Stampin with Anita: CAS Watercolor

Showing posts with label CAS Watercolor. Show all posts

Sunday, August 16, 2020

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge: Beach

My blog this week is for the CAS (Clean and Simple) Mix Up for August 2020:

For those who are not familiar with the rules for this challenge here they are:

CAS Mixed Media Definition:
- clean (uncluttered) cohesive design
- open space
- include techniques
- include art products

I couldn't resist using my favorite Hippo Fun In The Sun Clear Stamps by Whimsy Stamps:

If you follow my blog, you'll have seen this stamp set before, but never water colored with Altenew's 24 half pan watercolor set:

The each little pan of watercolor comes wrapped with a label showing all the details of the color and a color swatch dark to light. I usually don't used the reference sheet that comes with any coloring medium for I want to see the colors in real life. Therefore, I removed the labels and added them to a full sheet of watercolor paper. Next, I swatched each color, so that I could (1) tell for myself how the colors looked and worked and (2) have a good reference for future coloring:

I use a pipette to drop a few drops of water onto the colors that I plan to use. It softens the watercolor to make it easier to paint.

I used the Altenew color, Crystal Water, for the background onto Ranger Inkssential's WaterColor paper, my favorite for card making. I wanted to achieve some movement, like there was the ocean behind our hippo playing the the sand, so I started with a wet-on-wet technique and dropped in color. Before it dried, I splattered with the same color paint and with lots of water droplets of all sizes.

I let it air dry naturally and once it was almost dry, I set in under a few heavy blocks to help flatten it. I also ran it through my Big Shot between a sheet of copy paper to also help it flatten. Finally I stamped the sentiment "Relax & Enjoy" from Waffle Flower's Under the Sea Sentiments:

Our little hippo in the sand was watercolored, as well, with the same Altenew set. I cut it out with my Brother Scan 'n Cut leaving a .4" border. The center panel was popped up with fun foam and our hippo was glued flat and a small strip of 3M foam tape used along the bottom edge to keep it stable.

I believe this will be my last post for 2020 with our cute hippo, but there is always next year!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

CAS Watercolor Challenge with Jillian Vance

Welcome friends to my post for CAS Watercolour Challenge, Cool Colors:

This will be a quick post for I simply used some water coloring from my stash which happen to be the perfect colors! Don't you love when you can use something on your desk and create a card? I am not sure what brand of watercolors I used, but I know I did use table salt on the water coloring when just drying. You can see the star bursts in the pictures created with the salt.

I used my Jillian Vance Wildflower Die Set to cut out the images and I used every last little bit of this paper. I love blues and greens together:

The white background is Taylored Expressions Bead Board Embossing Folder with Neenah White 80 lb. card stock. The clean lines are a perfect background.

The sentiments came from the Birthday Greetings stamp set from MFT Stamps.

You can see the salt effect in the bottom flower in the above picture. The base is Blu Raspberry Card Stock from MFT. I do love this color and they have matching envelopes, too!

This was my grand-daughter's 25th birthday card. She is a blue lover so I thought she'd enjoy it and she did! The links are below if you are interested in any of the products I used today. Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Trinity Stamps Succulent Banner for CAS Watercolour Challenge

Hi Friends! I hope you are enjoying your weekend and able to do some fun things before Monday morning back-to-work! It's been mid 60s here in North Carolina, but below freezing at night. Winter is definitely coming.

I wanted to post my card for the November CAS Watercolour challenge - "Monochromatic".

My daughter, Jill, is in the process of buying her first home in Arizona and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to use this really cute stamp and die set I picked up from Trinity Stamps. I saw that they are both in the "Last Chance" category at Trinity Stamps, so if you like them, grab them while you can!

I started with a piece of Arteza Watercolor paper and stamped the image with Scrapbook.com's Black Hybrid Ink - perfect for watercoloring. I used just one color from my Kuretake Gansi Watercolor set of 24 -#53, a really beautiful green. For watercoloring, my go to brush is a Silver #6. The whole process was really quick. I just went back several times to deepen the color in the shadow areas. Once dry, I ran it through my Big Shot with the matching die.

To put the card together, I used Neenah Solar 80 lb. card stock with Sunny Studio's Dapper Diamond Embossing Folder. Clean lines, but still gives interest. The background is the Neenah paper cut with a Jillian Vance's Basic Rectangle Die. I like to use a rectangle die for the background to always have a perfect cut. These particular ones just cut smoothly and leave a bit of an indent for a border.

The Dapper Diamond piece was adhered to Fun Foam with Tombow Liquid Adhesive and then to the bottom of the card front. The image was also adhered with liquid glue on the bottom half, while the top half was popped up with Scrapbook.com's Double-sided Foam Squares.

The white card front was adhered to a layering piece of Gravel Grey card stock by MFT Stamps. A few Forever Green Satin and Metallic Green Confetti Mix were added at the end. The card base is MFT Stamps' Sour Apple card stock.

The inside was stamped with Scrapbook.com's Charcoal Hybrid Ink with the single house image from Stampendous' "Family Home". I have had this in my stash for a long time, but it was perfect for this situation and is still available for purchase!

I also had the set of MFT's assorted envelopes in my stash and thought I stamp the cute snail and mailbox from Trinity Stamps' "Mr. Snailman" to make a nice matching set.

Always fun to receive an envelope with some sort of "mail art" on it. I know Jill will love her card and it will have a place on her new refrigerator!

All products I used to create this card and envelope are shown below if you'd like to check them out.

Thank you for visiting today and sticking to the end. The CAS Challenges are monthly and fun to play along and yes, challenge, yourself!

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Impression Obsession Maple Branch for CAS Watercolour Challenge Oct. 19

Can you believe another month has rolled around and it is time for the CAS Challenges (Watercolor, Stencil, Christmas & Mix Up) which are usually due on the 24th. I wanted to play along with the watercolor challenge this month. It is also CAS' 3rd birthday!

The theme is Maple Leaf. So here is the challenge - use Maple Leave as an inspiration or image, keep it Clean and Simple and watercolor in some way.

Here is what I came up with using Impression Obsession's Maple Branch red rubber stamp:

I stamped onto Arteza 140 lb. watercolor paper with Scrapbook.com's Black Hybrid Ink. What is Hybrid ink? Why use it for watercoloring?

Here is the description from Scrapbook.com's site:

"Our hybrid ink pads are proudly made in the USA and feature an ergonomic design making it easy to hold; the lid snaps on the base that creates a handle so that it is easy to ink your stamps. They are archival, acid-free and feature a non-fading color ensuring that your stamped images will last for years to come. The ink is non-bleeding, you’ll have perfectly stamped images every time you use it and it’s waterproof when dry, so it’s easy to use with your markers and watercolors."

I ended up buying the whole set of inks once I tried them! Each color comes in a family of 4 and are marked 1 through 4, lightest to darkest. Easy to work with using the numbering system. Again, I like to have all the options available and with a coupon code I had, they were half the price of other sets on the market.

But back to the watercoloring. It was really a simple image that didn't take long to color. I used the Arteza Real Brush Pens in various oranges, greens, browns and a little burgundy and a water brush. I cut the image out with my Jillian Vance's Polka Dot Circle Backdrop Die. Nice selection of sizes with that set.

The sentiment comes from Trinity Stamps Autumn Sentiments Stamp set. This is a 3 X 4 stamp set with lots of unique sentiments. I actually cut apart the sentiment because I felt it fit better stacked than one long sentiment. It cut cleanly and I can simply layered it back together at a later time to use as intended.

The card base is MFT's Tangy Orange card stock cut to an A2 card size. Using my Misti, I stamped Right At Home's Grid Background Stamp with Scrapbook.com's Orange Spice. This is a 6 X 6 Red Rubber stamps that works beautifully. Again, I am always looking for a little something subtle in the background.

Lastly I simply layered the circle to the card base using liquid glue and trimmed of a bit on the top and sides.

The finishing touch was a few of these Forever Green Confetti circles from Trinity Stamps. Beautiful for Christmas, St. Patty's Day, Spring cards and today an Autumn card!

There are many stamp companies of all sizes on the web today. Some of what I have shown in this blog comes from small, owner operator companies and our support helps them to prosper and grow. If a company's name is unfamiliar, check them out and see what they have to offer. Most likely, you won't be disappointed.

As always, thanks for staying with me to the end. All the products discussed on this blog are linked below.

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Monday, September 16, 2019

CAS Watercolour Challenge Sept 2019 Reminder - Guest Designer

I've been invited by the Design Team at CAS Watercolour to be the Sept. 2019 Guest Designer. Yah! Fun! The challenge runs every month - from the 2nd to the 24th with a reminder on the 16th. This is the reminder blog post and here is the challenge:

For my first card, I used Violet and Yellow as the complimentary colors. For this card, I am using Red & Green. Complimentary colors can make "mud" or a brown color. For my first card, I wanted mud, but in this card I do not. Here is the color wheel I created with Waffle Flower's stamp and die set called Color Wheel. I used Stampin' Up!'s Pigment Sprinkles to create this completed color wheel. A very good way to swatch your different types of coloring tools to see how they work together.

Here is the Color Wheel with the Challenge:

I created 2 cards for today's post, both with a watercolored background, using Stampin' Up! ink refills, Melon Mambo and Granny Apple Green. I taped a piece of Fluid 100 watercolor paper to a board and wet all of it with a large brush using clean water. I dropped in the 2 colors here and there with a round watercolor brush. Next I gave it a careful spritz with water using the Stampin' Spritzer. The colors moved, but did not blend together to make mud! Success!

Once dry, I ran a section, carefully chosen, through my Big Shot with a Rectangle Stitched Die. I then stamped on this piece using my Stamparatus, the simple, but classic, sentiment from Winter Woods stamp set. I wanted to be sure there were plenty of white areas left. The trees from Rooted in Nature stamp set were stamped in the corner using a mask between the front 2 trees (1 stamp) and the back tree. Memento Black Ink was used for all stamping.

Once all stamped and dry, I mounted the piece to fun foam (from Amazon) with Tombow Liquid Adhesive. The scroll background is a 4" X 5 1/4" piece of Whisper White card stock created with the new Stylish Scroll Embossing Folder (from the new Holiday catalog). The card base is an A2 size with Granny Apple Green card stock.

I did create two cards, the background was created the same way for both and I used the same stamp sets, but different images. The large tree has a sentiment from the Merry Christmas to All stamp set across it. The sentiment was cut with a Rectangle Stitched Die. A gold star finished the top keeping the card clean and simple.

A big thanks to Loll Thompson and the Design Team from CAS Watercolour Challenges for choosing my card as the winner in July and giving me the opportunity to be a Guest Designer! How cool is that?