Say Hello with the Rose Bouquet Clear Stamps and the Matching Die Set by Jean Okimoto

Diecut a trio of flowers from the Rose Bouquet Clear Stamps and add a glittered greeting for a quick summer card.  Create a minimal, downsized version of the Rose Bouquet with the individual flower and leaf stamps. They're all included in this popular clear stamp and die set from this spring's  Garden Bouquet Collection.

Hi, happy weekend - Jean Okimoto here with another idea to take advantage of this great combo of stamps and dies.

 Stamp the flowers and two of the leaves on peach and green cardstock with Shady Lane VersaFine Clair.  Cut them with the matching dies.

Paint watercolor paper with Peerless Watercolors.  Heat-set it, then cut it with the 1-¾" x 3" Rectangle Basics die.

Attach ScorTape to light aqua cardstock and cut the "hello" background.  Cut the delicate "hello" from white cardstock - leave the diecut in the die.  Use a piercing tool to remove the little pieces in each of the letters.  Place the die over the adhesive-covered background and press it firmly to attach the white diecut to the background.  Brush the remaining adhesive with iridescent glitter - like Impress' Sparkle Glitter.

Attach the diecuts to a side-folded white A-2 card - use foam dots for the smallest flower.  Add orange gem stickers.

We're already into the second week of summer - and there are still so many more ways to use the great Garden Bouquet Collection.  Combine it with some beautiful butterflies from our January release for very special summer cards!

We'll be doing some of that  in the BUTTERFLY WISHES class at Impress on the 4th of July.  Dies, stamps,  origami, embossing, glitter, and the new Imagine Sheer Shimmer Stix create great greetings for any occasion. Join us if you're in the Seattle area! 

Thanks for visiting...

Supplies

 

CL5241-D Rose Bouquet clear stamp and die set

94069 Hello Jotted Script craft die

30086 Rectangle Basics Set

Watercolor Poppies by Laura Fulcher

Greetings friends.  Today I am sharing some watercolor poppies that are accented with a little washi tape. I started by making some watercolored paper using some matte and metallic paints:

The paper is 140lb watercolor paper that I wet with water, added some red, pink, and white paint and then finished it with a splattering of gold metallic watercolor paint.

When you cut out the poppies, you get an outline as well as solid pieces to layer behind the outline.  The solid parts are particularly  nice  because you don't have to paper-piece the petals.  Here is the die along with the cut out pieces:

I cut out extra flowers to make a nice arrangement and then layered on some washi tape.  Here is a hint about the tape- if you layer tapes on top of each other and the top one is a bit too see-through, attach the tape to a strip of white cardstock so that the tape is more opaque and vibrant:

I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

 

 

Supplies

 

94255 Twin Poppies craft die

CL5242 Big and Little Words lear stamp set

Large Double Peony, Thanks Jotted Script, Vellum and Felt by Jean Okimoto

A vellum Large Double Peony, felt Thanks Jotted Script and a Peerless colored background somehow work together in bright shades of pink and coral.  Hi, Jean Okimoto here with more techniques for you.   I usually love to create and share quick and easy cards - today's card features many techniques and little steps.  Hope you'll like it!

Cut watercolor paper with the 3-½" Wrapped Circles die.  Paint it with pink, orange and coral shades of Peerless Watercolors.  Heat-set it.

Pressure-emboss the circle with Large Double Peony using the embossing mat and plates required for your machine.  Spray it with Imagine Gold Sheer Shimmer Spritz.  Heat-set it.

Attach lightweight double-stick tape (with a liner) to white vellum.  Cut Large Double Peony from the other side of the vellum to create a self-adhesive peony.  Leave the outline and little pieces in the die.

Attach the self-adhesive little pieces to the embossed pattern on the watercolor paper.  Keep the delicate self-adhesive outline in the die.  Flip the die and outline over onto the watercolor paper and press it firmly to attach the outline to the watercolor paper.  Carefully remove the die.  

Cut the peony again from smooth white cardstock.  Attach it - slightly offset - over the vellum peony.

Attach adhesive label paper or a sticker sheet to light pink felt.  Cut the bold Thanks Jotted Script background.  The paper backing stabilizes the felt and keeps adhesives from soaking through.  

Attach lightweight doublestick tape (with a liner) to smooth white cardstock.  Cut the delicate Thanks Jotted Script from other side of the cardstock to create a self-adhesive "thanks."  Leave it in the die, press it onto the felt background

Trim the left edge of the circle.  Attach the diecuts to a side-folded A-2 card of textured white cardstock.  Add orange gem stickers.

There are a  lot of techniques here - try a few (or all!) of them and create some colorful cards with the great dies in our Garden Bouquet Collection.

Thanks for visiting...see you on Sunday!

Supplies

 

94266 Large Double Peony craft die

30114 Wrapped Circles craft die

94011 Thanks Jotted Script craft die

Sending Happy Thoughts with the Rose Bouquet and Have a Heart by Jean Okimoto

Brighten someone's day with a heart-shaped diecut of the beautiful Rose Bouquet - and  send some hugs and happy thoughts.  There are so many ways to use this great clear stamp set!   Hi -  Jean Okimoto here with an easy design that doesn't even require coloring - let bright cardstock add the color.

Stamp the bouquet on the smoother side of Coral Creme cardstock with Morning Mist VersaFine Clair.  Emboss it with the new Imagine Iridescent Mboss to add a glossy finish and shimmery, glittery sparkle.  Cut it with the 3" tall (approximately) Have a Heart die.  

Cut Juicy Pear cardstock with the 3" X 4-¼" Rectangle Basics die.  Pressure-emboss the Sending Jotted Script background near the bottom edge.  It adds dimension - without the glue!

Cut the delicate "sending" from dark gray cardstock.  Attach it to the pressure-embossed greeting background.  Here's a timesaver - leave the tiny dot of the "i" in the die till you need it.  Then just place a bit of glue on the background, position the dot (still in the die) over the glue and push it out with a pokey tool.

Stamp "happy thoughts" - from the Rose Bouquet stamp set - on Juicy Pear cardstock with Morning Mist.  Dry the ink, then trim it into a narrow strip.

Cut a ¾" x 5-¼" strip of Navajo cardstock.  Cut a 4" x ¾" strip of Coral Creme cardstock.

Attach everything to a Kraft A-6 card.  - use foam dots for the greeting and the top portion of the heart.  Add clear gem stickers.

Hope the Rose Bouquet stamp set is becoming a favorite of yours too.    There are so many ways to use this great design - maybe some tags next time?

Big thanks to everyone  from my SEATTLE STYLE and OUTSIDE THE BOX classes last weekend!  Special thanks to Jenny for her popcorn snacks  - you're spoiling us!  I appreciate how everyone drove - or ferried - to join our classes.  Thanks too - Erin and Lynne - for helping us shop!

Thanks for visiting...see you again tomorrow!

 

 

 

Supplies

 

30118 Have a Heart craft die

30086 Rectangle Basics Set

CL5241 Rose Bouquet clear stamp set

94073 Sending Jotted Script craft die

With Love by Melissa Rusk

Hi friends! Today I have a sweet little card that would be perfect for this summer wedding season. 

I used the beautiful Birds and Blossoms die and cut it in white paper. I then inked a light teal circle with my blending brush and glued the die cut over the top of it.

I added some pearls and the stamped sentiment from the Big and Little Words stamp set. This card would be easy to customize to match the colors of the wedding you are attending just by changing the card color and the ink color.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!

 

Supplies

 

94243 Birds and Blossoms craft die

CL5242 Big and Little Words lear stamp set

Stencil Watercoloring by Trina Pham

Hello there!  I’m back today with another hibiscus birthday card made with a stencil watercoloring technique.  Can you tell blue is my favorite color? 😉

The challenge with watercoloring through a stencil is the watercolors getting underneath the stencil.  To resolve that, all you need is this really affordable product we used when we were kids...

Yes, it’s Elmer’s Rubber Cement glue!  Not only will it help resist the seepage under the stencil, it will secure the stencil in place.  No tape required.

I started by die cutting a DIY stencil with the Hibiscus Collage dies from a piece of acetate.  Applied the glue to the entire back of the stencil.  Let it dry a few seconds then adhered it onto a mix media panel.

Used Zig markers and a waterbrush to watercolor.  It helps not to use too much water, but have a paper towel on hand if you do.  

Once watercoloring is complete, allow it to dry before removing the stencil.  Use an adhesive eraser or just your fingers to remove the glue residue from the stencil and your project.   

Added blue splatters and white heat embossed the sentiment from Birthday Blowout on black cardstock to finish.  And that’s it for today.  Thank you for stopping by.  Have a great day. 

Supplies

94262 Hibiscus Collage craft die

CL470 Birthday Blowout clear stamp set

Rose Bouquet by Anne Thompson

I have wanted to try the technique I used for today's card for the longest time, but I've been waiting for a really big floral stamp from Memory Box.  And Rose Bouquet is it!  It's about 5"x7"!

I started by stamping the Rose Bouquet on two pieces of 5"x7" off-white cardstock using VersaClair Nocturne (black) ink.  Here's a photo of the stamp from the ROSE BOUQUET CLEAR STAMP SET CL5241.

(It's in the center of an old Fiskars Stamp Press, one that's missing it's orange spongey feet.  That's the biggest acrylic "block" I have.)

I cut a 3.25" square from the center of one of the stamped images, then got out a bunch of Distress Inks and a waterbrush and started painting it.  I just picked up color from the inkpad directly onto the brush and then applied it to the paper being careful to not use too much water.  (I cleaned the brush between colors by painting the rest of the ink on the bristles onto scrap paper.)

I then attached this square to a piece of black cardstock and trimmed that to a narrow border around the image. 

I placed this on top of the other uncolored image and lined it up as best I could.

I trimmed this larger piece to 5"X3.75" and added it to black cardstock that was 5.25"X4".  I then adhered that to a turquoise notecard.  This card could be oriented as a top-fold card as in the first photo or as a side-fold card as in this photo below.

 And because I couldn't do just one, I made another!  This time I left the first stamped image whole and painted most of it.

I then trimmed it down to a smaller square, touched up any areas that needed more paint, mounted it on black cardstock, and added that to another uncolored image.  I then trimmed the larger assembled piece down, mounted it on black cardstock, and added that to a green notecard.

side-fold orientation

top-fold orientation

And just one more...

I'm sure there are other techniques to achieve the same look.  It was really fun looking through blank notecards with the painted pieces in hand to find coordinating notecards.  I've also raided my scrap boxes and 6"x6" paper pads for pretty papers in coordinating colors for the inside panels.  

One could also stamp and paint other images from this stamp set on the inside of the notecard and the envelope and/or add one of the sweet sentiments!

I'm going to get a lot of use from this stamp set!  And it has coordinating dies, too!!!

Happy Crafting!

 

Let's Talk About Coloring With Pencils by Laura Fulcher

Greetings friends.  I want to talk about coloring with Prismacolor pencils today.  I hope that by breaking it down into step by step pictures will help you with the process.  For each of the flowers ad leaves, I used a light, medium and dark pencil.  You don't have to use three, but I find that it is often a good number to get a gradient of color.  For the tutorial today, I am going to focus on the bottom red/pink rose.

These are the three shades I used.  Pardon the photo.  I took a picture that included the labels I use as a reference, but I didn't position the pencils so that you could read the color names!  I used were Magenta (dark), Process Red (medium) and Blush Pink (light):

Before I began coloring, I stamped my white cardstock with black Versafine ink (my favorite) and allowed it a long time to dry.  Then I placed my cardstock with the flowers on top of a couple scraps of cardstock.  Having a little extra "give" underneath your image will help the coloring go on a little smoother.

Step 1:

Start by laying down your darkest color.  I hope you can see from the picture that I added the color heavily at the base of each petal that was in shadow and then gradually colored with a lighter hand as I moved away from the shadow.  Use small circles when you color so that you don't develop lines.  Take your time to build up the color.

Step 2:

Next, take your medium color pencil and start coloring over the darker color.  Leave a little bit of the darkest color untouched, but cover up some of gradient you created with the darkest color using the medium.  Your coloring will be similar in step 2 as it was in step 1.  Start with a heavy hand of adding color and then soften the pressure as you move towards the outside edges of the petals.  Leave a bit of each of the petals white around the outside edges.

Step 3:

As a final step, add your lightest color.  This time you are going to color from the outside edges of the petals towards the base of each petal.  Continue using small circles to avoid lines.  Don't be afraid of using a heavy hand to really crush the pencil pigments together.  Just a heads up...if you use enough pencil and pressure to your piece, you will saturate the image with wax and you will notice that there will come a point where you can't add any more color on top of the wax build up.

One of the reasons why I like using the pencils themselves for coloring rather than using a blending pencil or gamsol is that you get a very vibrant finished product.  A blender pencil dulls the color and gamsol makes the image look more watercolored.  Both are fine, but I really like the vibrancy you can get from Prismacolors.

Here is a close up of the flowers and leaves:

To finish the card, I sponged a little Turquoise PanPastel chalk around the flowers and added my die cut sentiment.

I hope my instructions were clear.  Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

 

 

Supplies

 

CL5241 Rose Bouquet clear stamp set

94069 Hello Jotted Script craft die

Ombré Watercolor Background by Trina Pham

Hello there.  I have a CAS tropical birthday card to share today featuring an easy ombré watercolor background technique that I learned from this video. 

This technique requires two gradient colors of dye inks that are reactive with water.  For my card I used Chipped Sapphire and Salty Ocean distress inks.  Took a scrap piece of Mix Media paper from my stash, then blended Salty Ocean about halfway down followed with Chipped Sapphire about a quarter way down.

Next, a flat brush was wet with water then dragged down the length of the panel.  The brush should be wet, but not soaking or dripping.

I overworked my panel a little more than what was recommended in the video, but for what I was planning to do, it didn’t matter.

Before negative diecutting the panel with the Hibiscus Collage dies, Stick It adhesive was added to the back.  When diecutting was complete, it was adhered to regular white cardstock cut to the same size as the panel.  For some shimmer, spritz it with Sparkle spray (wasn’t able to capture it in the photo).  

To finish, heat embossed the sentiment from Birthday Blowout with white embossing powder on a strip of navy cardstock.  Thank you for stopping by.  Enjoy your weekend!

 

Supplies

 

94262 Hibiscus Collage craft die

CL470 Birthday Blowout clear stamp set

Birthday Card by Donna Sledzik

Hello everyone!

Today I have a fun background technique for you to try, which includes blowing bubbles! 

To create this background you need to mix about a tablespoon of acrylic paint and dish soap in a shallow bowl. Add some water to thin out the paint mixture.  Take a straw and blow into the mixture to create bubbles.  The bubbles will come to a dome shape over the bowl, then you can tap your paper onto the bubbles. You can repeat this process to cover your paper.  

Once the background was dry, I used foam tape to adhere it to a white cardbase.

Next I die cut the Happy Octopus 3 times from white cardstock.  The waves and the octopus were sponged with Distress Ink.  

I glued one of the white circle frames to my card front and then adhered the waves and octopus.  Next I glued another white frame on top of the first one.  I adhered an acetate die cut circle to the back of the third frame and glued that on top of the others. 

I stamped and white heat embossed my sentiments on strips of black cardstock and adhered those to the front of my card.

To finish the card, I added some dew drops to add a little dimension.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend!