Thanksgiving Cards of all styles

I took a crack at making some cards for the upcoming eat-too-much holiday. I'm trying to get back in to some kind of schedule where I actually #sharehandmadekindness like I used to [note this is my 2nd blog of 2015. Yikes.] It's been stressful this year, so I really got off course. Most people only got their Halloween cards a day late... 

Although the holidays are usually chaotic, the lack of a reason to be outside helps keep me at the craft desk. The man and I did a little IKEA hackery to my craft desk: we moved a table leg so I could have access to a power receptacle, and drilled holes in the back of a drawer for cables. And now that the setup is 'perfect', I have no excuse not to make things. So here we go!

Both cards are watercolor over clear emboss resist. The embossing powder was ironed off after the watercolor dried. It doesn't come out of the Distress Watercolor Paper's thick texture as well as it does regular card, so I had to go back over the sentiment with pen to get the weak spots where there was leftover emboss. Idea from Case This Sketch #149. Sentiment from Lawn Fawn. Leaves from the latest Simon Says kit. I think the damask is from Inkadinkadoo. The watercolor has some metallic mixed in (thanks, gelatos) but it's hard to see.

Papers and stamps from Lawn Fawn. Sketch from Freshly Made Sketches #212. The "In To the Woods" papers haven't been touched for at least a year, if not longer... how's that for "in with the old?"

Papers and stamps from Lawn Fawn. My own layout, but I was remembering one of this nature I had seen before.



Some past cards that I made between blogs....

 

Stamps from Altenew. For the wedding of my friend, Ayako in Japan. I learned red and white are the best colors for weddings. I wanted to do a bunch of other symbolic Japanese things (the number 9, a special knot) but my supplies didn't match up to my ideas. Plus, I was still kinda recovering from surgery, so... this is what I ended up with.

This guy missed my Halloween post. I don't make enough distress ink backgrounds. White splats are from white Mister Hueys. Stamps from Lawn Fawn. (Anyone sensing a theme, here? No? Okay then...)

Classes and Challenges

I'm supposed to be taking Stretch Your Stamps 2, but I'm having a hard time playing along with everything I've got going on. Too busy to think straight, basically.

Anyway... here's three cards, two for class that are direct copies, solely for technique, and the third for the Always Playing with Paper Challenge #12, because I liked the color combo and thought it would go well with the Simon Says kit that I hadn't played with yet.

A Note: Glossy Accents is the devil. You will get it everywhere. It will bubble. You will put your thumb in it. It will fall on its face before it dries. You will hate yourself. Cards with glossy accents are like the hot buttered toast of the craft world -- you will drop it on the floor and it will be a disgusting wreck.

Another Note: Wink of Stella will re-activate your watercolor. Stella and this technique do not mix. <sigh>

Lastly, for the challenge. Love how I somehow wrecked the sentiment -- it was perfect -- before I got a photo of it. I blame the above watercolor cards. I was spraying a bit of water around. I know it's my fault, but it's still sucky.

ETA: This card was one of three runner-ups for the Challenge! I'm so totally honored!

Unity Challenge and Watercolor Pencils

I practiced using my watercolor pencils during watercolor class on these stamps. It's easier to color stamps with a lot of tiny details with watercolor pencils -- that and a tiny brush!

I did both of these for the Unity Challenge, using both the sketch and the color palette. I like them both.

More Fun with Watercolor (and the new SSS kit)

So since watercolor class is over, I can get back to my regular unscheduled card making. (LOL, unscheduled, I need a schedule so bad...)

Anyway, I wanted to test out my watercolor skills on some actual cards, and blammo, here we go!

First up, Cas(e) this Sketch #77. Just begging for watercolor, am I right? Rather that freehand the circles, I put a pencil in my circle cutter instead of the blade and drew out some of the bigger circles. Then I filled them in with wet-on-wet. The smaller circles are 'drops' and for giggles I added some splatter as well. The stamps are from Technique Tuesday and I have had them for awhile but for whatever reason never got them out! Shame! Because they are 'fabulous.' I love this card. If I did it again I'd make the circles a little lighter and be more careful with the splatter.

Next, I played with the kit that just came from Simon Says. This is probably one of my favorite boxes this year. The stamp set is bonkers fun to play with. This was my first test and I flipping love it. It's a little busier than I meant it to be, and I wish the center strip of paper stood out more, but it is still pretty good. This is for Seize The Sketch #20.

The boyfriend's father loves fish almost as much as he does. So here's his birthday card. Water(color) everywhere. I masked off the fish with rubber cement -- I love that tip! Best thing I learned in class because frisket is really stinky and expensive. Rubber cement is so much better. Sketch is from Retro Sketches 116.

Watercolor for Cardmakers: Day 5 & 6

Basic Watercolor with Watercolor Pencils

I did these to work as well for the Unity Stamp Challenge. I just need to make cards from them.

Watercoloring a Stamped Image: Paint over light outlines

Dragon!! I hand painted the flames. He's got some shimmer to him.

Watercoloring a Heat Embossed Image

I was messing around with my color choices. Not really sure what my goal was here.

Basic Watercoloring: Black Outline Stamps

This stamp is a little hard to paint. But I think this is the best one I've done of it so far.

Watercoloring a Stamped Image with Masking

I need to fill in the flower, but you get the idea.

Watercoloring an Embossed Image (with shimmer)

I loved her technique of partial fussy cutting. Loved it.

See the shimmer?

Watercolor for Cardmakers, Day 3 & 4

Basic Stamping with Watercolor: Water Mist on Build/Layer Stamps

I don't have any layering stamps that would really work for this, so I might try it again later.

Stamps Specifically for Watercoloring: Stamping Outlines with Distress Ink and Blurring

I might have some stamps that would work for this. I tried it one time with ink that didn't work for it (seen here, ended up adding more paint/ink) so I will have to try again with another method.

Creative Watercolor Stamping: Solid Stamp, Blend on Stamp

I tried this technique twice, and it was a total bomb the first time.

The second time was a little better. The second time was much less runny. I discovered the combination of VersaMark + Tsukineko here. Made the inks much less "beady" when water was applied, and less likely to stain the paper.

Stamp With Watercolor: Actual Paint on Stamp

I love this technique, and it's rather like the background one from before, except with actual paints. A little harder to control the water and pigment levels with paint instead of ink. I want to try this with VersaMark to up the tackiness level.

Stamps Specifically For Watercoloring

I don't have any good stamps for this technique, I don't think. Also, I think it would work best with Gelatos, which I also don't have.

Creative Watercolor Stamping: Using other items as stamps

This technique was shown with a pencil eraser, but any rubber-like item will stamp. I didn't feel like doing this technique because I couldn't come up with a good idea.

Watercolor for Cardmakers Day 1 & 2

Wash with Stencil Technique

Total fail, huh? Tiny stencil, spray inks. 

Wash on Block Technique

So the Tsukineko Inks are kind of a fail. Not enough water, stains the paper. Too much water, leaks everywhere. Unless, as I did on the right, you stamp the block first with Versamark!!!

Real paints work better.

Wash over Heat Emboss Technique

I tore the one on the left, and the two on the right are tests on non-watercolor paper. It curled pretty badly, but I didn't tape it down either.

I plan on ironing off the black emboss. Seeing if it leaves a gray/brown stain.

Soft Wash with Pencils

<<coming soon>>

Vibrant Wash over Mask

Card coming soon...

Wash on a Background Stamp

I am way more impressed with this technique than I thought I would be!

I'm taking Watercolor For Cardmakers: Pre-Class

I've been taking Watercolor For Cardmakers from Online Card Classes. I took a semester of watercolor as part of my BFA, so I had plenty of supplies in my stash. The pre-class assignments were to play around with your supplies and to make some color swatches. I picked up some new supplies to round out my stash, so it was good to play with them beforehand.

First is a palette of Tsukineko Memento inks in the three left columns. In the right column is the Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I am saddened that the Distress Inks are actually amazing as watercolors. I was believing they were an over-hyped brand name that weren't actually any good. Alas! They work really well. I still found a way to enjoy the Tsukineko ones... but I'll explain in a later post. They are rather good as stains, and they are still useable. Although I might have to invest in some Distress Markers after seeing the class techniques...

Example of Tsukineko vs Distress. I inked them on to a block first and then used it as paint.

From Left: Watercolor Pencils, actual Watercolor paints, cheap watercolor paints from a kit, and Twinkling H20s.

Here's the Twinklings up close.

Here's the Twinklings up close mixed with the cheap paints from the kit, in different proportions. Basically, add as much Twinkling as you can. I'm very glad the pale Twinkling colors pick up darker normal paint colors. I had hoped it would work that way, and it was why I bought the pale colors.

These were some paintings I had made months and months before class. They are basic washes, with salt to create spots. I never managed to make them in to cards or framed art, although I meant to.