Splitcoast Tutorial: Floating Strips

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast is called Floating Strips - it's a fun background technique for adding dimension and using up strips of paper and cardstock. I just got this guy from B-Line Designs - he reminded me of Dick Tracy, so I colored him up in yellow.

When I showed the card to my son, he said MOM, you made the Man in the Yellow Hat! Remember him from Curious George? Then I realized how ironic it was that I chose this 'monkeys' sentiment. Funny, huh? (The sentiment is by Tim Holtz and it lives next to my computer to remind me that I don't need to answer everyone's stamping questions on Facebook!)

The background strips are from my scrap stash - I used double sided tape to layer them on acetate, and that panel is popped up just a little bit... I used cardstock to pop it up rather than foam tape, because my acetate is pretty heavy. 

Anyone know what happened to B-Line Designs? I thought they were an older company but I see that they posted on Facebook as recently as April 2020, then disappeared. Their website is still accessible. I'd love to have more of their stamps - I love this style! Let me know if you know!

Hope you're well - I am busy as usual - I have some mini portraits coming up (ooh, I finished the cats - they're HERE), and stamp art to work on!

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!

MIX-Ability challenge: Back to Business!

It's my turn to host the Mix-ability challenge over on Splitcoast! This week we're using business envelope liners on our cards and other projects. Here's mine;

I started with a 4" Art Square as my base, and adhered the liner of my AT&T statement to the panel with gel medium. Next I stamped a large floral image in the corner of the panel (that's by Catherine Scanlon - it's a beautiful peony design) and used Inktense pencils to shade in some areas and white acrylic paint to highlight others. More color was added to the base with Distress crayons and stamps.

I added the sentiment with individual alphabet stamps - this thought was on my heart, as I'm wishing I was at CHA with my friends this weekend... I know that decision was made in wisdom, and I'm trusting that having my own creative studio space will be a worthy tradeoff for my sads today! :)

Here's a closer peek at the flowers - I used a blender pen to blend out the Inktense pencil, which worked really well and kept the moisture to a minimum.

I added one more strip from another envelope at the bottom - you know I'll probably start hoarding these envelopes now instead of throwing them away! So many patterns to choose from!

Christmas cards - on purpose!

Usually by this time of the year I'm over Christmas, but the lighter event schedule this fall has made such a difference for me! I even made Christmas cards - on purpose - to send!

I used this card as inspiration, but changed up my process a little bit - I stamped the poinsettia in the center of the card, but instead of splattering with paint, I did a little Wrinkle Free Distress with gold Delicata ink - just squished a little ink onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water, and laid the cardstock down into the ink. I stamped the background with a script stamp (Impression Obsession) and a flourish stamp from Tim Holtz. The sentiment is HERE.

I made 30 of these - I generally despise mass-producing cards, so I'm thankful for the MISTI - I wouldn't have attempted this otherwise!

While I had the supplies out, I made a few thank you cards for our Splitcoaststampers guest authors who shared tutorials in November and December - I love the color change, and I'm excited to send these pretties out! 

If you've seen a tutorial or technique or designer you'd like to see featured in 2017, please let me know! 

Have a wonderful weekend - thanks to all who joined the hop this week - there were over 800 entries, which is amazing to me!

Five Words Canvas

I had a little ponder over this month's Creative Dare - the challenge was to create a mixed media project that incorporated five words describing your life purpose, or what you want to be remembered for. I wanted to use words that expressed my personal life, ministry, and my goals as an artist - so in contrast to yesterday's project, a lot of thought went into this one!

 Here it is in the midst of my creative 'craftermath'..............

I wanted to use words that were packed with meaning. These are the words I chose, and their definitions:

Inspire: to affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence. To breathe life into. To fill with enlivening or exalting emotion.

Infuse: to cause to be permeated with something (as a principle or quality) that alters usually for the better. To introduce one thing into another so as to affect it throughout. The word implies a pouring in of something that gives new life or significance .

Encourage: to inspire with courage, strength of purpose, spirit, or hope.

Enable: to provide with adequate power, means, opportunity, or authority to do something.

Embolden: implies the giving of courage sufficient to overcome timidity or reluctance, resulting in action.

Supplies used: acrylic paints, Colorbox chalk inks, Lyra oil pastels, butterfly die from Impression Obsession, hand-cut stencil of my hand, redliner adhesive sheet, spray paint, airline map, paper scraps, cookie packaging, plastic canvas, PVA glue, Micron pen, stencils from the Crafter's Workshop

For the hand shape, I pieced some paper scraps onto an adhesive sheet, traced my hand, and then cut around the outline. The liner of the adhesive sheet went into my stencil stash to be used as a mask later. 

Stamps used: Tim Holtz, Impression Obsession/ dkdesigns, alphabet stamps from JustRite Stampers

 LOVED making this little canvas - there are lots of layers, scribbles and thoughts throughout the project, and the process was just about as expressive as the final project. Oh, by the way -- this is a 6"x6" canvas panel from Dick Blick. They're so nice to work on because of the uniform surface. Stretched canvases are a little more difficult to stamp on. These are pretty cheap too, and I just noticed they have a bulk discount! May have to stock up next time.

Thanks for visiting!

Canvas Trio - 10000 Reasons

Here's a little project I did before Christmas, just for fun - I bought a 4-pack of 6-inch canvases at Walmart when we were in the States, with the intent of working on something larger than a card, and to make something for art's sake, not for a deadline, challenge, or quota. I also wanted to work out something using some lyrics from Matt Redman's song Ten Thousand Reasons - love that one.

So each canvas is done with acrylic paints, inks, and some strips of newspaper... stamps from Impression Obsession/dkdesigns, Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz and Stamp Camp, and stencils from Crafter's Workshop. I didn't take pictures of my process, because I just wanted to enjoy the process without having to document it. I just need that sometimes.

I created my own masks for the larger shapes - I like the bird the best, and I saved it - maybe I'll use it again! The canvases turned into my husband's Christmas present, and they're up above his computer - I love that! And they're such a great reminder to keep our minds on eternal things and the many blessings we have - too many to count, really.

Thank you for stopping by!

In this together...

I rarely make CAS (clean and simple) cards, but I needed a stack of cards on hand to send to our supporters - these came together very quickly with a few stamps from Unity Stamp Co. and Stampers Anonymous. I thought the sentiment was perfect for those who support us in our ministry - we are truly "in this journey together"!

I get to spend the weekend at the coast with a group of ladies from the church - looking forward to catching up with some old friends, and growing closer to new ones!