Another Poppy with Watercolor Background

Here's another card using the technique I described yesterday. 

It doesn't "pop" quite as much as yesterday's.  I'm not sure if it's the color combination or just that the poppy panel is much smaller or a combination of the two.  Nevertheless, it's still eye catching.

Pleasant Poppies on Watercolored Background

I've been playing around with a fun technique that makes gorgeous backgrounds.

The technique is pretty simple.  Cut a gallon or quart sized freezer bag on two edges so that it opens up all the way.  Select 2-5 markers that will look good together.  Scribble on one open side of your plastic bag.  If you have colors that don't blend well, make sure they're separated by colors that work well with both of them.  For the record, orange and blue make brown. As you can see, I separated the Pool Party and Tangerine Tango with Summer Starfruit or Rose Red. 

Spritz the plastic bag with rubbing alcohol so that the ink starts running.  The Stampin' Spritzers work perfectly for this.  Yes, you could use water, but alcohol dries faster. 

Put a piece of white or vanilla cardstock in the ink and press down.  Pull it up and take a look.  If there are blank spaces, put the cardstock down in some of the ink that remains. 

Let dry and then stamp with outline images using Staz On, or solid images in coordinating colors.  For the card above, I stamped the Pleasant Poppies background stamp and then colored it in with markers.

Hopefully this makes sense for now. If you have questions, leave me a comment. I'll try and take pictures soon an post a better tutorial.

Cheers,
Sharon

Patterned Occasions

Sale-A-Bration is here for almost another month.  One of the sets you can get FREE with a $50 order is Patterned Occasions.  This set of 5 images is great for quick and easy cards.

We made this card at the February stamp club meetings.  The caption for the jeans is supposed to be "Congratulations, Smarty Pants."  For those who wanted a birthday card instead, it was an easy change.  We simply stamped the sentiment from one of the other stamps and did a little free form cutting.  The white gel pen around the edge was a nice accent that coordinated with the stitching on the jeans.

The elephant with the flower is so cute.  To get the multi color image from one stamp, I inked up the entire stamp on the ink pad, then took a q-tip and wiped the ink off the flower.  Then pulled out my markers and colored the stem and petals directly on the rubber. 

I had fun layering different punches behind the elephant image.  Notice the scallop embossing that goes under the focal point?  I used the new Borders Scoring Plate (Occasions Mini p. 26) for the Simply Scored. It's a nice way to add some texture to a card or scrapbook page.

Cheers,
Sharon

Cross My Heart

...but not and hope to die.  But, I will try to post a bit more frequently.  These samples are made with the Cross My Heart set from the Occasions Mini catalog.  It has crossword puzzle style images that are fun to use and can be used for any age or gender.  Here are a couple of ideas.

We made this card at this month's stamp clubs.  The vanilla and black color combination is meant to mimic the colors of a newspaper.  The designer series paper is from the First Edition package. 

I adapted the ribbon candle idea from my friend Julie.  She doesn't have the sample that was the inspiration, but trust me, it was cute!  Anyway, the ribbon is from the 2012-2014 In Color collection.  The flame is from the Blossom Petal Builder punch. 

Cheers,
Sharon

Wonderfall

Wonderfall is a wonderful (sorry, couldn't help it) new stamp set in the 2012 Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini catalog.

To make things even better, there's a coordinating Bigz Die, Autumn Accents,  for the Big Shot that cuts out the leaves. The woodgrain texture on the upper left card is a new embossing folder.  The card on the upper right is made without the Big Shot.  Can you believe I actually hand-cut the acorn? 

Sorry the picture quality is a bit blurry.  The card reader on my computer isn't recognizing my camera card so I had to take this with my cell phone and email it to myself.  Time to get my 13 year-old IT consultant to fix the problem. 

Cheers!

Papillon Potpourri and Floral Framelits

Once again I turned to Papillon Potpourri.  I love that set and the matching butterfly punch.  The flower was cut with the largest Floral Framelit on p. 191.  Happy Birthday is from the Bring on the Cake stamp set. 

Daydream Medallions

Daydream Medallions is a stamp set that works for so many different looks.  On this card I used a neutral pallet for an elegant thank you card.

Stamps: Daydream Medallions, Daydream jumbo wheel, Perfectly Penned
Ink: Basic Black, Sahara Sand
Cardstock: Basic Black, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede
Misc: Antique Brads, Floral Frames Framelits (say that three times fast!)

Cheers,

Sharon