Watercolor Wonders

Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts Technique Blog Hop!  SA is celebrating it's second birthday this week.  SA is great place to learn and share Stampin' Up related ideas.  It is free so if you have not joined just click HERE for all the info.

If you are following the hop links you just arrived from Sara's blog where she showed us the chalkboard technique.  Pretty fun, eh?

For my portion of the hop, I am featuring techniques using the Watercolor Wonder Crayons.

The first technique is using the white crayon to make highlights.  Just color the areas you would like to highlight and then dab classic colored ink over the top.  The crayoned areas remain white.  I used the Fast and Fabulous stamp set for this and it really was fast.  I hope you think it is fabulous as well!

The next technique takes a little more time but is worth the effort.  To create the abstract background piece, I very lightly sponged versamark refill on glossy white cardstock.  I heat embossed it with black Stampin' Up embossing powder then randomly scribbled watercolor crayons over the top.  I misted this with water just a tiny bit as I wanted the stroke marks to remain visible.  Pretty jazzy!  Oh and by the way the cakes are painted with the crayons as well.  The crayons are perfect for traditional watercoloring.

For this card I used the watercolor crayons to add color to the newsprint DSP.  The flowers were punched with the scallop flower and boho blossom punches.  Then I scribbled around the outside edges and spritzed with water.  While they were wet I crumpled them up and shaped the flowers.  I plan to try these in a variety of colors.  

My last technique used for the tag on the card is the result of experimenting with gesso on whisper white cardstock.  I dabbed the gesso on- leaving little ridges in it.  After is was dry I colored over top and it gave a wonderful nubby texture to the colors.  In person, it is shiny white with bright specks of color like little candy sprinkles.  Very festive for a birthday party favor set.

I hope you have enjoyed these techniques and are ready to get your Watercolor Wonder Crayons out and try them!

Next on the birthday hop is Kim who will show us the faux flocking technique.  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Stampin' Addicts!

Stampin' Addicts is having a birthday!  Starting today they are having a virtual card shower.  You can make a birthday card, put somewhere online (the Stampin' Addicts gallery and/or your blog) and post a link in the virtual card shower thread.   

Also, to celebrate there will be blog hop starting Friday February 25 featuring techniques with a birthday theme.  There will be 22 stops each showcasing a different set of techniques.  

I will be participating and sharing various techniques using the Watercolor Wonder Crayons.  Today I have a card using one technique with the crayons.  On Friday, I will have four more so be sure to stop back and then you can jump in on the hop and view even more great techniques along the way.

For this card, I experimented to see what would happen if I put watercolor crayons over smooch spritz spray.  I have no idea if this is an established technique.  If I were to give it a name, I guess it would be "Smooched Dry Watercolor".  Pretty lame so if you have a better suggestion let me know!

I first heavily spritzed a piece of watercolor paper with Log Cabin Smooch Spritz.  This I let dry overnight then lightly colored areas with dry watercolor crayons.  I used Cajun Craze and Always Artichoke.  This gives a natural earthy copper shimmer background.  Very hard for a photograph to do it justice.  In person, it catches the light with soft glimmer.  It reminded me well-worn stones I have picked up on beaches so I used the shell stamp from the Nature's Nest set to compliment it.

For more information about the blog hop and other birthday activities click HERE.   And see you all on Friday for more techniques!l

Floating Beveled Windowpanes and UStamp Scavenger Hunt!

There are several fun things to share in todays post.  The designers on UStamp are participating in a scavenger hunt for current members.  Members visit participating designer's sites and collect key words.  Those key words form two sentences.  There are prizes for the first ones who submit the correct sentences.  So... somewhere in this post I will sneak in a key word for members to find.  If you are not a member you can find information here to join.

Ever have a project in your mind and wonder if it will work?  I have been toying with a way to make the cute little clear windowpanes float in an open area.  Well, I am happy to report this is one idea that worked just as I had hoped.

The window pane is suspended in the cut-out square by the ribbon!  In the above photo, the dark green behind the windowpane that you see is the inside of the card showing through.

Here I have it held up so you can see through the open area.

To make this I dry embossed the striped DSP and lightly sanded the raised areas to distress it a bit.   I then punched a 1-1/4 square in the bottom right corner.  This is layered on Rose Red card stock and the Always Artichoke card base.  I aligned the layers and punched the squares so they all line up.

Before adhering the layers, I threaded ribbon through a 1" X 1" windowpane (secured with brads) and tucked the opposite ends under the middle layer.  I used mini glue dots to adhere the flower paper behind the window pane.

Here is the inside of the card.  The message is hidden (the key word is "Friends!!") behind the window pane until you open it!  Love it when an idea works out beautifully!

Petal Cone Basket of Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today I have another project made with the petal cone die.  I have yet to make an actual cone favor as the die is intended!  Two pieces adhered back to back at the flaps make a wonderful little basket.  I filled this with punched hearts with handwritten messages and a few candy hearts too.

The paper is so pretty that it needed very little decoration- just a single adornament, a few leaves and  a ribbon handle.

Hagrid sends his valentine kisses as well!

Petal Cone Heart Card

The Petal Cone Die is not just for party favors!  It also makes a beautiful heart shaped card.

Simply cut two pieces of cardstock with the die, cut the flap from the edge of one, apply sticky strip to the remaining flap and adhere the two pieces together.

This was so pretty on its own that I kept it very simple and just pleated some rose red seam binding and added a crocheted fleurette, a leave cut with the 2-step bird punch and some rhinestones.

Mini Candy Bar Box

The scallop die is just the right size for making these little boxes.  Ten mini hershey bars fit perfectly!

The box is made by adhering the bottom flaps of two scalloped envelopes together.  Rectangles of cardstock are then added to the sides.

For this Valentine version, I cut another scalloped flap from red glitter paper to adhere to the front.  This is the first I have had a chance to use this pretty paper.  The Candy Cane Speciality DSP (retired) has the exact same red glitter strips so I used that for the box base.  All the prettiness of glitter without the mess!

Altering My Digital Studio Designer Paper Tutorial

Today I have a tutorial to show you how I changed the background paper for this scrapbook page from scary to sweet.  

For this page I wanted a mostly black and white theme.  When deciding on what paper to use for the background, I liked the medallion images from the Nite Owl Designer Series Kit.  However, the skeletons  on this Halloween paper definitely did not fit with the dress-up pictures.  By adding punches, I was able to cover up the parts I did not want.

Here is how:
1. Add the Nite Owl - pattern #12 DSP to the background.

2. Add the small heart punch.  Double click on the punch to bring up the "object settings" box.  Increase the width of the punch to 27.  (Make sure the "Keep Proportions" box is checked so the height will automatically increase to 29.)

3. Place the punch over a skull so it is completely covered.

4. Copy and paste this resized punch multiple times and reposition them over any skulls that will be showing.

Because I was making this a black and white layout, I kept the punches unfilled as I liked the soft gray color.  For the one accent heart, I filled it with Melon Mambo to match the other pink elements on the page.

This really did not take much time and I am happy that the original seasonal paper could be altered into something entirely different.