watercolor florals

You know how every now and then you hit upon a genius inspiration and your cards turn out EXACTLY LIKE YOU PICTURED! Well, the card (above) is just such a card. The two below are versions of the original plan. It all happened because I finally decided I MUST have the squares thinlets dies for frames for watercolor prints. Wow! Why didn't I get them sooner? While you can easily copy what I did here, I do have a few extra ideas or tips to acquire just this look.
~I pulled out my trusty Husqvarna sewing machine to stitch through my frame. I'm leaving my machine out now because if I put it away I'll forget what a nice touch those threads give to many different designs.
~Try Basic Gray ink to stamp your image. I love how soft the end result is especially with watercolored designs. Black sometimes is too bold for the soft edges that watercoloring creates.
~Stampin' Up's aqua painters are a must-have for this technique.
~Don't be afraid to stick to all-whites when matting your watercolor images. So clean and fresh.

And the card below is a watercolored image that I used black ink for the outline stamp. It should be fairly easy to CASE by just looking at the picture.

by the tide/from land to sea

I probably should explain all the recent cards and that square stamp I've been using for a background. I used a few different turquoise and green reinkers and dropped some ink on my clear block. Then I wrapped it with a baby wipe and used it for a background stamp! Lovely, eh? So since I didn't want to waste any of that precious color, I just went ahead and stamped a few backgrounds with it. THAT'S why you're seeing a lotta blue blocky backgrounds!

About these two stamp sets, By The Tide and From Land to Sea, I've been eying them for a great long while already and decided I MUST finally get them. They go so well with my favorite oceany beachy colors and I dunno---I just love them, I guess! 

Can you spy where I used my rotary alphabet AGAIN???!!!!

Challenge Spark (retired product)

Jane from White Orchid asked Tara from Country Girl Creates  and me already LAST WEEK to create something using a retiring product. Due to springtime busyness I had to delay my submission. However, I DID want to post something yet and HERE I AM!!!

It makes me soooo sad that the Dictionary background stamp is retiring, but surely SURELY Stampin' Up will have a really nice replacement for us. The teacher in me has considered this stamp a favorite for the few short years it's been available. Maybe we'll see some good teacher and school themed product. Cross your fingers!

This card isn't layered as it appears. I did a bunch of masking and sponging, my favorite technique! Maybe I'm lazy, but I don't enjoy cutting out very much! Give us a sponge and ink pad and we're away!!!

a tough week (good-bye is hard)

A young wife is left to raise her children alone after her husband died in a logging accident early last week. Her parents and siblings live close to us, so we are well acquainted and feel the deep sadness along with the family. While listening to an audio streaming of the funeral service with all the gorgeous singing that seemed to be coming  straight from heaven, I idly made cards. Keeping my hands busy helps me understand better, seems like. This one (above) almost made itself since I wasn't really concentrating on my art. I was surprised to find myself using a stamp from Just Kidding for the sentiment. Truly, saying "goodbye" is hard. And I'm glad to be able to use this stamp set for something sad as well as humorous. I don't have anything inside the card since I do love having lotsa room to say my own thing now and then. Especially for an occasion such as this week's tragedy.

Another card borne out of an aching heart. Same occasion; same soothing tear-stained colors. I love using watercolor paper and re-inkers. Here I was also able to use my new Little Letters dies. Since I couldn't bear to toss the little strip I had to remove to fit my card base, I adhered it into the inside of the card. Nice touch, anyway!

The Challenge Spark (found art/item)

This week Jane from White Orchid challenged Tara from Country Girl {Creates} and me to FIND something and add it to our creation! So I found some burlap off my Basmati Rice bag! You know? I have such a hard time just trashing those bags since they are so lovely, but finally, how many burlap bags does one need to collect? Anyway, so I cut a strip and frayed the edges and center and made a "Miss You So Much" card.

MMMM, scrum! Those "Hello You" thinlits! and how wonderfully they pair up with the "Crazy about You" stamp set. Seems this is a break-through in my own creativity. Don't you just LOVE using different fonts together?!

And don't you just LOVE finding a practical use for Basmati Rice bags?!

two technique try-out!

Years ago I ran across this idea and only recently did I spy the tissue paper technique again. (Click that link to see a wonderful tutorial of it.)
The other new-to-me technique I tried on this card was called partial die-cutting and now I can't find that tutorial ANYWHERE! However, it's fairly simple. You die-cut as normal, only keep your design on the VERY edge of your cutting plate so it doesn't cut the whole thing out completely. Then using an xacto knife or sharp scissors, snip off the little pieces you don't need. (inside the "h" and "i", for example).

more nature scenes (Moon Lake)

Similar to my previous tutorial post (the one right before this post) this is that same Canada Goose from Moon Lake. A slightly different scene as you will notice if you follow my previous instructions. No two are ever EVER the same just as no two lakes or geese are exactly the same! In this one, it needs more cattails since those look kinda plunked into water way too deep for them and usually, speaking from experience, if you have one cattail, you have several hundred! LOL! Also the left hand tree is too small for the foreground. So my tutorial lake turned out better. Practice makes perfect!

The boys say this looks like it could be a scene from The Hardy Boys. Kinda' mysterious and a little scary. Aaawww, I'd thought it was ROMANTICALLY mysterious!

I'm still loving Beautiful Butterfly's fern! Can you tell?!

And this dear brave sparrow (or WHAT is this bird anyway?) sits high amidst cliffs that are sponged onto masked off areas.

If anyone wants a step by step tutorial on any of these, let me know and I'll see what I can do! I had a lot of fun with them!