card I made using the new Ranger Ink and Wendy Vecchi products I recently received!  Many of you know I’m more accustomed to creating cards with large florals and images so trying to come up with a way to use the small stamps in Wendy Vecchi’s Flower Pot Stamp/Die/Stencil set was a bit of a challenge for me!  Let me share my  process because I had NO idea what I was going to make when I began!  

Starting with a piece of the beautifully smooth Perfect Cardstock Grey Panels, I sponged around the edges using Evergreen Bough distress oxide ink but leaving the center blank.  Next, I filled in the center with a light layer of Cracked Pistachio distress oxide ink, blending the two together seamlessly with a makeup brush.  I’d already used the flower pots in two prior cards so that left me with the floral and leaf images to play with.  Although I hadn’t added Black Soot distress ink around the edges yet, I knew I was going to do that and thus, in my mind I already had a nighttime sky!  

I stamped multiple layers at the bottom edge and partially up the sides using a leaves and coordinating flower stamp, thus creating a frame!  I thought it’d look great to add a moon but I’d already added color to the center!  Undaunted, I cut a circle stencil with a punch and scrap of paper and sponged Picket Fence distress oxide ink over it to create the moon.  I fussed around with it a bit more, adding shading and dimension with an old texture stamp and Black Soot.  In retrospect, I wish I had softened the texture with a little water on a brush.  I’ll do that before I complete my card!  

Naturally, I had to add white spatters with craft paint for “stars” in my sky!  I remembered that I have Tim Holtz Wildflowers dies which I then cut from textured card stock; they make a beautiful silhouette against the moon, don’t you think?!  

To finish my card, I added that heavy layer of Black Soot distress ink around the edges which made the moon seem to glow even more!  I trimmed down the panel to layer onto a piece of gray patterned paper then adhered it to a white card base.  I haven’t decided if I’ll heat-emboss a sentiment directly to the card front in white or if I’ll add one separately, lifted off the panel for dimension, but I am pretty satisfied with how this card turned out!  Thanks for stopping by!!  

Ranger & Wendy Vecchi Happy Mail!

I was thrilled to receive a box of goodies from Ranger Ink this week and hurried right into my stamp room to play!  Just look at this assortment! First of all, how cute is this Flower Pot Stamp/Die/Stencil set by Wendy Vecchi??  I also received seven rolls of MAKE ART Washi Tape,  six Wendy Vecchi MAKE ART dye ink pads in lovely colors and a pack each of Perfect Cardstock, in Perfect White Panels and Perfect Grey Panels!  Time to get busy!!  

I knew that I’d be using the cute little cactus stamp along with one of the leafy plant stamps so began by stamping out the images individually onto a piece of  Perfect White Cardstock (which was smooth as buttah!!) then coloring with Copic markers!  I did use the dies to cut out the flower pots but they left more of a white border than I like, so I trimmed them down a tad more.  

Setting those aside, I began on my background panel.  Using a makeup brush, I softly blended Leaf Green on the lower portion of a panel of Perfect White Cardstock, then brushed Forget-Me-Not at the top, joining them in the center with a little bit of Pink Peony.  Next, I created a leafy green section at the bottom with several of the little stamps, again with Leaf Green Dye ink.  This helped to ground my flower pots!  

It took me a few minutes to play around with an arrangement that I liked then attached two of the pots directly to the panel with adhesive and added foam tape to the center pot for lift.  

As a finishing touch, I added one of the Simple Strips sentiments by Taylored Expressions  before mounting the finished panel to a white base card.  Now, if only I had a new neighbor, I’d bring them a hot dish, a new plant and this card!  I hope you’re inspired to take a peek at all the inspiring products and projects on the Ranger Ink website and blog!  Thanks for stopping by!  

Happily Ever After

Hey!  Welcome back!  I’ve been remiss in keeping up my blog this summer but want to share this colorful creation with you!  I recently bought a set of Altenew’s Watercolor Brush markers in the Spring Garden collection and wanted to use lots and lots of color!  This gorgeous floral image is a background stamp from The Ton called Anemone Garden and I began by embossing it with gold onto a panel of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper.  

Aren’t those markers so cool?  They have a barrel filled with color and you just squeeze the sides (like we do a water brush!) to release the ink.  It took a little practice to figure out just how much to squeeze but to paint this image, I first brushed a little water onto a petal then dropped ink from the marker into it, letting the water move the ink initially.  

In true Alex Syberia style, I added several colors to the petals, creating a multi-colored array of fabulousness!  I filled in the background with black to make the colors pop even more!  

Setting that panel aside to dry, I pulled out a white card base and again, heat-embossed Anemone Garden in gold onto it.  I trimmed down the watercolored panel using my new Sizzix  Thinlet Stacked Deckle dies and then layered it onto a panel of gold metallic card stock to frame it.  I mounted the framed panel to my base card and added a sentiment from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips set which I’d also embossed in gold.  Two little gems adorn the ends of the Sentiment Strip for a final detail!  I loved making this glorious card and using some new products!  Thanks for stopping by!  

Digi Stamp Love!

I’ve been making cards with rubber stamps, cling stamps and clear stamps for many years, but it’s only in the past few years that I’ve become a huge fan of digital stamps!  In case you’re wondering what that is, basically it’s a jpg or png image which you download to your computer and then resize and print to color!  A while back I was invited by Luisana Lowry to color her new line of digital stamps offered in her Etsy shop called Red Hibiscus Designs.  I was honored to be asked and thrilled to receive a number of wonderful images from her!  My card above is one of her beautiful peonies which I colored with Copic markers.  I simply cut out the blossom and the leaves, mounted them to a white card base which I’d embossed.  A sentiment of white on black is a nice little pop on my softly beautiful card!  

I was a little intimidated at first by the many layers of petals in this detailed peony image by Luisana, but I just colored one section at a time with Copic markers, using gray to accent the shadows.  To create my background, I spread some DIY gesso onto a stencil and when it had dried, I brushed on a little Fossilized Amber distress oxide ink.  I love the dimension it gives to my card!  The background textured paper is called Bienfang Canvasette paper.   

More recently, Elena Cazares of Crafts For Paws, (an organization out of Texas which raises funds to rescue aged animals by selling craft items via their website and Facebook page) invited me to join a team of colorists for her Copic coloring classes!  What a special feeling to know that in a small way, I can be part of such a worthy effort to give senior, sickly dogs a chance to live out their remaining days in a loving and comfortable home!  The digital image above is from Power Poppy called Everything’s Rosy and I colored this one before I’d taken Elena’s first coloring class.

Can you see the difference in my coloring between these two images from Power Poppy?!  For this one, I followed along with Elena in her first class called Meka’s Rose and I learned some great techniques and tips!  I hope you’ll consider purchasing her classes and in doing so, contribute to the rescue mission of Crafts For Paws!  

 

 

My final card today is a beautiful digi stamp hand-drawn by Alex Syberia!  She has just opened an Etsy shop with a number of beautifully detailed floral images that will make you itch to get your coloring supplies out!  I used my Copic markers to color this one and hope to get some time this weekend to work on a few more!  You can find her shop HERE and her Instagram account HERE!  Have you discovered the vast world of digital stamps yet?  If so, leave me a comment telling my your favorites!  And do take a peek at all of the links I’ve provided in this post!  Thank you for your visit!