Rose Wonder

Today I'm sharing a card that I made for a local news anchor.  The news anchor Mother is going through chemo and I asked her if it would be okay to send her a card, she quickly said yes!  So I made this card to send to the news station, so she could pass it onto her Mom.  I hope she enjoys it.

I found this idea at Julie Davison blog.  You use the Rose Garden Thinlits to cut out the largest rose with the leaves, using it as a stencil.  I then used a Aqua Painter and the ink from the lid of my Pink Pirouette to paint in the image, then did the same with Pear Pizzazz for the leaves.  I used the sentiment from Wetlands and added a few Basic Pearls.  The card base is Pink Pirouette, then retired Regal Rose, which is what I used to stamp the sentiment in.  Final layer of card stock is Whisper White. 

All in all, it is a pretty easy card to make!  Mary

Watercoloring With A Acrylic Block

Good Wednesday to all.  I hope all is well in your part of the world.  Hubby and I have been down with colds, mine is a head one and his is a chest cold, so we are taking it easy today.

I found this technique in my e-mail in box last week.  Sandy MacIver shared a great video on how to do this, so I wanted to give it a try.  I'll share my two creations with you today.  It is really an easy one to do, just remember that no two cards will look alike and don't judge the background until you stamp your images, it really does make a huge difference.

The first card I did just like her video:

Mine came out darker than hers, so I think I need to use less ink with the more vibrant colors.  Then I tried a different color combo.  I used Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette and Marina Mist on my second try, and this is what I came up with.

When I saw the finished background, it looked like it should be on the beach!  So I use the new stamp set, High Tide.  I love how it turned out!!  This would have also worked with the stamp set Wetlands too.  I used Smoky Slate and Basic Gray for the lighthouse, as I didn't want the lighthouse to stand out too much from the background.  The grass was stamped in Soft Suede.

Now onto some Valentine cards and birthday cards too!  See you Friday!  Mary

Wetlands

Well, here is the last card that I made for the auction at my daughter's workplace.  The only other thing I have to do is finish a card holder to hold all the cards in, which I almost have done, whew!

I once again turned to one of my favorites, Wetlands, to make this card with.  Can you tell I like it?!

I believe this is called the Spotlight Technique.  You can use any shape you'd like, so I decided to use my retired Circle Framelits, I used the second one from the scalloped circle in case you have these.  I cut it out using copy paper, then I used some removal adhesive to hold my cut out in place.

I used the Thick Whisper White for my card base and then a regular piece of Whisper White for the card front.  I used Soft Sky, Smoky Slate and Crumb Cake ink and Stampin' Sponge wedges to apply the ink with.  When I was done sponging I stamped the birds with Memento black ink and the grass with Crumb Cake ink.

This is another fast, easy and no extra postage required card!  Mary

Wetlands Revisited

For my share today, I went back to a old favorite that I did awhile back to make this card.  It is called Direct to Paper.  You take your open ink pad and drag it across your card stock to apply the ink.  Now  when you do this, you are going to think, ugh, I just wasted my paper, but carry on with all of your colors.  Once you stamp your image onto your card stock, you will see, "yes, it does look good"!

I used Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate and Soft Sky ink pads on Whisper White card stock.  Then I stamped the bird, grass and sentiment images with Black Memento ink.  I then mounted the image onto a piece of Night of Navy card stock.  My sentiment comes from Thoughts & Prayers.

This is a nice, flat card for mailing too.

Thank you for coming by, see you soon.  Mary

Wetlands

Happy beginning of the week-end!  Now that hubby is fully retired, again, we have been busy getting things done around the house again!

I was on Pinterest the other day and came across this card.  I've seen cards done like this before but hadn't tried it myself, so I decided to give it a try and it is so easy to make too.  You take your marker and scribble on a clear block, in this case I use four colors.  Then you take and mist the clear block with water and stamp on your card stock.  Let the background dry, then stamp your image on top.  So easy and a nice way to add color too.

As you can see it makes the colors soft and blend together.  I know I will be doing some more with this technique in the future.

Stamp sets: Wetlands and Teeny Tiny Wishes
Card stock: Whisper White and Marina Mist
Ink: Black StazOn
SU Markers: Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Crumb Cake and Pear Pizzazz

This makes a nice card to mail too, no extra postage is needed.

Thank you for coming and I hope you have a nice week-end.  Mary

Two weeks or less and baby will make it's appearance!

Wetlands

Hi to all!

I want to show you the card that I made for my dad's upcoming birthday on June 23rd.  He is going to be celebrating number 87!!  My dad does not act like he is that old either.  We are going to take them out for lunch at our favorite B-B-Q place here in town, YUM!!

Here are the details for this card:

Card stock is Soft Sky, Very Vanilla and Early Espresso
DSP: Color Collections
Stamp sets: Wetlands, Work of Art and stamps from the May Paper Pumpkin
Candy Dots: Neutrals
Ink: Soft Sky, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz and Early Espresso

Thanks for dropping in!  Mary

Wetlands

Happy TGIF, I hope your week went well for all of you.

Well, as you can see I'm still using the stamp set Wetlands.  This time for the background I used a technique called "Direct to Paper".  What this means is that you take your ink pad and apply it directly to your card stock, in a drag and pull motion across the card stock.  I used a lighter touch and this is what I came up with.  Now every background that you use this technique for will be different, no two will be alike.  Don't judge your background until you have stamped your image on it, putting the image on it makes all the difference in how it looks.  I found a card just like this done by Helen Read who is located in the UK.  Since I've not ever done this, I wanted to give it a try.  I used Soft Sky, Smoky Slate and Crumb Cake.  Card stock used is Whisper White, Crumb Cake and Midnight Muse.  Some Linen Thread was wrapped around the card front, I think, making it a great card for a man.

I hope you will try this technique out sometime, it does make a very quick card!  Thanks for stopping to look, I appreciate it!  Mary

Wetlands

Well, as promised, I'm going to show you a card made with the stamp set called Wetlands.  I think the reason I like this set is that it's a good one for making guy cards with.  You can use it for any occasion too, be it sympathy, birthday, thinking of you, etc.

In December, I received another demonstrators monthly newsletter and this card was one she highlighted.  So I saved her newsletter until I could get around to make her card.  It was from the Stamp Lady Katie.  Thanks Katie for sharing your card!

This was a pretty quick card to make once I figured out the dimensions for my layers.  I have a small notebook that I keep on my craft table and for each new card I write down the card title and all of the dimensions I used for each card, that way I can easily reproduce the card again in the future, if needed.

I used Black Staz-On ink for the image, well actually I stamped it twice, once on card stock and once on a scrap piece of paper.  I cut the goose image on the scrap paper out and put it over the goose image on the card stock to mask it off so when I sponged on the Pear Pizzazz and the Marina Mist, my goose stayed clean.  I then took the mask off and used some Crumb Cake ink and a blender pen to color the goose in with.  Oh, I used a 1" circle punch, as a mask, to make the sun in the background.  I also took another scrap of paper and tore the edge to mask off the bottom too.  I then stamped my sentiment on and tied some Linen thread around the card a couple of times and tied it off.

I hope you like this card, and I thank you for stopping by to see it too!  Mary