Freestyle Saturday Christmas

Hi everyone today is the fifth Saturday which means it is Freestyle challenge over at Hiding In My Craft Room. The design team all month have been creating projects using Christmas in July as the theme. I've had a lot of fun and now am ahead doing my Christmas cards.

This week the challenge is sponsored by MHK Designs who will be giving away three products to one lucky winner. If you have not checked out MHK Designs digital stamps check them out as not only are the stamps and digital papers reasonably priced but they are gorgeous. Especially if you love vintage images like I do. :-)

For this challenge I was given Season Greetings which was just released last month. I've had so much fun with this set and I think this is going to one of my go to sets to use for creating Christmas cards.

I had fun doing the background. I wish you could see all the silver lines and shimmer from using Liquid Metal as water color paint and crumpled tissue paper.

I used a scallop circle from my library in Silhouette Studio. At one time the nested scallop circles was a freebie. There is no rule that you can't by stretching turn a circle into an oval. I then filled my oval with gradient colors.

I resized my image in Silhouette Studio to fit into the oval. Then using the image effects option I turned my black and white image into a green one.  Then after printing  and sealing my print the fun began. I used Peeled Paint distress ink as paint and a tiny brush to add more color to the tree .  I used Dollar Tree watercolor pencils for the bird and the burlap fabric around the tree wetting the tip first. I hate to admit it but I like these inexpensive watercolor pencils better than some more expensive ones I have.. The ornaments and star were painted with Inkadinkado iridescent watercolor paints. Wish the photo showed the beautiful sheen.

For my next card I decided to use the vintage looking Santa along with the NOEL sentiment. At first I was going to leave the Santa uncolored but decided to go ahead and color.

I decided to go with a blank background only wrapping decorative ribbon around the card base. The ribbon was a lucky find at a thrift store recently.

In Silhouette Studio I drew my rounded corner shape. Then I did an internal offset to create a smaller shape. The large shape I filled in with a pattern instead of cutting it out of corrugated cardboard since it would be flatter for mailing. The smaller shape was filled in with color. The two shapes were grouped together and the Santa which came in png format layered on top. Although I had played with doing the lines of Santa different colors I decided to stick with black lines for this card.

After printing and cutting out I lightly rubbed paste wax over my image. When dried I buffed and started coloring with .Spectrum Noir markers. One advantage I discovered of using the paste wax was the markers easily glided on and there was no bleeding through to the back. I brushed on Faber Castell white water color with a fine brush for the fur and facial hair. I had to paint several layers using an almost dry brush to try to cover the background without losing the details. Now that I've learned how to color inkjet prints with water color paint I'm having fun.

I left NOEL the size it originally was. After printing out I used a clear glitter Gellyroll pen by Sakura to add detail.  I cut it to size and inked around the edge with distress ink. I think either matting or edging with ink adds a little bit of a professional look to things like sentiments.

I'm entering these cards in the MHK Designs challenge. You can find the details here:
http://mhkdesignsbymynn.blogspot.com/2017/07/july-challenge.html

As well as the July Happy Little Stampers  Christmas Challenge details here:
http://www.happylittlestampers.com/2017/07/hls-july-christmas-challenge.html

Thank you for stopping by I hope I have inspired you to create some Christmas cards. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Christmas In July

Hi everyone as hot as it I wouldn't mind if it was cooler. I was really thinking when I finished the first card that maybe I should have done one with snow. Lol! So I did.

With this being the fourth Saturday it is the Any Holiday challenge over at Hiding In My Craft Room. Those of us on the team have been asked to do Christmas or whatever Winter Holiday we celebrate for our inspiration piece. Laurie from Hiding In My Craft Room will be offering the prize for this challenge.

Here is my first inspiration piece:

I went and embossed with a Darice embossing folder my white card base. Then I applied two different colors of Soft Pastels. I blended with a soft cloth. Then I went and applied two coats of Paste Wax. Buffing in between. The first coat blended the Soft Pastels even more. Buffing the second coat added a subtle sheen.  If I wasn't so lazy I would have added more coats of the Paste to create more of a patina.

I opened in Silhouette Studio two images from Dover. I was fascinated with the star shape but it had a different circle image. When I saw this sweet girl with the holly I decided to use her. I drew a circle and filled it with black. After tracing and detaching the girl from the background I added her to the black circle. I decided to make the circle larger than the one on the star shape as well as to have the holly overlapping the circle. I took the star shape and in the effect mode tinted it green. After printing and cutting I applied a layer of paste wax before brushing on aqua Extreme Glitter. I wish you could see the jewel look of the star. The circle was printed and cut out and adhered in the center.

 

When I saw this vintage bird image at Graphic Fairy I knew I wanted to use it.  I've been wanting to do a half circle card and knew with the image detached from the background this would be perfect.

After drawing my circle and detaching the partial circle bird image in Silhouette Studio printing and cutting them out I started having fun.

I wet the circle and brushed Ken Oliver Liquid Metal on the front. Then I wrinkled tissue paper and covered my circle letting it dry. The tissue paper lifted some of the medium giving me a really soft look. I wish you could see the sheen I got from the liquid metal. When dry I folded my circle in half. The I realized I would have to have a section of the bottom trimmed off so my card would stand up.

Not wanting the ink to bleed I went and applied paste wax over the image after cutting it out. Once the wax was dry I buffed it. I managed to find my DecoArt Snow Writer but it would not come out of the nozzle even after I cleaned the nozzle. I unscrewed the nozzle and with a toothpick and my finger applied snow where there was snow in the image. I love the realistic texture it gave. After my snow dried I went and brushed Liquidtex Iridescent Medium over the snow and where the shadows are on the ground giving a nice sparkle and sheen. You can sort of tell in this closeup.

Using my new toy the typography plate from the Precision Press Plus I lined up the letters and stamped my sentiment using the letters that came with my press. Since it was my first time I didn't want to stamp directly on my card. 

There you have it my fun elegant vintage looking cards. Have you started making Christmas cards yet?

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Christmas In July Theme

Hi everyone it is now the third Saturday in July and that means either a theme or technique challenge over at Hiding In My Craft Room. This week the theme is Christmas or any other holiday you may celebrate in the winter. The sponsor is The Paper Shelter who has provided the images for those of us on the design team.  One person will win a $15 gift certificate.

I decided to create two cards using the same image for both also adding a digital Christmas paper for one card. I love this image of the girl who fell asleep waiting for Santa.

I love how my background turned out. I wasn't sure if I was going to get a nice brown shade in places or a muddy looking brown. On a sheet of plastic I dropped Evergreen and Festive Berries reinker. Then misted the plastic and with a chopstick swirled the ink around.  Then I pressed my card stock which I had sprayed with water on both sides into my mix. (I've discovered if I get both sides of card stock wet there is less chance of buckling.) While still wet I put it in a retired Sizzix folder and embossed. I kept it in the folder until it was dry. Then colored the ornaments with gel pens. The silver hangers don't really show in the photo.

As long as I had my embossing machine out I decided to see if I could emboss ribbon. I found a spool of red ribbon which is stiff. I took another retired  Sizzix folder to emboss it with the Merry Christmas all over it. Now that I know it works I'll be looking for more stiff ribbon and perhaps using spray starch on some I have in my stash.

I found a small doily which I had played with coloring using distress ink and water. I then stamped and it didn't  work out.  However,  I didn't want to throw the doily out so was able to salvage part of it.

The bottom strip was from my mopping up the ink from the plastic from the previous card. I liked the way it turned out.

I took the color image and removed the white background. I then layered on top of a digital Christmas paper.

You can often trace in Silhouette Studio and detach to remove the background. You can also use a program like LunaPic online to turn the background transparent and save.

There you have it my two Christmas cards using a digital stamp and digital paper by The Paper Shelter.

Have you started creating your holiday cards yet?

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Super Scraps Saturday With A Twist

Hi everyone I hope you are staying cool. The weather gets hotter every day. My poor boys don't like it as our walking schedule is all messed up as I'll only take them out in the afternoon for a quick potty break. So far with thermal drapes my playroom has been staying cool but it was dark before and is darker more so now.

Getting down to business here. This week Hiding In My Craft Room Super Saturday Scraps is being sponsored by Sweet 'n Sassy. The prize for one lucky winner is 3 digital images. Get out those scraps and join us.

As my post titles mentioned with a twist. This month those of us on the design team will be featuring Christmas inspiration pieces. Lol! I'll actually be ahead of the game once holiday time rolls around. Especially since I created two cards for this week.

If you want to know how to water color on an ink jet print,apply glue etc. I'll have information at the bottom. I used water color paints on the Cardinal Sweet 'n Sassy  digital stamp image and I couldn't be more pleased.

To start out since this is a scraps challenge I looked through my scraps. I found a pink piece which I had debated about tossing after my dog decided to lay on top of it on the table where it was. Needless to say with his trying to nest with it on the table it was not a pretty sight. There was also a narrow strip of the green. I'm terrible about hoarding paper scraps but nothing goes to waste. I blame it on my Mom who would use envelopes to write her lists on or even sometimes to write a letter to a friend.

I wet the pink paper and the dye started bleeding like crazy. Luckily I did it over the kitchen sink. I went ahead since the paper already had creases to crumple it up. I then un-crumpled it carefully since wet paper is delicate. After smoothing it out on my counter I sprinkled Brusho  pigment powder and misted with water where the pigment had not dissolved. I then placed a piece of inexpensive plastic wrap over and piled books on top. I let it dry for 24 hours and when I removed the books and plastic wrap my piece was flat with beautiful veins throughout.

Next was the fun part of coloring my Cardinal image after printing on 110 Georgia Pacific white card and sealing. The side benefit of sealing was that the card did not buckle like what usually happens when paper gets wet.

 I used Faber Castell pan water colors.  I love the bright highly pigment paints which blend so easily. I've used other pan watercolors over the decades but until now kept going back to the tube water colors.

I printed out the sentiment which was at one time a free Silhouette Studio file. I then filled in with a Gelly Roll blue pen.

I inked the cardinal panel, the green mat, and the sentiment panel with gold ink.

I had so much fun doing my second card here. Even though it was a little time consuming to do the hills. LOL! Not as time consuming though as making a picture out of the circles from a hole punch.

I found a scrap of blue which was perfect for my mat. I took my scissors and distressed the edges.

I printed the Shepherd Boy image twice. For the first print I took scraps of green tissue wrapping paper and glued for the grass. Tissue paper even colored is transparent for print lines to show. If you decide to do this don't worry if part of the tissue paper covers some of an image. As you are going to cut the image out of your second print. You can apply tissue paper for sky, grass or other things. Just make sure you seal the print first before brushing on glue. (See below for how to do that)

The sky was painted with water colors and a water brush. I added first a dark blue then after it dried I painted a metallic. The sheen doesn't really show in the photo. Nor does the glitter paint I used on the star.

I took my second print and colored with pencils. Then cut out and edged with a black marker to add dimension.

My sentiment was an extra print. After coloring with a gel pen I cut free style.

Are you ready to discover how you can use water techniques, glue etc. with ink jet prints?  Of course you are. Especially if this has been frustrating you for as many years as it has me.

It is really easy to do the hardest part may be to find the product to seal the ink jet print first if you don't have it. That product is Paste Wax. The wax used for waxing wood, leather, metal, etc. (I don't know if car wax or neutral color shoe wax will work.) The next hardest part will be opening the can. Several of my fingernails became causalities but that is the price you pay sometimes when you want to be crafty.

Taking a paper towel or piece of cheesecloth rub the Paste Wax over your printed image.(lightly apply the wax as too heavy an application will make the paint puddle more)  Let it sit for a few minutes and then go ahead and buff it. I went ahead and also did the back but that probably is not necessary. If you printed on copy paper your paper will be more transparent than if you printed on card stock. 

Now you can paint with your water colors like usual. I did have some puddles but they were easy to take care of  with a dry brush or edge of a paper towel. I even used the brush I had picked up color with and painted with in another area the color I picked up. I used water brushes for my painting. I don't know if the bristles on other brushes would make a difference or not. I find for myself I have more control getting the paint only where I want it with the water brushes. 

You can also use the wax when you want to apply glue like I did for the tissue wrapping paper., glitter glue, etc.

I am entering the Shepherd Card in the Happy Little Stamper July Christmas Challenge. Details can be found here: http://www.happylittlestampers.com/2017/07/hls-july-christmas-challenge.html

I'm also entering the Cardinal in the Happy Little Stamper July Watercolor Challenge. Details can be found here: http://www.happylittlestampers.com/2017/07/hls-july-watercolour-challenge.html

Thank you for stopping by and do come back. I hope I've inspired you and if you wanted to know how to use water with ink jet prints I've enlightened you. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Beach/Ocean Color Challenge

Hi everyone today is a color challenge using beach colors over at Hiding In My Craft Room. I know Alice usually has blonde hair but going with the colors for the challenge she had a dye job. I had fun using both this image by My Besties and using the challenge colors from the photo on my card.

My Besties is the sponsor for this challenge and the winner will get all three of the images used by the Design Team.

Here is the photo colors for this week's challenge.

Here is my inspiration card:

After printing Alice out on 110# card stock I carefully taped with painter's tape a oval chipboard  photo mat where I wanted it. Using an embossing mat I then ran my card stock through my Cut N' Boss  embossing the oval.

Then I took chalk and chalked around the oval leaving a white shadow since the color inspiration piece has white in it. I also chalked blue chalk for the background of my Alice image.

Coloring was done with Gelly Roll gel pens and pencils.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!