LEMON CASCADE.

Hi friends!

Playing along with this AAA Cards Challenge, featuring Marlies’s yummy card to CASE. 

UPDATE:

Thrilled to get a runner-up spot to Anastasiya’s fun card!

Staying in the food theme Marlies chose, and taking a page from GD Maria’s book, I stayed within the fruit-y realm. I just find lemons to be so cheerful, especially in summer ☀️

 

THE PROCESS

To start: On the righthand side, I stamped various lemons in a bluish-gray ink. Then I stamped the wedge 3 times, and a full lemon, images on yellow card stock, fussy cut and shaded them with alcohol markers, and applied them as shown. The wedges are glued flat and the whole is on foam tape.  

The sentiment was stamped in black ink. I found the card too flat looking so I stamped, colored and fussy cut a flower, and a couple leaves from green cardstock, and applied as shown. The flower has some foam tape behind the petals, and was cut almost in half for perspective purposes. 

To finish: Image panel is mounted on darker, textured yellow cardstock. Still not content I added some gloss medium to the leaves and lemon wedge sections. 

*TIP for the day*

Ink formulas matter immensely.  When coloring images in, to avoid bleeding and smudging, I find Memento Tuxedo Black extremely helpful for use with alcohol markers and colored pencils. 

For sentiments, I find Versamark Onyx Black to be juicy and pigmented enough to never need a second stamping to get great coverage. Hope this helps! :o)

SUPPLIES

all stamps - Hero Arts Zest Wishes #CM417 clear set

alcohol markers

Ranger Glossy Accents

black & gray ink pads

colored cardstock

Thanks for stopping in today!

ALPHABET CHALLENGE - F is for FESTIVITIES

 Hi friends!

So excited to announce that I have joined THE ALPHABET CHALLENGE Design Team, and will be bringing a fresh new sample card just for the Challenge here every other week! Woohoo - I hope I get to inspire you to get paper-crafty on the regular. 

The current challenge is the letter F for FESTIVITIES - Christmas in July, Birthdays, Weddings, any festivity you know of in July, and you have two weeks to play along!

I’ve chosen to highlight the various Strawberry Festivals we have in these parts. It’s a big deal - rides, parades, all things delicious a person could make, and consume, with strawberries! Our winters can feel long so we max out on every available summer activity. 

I’m also playing along with the following Challenges: 

ELLIEBELLE’S GARDEN PARTY  Challenge #17 - 

Anything in or from a garden (ends 8/10)

WE LOVE STAMPING July Challenge - Summertime (ends 7/29)

WORD ART WEDNESDAY Challenge - Anything Goes #760-761 (ends 7/22).

I started by making a wood “crate” which I proceeded to mostly cover up 😂 I grabbed some kraft card stock and dry embossed it with a wood grain folder, then lightly ran a white pigment ink pad over the raised side, and then the same with a brown ink pad. This panel was cut and pasted in strips as shown. 

All the element outlines were stamped in a dark brown ink to coordinate with the crate colors. The strawberries were coated in the gloss medium and when that had dried I added some dots with the white gel pen. Flower petals were brushed with a Wink of Stella pen for a very subtle sparkle. Lots of fussy cutting and hand-cramping going on here!

The white panel was die cut with a stitched rectangle, and this was mounted over a piece of brown and white petite ginghamy patterned paper. The crate was mounted on foam strips, and some of the images are mounted on tiny foam dots for extra dimension. Celebrate sentiment was die cut twice and stacked. 

SUPPLIES

all stamps - Stampin’ Up! Sweet Strawberry set

Celebrate die - Spellbinders Wild Hello Card Kit #KOM-JUN21

stitched rectangle border die - My Favorite Things Wonky Stitched Rectangles #MFT-0839

wood grain embossing folder - The Paper Studio

brown gingham paper - Recollections pad

gloss medium

white gel pen

Wink of Stella pen

matte gold sequins

assorted ink pads

colored pencils

white pigment ink 

metallic coated cardstock in gold

Thanks for stopping in today, I can’t wait to see what you make!

PERFECT PEAR

Welcome!

STAMPS

Pears - Stampin' Up! Infinite Goodness set

Tiles - Stampin' Up! Elegant Ornaments set

Sentiment - Stampin' Up! Bella Blossoms set

TECHNIQUES

Fussy cutting, ink sponging and swiping, direct to paper, pop dotting.

Tiles stamped in gray and sponged around edges. Pears were stamped in black ink onto a panel of ink swiped onto cs light to dark green; highlights were made using Versamagic dewdrops direct to paper. Grey Copic marker applied along base under pears. Top pear was pop dotted.

INSPIRED BY:

Colorado Craft Company card

Playing along with the following Challenges:

Lil Red Wagon - Case Someone  (ends 7/20).

Timeout Challenges - Hungry  (ends 7/28).

Colour Crazy  (ends 7/29?).

Thanks for stopping by!

 

1 Stamp, 2 Looks * Pear

Welcome back!

SUPPLIES

STAMPS:  Pear, leaf, sentiment - Stampin' Up! ALL NATURAL and BLOOMING WITH KINDNESS sets, Merci - Crafters Companion FRENCH GREETINGS set

INKS:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Inks, Versamark

DIES:  Momenta set #32265

OTHER:  white detail embossing powder, paintbrush, Perfect Pearls, burlap trim, Stampin' Up! embossing folder

CARDSTOCK:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb

STEPS - CARD ONE:

1.  Stamp sentiment repeatedly in various shades of ink on white cardstock.

2.  Stamp the same sentiment on black cs with Versamark ink and emboss with white powder.  Trim as shown and adhere to panel.

3.  Stamp pear on white cs scrap and use paintbrush to spread watered-down black ink on it.

4.  Use black inkpad to edge pear panel.  Apply image panel over sentiments as shown.

5.  Emboss front of white card base and adhere sentiment panel

STEPS - CARD TWO:

1.  Ink white panel with pear image using Versamark, and emboss with white detail powder.

2.  Smear various ink pads over embossed panel and spritz with a mixture of water and Perfect Pearls. Allow panel to dry.

3.  Stamp background panel with Merci in brown ink.

4.  Die cut word twice from white cs scrap and glue together.

5.  Adhere burlap trim, die cut word, and leaf as shown.

6.  Mount image panel to brown cs, and this to a white card front.

Playing along with:  

Twofer Challenge #24 Fruit

Crafty Cardmakers - Embossing

What a fun idea!  The Twofer challenge blog is new to me.  The idea is to use the same stamp for different occasions to get two separate looks.  I was so inspired by Darnell's DT card with the wonderful grey sketched-look card, and also an older video of Jennifer McGuire's for the background, where she sprays the ink with a Perfect Pearls and water mix. 

Thanks for stopping by!

May you be blessed today, and may you be a blessing...

Nancy

Tres Pears

Here's another card featuring a background technique from the current Technique Junkies newsletter called Pearlized Gesso. The crosshatch pattern is shimmery in real life (what looks like yellow is actually gole) and yet is subtle enough not to scream "BLIIIING!!" The card is actually more muted in person.

For the main image panel, I inked the pear stamp (Hampton Art Stamps) with mustard ink, then rocked just the edges in the green pad to get a graduated tone. I inked the stem with the brown ink, and stamped the center pear on Stampin' Up!'s cream cardstock. I then masked this by stamping the pear on a Post-It, trimming closely, and placing over the stamped pear. I stamped the pear two more times, one on each side, before removing the mask. I stamped a mesh texture (All Night Media) in brown ink along the bottom, and over stamped this with the Pears text stamp (A Stamp in the Hand).

I sponged the bottom edge with the brown ink, and the top with the mustard. I layered the main image panel to dark brown, then over an openwork green woven fiber ribbon that was wrapped around the background panel. The photo tabs are antiqued gold, and the ribbon is tied with thin linen cord.

Thanks for looking!

Cherry Branch

Here's another new-to-me stamp (cherries, by Rubber Stampede) - I always get ridiculously inspired by new images. I thought the Technique Junkies Marker Water Coloring technique would be great for this, although I wondered if I could paint in the lines LOL It's in the current (June 2008) issue.

Click photo for more detail

Card measures 5 5/8" x 4 3/8"

Oops, forgot the waterbrush here!

Still on my quest to keep it simple and use what I have. I've always loved fruit images and I really like the branch on this one - very realistic. I followed the instructions for the main panel to a T, using Canson 140lb cold press Watercolor paper. There was literally no warping which tickled me to no end :o) I used a touch of white gel pen on each cherry for a little highlighting. I used some Marvy LePlume II markers from the 'Garden' set - they are the skinny style, and even tho they've been around here forever and a couple were a little dry, they still worked great with this technique!

I ran the panel thru the largest of my circle Nestibilities to cut it, and then emboss a line around the edge. I then laid this circle on my red cardstock and traced around it with a pencil. I used the scallop scissors to trim around this. And speaking of these scissors, the following is for Laurie especially :o)

*tip*

When making scalloped edges on a square/rectangle so that the corners look right, here's what I do:

• trace around the main image panel with a pencil onto colored cs
• starting on a long side I cut a line with the scalloped edge scissors, starting and ending with a full circle at each end
• then I line a circle on the blade up with the last circle on the cardstock and cut a line along the short end
• I do the same thing with the next long side, starting where I just left off on the short side
• when you get to the end of the second long side it's easy to finish the last side doing it the same way

I applied white Uniball Signo gel pen to the scallops as shown, and adhered the main image panel to the red one.

For the striped panel I used second generation Stampin' Up!'s Real Red dye ink on the Hero Arts Holiday Stripe stamp. I used Versamark on the cherry stamp to make a background on darker green cs and then dried it with my heat tool.

I rounded the bottom corners of the background panel and layered it to a reddish brown cardfront with rounded corners. After tying a white grosgrain ribbon around the striped panel I layered it all as shown.

Thanks for looking!

Lemon Square

Click photo for more detail

Card measures 5 3/4" x 4 1/2"

I've been going thru some techniques from year 2005 of the TechniqueJunkies newsletters, and it's one of my favorites year's worth already. There is one called Simple Sumi that I've been wanting to try for a year, and as soon as warm weather hits and I can go spray fumey products outside I'm all over it!! LOL Ever since seeing a TV special on how spraying areosol-type products in the basement could potentially cause the fumes to spread under and up into a water heater causing it to explode, I've had no urge to try certain projects anywhere but the great outdoors. Just healthier all the way around!

I wanted to try the Ripped Marble technique from the Aug 2005 newsletter so I started with a PSX Lemons stamp and some black Versafine, and three shades of yellow cardstock. I found that my panel needed a little more depth, so I used the ink and a tiny stipple brush to apply it just to the border as shown.

I mounted this panel to a taupe panel that I had put black rivets in, and tied rafia thru. If I was still working on the card I would distress both ends of this piece. Oh well! LOL I layered a black scrap under this so just the ends stuck out.

For the bkgd panel, I started with a piece of cs the same color as the center strip on the lemons panel. I used Marvy Ochre #13 to apply the Frost Background from the Feb 2005 TJ newsletter, and then stamped the lemon slice image (PSX) in the same ink randomly, using first and second stampings. I stamped the script (A Stamp in the Hand) in black along the bottom corner. I was unhappy with how bold it was all looking, so I used a sponge brush to swish light yellow acrylic ink over the surface randomly. I let this dry completely, then used black Staz-On ink to stamp the verse (Eureka!):

"The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits." - James 3:17

then Adirondack Mushroom (one of my all time favorite neutral ink colors) to stamp two lemon branch images (Club Scrap) randomly. I say randomly, but you do have to give some thought as to placement of stamped images in relation to the main panel, etc.

*tip*

I like to lay the main panel on the background as I go, making sure placement of all elements coordinates with it. A stamp positioner will work wonders also!

I mounted the main panel to the bkgd panel, then this to a black panel, and finally to a taupe panel to tie in the layer under the main image.

Thanks for looking!