Quick And Easy

I am getting ready to head out of the country to England for a few weeks but before I leave I wanted to make sure I had a couple of thank you cards finished to send to some friends. Given that this weekend I was spending time with the family I wanted something pretty simple and I thought about the Colorburst cards.

I knew I could start the panels pretty quick before guests arrived and then let them dry and come back later to finish them. So that's exactly what I did.  I also have been wanting to do some sort of butterfly card and seized that opportunity to die cut some of those for these cards.

The best thing about these cards is the vibrancy of color they carry so letting the colors be the main focus of the cards was my priority, then just adding a simple sentiment with the diecut butterflies truly made this a fast and easy card.

Happy Mother's Day

Well Mother's Day is this weekend and alas I haven't really prepared anything for my mom. I did just return from staying with her for a few days and helped her with her gardening but I feel like that's not really a gift.

I still haven't found anything I'd like to give her but I figured the least I could do was make her a card. And after many days of plant shopping I have a sneaky suspicion she likes purple. So I went with that.

Originally I tried to use some Yupo paper with Distress inks but it just doesn't dry quickly so of course it smudged. I thought I'd try photo paper again for some vibrancy and just used Papertrey Inks this time with my Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Stamp set along with some Altenew leaf stamps.

The Happy sentiment was from the SSS stamp set and I had a Mother's Day sentiment from Clearly Besottled.

The real challenge here was finding the right pp which I really didn't have much that went with purple. I found this striped paper on a Halloween pp pad
from Pink and Main. I like the harlequin feel to it and I hope my mom does too.

Another Altered Hoop

After I made my altered hoop my daughter really liked it so I asked her if she would like one as well so of course she resounded with a Yes.

Her hoop is similar to mine but more subdued in colors and while her picture is smaller than mine her hoop is bigger.

I really like the cream, soft pink rosy color along with the peach. And that wood grain white pp was perfect for the backdrop. I splattered some shimmery paint and also used the same paint for the cardboard letter I found at Hobby Lobby.

And that silver butterfly provides the perfect accent to the whole thing.

Happy Birthday - Cacti

Since I was making a second water color panel for my next card I was wondering if I had ever shown you before how to make a water color panel. It's really quite easy and quite fun but can be a bit messy.

I begin by cutting my panel to the size of my card. I like it to be a bit bigger then my desired size so I can die cut it down for my final card. That way I get the meat of the color and don't have to worry about the edges so much.

Once I have the panel cut from water color paper (I like to use 140 lb hot press, ARCHES specifically) then select at least 3 or 4 distress ink colors you want to use. Hombre is a nice effect otherwise complimentary (colors that are next to each other on a color wheel) also works well.

You will also need an acrylic block, but if you didn't have one I imagine any smooth glass surface or splat mat would work. I take each color and dab the ink onto the surface then spritz it heavily with water

After its nice and wet I press my card panel on top and make sure all the edges get pressed as well. Once you put the panel on the block all the liquid gets pushed to the outside. Alternatively you can place the block on top of the card panel. Either way works well. 

Then pull your paper off. If there are any spots that didn't get colored, stamp your block on to a splat mat or some non absorbent surface and swipe or drag your card through the puddles of ink. 

To clean up the mess I just use a paper towel, old handkerchief or towel to wipe up the colored water. But now you have your own background watercolor card panel. You could also use this to die cut shapes or letters from.

And here is the end result.

I also stamped and colored my MFTS cacti then diecut them and gave a little more interest by bending and shaping the longer arms and because it looked a little bland I added in some tiny punched flowers. 

Then it still seemed a bit plain so I added in some diecut grass. Now it's nice and springy looking.