The Write Stuff

Archive for the ‘Best of 2017’ Category

 
It’s my turn to host the Featured Stamper Challenge (FS559) on Splitcoast. So a big Congrats to Jeanette, the newest Featured Stamper. I spent oodles of time in her big, beautiful gallery & finally narrowed it down to THIS card. I kept the Christmas poinsettias & most of the layout, but I used different images, different colors & left off a few of the layers.

I also have a little mini tutorial to go along with this card. I knew immediately I wanted to water color it, but I wanted it to be loose, not necessarily contained by the lines. I love stamping on top of free flowing watercolor backgrounds so that was my plan for this. Instead of pan or tube watercolors, I used Brushos. I lightly wet part of the watercolor paper w/ a spritzer, then sprinkled on the reds, pink & orange colors, then spritzed it again. In areas where the color seemed too concentrated, I took a wet paintbrush & blended it out. I let this dry a little, then repeated it w/ the greens, trying not to go over the red areas.

I used a plastic sheet placed up against the corner inside my Misti & stamped the image. This allowed me to position the paper to stamp the image where I wanted. Since it was big enough, I stamped it twice to use on two different cards.

I decided to deepen the color just a bit inside the leaves/petals of the poinsettia & the easiest way to do this is w/ watercolor pencils.

Instead of using the pencil directly on the image, I used a waterbrush to pick up color from the pencil tip, then painted it onto the image.

Since this poinsettia image in on the large size, I trimmed away most of the background around the left side of the image in order to have more of the citron green show. A dk green layer was added behind the poinsettia & also behind the citron layer. The greeting was stamped off the to left to help balance the composition and keep the eye flowing across the card. The blank citron areas give the eye a place to rest & draw the eye to the bright reds of the image. I could have added just a few sequins & I may go back & do that, but I’m pretty satisfied w/ composition as it is w/ the odd number of items (2 flowers + 1 greeting). Odd numbers are just more pleasing to the eye. 

Here’s the inside:

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

 

Poinsettia Lg 673K	Celebrate Each Day 153D	Celebrate the Magic 951E	Brushos Water Color Crystals
White Gelly Roll Pen	VersaFine Inkpads	MFT Diagonal Stitched Rectangle dies	Kaliedacolor ink pads
AC color card stock	Staples 110# White Card Stock	MISTI	Niji Waterbrush
Koh-i-noor Watercolor Pencils	Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics B S5-132

 X 6 
Welcome to the North Coast Creations September Release! We have some super cute new images & dies for you this month. I just love all these adorable animals!

For my first card, I stamped, colored & die cut this sweet little baby elephant. After I die cut a bunch of stars & the pink gingham bg I put it all together & added the greeting on the left.
Here’s a look at the inside & next to it are the Copics I used.

My next card uses the same set, but a different pair of baby animals.


For this card, again the animals were stamped, colored & die cut. I had a picture in my head of cute little stuffed animals on a window ledge so that’s what I went for here. I added some little stars & made a moon by first die cutting a circle, then using another circle die to cut part of it off & make a crescent moon.
Here’s a look at the inside & next to it are the Copics I used.

My next two cards feature the cute Llama set. 


On this first card, I put the llama image into my Misti, stamped it onto kraft, then used Prismacolor pencils to color it. I picked colors that went w/ the mottled bg I made using Distress oxide inks. 
Here’s a look at the inside.


I used the same set but went w/ a gradient shades of blue for the llamas & made a sort of picture frame around them.
Here’s a look at the inside.

The final two cards use the Go Wild set.

 
The adorable little giraffes were stamped, colored & die cut & I put one on top of the oval greeting panel & 2 more peeking around the edges.
Here’s a look at the inside & next to it are the Copics I used.


I used all of the other cute critter from the set for this one. After stamping, coloring & die cutting, I used a stencil to add the blue borders then die cut the circles to put all my animals inside. 
Here’s a look at the inside & next to it are the Copics I used.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

 

Bundle of Love NCS9-293	Go Wild NCS8292	Llama Tell You NCC104	Sweet Shoppe paper ODP-37
Shabby Rose paper	Double Stitched Rectangles dies CBD123	Rectangles dies CBD122	Pierced Rectangles dies CBD147
Leafy Edged Border dies CSBD103	Pierced Circles dies CBD162	Double Stitched Circles dies CBD136	Sparkling Stars dies CBD79
Double Stitched Stars dies CBD128	Grass Border die	Window dies CBD3	Curtains & Valance dies CBD188
Stitched Ovals Dies	Ovals dies CBD112	Pierced Ovals dies CBD172	Copic Sketch Markers
Prismacolor Pencils	MISTI	TCW317s Mini Pattern Strip Stencil	Distress Inks
Distress Oxide Inks	Memento Inks	Staples 110# White Card Stock	X-Press It Blending Card
AC color card stock	DCWV Pastel matstack	Pebbles–Family Ties	Cuttlebug Herringbone embossing folder 37-195

 
First of all, if you live along the Texas coast, I’m truly sorry for all you’re going through. I grew up in Corpus Christi & lived in Houston a long time. If New Orleans is shaped like a cereal bowl, then Houston is a flat rock w/ bayous running all thru it. We lived thru many a flood there (and lots of bad hurricanes!) but nothing like this. I’ve been calling all my relatives in TX to check on them. Thankfully, so far, they’re all ok.  And now…a big Congrats to Chris, the newest Featured Stamper (FS552)! She has a fabulous gallery & after much oohing & aahing, I chose THIS to case. I kept the layout but turned it on its side & used different images, different colors & made mine a Halloween card.

I wanted a gradient color behind the Oct 31 square, so I first colored that using Copics, then put it into my Misti &  stamped it several times to get a good dark impression. I fussy cut it then popped it up a bit on a larger gradient square then onto a black square. The Spider Webs were white embossed on black & I added a couple of gradient strips down the side. The funky edge is actually the left over from a die cut border. I liked it better than the die cut so there you go. I finished by stamping just the word Halloween & added a punched spider.

You’ll notice on the inside pic below, that the main greeting is upside down. Apparently my Halloween card was playing trick or treat w/ me & turned itself upside down when I stamped it. So I just made it part of the “trick” &  put the Trick or Treat on the other half. Since the card was all finished &  glued down, I couldn’t just take it apart.  Under the tricky inside are the Copics I used.


Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

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