davebrethauer

Butterflies in Flight

Solid images such as these butterflies (F1328 First flight) are easy to color with any water-based markers.  For this card, the butterflies were colored with Leplume Sepia, Carribean Blue, and Gold Ochre markers.

One of the nice things about using water-based markers is that they blend so well.  Notice how the blue and ochre markers made a green where they came in contact.

To make the card Shimmer, spray some of the new Shimmer Spritz by Tsukineko over the entire card.  It is an easy way to make a simple card look that much more elegant.

Jumping for Spring

Is it possible to look at this little guy and not smile?  Perhaps he is jumping up and down to celebrate spring.

 
To build the scene on the card, stamp the Stump Parade (C1323) and Squirrel (B1320 Big and Little Squirrel) onto cardstock using Black Memento ink.  Color the stumps with a variety of Copic Markers (Chamois, Light Walnut and Cream) and the squirrel with a Raw Silk.  Adding a bit of Warm Gray around the stumps makes them pop out on the card.  Finally, draw some dashed lines using a brown colored pencil to make the squirrel look like he is jumping and edge the entire card with some Versamagic Gingerbread ink.

 

Mod Tree Border

 

The Mod Tree Border (D1319) consists of a tree trunk on the front of the stamp and a solid circle on the side.  The advantage of this arrangement is that you can color the trees in any shade you want.  For this particular card, the leaves alternate between aloe vera and lime green.  You could just as easily color all of them the same color or use a different color for each tree.  The choice is up to you!

 
As a final step to the card, add a strip of Glimmer paper to create the ground and cut little strips to form some grass.  It is an easy step to add to the card, but it adds a lot of interest to the finished project.

Grove of Trees

The Grove of Trees image (E1317) looks very different when colored with pinks and bright greens for spring or reds, yellows, and oranges for fall.  To create a greener summer card, stamp the trees onto two different papers (Water for the sky and Robins Egg for the hills). 

Next, color the trees with Spring Dim Green, Pale Yellow and Yellow green Copic markers and layer everything onto an Aquamarine notecard.

Experiment with this stamp and a variety of color palettes.  You will be pleased with the different looks you can achieve.

Happy Squirrel on Log

Spring brings such happiness, and so does this new squirrel image (B1320 Big and Little Squirrel).  Pair it with some aqua patterned paper, and you have a bright and cheerful card.

 
To color the squirrel and branch (Log Home D1324), use a selection of brown Copic markers (Raw Silk for the squirrel and Chamois and Light Walnut for the branch).  Edge the paper with brown ink to highlight your stamped scene.

Edging your scene with a gray marker helps the images stand out more, and adding some baby pink pearls gives nice dimension to the finished card.

Leafy Shoot

The new Leafy Shoot (D1325) makes a great background or individual focal image.  To give the shoot a Spring appearance, color the stems with a Sepia LePlume marker and add Versamagic Aloe Vera to the leaves.  A Pistachio 4bar card and some White Willow patterned paper add to the Spring feel of the card.

 

Mint pearls and thin light blue ric rac ribbon from May Arts add a touch of elegance and texture to the finished card.

Create Art Collage

Layering stamped images can be a quick and easy way to make an elegant collage.  The new Create Art (G1330) image makes the perfect background for whatever stamp you chose to use in the foreground.  Simply stamp the background using a lighter color ink (such as Versa Magic Aloe Vera) and chose darker inks for the top image.

 
To add interest to the stamped flowers (Flower Bundle E1321), choose more than one color of Leplum marker (Caribbean Blue and Gold Ochre) to color the centers and outer petals of the blossoms. 

As a final step, why not spray the cardstock with some Tsukineko Shimmer Spritz?  It adds a beautiful subtle shimmer to the card that is a perfect finishing touch.

Birds in the Vines

 
Creating a background wash with Twinkling H20's is a great way to highlight a stamped image.

 

To achieve this look, wet a piece of hot press (smooth) watercolor paper with a paintbrush and water.  Add two shades of aqua Twinkling H2O's to the paper (in this case Sea Glass and Teal Zircon) and allow the colors to wick on the paper.  After allowing the watercolor paint to dry completely, stamp the E1331 Birds in the Vines image over the wash using dark brown ink.

Turquoise and Eucalyptus Stickles add sparkle to the finished card and accentuate the metallic quality of the Twinkling H2O's.

Finish the card by adding a strip of Skylights paper and mount everything onto an Aquamarine A2 card.

Modern Tree Invitation

Here's a gorgeous modern look (inspired by the daffodils blooming in my yard) for a dinner invitation. We used a clean and crisp font for part of the text and combined it with a beautiful calligraphy script. Since we were stamping the tree image in brown (Pearlescent Chocolate), some of the text is in brown - and the rest of the text is in a spring green.

 

The Mod Tree Border (D1319) is the stamp image we used across the top of the invite - first stamp the row of trees and then stamp the dot on top of the branches. For this color scheme, we used Versacolor Lime and Versacolor Canary inkpads.

Leave plenty of space between the text and the stamped image - this makes the composition feel really clean and open. Next, adhere the white layer to a layer of sparkly Pistachio cardstock from our Soiree collection and then put everything onto a layer of sparkly Lagoon cardstock.

There's lots of color inspiration out there - take a look at nature for your next color scheme! 
 

 

Daffodil Color Inspiration

Looking around my garden at this time of year, it isn't very hard to become inspired by color. All of the new leafy shoots, the daffodils and even the dark brown of the soil offer palettes that easily transfer into beautiful color schemes on paper.

I spent an hour photographing the garden, trying to pick up colors in the sun and colors in the shade. With the change of light comes more subtle shifts in color. The combination of yellow, green and chocolate brown is so striking, and seems to photograph well no matter what.

 

Having different varieties of daffodils, in different stages of bloom, is a plus. We've created circles, and borders, in different parts of the yard for different effects.

Our daylilies on the other hand (20 varieties) are just coming up, so we'll have to wait for some color inspiration from them.

After looking through all of my photos, we came up with a yellow and green combination on some projects that we're sure you'll like. We'll be sharing it with you tomorrow - but here's a little preview of what's to come..