Copic Style Watercolours

I was playing with a stamped watercolour technique using my Distress inks recently and thought I would try the technique out using my Copics.  It created a lovely soft image.

Firstly I coloured my image (Hero Arts) with a selection of Copics, it didn’t matter if I was quick or the ink dried, the next step reactivates it.  I spritzed my X-Press It cardstock with some rubbing alcohol and then quickly stamped the image. 

As you will see from the close-up, the image isn’t quite distinct, more watercolour like.  I find the technique can be a bit hit and miss, sometimes it is more ‘watery’ and sometimes the image is too indistinct to use but mostly it works well.

A solid image works best and this one is perfect as it is just about impossible to ink so many colours using a stamp pad.

Guest Designer Challenge at My Favorite Things

One of my plans for last year was to get published more often and participate in some design teams.  I achieved that wish so I wanted to aim a bit higher this year and participate in a few more challenges and design team calls, I figured I have nothing to lose but a bit of time. 

Here is an entry I finished yesterday for a guest designer call for My Favorite Things.  I love these cute images, they are so easy to colour with my Copics and with a bit of cutting they become really versatile to use on cards.  The company also makes a wonderful range of dies.

The theme of the guest designer call was to use the technique of paper piecing.  If you have never tried the technique it might seem a little daunting but the finished result is well worth the effort.  Essentially you replace parts of your stamped image with paper instead of colouring.  This is done by selecting the papers to be used and stamp each ‘part’ onto the paper and cut out.  Then each part is layered over the corresponding spot of the stamped, coloured image. 

Like this:

I then cut out each piece, including the girl (I coloured her first):

The finished result:

The stamp used was Pure Innocence – Calendula from My Favorite Things.  You can buy them from Stamp Art Studio if you have to have them!

Inkurable Holly Challenge

I couldn’t finish my week of intense blogging without sharing the cards I did for the December Inkurable Stampers challenge.  This month we were to create something using holly as a theme.  I thought it the perfect opportunity to use another of the Tim Holtz 12 tags techniques – embossing metal.  You can see his tag and instructions here.

I created two cards on the theme but will only enter the second one into the challenge.

I love how well the technique worked to give a glass-like effect!

The holly leaves were cut from alcohol inked glassine paper.  Tim demos the technique in the post here, relating to tag 7.  If you haven’t tried this stuff – buy some!  It is so easy to use.

I did a third card as well so have a look on my Flickr site for it.

Some more Darkroom Door Christmas

Here is some more inspiration using Darkroom Door stamps.  Please also have a look at my Flickr site as I have uploaded a number of other Christmas cards there as well.

Back to a couple of simple ones now to give your mind a rest. You can probably work this one out without me telling you but I embossed some cardstock with a Sizzix folder, sponged with distress inks to bring out the pattern and layered over a embossed relief from a Spellbinders die. The effect creates a useful ‘frame’ for your focal image. A few words cut from the Christmas background stamp finishes the card.

The card front for this one was stamped with a word from the Christmas Sentiments set as well as the group of icons from the same set.  I left mine in a strip to make it easier to stamp them like this. I then punched out a few circles and layered behind or on top with circles cut from cardstock stamped with the Flourish background.  The one on the left was raised up with foam tape.

The Santa image is from the Dear Santa Vol 1 set and was coloured with distress inks. The word is cut from the Christmas word block and coated with a bit of Glossy Accents.

I really liked this card as it came together really quickly but looks like I spent ages on it.  The background is the Star background, stamped with white Brilliance.  One of the flower layers was stamped with the words from the Noel plate, the ticket stamp comes from the same plate.  A frame cut with Spellbinders dies and a strip of embossed cardstock and it was done.

The ornament image was cut from a piece which had been stamped & clear embossed with the Christmas word block.  I sponged the image with some Distress barn door ink.  A few words cut from my sheet of stamped Christmas word block & some embossing with my Cuttlebug and this card was done.

I think this is the last of the Darkroom Door cards to share and it was really time consuming to do but I love the effect!  The stamping was all done with pale blue pearlescent Brilliance ink using the Noel and Christmas Reindeer plates as well as the French Script background stamp.  The silver edge was actually created with embossing powder & silver pigment ink. 

While playing with the Christmas word block stamp I came up with a couple of tags.  The image was stamped and embossed over some vintage music.  A quick swipe of some ink and and a tie of ribbon and the first one was done.

This one was done basically the same but I added a pinwheel for embellishment using some of the Tim Holtz Christmas tissue tape. 

A Darkroom Door Christmas

Gee, my regular readers will be shocked by another post!  Quite surprised myself actually but I wanted to get these up before Christmas, there didn’t seem much point otherwise!  The post got really long so you will see the rest of it tomorrow. 

Making Christmas cards usually starts early for me when I begin to plan my Christmas card classes for Stamp Art Studio in May.  Usually I try to incorporate the most recent stamps whenever possible but also include some old favourites whenever I can.  Here are some of the ones I have made using Darkroom Door stamps.

A simple one using Dear Santa Vol 1 coloured with distress inks.  The greeting is from the same plate and was stamped & embossed in gold.The background stamp was the Flourish stamped with chalk ink and sponged a little.

I really love this Christmas word block and this is a simpler way to use it than the post before by stamping with red chalk ink. The greeting was done by masking off the top corner using post its and then removing them prior to stamping & embossing.  This is so easy to do and means you can easily stamp up any of the word combinations on the plate.

With so many cut-out sheets available this Christmas, this card also comes together really quickly.  I just cut out the shapes I wanted (this sheet is from Bo Bunny), laid them over a strip of red, stamped with one of the word strings from Christmas Sentiments using crimson Versafine ink and added a few buttons for interest.  The reindeer circle came from the icon strip of the same set, stamped with pearlescent Brilliance to give a bit of bling and the card was done.

A more time consuming card using an old Christmas favourite – the Noel set.  The main image was stamped using pale blue pearlescent Brilliance ink and die-cut with a Spellbinders die.  Believe was stamped with the same ink but embossed to make it stand out a little and both pieces were raised up with foam tape.  The embossed panels were created with a Sizzix folder and given a swipe of Stickles for sparkle.  If you have never tried this, Christmas cards are the perfect reason.  Just squeeze some Stickles onto a smallish, flat surface (I usually use clean milk bottle caps) and smoosh the glitter glue over the embossed design.  If I have used a cap I can just throw it away – no clean up!

Another really time consuming card using a technique from Tim’s 2011 set of Christmas tags.  You can find details on how Tim Holtz did the technique here. I took the basic idea and adhered my decorated fragments onto a card front.  I did the glittery line the same way as the Basic Grey Christmas card below, only I used two shades of glitter. A pearl topped of each of the fragments and the greeting was a Copic coloured word from a Dear Santa word strip.

Overall I was happy with how they turned out but it was a bit annoying to have the slight greyish tinge in a few places where the ink didn’t quite rub away.

Stamps used were the flourish background and the scroll one from the Ornate Elements set.

I love this Christmas Reindeer set and use it so much.  The reindeer is a pain to cut out but so worth the effort!  I started with a base stamped with the Star background stamp and clear embossed.  It was sponged with distress inks in wild honey, rusty hinge & barn door.  The die cut was from Spellbinders and I stamped half of it with the words from the same stamp set. A strip of embossed cardstock covered the edge and added a bit of interest.  The reindeer was stamped in red ink, covered with Glossy Accents and sprinkled with coarse glitter.  I had to smoosh it on a bit to get it to stick.  Once layered up the reindeer looks like he is about to take flight! 

Embossing Resist Christmas Cards

As soon as I saw the Darkroom Door Christmas word block I knew it would work perfectly for this technique.  I love how the words disappear into the background, except for where the embossing is.

For these cards I stamped the word block and heat set it to make sure it was really dry. I then dusted with an embossing buddy and stamped the reindeer image with clear ink and embossed with clear powder.  To bring out the contrast around the stamped image, I sponged with inks or paint.  The embossed design resisted the ink and after a quick wipe with a tissue to remove any ink build-up the image was done and ready for layering.

For this one I used warm red Colorbox chalk ink for that real Christmassy red in both the stamping and sponging. A few pearls added a bit of bling to his antlers. The die cut is from Spellbinders.

This card was done a little differently.  I stamped the word block with distress Ink and once the reindeer image was embossed, I scraped over some Precious Metal Colour with a gift card.  The close up doesn’t do the effect justice – it really shimmers! Once dry, I die cut the reindeer & layered it onto a panel stamped with Darkroom Door dots background stamp in pearlescent blue Brilliance ink. The panel was raised on foam tape before adding to the card front.

This one was done a little differently again. The word block was stamped with wild honey distress inks and instead of stamping with another image, I die cut a stencil using the Spellbinders ornament die, laid that over the word block and used a direct-to-paper technique to apply the clear ink. A quick sponge with some more distress ink and it was done.

I finished the card with a little punched tab stamped with the tree image from the Darkroom Door Christmas sentiments plate.

Christmastime…

We are done to counting sleeps until Christmas so I thought I might share some of the Christmas cards I have made over recent months.  Some I taught in classes & others were just playing with techniques and stamps.

First up is a real simple one using a Stamp It stamp.  I stamped with lime Brilliance ink to give a pearlescent effect and layered the image up with red and green Bazzill. The green layer is Bazzill bling.

 

Next up is another simple one.  I used a piece of Basic Grey paper, tied a ribbon across and added a stamped, embossed and layered greeting (Stamp It).  The glittery edge was created by putting a line of glossy accents around the paper and sprinkling with glitter.  The most time consuming part was waiting for the glitter to dry!

Another in a glittery theme is this dove themed card.  The image was coloured with Smooch paints – these are so easy to use and give a gorgeous shimmery effect which is just perfect for Christmas! The close-up of the shimmer actually worked this time but is so much better IRL. The image is from Stamp It.  I thought the card didn’t have enough shimmer so I added a strip of thin X-Press It tape and sprinkled with glitter.  The pic looks a bit yellow but I think that might be the light and the gold flecked glitter I used.  The ribbon was also held nicely in place with another strip of X-Press It tape.