Catching Up Installment Four: Kimono Girl

Isn't she just so lovely?  I knew this Unity stamp "Best You - Emily Girl" would be fabulous and I am not disappointed.  There is so much I want to do with her but for my first play time I just did some simple paper piecing and a little coloring of a few areas.  I haven't even turned this into a card yet and may not.  I want to look at her for a long time.

Catching up Installment Three:

With the arrival of so many stamps...it's been like Christmas in my craft room...I really was feeling scattered on where to start.  One thing I find that calms me down and lets some creativity flow is making tags.  Those little canvases are less intimidating and there is no real purpose to them (so no pressure) allowing me to just PLAY!

My desk being the disaster that it is, there is no end to the resources within my reach.  Give me a tag, some stamps, ink and sponge applicators and I can go to town.


These first two tags are made primarily with Unity Stamps

The focal image of the bird is a Penny Black stamp, with a few Unity stamps.  The Asian calligraphy stamp is an older one from my stash.

Catch Up Installment Two: Chrissie's Birthday Card

Chrissie's birthday has come and gone so I can now post her card.  I used Karen Burniston's  House Pivot Card Die.  It comes with all sorts of accessory dies like the windows, door and chimney.  I added assorted birds of course, tree and leaves.  This card used a huge variety of dies, paper and a few stamps.  It was so fun to make for a very special friend.

Now for some catching up...Installment One

I've been busy making a lot of cards recently.  A dear friend was in need of some special Thank You notes so I was more than happy to make up a batch of 25 to help her out.  Then came the latest TSOL stamp and die set for July plus the arrival of Unity's June KOTM.  On top of all that I found myself in sensory overload when I took a card class from Els of Elizabeth Craft Design.

Where to start?  Well rather than detail everything out, I am just going to dump out here what I've been making and be done with it.  I've had so much fun with new stamps, dies, techniques and toys.

These are the cards I made in Els' class.  I learned a lot about Shimmer Sheetz, Silk Micro-fine Glitter, dies and Pop-It-Up cards and Peel-off Stickers.  Oh my, the possibilities!

Friends With Flair Friday - Tag Art

The June Unity KOTM, In Love With Love, is another WINNER!!!  I love when I can just sit down with one pile of stamps and the ink, stamps and sponge applicators take on a life of their own.  This is what I call Stream of Consciousness Art.  It just happens.

I started with some Distress Inks and sponge applicators for the background, added the Brick Wall stamp, then the girl and finally the flowers and butterflies.  Love it when a tag comes together.

Unity Stamps Friends With Flair

Each week Unity Stamps invites their members to post what they've been working on with their stamps.  This group of gowns is from the May 2014 KOTM "Hey Girl".  It was this very collection of stamps that caught me hook, line and sinker to join the Kit Of The Month club.  LOVE their stamps and the awesome variety that comes each month.

The dresses were first embossed with with embossing powder on 140lb watercolor paper.  Then with Distress Inks I "watercolored" the dresses and background.  I am just getting into watercoloring and have a long way to go understanding this medium but I enjoy playing with it regardless of my lack of skills.  Flowers are also from the May kit and the sentiment "beautiful" is from the June 2013 kit "Love the Little Things".

Thanks for looking.

Embossed Watercoloring

I spent a fun Wednesday with my crafting friends and learned a cool way to do some creative watercoloring.  The idea is to emboss on white watercolor stock with white embossing powder, so white on white.  Then with any kind of watercolor medium, in this case Distress Inks and a brush, apply color all over the image.  The embossed ridges keep the paint in place.  Then with a little more care fill in the background with more watercolor.  I made up a pile of white embossed images to have on hand for a quick watercolored card in a short period of time.  Using a craft mat I dabbed assorted Distress Mini Ink Pads to create my palette.  Then with water mix into the ink as needed when color needs to be diluted.

For added texture you can also flick with a wet brush water droplets as well as flick a little Black Soot Distress Ink on your brush for some speckled interest as I have done.

Supplies:
140 lb cold press watercolor paper
Stamp used: Stampendous Ranunculus Field 2009
Distress Mini Ink Pads in assorted colors.  Pumice Stone for the background
Assorted watercolor brushes
Colorbox Pigment Frost White
JudiKins White Embossing Powder
Heat Tool
Water jar for diluting colors as needed