Favorite Color Distress Ink and Watercolored Card

 Today, I am part of an Instagram card hop with a few of my crafty friends. The theme for our hop today is our favorite color.

Green happens to be my favorite color, especially lime-y, peridot shades of green. For the background of this card, I chose two yellow-green Distress Inks to ink blend over a gold embossed image. At the top is Twisted Citron Distress Ink, which is blended into Crushed Olive Distress Ink on the bottom. The gold embossed image is an older background cling from Hero Arts called Leaf & Floral Background (CG405 circa 2012). The gold embossing powder is Princess Gold from Ranger Ink. Before adding my florals and sentiment, I flicked water onto the background and then added a few splatters of old pearlized paint mixed with water that I have in my stash.

I originally considered making a fully green card but then decided to add florals for interest, so I added my next favorite color, which happens to be shades of aqua & blue-greens.  Using a floral image from Altnew's Beautiful Day Stamp and Die set and additional flower and leaves images from Simon Says Stamp Delicate Flowers (SSS201900) I gold embossed and Distress ink watercolored the images. 

The flowers were first washed with Salvaged Patina Distress Ink and while still wet I brushed darker Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink into the crevices where a natural flower would be darker. Using my paintbrush and a paper towel I was able to delicately move and manipulate color to where I wanted it. I used the same technique with the leaves using Twisted Citron and Crushed Olive ink. I left more ink on the leaves because I wanted them to blend in more so that the flowers would stand out. The floral images & leaves were then splattered with Perfect Pearls Perfect Gold powder that I mixed with water. I fussy cut or die-cut the images after coloring and popped them up on the card base using foam adhesive squares. 

To complete the card I added a die cut You from the Simon Says Stamp You Are My Sunshine Die (SSSD111834) and a gold embossed sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp You stamp set (SSS101211). The pearls and sequins are from Lucy's Cards and are from her Ocean Adventure and Fresh Grass Sparkly Shaker Selections. 

 Anything that is still available for purchase I linked in the description above. If you have any questions about techniques or products, please leave a comment and I will get back to you. Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Embossed Watercoloring with Distress Ink

This week's Color Throwdown #559 color scheme doesn't scream fall, but it still has a fall feel to it, which I love.

 I went with my favorite watercolor technique to create my card. If I am going to watercolor images, I always heat emboss the image before I begin painting. The raised edge of the embossing gives the watercolor a boundary and helps to keep the color inside that space. 

I started with a cream-colored card base. I wanted there to be a subtle pattern to the whole card. The bottom left was going to be so heavily embellished, I felt without a pattern it would feel out of balance. For the background, I laid the Simon Says Stamp Solar Burst Stencil down and sprayed it with Biscotti Perfect Pearls.  

The flowers and navy leaves are from the Simon Says Stamp Delicate Flowers Stamp Set. I stamped them in black ink and then clear embossed them. To add color, I chose two yellow Distress Inks- Scattered Straw and Fossilized Amber and two pinky coral Distress Inks- Tattered Rose and Abandoned Coral. The navy leaves were watercolored with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink. Once I adhered the florals and leaves, I stamped the sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Thanks and Leaves Stamp Set in Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and added a few sequins around the sentiment. 

I felt that the florals needed a bit more, so I used jute from Lawn Fawn and a small stamp from the Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp Set to add additional texture.  The small stamped images were embossed and watercolored with Antique Linen Distress Ink sprayed with Biscotti Perfect Pearls. To finish the card I added Biscotti Perfect Pearls to the flower centers, once dry, I coated the flower centers and small cream floral stems with Glossy Accents. 

Love how this color scheme turned out!

Color Throwdown #556

Back this week with a fun color scheme from Color Throwdown.

I have quite a few family members and friends with birthdays in September. With school starting back up and the boys all playing sports, I have been trying to get a jump on getting birthday cards made before life gets crazy busy again.

This one was a lot of fun, I always think shaker cards are fun, and it is a challenge to try to figure out a quick and easy way to create the shaker part. I am not sure I have ever created two shakers the same way. Maybe one day I will finally come up with a shaker formula I love. 

This card is bigger than what I usually make, measuring 5 x 61/2.  The blue background was created by ink smooshing a combination of Broken China and Salty Ocean Distress Inks. The happy birthday sentiment was stamped & embossed on the blue background, and I added the shaker part over the top of that. Today's shaker formula was a piece of black fun foam with Desert Storm kraft cardstock adhered to it. I ran that through my Big Shot using two stitched rectangle dies taped together to make a frame. Before adding a bunch of different sequins, seed beads, and gems to the shaker, I used my anti-static pouch to cut back on the static that sometimes occurs inside the shaker. I also adhered a few sequins around the sentiment, so that even if the recipient stands the card up, sequins will still be visible. I  then cut down a piece of clear acetate and adhered another kraft frame on top of that. Using Scor-tape on the back of the acetate, I closed up the shaker portion. 

The stamped pieces along the frame are from Tim Holtz and Altenew. I watercolored them using Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Gathered Twigs, and Walnut Stain. I always use multiple shades of the same color, and I also add additional layers of color, letting layers dry completely before starting a second layer. I think that multiple shades and multiple layers help add to the depth of the painted images. 

I finished the card with a hemp bow and more sequins. This birthday card is headed to one of my very best friends, who is a former scrapbooker and card maker. She will love it!

Color Throwdown #554

 I loved the color scheme for this week's Color Throwdown.

I wanted to use the same basic materials and try two different techniques for the cards this week. 

Both cards were created using Neenah white 80lb cardstock to create the card bases. I also cut down Desert Storm cardstock and embossed it with older Sizzix embossing folders to create the backgrounds. 

All the stamped pieces are from Altenew's Beautiful Day stamp & die set. The card on the left was stamped in black ink and watercolored using Tim Holtz Distress Inks- Barn Door, Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover, and Peeled Paint. The card on the right was stamped in Altenew mini ink cubes in Red Sunset and Green Fields. Both cards have tan elements stamped in Vintage Photo Distress ink. 

The black pieces are cardstock from my stash and the green, and black and white pieces are washi tape that adhered to white cardstock and layered under the black cardstock. 

I used Hero Arts Gold Embossing powder along the edges of the sentiment strip and the background piece. I also sprinkled loose embossing powder and heated it from underneath on the completed cards to add texture and interest. 

Each card was finished with Gold Stickles and sequins from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Color Throwdown #524

With one day left in our Christmas Break, I had the urge to get inky. I knew I had a color challenge blog that I followed through Instagram: @colorthrowdown, so I looked them up and found the newest color challenge.  I used the latest color challenge as a guide for a birthday card for the sweet lady who is the instructional aide in my son's kindergarten class every day.

Here is the latest Color Throwdown challenge:

And here is my take:

I will try my best to link the products I used to create this card. One of my creative plans for this year is to use the materials I already have available in my scrap space. If you are anything like me, you have lots of unused supplies that are just gathering dust. I hope to use quite a bit of mine up this year so that I can justify buying more of course! 

The base of this card is from a card and envelope set I picked up from Michaels. They come precut and scored 50 to a pack with envelopes. Card size is 5 by 6 1/2. 

The yellow and black mats are from pieces of cardstock from my stash. The colored background is a piece of Tim Holtz Water Color Cardstock inked with Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, and Mowed Lawn. Then the background was misted with Perfect Pearls. The silver die cut piece is from Taylored Expressions. I die cut it first and then embossed it using Versamark and Wow Embossing Powder in Metallic Silver. I then die cut a shimmery vellum circle from vellum I had in my stash and layered on the stamped pieces. The stamped pieces are from Altnew's Beautiful Day stamp and die set. The flower was stamped with TH Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, and Ranger Archival Jet Black ink and the leaves were stamped with the Green Field mini cube set from Altenew. The other smaller grey pieces were stamped in Altenew's Moon Rock ink.  I finished the card with an old Happy Birthday sentiment from Cocoa Daisy and a scattering of gems from my stash. 

Thanks for checking out my card. It was time-consuming because I am not a fast creator, but I like the results, and I think Jude's teacher will love it as well. Especially with a Sonic gift card tucked inside.