Saturday, April 18, 2015

Lovely as a Tree ~ Sponged Scenery Tutorial

What a beautiful Saturday here in Michigan!  I'll be working outside for sure today, but I wanted to get this requested tutorial out before I do.  So if you're ready to do some reading, sponging and stamping let's get started!

The tutorial request was actually for a different card, but I made it the same way I made this one.


This is how the finished card is put together minus all the sponging and stamping.  Pretty simple, right? :)


You start by using a large sticky note and covering a part of your card stock to create your horizon.  You can determine where you want it.  If you look closely at the picture you can see where I place mine.  Just a bit below the center of the card.


To shape the mountains I took a piece of computer paper, cut it slightly bigger than my piece of card stock, then ripped out the shape of mountains.  No two will be alike, so if you don't like what you ripped out, just try again. :)  I attached this with some kind of removable adhesive so it stays in place while I'm sponging.  Don't get too crazy with the adhesive though because it will all have to come off the card stock when you sponge the sky. 


These are the three colors I used to sponge everything.


I started with Sahara Sand and sponged in everything that was open space.  To get the sponged look I did on this card I did not dab or twist my sponge around.  Instead I started at the peaks of the mountains and pulled everything down.  I did it until I had color all over the open part of the card stock.  I then repeated this process again using Crumb Cake except I did not pull it all the way down to the bottom.  I want the mountains to look darker on top and lighter on the bottom.  Sorry but I forget to take a picture after I sponged Crumb Cake.


As you can see this pic is a lot darker than the previous.  I've added my third ink color, Soft Suede, and put it on just like the two previous colors except I didn't go down as far as I did with Crumb Cake.


When you pull the both pieces of the scrap paper off you'll see something like this.  Looks kind of strange, huh? lol  


Now you need to take your sticky note and place it just above the horizon.  If you look closely you can see just a little strip of brown peeking out and the mountains underneath the sticky note.


You also need to take the scrap paper that you ripped your mountains out of and basically flip it upside down.  This is going to give you your mirror image, or shadow of the mountain.  Be very careful when placing the inked side against your clean side of card stock.  You don't want the ink from the other side rubbing all over it.  If you have a heat gun you might want to use it to make sure your ink is dry on the scrap piece of paper.  You'll also need to use some removable adhesive again to keep it in place when you're sponging.  


I repeated all three steps that I did earlier except instead of pulling the sponge down, I pushed it up.  I have to admit I think I did the bottom a little too dark, so make sure you don't sponge as much on the bottom as you do the top.


This is what it looks like when you pull everything off again.  I think it looks funny!  Kind of like a chart of some sort. lol  Anyway if you have any adhesive on your card you'll want to remove it with an adhesive remover.  You can NOT sponge over it.  It will definitely ruin the look of your card. :(  You might not be able to see it so make sure your hands are clean and that you rub your fingers over it.  If it's not smooth there's probably some adhesive stuck there.


Next punch out a couple of circles and attach with removable adhesive.  I used 1" circles on this card.   Carefully sponge in the sky and beneath the shadows of the mountains using Sahara Sand and Crumb Cake.  I did a little bit of dabbing and just running the sponge back and forth across my paper.  It's not super dark right now, but you can do finishing details at the end. :)  Take off the circles and make sure there isn't any adhesive stuck to the card stock.


 I know it looks like I jumped way ahead here, but I really didn't.  I'm just showing a few things at one time.  First I made the tops of my mountains a bit darker. I just sponged more Soft Suede on them using the ripped template I made.  I wanted more of a contrast between the actual mountains and the shadows.  Now it's time to add some trees using Soft Suede. You want to make sure you put your sticky note back on the bottom of your card and if you have a stamp-a-ma-jig use it!  Here's why I do...it lets me play around with where I want to place my trees, plus after I've done that much sponging I don't want to guess where I'm putting them.  I want to know right where they are going to go.  Also I got a blob of ink on my card stock that I couldn't get off (that's the whole adhesive issue I talked about earlier).  I was able to cover it up with the trees because I knew where I was placing them.  As you can see in the picture after I stamped my trees they don't seem to have trunks.  That's because I didn't want any part of the bottom of the stamp showing up so I didn't ink it up.


Now to add the tree trunks.  Use your Suede Marker and carefully draw them in.  My writing tip of my marker is apparently dry, so I used the fuller tip


Here they are all drawn in.  If you look closely I drew them to the top of the horizon line.  After I added the shadow of the trees I drew them below that line.  It didn't look right above it, so you'll want to draw yours to the bottom of it right away. :)


Since you've been using your stamp-a-ma-jig you have your trees already on it, so your set to put their shadows on.  But first you need to wipe of the bottoms of the tree trunks and grass because you don't wan't that showing on your card!


Ok, that's all wiped off, so before you press it onto your card stock there's a little bit more blocking that you need to do...


Strange pic huh? lol  What I've done is turned my paper around so the bottom (mountain reflection) is now at the top.  You can see that darker strip of the horizon and little brown dots on the horizon.  Those are the bottoms of your tree trunks and will show you where to line up your stamp-a-ma-jig to place the reflection on.  Flip your stamp-a-ma-jig plastic piece over so the inked side is down, line the trunks together and rub it onto your card stock.  You'll want to make sure you rub the whole thing especially by your sticky note because it won't show up if you don't press it in and rub it a bit.


Here I've rotated my card back the way it should be, I've taken off my sticky note and you can see the reflection of the trees that I added.  I also did some finishing details.  Basically I used a little Sahara Sand and Crumb Cake and sponged it to the top and bottom of my card.  I sponged a different way this time.  When I put it on the top and bottom of the card you can see there's an oval area that's lighter with a dark curved strip that's pretty pronounced on the very bottom and it little bit on the very top.  To get this look I held the left side of my card while I pulled and pushed my sponge back and forth across the bottom and just made sure I curved it when I was doing the back and forth strokes.  I hope that doesn't sound complicated because it's not! :)  I just did it until I thought it was dark enough.


Now all that's left to do is to attach your pieces of card stock together and you're done!  That wasn't too hard now was it. :)  Ok I have to admit I did one more finishing detail after I had my card put together.  I put my sticky note back on under the horizon, put a couple more sticky notes on the edges of the card (I didn't want ink all over the sides of the card) and rubbed just a bit of Soft Suede above the horizon line.  That gave me a darker strip right at the bottom of the trees and seem to soften the look of the card a little more.  You can see a bit of difference between this pic and the previous one.  Ok now I'm really done! lol


I hope you've enjoyed this and it inspires you to do a little sponging. :)  
Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the boxes below. It will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" right at the top of my blog under the header. If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Scrap paper (computer paper) & Sticky Notes (large)

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Thursday, April 16, 2015

From our Home to Yours

It's time for another Christmas card for 'Tis the Season, and this time it's a sketch challenge.  It's a great sketch to work with because it's pretty simple and was perfect for a scene I decided to create.  So there is a bit of a story to this so if you don't mind sticking with me keep reading below...


I went to Hobby Lobby last week and bought some canvas paper because I wanted to try a little bit of oil painting...yes, I'm a huge Bob Ross fan and stay up way too late sometimes watching him on PBS.  Since it's on so late I have to admit I've fallen asleep and haven't seen the final painting. lol  So this whole story really is going somewhere. lol  I had taped a second piece of canvas paper down (because I did NOT like what I had painted on the first one.  Let's just say it wasn't even a painting, although I did manage to make some nice pine trees!).  Ok..the second piece of canvas paper...I was going to try to paint again, but my kids came home and we did a bunch of chatting, so I never got around to it again.  So the next night when I went downstairs to stamp again and there sat the blank canvas paper.  I decided to us it for my Christmas card and paint the sky light blue using pool party ink and an aqua painter.  I actually didn't like how it looked at first, but was determined to use it anyway.  Once I started to build my card I was really happy with how it turned out. :)


Make sure you stop by 'Tis the Season HERE to check out all the other great cards using this sketch and to play along too.  I'm SO glad I'm a part of this challenge team. :)


Just another pic for you....


Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

Supplies used on this card:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the boxes above. It will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" right at the top of my blog under the header. If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Sponged Wetlands

Today I have a fun card for you.  I did a sponging demo at my upline's monthly meeting on April 1 and everyone there was able to try their hand at it.  If I remember correctly there were 11 ladies and it was so fun to see each of their sponged scenes!  I had four samples made for them to look at and "copy" while I made my fifth one step by step to show them how to create the sponged scene.



The next part of the challenge is for them to take the sponged scene and make a card with it.  Well this week's sketch at Try Stampin' on Tuesday is a perfect fit for one of my sponged scenes. :)  We'll check out everyone's finished cards at the next monthly meeting.  I'm not going to be able to show this one though since I made it into a sympathy card for someone at church.  I added the sentiment in the bottom right corner, but never got a picture of it.





As you can see I also turned my card ninety degrees to make it horizontal instead of vertical. :)  I forgot to say at the beginning that this card was made based from the last anniversary card I made for my husband.  If you'd like to see that one check it out HERE.  I made this card a lot brighter because spring is here and summer is headed our way.  I made the anniversary card when fall had run its course as you can tell by the color of that card.


Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the boxes above. It will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" right at the top of my blog under the header. If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!




Sunday, April 12, 2015

Your Kindness...

It's been a while since I've posted so I figured I'd better get another card up!  I don't know what's up with me this week, but I've been very lax in my stamping!  I think I just need a break every once in a while and will be ready soon enough. :)  This is one of the cards I had the ladies make at last month's stamp a stack.  It was fun to see how each one turned out a little differently because of the way they put the swirls on.


 I think this card was the hardest of the bunch, but only because they needed to remember what colors to use on which stamp and when to stamp off so the color wasn't too dark on the flowers.  They all really liked the card though. :)




Yup another picture.  I like seeing more than one pic of a card so I throw in a few myself.



Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the boxes above. It will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" right at the top of my blog under the header. If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:


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Monday, April 6, 2015

Moon Lake Watercolor

Before you pass this post by be sure to open it up and look at the cards I created. :)  But for now I want to say, yes, it's time again for Free Shipping from Stampin' Up!  I do love free shipping!  Especially since I remembered a set I wanted to get, but keep forgetting to order it...err!  Now I don't have to worry about the shipping cost. :)  Click HERE to place an order with me to get free shipping. :)  All you have to do is hit shop in the top right corner to get started.  Now keep on reading to check out what I've created for you today...



I have a couple of similar masculine cards that my brother requested.  I work in the office for him at his body shop...that is collision repair, frame repair, painting and restoration projects.  He asked me if I would make a couple of cards to send as thank yous to a couple of his customers.  Me make cards?  Of course! lol  I don't have any car stamps that fit the bill, but I figured a good masculine card would do so I picked a stamp from Moon Lake, stamped it on watercolor paper with StazOn Black and water colored it in.  Both similar and yet a little different.  Now to just enjoy the rest of the pictures...



As you can see the sky and lake are a little darker on the top card than the bottom.  I like the sky better in the top one, but the water better on the bottom one.  Am I picky or what? lol




Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the boxes above. It will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" right at the top of my blog under the header. If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on these cards:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog



Saturday, April 4, 2015

Ehh? It's Your Birthday?

Who doesn't love the set From the Herd in the Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalog?  I know I do!  It's definitely not my usual style, but it's so cute and funny that I had to use it on one of my stamp a stack cards.  The ladies loved it too, but we all agreed that coloring it in sure takes a while!  I have to say I'm sad that the Blendabilities had to go, but I know I'll still color this using an aqua painter and ink pads because it's too cute not to use. :)


Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the boxes above. It will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" right at the top of my blog under the header. If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Silver Stars

We finally had some warmer weather here in my part of Michigan yesterday!  It was around 65 degrees.  After this past winter it seemed pretty warm to me.  I even had my office door open to let in the sunshine and warmth. :)  Seems kind of strange that I'd be making a Christmas card with this kind of weather, but it's time for another challenge over at 'Tis the Season and this time it's a color challenge.  I thought it was going to be a difficult one again, but I think I managed to do ok with it. :)


I used the colors Pacific Point, Soft Sky and Night of Navy.  I heat embossed to get my silver.  As you can see I did just a touch of each of the colors and let silver be the focus of the card.  I'd still like to make a few more and have the base be Soft Sky on one and Pacific Point for the other.  The last one will be the one I like the best out of the three. :)




Make sure you head over to 'Tis the Season to check out all the other great cards by the design team and to play along too.  You need to make your Christmas cards at some point and getting them started sooner rather than later will make you happy when December comes creeping up on you! lol


Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the boxes above. It will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" right at the top of my blog under the header. If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog