I made this card with the Rejoice set.  The image is stamped in Versamark, embossed with white EP and colored with Twinkling H20s.  The Cuttlebug embossed background was painted with an uneven wash of Black Cherry H20 before it was embossed.  I stamped the Damask background in Sandal Adirondack ink on a panel of Caramel metallic cardstock.  It’s on a chocolate card base with matching chocolate ribbon and pearls.  With all the shimmer it’s rather festive but I hope not to the point of being gaudy.  To tell you the truth, it’s not quite as bright in real life.  It’s actually rather soft, really.  Unwanted camera tricks — why, oh why is it so hard to get a good photograph sometimes?

You may enjoy a visit with Faith, Julie, Linda, Sharon and Susan if you’d like some Christmas card ideas with Flourishes’ stamps.

Also, did you know Sharon has blog candy now through Sunday?  It’s right here.  She brought home some goodies from CHA to share with a lucky winner.  I know you won’t want to miss your chance!  Good luck, and have a great day!

I used Flourishes’ Poppy Patch for the main image just because they’re so darn pretty and the set provides a good variety of images for composing a painting.  They’re colored with Groovy Guava and shaded with Pixie Pink which gives them a nice pinkish-salmon color.

The background was accomplished by sponging inks on wet paper and then brushing over them with a clean wet brush to further blend and soften the colors.  It’s a very easy way to do a background.

I’d like to start with just a photo of the tools I used for this painting:

• Sponge daubers — Fits on your finger like a thimble
• Wedge — It doesn’t have to be a wedge, but it’s a nice, dense foam.  I really don’t know why it comes in a wedge shape.  I pinch it in my fingers to sponge with it.
• Flat brush — For painting over the background inks to blend
• Smaller brush — This is what I used for painting the poppies and for some of the smaller areas of the background

The first step is to stamp the poppies in waterproof ink — I used Jet Black Stazon.  Stamp them again to create masks — I used Eclipse Masking Tape.  It’s very thin and sticks to your image with a repositionable adhesive.  This is the image stamped and masks applied:

Begin by brushing over the paper in the area to be sponged with a clean, wet brush.  It only needs to be damp, not totally saturated.  This simply helps the paper absorb the ink more efficiently.  When applying several colors to a background, always start with the lightest color.  Sponge a drift of pink over the sky area.  Leave an area on the bottom part of the panel for creating a hillside.

Sponge blue next, filling in some of the empty areas and overlapping the pink a little.

Fill in the rest of the white areas of the sky with lavender and overlap the pink and blue.

To save time I’m showing one photo of the lower area of the background.  I did the same kind of sponging here, but with light green, dark green and purple in that order.  It’s rather dark and all the ink colors don’t show as well as in the sky.  It’s probably not even necessary to use that many colors, but that’s what I did — I was just making this up as I went along.

Once all the inks have been applied, use a clean, damp sponge, such as the wedge pictured above to press all over the background.  This will further blend and soften the inks. If so desired, use a clean, wet brush to paint over any area that appears to have too much color to suit you.  If you wet an area with the brush and then blot it with a paper towel it will lift some of the ink.  The brush can also be used to blend the inks even more if you desire yet more softness.  You’ll maintain the sponged look but it will become rather soft and hazy.  The photo below shows the image with the masks removed.

Paint the poppies now and begin the finishing touches.  Again, please refer to this tutorial for painting the poppies.  When you compare the painted poppies in this photo with the previous photo, you’ll notice a slight shading around the poppies.  Naturally, the poppies aren’t casting a shadow on the sky, but the subtle aura gives them a presence that would be otherwise lacking.  They need to “displace” the air around them, in a sense.  As described in last week’s watercolor tutorial, to create the aura, or “glow”, wet the area first, then dab with ink which will disperse, or blend, into the wet area.  I used lavender ink for the aura to keep it very subtle.  Where the poppy rests against the dark area, I used dark purple (Eggplant) for the aura.  Again, it’s very subtle but it makes a difference.

Also, notice the glow of light along the horizon and the right edge of the lower poppy.  This was done with Saffron ink in the same manner used to create the aura, or glow.

Finally, turn your painting into a card and send it to someone special!  I matted my painting on Naturals White, tied on some pretty ribbon and float mounted it on foam tape against a background of Artichoke textured cardstock and an Eggplant card base.

I hope this is helpful and I really hope it doesn’t appear as though I hurried through it as much as it felt like I did.  Whew!  By the time I finished this it was getting late and I have to get up early in the morning for work.  I’d love to think that those of you who would like to do this sort of painting are perhaps feeling encouraged by seeing the process outlined and realizing you can do it, after all.  Start with a simple image – you don’t have to do a whole landscape your first time out.  Please let me know if you give it a try.  I’d be so happy to see anything you create.  Have a wonderful day!

I stamped my little roadside wildflower scene with several stamps from the Blossoms & Butterflies set and used a sentiment from Blooming Expressions.  There’s just the slightest bit of watercolor shading on these images but if you’d like to see last Monday’s watercoloring tutorial, it’s right here.

I’m happy to be part of the team that’s showcasing these stamps this month and I’m in very good company!  Be sure to visit Carol Halvorson @ Happiness Blooms,  Pam Hooten @ Iris Garden, Trudee Sauer @ Follow Your Bliss and Jami @ More is More to see some wonderful designs with Anna’s stamps.  And don’t forget Anna, who created the images for our stamping pleasure!  You can visit her @ Sassy and Sweet Notes.

Thank you for visiting with me today.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

• Stamps:  Blossoms & Butterflies, Blooming Expressions
• Paper:  Soft Sky textured, Naturals White, watercolor
• Inks:  Jet Black Stazon, various for watercoloring
• Accessories:  Ribbon, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Nevertheless, the dahlia, itself, wasn’t without merit.  I loved the vibrant red-orange blooms with their dark centers and the contrast against the pretty green leaves.  I thought it might make a cheerful card for a friend.

I colored this flower with the 3-Step Poppin’ Pastels technique per my tutorial here.  The layered shades of chalk are one of the best ways I’ve found to achieve a deep, rich, velvety flower image.  The KSS multiple step stamps are ideal for this type of coloring.  I used Apricot, Pumpkin and Ruby Red for my dahlia.  The card looks a little countrified with the plaid background and the rick rack.  I made the plaid myself with the Plaid Plus set, also from Kitchen Sink Stamps.  I love this set!  I’ve only just begun to play with it, but there are so many options in addition to plaids –  stripes, dots, hearts — lots of different trims and accents.  Very fun!

I hope you’re all enjoying your summer.  We’re having some beautiful weather here and it feels just right for a summery card.  See you again soon!

• Stamps:  3-Step Daisy, Plaid Plus — both from Kitchen Sink Stamps
• Paper:  Prism Spring Willow Medium, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Ruby Red
• Ink:  Versamark, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip
• Accessories:  Copper snaps, rick rack, Stampin’ Pastels (soft chalks), Scotch brand foam mounting tape

This layout with BasicGray Euphoria papers provides a backdrop for the script panel on which I stamped and colored the tulip leaves.  I stamped the bloom again on a separate piece of cardstock, colored it with markers and cut it out, adhering it in place just at the base of the bloom.  The ribbon and pearls add a quick bit of window dressing.

Now…I’d like to mention that Sharon Johnson is preparing to kick up her heels at CHA this week so she won’t have time to do as extensive a May I Suggest post as usual.  That’s the one she does every Wednesday, showing a delicious array of coordinating ribbons, stamps, papers, accessories — it’s enough to make a girl swoon!  No one does elegant and sumptuous like Sharon does!  She shares, not only product information, but tips and tutorials for how she does her stamping and paper crafting.  This week the Flourishes design team is pitching in with a little tip here and there, so it might be fun for you to travel from one to the next to see if there’s anything you find helpful or inspiring.  Here’s the itinerary:  Faith, Julie, Linda, Sharon D. and Susan.  So, with that in mind…

May I suggest:  The Inkssentials White Opaque Pen.

For some quick marker coloring on a small image like the tulip in my first card, a few white highlights can bring a lot of life to an image.  Just add a few touches to the petal tips and outer curves to lighten up an otherwise flat appearance.

May I also suggest:  Cuttlebug embossed clear cardstock.

I just love a clear panel in a card — a little window peeking through to the inside.  This card provides a view of the pretty Euphoria paper which lines the card, but the real attraction is the window, itself.  Flourishes’ Crystal Clear Cardstock is a very heavy weight and embosses beautifully.  There’s a hint of white along the embossed lines, much like you’ll find with embossed vellum.  It’s a lovely effect. 

This was surely one of the quickest cards I’ve ever made.  I used the same stamp set, paper pad, ribbon and pearls for both cards.  The first card is on a 5 1/4″ square card base of CTMH Crystal Blue and the second card is a standard A2 size on Iced Azalea Prism cardstock.

Thank you so much for dropping in today.  I’ll be back tomorrow with more to share.  Until then, take care and have a wonderful day!

I have a stamp that says “Flowers are the poetry of nature.”  How true that is.  They’re the writer’s pen, the artist’s brush, the weaver’s loom.  They’re a reason to get up early on a dewy morning.  They draw me out for one last stroll as the sun slants low in the evening.  They’re ruffled petticoats and draping jewels, delicate, decadent, romantic, shy.  They work magic on my soul but the awe is so compelling it hurts a little bit.  It’s too big.  Or I’m too small.  I hope you enjoy the photos.

Above:  Penstemon backlit by the late afternoon sun.

Below:  Fuschias dripping from the weekend watering.

Baptisia in amethyst and sage.

Impatien, sweet and pure to its very heart.

Thank goodness for the garden.  Have a wonderful day!

This is watercoloring with inks – something every stamper has.  To get the very best results you really should use watercolor paper because of its ability to absorb water without warping.  It’s not hard to come by.  The first watercolor paper I bought was a tablet from Wal-Mart.  It worked just fine but the surface wasn’t very smooth.  The paper I use most frequently now was purchased in tablet form at a local art supply store — 100% cotton, 140 lb, cold pressed grain fin.  It has some texture but not too much.

Usually I’ll just squeeze the closed stamp pad to press a little ink into the lid.  Hold the pad with both hands with your thumbs in the center of the lid.  Squeeze until you feel the lid make contact with the pad.  You don’t need reinkers for watercoloring but they’re convenient if you’re covering a large area.  Also, if you do a lot of watercoloring you’ll probably need to reink your pad more frequently.

Below are two of the Stampin’ Up! pads I used for watercoloring my image.  The Mauve Mist (retired) on the left is shown with a drop of reinker.  I use the lid like a palette — use a wet brush to pull a little ink from the drop and mix it with water from the brush to dilute to desired shade.  Add more water or more ink, if necessary.  I keep a scrap of watercolor paper handy on which to test my color, but I’m not real fussy about it.  I use it either very dilute or very pure — I put more emphasis on the amount of water I have on the paper, which we’ll talk about in a minute.

The Close to Cocoa pad on the right is shown with ink squeezed into the lid.  I pull the concentrated ink to a different area of the lid to mix with water, using the same principles as stated above.

Stamp the image in waterproof ink.  I used Jet Black Stazon for this image.  It’s one flower stamped twice.  The first image was masked.  The butterfly is a separate image.

I like to start by coloring the whole image with a very dilute base coat.  I used Mauve Mist, Close to Cocoa and Certainly Celery.

The next step is to add a little shading.  Start with just one petal.  Paint the entire petal with water first, taking care to stay within the lines.  Then dab or paint a line of ink along the edge of the petal.  The ink will disperse and gradually fade out.  When it hits a dry area it will abruptly stop spreading, which means the ink won’t spread outside the petal unless you painted the water outside the lines.  The wetter the paper, the more the ink will spread.  In a small area like this petal, you won’t want too much water or else the ink will spread all the way across the petal – then you won’t have shading, you’ll just have a darker petal.  Try it out on a scrap piece first.

This photo shows the shaded flowers.  The flower on the left was shaded with Mauve Mist, the same color as the base coat but applied full strength to the wet petal.  You could stop there and call those petals finished and they’d look just fine.  However, I decided to add more shading with Bravo Burgundy.  I did it the same as described above, but with less water.  I also shaded the flower’s cone with Close to Cocoa.

When you use less water, there’s a chance the line won’t blend as smoothly.  When this happens, use a clean wet brush to paint toward the shaded line — water only.  You don’t want to pull the darker ink into the light areas, you simply want to soften the blended edge.

A little tip:  Is the painted area too dark?  Did you apply too much ink in a certain area?  To remedy this, paint it again with water, then press with a paper towel.  It will effectively lift enough ink to give you a chance to start over.

Another tip:  Can you see right off the bat that you put too much water on your paper?  Is it sort of pooled up on the paper?  Touch the edge of a paper towel to the water and the excess will be absorbed.  Don’t press the towel onto the image unless you also want to remove ink.

You can add a glow if so desired.  This photo shows the entire image painted and shaded as described above, with the glow added around one flower and the butterfly so you can compare them with and without the glow.  I call it a glow because I used So Saffron to highlight the image.  This same process would be used with a darker ink to create a shadow.  The glow can be any color your heart desires.

It’s very easy to create the glow or shading around the image, using the same process that was used for shading the rest of the image — wet the paper first, then dab ink into the wet area.  When doing the glow I always wet a larger area than I actually need — this allows the gradual fade out with no abrupt edge.  The wetter the paper, the more the ink will spread and the softer the glow will be.  The glow will not spread into your image if you allow the main image to dry first.  It doesn’t take long.

So there it is, main image complete with a subtle glow.  I kept my layout simple, using my new Prism papers — Spring Willow light and medium, and Iced Azalea.  The sentiment stamped very nicely on the lightly textured paper.  It reads “Count your blessings one petal at a time.”  The Blooming Expressions set is full of flower related sentiments as well as birthday, thinking of you, sympathy — it covers many different occasions.

Aren’t these images cute?  I’ve always loved Anna’s style.  They’re the type of images that allow you the freedom to do pretty much whatever you want with them — such as a green butterfly.  Every year my kitchen window screen becomes peppered with such an interesting variety of moths.  The prettiest is a small one that’s a lovely, delicate shade of green.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Once again, it’s long but I wouldn’t want to leave anything out.  It takes longer to explain the process than it does to actually do it.  Take care, now, and have a wonderful day!

This challenge gave me another chance to release my inner polka dot.  Of course, ladybugs and polka dots go hand in hand.  I’ve got polka dot ribbon, a polka dot background, and a ladybug polka dotted with Black Diamond Stickles.  The Bloom Dots Cuttlebug embossed background is suggestive of polka dots and the main image panel is rather like one big polka dot — made with Spellbinders Nesties.  All the white cardstock is Shimmery White and the coloring was done with Twinkling H20s to insure a little extra shimmer.

As it happens, I need another birthday card for a coworker next week and this will be perfect!  I know the “bug me anytime” doesn’t sound like a birthday sentiment but it is apropros my role in the group dynamics of the workplace.  She’ll understand.  While in a florist’s shop today I spotted the foil-wrapped chocolate ladybugs — what a lucky find!

This was a fun card to make and it’ll be fun to give.  Thank you, Libby, for the inspiration and all the happy time spent making this card.  I hope you’re all having a happy day, too!

• Stamps:  Very Punny, Polka Dot (both Stampin’ Up!)
• Paper:  CTMH Citrus Leaf, SU! Real Red, Shimmery White and Basic Black textured
• Ink:  Real Red, Jet Black Stazon
• Accessories:  Ribbon, Making Memories epoxy flowers, Twinkling H20s, Black Diamond Stickles, Spellbinders Nestabilities circles, Bloom Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

I black embossed the butterfly and colored it with Twinkling H20s in Sunflower, Yellow Rose and Sky Blue.  These colors can all be found at Flourishes in the 12-color H20 Set #1251.  The butterfly was easy to cut out and pop up on dimensionals so it hovers over the card.

The papers I used are BasicGray Perhaps and the flat backed pearls in Copper seemed to match up pretty well. 

I hope you have time to visit Faith, Julie, Linda, Sharon and Susan today, too, because I know they have some beautiful samples to share with you.  Enjoy, and have a wonderful day!

• Stamps:  Butterfly Moments, Thank You
• Paper:  Bravo Burgundy, So Saffron, Poison Ivory, BasicGray Perhaps designer paper
• Ink:  Versamark, Sahara Sand
• Accessories:  Ribbon, flat backed self-adhesive pearls, black embossing powder, Twinkling H20s, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

This is one tulip from Flourishes’ new Thank You set, the second in the Stamp Simply line.  Stamp Simply sets are designed for stampers, by a stamper.  In this case, one small, inexpensive clear stamp set gives you a variety of ways to say “thank you”.  I’d like to say “thank you” to Sharon Johnson for her part in bringing this set to Flourishes.

To make this miniature painting, I stamped the tulip several times in Olive Stazon then filled in the background with a wash of Sahara Sand, River Rock, Artichoke and Pretty in Pink.  The tulips are painted with Pretty in Pink and shaded with Pink Passion.  I did additional shading near the tulips with Perfect Plum.  The script background that’s included in the set is stamped in the upper corner in Sahara Sand.  The papers are SU!’s textured Sahara Sand and Vanilla.  All in all a very soft and feminine look, made more so with the silver organdy ribbon (retired SU!) and the Blush pearls.

Be sure and check in with the rest of the design team for other samples of this month’s releases:  Faith, Julie, Linda, Sharon and Susan.  I think this is one of Flourishes’ best months yet!  Have a great day!