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!

*Tim Holtz DISTRESS WATERCOLOR CARDSTOCK Ranger Ink TDA39549	*3M Scotch ROLL YELLOW MASKING TAPE Post-It Adhesive 2650-Y	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad PEACOCK FEATHERS Ranger Spring TIM34933	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad BLACK SOOT Ranger TIM19541
Ranger Studio Paint ARTIST BRUSHES Brush BRU40842	Ranger Inkssentials MINI MISTER Spray Bottle Tool IMMR13593	Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger 4 Ounces TDA47414	*Ranger Perfect Pearls PERFECT GOLD Individual Pigment Powder
Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# SEA GLASS SG4	*Neenah Environment ***100 LB*** SMOOTH DESERT STORM Paper Pack 25 Sheets	http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/product.aspx?id=335514	Tsukineko VersaFine ONYX BLACK Ink Pad VF-82
Tsukineko VersaFine ONYX BLACK REFILL Reinker 38282	Dahle Self-Healing Cutting 18x12 Mat 10671	*Tombow Adhesive Craft Stamp DISPENSER & REFILL Dot Pattern Runner 62143 Permanent

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Holiday Card Series 2015: Day 2

  Hey folks! Happy Friday- the week's over! Today, I am back with another installment in my Holiday Card Series! In this card, I am featuring the Mama Elephant Twinkle Towns stamp set. This stamp set comes with ornaments and all, but I decided to use the stamp set in another way. I just used the sentiment, the pine needles, and the pine branch. This is the stamp set:

I love the stamp set, but I had the idea when I first saw it to make this card! So, today I am going to share with you all the technique of stamping with the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens! I found out some tips through trial and error. When stamping with these markers, you need to spritz the stamp with a spritz of water. Otherwise, you will get an extremely splotchy image. I have included an example below. I used marker #044 to stamp with.

To stamp the image, I used Versamark ink. Instead of embossing, I used Perfect Pearls powder. Once I was done with this card, I spritzed it with water to set the perfect pearls. They have a built in resin that helps them to stay.

                                 

To layout this card, I decided to stamp my sentiment first so I would make sure I knew where to stamp all of the pine branches. I stamped the pine branches around the sentiment all in one go, and then I stamped the branch after I finished the pine needle stamping.

Now, earlier I know I said to stamp with the spritz of water, But I decided to not stamp the brown branches with water. I stamped them just coloring on with the zig clean colors, and I got quite an interesting effect! Just a tip if you have a small image and you want it to stay pretty solid. To stamp the branches, I used marker #062.

After I finished the card front, this is how it looked!

                           

To back the card panel, I decided to use a kraft card base and then a green dot patterned paper. These give the card a more homey and rustic feel, in my opinion, and it just looks well with the card!

                                  

                               

This is the finished card!
       

Thank you so much for stopping by today! This was a rather simple card, but I think it turned out well. Thanks for the stop by to view the card! See you for Day 3 next week!!

http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/product.aspx?id=335522	Lawn Fawn 3.5 Inch Acrylic ROUND Grip Block with Grid	Zig CLEAN COLOR 24 SET Real Brush RB6000AT24V	Tsukineko Versamark FROST DAZZLE Watermark Ink Stamp Pad VM-002
Tsukineko Versamark FROST DAZZLE REFILL Watermark Ink 11022	Ranger Perfect Pearls METALLICS Complete Pigment Kit PPP15963	Echo Park CHRISTMAS DOTS AND STRIPES 6 x 6 Paper Pad DS15048	*Martha Stewart MINI SCORING BOARD Score Craft Tool 42-05013 New 2012
*Neenah Environment ***100 LB*** SMOOTH DESERT STORM Paper Pack 25 Sheets	*Tombow Adhesive Craft Stamp DISPENSER & REFILL Dot Pattern Runner 62143 Permanent

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Holiday Card Series 2015: Day 1

Hello folks! Welcome to my Holiday Card Series this year! I don't know how many cards I'm going to do this year, but I can't wait to share more with you all!

Today's card features Hero Arts stamps and the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. I used regular cardstock, even though I prefer to use them on watercolor cardstock, and it seemed to work quite well. I finished them off with gold splatter!

I will link up the supplies below, but I will show some pictures below of my supplies. I used premade card bases just for convenience sake!

           

I chose to use these stamps at the end to stamp on the envelopes. These are from Michaels, so I don't know if I can link to them. But you can use whichever sentiments you want!!

                                                    

To start off with, I masked off the top of my card with some post it tape. This is so when I stamp the ornament stamps, the strings won't cover the back of the card, and it will look crisp and professional. Also, I used the lines on my grid mat to help me line it up straight.

Next, I took the stamps I wanted off of the backer sheet and placed them on my project. I did this because I wanted to see how they would fall out within the card front. I knew how I wanted it to be, but since I used this stamp set first here, I didn't know how they would turn out. 

I then stamped the images in Versafine Onyx Black ink. This is my favorite black ink for watercolor. It stamps them very crisply and I know it won't smear when I go to use my Zig markers with it, because it is waterproof when it is dry.

The ornament on the right didn't stamp well the first time, so I just stamped it over. It didn't match ip perfectly, but I kinda like this look. Looks more whimsical and organic. I just left it because, partially, I didn't want to stamp the whole card over again! Anyways, while I had the stamps out, I stamped another card front using the same stamps and ink, just in another way. 

Next, I colored in the images. I used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. These are meant to use on watercolor paper, but I wanted to use them on the cardstock to experiment, plus I just wanted the card to be a one layer card! They actually seemed to color quite well! I can't remember which colors I used for which, I just used the colors in the 24 pack! :) 

You may notice some gold splatter on the front. I used some Perfect Pearls (in the color Perfect Gold) and just mixed them with water, and scraped them off the edge of an acrylic block, with a paint brush. This finished the cards for me , this way they didn't seem too plain. 

I stamped on the envelopes from the little sentiment set from Michaels. This was a last minute decision, but I think it was so worth it, because it finishes the envelopes off. 

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That's it for the cards. Now I want to share how I will be sharing these cards! 

The lovely Jennifer McGuire is sponsoring a card drive to send cards to people in the nursing homes all over the world. I want to support this, so I will be sending in these and 4 other cards. There are also prize giveaways!! You can find out more about the drive by clicking here. 

Thank you so much for coming to view this blog post. I will be posting more cards in this series, so stay tuned! I hope you are having a great day wherever you're at!

Hero Arts Clear Stamps CHRISTMAS CRYSTALS cl802 Holiday	Tsukineko VersaFine ONYX BLACK Ink Pad VF-82	Zig CLEAN COLOR 24 SET Real Brush RB6000AT24V	*Ranger Perfect Pearls PERFECT GOLD Individual Pigment Powder
Simon Says Stamp White A2 Side Fold Scored Cards 120# 10 Pack a2side10 STAMPtember	*3M Scotch ROLL PINK MASKING TAPE Post-It Adhesive 2650-P	Dahle Self-Healing Cutting 18x12 Mat 10671

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