Gnome Fun

Hi there.  This week has flown by!

My friend Nance (Soul Stampin') came to spend a day crafting

and she brought me this stamp.

Isn't it adorable?

The swing reminds me of the swing at my grandparent's house

when I was growing up.

It was big enough for two people and often my

aunts would pair up to swing.

Sometimes my brother and I would climb aboard and we could

swing so high!

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked it with markers, doing

small sections at a time then moving the colors with water.

I pretty much colored it like the package showed.

Since it's an outline stamp, I swiped some ink from the markers on my palette

and picked up color with my water brush to fill in.

I pulled some color from the design into the background for 

a light wash and picked up some color from the palette as needed.

I almost didn't catch that caterpillar on the branch.  Isn't he fun?

I love the sentiment but know that we can't always do what brings us joy.

Sometimes we have to do the other stuff and get our joy from doing a hard job well.

CAS Mix Up: Ink Stamps with Markers

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Gnome on a Swing (Stamping Bella)

Ink:   Distress Markers (Brushed Corduroy, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Ripe Persimmon, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, Hickory Smoke, Pumice Stone, Blueprint Sketch, Tumbled Glass, SU Brown Sugar

Paper:   Watercolor (Strathmore 140 lb. cold press), Neenah

Other:  Foam Sheet

Serendipity Thistle

Hello friends. I hope you are having a great day!

I was playing with this beautiful Serendipity Thistle stamp for last month's class

and had an extra that I stamped different color dots on trying to decide 

which color to go with.  I ultimately decided on the pale yellow,

but liked how it looked with all the different colors.

The thistle stamp, which includes the butterfly,

was so easy to ink with markers.

The MISTI is such a great tool for this technique!

I die cut around the bottom and put the design on a piece of

mauve cardstock.  It looked like it needed a little something else,

so I scored the bottom of the mauve piece.

Serendipity has a blog hop on the first and third Wednesday of each month.

Mary always has some good sales and if you comment

on all the blogs of the Design Team, you get a chance to win a 

gift certificate to Serendipity.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Thistle (Serendipity), Tulips (Technique Tuesday)

Ink:   Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Markers  (Picked Raspberry, Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Spiced Marmalade), SU Marker (Cajun Craze)

Paper:   Neenah, Sweet Sugarplum (ret. SU)

Other:  Scallop Borders 2 (PPP from Serendipity), Simply Scored (SU)

A Little Wreath for CAS Christmas

Hello, friends.  Glad you could pop in today.

It's time for a new challenge at
CAS Christmas

Nance is our host this month and she chose

I had this NBUS stamp that needed to be inked and I thought

it would be sweet with a wreath hanging from it.

Using my MISTI, I stamped the lantern on Mixed Media paper 

with a mini cube of Black Soot Distress ink

being careful not to get it on the candle.

I inked the candle with Distress Markers and used a 

damp waterbrush to smooth the colors.

When I was happy with the stamping, I cleaned the stamp

and inked it with an embossing ink pad

and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

Then I proceeded to do a wash in the background.

What, you don't see a wash?

That's because it was HORRIBLE!

I don't know what I was thinking about while I was painting,

but it wasn't the project at hand!

So....when all else fails, fussy cut what works.

And that's what I did.

The wreath was some little punched and die cut sprigs

glued to a die cut ring.

I added some little red jewels for berries and added a gold bow

and the card was saved.

Whew!

And my sweet friend Mary brought me some Nuvo Crystal Glaze

so I added that where the glass would be.

Ooh, I like that stuff!!!

I hope you'll try a wreath and join us at

CAS Christmas.

Our Guest Designer Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord) and

the rest of the Design Team have done some beautiful wreaths to inspire you.

This also fits at CAS Mix Up since I inked the candle with a marker.

Challenges:

CAS Christmas: Wreath

CAS Mix Up (inked the stamp with a marker, stamping, heat embossing and die cuts.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Cones and Berries (PB), Season's Wishes (PB)

Ink:   Black Soot (DI), Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Wild Honey (DM), Versafine Onyx Black, WOW Embossing Pad

Paper:   Mixed Media (Strathmore 400 series), Neenah, Naturals White (ret. SU)

Other:  Clear EP (SU), Sprig Punch (MS), Pine Sprigs Die (IO), Framelits Circle Collection (SU), Nuvo Crystal Glaze, Stately EF (Crafts Concepts)

Birches for CAS Watercolour

Hello friends.  It's time for a new challenge at CAS Watercolour.

Loll is hosting our challenge this month.

This is what she chose.

I'm not going to tell you how many times I tried to do a card for this challenge.

Actually I lost count!

I love watercolor.  I have lots of tree stamps and dies.  

But nothing seemed to work for me.

Finally something came together that I could use but wasn't

completely satisfied with.

Then I picked up this die and just started playing with it without really thinking.

It ended up being my favorite of all the forest of watercolor trees in my studio.

Go figure!

I used a gray Stampin' Up marker to outline the trees and add 

some lines on the trees, picked up some color from my palette

(left from the many other tree trials) to color the leaves and around the edge 

and found a watercolor piece in my background box that was just

big enough to cover the opening.

I've put the die cut piece on foam to give it some extra dimension.

The Design Team has a lot of fabulous inspiration for you at

CAS Watercolour and we have a fabulous Guest Designer, Ros.

I hope you'll check it out and join in the fun!

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Fun Birthday Sentiments (HLS)

Ink:   Smokey Gray (Versafine), Smokey Slate Marker (SU)

Paper:   Smokey Slate (SU), Neenah, Mixed Media (Strathmore)

Other:  Birch Tree Window Die (SSS), Slightly damp Water Brush

Inking with Markers for CAS Mix Up

Hello friends.  I hope you are having a fantastic day!

It's time for a new challenge at CAS Mix Up

Using stamp inked with Distress markers, regular stamping, die cutting and stenciling with embossing paste

This month I'm the host

One of my favorite techniques is to ink my stamps with markers.  With all the stamp positioning tools available, this is easier than ever. You can add one color ink to one section, stamp and ink up another section with a different color.  It's the perfect technique for flowers, birds and butterflies, but 

don't limit yourself to them.  I can't wait to see your mini masterpieces!

This card was so quick!

This sweet little Unity stamp was in my NBUS box.

I put it in my MISTI, got out some Distress Markers,colored the stems and lines 

with a brown marker and stamped on Neenah card stock.

I could see spots I missed so added ink in those spots, stamped and moved

on to the flowers choosing colors for each one.

For each of the flowers, I inked with the lighter color then "thumped" 

with the darker color.

My friend and fellow CASsette, Joanna always inspires me with her

unique CAS Mixed Media style and I love how she adds frames to some of her cards.

So I've CASEd her.

So I cut down the other part of the die cut to make a frame, (this die is cuts an 

inside-outside piece) and added it at an angled it behind the design.

I used my favorite stencil and some embossing past for texture.

Check out the fabulous designs by the Design Team joined by our

Guest Designer Chrissie (Simpy One of a Kind).

We have some video tutorials at the challenge site to give you more ideas.

I'm looking forward to seeing your cards made by inking up some stamps with markers.

Hope to see you at CAS Mix Up!

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Flower of the Fall (Unity), Enjoy (PB)

Ink:   Distress Markers (Brushed Corduroy, Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord, Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral, Picked Raspberry), SU Marker (Cajun Craze)

Paper:   Neenah, Cajun Craze (SU)

Other:  Texture Scraped Paint Stencil (MB), Embossing Paste (Wendy Vecchi), Double Pierced Rectangle Die (Avery Elle)