CAS405 Watercolor Powder Foliage

Hi everyone!  I'm back with another CAS challenge, and this time it is hosted by my friend Chrissy.  She wants to see Christmas foliage on your Clean And Simple cards (CAS405)this week.  I was playing around with this beautiful Poinsettia Sketch background from Impression Obsession, and I wanted to see how it looked with some watercolor powders on it.

I embossed this first card with gold embossing powder and then I sprinkled some Blackcurrant and Cerise Infusions watercolor powders on it.  I lightly misted the powders with water and this explosion of pinks appeared.  

I loved that so much, I wanted to see how it looked with some other colors.  

So I embossed the poinsettia stamp again but this time with silver embossing powder.  I sprinkled some Royal Blood and Night Storms Infusions over it and misted with water.  There is a lovely mix of blue, purple, green, and brown going on with this one.

On to my third card, I went back to the gold embossing powder for the stamp.  I sprinkled Cerise and Sunset Beach Infusions on this and misted with water.  These created a deeper reddish pink colored card.

For my last card, I embossed with copper embossing powder and sprinkled with Jade and Sage Infusions powders.  After I misted with water, this glorious mix of blues, greens, teals, jades, sages, and browns appeared.  Whoa!  This one is my favorite!  :-)

Come on over to SCS and play in our CAS405 challenge this week!  

Watercolored Sunflowers

Hi everyone!  I felt like coloring Friday night, so I pulled out my Winsor and Newton artist watercolor paints and started watercoloring this image from Power Poppy.  There were only 10 of these tubes of paint in this set, so I got creative and started mixing some colors together.  I wanted each flower to be unique, so it was fun to mix up all sorts of different colors for my flowers.

You can see my paint palette below:

Even though I was limited to the 10 tubes of paint, I think I managed to get a broad range of colors.  My goal was to have all kinds of yellows, oranges, and reds, with that tiny touch of green for the foliage.  This will be going to a sweet friend whom I love to "talk nerdy" with.  LOL!

Stamps: In Praise of Sunflowers and Sassy Succulents (sentiment) from Power Poppy

Ink: SU Archival Black

CS: Burgundy, Strathmore Bristol Bright White from Paper Temptress

Paint: Winsor and Newton artist watercolor paints

#thedailymarker30day

CAS403 Pinecone Tidings

Hi folks!  This week's CAS403 challenge, Ho Ho Ho, is to put three of something on your card.  As you can see, I put three pinecones on my card.  :-)  But I can see you're wondering about the background.  That was the fun part of creating this card.

I went to a stamping retreat a couple weekends ago, and we played with a new product called Infusions.  They are watercolor powders with some ground walnut shells added in there, and those walnut shells give the colors a wonderful earthy hue.  Well, of course, I was smitten, and I rushed home from the retreat and bought all 12 colors as soon as I found them at Frantic Stamper.

On this card, I sprinkled some Jade and Sage Infusions powders onto some Fabriano hot press watercolor paper.  I misted the powders with water until the colors just started to bleed and then I set it aside to dry.  Once it was completely dry, I ran it through a Pine Bough embossing folder.  I added the die cut pine cones and stamped the sentiment at the bottom.  It needed just one more accent, so I tied a tiny little bow from linen thread and added it to the double pinecone.

Come on and play in the CAS403 challenge over on SCS this week!  Just keep your card clean and simple, and put three of something on there.  

Stamps: Christmas Pines (Stampin Up)

Ink: Suede (Stampin Up)

CS: Suede (Stampin Up), Fabriano Studio hot press watercolor paper

Other: Christmas Pines dies (Stampin Up), linen thread, Pine Bough embossing folder (Stampin Up), Sage and Jade Infusions watercolor powders (I bought mine from Frantic Stamper)

Steampunk Dragonfly with Peacock Background

Hi everyone! I went to a stamping retreat last weekend, and we learned several fun new techniques for making backgrounds. This particular background was loosely called a "peacock background." To make this one, you need a nonstick craft mat, some Inka Gold (a gold wax paste), Mermaid Lagoon distress ink, and Peacock Feathers distress ink. 

Smoosh the two distress inks onto your craft mat in separate areas.  Spoon out a small amount of the Inka Gold wax onto the craft mat.  Mist the wax with some water and use a toothpick to mix the wax and water together.  Mist the two inks with water and then dip your cardstock into the inks and then into the liquid gold wax.  Dry the cardstock with a heat tool, and then dip it back into the inks and liquid gold wax again.  Dry it again with the heat tool.  Repeat until your background is covered with ink and gold to your liking.

I thought this background would be perfect with the steampunk dragonfly from Art Neko's Steampunk Fun stamp sheet.  I stamped the dragonfly with Versamark and then dusted it with some gold Perfect Pearls powder.  After I brushed off the excess powder, I fussy cut the dragonfly and adhered it with some dimensionals.  

The sentiment, also from Art Neko, was stamped with an archival brown ink directly onto the peacock background.  I needed something that would stamp on top of the gold wax, so an archival ink is the way to go.  Some sequins were added around the card for some extra sparkle.

Have you seen all the fun steampunk stamps on the Steampunk Fun sheet?  Which one is your favorite?  :-)

Little Chickadee on Woodgrain

Isn't that little chickadee the cutest thing?  I couldn't resist coloring him up when I got this stamp from Art Neko.  This little ATC Chicadee in a Pine Tree is from the State Birds and Flowers Set 6 stamp plate.  I stamped this with SU Archival Black ink onto some white cardstock and let it dry.  The sky areas were sponged with Soft Sky ink before I set about watercoloring the bird and tree.  

I pulled out my Zig Clean Color markers and I love how the tiny little brushes can color such small areas.  The pine needles were flicked with two different colors of green and I left those alone.  The branch was watercolored as well as the bird.  This means that I laid down a little bit of color from the markers and then went over it with a wet brush and pulled the color out.  I didn't want to lose the "needle" look of my green flicks, so that's why I didn't go over those with a wet brush.

The background was pressed through a woodgrain embossing folder and then sponged with some brown ink to make the raised areas stand out.  I wrapped some linen thread around the bottom and then I attached the chickadee piece with some foam tape.

Check out all the State Birds and Flowers in this set HERE.  Isn't that great?  You can also look for your own state in the search box and buy your own State Bird and Flower stamp separately.  :-)