Tag Archives: watercolouring

Dynamic Duos # 46

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This week’s Dynamic Duos challenge is to use the colour Primrose Petals and combine it with a colour of your choice.  Well, now that just leaves it too open for me, too many possibilities and ideas……
I decided on combining my favourite colours of all, pink and purple….. so I have added Elegant Eggplant to the Primrose Petals.

My card uses two techniques that I haven’t played with for a long time.  Firstly, the Stained Glass technique, combined with the Tissue Paper technique.


To do this, I have embossed the Swallowtail in white embossing powder onto the smooth side of the Crepe Filter Paper (page 6 Seasonal Catalogue) – if you feel the paper really carefully you will notice that one side is slightly smoother and the other side a little more rough. The Stained Glass technique is usually done onto Vellum, which is much stronger than the crepe paper, so I wasn’t sure how this would turn out.
Then on the back, behind the butterfly image, I have coloured using inks and a blender pen, in the two colours, blending them together.
I embossed an extra butterfly to experiment with, and gave this one to my son.  He coloured the back of the butterfly directly with brightly coloured markers, and that worked really well too, so you could do either of these.  However, it does work best if the colouring is on the back of the embossed image.
I have then wrapped the crepe paper over a piece of Shimmer White cardstock, and stuck it behind the cardstock using glue to keep it in place.  If you are using standard tissue paper for this technique, it is nice to scrunch up the paper to give it more texture, and then smooth it out again, but this crepe paper is a little heavier and I thought it would detract from the image, so I left it flat.
While you can’t see it in the photo, the shimmer of the cardstock does show through the crepe paper.
The lace, seam binding ribbon and gorgeous resin rose, are all from the Artisan Embellishment Kit (page 10 Seasonal Catalogue).

As always, heaps of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team at Dynamic Duos, all using different colours for their creations.

Happy Easter everyone, I do hope you are having a crafty Easter, and spending time with loved ones.
Happy stamping!
Chris

Easter Bunny is coming…..

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….so I thought I had better get on and make some Easter cards.
Again, I have used the Oval Framelits along with the very cute Everybunny stamp set – too cute!
I am a bit addicted to banners and flags on my cards at the moment, so I have used the gorgeous Tea For Two Designer Series Papers to create them here, and some brads to “secure” them at the top.  Little bunny has been heat embossed using black embossing powder and then coloured using inks and a blender pen.
You can contact me if you would like more information about any of the products I have used for this card, and since Easter is less than a month away, contact me also to order your Easter stamps and papers now so that you have some time to create something special for someone special! 🙂
Hope you have a crafty weekend.  Happy Stamping!
Chris

Swallowtail

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Have you noticed that I like butterflies?
Well, I do, and Stampin’ Up! keep bringing out such beautiful butterfly stamps.

What do you think?  Isn’t he just the most beautiful butterfly?
Trust me, you will be seeing quite a lot more of this stamp, it’s called Swallowtail.  Despite that it is quite large, and actually slightly bigger than our standard card size, it still looks gorgeous slightly off-set or just using half as I have done here.

I have heat embossed the butterfly using black embossing powder onto white cardstock and then coloured inside the embossed areas using So Saffron ink and a blender pen, and just gently going over and over the areas so as not to rough up the cardstock.
I have to say that Mr Butterfly looks much more stunning in real life.
Hope you are having a crafty Tuesday.  Happy Stamping!
Chris

Dynamic Duos #35

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Gorgeous colours again this week for the Dynamic Duos challenge, and here is the third card in my Bordering on Romance set that I shared in my previous post.

I have used mostly So Saffron with just a hint of Certainly Celery on the leaves.

The sprays of flowers have been cut out by hand and then lifted off the card with dimensional tape.  And this time, instead of lots of faux stitching, I have just done lots of paper piercing 🙂 it does create a completely different effect.  The greeting is from the Perfectly Penned stamp set.

Lots of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team, which you can see here.
Hope you are having a crafty and productive weekend.  I know I am! 🙂
Happy stamping!
Chris

 

Bordering on Romance CASE

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I wanted to make a card for our lovely neighbour who has been unwell for some time and recently had an operation, and when I saw the “August” card in this fabulous line up of cards on Kathy Tanners blog, I just knew I had to CASE it!
It’s also been a while since I did some serious water colouring and thought it would be a good time to get some practice in.

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I did however do the watercolouring on Whisper White card stock.  Watercolouring with inks works best on watercolour paper…. yes, really…. 🙂 as it absorbs the water, whereas the Whisper White card stock can’t absorb as much and can easily become scuffed up.  So I have used a Blender pen and added the colour as quickly as possible and with as few strokes of the brush as possible.  Nevertheless I am not entirely happy with how it turned out.  More practice required!

So I made another one…….

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I just love purple!

There is a third one, but you will have to wait a few days to see it! 🙂  and you never know, I may feel inspired to make a fourth 🙂
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Happy Stamping!
Chris

Make your own Background

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Absolutely loved this week’s challenge at Our Creative Corner from the fabulous and very talented Susan Butler at Scrumplescrunch.  If you haven’t already, definitely head on over to her blog for some serious inspiration!
Sue’s challenge is to make your own background:

“Decide whether you are a Pablo Picasso- and delve into mixed-media which involves paint, inks, glue, newspaper-clippings, photographs; in fact anything that you can lay your hands on to make it work visually.
Or do you lean toward Paul Cezanne- water-colours-   (you are allowed to use Distress Inks as your watercolour medium) to set your scene, mood and connection to your project. 
Try not to cover up your background too much with your focal image, allow everyone to view it in all it’s splendour.
And absolutely no patterned paper on your project!”
Since I just love to do water colouring, I decided to use this technique for my background.  I have used a large sheet of water colour paper and wet it down completely under the tap.  So when I say, wet it down, I mean literally  put it under the tap and get it wet all over.
I then used my markers to add ink in different colours (you could use re-inkers for this but mine are packed!) and then an aqua brush to blend the colours nicely.  I wanted to keep the colours soft and subtle.  I then used the French Foliage stamp set to add the leaves, splodges and very faint words, while the paper was still very wet.  I thought it needed a bit more colour then, so I have used some alcohol inks and dropped some blobs of ink in various colours.  The flowers are from the Field Flowers stamp set, which have been stamped and then cut out and layered over the background.  The centres of the flowers have some tiny spots of  Copper coloured alcohol ink in the centre, which gives it a nice shine, along with some Champagne Glimmer paper and Crumb Cake Tulle Ribbon.
Lots of inspiration from the OCC Design Team this week (as always!) so make sure you check out their creations.  And please join in the fun with us this week.
Happy stamping!
Chris

Freshly Made Sketches #55

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I took some time out this afternoon to do some creating just for the fun of it, and thought I would have a go at this week’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  I also thought it was time I got on and made some Christmas cards, since it won’t  be long before Christmas is here.

I have used a few new goodies for this card, the patterned papers come from the Festival of Prints Designer Series Paper Stack, they are gorgeous and great for card making (Page 20 of the Holiday Catalogue). The embossing folder is also new and is called Northern Flurry (Page 189 Annual Catalogue).  The stamp set is For the Birds (Page 34 of the Annual catalogue) – a fabulously versatile set with something for just about every occasion.  And the Cotton Ribbon and Slide are from the Holiday Catalogue.
Here is the sketch that I have used:
If you have any questions about how I have made this card, or if you would like to place an or

Hope you had a crafty weekend.
Happy stamping!
Chris

It’s a “Howdy” Challenge

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This week’s Our Creative Corner Challenge comes from the lovely Liliana, who has picked a photo of a country scene as inspiration, with the following requirements:

-Create a card or project with a country or western look. Use the photo to inspire you.
-Your project must have something plaid or gingham (checkered/tartan is acceptable too!), such as in a ribbon, or designer paper.
-Most of all, have fun!

And here is the photo:

It took me some time to figure out what to do with this challenge, since I don’t really have anything “country or western” but ended up choosing this cute little cart image from the stamp set For the Birds (Page 34 of the Annual Catalogue).  I decided this could easily be something you would see in the country.  Well, anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
I just adore this stamp set, it was on my “absolutely need to have it” list when the new catalogue came out.
The image has been water coloured in colours to match the stripey mount, which is made with the Orchard Harvest Fabric (Page 30 of the Holiday Catalogue).  The dark background layer has been embossed using the Woodgrain embossing folder, then just add some twine and one of the gorgeous new wooden buttons.
I do hope you will play along with us this week, so make sure you check out what the rest of the Design Team came up with here.
And if you have any questions about my card or the challenge, just send me an email.

I promise to return in the next day or so with some new projects, so stay tuned!
Happy stamping!
Chris

OCC Sketch Challenge

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This week it is my turn to set and host the challenge at Our Creative Corner, and I have chosen a sketch challenge for you for this week.  I would like you to make a card for a male using the sketch, and an extra but optional challenge for you, if you choose to accept it, is to use a Monochromatic colour scheme.
The zebras on my card are from the Zoo Review stamp set and have been watercoloured, then one has been cut out and raised and layered over the other.  I have used a masking technique for the sun – I punched out a circle of Post-It Note and then sponged around the circle using a sponge dauber.  The tree has been double stamped with two different colours of ink to give it that shimmery look.
The background paper is from the Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP (patterned papers), and the strips of Cajun Craze card stock have been run through the Big Shot using the Woodgrain Embossing Folder.
The colours I have used are So Saffron, More Mustard, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso.

So, here is the sketch for you to use for your own card.

 Make it as simple or as complicated as you want, we would love to see what you come up with. And make sure you check out the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.
Happy Stamping!
Chris