No Mess Summer Sun Catcher

Start with a piece about 5x7 of clear contact paper taped sticky side up on the table top

Add a die cut and then some  colorful tissue paper I cut mine to about 1" squares 

Trim the paper around the contact paper

Tape the sun catcher to a window with some clear tape. 

This is always a fun way to bring smiles to everyone, I like making them for Fall too! I used a Silhouette to cut out the butterfly, I also like to do this with every season, it's always a fun time with my kids and my house is colorful!

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!





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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.

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!

Affiliated links and supplies list below. By clicking and purchasing from these links you are supporting my blog.

 

Distress Ink: 3 ways 1 resist stamp

I love when I can have endless options to create with one tool, one stamp, one color, it makes me happy! so when I saw this Penny Black Stamp I had to have it, I knew that I could do a lot of fun things with it. During an afternoon I was able to make about a dozen of cards with this one stamp, I started with stamping and embossing white and black, with about 4 of each color. I like to stamp ahead because I mess up a lot and if I don't' have extra then it's more work in the long run. 

My First card was to watercolor with distress ink, I like the way that the Distress Inks are water-soluble, and they do a great job blending like watercolor.

With an acrylic block, I put some distress ink on, I used Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick, and Fire Brick Red. With those 3 colors, I was able to get a Vibrant orange. I used a water brush to paint on the ink knowing that I wanted all the colors to blend and chose accordingly to what I thought would work, (not much thinking process with these Analogous colors.)

For the sentiment I used some watercolor paper inked the paper with the red and mustard seed ink and then sprayed the paper and let the colors blend, then I cut out the dovetails and stamped a sentiment, backed it onto black card stock and was done, I did this three more times, (didn't want to have to redo this step if I messed up on down the line.)  I like this card because, with the extra bit of work it took to paint the butterflies, it was really a fun card to create!

This one was a super easy 5 min, card to make (my favorite when you need a fast card.) I used the same colors as above, but really any friendly colors will work together! I inked the embossed card panel, and then inked the card in a diagonal line, then got my spray bottle out and sprayed it and let it dry, that's all, then  I adhered a sentiment I had left over.

 

Monochromatic blending butterfly resist

The last one was also a simple and easy way to make a beautiful card, I made this for a gal that loves all things blueish purple, and I thought that Faded Denim and a darker blue ink (from CTMH) I used a cosmetic sponge to blend the colors to create this background. It was done, I didn' t want to overwork the color. A simple scrap of periwinkle blue paper and a white embossed sentiment worked perfectly to complete the card!

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

Affiliated Links, by clicking on the product and purchasing them you are supporting my blog.

 

Art Journal Autograph book

Before our trip a nice a clean Autograph book

We were blessed to be able to go to Walt Disney World. So for 5 months, I was preparing for this week long dream come true!

Part of this planning was an autograph book. I knew that I wanted something that was personal, and creative. While I was watching an Art Journal class on CreativeBug I knew that I could make an art journal for our trip for autographs, it's a perfect fit for Autograph books!

Here are some of my tips, and How I made it work.

First, you need a good sturdy BOOK, The book I picked out was great until the last day, and it seemed to fall apart. So Get a bound book that can take getting altered. I like the mixed media sketchbooks for that purpose.





I love that art journals have no "rules" as it should be. So be free, when I was creating this journal/autograph book I wasn't thinking too much about the other pages I started in the middle and thought about the mood I wanted, I wanted each page to feel fun and bright and light hearted.

With the mood in mind I found stencils and away I went, I thought about color choices for each stencil and I decided that some pages needed to be simple and others had more saturated pigment than others, I wanted variety and texture on the pages so I used some liquid watercolors in a spray bottle which are super fun to play with!!!!

Other stencils I traced and then colored in the design, and also for some I used a blending technique to blend. Really I just wanted the whole book to feel carefree and bright, so I didn't fuss too much over the "art" of it, I spent most of my thoughts on the negitive parts asking questions like: Is there enough room for an autograph? Does the color work? is the color to saturated, You know all those silly questions you would ask if you were desinging something for someone.

For some non stenciled pages, I picked 3-4 watercolors and used brush strokes to make the page burst with colors, or used a light wash to bring out desing elements.
Not all the pages are showne in this post, I had 22 pages to create on, the perfect amount

Once the pages were painted on, I then had a pile of what I call "recycle art" Art that you don't want to throw away becuase you learned something from it, or you were messing around on some scratch paper and you really like how it turned out... Yep I used them in the book. I cut the art to size and added it to the pages with washi Tape, making it a flap to the page.  A cherished memory happend from my"recyled art" my daughter and I were getting Repunzell's autograph and she didn't want to sign on the flower that I wanted her to autograph on, she was like it's too nice to sign on top of it, that painting deserves to go in a frame, I assured her that it was just a pracitice one, and that she deserves this spot becuase after all my daughter and I love her! It was a special memory that I will cherish.

I chose washi tape that worked with the over all "feel" to match the washi tape to the book I used color theroy to govern my choice, that's all, nothing too fancy about it. If the color worked then it was good to go on.

Next I chose some journaling tags and stickers. I love going to Tuesday Mornings! While I was there in the winter I picked up a pack of cardstock stickers from Basic Grey (one of my all time favorite paper crafting designers) and knew that the stickers would be fun and bright for my addiction, I mean paper craft hoppy. Since I had like 10 sheets of the same stickers I didn't have to feel so stingy with the stickers and used them as accents to the Art Journal Autograph book! The stickers made the whole book look unified when before it looked like an art journal.

What do you think? have you used an art journal as a autograph book before? While we were at Cinderella's Royal Table Jasmin said to me, YOU GOT TO SELL THESE I have never seen anything like this before! So there you go, maybe I will start a new trend, I mean after all mixed media and art journals are so trendy right now, that it makes sense to turn your art journal into an autograph book right?

Spring flowers to make you smile

Still working on some cards that make the maker (me) and the card giver and receiver smile! (you and someone you love)

I loved how stamping and masking really add to the depth of watercolor cards! it's so fun to play with on stamp and make a bunch of watercolor cards with one stamp with different stamping techniques. 

masking and watercolor

water resistance and watercolor


Watercolor fussy cutting 3d technique.

If you would like to see the other posts on how I made these soft beautiful watercolor cards visit this post.

Happy Spring!

If you like any of these cards feel free to contact me and I can get you set up

DIY Flower Crown

Every little girl I know dreams of having a flower crown at some point in her life, why buy one when you can make it? I thought I would make my daughter one for the father daughter dance that they attended. I hope that she will also wear this during the summer when we like to play dress up.

I found the instructions on Creativebug with Lia Griffith's class Paper Wedding Crafts. I loved her down to earth tips as she assembled the paper flowers, and I also enjoyed that with her paper flowers you can really use them any way you want, not just for a flower crown.

I love crafts that don't use a lot of materials, this one did that well I thought. I only needed to go to Hobby Lobby and get the brown twine floral wire. This project was fairly inexpensive which helps if you need to make more than just one.


As alway I cut my flowers, then assembled them and then glued them onto the wreath (the floral wire) and then attached the ribbon, there wasn't really anything too hard or special about this project but it was very entertaining to watch Lia Griffith create the flower crown because she had such wonderful tips along the way!

I hope you can find the time to make a flower crown. The project is what I call a no risk craft since you are using materials that don't cost too much just your time the risk of making a mistake and needing more material is low.

Happy Creating!

E-A-S-Y Washi tape thank you note cards

Michaels has a pack of 8 silver foiled thank you cards for $2.50 I love the texture to these not cards, they are already cut and folded for you, and the pack comes with envelopes!

Michaels also has washi tape that coordinates 6-10washi tape rolls in a tube for $10.99 I bought 3 tubes and felt giddy!

The thank you note card set went to a dear friend that is having a baby. I plan on making a set of these for family and friends. You never seem to have enough Thankyou cards right?

The short and sweet of these cards: cut the tape close to the end of the card, make sure your colors and patterns coordinate, and mix big patterns with small patterns and you got a really nice set of cards! No glue or extra tools to use!