CAS422 Spritzed Butterflies

This week's CAS422 challenge is "Things with Wings."  I saw this gorgeous Northwoods stamp in my stash, so I pulled it out and dusted it off for this challenge.  :-)  I stamped it with plum ink and then sprayed it with water before the ink was completely dry.  I love the mottled and ink-stained look of the weeds and butterflies.

I added the Hello cut from plum cardstock and glued this piece to a plum mat.  This was adhered to a white card that was sponged with plum ink all around the edges.  This is the perfect clean and simple card to pop in the mail.  You could even change the sentiment to fit whatever kind of card you need - sympathy, thank you, birthday, or just because.  :-)

Check out the CAS challenges over on Splitcoaststampers and play along with us this week!  

Friends and Wild Roses

Howdy!  Today I'm sharing a card I made for Frantic Stamper. Did you fall in love with Fran's feminine dies that she released last month? I know I did. This is one of the cards I made using some of those dies.

I cut out the gorgeous new Wild Rose Corner from white cardstock and colored in all the leaves with Copic markers (listed below). I cut the flowers from patterned paper and glued them onto the corner pieces that I colored, and then I added pearls to the centers.

The sentiment was stamped and then I cut it out with the new Nested Double Ended Tags. I cut out a larger tag from green cardstock to go behind my sentiment. More pearls were added to the tags as well as to the corners of my card.

Here are the supplies from Frantic Stamper that I've used on this card:

Wild Rose Corner die set 

Nested Double Ended Tags die set 

Floral Vintage Labels 2 stamp set (sentiment)

Champagne pearls

Copic marker G82 

Copic marker G85

Copic marker G94 

Copic marker G99 

ATC Butterfly Fairy

Hi everyone!  I am here bright and early this morning to share this fun mixed media Butterfly Fairy ATC with you today.  An ATC is an acronymn for Artist Trading Card, and they typically measure 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.  They are miniature works of art and many people like to trade them with other ATC artists.

Did you know that Art Neko recently bought the B-Muse store?  There are lots of fabulous items in the B-Muse store, such as collage sheets, ATC supplies, dominoes, and other ephemera?  I’ve used several of those B-Muse items on this ATC today.

I began working on this ATC by painting a sheet of ATC watercolor paper with some Raw Sienna Daniel Smith watercolor paint.  I love that warm brownish/orange-y/yellowish quality of this color.  While that was drying, I cut out these fabulous wings from the Fantasy Wings collage sheet from B-Muse.  The colors on these particular wings coordinate beautifully with my painted background.

This collage sheet was printed on Premium Laser Paper, but you have so many options with the collage sheets from B-Muse.  You can order them printed on canvas, vellum, fabric paper, transparencies, and laser paper.  The canvas collage sheets are gorgeous – they look and feel just like a real painting!

Once my watercolored piece was dry, I adhered it to an ATC Chipboard blank (pictured above).  This provides a wonderful sturdy backing for my painted watercolor background.  I sponged the edges with some Brushed Corduroy distress ink for that aged look.

My next step was to get my fairy ready.  I stamped the Dreaming Fairy from the A145 Fairies and Seasons sheet with Rich Cocoa Memento ink onto some white cardstock.  After I colored her with Copic markers, I cut her out, making sure I cut the stamped wings off.  Once I determined the placement of the collage wings and the fairy, I glued them down onto the prepared ATC.  I added the stamped sentiment on the side – it says “Be yourself.”  This sentiment is also from the A145 Fairies and Seasons sheet.

I loved creating my own custom fairy by pairing a stamped figurine with the wings from the collage sheet.  I have plenty of other wings left on the collage sheet, so I can make all kinds of fairies and other winged creatures.

Check out all the great items in the B-Muse shop and jump-start your creativity.  The collage sheets are gorgeous, and I love the ATC supplies (both the watercolor sheets and the chipboard blanks).  I have a few other supplies from B-Muse that I’m playing with, and I’ll share those with you soon.

CAS419 Irish Hello

This week's CAS419 challenge is to "Think Irish."  When I saw that, my mind immediately went to green.  So I pulled out this leafy stamp set called Floral Shadow from Altenew and stamped the leaves and sentiment in all different shades of green.  I sponged a little more green at the bottom for some depth.  Do you see the tiny green dots here and there?  I pulled out a Copic marker and an air tool and sprayed some of the ink onto the card.  Some sequins provided that Irish finish with shades of green and gold.  :-)  Check out the CAS challenges over on SCS and play along with us.

Sending you a Smile

Hi everyone!  Today's card is something I colored up over the weekend for Dina's latest tutorial on SCS.  She asked if I would help by making a sample for her Pencil Monochrome Tutorial.  This technique is fun and easy and it doesn't require a lot of supplies.

Look at the "smile" sentiment.  That is what I colored for the tutorial.  I went over the whole thing with the green pencil (Polychromos) very lightly.  Then I went back over starting at the bottom and made my strokes a little harder and laid down more color.  I finished off by adding a little touch of black at the very bottom of the letters and then blending it all out with the Derwent blender pencil.

Check out Dina's tutorial over on SCS and give this a try.  This easy technique will make you "smile!"