Splitcoast Tutorial: Scrape Painting

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast is a gorgeous Scrape Painting technique that Karen Dunbrook has been doing - I offered to collaborate with her and create the video so we could make it a site tutorial! Here's the sample I made for the circular scrape.

You can head over to the tutorial page to see how I made this background - here are the stamps I used:

L13416 Big Butterfly

B13431 Love with Wings

That's all I know today! Cheers!

Splitcoast Tutorial: Watercoloring with Dye Inks

It's my turn to share a tutorial over on Splitcoast - this week I teamed up with Clearsnap to bring you a tutorial on watercoloring with your dye ink pads! The tutorial is packed with several techniques and ideas for stretching the use of your dye inks.

My first sample was done with a couple of different blending techniques, which you can see in the video if you click over. I love these large Peonies by Catherine Scanlon! Can't wait for mine to bloom. The sentiment I used is from Verve Stamps (Just Breathe clear set).

My next card is just a bonus background I created with the ink left on my palette after the first card. It's hard to see, but there are 2 hearts die cut and inlaid in the panel. The word stamp there is one of mine from a older set I'd like to redesign; the "you" die is from Impression Obsession. 

The third card I made for the video was done by stamping each section of the images and then blending out the ink from the stamped lines and layering afterwards. The peonies are from a new clear set, and the words are a constructed sentiment from one of my brush word sets (Valentine Brush Words) - look for a new faith-based word set coming soon!

 A little about the ColorBox Premium Dye Inks - this is a new line from Clearsnap, and I truly don't have anything like this in my vast collection of inks. The Raspberry ink is my new favorite, and that Dandelion yellow is pretty amazing as well.

The pads are a very dense, firm foam, different from the more spongy foam in pigment pads.

The ink is vibrant, juicy, and very reactive. As far as stamping, the Clearsnap site describes the inks this way: "Colors appear bold and crisp when stamped while also offering the versatility of being used for watercoloring. These bold, fast drying inks saturate coated and uncoated cardstock, yet clean easily with water."

If you're looking for dye inks to fill out your collection, consider this line! There are 19 colors so far - a really pretty selection. Scrapbook.com has them all!

 I'm looking forward to playing with them some more, and really enjoyed using them for my projects this week!

Splitcoast Tutorial: Magic Reveal Spinner Card

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast is a fun interactive card called a Magic Reveal Spinner Card - the card has two layered panels, and the top one turns to reveal a hidden message or image beneath. So fun!

I used stamps from Verve on my card, and I'll tuck this one away for our card drive event in October. I colored the gloves using Chameleon pencils  and added a little background interest with some ink brushed through a strip of drywall tape.

Here's how the panel works - I actually made mine to open opposite from the one in the tutorial because the space worked better to the right of the slit with the spacing of the sentiment inside... that little gap is something to consider when you plan out your panels.

I love this set - it's so versatile, and what a great message!

Splitcoast Tutorial: Coupon Card

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast is a cute Coupon Card from KellyJean - with Father's Day coming up, we thought it would might be fun for a gift idea... a gift and card all folded into one!

I went in a little different direction with mine - I wanted to use this set from Verve Stamps (ooh, it's on sale through June 9th!), and ended up with a card that would be perfect for someone fighting breast cancer. Such a great set for so many things. The starburst background is from a pile of tutorial samples I've been working on - more on that next week!

I changed the orientation of my card so my coupons hang down, and I think they'd be good bookmarks, actually... next time I'll use my rotary perforating blade for the center line so they can be removed easily. Behind them, I watercolored and stamped a background, and left room for a message of courage.

Thanks for visiting!

Mix-Ability: nature prints

This week's Mix-Ability challenge is a fun technique - we're pressing leaves and flowers in our die cutting machines! I really liked this print - it came out so clean.

This is a leaf from one of my money trees, which despite my negligence has been one of the few plants that has survived in our house. Now if only it would really grow money! I pressed the leaf between two pieces of watercolor paper, so I have a matching print in reverse (for whatever it's worth, this is the print from the underside of the leaf, and it's brighter than the top side...).

I used Distress ink and an Akashiya marker to watercolor in some shadows around the leaf print for a little added dimension.... I added some splatters and some collage-y stamping too.

The sentiment is from a set from Verve Stamps - they just celebrated 8 years in business - it sure doesn't seem that long!

Enjoy your weekend!

Inchie Arts!

So excited to announce that I am the newest addition to the Inchie Arts team!! If you're not familiar with Inchie Arts products, here's a quick description from their site:

Inchie Squares are made of the highest grade Alphamat Artcare museum quality preservation matteboard. The material has a solid white archival core and is acid free and lignin free, as well as fade and bleed resistant making it a very desirable art surface.... It is well suited for direct application of many different art mediums including rubber stamping, markers, colored pencil, watercolor paints, embellishment or collage materials applied to its surface and sides.

Inchie Squares come in 3 different sizes - 1", 1-1/2", and 2" squares. There are also square cards in a variety of assorted colors, and a variety of products that complement the squares.

For this card I stamped my image across 2 Inchie+ squares (1-1/2"). The image is from Flourishes, and is colored with Touch Twin markers. I used a waterbrush filled with rubbing alcohol to 'paint' the marker ink in the background (you can view a tutorial video HERE).

These are the markers that I used:

I love how the matteboard works with the markers, and look forward to playing with them some more! In the past I have colored them with pencils and watercolors, and they take color beautifully. So happy to be able to work with these amazing products, and share them with you!

"sew" thankful....

I needed a thank you card to send to my Granny - sewing has always been one of her loves, so I watercolored this vintage sewing machine for her card - the image is from Clear Dollar Stamps. I used Derwent watercolor pencils and had some fun with color layering and shading. The sentiment is from Verve Stamps.I colored the button to match my card, using a Touch Twin marker...
Thanks for stopping by today! You'll be seeing a few more CDS creations from me next month!!