Distress Crayons and Gesso

 Gesso and Distress crayons

To prepare this card, take your favorite stencil, I used a stencil I made with my Silhouette using a background cut file and some heavy craft paper, but any stencil would work well for this card and gesso.

Lay the card down with the stencil and apply gesso with a pallet knife to the stencil as if you were frosting a cake. Let it dry for at least 4 hours.

Then add 3-4 colors of distress crayons over the gessoed panel. With a baby wipe blend the colors together until you get the blending to where you would like, remember that gesso will act as a resist, so the more you rub on the gesso part, the less pigment will be left. The paper will keep the pigment rich, so you can really get some neat blending!

Then assemble the card with your embelishments and sentiments, easy peasy!

Desing Tip: To make some easy cards I like to stamp or print the sentiment on cardstock and then cut a strip of paper to work with the stencil graphic so the whole card will marry nicely together.

To find out other ways to use this technique below is a great YouTube Tutorial

To find out other great ideas on how to use water-soluble inks to use as watercolor check out 

How to learn more If you are like me and always love to learn more about watercolor cards there are two classes that I recommend you take:
Angela Fehr's Creative Watercolor class: This is a great class for anyone that wants to add watercolor to cards, art journaling, and Calligraphers.  This link will get you 20% off the class I am in the works of making a review for this class, I highly recommend this class, it is a great class! Here is the Class Review post

Watercolor Card's Made Simple on Craftsy. This is the perfect class for all paper crafters you can see my class review here

Happy Creating!





I use Affiliated links to help support my blog.

Scribble a Summer Background Card!

Materials

Watercolor paper cut to 4.25x5.5

Repositionable adhesive

Craft matt

Scribble sticks (I LOVE THEM, shh.... better than any water soluble crayon aka distress crayons)

Spray bottle with water

Cup of water for watercolor

Tim Holtz flower stencil

Tim Holtz Grid Dot layering stencil

Clear or white embossing ink (I used VersaMark)

White embossing powder

Baby wipes

Mounting tape, or foam tape

A2 card base.

Medium round brush, I like a mop brush for this, but any medium round brush will work.

Start by adding just an inch of repositionable adhesive to the back of the watercolor paper, stick this to the craft mat This helps you not get extra finger prints on the card panel.

Add your pigment to the card, I used the green, blue and yellow and orange tones for a summer day feel. Scribble onto your panel in a horizontal fashion making sure you overlap the colors for a blending effect. Once you are happy with the colors, spray lightly over your paper and use your wet brush to move the colors to the way you like it.

Dry the panel with a heat tool, don’t get it too close, the scribble sticks don’t like the heat too close and it will bubble up. At this time if you need to take the paper off of the mat that is all right.

Once dry take the flower stencil and stencil the card with VersaMark ink or embossing ink, remove the stencil, and cover the inked surface with the white embossing powder. Heat set the white embossing powder.

Then with the square pattern stencil take a baby wipe and take away some of the pigment, don’t scrub too hard, gently go over parts of the stencil, I like to use my index finger with a light touch and go into the spots that I want the pigment to be removed. The point of this is to add texture, not to have the whole stencil showing.

Add your die cut, and mount the panel on an A2 card base.

How to learn more If you are like me and always love to learn more about watercolor cards there are two classes that I recommend you take:
Angela Fehr's Creative Watercolor class: This is a great class for anyone that wants to add watercolor to cards, art journaling, and Calligraphers.  This link will get you 20% off the class I am in the works of making a review for this class, I highly recommend this class, it is a great class! Here is the review for the class

Watercolor Card's Made Simple on Craftsy. This is the perfect class for all paper crafters you can see my class review here

Happy Creating!





I use Affiliated links to help support my blog.

Trending NOW: Stamped Floral Watercolor Card

After doing this card for World Watercolor month and For Memory Bounds Make and take, I had to buy like 5 more different brush stroke stamps from Penny Black! I am a Huge fan!

the card was used in Memory Bound July Make-n-Take

Materials:

Tim Holtz Worn Lipstick and Peeled Paint ink pads

Spray bottle with water

Container of water for watercolor

Penny Black Moment in Time stamp

MISTI

Watercolor paper cut to 4.25x5.5

Small round brush (I like sizes 4-6)

Medium-large round brush (I used a size 12)

Craft mat for ink

Mounting tape, or foam tape

A2 card base.

Start by adding some of the peeled paint to the craft mat, spritz it with water.

Get your paper and stamp situated on the MISTI, I chose the flower to be the right center.

With your medium to large brush make a gradient wash on the water color paper with the peeled paint ink Your work/paint surfaces on the craft mat, not on the MISTI

Once your gradient wash is looking sheen, (semi glossy, but not super wet) ink the stamp, start at the top and work your way down, I used Worn Lipstick for the flower and peeled paint for the steam.

Make sure that your gradient wash is dark value at the bottom so the pink stands out more at the top!

Stamp the flower onto the semi glossy sheen watercolor paper, (you want the ink to bleed) That is how you get the watercolor look. Troubleshooting: If the ink didn’t bleed like you wanted it too: ink the flower again but this time spritz the stamp with a bit of water. The paper was too dry by the time you stamped it.

Play with the stamped flower, at this time you can add some darker tones to the flower, I used a small round brush and painted with worn lipstick ink onto some of the pedals that I thought could use some extra value, (don’t go overboard with this, spend less than a minute on this. The more you play the more unnatural it will look) On the flip side doing this adds depth to the flower.

Dry the paper, you want it to be bone dry (as dry as it can be.) I use a heat tool for this to speed up the process.

Now it’s time to ink the flower again in the same way before, pink for the flower, green for the steam. This helps give you more details for the flower. This is also a great time to stamp a sentiment if needed.

Do the stamping 2 more times where ever you want the flowers to be.

If needed at a sentiment stamp or die cut to the card and you are done!

I am entering this card in to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge Blog and at this Blog post from the Card Concept, as a clean and graphic style. 

To find out other great ideas on how to use water-soluble inks to use as watercolor check out 

How to learn more If you are like me and always love to learn more about watercolor cards there are two classes that I recommend you take:
Angela Fehr's Creative Watercolor class: This is a great class for anyone that wants to add watercolor to cards, art journaling, and Calligraphers.  This link will get you 20% off the class I am in the works of making a review for this class, I highly recommend this class, it is a great class! Here is the Class Review post

Watercolor Card's Made Simple on Craftsy. This is the perfect class for all paper crafters you can see my class review here

Happy Creating!





I use Affiliated links to help support my blog.

Jump Start your Creativity with Watercolor Cards Class review

Washi tape and watercolor goes well together

The right kind of paint makes all the difference

NO Stamped Card! Die cut and washi tape

 
I love when artists share their unique style and paint the way that makes them happy. Angela Fehr has a style that makes me thank heaven that she was bold and courageous in creating in the way she does! It takes a lot of courage to paint in a style that is your own, Angela does this so effortlessly.

Angela's way of teaching is perfect for the hobbyist, and the seasoned crafter, the techniques are not "trendy"  but something you can take away using for trends, for example, she brings in Lindsey or better known as the Frugal Crafter. Lindsey shares her secrets to making some beautiful watercolor cards that can be used over and over again, techniques that can get you beautiful results, using watercolor as ink for stamping images, and use stencils and watercolor for card making.


If you are not a traditional stamper (like I use to be) washes, blooms and basic techniques are a great way to start. YOU DONT HAVE TO STAMP TO BE A CARD MAKER! There are beautiful results when you just watercolor. Watercolor cards that use just pigment and brushes can be beautiful by themselves, She shows you how.

I have fallen in love with stamping again, most of my examples are of stamped images, I haven't even touched the surface with what was taught  without a stamp... (I need some courage, stamps are my crutch and they are so darn cute!)

Angela brought in Artist/paper crafter Karin Akesdotter She shares how she uses watercolor to make cards using dies, and how to "finish" watercolor paintings into cards. I have always struggled to finish and polish my cards until they "shine." This segment from Karin was what I was searching for in a watercolor class! Thank you, Karin, for the amazing advice and for Angela for her foresight for her students!

Easy watercolor wash with Tim Holtz Flower Garden Stamp

Angela has a very comprehensive creative watercolor class, everything from resist, to free flowing water wash, which is one of her signature styles to her watercolors. Angela advocates that for every painting session she warms up with a freestyle wash to help her stay loose, I learned that no warm up is wasted when I can use my freestyle wash in a card, or as a die cut for an embellishment for a card, and then I have another way to use up all my warm ups, and sketches.

I loved that she showed you how to use Brushos Pigment Crystals, (I can't wait to try them, Angela, they look like a ton of fun!

You know that I am a huge advocate for creativity. I found this class full of inspiration. the nuggets of information that she shares are valuable beyond just card making, for any watercolorist this is a great class to have taken.



My dear sweet Husband and Mother in law bought me Angela Fehr's Watercolor University for my Birthday in
May, out of all her classes I could have taken, I was super excited for this watercolor card class. #PaperCrafterAtHeart.

Click on this link for a 20% off discount for this course

Painting with Distress Crayons

I got this cute oldie but goodie Thank you stamp from a friend that loves me enough to feed my stamping addiction Thank you JB and so I thought this is a perfect stamp to heat emboss in gold and to watercolor with...

I recently got some Tim Holtz Distress crayons and thought, this would be a perfect pair! So with a green and blue distress crayons and a brush (you could use a water brush), All I did was with a wet brush I used the crayon as if it were a pigment and added the pigment to my brush and brushed it onto the paper. I had an easy card panel done in minutes. You know me, I like to keep things simple and Elegant, so I kept the card clean and straight forward, added some dark green embossed paper and some decorative gold washi tape.

My design tip: USE WHAT YOU HAVE! I love that water-based media in its true nature is so fun to manipulate. Distress Crayons let you have those velvet like layers, I love that watercolor Crayons can give you darker layers that give you some depth to your watercolor washes, like in this card, using some 2nd and 3rd layers of pigment really made some of the flourishes really pop!

For watercolor on the go, this project is perfect, you could pre-stamp and heat embossed card panels, take them with you with your distress crayons (they are not messy and a perfect travel companion.)

How to learn more If you are like me and always love to learn more about watercolor cards there are two classes that I recommend you take:
Angela Fehr's Creative Watercolor class: This is a great class for anyone that wants to add watercolor to cards, art journaling, and Caligraphers.  This link will get you 20% off the class I am in the works of making a review for this class, But I highly recommend this class, it is a great class!

Watercolor Card's Made Simple on Craftsy. This is the perfect class for all paper crafters you can see my class review here

Happy Creating!





I use Affiliated links to help support my blog.

Watercoloring with Distress ink and MISTI

There is a new tool out that I LOVE it changed my view on stamping! I never loved to stamp, I am a messy person and ink would always get into places that I wouldn't like. I also love the watercolor look, the dreamy wet look, so when I found out there is this magical stamp guide that helps you get the perfect stamped image every time, I was elated!  The Misti has changed the way I view stamps.

This card was a keep it simple style, I wanted it to be all blue, and I wanted it to be minimal in the design to make the watercolor (ink) be the focal point of this card. So I positioned my stamp onto the misty and inked the jar in faded jeans distress ink, with a spray bottle with water I sprayed the stamp once or twice to get a watery feel. Then I used a water brush to move the water around and then when I liked how it looked I stopped, and let the whole card dry. If it looks like a mess you did it right!
Once the paper was dried I inked the jar stamp again with the same ink and stamped it, I didn't have to worry about the placement because I was using my MISTI.  Then I got the dreamy look from the first layered of stamping and a crisp line from the second layer stamp.

I did the same process on a separate piece of paper for the flowers, but I die cut out the flowers.
Then I adhered the flowers with some pop dots and the card was done. I think simple cards that have just a bit of depth is well worth making a bunch of them and you can with the Misti and the die cuts.

My Desing Tip: KEEP IT SIMPLE. not every card has to have a bunch of stuff on it to make it look elegant. I know that my style is that of being simple and elegant, Sometimes I wonder if I need some extra stuff for the card, this is what I do: I walk away from it, do a different project, help a kid, what every Sometimes perfection is in the walking away part, then when you come back to the card the next day with "fresh eyes" you are better able to know what is needed.

This post is going into the Power Poppy Hues to Use challenge! It's a fun one!

How to learn more If you are like me and always love to learn more about watercolor cards there are two classes that I recommend you take:
Angela Fehr's Creative Watercolor class: This is a great class for anyone that wants to add watercolor to cards, art journaling, and Caligraphers.  This link will get you 20% off the class I am in the works of making a review for this class, But I highly recommend this class, it is a great class!

Watercolor Card's Made Simple on Craftsy. This is the perfect class for all paper crafters you can see my class review here

Happy Creating!





I use Affiliated links to help support my blog.

  

FUN SUMMER CARD to make in 20 minutes or less!

This is the perfect summer card to send to someone you love! I love how bright and vibrant the card is! The secret to blending is using the right medium, I used Scribble Sticks to make this card, because I knew I wanted to get some vibrant pigment but also remove some of the pigment with a stencil, because of that I was able to get the effect that I wanted here is what I did!

Materials

Watercolor paper cut to 4.25x5.5

Repositionable adhesive

Craft matt

Scribble Sticks

Cup of water for watercolor

Tim Holtz flower stencil

Tim Holtz Grid Dot layering stencil

Clear or white embossing ink (I used VersaMark)

White embossing powder

Baby wipes

Small sentiment Die of your choosing

A2 card base.

Medium round brush, I like a mop brush for this, but any medium flat brush will work.

Start by adding just an inch of repositionable adhesive to the back of the watercolor paper, stick this to the craft mat This helps you not get extra fingerprints on the card panel.

Add your pigment to the card coloring the whole panel, I used the green, blue and yellow and orange tones for a summer day feel. Scribble onto your panel in a horizontal fashion making sure you overlap the colors for a blending effect. Once you are happy with the colors, use your wet brush to move the colors to the way you like it.

Dry the panel with a heat tool, don’t get it too close, the scribble sticks don’t like the heat too close and it will bubble up. At this time if you need to take the paper off of the mat that is all right.

Once dry take the flower stencil and stencil the card with VersaMark ink or embossing ink, remove the stencil, and cover the inked surface with the white embossing powder. Heat set the white embossing powder.

Then with the square pattern stencil take a baby wipe and take away some of the pigment, don’t scrub too hard, gently go over parts of the stencil, I like to use my index finger with a light touch and go into the spots that I want the pigment to be removed. The point of this is to add texture, not to have the whole stencil showing.

Add your die cut, and mount the panel on an A2 card base.

To learn more here are two classes that I love and refer back to often!

Creative Watercolor with Angela Fehr This link has a exclusive 20% off coupon attached to it!!!
Craftsy's watercolor cards made simple

July Make-N-Tales at Memory Bounds

My cards are Memory Bound's Make-n-Takes for July So....

Join me at Memory Bound in Ankeny for their make-n-takes every Wednesday in July from 1-6! I will help you along the way! 

The watercolor cards are worth the $3.00 to make, you can't buy cards that cheap, and you can't make them without the help of Memory Bound for that price!! While you're creating these cards you can learn a new technique in the process! I will be at Memory Bound in Ankeny from 1-6 every Wednesday in July! I hope to see you there! The Awesome thing about Make-n-Takes is that you don't need to bring anything just yourself and $3.00 to make one card. (some of these cards you may want to make more since they are so cute and addictive to create! there is no limit on how many cards you want to make.)

July 12 1-6 You don't want to miss this one!

You guys, this is my new all time favorite way to make some fast and easy flower cards, with the help of a Penny Black stamps and the MISTI you can make a bunch of these pretty easy. I can't wait to share with you how I did it, when you see how easy it is to make this card you will be addictive (I need more of those Penny Black stamps! 

July 19th 1-6 Two Toned Stenciling 

Learn how to get a designer look with stencils and die cuts, I will have some really fun ideas on how to use this technique in other occasions, This is such a fun way to use watercolor, it's one of my fun go to techniques!

July 26th, 1-6 waterbased backgrounds with die

Once you do this inking and stenciling technique you will be amazed at how many ways you can use this technique in card and paper crafting projects! The Die cut on this is one of my favorites from Memory Box! The card is sure to make someone's day special with this delightful watercolor card. the Sentiment can be changed, it came from the Lawn Fawn Scripty Sentiment

This two stenciled watercolor background, it's sure to have the receiver wonder how you created it, we blend Scribble Sticks, heat embosses, and lift color out to create this beautiful card! 

When designing these cards, I had in mind to make watercolor irresistible to card and paper crafters alike! Join me at Memory Bound  Make-n-Takes, I can't wait to share my love of watercolor with you!

Distress Oxide with Stencil card

Sympathy cards seem to go fast, I am always in need of an elegant sympathy card. When designing this card I came up with the idea of having a background, foreground middle ground for a simple composition. 

I used a violet distress ink for this card panel, I used Tim Holtz wildflower and dot grid stencil and a stamped sentiment from LawnFawn on Vellum. Here is how I did this card:

I started with an A2 size panel and did a  Variegated Wash with violet Dioxide distress ink. Then once that was dried I used the wildflower stencil and inked it with white ink and then embossed the white ink with white embossing powder.

After that was cool to the touch I took the dot grid stencil and lifted the ink off where I wanted it, I used a light hand to remove the ink, I was paying attention to where I wanted more white space. 

Then I cut a scrap of vellum and stamped with Ranger Archival ink and black heat embossed the sentiment. adhered the vellum to the panel, then adhered the whole panel to an A2 card base. 

I Also did this in a three toned background with Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks and loved the results of that. 

 Affiliated Links, purchasing from these links help support my blog


 

Acrylic Block stamping Backgrounds

Here is a great tutorial I found to help you make this background, I love how the colors can blend, I used just three distress inks and look at all the different shades and tones I am able to get with this card! 

Follow this tutorial, but I used a whole card panel that I inked up, then once it was dry I was able to adhere a butterfly die from Memory Box, to polish the card I finished the card with wood grain washi tape which helped with the mood of the card I was going for! 

I like going back to basics sometimes, especially when I want the Die Cut to take center stage. And that is my simple design tip, let the art and the elements complement each other, using simple and classic techniques really help make the butterflies look delicate.

I am submitting this card into the Power Poppy June's challenge, for a chance for a $50 gift card to Power Poppy.

Affliate links, by clicking on these links they help support my blog

E-A-S-Y Stamping with Watercolor

Stamping and watercolor go well together, add flowers to the mix of it and we got a really good combination I think.

Often times cards don't need a lot of extra stuff, This card is a pretty easy card to create. If you are like me you already had some flowers stamped and cut waiting to be made into something. So if that's the case the card is practically done for you! If not drag out your Sizzix, watercolors, stamps and Dies!

I started with two card panels, one to stamp with watercolors, This is a great tutorial for stamping with watercolors from the Frugal Crafter Or if you are needing a better idea on how to stamp with watercolor (using watercolor pigments instead of ink) Take this class, My readers get a 20% discount With Angela Fehr's Creative Watercolor Class for paper crafters.

For the background I used Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks and then blended the blue, green and yellow with a wet brush, let it dry then took Tim Holtz dot grid stencil and took away some of the pigment to give it some texture.

For the Flowers, I watercolor stamped a flower set from Richard Garay with Kuretake Gansia Tambi watercolors (my favorite watercolors for cards.) Then added the flowers together to get a good arrangement of flowers onto the card, Add some bling to the middle and you are done!

My quick tip for making this card: Since you already have the materials and tools out, make a bunch of flowers at the same time, it will save you time later. I like to stamp and cut out 3-4 sets of extra flowers at a time so I have extras when I need some embellishments but don't want to go through all the work again for just one flower. I keep the color of the flowers fairly open-ended when it comes to it so I don't have a crazy color I am trying to work with. I keep with the pinks and yellows.

Can't you see this card being used for a summer wedding or anniversary?
Happy Creating!

To learn more about watercolor cards take an Online Class with Angela Fehr,  Here is a 20% off coupon for the class. Totally worth the time and money!

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