Pastel + Cactus =

Hey there everyone...I have been playing with some of the new peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry, the "Build a Prickly Pear Cactus" set as a matter of fact.  I've seen lots of posts and challenges about building a scene recently so I thought I'd "pear" these stamps with my pastel pencils to see if I could come up with a scene.  I chose my pastels because I hadn't used them in a while and I hate to see things sitting on my shelf unused.

I took two randomly stamped card fronts that I made using these stamps and wove them into a desert landscape...   What do you think?

I started out by stamping various size of prickly pears just to see what they looked like.  I hadn't planned on using this piece since they were just for practice. I actually think it turned out pretty cool for something that was going to end up in the trash.

This lonely little cactus was going to be die-cut but I miscalculated and didn't have enough room for what I had originally planned so I drew in a few smaller cactus in the distance and added some hills...

You'll notice that in both of these cards the cactus have blooms...those aren't really on the stamps, I just added little "X"'s of color using my pastels for flowers.  I thought it just added an extra little something.  

I'll be back soon with a few more cards using this set but in the mean time, have an inky day!

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Build A Prickly Pear Cactus

Imagine - Memento Dye Inks

Stabilo - Pastel Pencils 

ClubScrap.com - Cardstock

Autumn Elegance

Tomorrow is World Card Making Day...is everyone planning on making at least one or two??  I hope so, I'm sure someone in your circle of friends/family could use a ray of sunshine in their day.

Today I wanted to share a couple cards I made using the new Rubber Stamp Tapestry set - Autumn Elegance.  It's such a beautiful set and oh so perfect for this time of the year.

This set comes with 5 stamps - pumpkins in 3 different sizes/shapes; a vine w/ leaves and a tiny sprig of flowers.  This is such a fun autumn set of stamps. I had fun with the first card stacking the pumpkins up.  All of the images were stamped using Memento Inks and then the ground & pumpkins were colored using Prisma Colored Pencils.

My next card was stamped using a combination of Green Kaleidacolor inks for the wreath and Memento Inks for the pumpkins in the center. This time I colored the large pumpkin and ground using pastel pencils.

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Autumn Elegance
Imagine - Memento Inks, Kaleidacolor Inks
Club Scrap.com - Cardstock, Thinking sentiment
JFF Stamps - Happy Autumn Sentiment
Prismacolor colored pencils
Pastel Pencils

Vintage Botany

OH MY GOSH... I am so excited... The new kit at Club Scrap this month is - yep, title gives it away - Vintage Botany and is it ever cool!  You all know how much I love everything vintage, well this kit is PERFECT IMO. It is so stinkin cool...  Now I've only seen photos of the kit contents so far but I was able to play with the digital hybrid kit yesterday and this is what I made....

Aren't they wicked?  These images are all on one "sheet" from the Vintage Botany Digital Hybrid Kit.  Although I've never printed on watercolor paper before I thought I'd give it a shot to see how it turned out.  I had a bit of trouble feeding it through my printer but when I finally figured it out it printed just fine...next step, to see how the ink would hold up with various mediums.  I'm happy to say it worked perfectly!

See for yourself....

This is my vintage daisy - I used Prismacolor colored pencils for this image. After I was finished coloring I flicked on a couple colors of green watercolor paint then added some pen work. Since this image was a bit more narrow than the other images I added a piece of gold washi tape to the edge of the card to help center it a bit.

LOVE this image!  Vintage cabbage roses - one of my fav's.  This image was watercolored using Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors.  Love how it turned out. I flicked on a bit of copper watercolor once finished.

For the poppies I used my Stabilo Pastel Pencils.  They blended so nicely on the paper.  Afterwards to pull all of the images together I again flicked on a bit of watercolor and added pen work stitches.

Finally my "make a wish" card was colored using a wash of various blues and a touch of black. I flicked on blue and metallic silver watercolor after it had dried.  I did something a bit different with this pen work by adding a tiny heart, a small dot (along the top) and a hand-written sentiment along the bottom. 

Ya know it's harder to get a nice looking wash than you'd think...

All in all I love how the printed images worked on the watercolor paper.

The printer ink preformed FAR better than I would have imagined.

So very tickled, this opens up a whole new world of ideas.

Hope you like this fun sneak peek at the new Vintage Botany kit...

Can't wait to get my hands on the "real thing" so I can stamp/craft up a storm.

Happy Day Friends!

Stay Inky :)

Happy 4th Everyone!!

Happy Independence Day America!!!

Hope you all have a lovely day spent with family and friends enjoying this great day. All of us here in the United States are very lucky to be where we are. Have a fun and safe holiday celebrating the birth of our great country!

Colored using: Imagine Memento Dual Tip Markers

Colored using: Pan Pastels, Prismacolor Colored Pencils

Embossed Background - Sizzix 

White Embossing Powder (Imagine); Brushos Colour Crystals

Background: Memento Dye Inks; Embossing Black & White (Imagine); 

irRESISTible Texture Spray (Imagine)

Background - Brusho Colour Crystals
Stamped Images Colored using Stabilo Pastel Pencils

JFF Stamps: 

America the Beautiful

American Eagle

PAT-Fireworks Burst

PAT-Home of the Brave

Patriotic Block

Patriotic Ribbon

PAT-Statue of Liberty

Pastel Colored Embossing

Happy Thursday Everyone!

I hope you've all had a great week so far.  I wanted to share a fun technique that I was playing around with recently...Pastel Colored Embossing.

I've had a pile of black tags sitting on my desk for months now...I got them out for a reason but ended up using something else and just never got around to putting them away.  I got tired of seeing them sittin' there unloved so I decided to play!  I pulled out my VersaMark ink, White Embossing Powder and a few seasonal stamps.

I stamped and embossed a single image on each tag and LET IT COOL....  I typed that in caps because yes, initially I was so excited to get on with the coloring part that I started before the image was completely cooled off...  BAD IDEA!

So I re-stamped and re-embossed the tulips, let the image cool and started coloring with my Stabilo Pastel Pencils.  As you can see below in the larger photos I colored both the embossed image and the background (which shows up better in person).  

You can color with a single image or use multiple pastel pencils and blend them with your finger.  This is such a fun and forgiving color medium...if you don't like how it looks you can simply take an eraser and rub away the color!

(Stamp - Dark Room Door)

(Stamp - JFF Rubber Stamps)

(Stamp - JFF Rubber Stamps)

(Stamp - JFF Rubber Stamps)

(Sorry this image is blurry...the glitter really messed with my camera's auto focus.)

I went with the 4 Seasons theme because I simply cannot believe that it is October already.  I feel like I'm riding one of those high speed trains watching the year zoom by.    I love how the pastels really pop on the black tags...I'm ready to try some other experiments with them!

So, have you ever worked with black tags or cardstock and stamping?  If so, what technique did you use?  Please feel free to share...I'm sure we'd all like to give it a try!

Supplies:

Black Tags
Imagine - VersaMark, Embossing Powder - White
JFF Rubber Stamps - Tropical Sunset, Tree, Snow Covered Evergreen
Dark Room Door - Tulips
Glitter Glue

Mixed Media Spring!

Well, I'm taking up a challenge of a different kind today.  

Andy Skinner has a Bold & Bright challenge 

going on over on his blog that inspired me to dig into my supplies.

And this is what I created!  It is VERY bright for me but I like how it turned out and what's more, I had fun making it which is the important thing.

I started out by stenciling on the flowers using DecoArt Media White Modeling Paste on one half of the canvas board.

I then embossed the other side with Gears - and I also used Andy's Gear Border Stencil to add gears to the centers of each flower (also with DecoArt Media Modeling Paste).

I painted the entire canvas with Americana School Bus Yellow.

A layer of Apple Green was applied over the gears.

And then I rubbed Blue Lagoon over them for a second coat to highlight the gears.

I went to work on the flowers by using Flamingo, Iris and Pumpkin Patch.

I then stenciled on some french script with a bit of Memento Luxe Danube Blue Ink.

Next I took a white and grey pastel pencil and highlighted the flowers (white) and gears (grey).  It doesn't show up much in the photo but it does in person and makes quite a difference.

A few flicks of diluted white paint on the top, Turquoise Shimmer Mist on the bottom; A spritz of Shimmer Mist for a bit of glitz and finally a bit of carbon black along the edge and on my chipboard letters.

and a couple more views close up....

And there you have it!

Hope you enjoy.

Supplies:

DecoArt Media: White Modeling Paste, Fluid Acrylics - Carbon Black, Titanium White; Shimmer Mist - Turquoise

DecoArt Stencils - Old French Script; Cogs & Gears

DecoArt Americana Satin - School Bus Yellow; Pumpkin Patch; Blue Lagoon; Flamingo, Iris & Apple Green

Andy Skinner - Gear Border

Imagine Crafts - Memento Luxe Ink - Danube Blue; Sponge Dauber

Blick Art - canvas board

Conte' Pastel Pencils

Other - random chipboard letters

Less Is More #263

This weeks challenge at Less is More consists of a one layer card which includes a stem.  I decided to pull out my pastel pencils to add a bit of color.

And here is what I created... I stamped the stitch marks along the bottom, stamped the flower & sentiment.  To add a bit of color I drew a few lines with my pastels then smudged them up a bit to spread it around.  

Less Is More #263

Supplies:

Georgia Pacific - White Cardstock
IMAGINE Crafts - Memento Inks
Club Scrap.com - Crewel & Unusual - Flower & Stitch Stamps; Celebration - Sentiment

Moo.... SCACD Digital Stamp Release!

SCACD is celebrating 10 newly released exclusive digital stamps. There are some new cute animal stacks think kitten, puppies and birds as well as some Steampunk additions and more!!!   I was lucky enough to be asked to help share one of their new designs.... The fun and funky Folk Art Cow  and here's what I did made her....

Can you tell I've had fun using this image?  I love cows so I was very excited to get to play with the Folk Art Cow.  There are so many fun ideas I didn't have time for but I'm sure you'll be seeing more of her in the future. 

The original Folk Art Cow has a little star on it's forehead, a crown and a flower pot with a few posies in it.  The body of the cow is left blank so you can let your imagination run wild and color her any way your heart desires.  I colored my first cow to (sort of) honor our own cows - Herefords!  I used Pastel Pencils to color the entire image and add a touch of color in the background.

Oh my, this was such a fun cow to make!  I decided she needed to dress up a bit so I used a stencil (TCW) and some Memento Inks to color her.  Each of the little stars/flower designs has a tiny mint green pearl in the center as well as the one on her forehead.  And to show how you could use it differently I left off the flower pot.

Finally I colored a more well known, traditional black and white Holstein cow.  The background was made using Nuance Pigment Powders and the cow's dots were made with a regular black marker.  I didn't add any sentiment at this time so I can use it for whatever I need in a moments notice. 

If you'd like to see more, please check out the fun and unique collection which can be found here - SCACD Artist Carmen Medlin (the first 10 images are the new collection.).   SCACD Artist Carmen Medlin and Susana collaborated on creating the images and I'm happy to help share them with you.

These images are now available for purchase in the USA HERE     

All Our EU International Friends can purchase them HERE   

If you are a none EU country you can purchase direct from SCACD HERE 

You should be going next to Alaine's Blog 

and the full list of artists sharing the new release can be found at the

SCACD Store Blog HERE.

Please note SCACD is having a SALE so check it out HERE: 

Thanks for stopping by friends!!