Awesome Garden Gate

I used the gorgeous Garden Gate stencil from A Colorful Life Designs to create this fun, spring-y card. I blended some distress inks (Picked Raspberry, Dried Marigold, Shaded Lilac) on white cardstock, and then I placed the Garden Gate stencil over the background. I carefully sponged some white pigment ink over the Garden Gate stencil and let it dry before I added the sentiment.

I like the the way the white ink dried to a soft whisper. If I had wanted a bold crisp white design, I could have covered the pigment ink with white embossing powder and melted it for an eye-popping pattern.

Use code HollyFan10 to save 10% when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs. You can find this Garden Gate stencil here:

https://acolorfullifedesigns.com/garden-gate/

 

Horse Ride

 

I have a monochromatic horse card to share with y'all today.  I used stamps from the new To Ride a Horse set (Technique Junkies) for both the background and the main image.  It's easy to create your own background by repeatedly stamping a sentiment to fill the card.  I used some kraft ink and stamped the Ride to Live sentiment over and over until I filled out the background kraft card layer.  I then stamped the gorgeous horse relief on another piece of kraft cardstock and centered it over my background.

Please feel free to use my code, TJ10Holly, when you shop at Technique Junkies.  You will save 10% off your order, which means you can buy more stamps!  :-)

 

Beyond the Blue #9 - Faux Embossed Hello

This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is a fun and easy "faux embossing" technique.  The video shows several different ways to achieve this look, and I went with the packing tape technique.  I covered a strip of green cardstock with regular ol' packing tape, die cut it with a "hello" die, and adhered it to a gel press print.  I created the background gel press print by brayering some acrylic watercolors on the gel plate and then smooshing some bubble wrap into the paint.

You may be wondering what the faux embossing is all about.  If you look at the picture below, you can see how shiny the "hello" sentiment is.  It looks like I covered this with clear embossing powder and melted it with a heat tool.  This packing tape trick is faster and less messier.  

Check out the Beyond the Blue blog and play along with us.  This week is challenge #9, and we have lots of great techniques to share with you in the weeks ahead!  Have a great weekend!

 

Beyond the Blue #8 - Gel Impressionism Daisies

 Good morning, everyone!  I'm back with a card for this week's Beyond the Blue challenge.  This time we are using our gel presses to create an Impressionism style piece.  See the mottled and watery look of my card above?  Doesn't that remind you of the paintings by Monet or Renoir?

I started by smooshing some Distress Oxide inks onto my gel press.  I used (top to bottom) Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, and Rustic Wilderness oxide inks.  Then I inked up my Dancing Daisies stamp from Penny Black with Blue Belle Versafine Clair ink.  I gently pressed this onto my gel press and then carefully lifted it off.  Then I misted the gel press with some rubbing alcohol and pulled a print.  When I say I pulled a print, that means that I placed my paper on top of my gel press, rubbed it all over with my hands, and then slowly pulled the paper off.

I discovered that if I sprayed too much alcohol onto the inks, it made the inks fade and bleed.  The trick is to very lightly mist with alcohol.  You want just enough to activate the inks but not enough to make them bleed and run all over.  

I hope you will play along with us over on the Beyond the Blue blog.  We'd love to see what you create with these fun techniques!

Stamps - Dancing Daisies (Penny Black), Hugs sentiment (Hero Arts)

Distress Oxide inks - Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Rustic Wilderness

Versafine Clair ink - Blue Belle

 

Enjoy Your Day

 

Good morning, everyone!  I hope you are all doing well.  It's a gray day here today, so I thought I would post a bright and colorful card to bring a smile to our faces.  

I started by using the brand new Tic Tac Toe Mask stencil from A Colorful Life Designs on some mango cardstock.  I brushed some mango ink over the stencil and let it dry while I stamped and cut all the flowers and leaves.  These stamps are actually from my mom's stash.  I raided her studio and came home with a ton of "new" stamps last year.  

After I arranged the flowers and leaves on the card, I stamped the "Enjoy" directly onto the stenciled mango cardstock and then added the white strip with the rest of the sentiment.  I love how bright and spring-y this looks.  

Please feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  There is a huge selection of stencils to choose from.  I want them all!  :-)

Tic Tac Toe Mask stencil - https://acolorfullifedesigns.com/tic-tac-toe-mask-stencil/

Dotted Blooms Rainbow

 

Did you see the new stamps from Technique Junkies this month?  One of them is this new Dotted Blooms background stamp.  I love it!  I embossed the Dotted Blooms with white embossing powder and then used distress inks to make a colorful rainbow.  After I applied the inks, I rubbed the embossed areas with a tissue to make those white blooms pop out.  The sentiment is from the Five Fab Phrases set.

Please feel free to use this code, TJ10Holly, to save 10% when you shop at Technique Junkies.  You will find all kinds of wonderful stamps for every occasion here.  Have fun!

Beyond the Blue #7 - Good Friends

Hello everyone!  I've officially joined the Design Team over at Beyond the Blue, and this is my card for today's challenge.  This week's challenge is to use what you have in your stash from when you were trying a special technique.  I used a leftover gel press print from last week's Beyond the Blue challenge for my background and stamped the sentiment directly onto it. Come on over and play with us this week as we use up some of our UFO's from our crafty piles.

https://beyondthebluechallenges.blogspot.com/.../btb-7...

The stencil that you see in my background is the gorgeous Fine Vines from A Colorful Life Designs.  I brayered some paint onto my gel press and placed the stencil over the paint. After I pulled a print with the stencil in place, I took the stencil off and pulled another print. There was still just a hint of ink left on the gel press for another print, and this is what I pulled. Use code HollyFan10 to save 10% when you shop for stencils at A Colorful Life Designs.

 Fine Vines stencil - https://acolorfullifedesigns.com/fine-vines/

Beyond the Blue #6 Peacock Dream

Good morning, everyone!  I'm back with another card that I created for this week's Beyond the Blue challenge.  I just couldn't stop playing with my gel press and A Colorful Life Designs stencils.  This time I used the dramatic Peacock Feathers stencil from A Colorful Life Designs with some magenta and blue acrylic paint on my gel press.  After the print dried, I spayed it with some Gold Glimmer Mist.  You can see the awesome shimmer a bit better in the picture below.

  Have you seen the fun challenges over at Beyond the Blue?  They post a new one every Friday, and I hope you play along when you get a chance.  It is a great way to learn more about your tools and mediums and become more comfortable with using them.

Be sure to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop for stencils over at A Colorful Life Designs.  You'll save 10% on your entire order, so fill up your cart with all kinds of fabulous stencils!  

Peacock Feathers stencil - https://acolorfullifedesigns.com/peacock-feathers/

 

Beyond the Blue #6 - Glitter Paint Vines

 Good morning!  I'm back with another gel press creation for this week's Beyond the Blue challenge.  I made a bunch of gel press prints for this challenge because I was having so much fun.  But instead of adding the alcohol ink in the last step, this time I decided to try something different.  I covered my print with a turquoise glitter paint.  All of the white areas from the stenciled gel print are now turquoise from the glitter paint.  

I used the gorgeous Silhouette Floral stencil from A Colorful Life Designs on this card.  I started by brayering some acrylic paints onto my gel press, then I placed the Silhouette Floral stencil over the paint.  I carefully placed my paper over the stencil and rubbed my fingers all over the paper to pick up the paint in the open areas of the stencil.  After I pulled the paper off, I set it aside to dry.  While it was drying, I went through my stash and found some turquoise glitter paint.  I dipped a brush into the paint and brushed it all over my print and set that aside to dry.  This paint happened to be transparent, which is what you need so you can still see the gel press print underneath.  

Go check out this fun challenge over on the Beyond the Blue blog.  I have one more card to share with y'all tomorrow using this week's technique with my own little twist on it.  :-)

Silhouette Floral stencil - https://acolorfullifedesigns.com/silhouette-floral/  (Use code HollyFan10 to save 10% when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs)

Beyond the Blue #6 - Pink is Perfect

 Good morning!  I'm back with another card for this week's Beyond the Blue challenge.  This time I went just a bit further by stamping a French script background over my printed piece.  I used a soft pink dye ink, and you can see it in the pink areas on my card.  But the green/yellow areas where I used acrylic paint completely resisted the ink.  It's such a cool effect!

I used the Feathery Leaves stencil from A Colorful Life Designs for this card.  It provides some wonderfully large blank areas which works great for a technique like this where you want to stamp a background.  You can use this code, HollyFan10, to save 10% when you shop for stencils at A Colorful Life Designs.

Check out the Beyond the Blue challenge and play along with us!  They just announced that they are drawing prizes, so you might be a winner just for playing.  :-)

Feathery Leaves stencil - https://acolorfullifedesigns.com/feathery-leaves/

Beyond the Blue #6 - Floral Alcohol Hello

 There's a new challenge up over on the Beyond the Blue blog today.  This week's challenge is all about doing Negative Space Monoprints with a gel press and a stencil.  I brayered some paint onto my gel press and then pressed the gorgeous Feathery Leaves stencil from A Colorful Life Designs onto the paint.  I carefully placed my paper over the stencil and used my fingers to rub it all over, making sure to pick up all the paint in the open areas of the stencil.

After I pulled the first print, I placed another sheet of paper on the gel press to pull a second print.  This second pull will usually pull all the paint off, but sometimes there's just a bit left over for a third pull.  I only did two prints with this particular session.  

After pulling most of the paint off my gel press, I covered the gel press with some yellow alcohol ink, very quickly brayered it into an even layer, and quickly placed my first pulled print onto the gel press.  All of the areas that had been covered with the stencil were white after the initial pull, and now those white areas are a gorgeous shade of creamy yellow.  

This technique is a lot of fun.  You don't have to do the alcohol ink part at the end.  I chose to do it because I wanted some color instead of all that white space.  I have a few more prints that I did with this technique, so stay tuned and I'll share those with you over the next few days.  :-)

Come play along with this fun challenge from Beyond the Blue!

Feathery Leaves stencil - https://acolorfullifedesigns.com/feathery-leaves/   (Use code HollyFan10 to save 10% when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.)

Do Something Creative

Did you create something today? :-) I used the brand new Teeny Dots stencil from A Colorful Life Designs to create this clean and simple card. I positioned the stencil at the bottom of a white card and brushed some aqua ink over it. I love this cute little Teeny Dots stencil! I used the same aqua ink to stamp the sentiment and the pen.

Use code HollyFan10 to save 10% when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs. There's hundreds of awesome stencils to choose from!

Teeny Dots stencil - https://acolorfullifedesigns.com/teeny-dots-stencil/

Colorful Retro Thanks

 

Isn't this a fun retro card? I used the brand new Scattered Shapes stencil from A Colorful Life Designs with some distress inks to create this bright and fun thank you card. The new March release is up in the store and it's full of great new designs.

Use code HollyFan10 to save 10% when you shop for stencils at A Colorful Life Designs.

Scattered Shapes stencil - https://acolorfullifedesigns.com/scattered-shapes-stencil/