Friday, March 15, 2024

Tulip Trio

 I'm enjoying painting many of the Art Impressions flowers lately, especially tulips, it seems!  This little pot of them if from 5870 - Peeking Bunny Set that was recently released.  I stamped the pot three times in a row on my Ranger Distress Watercolour paper - using the colours that they are painted in.

The pots are stamped in N52, painted with 947 & 969.  The greenery is all 126/349/177.  The tulips have two colours each: 606/565, 725/626, 933/725.  N52 was painted as the ground, 493 as the background, and 565 was used throughout for shading.

I added "Spring" from 5867 - Mini Easter Sentiments, and sewed it down to a medium brown cardstock.  The finished card is 3 1/2" x 7 3/8".



Thursday, March 14, 2024

Quick Easter cards

 I have always been a patterned paper fan, and Art Impressions has some of the prettiest paper packs around - today I am using 5742 - Easter PP along with the sweet bunny outline die from 5869 - Easter Bunny Puppet Set.

Since I wanted the papers to shine, I just used the die from the puppet set, starting out with a shaker card. 

 I cut the bunny out of the oval die cut (5065 Oval Double Stitched Dies), as well as the background paper, where I inlaid the gingham bunny - this isn't a necessary step, but I wanted the base to be as flat as possible, giving my shaker elements lots of room to move.  I glued on a piece of acetate, and rimmed the bunny with some thicker 3D foam adhesive, I placed the shaker bits on top of the bunny and attached the oval overtop.

I didn't have any white pompoms on hand, so I dug out some soft white yarn, and created my own by wrapping the yarn around a pencil, then trimming it down a bit.  They are the softest, scruffiest little bunny tails!  I really love how they turned out.




I was loving the bunny shapes so much, that I made a coordinating card with all three of my patterned papers, using my sewing machine to add some zigzag stitching, and of course... more bunny tails.


I also whipped up a quick placecard, as I thought he'd make some pretty cute Easter table decor!


The sentiments are both from the newly released 5867 - Mini Easter Sentiment Set.  



Saturday, March 9, 2024

Best Wishes

 When Spellbinders came out with their alphabet press plates, I knew that I'd be grabbing a few.  This is the Every Oxccasion Floral B and Sentiment plate set.  I used Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide ink on the Betterpress cotton cardstock, then coloured in the florals with Copic markers.  Card is 5 1/4" square.




Friday, March 8, 2024

All-Spellbinders card!

 I have a Betterpress card today, using the Sealed Floral and It's Your Day Sentiment Strips press plates, pressed with the Betterpress black ink onto Canson XL Watercolour paper.  I painted them with 3 colours of Distress ink, added some silver paint spatters, a silver metallic bow, and finally a silver wax seal made with the Timeless Blooms seal.




Sunday, March 3, 2024

SF Village & a Bunny card

  It's Watercolour Weekend time, and I have a couple of projects to share here and on the Art Impressions blog today.

First, something spring-like:

I stamped the bunny on a stump from 5737 - Bunny & Chicks Set in N57, as I wanted softer lines for my scene.  After masking him and the pot, I began building my bouquet, with all the flowers from 5794 Whimsical Flowers, and the leaves from 5795 - Berries.  After pulling the colour out of the lines with a damp brush, I built up the shadows & shading on the bunny using N57 - keeping most of him unpainted, as I wanted a white bunny, and did the same with the daisies, adding a little extra grey in some areas to indicate shadows.  I used #533 on the bluebells, which is a lovely lilac/blue colour, again adding layers of colour where I wanted it to be darker.  #565 was used for the foxglove-like flowers, and I used both #126 and #177 on the leaves, as I find two colours make them a little more interesting!


I mixed together #565 and #177 to create the blue/green shades of the pot, adding touches of the 533 and 565 as shadows.  For the stump, I used several shades of brown (992/969/947) mixing and layering them in the crevices to create the darker and warmer shades of the bark.  With the larger grass from 4051 - WC Foliage Set 1, and #177 - I added in the grass, painting it out and adding it as a wash along the ground.  A wash of #493 was painted as the sky (it's very faint in the photo!), and I added a few dots to my scene using my black Twintone marker.


I cut out my scene using 5061 - Square Double Stitched dies, and my sentiment, which is from 5734 - Friend Sentiments Set, was cut with 5064 - Circle Double Stitched Dies.  Both were matted with some pale blue cardstock and added to my patterned background.

My second card has been in the back of my mind for a few months.  Last fall my husband and I visited Mont Tremblant, a ski resort just north of Montreal - and the 5746 - SF Village stamp reminds me so much of the village!  Scroll down and you'll see a photo that was my inspiration.

I stamped the Scenic Foundation onto my Canson XL watercolour paper using Tombows #969/565.  I picked my warm and bright palette of: #993/837/373/476 to paint the buildings, layering the colours to create darker, shaded sides and keeping the sunnier sides brighter.  #837 was also used for the chimneys.  Layers of #N57 were painted onto the planters, sidewalks and to create the cobblestones.  Several layers were painted to create the chalkboard sign.  I used #249 along with the leaves stamp from 4052 - Flowers set 1 as the shrubs in the planters, and the small green from 4867 - Foliage Set 2 to create the greenery in the flower boxes.  After softening them with a damp brush, I used the Bleed Proof White Paint to add dots that became flowers in the boxes.  The mountains and hillsides were suggested behind the buildings with washes of #565/177.  #565 was also used to add shadows under eaves, in doorways, on planters and in the windows.   A wash of #493 was added to the sky.  


I like to leave a little white space around my paintings, so I selected one of the 5063 Rectangle A2 Double Stitched dies to cut out my image, then mounted it with some 3D foam adhesive to my card base.  A few enamel dots were sprinkled around it.  Here's a photo of Mont Tremblant:


Saturday, February 24, 2024

Spellbinders Cardmaking Star

I am entering the Spellbinders Cardmaking Star competition with this card using the Cosmos Backdrop press plate, that I've watercoloured using Distress Inks.

My image was pressed onto Canson XL Watercolor paper, using Betterpress Black Ink, and my Spellbinders Betterpress system.  I painted it in by smooshing my Tim Holtz Distress Ink cubes onto my palette, and picking up colour with a paintbrush to add to my image.

After using my powder tool, I used Versamark Watermark ink with the It's Your Day Sentiment Strips to impress some black cardstock with all the great sentiments that come on this plate!  I sprinkled the impressions with white embossing powder and heated them all with my heat gun, before using the coordinating die to cut them out.

I matted the image with black cardstock, and adhered it down to my periwinkle blue cardbase.  The sentiment is attached with 3D foam adhesive, and a few black gems were placed around it.

I'm really loving my Betterpress!


Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Snow Happy

I coloured these up a few weeks ago, thinking I'd use them for winter birthdays, but decided to make them into Christmas cards instead.  This is "Snow Happy" from the Colorado Craft Company - illustrated by the amazing Anita Jeram.

I pulled out some ancient CTMH paper, and used Spellbinders dies to cut out the pine sprigs and sparkly leaves.
The images are coloured with Copic markers, and die cut with the Stitched Rectangle dies from The Greetery.
So happy to have my first two Christmas cards ready for this year!


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