Watercolor Flowers

A bloggy friend sent me a BOATLOAD of Hero Arts stamps for me to sell in the charity tag sale we held in April.  She told me if I saw any that I liked to pluck them out - and although I liked A LOT of them - I only picked out 4 stamps out of the probable 100 she sent! (The goal was to fundraise, not increase my hoard - LOL)

Three of the 4 stamps I chose were these HA watercolor flowers - which I finally used and turned into these cards.  Pretty simple in layout - so they went pretty fast!

For each flower I used the Tim Holtz watercolor pens then spritzed with water and stamped on watercolor paper.  The background stamp is a HA/Basic Grey cling stamp and finished each card off with a MFT sentiment.

I really love how these came out and will have to keep these flowers in mind when I need to put together a quick card!!

Thanks for your visit!

DD23/SFYTT- Oct - Happy Birthday

So Happy It's Thursday!  Are you?

I'll keep this short - here's a card I made for the Dynamic Duo's Challenge#23 and the October Sketch For You To Try:

I watercolored this PTI dahlia and leaves and layered it on some burlap I had on my desktop since making my fall wreaths.  I embossed with some swiss dots and drew some border lines with my white gel pen.

Thanks for your visit!

SSSC155 - Happy Anniversary

TGIF Everyone!!  Hope you had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend!  I found some time to play along with the Sweetest Sunday Sketch Challenge # 155.  I REALLY liked this sketch layout!

I grabbed a House Mouse stamp and embossed it on water color paper and once again - used my Distress Inks to color in the image.

Let me tell you about my little banners!   I few weeks ago, my hubby brought home new dish towels from William Sonoma and it had this great cloth ribbon holding them together.  I figured I could re-purpose them!  So I wanted more white on the card.  I stamped three hearts with Distress Inks, cut them into banners and glued them down with glossy accents!  I was proud of myself for recycling :)    I added some dots with a white gel pen and embossed a Hero Arts sentiment in white as well.

I'm getting this in for today's deadline - but here's the sketch anyway!

Have a great day!!!!

Thanks for your visit!

Bunny Birthday Wish!

Make a wish!!!  That's what these House Mouse bunnies are doing at the well!  I made two of these cards and sent them out to friend's turning 40 this year.  I once again colored the image in with my Distress Inks on watercolor paper.  Lots of gold and bronze on this card.

Not too much to discuss about the card!

In other news - Buddy is settling in really great at home.  He's even been off-leash at our local hiking park and doing GREAT with his recall - so we're happy!!!  Yah!!!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Thanks for your visit!

Watercoloring with Distress Inks

Hi!
I have the generator running for a bit, so I just wanted to share this Splitcoast Stampers Tutorial on Water Coloring with Distress Inks.  This is the method I've used for my cards and a few of you commented on it - so I thought I'd share.

Electricity update: Still none as of 3:15pm on Wednesday.  We have a blown transformer on our street (only 12 houses) so we're probably on the bottom of the list - but we've had gorgeous weather since the storm, so I really can't complain - except I haven't visited any blogs AND I haven't crafted!  And I'm pretty bored....I even raked my yard today!!!

Thanks for your well wishes!!  Be back soon!



Thanks for your visit!

Update and a new card!

Thank you for those who posted well wishes for Hurricane Irene.  We weathered the storm pretty well. LOTS of branches down and one BIG limb took out 1/2 my NEW dog kennel.  So, we'll have to cut up that limb and reattach the fencing.  We lost power at about 6am on Sunday morning and are still without it now (5pm Sunday night).  Our friend came and hooked up a generator about 3:30pm, so our fridge and internet are working while it's running.  Estimates for power are up to a week away - so we'll see how we fare with that.

So, since I have internet, I figured I'd set up a post for Monday morning and make some blog visits!

Last week I colored up more Inky Antics images.  This gal speaks the truth!

At least it's the truth when I attempt to cook!  I made a second card using same image/paper and that sentiment reads "If at first you don't succeed, order take out" - which is another motto I could live by (and I do!)  Most times, we just go straight for the takeout!

The day I finished making these cards, my husband decided he wanted to try cooking bronzini (a whole Italian fish).  He had me prepare it for the grill, and I knew at that point I wasn't eating it!  Then he cooked it and took a bite and pushed it to the side as well.  I told him about the "order takeout" card and we had a good laugh!

I colored this gal up with distress inks again on watercolor paper. I COOL tip I saw on the Inky Antics blog was to add 'eye' color to the image's eyes.  If you click on the picture, you'll see I gave her blue eyes!  I'm so happy I saw this tip!

Off to see what everyone else has been up to on their blogs!  Hope you have a great Monday!


Thanks for your visit!

CPS231 Inky Antics "Cheers"

Yesterday was Cheryl (She Stamps) birthday and I colored up this image and sent it to her last week. Thankfully she got it in time for her birthday!   It's been a while since I colored up an Inky Antics image and I decided to stamp on watercolor paper and use my Distress Inks.  My favorite ink for watercoloring!

I also used last weeks Card Pattern's Sketch # 231:

My paper is from American Crafts and the sentiment is from Friskars.  You can't tell in the picture, but I used glossy accents on the martini glass!  Hope you had a great day Cheryl!!!!


Thanks for your visit!

Totally Hues Challenge#2 - Here's the Scoop!

Heather Pulvirenti of Witty Title Here started color challenges on her blog.  It's called Totally Hues and I was able to participate in her second challenge.  The challenge was to use: Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides, Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Fizz.  I colored up this Happy Hoppers image last week with my distress inks on watercolor paper.  The stamp is called "You snooze, you lose" and I agree!! LOL



I used three layers of Nesties dies and I embossed the middle panel with a PTI impression plate to replicate the waffle cone.  I added glossy accents on the ice cream and an A Muse sentiment.

Here's Heather's challenge if you want to play along!

Thanks for your visit!

House Mouse & Friends Challenge #89

Happy Sunday!!!  Wow - we had HIGH winds all day Saturday. Hopefully it will subside today. The good news was that I spent the majority of the day in my craft room!  I got a bunch of OWH cards done and also put together cards from images I colored during the week.

Today I'm showing a stamp I bought back in October and finally colored up. It's called "Hammock Hibernation" from Stampabilities.  I'm 'just' under the wire for the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge blog.

I stamped him with Stazon on watercolor paper and colored him in with my distress inks.  My brown paper is showing up as black in the picture and the green layer is embossed with a PTI impression plate.  The sentiment is from MFT.  He looks like he's got "No Worries" huh?  Hope this is how your Sunday goes!!!

Thanks for your visit!

PTI Birthday Greetings

I decided to practice more with my distress ink and watercoloring over the weekend.  I had to get a card made for my husband's aunt, who's birthday is on the 6th.  I also wanted to use PTI's mailbox greetings set.

I used two different PTI sentiments for the full sentiment. I added Stickles for the snow.  I'm not sure who makes the paper I used, and the EK Success scallops are actually brown!

Guess my goal to take better pictures in 2010 didn't quite work out huh?? lol

Have a great day!
Maria

With Sympathy

Here is a quick card I made yesterday with a previously watercolored Hero Arts cling stamp. When I saw this stamp on the Hero Arts blog, I knew it was one I was going to have to purchase. I just love it!
The day I bought the stamp I played around a bit. I stamped with embossing ink on watercolor paper and embossed with clear powder. Then I watercolored the image. I really wasn't too pleased with the result of my embossing because as you can see, the watercoloring bled a little - but I still wanted to use this in a card.
I have to say that I love the pink and green together though! I stamped out a Rubber Stampede sentiment and added a little bling for a quick and easy Sympathy card. Thankfully I don't have to use this right now...but it's always something good to have on hand.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Maria

Cleaning off my desk

I finally created cards from the pile of colored images on my desk. These are all images by Motivet - a Canadian company. Isn't she adorable? I bought the stamps at a Hartford Stamp Show. They are all stamped with StazOn on watercolor paper. I used my Marvy markers and aqua painter to color.

There are a variety of papers used but the sentiments are a combo of PTI and MFT. I used some bling and my glitter pen along with Nestibilities and punches. If you have a question on a particular card, let me know and I'll tell you exactly what I used.

Thanks for visiting !!! Maria :)