Monthly Archives: March 2008

The sun was actually shining here in Ohio yesterday and it makes me long for warm summer days.  Here is a little piece of a beach scene to warm you this morning.  Let’s get started on today’s tutorial.

Supplies: 

On a 2 1/2″ x 6″ piece of Whisper White I brayered at an angle Hazelnut ink.

Keeping at the same angle, brayered River Rock ink over the Hazelnut ink and a little further up the card stock a bit.

Turned the card stock and brayered at an angle Aqua ink down to but not into the River Rock ink.

At the same agle, brayered Stonewashed ink on but I did not completely cover the Aqua ink.  Working on a graduation in color here.

Still staying at that same angle, brayered Denim ink at the top of the card stock, not covering completely the Stonewashed ink.

Stamped Sand dollar with Ginger ink.

Colored the sand dollar in with a Peach Beige Prismacolor Pencil.

Made some highlights on the sand dollar with a white gel pen.

Tore a Post It note and used it as a mask for the sand area so I could put in a water line.  Sponged on White Craft ink at torn edge of Post it Note.

Removed Post it Note and use my white gel pen to define the water line further.

Sponged a bit more Denim ink at the top left corner of the card stock to darken a bit.

Used my Cuttlebug machine and Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss one of the card layers.

Assembled card front and stamped my sentiment in Denim, using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig for placement.  I stamped the stamp off on scrap paper once to lighten the image before stamping on the card stock.

Added some brads and I have another finished card.

I’m still working on my Sympathy card stash.  So here is a tutorial on one of them.

Supplies:

Starting with a piece of Whisper White card stock and masking the sky area with Post it Notes (nope, I don’t have stock in this company, lol).

Brayered Milled Lavender ink on card stock.

I heated the ink to dry and set it on the card stock before the next step.

Stamped flowers randomly over Milled lavender with Versamark, removed Post it Notes and then heat embossed the flowers with clear embossing powder and a heat gun.  Note:  If I had not dried the brayered Milled Lavender ink the embossing powder would have stuck to it too.

Brayered Pale Plum ink over embossed images.

Brayered Dusty Concord ink at the bottom of the card stock being sure to not cover all of the Pale Plum ink to create a graduation in color.

Stamped leaves with Basic Black ink and then wiped the ink off of the embossed images with a sponge in a circular motion to create shadow with the leaves.  I did not smear all of the leaf images.

Stamped some more flowers on the milled lavender section with Dusty Concord ink.

Stamped the Itty Bitty Background stamp with both Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord.

Outlined embossed flowers with an Elegant Eggplant marker to make them more visible.

Highlighted the centers of the flowers with a White Gel Pen.

Stamped more leaves with Basic Black ink in between embossed flower images.

Time to work on the sky.

Turned the card stock around and brayered on Going Gray ink in the sky area leaving about 1 inch of  white space between sky and ground.

Time to put in the horizon line. 

Masked ground area and about 1/4 inch of the white area above the ground with Post it Notes that are torn through the sticky part of the note.

Sponged basic black ink right at the Post it note torn edge to create hills at the horizon line.

Removed Post it Note masks.  Wow, now that made an impact.  I love using really dark colors against light ones.  It makes things pop, don’t you think?

Sponged on Going Gray ink to start to create some interest in the sky.

Sponge on Milled Lavender ink in the sky area, not covering all of the Going Gray ink.

Sponge Elegant Eggplant ink but did not cover all of the Milled Lavender ink.  We are creating a nice graduation in the sky.

Sponged Basic Black ink right at the top of the card stock.

Stamped girl image with Palette Noir Black ink on a separate piece of Whisper White card stock.

Colored the underside of her arm and back side of her legs with a Beige Sienna Prismacolor Pencil.

Colored the folds of her dress with a 30% Warm Gray pencil and then outlined the fold marks with a 50% Cool Gray pencil.   Basically, I used a light shade of gray and then a darker one.

Brought out my Glass Mat and Exacto Knife and cut the girl image out.  If you use a glass mat and a very sharp Exacto knife you can cut images out very easily.  Like cutting butter.  I hold the knife in one place and move the paper to cut it, especially curved areas.

I didn’t show it, but I cut out the white area between her legs too.

Adhered the girl to the scene with Tombo Mono Multi glue (love this glue).  Also drew in the little flower in her hand and darkened the folds of her dress and ribbon on her hat with a Faber-Castell Black marker.  Any fine point marker would work.

Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, I stamped my sentiment using Elegant Eggplant ink.

Assembled card and added some photo corner punches and brads and I have a finished card.

I hope you enjoyed following along with this tutorial and feel inspired to try it yourself.

Keep Stamping!

I felt like coloring this morning, so this is the project I came up with. 

Supplies:

I wanted to create a subtle background for the main image so I pulled out my Antique background stamp.  I inked my background stamp with Old Paper Ink by turning it over, rubber side up and then pressed the ink pad against it in a circular motion so I don’t get hard lines from the ink pad in my finished image.

I put my Very Vanilla card stock on top of the inked background stamp and then put a piece of scrap paper on top and rub over it lightly to get the image to transfer to the card stock.  You can also use a brayer on top of it.  If you use the brayer you won’t need the scrap paper.

Stamped my bird image with Brushed Corduroy ink.

Used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement of branch stamp and stamped it with Brushed Corduroy ink.

There is a reason I used Very Vanilla card stock for this project.  I knew I wanted to have white highlights on the bird and leaves of the images and I wanted them to really pop.  This would definitely not look the same with a white card stock.

Here I colored the birds belly and throat with a White Gel Pen. 

Time to get out my fancy Prismacolor pencils and storage container, lol.   I keep my pencils, point up in a $1 bucket that I purchased at Target’s dollar spot.

Colored the dark lined part of the leaves with a Bronze pencil.

Used the White gel pen again only this time to color the light part of the leaves and berries in.

Colored the dark part of the berries with Tuscan Red Pencil.

Colored birds head and back with Beige Seinna pencil and also put a little on the berries.

Colored in the darkest parts of the birds feathers with a Dark Brown pencil.

Here is the fun part, bringing it to life.  With a black marker I created dark shadows on the under parts of the branch and the birds feathers, creating dimension in the piece.

I think this makes such a big difference.

Used the Tuscan Red pencil again to put some darker shadows on the berries.

Sponged on Brushed Corduroy on the right bottom side to create light in the scene.  Funny how you have to add darkness to create light.  I’m sure there is a philosophy lesson in there somewhere, but, that is to deep for me to think about this morning, lol.

Used the ticket corner punch for main image panel.

Assembled the finished card.  Another one done!

Sure hope you enjoyed this tutorial this morning and you are inspired to get out those colored pencils. 

Hope your day if filled with light and warmth!