The sun was actually shining here in Ohio yesterday and it makes me long for warm summer days.  Here is a little piece of a beach scene to warm you this morning.  Let’s get started on today’s tutorial.

Supplies: 

On a 2 1/2″ x 6″ piece of Whisper White I brayered at an angle Hazelnut ink.

Keeping at the same angle, brayered River Rock ink over the Hazelnut ink and a little further up the card stock a bit.

Turned the card stock and brayered at an angle Aqua ink down to but not into the River Rock ink.

At the same agle, brayered Stonewashed ink on but I did not completely cover the Aqua ink.  Working on a graduation in color here.

Still staying at that same angle, brayered Denim ink at the top of the card stock, not covering completely the Stonewashed ink.

Stamped Sand dollar with Ginger ink.

Colored the sand dollar in with a Peach Beige Prismacolor Pencil.

Made some highlights on the sand dollar with a white gel pen.

Tore a Post It note and used it as a mask for the sand area so I could put in a water line.  Sponged on White Craft ink at torn edge of Post it Note.

Removed Post it Note and use my white gel pen to define the water line further.

Sponged a bit more Denim ink at the top left corner of the card stock to darken a bit.

Used my Cuttlebug machine and Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss one of the card layers.

Assembled card front and stamped my sentiment in Denim, using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig for placement.  I stamped the stamp off on scrap paper once to lighten the image before stamping on the card stock.

Added some brads and I have another finished card.

I’m still working on my Sympathy card stash.  So here is a tutorial on one of them.

Supplies:

Starting with a piece of Whisper White card stock and masking the sky area with Post it Notes (nope, I don’t have stock in this company, lol).

Brayered Milled Lavender ink on card stock.

I heated the ink to dry and set it on the card stock before the next step.

Stamped flowers randomly over Milled lavender with Versamark, removed Post it Notes and then heat embossed the flowers with clear embossing powder and a heat gun.  Note:  If I had not dried the brayered Milled Lavender ink the embossing powder would have stuck to it too.

Brayered Pale Plum ink over embossed images.

Brayered Dusty Concord ink at the bottom of the card stock being sure to not cover all of the Pale Plum ink to create a graduation in color.

Stamped leaves with Basic Black ink and then wiped the ink off of the embossed images with a sponge in a circular motion to create shadow with the leaves.  I did not smear all of the leaf images.

Stamped some more flowers on the milled lavender section with Dusty Concord ink.

Stamped the Itty Bitty Background stamp with both Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord.

Outlined embossed flowers with an Elegant Eggplant marker to make them more visible.

Highlighted the centers of the flowers with a White Gel Pen.

Stamped more leaves with Basic Black ink in between embossed flower images.

Time to work on the sky.

Turned the card stock around and brayered on Going Gray ink in the sky area leaving about 1 inch of  white space between sky and ground.

Time to put in the horizon line. 

Masked ground area and about 1/4 inch of the white area above the ground with Post it Notes that are torn through the sticky part of the note.

Sponged basic black ink right at the Post it note torn edge to create hills at the horizon line.

Removed Post it Note masks.  Wow, now that made an impact.  I love using really dark colors against light ones.  It makes things pop, don’t you think?

Sponged on Going Gray ink to start to create some interest in the sky.

Sponge on Milled Lavender ink in the sky area, not covering all of the Going Gray ink.

Sponge Elegant Eggplant ink but did not cover all of the Milled Lavender ink.  We are creating a nice graduation in the sky.

Sponged Basic Black ink right at the top of the card stock.

Stamped girl image with Palette Noir Black ink on a separate piece of Whisper White card stock.

Colored the underside of her arm and back side of her legs with a Beige Sienna Prismacolor Pencil.

Colored the folds of her dress with a 30% Warm Gray pencil and then outlined the fold marks with a 50% Cool Gray pencil.   Basically, I used a light shade of gray and then a darker one.

Brought out my Glass Mat and Exacto Knife and cut the girl image out.  If you use a glass mat and a very sharp Exacto knife you can cut images out very easily.  Like cutting butter.  I hold the knife in one place and move the paper to cut it, especially curved areas.

I didn’t show it, but I cut out the white area between her legs too.

Adhered the girl to the scene with Tombo Mono Multi glue (love this glue).  Also drew in the little flower in her hand and darkened the folds of her dress and ribbon on her hat with a Faber-Castell Black marker.  Any fine point marker would work.

Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, I stamped my sentiment using Elegant Eggplant ink.

Assembled card and added some photo corner punches and brads and I have a finished card.

I hope you enjoyed following along with this tutorial and feel inspired to try it yourself.

Keep Stamping!

I felt like coloring this morning, so this is the project I came up with. 

Supplies:

I wanted to create a subtle background for the main image so I pulled out my Antique background stamp.  I inked my background stamp with Old Paper Ink by turning it over, rubber side up and then pressed the ink pad against it in a circular motion so I don’t get hard lines from the ink pad in my finished image.

I put my Very Vanilla card stock on top of the inked background stamp and then put a piece of scrap paper on top and rub over it lightly to get the image to transfer to the card stock.  You can also use a brayer on top of it.  If you use the brayer you won’t need the scrap paper.

Stamped my bird image with Brushed Corduroy ink.

Used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement of branch stamp and stamped it with Brushed Corduroy ink.

There is a reason I used Very Vanilla card stock for this project.  I knew I wanted to have white highlights on the bird and leaves of the images and I wanted them to really pop.  This would definitely not look the same with a white card stock.

Here I colored the birds belly and throat with a White Gel Pen. 

Time to get out my fancy Prismacolor pencils and storage container, lol.   I keep my pencils, point up in a $1 bucket that I purchased at Target’s dollar spot.

Colored the dark lined part of the leaves with a Bronze pencil.

Used the White gel pen again only this time to color the light part of the leaves and berries in.

Colored the dark part of the berries with Tuscan Red Pencil.

Colored birds head and back with Beige Seinna pencil and also put a little on the berries.

Colored in the darkest parts of the birds feathers with a Dark Brown pencil.

Here is the fun part, bringing it to life.  With a black marker I created dark shadows on the under parts of the branch and the birds feathers, creating dimension in the piece.

I think this makes such a big difference.

Used the Tuscan Red pencil again to put some darker shadows on the berries.

Sponged on Brushed Corduroy on the right bottom side to create light in the scene.  Funny how you have to add darkness to create light.  I’m sure there is a philosophy lesson in there somewhere, but, that is to deep for me to think about this morning, lol.

Used the ticket corner punch for main image panel.

Assembled the finished card.  Another one done!

Sure hope you enjoyed this tutorial this morning and you are inspired to get out those colored pencils. 

Hope your day if filled with light and warmth!

I was trying to create a dragonfly peering at his reflection, but I think I might have missed the mark on this one.  Oh well, here it is anyway. 

Supplies:

I didn’t need a mirror image stamp for this card.  The dragonfly looks pretty much the same no matter what direction it is stamped in.  Stamped two dragonflies facing each other with Basic Black.  (Note:  I recommend using Stazon Black instead of the Basic Black I used here).    You will see why in a later step.

Colored Dragonflies’ bodies with Certainly Celery marker.

Went over dragonflies with a Versamark marker and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

As you can see because I did not use Stazon black the dragonflies’ wings turned brown when I went over them with the Versamark marker.

Brayered Soft Sky at the bottom and at the top of the card stock leaving some white card stock showing behind one of the dragonflies. 

Brayered on Blue Bayou the same way as I did the Soft Sky, but I did not cover all of the Soft Sky ink.  I’m working for a graduated look here.

Brayered Not Quite Navy the same as the last two steps, but did not cover all of the Blue Bayou ink.  Still working for a graduation in color.

Distressed edge of the card stock with a Tim Holtz distressing tool.  This gadget is so handy.  It makes quick work of distressing edges of the card stock.  All you have to do is put the edge of the card stock in one of the little nooks of the tool and run it back and forth.  Too easy!

I also sponged on Not Quite Navy ink at the distress edge to make it stand out more.

Cut a Certainly Celery card stock mat and stamped the swirl stamp around the edge of it.  I did not adhere the main image panel to it yet.  I don’t adhere anything until the final step in case I change my mind, as I often do, lol.

Sponged Not Quite Navy around edge of certainly celery card stock.

Colored in the dots in the border design with a White Gel pen.

Assembled the card and finished it off with brads.

Another card completed!

Thanks for following along with this tutorial today.  Hope you enjoyed it and will give it or one of my other tutorials a try.

Have a super day!

I created a more Spring like card this morning. 

Supplies:

Loaded Leaf stamp with Versamark and then Lettuce ink then stamped on Whisper White cardstock.  Heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

Loaded flower stamp with Versamark and then Groovy Guava ink then stamped it.  Heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

Brayered Aqua ink on top half of card stock.

Brayered Stream ink on Bottom of card stock and just a little on the top of the card stock.

Stamped Swans with Basic Black ink using a Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement. 

Wiped black ink off of embossed images using a paper towel. 

Colored beaks with a Yellow Ochre Prismacolor Pencil.

Colored the Swans in using a White Gel Pen.  Mark in the direction that the feathers would go in.  Stay inside the black lines so your Swans are separated.  It is OK for some of the blue background to show through.  It creates a water reflection effect on the birds.  Make sure your brayered ink is completely dry before doing this step.

Also use the White gel pen to trace beside the water ripples.

Used an Always Artichoke and Cameo Coral marker to create shadows on the flowers and leaves by highlighting under them.

Used the white gel pen to give a scenes of light to the tops of the flowers.

Sponged on Stream ink at the bottom of the card stock to darken the area.

Used Cuttlebug embossing folder on the Groovy Guava panel layer and assembled card.

Done!

This card did not photograph well at all.  I always have trouble with teal and guava showing their correct colors in photos.   Oh well, here it is anyway.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and feel inspired to get out your brayer and give it a try.

Have a super day!

I created this card and tutorial last night after checking out all the snow we received here in my neck of the woods.   We got a foot of snow and drifts of at least 4 foot.  Winter is not over in Ohio.

This is my man, best friend and love of my life, Russ clearing a path for me, as he put it “clearing the way for YOUR HIGHNESS”.  Too funny!

So, on with the winter scene tutorial without further ado.

Supplies:

I used my mirror image stamp.  It is made by Rubber Stampede.  You stamp any stamp on the solid rubber of the mirror image stamp then stamp the mirror image stamp on your paper and you got it, a mirror image.

I like to start off stamping my mirror image first.  I find it is easier to line the regular image up with it. 

Stamped Trees on mirror image stamp with Blue Bayou and then stamped the mirror image on Whisper White card stock.

Used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up tree image and stamped it with Basic Black ink.

Cropped the image and brayered Soft Sky ink over the Blue Bayou trees.

Brayered Lake Mist ink at top of black trees.

Sponged Pebble ink at top of card stock and sloped it down on the right side for interest.

Sponged Soft Sky under pebble sponging and at bottom of black trees.

Used the trusted torn Post-it-note as a mask to create a hard line where the ground meets the ice.  I sponged on Blue Bayou ink right at the torn edge of the Post-it-note. 

Removed Post-it-note and used my white gel pen in the crooks of the Black trees to create snow in the branches.  Put just a tiny bit in the Blue Bayou trees too.

Assembled card and decided I wanted the appearance of wind in the air so I stamped one of my favorite stamps, Baroque Motifs over all the layers with River Rock ink.   The River Rock ink did not show up well on the dark sky of the main image so I traced it with a Versamark marker to darken it.

There you have it another finished card. 

Thanks for joining me today for this tutorial.  Hope you have enjoyed seeing the process and will give it a try.

Hope your day is one of warmth and joy!

I’m still working on sympathy cards.  I realize it may be a bit depressing, but we need them just the same.

Supplies:

Let me talk for a moment about a couple of supplies.  Below is the Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink Applicator.  This tool was made to be used with Alcohol inks but I found I can use my Stampin’ Up Re-inkers with this applicator to make interesting backgrounds.  You can purchase little pre-cut felt pads for around $4.99 to attached to the Ink Applicator.  Remember I’m cheap so I spend .25 cents on a piece of white felt and cut it myself.

My Stampin’ Up Re-inker storage is not fancy at all.  I bought these little baskets that will hold 18 re-inkers each for about a $1.  I like them because they are portable and can be moved from a shelf to my work area easily. 

I can also tilt a basket to the side to see what colors are in that row instead of picking through them.

On with the tutorial.

Dotted Applicator felt with Sky Blue re-inker and pounced it on Whisper White card stock.  I also did some circular smearing to cover the entire piece of card stock.  The pouncing motion gives you little dots, which I like.  Dots in a background give the impression of dabble light to me.

On the same applicator felt I put dots of Certainly Celery re-inker and pounced it on the card stock, not covering the whole card stock so the blue can show through.

It’s hard to see in the photo, I apologize for the bad pic.  I put a stripe of Garden Green re-inker on the same applicator felt and then made stripes of color from the top of the card stock down in varying lengths.

I changed the felt for this step because I was afraid the colors would start getting muddy.  I dotted a fresh felt piece for the applicator with Really Rust re-inker and made stripes with it in varying lengths at the top of the card stock.

Put dots of Garden Green on the applicator felt and smeared it in a circular motion on the bottom of the card stock to create a shadow for the coming flowers.

Stamped flowers with Palette Nior Black ink.

You will want to learn from my mistake here.  I did not wait until the card stock was completely dry before coloring in my flowers with a white gel pen.  It did not do well and I have to repeat this step later to get whiter brighter flowers.  My suggestion let it dry completely or use your heat gun to dry it before coloring in the flowers.

Outlined flower petals with a Tempting Turquoise marker.

Colored in the flower stems with an Old Olive marker.

I cropped a lot of this off to get a more interesting shape.

Assembled card and drew lines at the corners of the layers to create a window look.  Also, went back over my flower petals with my white gel pen to make them stand out more.

Finished card.

I seem to never have enough sympathy cards on hand.  I keep a basket of cards at work for staff to purchase and for agency use.  Sympathy cards never last long in the basket I’m afraid.  I try to keep the price of my cards down.  I’m currently charging $4 a card.  I’m not into it for the money.  Stamping is my therapy.  It’s the creative process that gives me so much pleasure.  You will never see me do a 5 minute card (remember therapy, I need lots of it). With that being said, lets get started on today’s tutorial.

Supplies:

Starting with Whisper White card stock and a torn piece of copy paper as a mask for the sky area.  Keep the piece of paper you tore off.  We will use it in later steps. I just hold the copy paper in place.

Stamped flowers from Trees Three set with Versamark and heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

This is one of my stamping buddies, Lucas.  He is a German Short Haired Pointer/Great Dane mix and weighs about 110 lbs.  He is so darn cute and attentive this morning.  Thought I would share!

Sorry, back to the tutorial.

Return copy paper mask, lining it up as best you can.

Brayer on Old Olive ink.

Now I sponged on more Old Olive ink to create a shadow on the hill.

Sponged on Always Artichoke ink to get a graduation in shadow color.

Remember the piece of copy paper I tore.  Well here we are using the chuck of it that was torn out to mask the hill area.  I tack it down with small post it notes on both sides to help keep the mask in place.

Brayer on Aqua ink to create lake.

Turn piece around and brayer on Lake Mist ink for the sky, not brayering all the way down to the water color.  I like to leave white showing to brighten things up a bit.

Remove mask and wipe ink off the embossed flowers on the hill.

I just want to use the grassy part of this stamp in this step. So I colored in just the grass on the stamp with an Always Artichoke marker, huffed on it then stamped.

After stamping a line of grasses with Always Artichoke I stamped over them using an Old Olive marker to get some color variation in the grasses.

Stamp some more grasses using Old Olive marker at the bottom of hill.

Used a sponge and Always Artichoke ink to sponge in the shadows at the base of the grasses.

Put to much time into this card so far to mess up on the sentiment so I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement.  Stamp my sentiment using Blue Bayou ink and stamping off on scrap paper once before stamping on the card stock to lighten the color of the image.

Thought the sky looked just a little drab, so I brayered in a bit of Aqua ink at the top of the sky area.

Completed card!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will give it a try.

Thanks for visiting with me and Lucas today.  Have a wonderful day!

This card is for the todays Sketch Challenge SC166 found here:  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=330124

Supplies:

 Stamp vine by loading stamp with Versamark and then Lettuce ink and stamping on Whisper White card stock.

Heat emboss image using clear embossing powder.  Note:  I keep my embossing powder in a sandwich sized plastic container so I don’t have to try to put the embossing powder back into the tiny container it came in.

Stamp bird by first loading stamp with Versamark and then Cranberry ink.   Heat emboss it using clear embossing powder.

Stamp flowers from Stampin’ Up Trees Three set by first loading stamp with Versamark and then Mountain Rose ink.  Heat emboss using clear embossing powder.

Crop image and sponge on Stream ink using a circular motion with the sponge.  It is ok to go over the embossed images with the sponge.  The ink will not stick to the embossed images.

Give dimension to the vines by highlighting the under sides of the vine with an Always Artichoke marker.

Sponged additional Stream ink on bottom corners of card stock.

Used a Sharpie Silver Paint Pen and run it around the edges of my main image card stock and the layering card stock pieces.  This is very easy to do and gives a look of additional layers without the weight and bulkiness.   

Used a small Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss top and bottom of Cool Caribbean card stock layer.

Sponged Stream ink on bottom of Taken with Teal card stock layer.

Used the Sharpie Silver paint pen again to go around the the very outside of the assembled card.

Added some flower punches and brads. 

 Finished card!

Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.  If you did, check out my other tutorials on this blog.

If you don’t participate in the Splitcoast Stampers Challenges, you don’t know what you are missing.  They really have kept me stamping and growing in my creativity.

Have a super wonderful day!

On Split Coast Stampers today there is a very interesting color challenge.   The challenge is to use Purely Pomegranate, So Saffron & Wild Wasabi.  Whew!  What a challenge for me.  I really don’t like bright colors and these colors just leap off the paper.  You can find the color challenge here:  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=329824

I decided to go ahead and do a tutorial for this one.  Let’s get started!

Supplies:

Punched a circle from the sticky part of a Post-It-Note to use as a mask for the moon, positioned it on Whisper White card stock.

Brayered So Saffron Ink on bottom 2/3 of card stock.

Brayered Wild Wasabi on bottom 1/3 of card stock.

Brayered Purely Pomegranate on top 1/3 of card stock.

Decided to tone sky down and give it a little light by removing moon mask and Brayering So Saffron over the sky area.

Tore a cliff shape from So Saffron cardstock and sponged on So Saffron to create a shadow.

Adhered Cliff to card stock.

Used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement of tree and stamped it with Basic Black ink.

Torn the very top of two Post It Notes and used them as mask so I could create some grass on the cliff.

Sponged on Wild Wasabi ink right at the edge of post it notes to create grass.

Using same post it notes I turned them around and used them again to put in some ground at the very bottom of the card stock.  Sponge on Wild Wasabi at the edge of post it notes.

Sponge Purely Pomegranate in the sky to darken it.

Darkened front of cliff with a So Saffron marker.  Sponged Wild Wasabi ink on tree leaves.  Colored in tree trunck with So Saffron marker.

Stamped weeds at the bottom with Wild Wasabi ink.

Cropped image, used a Garden Green marker to highlight the leaves in the tree and the top of the grasses on the cliff, colored the flowers of the weeds with a Baroque Burgundy marker.  Darkened the cliff front with the So Saffron marker to try to get it darker yet.

Assembled card front and used my Stampin Up Piercing tools to pierce sides of card.

There you have it!  The finished card.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and it inspires you to try using any color combination to create landscapes.

Have a colorful day!