Colorful watercolor cards for Pinkfresh Studio

Hello lovelies,

I am back today with some more card inspiration, this time for Pinkfresh Studio. I didn't make these cards at the same time (more like over a month time), but I pulled them together for one blog post because they are pretty similar. 

I love colors. Colors make me happy. I made the Adventure Awaits card first and because I loved these bright colors, I just kept on using them on the other 3 cards too! For all these cards I used a 4.25x5.5" watercolor panel that I then mounted on a same sized card base.

For my first card I picked the super-duper adorable Enjoy the Journey stamp and die sets designed by Irene Chan. I love her designs! The little girl and bunny in the cup image is too cute! However on today's card I decided to only use the balloons from this set. 

I started stamping them - some I masked to give it some dimension. For the same reason I also die cut a couple. Then I masked all balloons and created clouds in the background. I was so glad I still remembered from my baking phase how to achieve this effect ha!

I then colored in my balloons using a mix of distress markers and Prima and Kuretake watercolors. I stamped the sentiment on one of the balloons, popped up a couple with foam adhesive, added a bow and done!

Next up is the cute Birds and Bows stamp set, designed by Matthew Wilson. Gosh, I'll say this a lot, but so adorable! I'm in love with everything in the January stamp and die release!

I stamped the tree branches and the birds first with black ink, then I started working on the little images that I then fussy cut out. I stamped a lot more than what I eventually ended up using, but I wanted to have some different options to try.

I colored in the birds with watercolors. Then I stamped the sentiment with Versamark ink and embossed it with white embossing powder. The Celebrate sentiment comes from the Sweet Treats set. I added a light blue watercolor wash to the background so the sentiment stands out. 

I started adding the little bows and circles, some with pop dots to create some dimension. I also stamped a couple of poms or whatever those are :).

For my next card I combined images from two stamp sets, Tealightful day and Bird with Flowers, both designed by Lizzie M. I stamped the teacup first then masked it and stamped all the flowers and birds.

Then I stamped my sentiment with Versamark ink and embossed it with white embossing powder.

I colored the images using watercolors and added some white highlights to them. Last but not least I added a light blue watercolor wash to my background. 

On my last card I used the Fleur 1 stamp set. I stamped the image twice, without any masking, and added a couple of smaller images in the white spaces.

I used watercolors again to color the flowers. As before, I white embossed the sentiment and added a light blue wash of color to the background. 

I hope you like today's inspiration! I'll be back very soon with more!

Thank you for stopping by today! Have a great day!

X

You are my sunshine - DT layout for Paige Evans + Silhouette

Hey there crafty friends,

I'm popping in today with a new layout I've created for the Paige Evans + Silhouette Design Team.

I've chosen the Umbrella cut file (design ID: #248368) for my page because I've had some photos of my kiddo in a raincoat on my desk for ages and thought this file would fit perfectly! I've paired it with the beautiful new Pick-Me-Up collection. As much as I wasn't sure about this collection when I first saw it, it's quickly becoming my new favourite! It's so versatile and the theme can be used for so many things!

I decided to cut several umbrellas in different sizes for my background, sort of creating my own patterned paper. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to back them at this point, I just started with a floral paper, then a scrap piece of yellow and then it occurred to me, it would look nice in some rainbow colors. That's what I did, and I loved it so much that I backed all the other umbrellas the same way too. 

I arranged them on my background paper the way I planned it in Silhouette Studio previously, then glued them down. I didn't use foam adhesive because they had a natural curve that I wanted to keep. I only used glue on their middle sections. This way I still have plenty of dimension.

I layered some tissue paper behind my photo and tucked some labels in there too. I went through all embellishments in this collection and picked out everything that could possibly work. I probably ended up using most of them! I selected some chipboard phrases, die cuts, puffy stickers, rub-ons and I also cut some phrases out of the 2x2 paper pad!

Aaaand the coolest thing! I even found two little umbrella buttons in the haberdashery pack, ha! I thought it was meant to be!

For my title I went with the small navy foam alphas, because the title I chose was quite long. I wrote my journaling, stamped my date and done!

I hope you like this page as much as I do! I just love rainbow colors, they make me smile. Add to that this sweet photo and I'm all happy! I hope it has the same effect on you guys!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a wonderful day full of sunshine!

X

SUPPLIES: Pick-Me-Up collection: Paper 1, Paper 2, Paper 3, Paper 7, Paper 10, Paper 11, Paper 18, Paper 21, Paper 22, Rub-Ons, Stickers, Chipboard Stickers, Puffy Stickers, Haberdashery Multi-Pack, Mini Thickers, 2x2 Paper Pad

You - cards for Fancy Pants Designs

Hi there,

I'm dropping in to share my latest projects for Fancy Pants!

This time I made a bunch of cards using mainly the Dream Big collection and the Little Things paper from Take Note.

I had just received my package from My Favorite Things with some new stamps and dies, and I really wanted to try some of them. One of the stamp sets is all about YOU, with lots of encouraging sentiments and I thought it goes perfectly with the Dream Big collection, which also has many embellishments with this theme.

First I did all the die cutting. All my panels and card bases are 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches. For some of the cards I used patterned paper for the panel, for others white card stock. The letters for YOU are cut with an alphabet die, and to make them look like thickers, I cut 5 of each letter for every card and glued them on top of each other.

I die cut a window on this panel and to add some interest I layered it on another die cut panel, which is a white card stock with big polka dots. I adhered these two layers on top of a white top folding card base. I glued a die cut bow on this card, added a sentiment and some gorgeous floral ephemera pieces from the Dream Big collection.

Next up is a white on white card. I just love how clean this looks, even though I'm all about patterned paper! I actually was going to back this polka dot panel with patterned paper, but then I saw it on top of the white card base and fell in love! I popped up a die cut circle with some foam adhesive and added a bow, a sentiment and a couple of stars from the ephemera and puffy sticker packs. 

This next card I wanted to keep white and dry emboss it. I just love the added texture! For the flowers I used an old Dear Lizzy die. Gosh, I love paper flowers. Well any flowers for that matter! I adhered a floral wreath die cut from the ephemera pack on top of my circle window, as well as some flowers and a sentiment from the same pack. Some of these I popped up with foam adhesive to add interest.

Another card similar to one I described above, just with a bit different supplies.

As I mentioned above I wanted to back the polka dot panel with patterned paper - this is exactly what I did here. The rest is the same as above, with a few different embellishments.

And last but not least, I have a couple of bonus cards which I created with supplies I had left. These are simpler cards, without bow. As a finishing touch, I added some Nuvo glitter drops on these.

And that's it for today you guys! I hope I could inspire you to create your own handmade cards!

Till next time!

X

These are the moments - DT layout for Just Nick

Hi there crafty friends,

I'm back today with a new layout I've created for Just Nick!

This time the Delicate Butterflies cut file spoke to me :). 

As I'm waiting for the new Pinkfresh Studio collections to arrive, I decided to use up some of the old ones! My most favourite collection ever from PFS is Indigo Hills and I haven't scrapped with it in ages so I went with this collection. 

I arranged the cut file in Silhouette Studio the way I wanted it on my layout - I removed the small butterfly at the bottom, then duplicated the cut file and flipped one of them horizontally to get mirror images. I also cut a bigger, single butterfly for the bottom. I used textured white card stock for the cut files. 

I then backed the cut files with different patterned papers, going from light to dark from top to bottom. I layered some tissue paper and tags behind my photo and glued it all down. I glued down the cut files also. I started adding embellishments, as much as I could, I went with a tone-on-tone effect. 

I also picked out some die cuts from the beautiful Escape the Ordinary collection, some butterflies and foliage, plus my title. I wrote my journaling, stamped my date and added some black ink splatters to finish off my page. 

I hope I could inspire you in some small way!

Thanks for stopping by!

X

Pinkfresh Studio Technique Talk Blog Hop

Hi there crafty friends,

Welcome to our Technique Talk blog hop at Pinkfresh Studio! 

You should have arrived here from the ah-mazing Erum's blog!

The technique I'm sharing today is very simple, but maybe still useful to some of you? I've made this card using the beautiful Lined Floral Background stamp designed by Inna Moreva.

Now, this stamp is 4x6" and I prefer my cards to be 4.25x5.5" so this wouldn't have covered the whole panel. I didn't want to trim off the sides so I thought I'd just use a part of the image. I love circles, so I created a mask from some scrap paper to stamp only a semi-circle. 

For this technique you'll need a stamping tool. At least I can't for the life of me stamp an image in the same position more times...but if you can, by all means give it a go!

Place your stamp on your panel where you want it, then pick it up with your stamping tool.

Now place your mask over your panel. I ended up taping down the card and the mask too to hold them in place securely since my card panel was not much bigger than the stamp, so there wasn't enough space for the magnets. 

Ink up your stamp. 

Now start stamping. Press the life out of that stamping tool :D. This is the image I got after the first stamping - not good. So ink up your stamp again and repeat these steps until you're satisfied with the result.

After the third stamping - looks better, I don't mind imperfect edges, so this is fine for me:

As you see I had smudges on my panel, because the ink bled through the copy paper I used as a mask.   So better use a thicker paper, or create a mask from stencil material to avoid this. Actually, the first card that you see above, I created using a much too thick paper for mask! I was too lazy to look for something thinner, so I must have stamped the image 12 times, in the end I even stood on my stamping platform, haha! It didn't break but be smarter than I was, choose the right paper :).

I will however save this panel too! I already die cut the stamped image and coloured it too - I only need to add it to a card, probably using foam sheet to pop it up!

To colour my card I used distress markers and only added flat colour, no shading. This image has so many lines, I felt this worked best.

I hope you found this little step-by-step helpful!

Now for the fun part! Hop along with us and leave a comment on each participating blog to be eligible to win one of FOUR (!) $25 gift certificates! Just how generous is Pinkfresh Studio?! Comments will close at 11.59pm CST on Monday, February 26th 2018. Winners will be randomly selected and announced on Wednesday, February 28th 2018.

The line-up:

• Pinkfresh Studio
• Erum Tasneem
• Zsoka Marko ===> YOU ARE HERE!
• Julia Stainton
• Isha Gupta
• Elena Roussakis
• Amy Tsuruta

Enjoy and Good Luck!

X