Watercolor Background

Well, as you may have noticed, I'm on a watercolor roll! I just recently ordered some more goodies including Gelatos and some Peerless Watercolor papers. And, my Mother's Day gift was Inktense pencils. (Yep, I'm an art geek!) So, you'll be seeing plenty more in the future. Anyway, I decided to create a background for my layout using watercolors and I have to say I love how it turned out.

 It was so fun to create. I just used a variety of colors and brushed them onto the background. I've found that the paper will warp, but if it is placed under a heavy object, it flattens out pretty well.

 I decided not to go to heavy on the papers and embellishments, because I love the background too much to hide it. So, I added some Studio Calico Here and There die cuts. And just a couple of bits of paper on the right hand side.

The Pink Paislee stars were misted with a combo of Dessert and Sunset. I absolutely ADORE these Thickers. I colored them in with Copics and then I added the doodling to the photo and the edges of the page. I love how it mimics the Thickers.

That's about all for today. The school year is winding down and I am in overload mode. Just a few more days and I'll be done. Then I can scrap to my heart's delight.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Water Colored Birds

Hi! I'm here today with a fun card I made using a watercolor technique that I recently learned. I used the May Citrus Twist kit to make the card. Here it is:

 Here's what I did. I used three markers, a spritz bottle and an acrylic block.

I filled the entire block with color. I found that doing this technique with colors that blend nicely together works best.

 Then, I sprayed it with lots of water and swirled it around to combine the colors.

 After that, I pressed the canvas bird - face down- into the ink.

 I did this twice and here's the result. I love the subtle blending of colors on the birds. Additionally, there was a bit of ink left on the block, so I stamped it onto cardstock to create the square of color in the background.

This is definitely one of my new favorite techniques! I can't wait to try it again.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Citrus Twist Kits

I'm so excited that I can finally share that I am Citrus Twist's guest designer for May! If you aren't familiar with Citrus Twist, they are a kit club that have adorable kits. Each month they offer a great mix of supplies, a cute stamp set, embellishment add ons and a project life kit.  This month, they are offering a Main Kit (not PL) subscription special for May: sign up for a 6-month sub and get a $20 grab bag. ($10 grab bag with a 3-month sub)

Over the next few weeks, I'll be able to share more of my projects, but today I can share this one. I wanted to document the fact that I now have to wear glasses.

 I started off using my Tim Holtz ink dabbers to make the ink splats. I added some Mister Huey mists. then I started layering my picture and added lots of goodies below it.

 I always hate throwing away the cellophane bags that come with so many products. I decided to use them here on my page and added them as on of my layered elements.

I also used packaging from the Basic Grey die cuts. See that little tab that says, 'hipster', yeah, that's it! I also made a little pocket and punched confetti from the patterned paper included in the kit.

I'll be sharing the rest of my projects soon. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Watercolor Love

I am having so much fun using my watercolors these days! I'm so glad it's one of the hottest trends right now.

Today's card was made for the Moxie Fab World Watercolor challenge. I had posted another card a couple of weeks ago. And I have been having a great time looking at all of the cards that people have posted. If you have time, you have to go and peruse the blogs linked up for the challenge.

Here is the one I came up with:

To make this card, I laid a chevron mask onto my paper. I painted water onto it and then added color. This gave it an imperfect, blurry look.

Once it was dry, I stamped some more chevrons onto it and then added some Amy Tangerine stickers.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. :) Have a good one!

Gold Feather Tutorial

One of my favorite trends right now is using gold on pages! I have recently bought gold ink, gold pigment, gold markers, gold glitter and gold glitter paper. Love them all! Not too long ago, I created a page for the Crate Paper blog blending my love of gold with another fun trend - feathers.  Here's the result.

 To make the feather, I started off with some DIY paper. I cut it into two pieces.

 Next, I used a gold pipe cleaner as the spine. I adhered it to one of the leaf cutouts.

 Using a glue stick, I adhered the other cutout on top of it and flattened it out so that the 'spine' would show.

 Next, I just cut along the edges and then I used my fingers to ruffle it up and give it some texture.

 Finally, I made a mixture using gloss medium and Pearl Ex gold pigment powder. I brushed it onto the leaf.

 Here's the final result!

 I added some wood veneer stars that I painted with the gold mixture, too. They turned out really sparkly, though it's hard to tell in this photo.

 I embellished the page with some glittered elements from DIY Shop as well as some goodies from the Maggie Holmes line.

 And here's a close up of the feather on the page.

Well, that's about it for today. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day.

Watercolor Love

One of the hottest trends right now is watercoloring. I love it! One of my paper crafting goals this year has been to do more stamping. This goes hand in hand with using different watercolor techniques. I spent some time on Youtube the other night and learned a technique that many people already use. But, it's new to me. I used markers and colored on an acrylic block. Then, I spritzed it with water. Finally, I placed my paper onto it and lifted it off to find a beautiful design. When it was dry, I stamped my flowers onto it and cut them out. It gave the image a soft , gorgeous look. I did this a couple of times and here are the cards I created as a result.

 I used Papertrey's Year in Flowers Violet for my flower. I cut several of the images out and layered them with foam adhesive. The sentiment is from WPlus9 Very Vintage Florals.

To add a bit more texture, I glued some beads onto the center of the flowers. 

This card also was inspired by the WPlus9 Monday Mood Board.

I loved the blues and the painted look on this!

 Here's another version of the card. Using different colored markers gave me a different look.

Both of these cards were also made for Moxie Fab World's Watercolor Challenge. I've been having so much fun playing along with Cath's challenges and have been thrilled to be a 'Trigger Target' twice in the past several weeks. (See my side bar!)I'm so glad she posted this one because it really forced me to learn something new and to try it.

That's about it for today. Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday Trigger

Happy Thursday! It's almost the weekend and I'm so excited. :) I'm ready to relax and do some scrapping. Not much but the usual grind going on this week. Work, gym, get ready for the next day, repeat. It has been really nice outside, though. The birds are singing and the daffodils are in full bloom. I love that!

I had the chance to play along with a couple of challenges. This card is based on the colors in this week's Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger. It's also based on the Sunday Sketch at Studio Calico.

 Most of the items on here are from the SC Spencer's Card Kit. The stamp was from the Block Party kit.
I added the glitter paper and used lots of foam adhesive on it.

 And here is the Trigger that it was based on. I wanted to use the blue background and have the yellow polka dots, too.

I find that I've been making a lot of birthday cards lately. It seems like you can never have enough of them!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day. :)