A Little Watercoloring with On The Grow

I decided to participate in another challenge with week – again with the Late Night Stamper group.  This week was challenge #133 and you were to create a thinking of you card that has blue on it.  Seemed easy enough and so I grabbed my poor neglected On The Grow stamp set from the summer mini and got to work.

When I saw this stamp set, it screamed,”Watercolor me!”.  So, I thought I would try to get a little artsy with my card and pulled out the watercoloring paper, my aqua pen, and some inks and got to work.

A few watercoloring tips:

• If you are going to use a lot of colors, make sure you use watercolor paper.  Because you will be going over the same area lots of times with a wet pen, most cardstocks and paper like Whisper White will start warping or pilling up on you.  Watercoloring paper is more fiberous and can absorb the water without a problem giving you a really nice image.
• Use Staz-on ink for best results for your outlined image.  Staz-on won’t bleed as you go over the same area with a wet brush multiple times.  Stampin’ Up’s Basic Black and Basic Grey are water-resistant so they will work too for your watercoloring projects but your best bet would be to use Staz-on
• If you want a really precise placement of color – grab your blender pen.  It uses an alcohol-base to pick up and place your color and the tip is firmer so you can be exact with placement and you won’t get extra liquid.
• If you want to be more artsy – grab your aqua pen.  It is a refillable pen that just contains water with a more flexible-brushlike tip.  When you color, you can squeeze a little and make the pen more wet letting you color spread a little more or just get a more damp and traditional watercolor look.

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Thinking of You Watercolored card recipe:
Stamps:  From the Garden
Ink:  Stazon Black, Island Indigo, Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride, Perfect Plum, Pear Pizazz, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Baja Breeze cardstock, Marina Mist cs, Soft Suede cs, Watercolor paper
Accessories:  BigShot die cutting machine, Lattice embossing folder, Paper piercer, Neutrals 5/8” brads, Aqua Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals

A White Only Card– LNS Challenge 131

Whew! Nothing like a deadline to get me to hurry up and post a card I made this week for a challenge the the Late Night Stampers yahoo group.  Each week they post some kind of project challenge, and this week sounded really interesting:

Challenge 131:  Only use white in your project except you can use a different ink color for your sentiment.

So, this is what I came up with:

I know it is hard to see the different elements so I tried taking some close up shots to show the butterflies and flower heart.

If you want to try this at home, I punched out a large heart from Whisper White cardstock.  Then I punched out a ton of flowers using the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack.  Then I curled up the flower edges and glued them to the heart with the Tombow liquid glue (the nice thing about both the heart and the flowers being out of white is that if there are gaps, you don’t notice too much!)  Then I added the smallest rhinestone to each flower center.  It takes a bit of time, but looks very pretty in person. 

The rest of the card is just an embossing folder and the Beautiful Wings embosslit and some white ribbon. 

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White Challenge Card recipe:
Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant
Paper:  Whisper White cardstock
Accessories:  Large Heart punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Beautiful Wings embosslit, Framed Tulips embossing folder, Big Shot, Whisper White Organza ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

A Spring Color Challenge – Play along and win!

Yesterday afternoon, I was putting the supplies away from my card class I ran on Thursday and had decided to sit down and make up some of the extra cards.  At one point, I looked up on my table and saw four markers sitting there and all I could think of was “Wow! That looks like it would make an awesome Spring card!”

I didn’t get a chance to make my card yet because Nicholas (my 1 yr old stamper-to-be) was insisting it was almost dinner time; but I thought this would be a great color challenge to share with you all!  And its been a while since I did some kind of giveaway on my blog, so I thought why not combine the two? So, here is your challenge:

Spring Color Challenge

Use the following colors in a project:

• Marina Mist
• Old Olive
• Melon Mambo
• Daffodil Delight

You could make a card, a scrapbook page, a 3D item, or anything you feel inspired to do!  My goal is for you to try out a fun new color combination that you might not have tried before. 

Don’t have one of the exact colors?  That’s ok!  Use something similar for a similar effect.

Now, on to the fun stuff – a giveaway!

Wanna win some goodies from me?

**Post your completed project on my Facebook page here – NWStamper Fan Page ; or send me a picture of your project to jennifer@nwstamper.com.  **

By sharing your awesome ideas, I’ll put your name in a random drawing to win.  What will you win, you ask?  How about a half sheet of Ice Cream Parlor Die Cut Stickers, some Ice Cream Parlor ribbon, and a card kit with supplies to make 4 of these cards from my recent card classes:

You can even pick the color of buttons for your kit. So, between the coordinating stickers, ribbon, and the cardstock and papers, you will have lots of options for some fun bright and cheery cards.  I’ll post some of the challenge submissions here on my blog as well to help give you some extra ideas along the way too (obviously with full credit to the brilliant creator who made it!).

I will be drawing a winner at 10pm PST on 3/31, so make sure you get your entries posted by then!

So, until then I hope you enjoy this color challenge – I know I can’t wait to play along myself!

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