Hello stampers and happy Thursday to you. Today I am sharing a gorgeously vibrant Tropical Leaf card. There are so many great watercolour tips to be gleaned from my video tutorial. Many thanks to Tami Hewlett for sharing her gorgeous card that inspired me! I hope that I inspire YOU to try this fun card!!
Tropical Leaf Bundle Card
If you want to enjoy a blast from the past, consider checking out this blog post from 2020 where I watercolour adorable rainboots.
Five Watercolour Tips and Tricks
Use either Fluid 100 watercolour paper from Stampin’Up! OR the retired Shimmery White cardstock for your background and your leaves.
Ink your leaves with three shades of green starting with the lightest shade. Spritz lightly with water and tilt your stamp so the colours run together a bit.
For the background ink up your E. block in Azure Afternoon and Tahitian Tide. Spritz lightly with water, let the colours run together a bit and press into your background layer.
If you have excess ink, absorb it with a piece of paper towel or toilet paper! It’s amazing how well this works!
When your background is dry, tap a water painter so that a few drops fall down. This gives a great effect.
Video Tutorial
For these types of watercolour tips, watching a video is always pure gold!! I hope you enjoy watching this amateur get some pretty awesome results. Trust me, I was very nervous to share this with you not knowing how it would turn out.
Inspiring Each Other
I am humbled and grateful at the inspiration that I gain from my fellow demonstrators. Without Tami Hewlett’s inspiration, I would never have made this card. I didn’t watch her video or even read her blog post, I just saw her card and started playing. Now I see that I used different ink colours than she did and the results are still fantastic. Where to you seek your inspiration?
My hope that when you see me trying new things, you will also feel empowered to do it as well. Creativity is so thrilling!! Have a super day, and please shop with me if you live in Canada or in Europe, your business keeps me going!!
Hello stampers. Did you know that I am now doing a regular Facebook live every Tuesday at 7pm EST? I am calling it Coffee and a Card revisited since I make all three cards from Coffee and a Card class that morning. I’ve done it twice now and I am really loving it. Last night the third card I made used Pigment Sprinkles. After I showed how I made my original card there was a lot of interaction and suggestions and the result was some different cards which I will share with you today. Facebook live is the next best thing to actually coming to a class. It’s even better when it turns into a play session! Thanks to everyone who joined me last night. If you missed it, you can still catch it here.
First I will show you the card with the three little silhouette children. We decided in class that it was better without the squirrel. He simply didn’t fit the theme or the look. What do you think? The so saffron layer is 3 3/4″ by 5″. You add the tree branch after you put the saffron layer on the blueberry bushel card. Trim off the excess tree by turning the card over first.
The next card uses only the gorgeous grape pigment sprinkles. When I did this one of my viewers immediately spotted the face of a bear. She is so right!!
The next card used two colours of pigment sprinkles, mango melody and granny apple green.
We noticed last night during the Facebook live that the colour of the pigment sprinkles doesn’t first match the colour on the lid. But when you add water the magic happens! I embossed the sentiment in shimmer black embossing powder as well. I wasn’t sure if it work well for words, but it does indeed.
I had made this card at coffee and a card class. Remember that with pigment sprinkles, less is definitely more. For this one I used gorgeous grape, melon mambo and bermuda bay. I love the white space on this card. The sentiment is from the July Paper Pumpkin On My Mind. I matted this one on gorgeous grape for a totally different look.
This last card I have dubbed “engagement” card since it was the result of a suggestion from one of my Facebook live viewers Dianne Bazelmans. She suggested that after sprinkling on the pigment sprinkles and spritzing with water that I drag the block across the paper. I like how it turned out. You do notice that the colours tend to blend together as you go across the page. This girl is swinging before an evening storm. I totally forgot to add the branches but I like it like this as well. I will add a branch later, right now I need to head off to pickleball. I will post it on my Instagram and Facebook for you to check out there.
Thanks ever so much for joining me today. Remember it is the last day for Bonus Bucks today. Spend $60 and get a $6 coupon code to use in August. It’s not huge bucks, but it is a lot better than nothing and it all adds up. Have a super day. (don’t forget to help me out by pinning some of my cards or even sharing this post on social media)
Hello stampers. I love silhouette stamps. They remind me of being a kid for some reason. Silhouette Scenes is a fantastic set that is also available as a bundle with Sweet Silhouettes dies. The dies include a leafy tree branch, a dandelion and three words: inspire, forever and adventure. The silhouettes are a girl pointing to the sky, a boy with a toy airplane, a girl on a swing and a boy looking into binoculars. I used the new shimmer black embossing powder and I really like the look of it.
The first card is an early espresso base with a seaside spray card front. the leafy tree branch is cut from mossy meadow cardstock. The girl on the swing is embossed in shimmer black and the words are stamped in memento black. This is a super simple card but the simple elements make it very striking and elegant.
Do you know how I got the colourful square in the middle of this card? First I embossed the couple in shimmer black embossing powder on a 3 3/4″ by 5″ piece of white cardstock. Then I sprinkled our new Pigment Sprinkles on a clear D block and spritzed the block with water. I then used the block as a stamp and held it on the white cardstock for a minute so that the colours bled together a bit. I used three colours of pigment sprinkles: daffodil delight, mango melody and granny apple green. When it was completely dry I stamped the words in memento black. I wasn’t sure if it would work on our regular whisper white, but it did! It might be even more striking on either watercolour paper or shimmery white cardstock, but this is more cost effective!
This last card deliberately has a child-like feel to it. The images were stamped in Versamark on so saffron then embossed with shimmer black and mounted on a blueberry bushel card. I added a leftover piece of the branch to the bottom corner of the card and added a squirrel from the retired Sitting Pretty bundle. There was no time to see if there was another small creature that I could use instead and I remembered where to find this squirrel so that is how I finished up this card. I’m not sure how much I like it, I think maybe another silhouette stamp might be better. If I come up with a better solution I will share it on my Facebook live on Tuesday at 7pm EST.
We will be making these cards at my weekly coffee and a card class Tuesday morning and I will also show you how to do them during my weekly Facebook live on Tuesday evening at 7pm. Thanks so much for stopping by, as always you can click on the images below if you want to buy those products. I would be most appreciative if you use the host code XBTQ47UR.
Until July 31 you will get a $6 bonus days coupon with every $60 purchase. This code will be emailed to you and you can use it on any order in August. If you live in the States and don’t have a demonstrator, just click on the shop with Julie button. Julie is my cross border buddy and she does amazing work! Here is her blog in case you haven’t checked her out yet.
The Extra, Extra promotion is also going on and you can save a LOT of money by getting the starter kit. As per usual, you pay only $135, you can put in it whatever you would like except for host sets and the total amount of merchandise you get to choose is $205!! You also get a free Paper Pumpkin of unknown vintage. If you would like to take advantage of that amazing deal, you can click here.
Hello stampers! You know that you have a great stamp set when it takes more than one blog post to adequately feature all the amazing elements. I am not even doing it justice. The more I play the more I want to create with this stamp set. You may not want to buy this bundle, it will prevent you from getting your work done!!
I have to be honest. Sometimes I find embellishment kits a waste of money. There are often elements in there that you simply can’t find a use for. This one is fantastic! You get so many pretty die cuts and vellum embellishments that it is instant gratification to whip a bunch of cards that make you look like you really slaved over them. Anyone who receives one of these over the top cards will really be feeling the love. I took a picture of some of the elements I had laying out before I started my card. This is NOT the complete embellishment kit by any means. Click here to see all of it.
The watercolour paper in the middle of the picture is 4″ by 5 1/4″ and has been stamped using the acrylic block technique shown in the video at the end of this post. Take a look at the finished card. It took about five minutes to make.
I used berry burst and pool party ink pads right on my acrylic block E and then spritzed both the block and the watercolour paper with water before “stamping”. Here is a picture of how I prepped the watercolour paper.
The grid paper is very helpful to align the tape and the cardstock making it easier to get a nice even border. Here is a close-up of the final result of the paper. I wish now that I had rotated it on my card so that you would see more of the pool party. Oh well. Next time.
Here is another card using some of the embellishment kit. The card is mostly in white and silver so the coloured embellishment really pops.
The next card uses a piece of one of the cards I posted yesterday. It had a mat of that beautiful paper from this suite, so I cut out an oval before adhering to the card and covering with the white mat. This paper is so lovely you really don’t want to waste any of it!
This card is clean and simple and really lets the paper shine. The sentiment is from Petal Palette another of my favourite stamps from the Occasions catalog. I decided to try and spruce it up a bit using some other embellishments from the kit and some ribbon. What do you think?
I really do love this sentiment. My job as a Stampin’Up! demonstrator has allowed me to meet so many new people all over the world and I have been blessed and enriched by it in so many ways, so this card is for you my fellow demonstrators and to all my Facebook and blog followers and to my wonderful customers and team members. I hope you feel the love. I made one last card that I totally cased from Dawn Olchefske. Here is the link to her blog. I just embossed my base layer, that is the only change I made.
Finally, here is the video that shows you how to do the acrylic block watercolour background technique. It is easy, controlled and changeable. You can always add more ink and spritz again with water.
Well hello stampers! It has been way too long since I have posted and I am truly sorry about that. However, “Life is full of healing and people who are there to help you find it.” This is an apt title for my blog post, not only because it is one of the sayings in the beautiful stamp set that I will be featuring, but it also really applies to my life right now.
Big Changes Up Ahead for Me
One of my favourite Bible verses is Jeremiah 29:11 where God says “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Some of you may know that besides being a mom to five kids, a mother-in-law to two and an oma to one, I have also been married to Jeff for 29 years. The sad truth is that my marriage is now ending. The good news is that the decision is mutual and that we are supported by our children. There is no denying that this will be a tough chapter in my life with many difficult decisions to make.
The one thing that will most likely change is that I will be moving away from Chatham next year when Rachel is done high school. I am trusting that doors will open and that my path will be led as to where I should live. My Stampin’Up! business will be even more important to me than it already is because I will be the only one “bringing home the bacon”. I want to be able to provide good service to my current customers but I also want to build up my online business as well as my team.
I would love to have YOU join my team
That being said, today is the last day to get in on an amazing deal on the starter kit. It is called Christmas in July and basically you get a bonus kit worth $94 if you join. The good news is that if you join now you have until January to get your business going! Wow!! Fall is the best time of year for sales because everyone is gearing up for Christmas. Deciding to get the starter kit can seem like a really big deal. It took me a long time to take the plunge and that is most likely because no one told me that it is risk free. Not only is it an amazing deal, it also comes with no strings attached. If you decide that you cannot afford to keep up the minimum requirement of $400 every three month just for your own discount, or that the business you had hoped would take off just isn’t, it really doesn’t matter. You will not get a nasty phone call or email from me or from Stampin’Up! They just want to give you an opportunity to use the kit in the way you want to, either to fund your own hobby or to build a thriving business or anything in between. I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that my Stampin’Up! family has been such a blessing to me, especially in the last few weeks when they were among the first to know about my family situation. I hope that if this resonates with you, that you will have the courage to take this step and just go for it. I would LOVE to help you succeed.
Today is also the last day to earn “bonus bucks”. With every $60 purchase you will receive 6 bonus bucks to use in August. With the new catalog still very fresh in our minds, it should be easy to decide what to get!
Let’s take a look now at the beautiful stamp set So Many Shells. Especially with what I am going through right now, this set really speaks to me with its many lovely and heartfelt sayings. Shells are also a timeless and comforting image that work well not only for many different types of cards, but also for both men and women. The shell images are two step stamps but they also work well on their own. Since it is a photopolymer set it is easy to line the images up for a beautiful detailed and artistic look.
One of things I like most about these cards is the copper trim that can be made to look like netting. A huge thanks to Jini Merck whose card I cased (the one on the far right) and who featured this ribbon trick. So clever. Here is the link to her blog post: http://stampwithjini.com/so-many-shells-tutorial/
We now have a background stamp called Marbled. I don’t have it yet, but I still had some designer series paper from two years ago that was a sale-a-bration freebie. I just had to use it even though it is no longer available. I just love the look but am super happy that there is now a background stamp that you can use over and over and not worry about running out of just the right paper. I used a different background stamp, Watercolor Wash (yes, it is killing me to spell it the American way rather than the Canadian way “watercolour”) on this next card along with the gorgeous saying “Life is full of healing and people who are there to help you find it.” I am finding that to be so true with my church family, my Stampin’Up! family, my Beyond Pampered Team, my friends and my family. It is always true that when we make ourselves vulnerable and share truth it opens the door to more meaningful conversations and relationships.
I used crumb cake and powder pink on the shells as well as marina mist for the background and early espresso for the words.
I try to get into the habit of finishing my cards in the inside as well. Taking that extra step really finishes it off beautifully and if you don’t do it right away you just know you are going to have to dig out that stamp set, figure out the coordinating ink pads and make a mess all over again before you can give the card away. Not my idea of fun stamping. Too much like work.
I just love the simplicity of this next card. No fussy cutting, just inking up an acrylic block, stamping off, misting and then stamping some shells and a saying on top. I got this particular idea from my good friend and mentor Lisa Pretto. Check out her blog post: https://inkbigacademystamps.com/2017/06/5-way-friday-many-shells-stamp-set.html
I just wound some copper thread around the bottom of the top panel multiple times to give it a nautical look. Colours are bermuda bay for the background and island indigo for the shells. The long skinny shell has an overlay of crumb cake.
Well, I hope I have inspired you with So Many Shells, and do remember that whatever you are going through, life is full of healing and people who are there to help you find it. I wish you the courage to make tough choices and also the bravery to have vulnerable and honest conversations with your loved ones.
On a brighter note, it feels really good to be back here again. Stamping is great therapy and I am so glad to have you in my life.
