Needed a thank you card today.  So here is a new tutorial.  🙂

Supplies:

Stamped Butterfly with Black ink on Whisper White card stock.

Loaded flower stamp first with Versamark and then Certainly Celery ink then stamp them.  Heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.

Colored Flowers and leaves with Barely Banana and Certainly Celery markers.  Colored over the flowers and leaves with Versamark marker and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.

Brayered Certainly Celery ink at bottom of card stock.

Brayered Soft sky ink over top two thirds of card stock.

Wiped ink off of embossed images with paper towel.

Cut sentiment with Cuttlebug die cut out of Certainly Celery card stock.  Cropped image.

Decided I wanted the sentiment to be darker so I went over it with a Certainly Celery marker.  Also, added certainly celery marker to the bottom of the butterfly wings.

I like to use Metallic Sharpie markers to out line a layer to give the appearance of another layer without the weight.  Much cheaper than buying metallic cardstock too.

Stamped Flowers at side of Barely Banana layer of card stock with black ink.

Colored flowers with Certainly Celery, Barely Banana and a white gel pen.

Completed card

I hope you liked this little tutorial.  If so, give a shout out in the comment section. 

Also, thank you for visiting my blog.  Hope your day is filled with Butterflies and flowers!

This card was inspired by a beautiful photograph by Werol that can be seen here:  http://www.deviantart.com/print/475044/

It is also inspired by this weeks Split Coast Stampers Inspiration Challenge IC117 found here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=328890

Let’s get started with today’s tutorial.  🙂

Supplies: 

Stamp tree on Stampin’ Up Whisper White card stock using Blue Bayou ink.

Stamped background pines using a Not Quite Navy Marker to color in just the trees on the stamp.  Huffed on it to moisten then stamped.

Used Post-It-Notes to mask sky area.  I torn the Post it Notes on the stick edge of the note, making sure to leave some of the stick part on the Note to adhere to the card stock.

Sponged Night of Navy ink right at edge of Post It Note mask to create a horizon line. 

Sponged on Soft Sky ink, working from the edge of the paper and swiping the ink on toward the tree base.

Did the last step again only using Not Quite Navy ink and not covering all of the Soft Sky ink already applied.

Same step again, only with Night of Navy ink and not covering all of the Not Quite Navy ink applied in the last step.  We are getting a graduation of color here. 🙂

Removed Post It Notes.

Went over the tree trunk with a Not Quite Navy Marker to make it stand out more.

Now for the sky:  Sponged on Soft Sky ink in a swiping motion from the edge of the paper toward the tree, leaving white card stock showing around the tree.

Sponge on Blue Bayou and then Not Quite Navy in the same swiping motion as in the last step creating a graduation in color, by not covering entirely the lighter colors before it.

Used a Night of Navy marker to make a few of the leaves in the tree darker to create dimension.

Punched a circle out of the sticky part of a Post It Note to use as a mask to create a sun.

Sponged Soft sky ink with a swiping motion from the mask out toward the edge of the card stock.  Leaving white card stock showing to create a glow.

Removed Post it Note mask and sponged some black ink at very bottom of the card stock in a swiping motion.

Added a couple of layers of card stock and Cuttlebug die cut corners and here is the finished card.

I hope you enjoyed today’s tutorial.  I realize my tutorials are long, but I like to show each step individually, as much as possible. 

Hope your day is filled with as much light as this tree!

I put together this tutorial showing how to mask your card stock in order to put a sun in the background. 

Supplies:

Start out with Barely Banana card stock and punch a circle from a post it note.  You will want to punch it trying to get as much of the circle out of the sticky portion of the Post it Note.

Position your circle mask on your card stock and brayer the entire card stock with Summer Sun ink.

Sponge More Mustard ink on using a circular motion with the sponge with out going all the way to the mask.  Leave some of the Barely Banana ink showing around the sun mask.

Sponge Pumpkin Pie on in the same manner, only don’t cover all of the More Mustard Ink.

Sponge Really Rust on in the same manner only don’t cover all of the Pumpkin Pie ink.

Remove Post it Note mask.

Stamp branch using Black ink.

Stamp Bird using Stamp-a-ma-jig for positioning with Black ink.

Decided I wanted the image to be darker to the right side so I sponged on Bravo Burgundy ink.

Distressed edge of  with Tim Holtz distressing tool.

Sponged Really Rust ink on the More Mustard pieces of my layout.

Stamped weeds at bottom of More Mustard Piece of card stock.

Assembled card front and stamped additional branches on with black ink using my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement.

Since I stamped over layers of card stock there were little gaps in my stamped image so I colored them in with a black marker.

Finished card!

I love making scenes with the emboss resist technique and I created this tutorial to show you the process.  If your up for a challenge, give it a whorl!  I would love to see your creations using this tutorial, please leave me a link to them in the comments section!

Supplies:

Note:  When working a scene with the emboss resist technique you work from foreground to the background (front of scene to back of scene).  This is so your images in front resist the ink of the images you want to look like are behind them.

I started out with Whisper White card stock and loaded my stamp with Versamark and then Certainly Celery and stamped it, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

I store my clear embossing powder in a plastic sandwich size container so I don’t have to mess with putting the embossing powder back into a tiny canister or cleaning an embossing powder tray.

Stamped the same stamp again only this time loading with Versamark and then Garden Green then stamping it, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

Loaded tree stamp with versamark and Cameo Coral ink, then went over the trunk with a black marker, stamped, heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.

Loaded house stamp with Versamark and then black ink, stamped, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

Used a Versamark marker and went over the entire house with it and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

Tore the edge of two post it notes and positioned them to cover the sky area.  You will put the torn edge where you want your horizon line to be.

Brayer Old Olive ink on.  Don’t be shy, use a lot of ink and work it into the nooks and crannies of the embossed trees and bushes.

Remove Post it Notes and wipe the Old Olive ink off of the house with a paper towel.

Next brayer on Soft Sky ink.   Brayer across the card stock, not up and down.  Start at the very top of the card stock, with most of the brayer off of the cardstock and work the brayer back and forth moving down the card stock.  Use a lot of ink and work it into the paper.  I like to leave some white card stock showing above the horizon line so I don’t brayer all the way down to the horizon line.  The more ink you put on the paper the better it blends and you won’t have those brayer lines.

Brayer on Blue Bayou ink in the same manner as the Soft Sky ink in the last step, only don’t brayer all the way down over your Soft Sky ink, leave some of it showing, we are creating a graduation in color.

Do the same process as the last two steps only using Not Quite Navy ink.  Don’t brayer all the way over your Blue Bayou ink.  Remember, lots of ink and work it in.

Sponge on Night of Navy ink around the edges of the card stock and work it into the bottom card stock in the bushes area and at the top of the card stock in the sky.

Use a White Gel pen to put in the walk way in front of the house.

Assemble card and stamp Stitched Exotics using Stampa-ma-jig and White Craft Ink.

Finished creation!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, give me a shout out in the comments section.

Hope your world is completely filled with color today!

Flourishes are all the craze now.  You can get flourish stamps by just about every stamp company out there.  I love flourishes!  They can add so much to a piece. 

I get comments on my cards saying “I can’t believe you cut those flourishes out”.  Well I didn’t and today I will show you how to make those flourishes look 3D.

Supplies:  SU Soft Sky card stock, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Faded Jeans, White Gel Pen, SU Not Quite Navy Marker, Sponge.

Stamp Flouish with Faded Jeans Ink on Soft Sky card stock.

I like to make my flourishes come out of the shadows.  Sponge Faded Jeans in a circular motions, starting from the far left of the Cardstock and working in.  You will want it to be a little darker at the edge of the cardstock.

Now to figure out where you want your light source to come from.  The pen on the card stock shows the direction of where I want mine to come from.

Keeping your light source in mind, use your gel pen and highlight the flourish by tracing the right side (light source side) of the flourishes.  This does not have to be exact.

Now to the dark side (starting to sound like Star Wars, lol).

Your shadow is coming from the left side (dark side), in the direction the marker is pointing.

Traced the left side of the flourishes with a Stampin’ Up Night of Navy Marker.

There you have it, 3D looking flourishes.  This is the same technique I used on my Flourished Collage card.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and come away inspired to make your flourishes pop!

Your comments, questions and suggestions are always appreciated.

As promised here is the Orange Poppies card  tutorial using the emboss resist technique.

Load your poppies stamp with Versamark first and then with Black ink (all of my inks are Classic Dye inks), stamp poppies on Whisper White card stock and heat emboss using clear embossing powder.

Note:  I have two Versamark Pads, one for this technique and the other, clean one for just stamping Versamark. 

Your pad will get colored ink on it, unless you clean your stamp between stampings.

I keep my clear embossing powder in a plastic sandwich sized container and spoon it on.  Much, much easier than trying to put the powder back in to the little canister container that it comes in.

Color poppies with Summer Sun Marker.

Add Pumpkin Pie Marker at base of flowers.

Color over poppies with Versamark Marker and heat emboss with clear embossing powder.

Now that your flowers are heat embossed they will resist any ink put over them.  I love this technique, it really makes images pop!

Sponge in a circular motion Aqua ink.

I’m asked a lot what kind of sponges I use.   Well I’m cheap, so I buy really big bags of cheap sponges at the dollar store, lol.  Using such cheap sponges allows me to always use a chunk of a fresh one.

Sponge on Summer Sun ink using circular motions.

Dab on Pumpkin Pie ink in splotches.

Stamp poppies over orange and yellow with Pumpkin pie ink.

Color poppies with markers, first with Summer Sun and then add some Pumpkin Pie at the bases of the flowers.  Your just wanting to define them a bit.

Stamp the sprigs using Old Olive ink.

Sponge on right top half Blue Bayou ink.

Sponge on Not Quite Navy ink.

Color in sprigs with Old Olive and Real Red Markers to make them stand out more.

Finish off by sponging on Night of Navy ink.

And here it is ready to assemble.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  I realize it skips around a bit, but that is how my creative process flows. 

Please leave me a comment giving me feed back on this tutorial and also any questions you may have. 

Supplies:

Loaded the Tim Holtz tool, starting with the lightest reinker color, Barely Banana, I applied it to glossy white card stock using a bouncing motion.  Continued to add reinkers in the same manner moving out a bit with each color in the following order, Barely Banana, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip.

Heat set the colors using my Stampin’ Up Heat tool.  Note:  if you don’t heat set it, the color will stay wet a long time on the glossy card stock.

I cut a circle with a Stampin Up 1 1/4″ circle punch out of Apricot Appeal card stock and rolled edge on Really Rust ink pad, adhered to background.

Cut a curvy edge on pieces of card stock, 2 pieces of Whisper White, 1 piece of Apricot Appeal and 1 piece of Really Rust card stocks to layer as the ground.  Adhered all but 1 piece of Whisper White.

Using Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, I stamped the Pine tree twice, once in Peeled Paint and again in Black moving the image just a hair when stamping the black to create a shadow.  Note:  you need to give lots of pressure on the tree stamp, due to stamping on multiple layers of card stock.  My image had gaps in it where the ground met the background.  I used an Old Olive & Black marker to draw in the gaps.

Adhered last Whisper White ground piece.

Sponged White Card stock with Really Rust and Chocolate Chip inks.  Put white highlights with a white gel pen in the tree to simulate snow.

Finished by layering, adding ribbon, brads and stamping sentiment in Old Olive Ink, using Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement.

There you have it, Sunset Pine

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I did making it!  Stamping keeps me sane.  It’s cheaper than therapy, lol.