Purple February Flowers

Welcome to The Beautiful Blossoms Challenge for Feb. 2024! For me, this challenge was all about the purple. I saw the image below, 2nd down from the right, and I knew I had the perfect digital stamp to watercolor!

I watercolored the Varada Sharma Flower Arrangement 2 digital stamp that I have used many times before. Here is a blog I did from June 2022 with the same digital stamp, but with text in the background and another card has it on top with gold for a different look.

The color is not coming out quite right in the photos. The card is a true purple but translating into a more lilac color in these shots.

What did I use to make this card?

1) Distress Ink Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper;

2) Brother Laser Printer;

3) Silver Black Velvet #8 Watercolor Brush;

4) Mungyo 48 Pan Watercolors;

5) Spellbinders Small Die of the Month May 2020 -discontinued (die cut at bottom);

6) Altenew Enchanted Garden Enamel Dots;

7) Honey Bee Stamps Snarky Sentiments;

8) Honey Bee Stamps Snarky Sentiments Honey Cut.

I love a Clean and Simple "ish" card and this one is perfect for purple lovers. Remember to "Always Leave White" in your coloring for movement and sparkle. Thanks for joining me today and I hope to see your "Beautiful Blossoms" at the Challenge!

*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.

Pawsome Birthday

It's October and one of our sponsors for The Paper Funday Challenge this month is All Dressed Up Stamps! I choose this image Dogs in Shades (digital images) from my stash of All Dressed Up Stamps designs for I just love a card with dogs!

I started with Rolling Road Stencil from A Colorful Life Designs for the background. I ink blended a sweet pink with a blending sponge for a cohesive color behind the sweet dogs.

As is my usual, I printed 3 designs onto Ranger Ink's Tim Holtz's Distress Watercolor Paper with a laser printer. Then I watercolored the images with my Altenew 36 Pan Watercolor set. The touches of gold are from Altenew's Metallic Watercolor 14 Pan Set. Love the gold.

Here I painted all 3 in one scene and here is the inside sentiment from Waffle Flower's Pawfect Sentiments Stamp set. This set is a keeper!

Both cards together:

Thanks for joining me today and come play along with us at The Paper Funday Challenge! Anything Goes!!!

*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.

Kittens at Play

Today I am playing along with Freshly Made Sketches 575:

I couldn't resist playing along with the sketch using the Purr-fect Picnic Cats from Whimsy Stamps (digital). I just finished water-coloring this image this week and thought it would fit the sketch design "purr-fectly"!

How did I make this card?

1) Resize the image in a Word.doc and print through my laser printer on Ranger Ink Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Paper on the rough side.

2) Water-colored using Daniel Smith's 238 doc set with Silver Brushes - Black Velvet Size 8. 

3) The sentiment is from It's Party Time from Spellbinders white heat embossed on Lawn Fawn Black Licorice Card Stock.

4) The rest was created with items in my stash. I very seldom used patterned paper, but I thought in this case it would work. The white cover plate in the background is from Honey Bee - Honey Cuts - Buffalo Plaid Cover Plate (retired).

I made a second card with the same "ingredients" but not using the sketch.

Thanks for joining me today and thank you to Freshly Made Sketches for their inspiration! I will also be submitting to favorite, NBUS, for keeping using up by "Stuff"!

*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.

New Design Team!

I have been a fan of the Happy Little Stampers Challenges for a long time. When I saw they were looking for Design Team members I had to apply to the Stencil Team and they accepted me!

Anything Goes With a Stencil Challenge, which is my favorite, for I have so many ideas and want to use all the products I have in my stash! As you may or may not know, I am also on the Design Team for A Colorful Life Designs, a small business, woman owned stencil company located in Texas. Perfect match!

If you are looking for a good selection of stencils, you can't go wrong with:

But let's get onto my card for my first Design Team submittal! I used 3 stencils from a Colorful Life Design and layered them:

Marvelous Masks Pumpkin Stencil is a set of 4 pumpkins, both positive and negative - which I absolutely love!

I used the largest pumpkin (upper left hand image) and used a little Pixie Spray on it. I placed it on my card front panel and pressed it down with my Tim Holtz's brayer. Next, I placed the Maples Leaves Stencil over the card front, right over the pumpkin mask.

Then I just ink blended with Ranger's Distress Ink in Wild Honey, Squeezed Lemonade and  Carved Pumpkin. Then I gently removed both stencils and used the curve of one of the Marvelous Mask Pumpkin Stencil to make the hill in the open pumpkin space. I left it in place and then used the Cloud Edger Stencil with Ranger's Distress Ink Tumbled Glass.

Sounds complicated, but it's really about layering and making sure you have what you don't want overlapped covered up:

These stencils set the scene for the cute cute images from My Favorite Things BB Harvest Mouse:

I stamped them on Ranger's Tim Holtz's Watercolor Paper and water colored with the Distress Inks smooshed onto a palette. I don't have the coordinating dies, so I cut them with my Brother Scan 'n Cut. I did still have to fussy cuts parts that I didn't like how they were cut. You can see I have a border on one but not the other.

I hope you've enjoyed my post and if you are interested in purchasing from A Colorful Life Designs please use my link and discount code: AnitaFan10 to received 10% your entire purchase (excluding bundles).

Hope to see on the Happy Little Stencil Challenge!

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.

Vintage Christmas

I couldn't resist coloring this image for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown (52CTT22-23) Challenge: Vintage.

This stamp set, Vintage Holidays, from Spellbinders has always been one of my favorites and I picked it up when it went on sale. As of this writing it still appears to be on sale for $7.50!

I stamped with Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink onto Ranger Ink's Tim Holtz Distress Water Color Paper on the smooth side. I didn't want the rough side because of the lady's delicate face. While the black ink was still wet, I sprinkled Altenew's Crisp Clear Embossing Powder over it and heat set.

To color the image, I used Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.  I googled Vintage Christmas Cards and saw several images where there was a color block behind the image. To mimic that, I stamped the image onto Gina K.'s Masking Magic Paper and fussy cut. I covered the image with the mask and created the background shape with Yellow Artists Tape. Then I simply ink blended Ranger Ink's Distress Ink Squeezed Lemonade with a blending brush for the soft background.

The retro sparkles are from a Hero Arts Kit (No longer available) from Oct. 2019. The inside sentiment is also from the Vintage Holiday set.

Thank you for joining me today and let's see what you make for Vintage Christmas!

Although I love this stamp set, I've never used it so I am also submitting to:

NBUS

Also submitting to:

CAS Christmas Card Challenge: Wreath - My Vintage Lady is carrying a wreath!

*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.

Dr. Digi with Paper Funday Challenge

Hi my creative friends! Another month has rolled around and a new Paper Funday Challenge has begun for July. These challenges go live on the first Weds. of the month. The sponsor I choose this month was Dr. Digi!

If you love fun, quirky images Dr. Digi's is the store for you. It states that they are mainly aimed at creating masculine cards, yet for me there seemed to be many many images for anyone. You really need to check out these digital stamps, they will give you a good belly laugh! The image I choose just spoke to me as we are a pet loving family. 

For card #1, I printed this image called Patient Pets onto Ranger Watercolor Paper with my Brother Laser printer and watercolored with a mixture of Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and Altenew Watercolors. For card #2, I created a no line watercolor version and watercolored with Distress Ink mini cubes.

How do you obtain the image for a no line watercolor?

• Simply print on copy paper the size wanted in a normal black print. That will be the image you trace.
• Then place a piece of watercolor paper over it. I used Strathmore Series 200 90 lb. Cold Press Watercolor Paper.
• Tape the pieces together with a piece of washi tape.
• Now you trace either with a light box or a bright window. I have an Artograph LightTracer Light Box.

I like to use a Blick Studio Drawing Pencil - HB for lightly tracing the design. A kneaded eraser is helpful to lighten the pencil lines if you get too heavy handed. The no line coloring method works for designs that aren't too fussy and have a lot of open space.

With the no line watercoloring you have to create the lines with dark shadows. It is a work in process for me, but it's always good to stretch your creativity!

The sentiment on the fronts for Card #1 is from a retired MFT set called Grateful For You and for Card #2 from Penny Black Gentle Thoughts stamp set.

Fun inside sentiment for both cards from a retired Paper Smooches set called Fun & Flirty.

Thank you for joining me at Paper Funday Challenge this month and thank you to Dr. Digi for the inspirational design.

*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.

Enjoy the Special Moments with Winnie

Hello friends and welcome to this week's Design Team challenge with Polkadoodles! 

Our challenge for this week was to make a Summer card that was cheerful and had bright colors.  I think this digital stamp from the Winnie Starfish/Sandcastle collection called Float Away is just perfect for that challenge!

This cute digital image was printed on my Brother Laser Printer using the thickest paper setting and manual feed for I use Ranger Watercolor Paper for that nice bright white background.

The blue water is Winsor & Newton Artists' Water Colour Antwerp Blue. Love that deep indigo color.

I made 2 cards with the same images and here is the second one:

Products I used for both cards:

Polkadoodles - Winnie Starfish/Sand Castle Float Away

Polkadoodles - Quotes - Winnie Special Moments

Ranger Ink - Ranger Watercolor Paper

Blick Art - Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Blick Art - Winsor & Newton Artists' Water Colour Antwerp Blue

Blick Art - Silver Brushes - Black Velvet

Spellbinders - Nestabilities Hemstitch Rectangles Etched Dies

We R Memory Keepers - Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper

Challenges entered:

NBUS #27 - New Digital Stamp for me

Paperbabe Stamps Challenge #147 - AG

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge - AG

613 Avenue Creates June 2021 - AG

Craft Catz #557  -AG optional twist Summer

Thank you for stopping by!

*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.