Whitewashed Pear

     Jenn brought us a great new technique to try for today's Technique Lovers Challenge. As I'm definitely a technique junkie I couldn't pass it by and since we're following my DD's school schedule for the high school where she's taking one class in addition to our homeschooling and they had a day off due to fog, I had time to play!  Here's my final card.

I used all Stampin' Up products today:

Stamps: Infinite Goodness, French Script, You Are Loved (sentiment)

Paper: Early Espresso, Natural Composition dp, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, So Saffron

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Whisper White, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Crushed Curry

Accessories: White embossing powder, Cutter Kit Distressing Tool, 3/4" square punch, Bella fiber, Linen Thread, dimensionals

Techniques: Masking, Sponging, Distressing, Faux Whitewash, Embossing

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2430501#ixzz2gOZASVOG
Here are some photos of the process. I'm having to use DD's camera as my shutter is stuck shut and they want $182 to fix it!!! Anyway-DD and I have some learning to do with her camera so they're a bit blurry.

Stamped pear and leaves in Whisper White craft then embossed with white ep. I masked over them (ended up cutting mask for the lower part of the leaves too) and stamped my French Script bg.

Here's what I started with-I'm using Crumb Cake paper

Adding the white washing-watered down Whisper White craft ink

Layering on the color-you can see the pilling starting-should have used a different paper.

Darker greens added here

Final layer of color was Crushed Curry and then I added some shading to the bottom. My 11yo DD says the pilling makes the card looked rustic-I love that girl!

 

Pointillism Pumpkin

     I had a sample card to make for the CAS challenge which is a Pinterest photo inspiration featuring this pretty fall scene.  Here's what I came up with.  My friend Marie let me know that Flourishes Technique Tuesday Challenge was to use this pointillism technique so I'm linking up there!


        I had been intrigued by the coloring technique on this pretty card by Colleen Schaan that is in the current issue of CardMaker magazine in which she includes a tutorial on the technique. I'll need a little more work, but it was fun to try and her directions were easy to follow. Here's a picture of her awesome card which was my inspiration to not only try the technique but use a pumpkin image.

Happy Thanksgiving by Colleen Schaan

      Here are some step by step photos of my process.

      I started by stamping my pumpkin in Stazon Timber Brown. I masked over it before stamping on the fall spray.

I inked with Crushed Curry then added extra colors with my markers.

Here's the added color

Here's my blank slate!

Starting to add my dots using the lighter colors on the highlight areas first.

            The look is achieved by adding layers of dots of varying colors. For the shadowing, she suggested starting with the darker and adding the lighter colors as you go away from the main image. Here's the final look-try it out it's lots of fun!

Saturdays are for Inspiration

     Saturdays are play days for me since I homeschool during the week and try to hold off on crafting until our school days are finished. Today I made a card for the Inspiration challenge and finished off a mixed media card that was inspired by a photo on Pinterest.
      Our inspiration site The Bella Cottage    is full of shabby chic wonderfulness so that's the direction in which my card went.  I saw this pretty chalkboard and that started me off.

 I used the chalkboard technique to make my chalkboard using some cool chalkboard paper from Recollections. I made my frame with a bg stamp in stamped off Baked Brown Sugar. I decided to make a brad bow

I crumpled some Very Vanilla seam binding and pulled out a candy dot brad base and pearls

I cut two pieces and started my loop

Open up your brad as far as you can-these base brads have a nice wide opening. I've looped the right side over the left.

I get my bow about how I want it, trying to keep the ends fairly even,

Now I lay the bow down into the opened brad pinching the ribbon to fit it all into the back of the base

I fold the prongs down and then folded them back in because they're pretty long.

I guess I didn't keep the ends as even as I thought!

Here's the finished bow-wish I'd kept the ends a bit longer. I frayed them on purpose for this shabby look.

My bow drove me to add few more flowers since the single cream one looked too lonely. I'm glad I did since the color added so much to the look.

Here's what the flower spray looked like before I started.

      I'm really excited with the final card. I embossed my Pistachio Pudding base with the Elegant Lines ef. I used it sideways running it through twice to emboss the full card.

Stamps: SU Weathered, Studio G-chandelier and sentiment

Paper: Pistachio Pudding, Very Vanilla, Recollections Chalkboard paper

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Whisper White Craft, Baked Brown Sugar

Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Sponge, Elegant Lines Embossing Folder, Candy Dots Brad Base, Pearl, Silk flower spray, Paper Rose, Very Vanilla Seam Binding

Techniques: Dry Embossing, Chalkboard, Brad Bow

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2429715#ixzz2gJjllugi

Four Square Fun!

     Today's Free for All Challenge is called Four Square and we're to use 4 squares on our cards. I loved playing four square in school with the red rubber ball!  Anyway, my first card pieced 2 black and 2 white squares each cut into 4 triangle pieces into a fun illusion-producing square. I used the sentiment "So glad we're here for each other" with the idea that these two simple colors and shapes when put together form something greater than the single one could

Stamps: Bloomin' Marvelous

Paper: Black, White, Real Red

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Black

Accessories: 1 1/4" square punch

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2429397#ixzz2g6pZyWJo  
     Here's the dress I'd pinned on Pinterest (from boohoo.com) that inspired the pattern for my first card.

 
    For my second card, I used the same number and color of pieces of black and white but used them to form a different pattern that I lined up horizontally. I stamped my Victrola and fussy cut it. The horn part is popped on a dimensional.

Stamps: Timeless Talk

Paper: Black, White, Crumb Cake

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Black

Accessories: 1 1/4" square punch, stampin' dimensional, Tasteful Trims die (inside piece)

Techniques: Fussy Cutting

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2429400#ixzz2g6plhfoh

Retro Squares

     Today's Ways to Use It Challenge has us using squares. I thought of a pillow I saw at this week's inspiration site Eastern Accents that had fun, retro squares. I also thought that this would work well to add extra squares by using the inlaid embossing technique with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder. Here's the finished card.

Stamps: Timeless Talk

Paper: Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Real Red, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: 1 1/4" convex and concave square punches, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, ribbon, staple

Techniques: Inlaid Embossing

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2429079#ixzz2g1XB9LUI    Here's another view and a closeup of what the inlaid squares look like. I layered the sentiment box over the top of another square that I had in the bg.

    Just a hint, the inset pieces are easiest to do if you punch the inner shape first then punch the square around the hole.

Sketched Times Three

     I had a lot of fun playing around with today's sketch from splitcoast stampers sketch challenge. 

 My first card is a 5x7" card because I wanted to use a reverse die cut of a tree that I had laying on my desk. I embossed my Kraft base-piece#1, used dp for piece #2, burlap for #3 and my diecut for #5. I embossed some twill tape in the Chevron ef which I inked with Sahara Sand for piece #4. I added a sentiment tag with a metal leaf charm accent.

Stamps: Mixed Greetings

Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, My Minds Eye DP-Happy Days Petticoat

Paper Size: 5x7

Ink: Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, Versamark

Accessories: MBossabilities Asian ef, Chevron Ef, Designer label punch, sponge, leaf charm, Impression Obsession-bare tree die, burlap, Twill Tape

Techniques: Dry Embossing, Sponging, Reverse Die Cut

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2428837#ixzz2fyAOmed4

 I was inspired by two photos on Pinterest for this one and also by a technique I saw there to use white crayon with a watercolor wash over it. I doodled around the resisted flowers and added some spatter and a popped heart. 
 

Stamps: Vintage Vogue, French Foliage

Paper: Island Indigo, Kraft, TPSdp-Wood Fence Turquoise

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Gelato blue, Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo

Accessories: Nestabilities Square, Michael's ribbon, Hearts punch, Candy Dots-subtles and brad base, white crayon, brush, Marvy Le Pen

Techniques: Crayon Resist with watercolor, Brad Bow

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2428843#ixzz2fyBUMUDG

     This last one is also based on the same photo and uses the same technique, but I used watercolor paper and two inks over my crayon this time. I went back with the same spatter image wet with water to remove some of the color. The bg pieces are all gelatin plate prints. I used a marker to ink the words for my sentiment as the stamp is a long vertical sentiment that I couldn't use in its original form.

Keywords: SC455 Crayon Resist Gelatin Plate Printing

Stamps: Endless Creations sentiment, French Foliage

Paper: Early Espresso, Garden Green, Watercolor Paper, White, acrylic paints

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Coatal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Pacific Point

Accessories: Gelatin Plate, Plaid Stencil, Dry Wall Mesh Tape, White Crayons, Paint Brush, Gems

Techniques: Gelatin Plate Print, Crayon Resist with watercolor, Omitting With Markers, Water to remove color

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2428840#ixzz2fyCNZoP0

Tuesday in Color

     Tuesday is the day for the color combo challenge at splitcoast and I admit that I found this one challenging indeed.  We were asked to use: Gumball Green, Smoky Slate and Whisper White. I'm not completely thrilled with my results, but I did think it would be fun to see the positive/negative looks with brayering over embossing.

 The card on the left has the Smoky Slate brayered over the debossed side of the Whisper White embossed in the Manhattan Flower ef. I stamped my leaves in Gumball, stamping them off on the sentiment tag which has some Slate sponged on the edges. I added spatter from French Foliage. The card on the right has the brayering done on the embossed side. I ended up with a few smears on the flat part so I just added more to those corners.

Stamps: Fantastic Foliage, Thoughts & Prayers, French Foliage

Paper: Smoky Slate, Gumball Green, Whisper White

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Smoky Slate, Gumball Green

Accessories: Manhattan Flower embossing folder, brayer, sponge, designer label punch, stampamajig

Techniques: Dry Embossing, Brayering, Stamping Off

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2428108#ixzz2fv1mNJfD

 I had used this Benediction on the inside of the other cards and had this Slate piece leftover from cutting out the inside of the framing layer on one. I stamped the sentiment in Slate and used the Gumball leaves again stamping repeatedly without reinking each time. I set off the image panel with a scored frame on my white base.

Stamps: Fantastic Foliage, French Foliage, Stampendous Benediction

Paper: Smoky Slate, White

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Smoky Slate, Gumball Green

Accessories: Scoring Board

Techniques: Stamping Off

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2428114#ixzz2fv1yJQ9C

Paint it Twice-now that's nice!

     Today's Mixability Challenge was to use paint on paint. I decided to try a bg layering watercolor and Gesso.  I started by scribbling with watercolor crayons on a base of watercolor paper.

     I used a wet brush to color wash the whole piece. 

      Here's what it looked like when dry.

     I inked up my bg stamp with a marker omitting the birds then spritzed with water before stamping. Apparently, I'd put the stamp away dirty....

      .....because the birds showed up in a reddish pink-I wet my brush and tried to wash them out a bit.

       Good thing my plan was to add Gesso over it all anyway! It softened it all up and blended in the pinkish colors and I ended up being OK with it!

     After spreading the Gesso I then swirled it a bit with circular motions and stamped with the same stamp again to pull off a bit of the Gesso, hard to see in the photo.

Here's the final card. I ended up adding a bit more blue back in by sponging the edges and a bit in the center with Tempting Turquoise ink.
 

     Here's another mix with paint daubed over a lightly embossed bg and the grey strip is Gesso over dictionary page with spatters of blue paint. The green leaves are from a gelatin plate print that I die cut and the other are sponged in a Secret Garden Framelit die. 
 

Paper: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Baja Breeze, dictionary page, Crumb Cake

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Several browns on the faux wood, Blushing Bride?

Accessories: Secret Garden Framelits, Cheery Lynn Pair of Ferns die, Gelatin Plate, acrylic paints, Acrylic Paint dauber-blue, Vellum Quote, twine, button, Grey Gesso, Distressed Texturz Plate, Cutter kit Distressing Tool

Techniques: Sponging in the Die, Gelatin Plate Printing, Die cutting, Freestyle Collage, Faux Wood, Distressing,

Read more: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2426690#ixzz2fTadQdVO