You can paint this card and envelope in under 10 minutes. I used Inktense watercolor pencils but you can use any watercolor pencils or crayons you have or even kids watercolor paint! Watch the video to see how:
BTW the large-and-in-charge butterfly stamp is made by Tattered Angles and the smaller butterfly used on the envelope is by Stampin Up. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Happy Tuesday! First off I am so very happy to report that I cleaned all day yesterday (yuck) and my house is still clean today (yay!) No thanks to my dog who thinks all of the rainy ditches along the side of the road are her personal wading pools. I can go to my studio today feeling virtuous as I play with paper, beads, paint or whatever else strikes my fancy. That is If I don’t pull something with all of this patting myself on the back, ha ha! Today I am going to share a card I sent to a friend of mine who had her appendix out last week, I thought the colors would cheer her up
I stamped the image with Stampin Up Basic Black (because I happen to be one of the rare birds who like that ink) and colored it with inktense pencils. If you have never used them before they are wonderful, they are a watercolor pencils but super vivid and once you wash over them with water they become semi permanent meaning you can paint over them (gently) and the color won’t lift…watch out for the reds though, they can smear a bit if you are not careful. These are my favorite pencils and they cost about the same as other artist quality pencils. That said you can do the same techniques with any colored pencils just be careful when you go to wash over the colors that you don’t smear everything underneath. Watch the video to see them in action:
With markers being all the rage right now many stampers forget about the humble watercolor pencil but I urge you to try them again (or for the first time!) They are inexpensive vs. markers. One watercolor pencil has 100 times the ink/color as a marker and a pencils costs $1.50 or less vs. $3-$7 for a marker. They blend easier so you don’t need as many colors and they are great for kids too! If you are looking for a less expensive, but quality watercolor pencil set the Karat brand is good and I think you can get a 24 pack at staples for under $20. You can find the Inktence at the big craft stores as well and use a coupon but I think if you want the big set you are better off checking Blick Art Materials, Cheap Joe’s or ASW Express and see what deals they have going;)
To simply finish this card I layered pattern papers from the Floral Fair stack (DCWV) onto a kraft card base and threaded a length of baker’s twine (papermart) through a bunch of buttons and used glue dots to adhere it to the prepared card base. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! We had a sweet morning before work and school exchanging valentines goodies and cards:) The kids are looking forward to the valentine party at school and as a classroom treat we cut hearts out of watermelon (cut the rind off a watermelon and slice it 3/4″ thick and use a cookie cutter to cut hearts or other shapes) and made a fruit plate that I will bring to school in a bit. Here is the valentine card I made my husband. Stamps are by About Art Accents.
I used Friendly Plastic to make the charm I was given a bunch of old friendly plastic sticks last year. Friendly plastic has a shelf life, after a couple of years it becomes brittle and snappy, not bendy and pliant, so you can’t use it for all techniques. Luckily I discovered ways to use the old stuff so if you have some friendly plastic from long ago or if you bought some recently and discovered that it breaks rather than bends here are some techniques you can try. Get a cuppa coffee folks, this is a long, but hopefully entertaining and informative video. You can do any of these techniques with new Friendly Plastic as well!
And, yes, I found something else to use my coffee cup warmer for! Yay, it earns a place on my worktable:) So to recap the following techniques will work with old FP: Marbleizing, inlay or crazy quilt technique, ooze technique (pressing metal mesh or wire into the melted plastic so it oozes up around it) and breaking up and melting in molds.
Tips: Snap off bit of plastic (like I did in the video.) Cutting the old stuff with scissors will make it shatter (the new stuff should cut just fine.) If you are buying new Friendly plastic, check it in the store to make sure it bends, if it snaps it is old. Don’t buy more than you can use up in a year, short shelf life, remember.
A word of caution: The charms made with old friendly plastic should probably be used for card or scrapbook embellishments as they are not the most rugged unless you use several layers and re-enforce with wire or if the pieces are small (earring size.) I tried snapping some of the larger pieces and they did snap with a bit of pressure so not ideal for long lasting jewelry. I have not used new FP so I am not sure how jewelry would last after it was a few years old, weather it would become brittle with age. There are a ton of fun tutorials on the Friendly Plastic blog to give you an idea of what artists are doing with the new pliant sticks. I highly recommend you have a look and if you have any question on the new Friendly Plastic they would be the ones to ask and they have beginner kits at a reasonable price.
That’s all for today! I hope if you have some old sticks of Friendly Plastic around you will give this a try rather than becoming frustrated and throwing them away, til next time happy crafting!
Howdy folks! It’s labor day in the US and for many of us it means a day of from work and school. If you happen to had a day off today I hope you enjoy it! It is looking like we might get rain in Maine but we will enjoy the day never the less. Since this is the unofficial last day of summer here (the day all of the tourists go home ) I thought I would use a stamp set I bought at the stamp show I went to in June, it is by Just Rite Stamps and it really homey to me:
I did not have the dies that went with this stamp so I cut it by hand…I’m not jumping on the “buy the dies to match the stamp” bandwagon. With the amount of stamps I have it would be a slow road to insanity or bankrupcy LOL! And it did not take me long to cut it out either:)
I hope you like the background on this card. I am working on a background techniques video that I will share with you later this week. I got a chance to play in my studio yesterday and make a bunch of card backgrounds, it was fun and productive! Also I wanted to share me “free” embellishments! I used sea glass picked up from the beach on this card!
The sand dollar embellishment was made from ecru polymer clay, I used a rubber stamp of a sand dollar to press in flattened balls of clay, baked it then dry brushed white acrylic paint over it when it was done. I made a ton of these a few years ago and lucky for me I knew right were they were when I made this card!
That’s all for today! Enjoy the day off (if you have it off) and til next time happy crafting!
Do you want a quick and easy (not to mention inexpensive to make and mail) card technique? Well, read on my friend! Today I’ll show you some easy techniques while we make this card:
I used the sketch from Oriental Stamp Art and stamps from About Art Accents (all except the postmarks, they are Limited Edition and Hero Arts) Sorry about the length, it’s 20 minutes, but chock full of tips!
There you have it! Wasn’t that easy? Now go grab your ink and play and til next time happy crafting!
It’s true, I filmed this video yesterday and my daughter saw it when she came home from school and had to try it! I think one of the most fun techniques you can try with colored pencils is to use them on colored cardstock and patterned paper. Today I’ll show you how to color thickly and blend your colors so they pop out from the background.
This video is a long one (14 minutes) but there are extra tips and tricks so I hope you like it:
Here are some closer shots of the cards. I used the sketch at Oriental Stamp Art for this card:
I can not tell you how happy I am with this grossly expensive stamp set I bought last month (Stampin’ Up’s Occasion Alphabet, $31.95 on cling foam) I am using it all the time, I love the quirky, yet useful, sentiments and how it fits perfectly in the oval frame stamp I’ve had for years!
So, remember at the beginning of the post when I told you that my 7-year-old tried this technique? Well, take a look at her beautiful coloring job:
What are you waiting for? You can do this! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Howdy folks! I love paper flowers, they are as much fin to make as they are to use! Here is a card I made today using a flower made from a coffee filter:
Huh, I always seem to craft with bright colors on rainy days…I just realized that LOL! The paper I used is from MME and the stamp is from Purple Onion Designs. Check out this quick video to see how to make the flower from a coffee filter:
Here are the steps written out:
1. Cut a round coffee filter into a spiral. You can cut several at once because they are so thin.
2. Spray with ink or paint with watercolors and let dry.
3. Starting with the outside of edge of the filter, roll the filter up to make a flower fluffing and shaping as you twirl.
Hope you give this a try, it’s a cheap frill for your next card, tag or scrapbook page! Til next time happy crafting!
Well, my mailbox has been busy this week! I was asked (along with fellow MyGrafico designers Cheri Wenger and Blackleaf Studios) to design a custom digital stamp for Paper Crafts Magazine’s special publication Stamp It! Cards. You can download all of our designs here. Gotta love free right?
I really enjoyed this issue of Stamp It! Cards, infact I found many ideas I wanted to try. Here is a card I CASE’d (CASE=copy and steal everything), the original card is on page 89 of Stamp It! Cards and it was by Agniesza Malyszek, her’s turned out much prettier than mine but I still like it
To make the card I stamped the butterflies in Versafine black and heat embossed them with clear then loosely splashed watercolor over them. Honestly I got a little TOO loose with the watercolor and I’m not sure what I was thinking with the flourescent coral sentiment block but, hey, it was fun!
Tuesday I got the September issue of Scrap & Stamp Arts and I just about fell over to see my button cards on the COVER:
BTW you can still get the July Issue of SSA with my marker review spreadsheet. Honestly, it is more than you ever wanted to know about Alcohol & Watercolor markers and extra ways to use them.
Oh and one more Pub…I have 2 cards in the July issue of Vamp Stamp News.
OK I think I just dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back til next time happy crafting!
Wow, where did the week go!?! Where did the month go in fact! I had pland to make May Baskets with my new Basket Bonanza kit this week (who knows, maybe I will today), repaint my kitchen and clean my studio but none of those things happened. There is still time to save 40% on everything at Lindsay’s stamp Stuff, the sale is on until midnight tonight!
Now let’s see what the DT has been up to {apparently more than me LOL!} this week!
First up is Margie with this super fun bowling layout-she is my scrapbook idol, you need to check out her “counterfeit kits” she will have you using up your stash in no time making the cutest pages ever! She used the Bowling Fun Papers and bowling fun SVGs/clip art kit here:
Here is Cindi’s sweet and happy birthday card, i love the mix of Up, Up & Away clip art and papers and the cupcake from the sweet stuff set (that was one of my first digistamps for sale, appropriate since April is my 2 year anniversary of opening the shop!)
Micki is my marker idol, man that girl’s got skills! and get a load of the sumptuous ribbon on her card, oh my! She used the Birds and Branches stamp set on her card today:
Last but not lease is Diane with 5 (yes! I said 5!) cards using the Bold Black and White papers kit. She simple recolored the prints and made 5 clean and simple card, that would make a nice gift set don’tcha think?
If you see something you like be sure to grab it today at Lindasy’s stamp Stuff while it is 40% off (or you can wait til my 3rd anniversary sale next year LOL!) There is even a brand new party kit I just added last night in the shop! Here is a look at some of the kits the DT gals used today:
Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Wow, I must say I really enjoy gathering up my design team’s projects in one spot, I am so lucky to have such a talented group of artists working for me on the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff team. Without further ado let’s see what they cooked up this week!
Micki’s Card this week has me dreaming of summer, find out her tricks for printing and watercoloring this digital stamp from the Seaside Sketches set on her blog.
Rhonda has been in the sewing room again this week with a beautiful card using the Posh ‘n Trendy set, wowza, isn’t it gorgeous!
Here is our ‘hybrid homey’ Diane with a great Easter Card (love the sentiment) and she made her background paper with a digistamp, find out how on her blog-this girl knows all the tricks and she shares her card making secrets! She used the Cute Easter Set and the Easter Sentiment freebie on this card:
And here is Tracey with an earth-friendly decor craft (you are not gonna believe what she made this wall hanging out of) using Owl Tree stamp from Lindsay’s ShopHandmade Store and it’s only $1!
Last but not least we have Cindi with a hybrid card. She used the digital invitation from the Valentine Party Add-on kit as a background then layered over a digistamp from Sweet Stuff, yum!
Now, I’m sure the DT has left you with plenty of inspiration to get crafting this weekend, be sure to stop by their blogs and leave them some love and also be sure to snag this weeks freebie on yesterday’s post.
One more reminder, if you haven’t signed up to win a set of ProMarkers you have until Sunday Night to do so, just leave a comment on the Promarker Give-away post and let me know what set you would like if you win, easy peasy!
) I thought I would use a stamp set I bought at the stamp show I went to in June, it is by Just Rite Stamps and it really homey to me:
til next time happy crafting!
