Night Sky in Watercolour

I'm playing along with CAS Watercolour challenge which is create a night sky.
I used Lindys Magicals and gold Gansai Tambi water colour paints on hot press watercolour paper. Once it was dry I stamped a tree line stamp from Rubbernecker in Nocturn Versafine Clair and heat embossed it in clear embossing powder.

The close up shows the shimmer of the watercolour powders and paints. It has a bit of Northern Lights effect with the glow behind the trees.

I'm also entering this for the following challenges

Addicted to stamps and More challenge 388 Holidays

Merry Little Christmas - anything goes

Card Recipe
Stamps: Rubbernecker, Penny Black sentiment
Paper: 110lb cream, Hot press watercolour
Ink: Versafine Clair
Accessories: Lindy's Magicals, Gold Gansai Tambi, Clear Embossing powder, Stamp press.
Techniques: Waterrcolour

CAS Christmas card Challenge April is a Christmas Song

It's time for CAS Christmas Card Challenge and April is Christmas Songs.



Our host for April is Bonnie and our Guest Designer is Birgit. Please come and join us with some of your favourite Christmas songs.

Here is my card, I stamped this cute little mouse singing Silent Night. He was coloured with pencils and I used flower soft for his coat and hat edges, I masked him and stamped the background song sheet from Rubbernecker.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Rubbernecker, Makey Bakey Mice by Crafter's Companion. Stamping up sentiment.
Paper: 110lb white
Ink: Ranger Archival Black, Distress ink
Accessories: Masking tape, Lyra pencils, MISTI
Techniques: pencil colouring, Masking

Stencil mono printing and UFO's

For my card I used this Carabelle stencil and Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals to create my monoprint background.  You can't see the shimmer but I'm sure you all know it's there IRL.

I cut the background using a stamplorations wonky stitch die and mounted it on white foam.

The  butterfly is a Tim Holtz (Sizzix) die, it's so perfect for using up those really bright bold backgrounds that you almost throw out because you used way too much ink.

the sentiment is from a retired rubbernecker set 😠

Here is the Mixed Media piece that the back of the butterfly was die cut from, it almost made it's way into the garbage, and yes there's a second card to appear soon.

About a year of so ago I used way way too much ink sprayed on Mixed media paper. That amount of colour was perfect for this die cut. The black outline tones down the amount of colour on the sheet.. 

I sprayed the butterfly with Imagine sheer shimmer spray which made it very sparkly.

I'm entering this card for the following challenges

CAS MIX up (stencil mono printing stamping and my Choice die cut)

the Butterfly Challenge (F- Fuchia and French blue)

I hope you like my card and I'd love to hear from you 😀.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Rubbernecker sentiment
Paper: 110lb white, Black, mixed media
Ink: Ranger Archival black
Accessories: Carabelle stencil, Lindy's Stamp Gang Magical Powders, Ink sprays, Tim Holtz butterflies, Stamplorations wonky stitched die, Imagine sheer shimmer spray,  White foam
Techniques:

Texture Paste Holly UFO

I went on a rummage through my UFO box and found a some mixed media paper which had been embossed with texture paste and when the paste dried the stenciled area and watercoloured. The stencil is replaced to watercolour.
The swatch was quite big so I cut it down and added a black border to create more of CAS image.  I used another stencil to to the background for a hint of colour.

I'm entering this for 

CAS Christmas Card Challenge

ABC anything goes

Happy Little Stampers Anything goes optional Reindeer

The holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge-anything goes

Card Recipe
Stamps: Rubbernecker Sentiment
Paper: 110lb white, black, mixed media
Ink: Ranger archival black
Accessories: Stencils (Tim Holtz Christmas, Stamplorations Holly), Distress Oxide inks and blender
Techniques: Stenciling, watercolouring

Split coast Stampers Challenges

It's been a while since I played along with the some of the challenges at Splitcoast Stampers but this week both Friday's Mix-Ability "Torn" and Try a New Technique (acetate inking) both caught my eye.

Here are my cards for the challenges.

The first is Mix-Ablility "Torn"
I stamped this pretty bird from Rubbernecker using tea dye distress ink then  watercoloured the image and re-stamped using a slightly darker distress ink.  The background was stenciled using drywall tape and clarity brushes after masking the image.  I tore the edge of the watercolour paper on 3 sides and then used Tea Dye and a blending foam on the edge.
The sentiment is from Carabelle and the "Fig" stamp is from Stampers Annonymous.

The second is Acetate inking, Karen Dunbrook of Snippets blog put together a great tutorial at Split Coast Stampers to show us how to lay down colour for backgrounds using acetate.

For this card I used Distress oxides and heat dried between each layer.  The stamps are from Carabelle.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Carabelle Sentiment card 1, rubbernecker bird,, Carabelle origami bird and butterfly and flowers.
Paper: Watercolour 140lb, Black, 110lb off white.
Ink: Ranger Distress Oxide, Ranger archival black and gray.
Accessories: Misti, Watercolours
Techniques: Acetate smooshing, Watercolouring

New start to a stamping year with Challenges in Mind

I'm Making the most of my last few days on vacation after Christmas, I have today and tomorrow to get a little card making in especially as we have a blanket of snow from last night.  So I checked in on  Snippets playground which runs till the 7th of January

For my card today I took some coated card which I previously sprayed with starch and sprinkled it with Black Bister and covered in cling wrap to give liquid colours, this left over has been sitting in my stash for a month or two.  

This is one of my favorite techniques which I tried for the first time last summer during the Dare To Get Dirty Challenge on SplitCoast Stampers.  Robin AKA Stamperrobin at SCS provided us with a link to a tutorial at JOZART  There is some waiting time but well worth it, it's so pretty sort of a polished stone effect.

I used a Simon Says Stamp die and inlaid the spray starch pieces.  I then used a Tim Holtz stencil and rubbed some Viva Decor 3D stamp paint around the central die cut.  The 3D stamp paint is quite sparkly so adds a little shimmer to the card.  To finish it off I added some sequins.

I hope you like the card.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Rubbernecker sentiment
Paper: 110lb white, black, coated card
Ink: Bister, Ranger Archival
Accessories:Simon Says stamp Die, Sequins, MISTI, Viva Decor 3D stamp paint, Stencil (Tim Holtz)
Techniques: Spray Starch backgrounds, inlaid die

November CAS Mix up Stamping masking and your choice

CAS Mix Up this month is Stamping Masking and your Choice, my choice is glass beads.

I used a Stamplorations stencil as a mask, sponged ranger inks over the stencil and then used glass beads by Liquitex over the stencil.  One thing to remember is to clean your stencil between sponging and using any mixed media gel, if you don't the gel will become contaminated with the colours you used.  I love the sparkle the glass beads give, they are one of my favorite mediums.

Card Recipe
Stamps:Rubbernecker
Paper 110lb white, black
Ink: Ranger archival, Ranger distress
Accessories:Glass beads
Techniques:masking with a stencil

Alcohol inks and Blending solution

Loll from stamping with Loll just finished a new video on alcohol inks and blending solution.  While there at the weekend Susan of Cardmaker's Garret and I got a pre go live tutorial on using the technique..  Loll has now posted her tutorial so I can show you some of my backgrounds.  It was so much fun to squirt and spritz with alcohol inks and blender solution.  When I came home I made more Yupo and alcohol backgrounds.  Loll use a mix of browns and golds which looked spectacular, so i couldn't resist CASEing them.  I hope you like my take on Loll's technique :) working with the blender solution is so easy, fine spray and big droplets give an amazing artistic image.
In the first image in addition the bird image I used a squiggle edge with a fine pen to make the separation of colours more distinct.
Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Card Recipe
Stamps:image 1 and 2 have stamps from Katzenkraft in Holland, image 4 has a sentiment from Rubbernecker
Paper:110lb white, black, Yupo
Ink:Ranger Archival, Delicata Gold
Accessories:copper foil,Ranger, Stampendous leaf die, Ranger alcohol inks, Ranger blender solution.
Techniques:copper foil, alcohol inks, die cutting,  spellbinders wood grain embossing folder.