April 30, 2016

Bird and Roses Card

This is my last week as hostess for Crazy 4 Challenges. This week I chose a lovely colour combo for spring for our challenge.

bird n roses

I used Altenew inks with their Vintage Roses for the roses and PTI inks for the leaves. The bird was stamped with Hawaiian Shores and vintage jadeite. I added some marker for the eye. The bird stamps, designer paper and banner die are all PTI. The oval die cut is by Spellbinders. I find you get the best results for layering stamps by using a MISTI tool. I got these layers dead on by aligning the layers carefully while getting down almost at table height to check the placement and looking at the placement from all sides. I know that seems excessive but that’s the best way to get it right. I stamped quite a few at once so now I have a stash. Even though it’s a bit tough getting it that perfect, it’s worth it in the long run!

Enjoy, Rebecca

April 25, 2016

Water Coloured Flowers for Mom

I am not very good at loose watercoloured florals. I always make them too precise so they don’t look realistic enough. Then I found a photo on Instagram (sadly, I accidentally cropped out the artist’s name) and decided to copy it.

watercolour mom card

My version isn’t exact so it isn’t a copy really. But I did place the same type of flowers in the same places and in the same style. But I plan to use what I’ve learned to come up with my own compositions in the future. I think you can learn a lot by copying especially when in person classes are few and far between or very expensive. This was the perfect mix of loose but not too loose. Each flower or cluster is it’s own separate image and there’s no background to worry about. I loved the Online Card Classes Intermediate Watercolour Class but the last few lessons were too much too soon for me! A hand lettered sentiment and a few sequins from Cartwrights and I was done! The card base is Lemon Tart (PTI) and the watercolour paper is by Windsor & Newton. The paints are a mix of student and artist quality from an old palette.

Enjoy, Rebecca

Stencilled Glitter Background

ETA: Another missed post! Ugh!! This was supposed to post April 9th!

This week at Crazy 4 Challenges, I decided to make it a technique challenge! You add a wet medium like paint, paste or gel then while it is still wet, add some glitter! You could also use embossing powder or something similar.

sweetheart glitter card

I used Wendy Vecchi clear embossing paste for the background with a SSS stencil. Then I added some Martha Stewart glitter. The papers and stickers were all by Crate Paper. I recall using a sketch at the time but I don’t recall which one.

This technique is so fun and depending on what base paper, paste and glitter you use it can give you so many different looks! It works for every type of card making! I do hope you’ll try it and link up your card at Crazy 4 Challenges!

Enjoy, Rebecca

April 24, 2016

Spring Flowers for Crazy 4 Challenges

My challenge for this week was to use spring flowers. As in ‘April showers bring May flowers’. It’s not quite May and spring has been very slow to arrive here in southern Ontario but close enough! I’m always so anxious for spring!

magnolia symp

I think this may be one of the prettiest cards I’ve ever made! I looked up magnolias and most of them have a bright colour on the underside of the petals. I mixed some watercolour paint, orange with a purplish pink. The blend makes a more muted colour than using a straight pinkish coral, which was the look I wanted. I left some of the paint more concentrated and another batch more watered down. So once I embossed the Altenew image with gold embossing powder and I figured out which parts of the image were which, I added water to the areas I considered the tops of the petals and dropped in a tiny bit of the more watered-down paint nearest the center of the flower and allowed the colour to spread and dry on it’s own. For the underside, I painted the stronger colour on then once it was dry I added some more for shading.

magnolia symp2

The leaves were done in the same way as the tops of the petals; I added some water then dabbed on some colour at the end where the stem would be and allowed it to spread. The background was stamped with Antique linen Distress ink using an old SU! background stamp. I wanted to highlight the area behind the flowers so I airbrushed in some soft green Copic marker. (I made this card several more times since and I added some light brown airbrushing too.) The Impression Obsession sentiment was die cut from cardstock and embossed. Last but not least, I added lots of lovely sequins from Lucy’s Little Things.

You have to visit the Crazy 4 Challenges blog to see all the fabulous designs the team has created! I hope you decide to play along!

Enjoy, Rebecca

April 22, 2016

Butterfly Dress Doll

ETA: So sorry this didn’t post. I hadn’t noticed until today!

I love using my Julie Nutting paper dolls but they are so big that they don’t fit on a standard card. So when I had the opportunity to create a sketch for Crazy 4 Challenges, I created one that would work for these awesome stamps!

c4c butterfly dress girl

I paper pieced this dress and card using some older Webster’s Pages papers. I added some silk ribbon and a flower from Really Reasonable Ribbon. The skin and hair were coloured with Copics. The bottom strip is washi tape from My Mind’s Eye then I added some random sequins that matched the colours in the patterned paper.

C4C332Sketch

If you play along, (and I hope you will!) feel free to change the shapes or alter it to make it square or a standard 4.25 x 5.5” card. (ETA: Sorry that I posted this with only one day left to play!)

Enjoy, Rebecca

April 02, 2016

Make a Wish Galaxy Background Card

It’s my month to host the challenges at Crazy 4 Challenges! I chose a fun theme for this week, Little Critters!

mouse galaxy

There are several ways to make a galaxy background. Watercolour, sponging and airbrushing all work really well. I combined the first two to make mine starting with watercolour paper. I added splotches of the bright colours you see peeking out from the darkness. I used fuchsia, green, bright blue and purple. After letting the colours dry a bit, I added the black first around the coloured areas then as the pigment started to run out of the brush, I went over the colours. If you do this, don’t panic, the colours will show through in the end.

Once this layer dries, you will have a nice background but it likely won’t be dark enough and your colours may have faced too much so repeat the first steps. If the background still isn’t dark enough, mine wasn’t, then use some black dye ink to go over the black areas especially around the edges. Then I added some very dark blue to the areas in between the colours. Last but not least, I added some water droplets, let that dry, then added white splatters with slightly thinned gesso and finally some white gel pen.

The hill was water coloured but the green was too bright for a night sky so I added black sponging to that too. The little mouse (Avery Elle) was stamped in soft stone ink (PTI) and water coloured with distress inks. I added a few sequins (Lucy’s Little Things and Pretty Pink Posh) and some Perfect Pearls. The panel was mounted on an eggplant card base (SU!).

I really hope you have a stamp or two that will fit this challenge! Feel free to play along any time this week. The design team has done a fabulous job at making samples, I love every one!

Enjoy, Rebecca