Creative Watercolor Media Cards

Good Evening Folks,
Today I am sharing my assignments for the Altenew  Creative Watercolor Media Class.  I used my Altenew Crisp Dye Ink cubes to color both cards.  I love, love, love water colouring.  I did an A2 size birthday card and a 4 x 4" any occasion note card.   After I finished the birthday card, I sealed the water coloring with some Tim Holtz Micro Glaze.  If something is spilled on the card the colors will not run.  For information on

For the Birthday card, I started with Arches Cold Pressed Water Colour (WC)  card #140, cut to A2 size.  I dusted the WC card stock with my anti-static pouch first.  I used my Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp set and Versa Mark ink pad to stamp the outlined images in random places on the card front.   The Peony Bouquet Stamp is a 6x8* layering set.  There are nine images and each has it own layer or set of layers.  Including the layers you get 24 total images.  This is a excellent stamp if you want to practice layering.   I used Gold embossing powder and my heating tool to set the images on the card front.   The Gold embossing not only adds to the dimension of the image when water colouring but, it also acts as a barrier to keep the water colours from mixing and causing an uncontrolled muddy appearance.   I coloured the images and background with the following Altenew Crisp Dye ink cubes: Citrus Burst, Maple Yellow, Honey Drizzle, Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, Heart Beat, Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades, Eastern Sky, and Ultramarine.  After I finished with the images,  I did the background in small sections at a time by adding a little water to the WC and washing the background in colour.   This card took a little while as I was trying to get some detail in the flowers in the leaves. 

For Altenew classes and educator program click HERE.

Altenew Products used in this card:
Peony Bouquet Stamp Set
Summer After Mini Cube Set
Tea Party Mini Cube Set
Lapis Lazuli Mini Cube Set
Green Fields Mini Cube Set

The Blessings card is a 4x4" not card (blank inside).  I followed the same process as above for the colouring with WC.  I used Ruby Red, Coral Bliss, Heart Beat, Paper Bag, Espresso, and Sweet Leaf. I got the majority of the color choices from Yoonsun Hur from Rejoicing Crafts.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts DC212 Blessing Stamp & Cup.  I cut the image twice with white card stock, once with Gold card stock and glued all 3 pieces together to give the sentiment some depth.

Altenew products:
Peony Bouquet Stamp Set
Tea Party Mini Cube Set
Coffee Break Mini Cube Set
Green Meadows Mini Cube Set

Well, that is it for now, until next time...

Joyce

Easy Ink Blending

Hi There! Glad you’re back.   

The card I am sharing today is for the Altenew Easy Ink Blending Techniques class.  This is one of my favorites because I love, love, love blending.  It doesn’t matter if it’s Copic Markers, Distress Inks, Clear Color Brush Markers, Gansi Tambi water colours, Prisma Color Pencils, or Altenew Crisp Dye Inks, I just love blending and shading colours.   My inspiration for this card was the tropics and Altenew’s Bamboo Rose Stamp Set.  This is a great outline stamp set.  It has so many supporting images like leaves, branches, stems, and butterflies, this is in addition to the 6-7 different rose sizes! You can make a bouquet of roses, stamp them individually, make a trellis of roses, your imagination is the limit!  It also has five greeting/sentiments in a fun font.  I would say, this is another must have; especially, if you love to colour.  From stamping the images on a plain white background with some coloured ink or embossing powder to colouring the images with Crayola Crayons you will love this stamp set! 

To make this card I started with a piece of Canson Aquarelle #90 water colour card that was a larger than I knew my card front would be.  I do this because sometimes you get the colours just right and of course you’ll never be able to duplicate that background again...well, there is a way, but we won’t go into that here.   I wanted this card to have a tropical feel, so I chose bold bright colours like pinkish reds, corals, yellows, lime green, and oranges.  I started with the lightest colour first.  I added the lightest colour in random areas on the card stock and progressed to the darkest colours.  I was careful not to overlap the colours too much otherwise you end up with a bunch of earth tones (grays, brown, mud).  After I was satisfied with my ink blended background, I cut it down into a 4 x 5 ¼ card front.  I stamped several sizes of the Bamboo Roses onto my card front using my Versa Mark ink pad and embossed them with white fine detail embossing powder.   In the Easy Ink Blending Techniques class we also learned about quick and easy water colouring.  I used that technique on some of the roses and the leaves; it added a bit of dimension to the images.  I die cut the word hello 3 times, glued them together and attached them to the card front.  I added a layer of Fun Foam to the back of the card front and attached that to the front of an A2 sized tent fold white card base…and card was born!  For more Altenew inspiration, products, and information on classes click HERE.

Altenew Products:

Bamboo Rose 

Thanks for stopping by, see you next time...Joyce

Gorjuss in Water Colours

Hello Everyone,

I am back with a simple tent fold card.  I was trying my hand at water colour painting.  It’s something that I’ve really wanted to get into but it just seemed so messy or disorganized. Over the years I’ve tried water colouring with Stampin’ UP! Ink pads, Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads, Tim Holtz Distress Markers.  I have to say, not a big fan of the water colouring using water colour paints at all!  And the use of water in an open container in my craft space is not a good thing for my mind.  More than likely, the water will get spilled and everything in the vicinity will be ruined!  If it’s not due to my tremors, it will be because I’m as graceful as a bull in a China Shop…lol.  I see a lot crafters and artist using the water colour paints and they make it look so easy.  I purchased some Michaels (Artist Loft) inexpensive water colour paints to give it one more try.  They were on sale for $5, so I bought the regular water colour paints as well as the shimmer (never even used the shimmer, I am sooooo over the paints period).  I thought if I don’t like them (and I did not), I haven’t loss that much and I could always donate them.   I like to blend colours and even with the 18 colours that come in the paint set, it just was not working in my mind.  It could be that I had already shut it out before I got started.  I think I was more focused on the messiness, spilling water, over saturating the paper, getting those paper fibers, etc.  I used some paper from the Bee Paper Company.  The package says Heavyweight Vellum Drawing, 90lbs (g/m²).  I saw a YouTube video and someone used this paper to do their water colouring.  For my project the paper held up pretty well.  I forgot to weight the paper down to get rid of the buckling after it dried, so I had a little difficulty getting it down on the patterned paper and you can feel a little of the buckling on the finished card.   I used one of the Gorjuss Girl stamps, #9-You Have My Heart.  It turned out okay but the water paints are just is not for me.  I did however, finish the image and the back ground and did not want to waste the effort so I turned it into a card.  The greeting and the sentiment are from the Mama Elephant Scripty Birthday stamp set.  The card base is some old DCWV textured card stock, the patterned paper is also extremely old paper from ColorBok (8x8 paper pack) called Antique Paperie, and I used a piece of white card stock for the inside sentiment panel, and I used a Copic Liner Pen to ground the image. The finished card size is 5 ½ x 5 ¾ inches.   Again, not a fan of the water coloured paints but I thought I would share my experience and the end product of my feeble attempt at water colouring using paints.   You can purchase Mama Elephant at Simon SaysStamp or on the Mama Elephant website You canjust about purchase a Gorjuss Girl stamp anywhere now but here is the official site for Santoro London (makers of Gorjuss Girl).

 

 

Til’ next time, Joyce

 

 

Ladies Night Out at The Crafty Scrapper

Hey you guys, so much has been going on with me, some sad but mostly good.  I'm getting back to my old self again and it really feels good.  I decided to visit my local craft store the Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie, TX and I lucked up on Ladies Night Out.  I rarely do card classes or any other crafting class for that matter (a little too much togetherness for me sometimes).  But this night they were doing a cute little card using Tim Holtz's new "Crazy Cat" stamps.  The stamps are a take off of his Bird stamps.  We used water colored brush ink pens from Zig to color our images.  The pens are nice, they have some really cool features, that may be a step up from the regular water colored pen.  What is even nicer about ladies night out is: It was free to make the card,  they serve deserts and beverages, and we also got a 40 percent discount off of one item.  I definitely plan to attend another one.  Below, I am showing a picture of the card inspiration that Carolyn (the store owner) made and the second card is my take on the card.  The stamps if not already, will be in the store soon. She just returned from CHA and she didn't even want to see her bill, so you know she got the goods!!! You can also order from her on-line store.  Not only does she have a large selection of Tim Holtz but she also carries many other artists and manufactures such as Wendy Vecchi, Maya Road, Bo Bunny, Prima, Kaiser Craft, 7 Gypsies, Fab Scraps, Authentique, Petaloo, Bazzill, and a whole lot more.  She has everything in the store that will take you from inspiration to a completed project.  If you live in Texas or even if you are just visiting, the store is definitely worth the trip! The prices are reasonable, the staff is most accommodating, very friendly, knowledgeable, and all inspiring with their incredible talents. 
The Crafty Scrapper
www.thecraftyscrapper.com
108 South Rogers Street
Waxahachie TX 75165
972-923-3151
Hours:
Monday-Thursday 10-6pm
Friday 10-midnight
Saturday 10-5pm
Closed Sunday

Thank you ladies for a great evening, see y'all soon; Hugz from me...Joyce Ann