Friday, November 27, 2015

Birthday Wonderland

Earlier this week I posted a Christmas card that I had made.  Well I started with this scene first, but it was just too big for the sketch I had to use.  Plus I wasn't too sure about some of the lines on it because I had to go back and get some areas wet again.  I cut the right side of the watercolor paper off since I didn't like what I had there.  I ended up with this card and I'm pretty happy with it and hope my brother-in-law is too since it's for his birthday. :)


The trees bled a little more than I had hoped, but it wasn't bad enough that I wasn't willing to use it.  I keep telling myself not to be too picky and to remember that when I watercolor it does bleed and blend a little and to just go with it!


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:

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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Updated Picture Tutorial of Watercolor Wonderland

Since 'Tis the Season is running for three weeks because of Thanksgiving I created another card to go with our sketch.  My other card was pretty clean and simple.  This card is clean but was not quite as simple!  


I've really enjoyed seeing other creative ladies post card after card of beautiful water colored scenes, so I've been trying my hand at it off and on lately.  Since I'm a Stampin' Up! girl I've had to learn to make things work using their inks.  I'm ok with that, but I have a feeling if I ever try water coloring with water color paint or other stamping products it's going to be a lot different! 


Head over to 'Tis the Season HERE to check out all the fun Christmas cards created with this sketch.  If you get a chance we'd love to see what you create!  Plus it's not too long and you'll need to be sending out your Christmas cards...yikes!!


I think this card makes a good masculine Christmas card and I already have someone in mind that I'll be sending it too. :)


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!


Updated Picture Tutorial


I made three samples this time around as I was trying to make this tutorial.  I took picture of two of them and you'll see all three at the end (but not on finished cards).


I started with a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper cut to size and taped the edges of the piece to a folded piece of paper towel.  I use tape to give the picture a  framed look, but don't always use it.  I think it's best to use painter's tape, but I didn't have any on hand so I used masking tape.


I used a sticky note cute to shape on my first sample to start my first hill.  Sorry it's so blurry!  None of the pics turned out of thise! :(  I used my aqua painter and wet the top panel. I wanted it pretty wet so the ink would flow easily.




I started with Pool Party, then added Night of Navy while it was still wet.  You can see that I pulled off the panel at this point while it was still wet.  I don't know why, but if you do that do it carefully if you want to keep your clean line.


This is the second sample I made.  I didn't use a sticky note panel, but instead just wet where I wanted to put my sky.  The shape is similar to my first panel.  


I started with Pool Party and took a picture before I added in more color. :)  This shows you how wet my watercolor paper is!



While the Pool Party was still wet I added Night of Navy.  I dabbed it in and let it spread on its own.  I added more Night of Navy as I needed to make it a little darker.

I waited for both of my samples to dry completely (or I might have used my heat tool to dry it faster!).  Once it's dry put your sticky note back on so you can start stamping your trees. You can see just a little gap between the sky and sticky note.  I did this because just that little extra layer of paper makes it so you can't stamp right on the edge because it bumps up a little.  It makes sense once you try it if you don't know what I mean! ;)  I used the trees from the set Wonderland and inked them with Old Olive and Mossy Meadow classic stampin' pads.  Sometimes when I stamped I used both colors on the stamp at one time and sometimes I just used one or the other color.  Once the stamp was inked I spritzed it a couple of times with water.  I wanted the trees to bleed a little once I stamped them (I wanted them to look like they were watercolored even though they were stamped!).  



I reinked the pad, spritzed it and stamped again until I had the amount of trees I wanted.



This is my second sample.  Even though I didn't have a sticky note when I did the sky I did cut one to fit my shape before I stamped my trees.  Notice I don't have the space like I did on the first one and the tree farthest to the left doesn't go all the way down...it's floating! lol  That's what I was trying to explain earlier about leaving a bit of a gap.



Back to the first sample.  I didn't take pics of the steps on this one, but as you can see I added a lot of color.  I started with Pool Party and added in a touch of Night of Navy.  You can see that I added a bit more Night of Navy under the trees while the paper was still pretty wet because it bled downward. The second sample below shows the steps a little more.  Just keep in mind each picture you paint is going to be unique!



You can block off the bottom (I did in the first sample, just didn't show it).  In the second sample you can see where it's wet because it's shiny, but I didn't block it off.



I started with Pool Party again.  As you can see I applied more color at the bottom of the hill. And of course it doesn't look like I have a pic of when I added in some Night of Navy.  Just add it in wherever you'd like.  For the most part I let it do it's own thing.



Sample number one again...Once your watercolor paper is completely dry it's time to add in some more trees.  It's basically a repeat of everything we've done so far.  Cover up the bottom with a sticky note, ink up your stamp, spritz it with water and stamp it on your card (I have another floating tree down there! lol)  Do this until you have enough trees or you're sick of doing it. ;)



Same sample as above, but I've added a little more blue to the sky.  I really like how my original card has a big difference in the sky.  I wanted to add that same look to the rest of my samples.  They sure did turn out differently!  You can see that I hit the top of most of my trees and they started to bleed when I tried it.  Don't let that bother you...it is supposed to have that watercolored look, plus it makes it unique.  
You can also see that I've wet the bottom of the card so I can add my last little hill.  And of course I've already blended Pool Party and Night of Navy on the paper.

Back to the second sample.  If you remember from earlier you see that I've only added Pool Party on the hill.  Now you can see that I've added in Night of Navy too.  I needed the floating tree to get back on the ground too so I used Night of Navy to help me with that. Right now the whole painting doesn't look very nice, but with the trees added on it will be just fine. :)  You can see I've added a sticky not once again before I added the trees.  I had to cut a little notch in this one because my water bled a little out of my original lines, but I went with it.



I've added my trees and the little tree fits perfectly into the notch. :)  And once again I forgot to take a picture, but I went ahead and wet the bottom part, then added Pool Party and Night of Navy.  
Once your painting is completely dry you can carefully peel of the masking tape...remember carefully! :)

Here are all three samples that I made.  The bottom two are the ones I showed my steps with and the top one is the final one I made.  I love that they're each unique and yet similar. :)  



One little trick I do to make them flat again if they warp is to run them through my big shot using an embossing folder.  Instead of putting it inside like I normally do, I put it under the embossing folder between the two plates.  Works like a charm every time! :)  I hope you enjoyed my picture tutorial!  If you have any questions just let me know and I'll try to answer them if I can. :)

Sara

Supplies used on this card:


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A Very Merry Christmas...

It's time for another sketch from Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday and it also has a Christmas theme...Christmas colors/Peace on Earth.  I LOVE this sketch and was excited to put a poinsettia on it using the set Reason for the Season.  I am bit disappointed because I can NOT get pictures of the card to look like it actually looks.  It's water colored and looks fine in person, but it kind of looks like a blob in the picture.  Oh well...I'm not changing it! :)


Make sure you check out all the other great cards created by the design team HERE.  I hope you get a chance to play along too!







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:


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Serene World of Dreams

Just a quick post today to show you something I created WAY back in September for my stamp a stacks.  Actually my daughter helped me with this one.  I had created something similar to this, but it just didn't look quite right.  Well she grabbed some card stock that I had cut up and was sitting on my craft table.  She started layering what I had stamped and here you have it.  Did I mention she hates stamping! lol  She's actually pretty creative but hates doing crafts.  Funny thing is she loves to shop and I hate it! Now if only we could both like the same thing. lol




Just a couple more pics of the front of the card and the inside also.  


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:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Christmas Wishes

It's time for another Christmas card for 'Tis the Season and this time we have a great sketch to work with.  I went pretty simple this time around because I'm in the middle of too many things!!  I think I need to learn to do simple more often! :)


Here's the sketch that we played with.  Make sure you check out all the other Christmas cards that the designers made HERE and play along when you get a chance. We'd love to see what you create. :)


I added a little shimmer to the card because it seemed just a little boring.  Wish the camera picked it up a little better, but that's the way of things sometimes.




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:


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Watercolor Inspiration

Do you ever look at other peoples' cards and just get inspired?  I'm sure most of us have and that's what today's post is all about for me.  I  needed both a birthday and an anniversary card and  had just happened to be looking at a bunch of cards by Birgit.  The first card in her post HERE definitely inspired me.  Fascinating colors to be using together.  I grabbed a few of my ink pads, watercolor paper, aqua painters and went to work.  Two cards, same colors, totally different looks.  That's what so fun with watercoloring...you never know what you're going to get.  Her cards are just wonderful, especially if you're looking for a watercolored look.  Plus they are so clean and simple.  She sure makes water coloring look easy doesn't she?  


The first card I made into a birthday card.  I taped off the edges on this card and after I stamped and embossed the trees I did add more color on.  I didn't want the trees to look like they were floating around on the paper. lol






The anniversary card was a little more flexible as you can see! lol  It just did not want to stay straight, but flop all over when I was taking picutres.  It's hard to see here, but the water colored piece is actually framed and popped up with dimensionals.  I definitely added more color after I embossed these trees because they really looked like they were floating! lol  I guess that's the fun with water coloring.  You can change things up a little if you're careful. :)



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:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Sharing in Your Sorrow

Today over at Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday we have another great sketch for you.   As I was checking the sketch out to make my card I knew I needed to make a few sympathy cards.  These are always the hardest for me to make because I want them to be special and touch each person I send them to.  I have such a hard time writing what's in my heart.  Some people are so blessed with that gift and can just write away...not me!  That's one reason I like making cards...my feeling are expressed in what I create instead of what I say.  With that being said I created the same card, just used different base colors. I used the triple layer technique and just went with the tree scene on the outside.  I did sponge on one of the cards a bit just to see what it was like...and to cover up the fact that there was just a bit of empty space where the tree image didn't stamp as close as I had hoped. lol


Here is the sketch we used.  Make sure you head over to Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday HERE to see all the other cards the ladies created using this sketch.  Play along with us too.  We'd love to see what you create. :)


My card base color on this card is Early Espresso and I used retired cardstock Naturals White.  


My card base color on this card is Soft Suede and I used retired card stock Naturals Ivory.


The card base color on my last card is Chocolate Chip and I used retired card stock Naturals White on this one too.


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!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog