#980 – New Year Wishes

Hello and welcome! As is tradition, I made New Year’s cards for my family this time as well. I wanted to make an interactive/shadow box kinda card for quite some time now, and thought this would be an opportune time for it. The technique is better described by Jennifer McGuire in this video, where I learned it from.

Anyhow, these are the cards I made –

I used a combination of stamps from different companies which worked well together. I shall list them below as well. However, the sentiment on the top of the cards are all the same, from Winnie & Walter Wishing You stamp set. I used Faber Castell Oil pastels to color all the images, and mineral oil to blend them.

For this card, I used My Favorite Things Scene Builder except for the little butterfly, which I hand drew. I used Concord & 9th Retro Petals Turnabout stencils for the background. I added the dots and lines using a grey fineliner pen and Sakura clear glitter pen.

For the inside, I used My Favorite Things Piggy Pebbles, My Favorite Things Scene Builder and Purple Onion Designs Blossoming Perch stamps.

For my second card, I used Purple Onion Designs Blooms 2, the butterfly from Waffle Flower Happy Day and the background Simon Says Stamp Botanical Split. I went over the flowers with a red pencil from Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, then highlighted some areas with a grey fineliner pen, then the flower centers with the glitter pen.

Within the card, I used My Favorite Things Friendly Foxes, Purple Onion Designs Blooms 2 and Birch Tree Background, butterflies from Waffle Flower Happy Day.

For the last card, I used stamps from My Favorite Things Gill Friends and Waffle Flower Mermaid Mail stamps, pairing it with bubbles from Simon Says Stamp Be a Mermaid. I had to add another stamp for the bubbles since they weren’t big enough, and then I drew over them with the fineliner along with the reflected light and the little fishes.

For the inside, I paired the stamps from My Favorite Things Gill Friends and Waffle Flower Mermaid Mail stamps. For the giant sea weeds and those waves in the background, I didn’t have any stamps, so I hand drew them.

I must say, the finishing isn’t the best in all these cards, I had a hard time getting the right measurements for the supports, and then adhering them properly so that they stood up when the card was opened. It definitely wasn’t a total failure, but I felt I could do better with practice. I kept the coloring at relatively low levels, so I could concentrate on the rest of the card, so I wouldn’t feel exhausted, and I must say that was a good decision I made! 😀

But I am really happy to have tried them. They came out well and I have a good idea on how to make further cards if I want to.

I’m joining the following challenges with my cards –

Wishing every one a wonderful new year! Hope this year brings in plenty of new and happy for everyone!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#911 – Flurries of Happiness

Hello and welcome to the very first challenge of Seize the Birthday for the new year!! Following tradition, we have a new topping for you to work with. This time, our wonderful teammate Barbara was the one to choose ‘Snowy Background’ as the topping. If you’re not a toppings kinda person, well…..you can just stick with our usual “Anything Goes”Birthday! The choice is yours!

And here’s what I made –

I’ve started trying to create my own backgrounds while watercoloring, and the topping felt like a good start. So, I just thought of going for it!

The cute little foxie is from My Favorite Things Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes, and I modified its birthday hat into a snow cap and added a muffler around its neck to help it with the cold weather. The rest of the image is drawn and watercolored.

I used Gansai Tambi watercolors with CrafTangles watercolor paper to create the entire scene. Finally, I stamped the sentiment from Paper Smooches Winter Sampler stamp set at the bottom in black ink. I then trimmed the panel a bit more and mounted it on a grey card base.

And that finished my card! And I’m joining the following challenges –

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Something New

My Favorite Things Color Challenge #156

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #396: Make Your Mark

Look for more inspirational and innovative cards from the rest of our DT and our Party Guest Julie Peddicord at the Seize the Birthday challenge blog! And don’t forget to play along and add a few more birthday cards to your stash! 🙂

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#869 – Garden Gnome

PE: Winner at Just Add Ink challenge!! Yippie!!

Hello and welcome! Its been a bit busier than other weeks! Last night I did some more watercoloring. Since I’ve been using my Gansai Tambi watercolors for so long, I thought of changing my medium to distress inks instead.

And I made this piece of no line watercoloring of a Garden Gnome. I used the MFT You Gnome Me stamp set, stamped the images with a light grey ink (frankly, it had almost dried up, so I had to stamp some places twice or thrice to even be able to see the image!). I used the colors from the latest MFT Color challenge. For paper, I used Hndmd watercolor paper. I also used my color pencils to add a little bit of extra shading.

Once done, I trimmed the piece to size. For the matting, I stamped the Concord & 9th Barnwood Background in Pumice Stone distress ink after misting it lightly with water. I then laid it at an angle on watercolor paper card base. The sentiment, which I stamped in black ink, is also from the MFT You Gnome Me stamp set.

And that’s it. I kept the rest of the card clean, since I wanted to keep the focus on the watercolored piece.

Joining the following challenges with this card –

Just Add Ink challenge #506

MFT Wednesday Sketch challenge #490

MFT Color challenge #141

Happy Little Stampers May Watercolor challenge: Anything Goes + optional Emboss

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#796 – The Hedgehogs Say…

Hello and welcome to listen to what the hedgehogs want to say!! 😀 😀

I had these cute lil hedgehogs from MFT for quite some time now, and it felt like using autumn colors on them was the perfect idea. So, I made two cards, with the exact same arrangement, but with little changes.

I used MFT Happy Hedgehogs and Verve Stamps Bountiful Harvest stamps. I actually wanted to test one of the cardstocks that I own, on which I usually do misted stamping for superb effects, with watercoloring. The results weren’t exactly what I expected, but my sis said she liked the soft tones, so I thought of using the piece (or rather, keeping the card I made) than not. And that’s the one you see on the right.

I made this other one as I wasn’t satisfied with the first one. The one on the right is made by watercoloring using distress inks – and even bright colors were significantly toned down by this card stock. And the one on the left using stamping with MFT Black hybrid ink, then coloring using Zig Brush pens.

Coming back to the card on the right. Once the cardstock had dried, I die cut it using MFT Stitched Mini Rectangles die, added a base of dark brown cardstock, then adhered it to a kraft cardbase that I had already stamped in plaid tones of orange, red and brown using the MFT Plaid Background Builders. The sentiment is heat embossed on the same dark brown cardstock, die cut using MFT Slanted Sentiment Strips, foam mounted on the panel.

For the card with the brighter tones, the sentiment comes from Ranger Letter It – Thank You stamp set. I used distress oxide inks to create the blend of colors in the background, on which I splattered some water. I fussy cut the hedgehogs and pumpkins and mounted them at different levels of dimension.

With these cards, I am joining the following challenges –

MFT Sketch Challenge #402

Happy Little Stampers: September Watercolor challenge: Anything Goes (not using the optional Butterflies)

Color Throwdown challenge #510

Timeout Challenge #118: Photo Inspiration

Paru’s Card Making challenge: September challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you so much for listening to the hedgehogs and for stopping by! 🙂

#761 – Smile!

Hello and welcome! Ok…so I got a lil too motivated with the MFT challenges. I made another card. A third card was on its way, but I thought that would be one too many and that it might be better to save it for another challenge! 😉 So anyway, here is the second card I made –

I started with making fringes out of a few thin sheets I had. These sheets came in between OHP sheets/transparent plastic sheets that we generally use to make those shaker cards. I had saved those hoping to put those thin translucent sheets to use. Came in handy! 🙂

So anyway, I used some distress and other water reactive inks to color these, applying the ink, then the paper on top and then misting it with water to get the color on. They dried fairly quickly, and I die cut them in layers, since they were thin enough. I then layered and adhered them on a white card piece of cardstock, then die cut the piece using MFT Pinking Edge Rectangle.

I also cut out a few flowers, which I misted, stamped and fuzzy using the images from MFT Pretty Posies, and adhered them on the fringed panel using glue. I then added foam tape below, and adhered it on the card base, on which I had already adhered another panel with trimmed edges and one rounded corner.

The sentiment is die cut using MFT Emmitt Alphabet and the stamped portion is from MFT Things with Wings.

With this card, I am joining the following challenges –

My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #388

My Favorite Things Color Challenge #94

Happy Little Stampers June Anything Goes with Dies challenge

Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday: Summer Inspired Projects

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂