Stampin' Up! - Telescoping Masculine Card

Hi, Everyone!  I'm back after a bit of a break from blogging!  I've still been busy making cards, just not posting much right now between getting ready for my stamp a stacks and the fact that we FINALLY had some warm weather here in Michigan...and I took FULL advantage of it!  One of the cards I created used a technique I saw on a card by France Martin and I had to give it a try!  I ended up using the elk from The Wilderness Awaits and boy was it fun to create.  I thought the ladies at my stamp a stacks would just watercolor the picture and put it on the card, but I think only three out of both groups decided not to.  I was glad they were willing to give it a try.

This was my first card and I really like how it turned out.  I showed it to my hubby and two daughters to see what they thought.  My hubby and youngest thought it was nice, my oldest daughter thought it made the elk look fat! lol  It's so funny to get their opinions...sometimes!

These are the colors I used on my cards...

Basic Black

Soft Suede

Smoky Slate

Marina Mist

Mossy Meadow

I didn't add the trees to this card because I wanted to whip up another sample and they were just extra work.  The only problem with this card is I was NOT paying attention to the direction of my card and attached it sideways! In my defense the words weren't on yet and I was in a hurry! lol  On this card I kind of did the telescoping.  I popped up every other layer instead of adding a higher layer each time.  

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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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:

Watercolor Paper from local craft store

Lovely as a Tree - Stampin' Up!

Today I have a pretty CAS card to share with you.  I can say it's clean, but I'm not so sure it's simple with the angled pieces of card stock on it!  Actually it wasn't too hard to work with at all and I really like the look of it.  My inspiration came from this week's sketch challenge over at Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday.  

Make sure you check out all the other great cards created using this sketch HERE.  It does have the optional theme of April Showers which I couldn't fit in because I really needed an idea for a masculine card, but I think most of the other cards fit in really well with that!  

As you can see I have pretty simple colors for this card...

Very Vanilla

Crumb Cake

Basic Black

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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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:

Basic Black Candy Dots made using Crystal Effects

Elegant Rose Wonder

Do you ever get stuck wanting to do the same thing for a while?  That's what's been going on with me...and watercolor is the word!  I pulled out the set Rose Wonder and got to work.  I used my Stampin' Write markers to color the flower and leaves of the rose, spritzed them a couple of times with water, then stamped them onto watercolor paper.  I didn't get the watercolor paper wet before I stamped it this time.  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't and this time was a don't time.

These are the three colors I used on this card...

Elegant Eggplant

Garden Green

Always Artichoke

I don't know why I decided to watercolor it because it takes me forever!  I liked the look when I did them before though and decided to try it again.  I have to say the dark color was harder for me to work with than with the pinks and oranges I've used before!  I really need to work on the leaves though.  I don't mind the one on the right, but the others are just ok.  One of them was so bad that I stamped on another piece of watercolor paper, cut it out and popped that leaf to cover up the bad one! 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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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:

Watercolor Paper

Best Thoughts Birthday 2

Before I share my next card with you I want to remind you that today is the last day of Sale-a-bration!  For every $50 that you order you can get free goodies from the Sale-a-bration Catalog!  Who doesn't like free stuff?!  I've gotten my share over the past three months! :)  Have you?

If you need to check things out yet...
Click HERE to see the Occasions Catalog.
Click HERE to see the Annual Catalog.
Click HERE to see the Sale-a-bration freebies.
Click HERE to place your order.

And now back to my regular post...this card is similar to my post the other day.  I guess it's only similar because I used the same stamp and did some watercolor on it.  Other than that I guess they definitely look different ~ so does that mean they are similar or different? lol  This card's design was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches, but I didn't get it done in time to post it to their challenge before it closed because I just wasn't liking the yellow so I kept tweaking it.  It happens sometimes, but it's not going to stop me from creating...eventually :)  

I actually made this card for my niece and I've heard her favorite color is yellow, so I try to use yellow every year on her card. :) I started off by painting all of the petals with So Saffron, then went back and did the bottom part of each of the petals with Daffodil Delight.  They ended up being so close in color that it was all just yellow with no variation in it.  I pulled out Rich Razzleberry and added just a touch of that in the bottom of each of the petals.  I wasn't sure I was going to like it at first, but after I added a touch of Wink of Stella and Wild Wasabi on the leaves and stem I was very happy with how it looked!  I did NOT want to start over! lol

So Saffron

Daffodil Delight

Rich Razzleberry

Wild Wasabi

Basic Black

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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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:

Watercolor Paper from local craft store (SU! paper isn't big enough to use for a card base)

Butterfly Basics Birthday

I had fun creating this card a few days ago for my sister-in-law's birthday  Since I love to watercolor and the watercolor on this card was very simple to do I had to give it a try along with all the other techniques involved in this card.  I was inspired by Sandi's card HERE and she was kind enough to make a video of it!  I didn't want to copy what she created so I pulled out a whole different stamp set and got busy.

Some of the techniques used on this card are watercolor, sponging, heat embossing, bleaching and using mixed media (kind of I think). There might be more, but that's all I can think of right now. ;)

I "kind of" used all of these colors on my card.  The watercolor paper I use is more cream than white so I put Very Vanilla.  I heat embossed a few things in white, and you can tell I used Soft Suede and Basic Black card stock and ink.

Whisper White

Very Vanilla

Soft Suede

Basic Black

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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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:

A small amount of bleach

Best Thoughts Birthday - Stampin' Up!

Happy Tuesday, Everyone!  I made today's card for a friend's birthday. :)  She really likes Mickey Mouse and the color orange.  I didn't have any Mickey stuff, so I went with orange this time.  And of course this card was inspired by Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday's sketch challenge #264.

This is the fun sketch we worked with this time.  And if you have time make sure you head over to Try Stampin' on Tuesday HERE to check out the great cards made by the design team.  If you get a chance to play along we'd love to see what you create!

Crushed Curry

Watermelon Wonder

Wild Wasabi

As you can see I used a flower instead of the circle for my focal point.  I water colored in the whole hydrangea using Crushed Curry.  Then I added Watermelon Wonder.  When they mixed together it made the flower appear orange and that's exactly what I wanted. :)  I used Wild Wasabi for the leaves and stem and called it good to go. 

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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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:

Candy dots made with card stock and Crystal Effects

Remarkable You - Stampin' Up!

Today's card is more watercolor painting.  I really enjoy doing it, but have a lot to learn!  I really don't know much about it, but enjoy seeing what others do on their cards.  I've just tried to do what I see them do and hope it turns out.  I just started watching videos on it and hope to keep doing that and learn as I watch and play with watercolors. 

Today's card was inspired by four colors and is a challenge from my Stampin' Up! upline (I don't think they call them upline anymore, but I don't remember what the title is so I'll stick with that for now :).  No matter what her title is she's awesome!

Calypso Coral

Crushed Curry

Mint Macaron

Marina Mist

To color this I started by stamping the flowers in Smokey Slate (can't see it can you...that's the idea!)  I want to see the image, but have it disappear as I color it in.  I actually stamped off on scrap paper one time, them stamped it onto watercolor paper.  I usually start by coloring the object in my painting, but after watching a video I started with the background (I think I'll stick with my way for now!).  I started by wetting all of the paper except the flowers!  Then I picked up some Mint Macaron and used that color closest to the flowers.  I made sure I kept the paper wet and added Marina Mist except I started on the outside and moved in so it got lighter as I moved in and blended with the Mint Macaron.  I could totally be doing this wrong, but that's what works for me right now and until I learn more that's what I'll stick with. :)  Once the blue and green were dry (and I sped up that process using the low setting on my heat gun) I started with the flowers...one at a time.  First I painted the spadix (the inner yellow part...and, yes, I had to look up what it was called!)  That was simple. :)  Next I outlined where I wanted Calypso Coral by getting it slightly damp, then I added the color.  Before that started to dry I pulled out the color where I wanted it, got the rest of the flower wet and added the yellow so the colors would bleed together.  Simple, right?  Nope, not really!  At least not for me!  Like I said this is all a work in progress, but I enjoy creating what I can with watercolor painting. :)

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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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:

SU! watercolor paper is not big enough to create a full card 

so I use bigger pieces from a craft store in my area. 

I also created my own candy dots using the cupcake builder punch and crystal effects

Watercolored Wetlands - Stampin' Up!

Today's card is a CAS birthday card with a bit of watercolor on it.  I wanted to use a stamp from Wetlands, so I created the scene in watercolor, stamped the birds in the water, then added a touch of shadows.  This was originally on a much bigger piece of watercolor paper, but you never know (or at least I never know!) how my finished card is going to turn out.

For this card I decided to cut off a bunch of what I painted and make it square and "frame" it.  I used the square framelits to make the frame.  The sky seemed a bit empty so I drew a few birds in it.  That seemed to finish off the picture for me. :)

These are the colors I used to create my scene.

Basic Black

Pacific Point

Bermuda Bay

Lost Lagoon

Mint Macaron

Soft Sky

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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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:

Watercolor Paper from craft store (SU! paper is not big enough to use for a card base)

The Open Sea Birthday - Stampin' Up!

Today's card is inspired by Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday's sketch challenge.  Since I need a masculine card for my stamp a stacks this month I used it just for that.  Sorry, no St. Patrick's theme.  That's the extra part of the challenge you can do if you want to though! :)

Here's the sketch we're playing with this time around.  Click HERE to check out the other fun cards created by the design team using this sketch.  If you get a chance make sure you play along.  We'd love to see what you create! :)

Here's the colors I used for this card.  Pretty simple huh?!

Basic Black

Smoky Slate

Just a couple more pics of what I did.  I inked the "journal" stamp with Smoky Slate, stamped it on a piece of scrap paper, then onto the banner (I wanted it nice and light).  Then I stamped the world stamp with Smoky Slate and stamped directly onto the banner so it is darker.  Last I stamped the ship using Tuxedo Black.  I sponged around the edges of the grey banner with Smoky Slate, and around the edges of the little strip that says Happy Birthday too.  I stamped Happy Birthday with Tuxedo Black.  I also embossed the front of the card base with the World Traveler embossing folder, then I sponged in a circular motion a little bit of Smoky Slate over the world map to make it pop a bit.  

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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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:

Simple Traveler - Stampin' Up!

Today I have a CAS card for you that was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #227.   I knew when I saw the squares exactly what technique I wanted to do.  I just had to figure out what stamps I wanted to use.  

Since I'm short on masculine cards right now I used the set Traveler and just two colors...Soft Suede and Very Vanilla.  Easy, right? :)

Soft Suede

I stamped the ship first, then the train and added the tiny "happy birthday" just above the smoke coming out of the train. I used the honeycomb embossing folder on the strip of Soft Suede that's on the side of the card.  

A close up showing that I popped the train piece so it didn't look funny overlapping the other square piece.

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 products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . 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: