One of my favourite colour combinations is pink and brown, which is the palette I chose for today's card make. The image has been coloured with copic markers... I've shared the colour codes below for those who are curious.
Stamps:
Wednesday, January 30
Tuesday, January 29
Pink Tulips
After my fiasco with the watercolour octopus last week, I decided to play it safe and tape my watercolour paper to my desk before I started working on it. Making the extra effort seemed to do the trick, keeping my paper almost completely flat when dry.
Stamps:
Sunday, January 27
Masking On The Stamp
Today I want to share a quick and easy technique for masking parts of your stamp rather than masking your card. We're also going to create a fun, interactive card with a hidden message.
Today's tutorial is specific to the "Blooming Tools" stamp set I'm using. However, you can use the techniques with most other images as well, particularly the masking, which will work with any stamp.
1. Place the jar of tools stamp on a large acrylic block.
2. We only want the jar, not the tools sticking out the top, so we're going to mask off the section we don't need. Grab a piece of clear tape and place it as close as you can to the line at the top of the jar (see photo below).
3. Apply your ink to the lower half of the stamp. As you can see, any ink that goes above the area you want will end up on the tape effectively acting as a mask.
4. Remove the tape and discard immediately. Be aware that the ink on the tape will stay wet for quite a long time so take care not to get any on your work area.
5. Stamp the image as per usual. As you can see from the photo below, only the bottom section of the image is transferred.
6. Repeat the process, this time masking the bottom section of the stamp and only transferring the tools. Take care to CLEAN your stamp thoroughly between the two images or you may end up transferring more ink than you intended.
7. Once you've stamped the tools, draw two vertical pencil lines straight down your card stock. This will form the "tag" when you fussy cut this section.
8. Colour the two images.
9. Fussy cut around the tools. I always recommend starting with any inside pieces then moving on to the perimeter.
10. Cut around the tools and down either pencil line to form a tag. The uncoloured portion of mine is about 3/4" wide and 21/4" long.
11. Use a craft knife to cut a slit along the top of the jar. Remove a tiny amount of card stock by cutting a second line slightly above the first and pulling out the inside. The tag will slide better with this wider opening.
12. Stamp sentiments on the tag and on the card front as desired. I also added a border with black pen and a ruler.
FLIP THE CARD STOCK OVER
13. To prevent the tag from being completely removed from the card we're going to add a strip of card stock that is wider than our opening.
14. Secure a piece of card stock that is 11/4" long and 1/4" wide to the bottom of the tag with strong glue or double sided tape.
15. The card looked a little stark to me, so I added some paint spatters and a little more shadowing around the jar. It's much easier to add these details before the card is assembled, so try to figure that out a bit earlier than I did.
16. I used double sided foam tape to secure the card stock to my card blank. Be sure to keep any adhesives well clear of the tag and the area it slides through.
Photos and written instructions are copyright Beccy Muir.
All rights reserved.
Stamps:
Saturday, January 26
A Little Bit Different
I'm a big fan of doodling... if there's a pen nearby and I'm engaged in something that doesn't require my hands, like talking on the phone, then you can be pretty sure that I'll be drawing something. Not too long ago, I happened to be on a long service call with plenty of paper and pens nearby. It wasn't long until I had doodled a little picture with some cross-hatching in the shadowy areas. Naturally, my next thought was to wonder how the technique would look on a card...
I was going for a "workbook vibe", imagining all sorts of notes and slips of paper bundled onto a clip board with paint chips and laminate samples. Not sure I completely pulled it off, but it sure was fun to try something different!
I started by stamping the large image from Blooming Tools onto my paper with blue ink to match the pen, then added all the cross hatching.
Stamps:
Thursday, January 24
Easy Watercolouring (I Promise)
The hardest part of this technique is choosing what colours to combine. I've gone with a pretty mix of blues and greens... three colours in all, but as with all watercolour, the pigments mix where they meet to form different tints.
Start by heat embossing the lined image several times on watercolour paper.
Use a brush to add clean water to the first flower. You want the whole flower quite wet, but not dripping. Mix your water colour paints to the consistency of ink, load your brush then touch it to the paper to transfer the colour. The paint will spread to the areas where you've added the water. Add the different colours side by side and watch them mix.
When they're completely dry, fussy cut each flower so they're ready to use on your cards and other paper craft projects.
Tuesday, January 22
Bronze Geums
I'm always looking for something new to try, so when my eye spied a packet of bronze metallic card stock I knew it was time to play! I heat embossed the image with white embossing powder then added some dimension with a white pencil. The image is really vibrant and contrasts beautifully with the metallic background.
Sunday, January 20
Little Notebook
After stamping and watercolouring the octopus image, my paper was so warped that I almost threw it away. Then I had a light-bulb moment realising that all it really needed was a good firm base and some strong glue to hold it flat. My answer? Chipboard!
At this stage it was still my intention to use the octopus on a card. If I'd have thought a little further ahead I would have realised that the chipboard would be much too heavy for a card. But since I didn't think ahead I ended up with a piece of chipboard decorated with a watercolour octopus that was of no use for a card. What to do now? Believe it or not, I had a second light-bulb moment (I'm pretty sure that's it for the rest of the year) and a little notebook came into being.
It was between these two photos when I realised my
octopus would be much too heavy for a card.
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