When I saw this sketch over at 2 sketches 4 you today I had to make a baby card ASAP:
I used scraps of blue paper and stamps from Pink Persimmon and the sentiment is an oldie from Inque Boutique. Thanks for looking and till next time happy crafting!
For those times you need a quick card that will fit in a standard business envelope try this:
I used sketch #31 over at Oriental Stamp Art (A wonderful Yahoo group devoted to Asian themed stamping) to make this quick card. I use color laser paper and alcohol ink to make the background and punched 1 1/4″ and 1 1/2″ squares to stamp on and mat. The stamps are from About Art Accents (my favorite place to find everything Asian!) and the cardstock is by Die Cuts with a view.
So the next time you don’t think you have time to make a handmade card give this sketch a whirl, it really couldn’t be simpler 😉 Happy Crafting!
Hey peeps! I just had to pop in quickly and tell you about the sketch contest I am sponsoring over at Tuesday Morning Sketches this week. Here is the card I made with the sketch:
If you want to play along visit their blog here, and make a card based on the sketch and you might win a gift certificate to the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff Shop! What fun! I used the dear deer stamp, and the primitive flowers stamp available at the Lindsay’s stamp Stuff shop. The “friend” stamp is from Inkadinkado and I altered it because it was too long so after I stamped it I cut it and inked the raw end. I quickly colored the images with prismacolor pencils and blended with Goo-Gone, Since I was going to trim them out I didn’t bother to stay within the lines, it really speeds this up!
I also wanted to share a fun technique with you today, dip dying! Here I took a flower that crocheted from white crochet cotton and I wet it then I sprayed a bit of liquid watercolor (a drop of reinker, or even a scribble of waterbased marker would also work) on a plastic baggie then dipped the edges of the flower in it and set it on a clean spot of the baggie to dry. It gives you a subtle gradient of color, it would be pretty on cloth or tissue paper flowers too and you can dye it to match your project. *note: If you plan to wash this then use a fabric dye and a soda ash fixative.
Have a great Tuesday everyone!
No, I’m just kidding, I have no qualms sharing my age (33 today) and the sun is shining, what more could I want! Hubby and the kids let me sleep in and then made me breakfast and got me some wonderful gifts: A book I’ve been eyeing “100 flowers to knit and crochet”, a CD from the blues band Sapphire and get this my very own laptop computer!!! I am a lucky girl! I decided to make a birthday card with the sketch over at 2sketches4you and this was tricky for me, it took a few tries but in the end I like the results:
I used watercolor crayons to color my new Oriental Poppy digital stamp. I like to use watercolor crayons because they are quick, easy and non toxic. I usually will print out a sheet of images and use my little Caran Dache watercolor crayon set of 15 colors and color them with my kids while they are coloring in their colorbooks. Its great to do while listing to audio books, their favorite are the “Junie B. Jones” books by Barbara Park (I like them too!) Also I used the font DB pretty Borders to cut the scallop borders on the card with my cricut at SCAL software.
How to color with watercolor crayons:
Step one: Loosely color in your image with the wc crayons. (I’m using a digital stamp printed on Georgia Pacific White cardstock from Sams Club) Don’t worry about coloring right to the edge of the design, you can “push” the pigment around with your waterbrush or blending pen later. *A waterbrush is a paintbrush with a hollow handle you can fill with water or paint, a blending pen is a marker with clear ink inside, the clear ink is made from water and glycerin.
Step two: Use a Blending pen or waterbrush filled with equal parts water and glycerin to blend the colors. The glycerin keeps the pigment moving smoothly without damaging or wrinkling the cardstock (or making the printer ink bleed if using a digital stamp) scribble on a piece of scrap paper to clean the brush.
Step three: after coloring use a pom-pom dipped in chalk to color the background, it give a nice quick blended effect.
That’s all there is to it! Practice to get the feel of this fun medium. I confess that I have the full set of 84 Caran Dache watercolor crayons but I mostly use my travel set of 15 half sticks because I can blend then and achieve almost any color I want and they are easy to stick in my pocket and travel with.
Other tips:
Since the crayon is pure color there is no waste, when you sharpen the crayons save the shavings in a small watercolor palette, give them a spritz of water and you can paint with them rather than tossing all of that good pigment away. I usually use a knife to sharpen mine (which I don’t do too often) If I need a fine line of color I wet a fine nylon brush and lift the color off the crayon stick.
If you don’t have a waterbrush or blending pen use a nylon artist brush dipped in a mixture of equal parts water and glycerin. Keep a paper towel handy to blot off extra water. * if working on watercolor paper with waterproof ink omit the glycerin.
If you cannot find watercolor crayons try water-soluble oil pastels. You can get a set of 16 at staples (portfolio line by Crayola) for about $9, cheaper on-line I’m sure! They are also wonderful, they are thick and creamy, almost like lipstick. I would use a paintbrush or waterbrush rather than a blending pen for these.
Thanks for stopping by on my birthday, I’m gonna get out and enjoy this sunshine 😉 Till next time happy crafting!
I see all of those pretty gift bags in the paper crafting magazines and I always think to myself, WOW, pretty but it would break my heart to see it thrown away after the gift was opened. I also think that these women must have way too much time on their hands to decorate a gift-bag when you can go and buy a lovely one at the dollar store, I’d never bother to do that! Never say never folks! I bought some stamps the other day (big surprise) and it came in a plain little kraft bag with handles, too nice to toss in the recycling but it had printing on the front that I wasn’t in love with so I used some of the Cosmo Cricket paper that I got in my DT package from the Rubber Cafe last month, a doily that I cut up and sprayed with my homemade shimmer spray, my homemade dewdrops, die cuts and my new Rubber Cafe stamps to create this recycled gift bag:
All of the items I used were just laying around on my craft table leftover from other projects with the exception of the vintage clip art. If you would like to download a sheet of vintage clip art including the card used on my bag click here. The heart stamp used on this project fits in the space on the card perfectly. I sprayed the flourish (Accent Essentials Cartridge: Cricut) with gold and red shimmer spray, dried it with a heat tool then stamped the Love Words stamp on top.
The stitching is fake! I used a piercing bee (EK Success)and a ruler to make the holes (place the paper on a foam pad or scrap of corrugated cardboard before piercing) then I lined up the strait edge next to the holes and drew along the line with a fine tip marker. If you learn nothing else from my blog learn that!
Here is a preview of the vintage valentine freebie. Just download it and print it. Easy Peasy!
Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!
