KK - Beachin Birthday

Continuing with my beach themed cards I did a second water color panel and paired it with another KK mermaid stamp that I colored with copics.

Pretty much a duplicate of the first card. While looking for sentiments I did come across one that I plan on making a Hell Chum by Avery Elle card.

Today's high for us is 89.

KK- Birthday Fishes

I don't know where you live but here in the Silicon Valley we reached 90 degrees the other day and all this week we will be in the 80s. I feel like we're skipping spring and heading right into Summer. Not that I mind summer, I just want to keep my cool mid 70s around as long as possible.

But all this hot weather did get me thinking about the beach and the tropics so I dug out some of my Kraftin Kimmie stamps and made some ocean themed cards with her mermaids. Some of my all time favorite stamps.

I did a watercolor panel for the background using some distress inks then stamped my image on some copic paper and colored the image in then just adhered some clear stones along with some ice effects gel for the bubbles. I popped the mermaid and the speech bubble and told myself it was enough. I didn't want to get to busy with the card.

Rainbow Duo

I was contacted a few weeks back from someone that came across a card I did back in 2014. They inquired about purchasing it, but lets face it that was 6 years ago and it definitely had been gifted some time ago. That being said I was more than happy to create something new or recreate the original card for them and I choose to do both.

For reference you can find the original card here.

At first I was lets make a new card but the more I looked at my original card I realized it was pretty enough all by itself so I didn't really make that much of a change to it. I used Stampin Up watercolor crayons to paint with. I used the original stencil I had created before and then just added different clouds and matted the card a bit differently but for the most part its the same card.

Then for this second card I decided to stamp the image and heat emboss it then used my acrylic block to dab on some alcohol inks on, misted that heavily with water then pressed the card panel on top to get this rainbow effect.

They both have a unique rainbow effect one being more literal and the other being more interpretive.  I like really like them both. 

Watercolor - Happy Birthday

Continuing with my Ranunculus inspiration I used the Beautiful flowers stamp set from Simon Says Stamp to create this simple flower design. I first stamped the image in Squeezed lemon then used my pickled raspberry to paint the flowers and I really like using a two color so I added in some orange from my Kuretake Gansai Tambi paints and went back with their burgandy red color to add in more depth. Used more Distress Inks to paint the leaves and then all was left after the splatters was to add a sentiment and some enamel dots. Voila, instant watercolor card. 

Watercolor - Thanks so much

So my garden is starting to bloom and every day for about the past three weeks I have been looking at my flowers, love to see what's starting to bloom, what is blooming and just nice to see everything so green and happy.

In particluar I am loving my ranunculus. I thought I'd share a few photos of these beauties because they have been totally inspiring me to make a watercolor card.

So much pink goodness.

I love how the edges of this one are pink but the inside is a nice cream to faint yellow and was my inspiration for this card. Not that I did the flower any justice because it's tough to beat Mother Nature but I wanted to try and darker edge and lighter middle. 

The stamps were from Altenew and used Tim Holtz Distressed Inks. My die from MFTS was a bit too small for my overall image so I cut the leaf out then layed it on the outside of the die and diecut the panel as I normally do. A fun technique that allows you to keep your overall image.

Happy Birthday - Colorburst

Here is another card made by using colorblast on a Tim Hotlts's Stamp paper and I was intrigued by this paper that I also played around with photo paper and will have a more in depth look at that for Wednesdays blog. I have to say the effect is quite amazing.

It really is quite fun to sprinkle this powder on a card panel and gently mist it with water to see the colors bloom and meld together. I wasn't happy with this product at first but I have really grown to love it.

Distressed Love

Inspired by Tim Holtz's video for his new releases I decided I needed to use some of his products for a Valentine's card. I basically used the picket fence paint and a few of the inks (Pickled Raspberry, Candied Apple and Festive Berries) to get the background color on a watercolor panel then stamped the various images on top and spritzed it with some Perfect Pearls and then added a die cut and a few stickers.

Not sure who I will give this card to as most people I know aren't into the distressed card panels which is kind of a shame because the I like making them.

Since Feb 14th is so close I am also showcasing another cards.

This one I decided to create a card using a bunch of leftover supplies. The embossing panel was leftover from a panel that I first tried using this background for the HVD card but didn't like it so I used the swiss dot on that card. I also diecut a heart too large so diecut it again and am using the remnants of that and a leftover diecut love word that I did in both silver and red but ended up using the red so the silver was leftover. Then I embossed the word sentiment and added some epoxy hearts to complete this card.

Watercolor- Thank You card number 3

Another watercolored card, I was trying to go for red but again the distressed inks don't quite give it the brilliance I had hoped for so mixed in a little festive berries with the fired bricks.

I loved my polka dot pp so much on my previous card I decided to repeat it but using a smaller dot pattern,

Wastercolor - ThankYou number 2

Hope everyone had a safe and restful New Year's eve and day. I know our neighborhood was celebrating way into the 1 am hour so it sounded like they were enjoying themselves.

This is my second Thank you card, also water colored.

I wanted to try something a little out of the norm so I choose a blue color for my flowers. And while I opted for Salty Ocean from Tim Holtz's distressed inks I noticed it kind of faded when it dried and I didn't like the loss of vibrancy so I mixed in a little squeezed lemonade and combined it with the blue to get my greenish color then I think the whole thing just got out of hand, but the funny thing about watercolor is the more you play with it the better it gets. After I was done I realized it kind of looked like a blue pansy.

Funny how you envision something in your mind and when your done it takes on a different look than what you were going for. Not a bad look just something completely unexpected.

Oh and these are still the Simon Says Stamps from Monday. I did have to borrow the leaves from my Altenew stamps to help complete the look.

Watercolor - Thank You Friend

Well I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. I for one am done, done, done. After hosting 3 straight days of parties I can honestly say I was happy to put my house back in order.

Afterwards I cleaned my craft room which was in need of some desperate cleaning but a bit of organization as well. I have determined my room is just too small for all my needs but alas it's what I have so I pack it full and trust me it doesn't take much to get it out of organization.

Once it was clean I actually had to wait a day just to admire the fact that you could once again not only see my desk but the floor. 

Then it was time for some water coloring and making my Thank you cards.
I stamped my flowers from Simon Says Stamps Beautiful In Flowers stamps set and colored them in with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I like to use the Pickled Raspberry and Abandon Coral together.

After my coloring was done I opted to use my new MFTS pp which is nothing but black and white polka dot pp. I love the pop it gives my watercolor panel.

I hope all of you have a healthy and happy New Year!

Watercolor - Mums

This stamp from WPlus9 is beautiful by itself with prearranged flowers and normally I just do a centered  image but figure I should try offsetting it since I do that with my Altenew stamps and this really shouldn't be any different.

My only fall back is I tend to stamp and paint images way bigger then trim or die cut to what I need and sometimes I hate having to waste and cut away all that work. I was fortunate that at least I was able to preserve most of what I had.

Altenew - Watercolor Dahlia

I was loving my marbled peonies so I also tried my hand with some dahlias, not quite as successful but I was loving the pink orange combo. I diecut these flowers and popped up the smaller one, then tucked in some leaves. I was able to use up a leftover piece of scrap of pp from MFTS and a diecut happy sentiment from Simon Says Stamps I already had cut which worked perfectly here so I only had to stamp birthday also from MFTS and then add a few enamel dots. 

Watercolors - Kraftin Kimmie

 While I had my watercolors out from the painting my flowers, I thought I would go ahead and make a few backgrounds while I was at it. The blue here was speaking summertime to me and at first I was going to grab MFTS shark stamps but I spied some Kraftin Kimmie gals and thought what the heck I haven't used these girls in eons and still had a fondness in my heart for them.

I did keep it summer time and created a birthday card because you know you always need one of those.

Watercolor - Tim Holtz

Another watercolor background and while pink definitely screams girl I saw my Tim Holtz dog stamps which are more on the masculine side but I have a few dog loving friends so I made the card a little more on the girly side. Using the pastel pp from MFTS really helped pull it off I think.

Altenew - Watercolor Peonies

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. I certainly did, the entire weekend I got some major crafty time in. Since I have been so busy with everyday mundane chores and ahem my lack of blog updates I cranked out a bunch of cards. I knew I needed some art time so I was happy to have it.

My morning walks leaves me to admiring the beautiful flowers that are in abundance and there are these gorgeous marbled roses that really make you take note, so I created some peonies with a nod to those roses,.

I am also obsessed with grey right now, in fact I am in the middle of repainting my living room in grey that's just how obsessed I am. So you will see a lot of my base cards are grey. It really is a nice neutral color.

Happy Bird Day - Tropical

I was originally going to watercolor some flowers for this pattern paper but at the last minute I couldn't help feeling the tropical colors and went with the flamingos instead. I created the background in watercolor then stamped, colored with copics and die cut the flamingos and corresponding grass.

These cute guys are one of my favorites from Avery Elle.

Thanks So Much in Pink

And one more pink themed card, these are actually ranunculus, how ironic that I should do them in pink when the ones in my front yard are this very color. Ok not really ironic, you knew I was inspired, right?

You're SImply The Best in Pink

I am a sucker for these poppy's from Penny Black. Normally I go for orange but his time I went Pink!
It's a pretty simple card nothing too complicated and I even kept the it clean, no splatters this time. The stamped sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.

Spring is Around the Corner - Happy Birthday in Pink

Well my pink Ranunculus are blooming and I am very much thinking pink this week as you will see with some pink themed cards.

Loving our hints of warm weather but I am racing against mother nature trying to repaint my Pergola before I have my two wisteria vines go into full bloom. Glad to say I am officially 3/4 of the way done and it's a huge overhang but when these two vines (one is a double bloom in purple and white; very fragrant and the other is Pink) are full of blossoms they will look spectacular against the white wood.

I love the punch of black with the pink water colored flowers. And that hint of pp peeking out was a new purchase at the Expo, its a 6x6 pad from Lawn Fawn. Makes me feel spring happy!

Wish you the most Beautiful Day

I was enjoying the water coloring so deiced to work on a few flowers. When I walk I see these gorgeous roses that are red on the inside and then have yellow edges so I tried to mimic that here, you can see I failed miserably and somehow ended up with yellowish orange.  I then die cut the flowers but stamped the leaves on the background. It still needed a bit more bling so on went the sequins.

The stamps are all from Altenew.