Friday, November 20, 2015

Holiday Card Series 2015: Day 4

Hey folks! Today I am hear showcasing the Mama Elephant Twinkle Towns stamp set as well as stamp masking to make a unique card!

This stamp set was inspired by the ornaments in the stamp set. I wanted to utilize them to make a kraft on kraft card, with a pop of color from the ornaments and the snowflakes. In this stamp set, there are two city scenes, but since I was going for a more rustic and homey feeling card, I decided to go with the mountain village. I thought this card turned out well. I colored the solid ornaments with some pearlescent watercolors and the mountain scene with the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens, as I have been addicted to using them lately!

*All of the products will be linked below. As some of these products came from local stores, I will link what I can- I will try to link similar products, but please note that they will not be the same.* 

 To start off this card, I started by cutting the piece of snowflake paper down to 4 x 5 1/4 inches- so just slightly smaller than a A2 sized card. Next, I began the stamping. I used watercolor paper, as that works best with the Zig Clean Color pens. I forgot to mark down the individual marker colors, so I will just link the pack I have. I got mine from Amazon.

I knew I was going to need to mask to create the tri ornament hang scene. The rule of thumb with masking is that whatever you want to be up front, you need to stamp first. I stamped the lower ornament first, and then the others around it. To mask, I just use typing paper and then I temporarily adhere it with tape runner.





Next, I stamped the strings with the ornaments. The string stamp comes in the stamp set. To avoid having to double stamp the string, you could always just draw the string in with a waterproof pen. :) 
Like I said, I chose the mountain scene for the front ornament. So, I stamped it in the front ornament, the lower one. 

To color in the mountain scene, I decided to use the Zig Clean Color Pens. To get a softer watercolored look, I decided to dip the pens into water first before I brought it to the paper. I start at the bottom of the image I am coloring so I can get an ombre look. This is an amazing way to use the clean color pens for a unique look. Sandy Allnock introduced me to this techinque- I used her blog post, which you can find here. 


To finish the other ornaments off, I just used some pearlescent watercolors. :) I put a more intense wash at the bottom of the ornament, and then I just get my brush damp and bring it up to the top. 

I fussy cut this out and then pop dotted it onto the kraft card base with the burlap snowflake paper. 



I hope you all enjoyed this card tutorial! I thought it turned out great. Thanks for viewing and if you have some questions, post them below, I will see you for Day 5 next week! I hope you're having a great day wherever you're at! 




Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Holiday Card Series 2015: Day 3

Hello folks! I am back for Day Three of my Holiday Card Series! This card features some watercolor plaid painting, and the only stamping was inside for the greeting! Kristina Werner gave me the inspiration to do this kind of card, from her card here. Hope you enjoy!

While I had all my supplies out, I went ahead and made three cards. My favorite has got to be the purple one. Since this was my favorite one, I sent it to a friend overseas who I miss dearly.

For the watercoloring on these cards, I decided to not use traditional watercolors, and to use the Tim Holtz Distress Inks. They seemed to give me a nice crisp watercolor. The way I made them darker is that I started off with a base coat of the color (Fired Brick, Seedless Preserves, and Peacock Feathers) with a spritz of water, and I covered the paper. Next I watercolored over the top of the base coat, although I didn't spritz as much water into the Distress ink.

For my palette, I used a page protector, with a white cardstock insert so I could see my colors.

I will be showing you the blue plaid, even though I made 3 cards. (These would be an amazing gift to someone!) 

I started off by taping my watercolor paper to my board. I used some watercolor paper from Micheals, but you could use Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Cardstock as a comparable substitute. 
I next painted a watered down peacock feathers ink, from the inkpad. 

Next, as I described above, I put a more intense wash of color over the top of the lighter color. This way, I was able to get a more intense color to make it a more intense plaid design. 

Next, I smooshed some Black Soot Distress Ink onto my makeshift palette and I sprayed enough water in it until I got a nice transparent black color. I then brushed it on in wide stripes (with a flat brush) at an even distance from each other. 
Next, I decided to use perfect pearls powder in Perfect Gold to make the stripes. I just mixed water with a little bit of the powder, and it seemed to stay pretty opaque. I just brushed it on with a small round brush. 
To finish the card, I just put it onto a sea glass color card base. I thought it turned out well!

On the inside, I just stamped a Mama Elephant sentiment. I thought it would be a good fit for the card! 


This was such a unique card design that I just loved making. I hope you all enjoyed my blog tutorial! As always, the supplies will be linked in the bottom of the blog post. :)  If you have any ideas, just post them in the comments. I love to read your comments. I hope you're having a great day wherever you're at!


Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)