Archives for April 2020

Birthday Fishes – Watercolor Waves

April 27, 2020

ABNH_04272020

Hello everyone – I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

I have card today featuring water colored waves. To create the waves, I stamped the Ocean Wave background stamp with embossing ink and Hero Arts white detail embossing powder on water color paper. I then used blue water color over the embossed image and die cut the paper with wave dies from my stash.

I colored the three puffer fish from the I’m a Puffer for You stamp set and colored them with Copic markers and die cut them using the coordinating dies. I adhered the waves and fish to a white card base. I stamped the sentiment and wave accent from the same stamp set to finish the card.

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Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to join in this months challenge – watercolor.

Watercolour April

Sig_Caren

Thankful For You | No-line Watercolor

April 24, 2020

Hi there, I’m so glad you’re here! I hope you’re feeling well and staying safe.

I’ve been finding more comfort in crafting than ever, and this month’s watercolor challenge theme has given me extra motivation to practice no-line watercoloring.

For this card, I began by stamping the beautiful Hero Arts and Gina K. Designs Friendship Blooms collaboration stamp set in Gina K’s Warm Glow Amalgam ink onto Fabriano Artistico cold press watercolor paper. Any light colored ink that’s suitable for watercolor would do, I just happen to have been using Warm Glow a lot recently.

Next I got out some red and peach Karin Brushmarker Pro markers: Fire Red, Lipstick Red, and Blush. I scribbled Fire Red onto my glass work surface and then diluted it with a little bit of clean clear water. Then I used a water brush pen to pick up some pigment and then painted it onto the stamped image. Going petal by petal, I concentrated color in the area closest to the center of the flower and then pulled the color out to the tip of the petal. I repeated this for each petal, never working on adjacent petals since it’s important to allow each area to dry before working on the area next to it.

Once I had colored all of the petals I went back in and added details, sometimes with darker-but-still-diluted Lipstick Red, and sometimes with a less diluted Fire Red. I really took my time with this, following along many of the lines that are part of the stamped image. Once this layer was dry, I went back in for a third time, this time with a diluted Blush which I brushed over some of the lighter areas to create just the slightest hint of peach. Note that I took care not to rewet the darker areas, which I didn’t want to reactivate and dilute.

I followed a similar process for the leaves, thought I took a little less care so I could finish them more quickly. For the leaves, I used a mix of Lime Green, Olive Green.

When the panel was almost dry, I put it between two sheets of scrap typing paper and then put a heavy book on top. I find that the typing paper helps absorb some of the very last moisture while the weight of the book flattens the panel. I let that sit for a few hours and then came back to stamp the sentiment in black pigment ink. To finish I adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base.

Hero Hues Easy April Watercolor

April 21, 2020

Hello everyone, this month A Blog Named Hero’s challenge is Watercolor which I love, but I know it scares some people for a lots of different reasons. Below is an easy way to get a Quick and easy watercolor card using the Hero Arts Hero Hues Inks. I chose 5 ink colors all beautiful pastels that can be combined into so many colors bright and soft. To get started I heat embossed the Blossoms for Coloring Bold Prints background on a piece of cold press watercolor paper with white embossing powder. There is also another background stamp that would work beautifully as well called Flowers for Coloring too take a look here >

I laid down color straight from the pads onto my glass surface and started picking it up with a paintbrush and varying the amounts of water I was using and mixing the colors to make new ones. The colors I used were Pool Party, Key Lime fizz, Taffy, Lemon Drop and Thistle, using them in the following combinations allowed them to mix and layer into all of the pretty brightness you see below. I was mixing the Lemon Drop with the Taffy to get a beautiful coral and the Thistle with the pool party and the Taffy to get pretty purples and pinks, then the Lemon Drop with the Lime Fizz and Pool party to get the greens and yellows. If you zoom to look you can see that I kept this very loose and free and let the colors dry and then I could layer more on top to get new colors.

What makes this really easy is only mixing the colors I suggested above but using them in visual threes and letting the emboss resist do its job.I encourage you to use any background stamps in your stash or to create a fun pattern on your card and paint away! You could also layer the entire card over a wash of yellow and not use the purple only the pool party and taffy and get all corals and greens. The more I experimented the more I fell in love with the properties of these inks, they layer beautifully but are far more transparent than distress oxides so the colors you can get are brighter too, I added different colors to the background between the flowers to make them pop, I wish I had done more of that too.

I hope you are inspired by this technique and will try it with your favorite stamps. After all of the paint had dried I added some little white pointellism dots with a white gel pen to add more details and stamped the sentiment from the You are Loved messages set. I wanted to make use of some of my favorite Hero stamps in my stash as no orders are being fulfilled right now. So my craft friends, make sure to link up all of your watercolor projects to have the chance to win a $50 Hero Arts gift card.

Stay Well and keep kindness in your heart, and for more inspiration visit me over on my blog at paperheartscissors.com

April Challenge: Watercolour

April 15, 2020

Hello there crafting friends,

We at A Blog Named Hero hope you’re all safe and healthy in this troubling time.

With many of us at home more than usual, we hope that the crafters out there, are taking time for some of our favourite past time, card-making. It soothes the soul and calms the nerves for so many of us, and receiving a handmade card can brighten anyone’s day.

We considered postponing the challenges until all of this Covid nightmare was behind us, but decided against it, because something that can bring a little comfort to us all, is routine and familiarity.

With that in mind, let’s move straight to the challenge.

One winner will be selected by our DT, and win a $50 gift voucher, a second winner will be chosen at random to receive a $25 voucher!

Be sure to enter the challenge (via the linky tool below) by 5pm on the 10th of next month, to be in the running for one of the TWO gift cards from our delightful sponsors, Hero Arts!

See you again soon!

Linda

Let the adventure begin

April 13, 2020

I love reading. Beside cardmaking and scrapbooking and embroidering, reading is my favourite thing to do and I am constantly on the lookout for new, cute bookmarks. This time I decided to make one myself.

I started by inkblending a few blue and purple colors of reactive ink to create a fun deep water background. I splashed a few drops of water on the background to create “bubbles”.

I used the glitter laquer from the November 2019 My Monthly Hero kit and a scrap piece of cardstock to make glittery rays of sunshine down in the water.

I stamped the images form the March 2019 MMH kit using black ink and the sentiment is from the June 2019 MMH kit.

I found these very old bookmark pockets in my stash that I put my bookmark in. I added a bunch of sequins inside the pocket as well. Since I wanted the sequins to move when you shake the bookmark I sealed the pocket shut using my fuse tool.

I completed my project by tying a couple of ribbons in the hole on the pocket.

I hope you will join us in our next challenge that will be published here the 15th.

Until then; Stay safe, stay home and craft with joy.