Summer Dreaming

Good Morning!  Sumner is just around the corner and I am dreaming of warm afternoons in the backyard. Not excited about dandelions in the lawn  that I allowed to linger for the bees this spring, but the grandchildren love to pick the cheerful yellow flowers and making wishes on the ones that are older. 

For this week's sketch at Sketch Saturday, I created an alcohol ink panel with Denim, Stonewashed and Dandelion inks.  All the rest of the products used are from Simon Says Stamp May card kit, except for the stitched circle dies that I already had.  I cut the main circle before putting the panel in the 3-D embossing folder. Once the alcohol ink was completely dry, I white heat embossed the cluster of dandelions. The embossed panel was popped up with foam tape. I snipped enough of the hidden part to cut a smaller circle which was adhered directly to the front.  The sentiment is from the card kit set and I fussy cut around it before placing on the card. A few Nuvo drops finished it off.

I hope you will check out the rest of the design team inspiration and join us this week at                Sketch Saturday. We love visiting your posts to see what you create.  

Purrfect Pets

 

I stamped out this set and took it camping in April along with some colored pencils.  Today I got to make a card with a few of the images.  Such a fun set from My Favorite Things. I used a Simon Says Tri Square die to cut the front panel and popped it up on a Fog card stock base that had been ink blended in white using the MFT small brick stencil. I don't often finish the inside of cards, but wanted to include one of the larger sentiments in the set. Even stamped on the envelope. 

Linking to Time Out Challenges.

 

One in a Melon

 

New sketch for this week at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge!

My card was fun to create with the new Mini Delight from Altenew. I random stamped on a strip of bright white card stock and cut a flag.  The  white base panel for the front of the card is embossed with dots, so when I cut the green horizontal strip it felt too plain, so I used my white gel pen to put dots on it.  I love the summery look and that font on the sentiment (also part of the Mini set) is so fun. I popped up the flags and sentiment with foam tape. I used the coordinating die to cut another watermelon and adhered it on the inside of the card.

This is a great sketch - try it out and link up at Atlantic Hearts here. The Design Team loves to see your creations.  Our inspiration cards post on Wednesday.

Sentiment

 Used the sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday and linking to My Time to Craft!  #456 theme 'Sentimental'

I have been trying out some new things from Gina K's release last month: Forever Flowers and her birthday die cut.  Love this die!  Also used her stitched ovals.

  

You are amazing

Some rainbow ink blending with a stencil, a die cut circle of vellum, part of a shiny sentiment, and a little sparkle.   The center is cut out and popped up, then the vellum on that so there is some dimension.

Linking to the sketch at  Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenge #362

New Home

The weather has been lovely, which means the yard work has taken over my life.  Today there was a bit of rain and I'm using it as an excuse to stay inside and craft and join AAA Cards at the last possible minute.

This card used images and sentiment from Home Sweet Home, Simon Says Stamp. I colored with alcohol markers, and filled windows with shimmer pen.

Playing with Watercolor

 

I love watercolor looks but struggle with them every time.  Painting images will require a class for me but doing backgrounds is really fun and helps me get used to the medium without all the stress.  This video shared on Beyond the Blue challenge blog is a fantastic starter!  Kirsty Partridge demonstrates quite a few easy ways to create awesome watercolor effects for your backgrounds. 

Easy Watercolor Effects

I have been playing with them and used two below on cards.  Taking stamped images with me camping is fun - I bring along colored pencils and a little clipboard.  These fressia (Altenew) were colored with Prismacolor pencils at camp last week, and then blended with Gamsol when I got home.  

I show two of Kirsty's techniques here.  The first is done with Cotton Candy (Altenew 36 pan set) in a masked rectangle. I blotted with paper towel for the soft effect.  The second I painted with Pink Diamond and Purple Wine and while wet used the plastic wrap technique. You must let it sit for several hours before lifting off the wrap. The paper will still be damp, so either use a heat gun or let it dry before die cutting or stamping.  Both sentiments come from the same Fresh Fressia set and they were stamped with VersaMark black ink.

I loved creating CAS cards and these easy watercolor techniques can add depth and interest to a clean design.

Also linking to Colour Crazy Craft Challenge week 16 - Anything Goes, Color Something