Paper Calla Lily Tutorial

Before Christmas I promised you a tutorial for using the Vintage Ornament die to make a Calla Lily. This is the die I'm using, from Impression Obsession.

Vintage Ornament Die Set

It's always fun to find new uses for things! Hope this helps you see your dies in a new way too... even unseasonal ways!  Here's a card I made using my die-cut lilies. The Easter stamp is from I.O's latest release.

**I'm starting with some written instructions, but in case they're too vague, there is a video at the end of the post that will hopefully clear up any confusion.

To begin, use a paintbrush handle or other tapered tool to curl the curved edges of the diecut in on both sides.

Turn the diecut over so the edges you just curved over are to the back, and fold both sides in to the middle.

Pinch and twist the bottom of the diecut to secure the curves. You can use stickpins or plastic flower centers for a more realistic touch, and hold them together with a spot of glue. (what are these called? I got them here... they're like little plastic stamens...?) You could also use floral tape and wire to add stems.

Here's a video for a visual of the steps - it will hopefully make more sense to see it, if my words above don't quite make sense.

Send me a link if you make some of these up - I'd love to see!

Heartfelt Creations DT Alumni Hop

It's time again for the Heartfelt Creations Design Team Alumni monthly blog hop... We've chosen the last Tuesday of each month to share a project featuring Heartfelt Creations' stamps when we can, just for fun.  If you'd like a chance at winning a prize, be sure to leave a comment on every blog along the hop by Friday - there is a $25 gift certificate up for grabs for one random commenter! If you'd like to view the entire hop, click over to Alissa's blog to get started. If you're following along with the hop already and you've arrived here from Kerry's blog you're doing just fine.

Once again I've managed to use stamps that I can't find on the website... I love this hummingbird image, though! It was colored with Derwent watercolor pencils and a waterbrush. Loving this fresh color combination too!

Ready to hop on? Your next stop is Sarah's blog. Thanks for joining us!!

Designed To Color Challenge: Sketch

Loved working with this month's sketch challenge over at Designed to Color!! I flipped the sketch on its side, and pulled out a few new stamps I've been dying to ink up - this House Mouse set (Sew Happy) that I got from Joanna Sheen's webstore was a perfect fit with some of my newly released stamps from Impression Obsession.

Here's the sketch:

...and my card:

 

The image is painted with Shinhan Premium Watercolors (Crimson Lake, Light Red, Cadmium Yellow Deep, VanDyke Brown, Black, Marine Blue) - I think I've finally graduated from my waterbrush to 'real brushes' and water. I did use the waterbrush for the background, because I'm so used to the flow, but for the detail on the mice I pulled out a few really fine brushes.

My sweetie bought me a cute little sewing machine for Christmas... the presser foot is wiggly, and I'm still figuring out the tension, so please don't look closely at the stitching... but it's nice to have something that I can keep near my workspace. My other sewing machine was badly in need of oiling and cleaning, and he did that for me, but something got put back together wrong, and now it stitches backwards!

If you're up for a challenge, pop on over to the DTC blog for the details!

Other stamps used: CAC Cross Stitch, Crochet Border 3, Sew, Blessed (all from Impression Obsession)

Mixed Media Challenge - Water You Doing?!

There's a new Mix-Ability challenge up over at Splitcoaststampers! It's my turn to host today, and we're trying some fun techniques that use water to make colors move. I shared one of my sample cards yesterday and another earlier this morning - here's a video I created for the challenge, giving you 5 techniques to try, using water in mixed media stamping.

If you try any of these techniques, share a link so we can see! Better yet, play along with us over at Splitcoast!! Use keyword MIX4 when you upload, so we can ooh and aah!!

Happy Birthday, Jan Marie!

Light the candles, cue the music and get ready for a little bit of birthday fun! It will SOON be a very special lady's birthday and so we rallied the troops to send some birthday wishes her way a little early! On Monday, February 25th, Jan Marie Caruso, the fearless and creative force behind Flourishes will be another year older -- what a wonderful thing to celebrate! So, we've asked Flourishes' designers from all of our teams to join us to help make this day super special with a......

Here's the scoop: there's a way YOU can help Jan celebrate and win some Flourishes stamps as well! HOW? We just love creative challenges here at Flourishes, so why not usher in another one! One randomly drawn winner will get a $25 gift certificate to the Flourishes store, just for playing along! You can use the picture above for inspiration, but any birthday card will do. You can find all the details and post your link over at the Flourishes Blog.
 
What a blessing to be a part of the Flourishes family, and to have a small part in realizing Jan Marie's beautiful dream! Happy birthday, Jan Marie, and may you continue to see your vision for Flourishes expand and take life. God bless you!

I used stamps from the Hydrangea set for my card, coloring directly on the largest stamp with Marvy LePlume markers. I spritzed the stamp with water, then stamped on watercolor paper to get the faux watercolor look. This is one of the techniques that works for this week's Mix-Ability challenge too! I added some more color with chalk inks applied with a water brush. Mail takes so long to get from here to the States, so I kept my card front more generic. Love how these cool colors play off each other.

One extra note -- Jan may be the head of this company but one thing she doesn't get a ton of is happy mail from customers using her stamps! Let's change that for her birthday and flood her with some creative "love" by sending her your Berry Sweet Birthday Blog Hop creations! Here's her address so you can pop them in the mail!

Jan Marie Caruso ~  4140 Lyric Lane ~ Pensacola, FL 32514

I know she would love to see "in real life" what beautiful work you all do and I know it would bring a huge smile to her face!  So, join us in singing her a special little birthday song! Be sure to check out all the fun and festive wishes and grab some great ideas for birthday cards along the way!

Want more inspiration? 

These fabulous designers also have birthday cards to share!

Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kennedy
Heather Jensen
Julie Koerber
Silke Ledlow
Stacy Morgan
Allison Cope
Broni Holcombe
Cindy Haffner
Maki Jones
Aleksandra  Mihelič
Dina Kowal
Iwona Palamountain
Kathy Jones
Meredith MacRitchie
Sasha-Marie Holmes
Deborah Anton
Amanda Havon

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: What's your hobby?

The Impression Obsession team's challenge today is to create a card that reflects a hobby or favorite pastime.

You all know me - I love to paint... so I made a painty mixed media card with a fun new technique! I'll share a video tomorrow that gives instructions for doing it yourself, so be sure to pop back and check that out.

This is an older favorite stamp called Seaside Scene - it's colored with Shinhan Premium Watercolors, using lots of water in the drippy areas just for fun.

I used a white pencil to add the lines on the water - I think those reflection lines help add some realism to ocean scenes.

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration -

Daniela @ For the First Time
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Jenny @ One Krafty Kat
Julie @ Out to Impress
Kittie @ Kittie Kraft
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio

Remember you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps! See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us.

Inchie Arts with Jill - Inchies

It's Inchie day! It's always so much fun for me to do joint posts with other designers... art is filled with so many possibilities! Last time Jill and I did a series of joint posts, we used the same stamp images, but our interpretations were so different each time. With this showcase of Inchie Arts products, I hope you've seen just how versatile these matboard squares can be! I can't wait to start playing with the new larger sizes too! I think they're on their way...

If there is a store in your area that you think would be a good fit for Inchie Arts products, spread the word! Click here for information about Inchie Arts' rewards program.

Here's my project using Inchie Squares. Instead of making them focal, I created a border using 4 of the squares. I inked them up with Versamagic chalk ink first, stamped a text background stamp over them, then ran them through my Big Shot with the embossing plates, and this die from Impression Obsession:

Fancy Ornament Die Set

Here was the result... this works with embossing folders too - it's a really fun way to add texture to your project!
 

All the stamps I used are from Impression Obsession (Joy in the Journey, Riding Pretty clear set... the border dies and small flags are also from Impression Obsession (Border Duo 2, Flags); the clouds are from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, Fishtail Tag from My Favorite Things and the arch die is from Quickutz. I colored the image with Touch Twin Markers and watercolored the clouds with Shinhan Premium Watercolors.

These are the Touch Twin Markers that I used:

  Make sure to check out Jill's post for the day, and leave her some love - she is amazing!! Here's a tiny peek at her project:

Thanks for visiting us during these joint posts!! 

Inchie Arts with Jill - Inchie Plus

Back again with another joint post with Jill!!  Today we've stepped down to the next size of matboard squares available from Inchie Arts - these little guys are 1-1/2 inches square, and they are called Inchie Plus squares. Such a great size! I love using these in groupings of 4, and I've done that today again. I don't use the black squares very often, so I thought I'd try them out with some Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils. I love the look, and the color went on and blended so easily!

I stamped the Poppy image using white dye ink (Memories). I didn't use any kind of solvent with the pencils, just blended with the pencils themselves. I added some sponging and collage stamping using white dye ink just to break up the black a little.

For the card base, I masked off a horizontal section, and sponged and stamped using black Memento ink.

Stamps used (all from Impression Obsession): French Postal, French Ledger, Petal Flourish, Poppy Bouquet, Paris Registre

Make sure you visit Jill's blog to see what she did with her Inchie Plus squares! Here's a little peek!

Thanks for visiting me today!! 

Inchie Arts with Jill - Twinchies

So excited to be doing a series of just-for-fun blog posts with my friend Jill Foster again!! I am soooooo thankful for my crafty kindred spirits. ♥

A few months ago, I sent Jill some Inchie Arts products from my stash to play with. For the next three days, we'll both be sharing Inchie Arts projects with you! These little matboard squares are so versatile and fun to work with - such perfect little canvases for artwork and a variety of coloring media. The squares currently come in 4 different sizes and 7 different colors. There are new ATC-sized pieces too!! You can learn all about them on the Inchie Arts website!

Here are the 7 colors and original sizes - 2-inch Twinchies, 1-1/2" Inchie Plus Squares, and 1" Inchies.

Brand new products: ATC size matboard pieces, and 3" squares. Can't wait to play with these!! What a great size for altered projects, card and book fronts, etc.

Today we're both working with Twinchies, which are the 2-inch matboard squares. I created two similar cards, using the same layout but different color schemes. All the stamps and dies I used are from my own stamp line at Impression Obsession, dkdesigns. I'll link all the products below.

I stamped the dressform image first, then masked it with a post-it note to add the other collage elements. I then laid a Crafter's Workshop stencil over my square, and filled in the Harlequin pattern using an oil-based pencil (wax-based pencils work too). My next step was to watercolor the square. The pencil resists the watercolor paints just enough that the pattern shows through. Love this little technique! I used Shinhan Premium Watercolors.

Here's a close-up of the horizontal panel - it's made up of narrow scraps on a strip of double sided tape. I embossed the strip before I added the die-cut borders.

And another card, in pink:

Stamps and dies (all from Impression Obsession):
Dogwood Dressform, Thread Spool, Boutique, CAC Beauty Text, French Postal, Crochet Border 2, Good Form, Border Duo 1 Die Set, Border Duo 2 Die Set

Now take a peek over at Jill's blog to see what she did with her Twinchies! Here's a little peek at her project: