Crazy Cats

                                   

I had some play time over this past weekend and I brought out the "Crazy Cats" for some fun inspiration. We are a the only dog owners in our immediate family. Our daughter has strong cat allergies so it has never been an option. We have a friendly "Dog vs Cat" rivalry within the family. Can't think of a set that is going to be more fun than these "Crazy Cats" to make some playful cards for all the cat lovers I know.
These Crazy fellows are just purr-fect for building scenes around, the possibilities are infinite.

For both of these cards I build the scenes using a combination of inking, stamps and my Silhouette for a few cut files.  For the first card I had some difficulty in getting the rain effect that I wanted.  I ended up using a Silhouette cut file to make my own stencil, then using Versa Mark ink with clear embossing to make a resist to a distress inked background. The background for my second card was created using two stencils from the Tim Holtz collection.  The sentiment for the first card is also Tim Holtz and for the second card my sentiment is computer generated.  
Silhouette Files:  
"Background Mask Rain" design ID# 74088 
"Umbrella" design ID# 57142
"Rat" design ID# 67723
"Computer Monitor" design ID# 20387

Thought I would also share this one with you.  I did this one earlier this month.  The background is something that I hand drew and colored.  I generated this sentiment on my computer.  As you can see I am having great fun with the set so far.
More to come I am sure... there are six Crazy Cats to play with!

As always, thank you for dropping by.  Your comments questions or recommendations are very welcome.

Supplies:

TH Crazy Cats	TH Stampers Anonymous	TH Distress Ink	TH Distress Ink	Distress Peeled Paint
TH Typo	TH Woodgrain	Scor-Tape 1/4" Crafting Tape	*Copic SKETCH Markers	Versamark WATERMARK
Stencil Material	Tsukineko Embossing Powder CLEAR	Silhouette CAMEO

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Watercolor Exercise Cards / Cont.

 Thought I would share a few of my more successful watercolor exercises.  I used these to create cards.  Some of my floral watercolors are actually turning out good enough now to be presentable as a piece of art for the focal point of these cards.  Have to admit that there have been quite a few rejects along the way as well.

This one is my personal favorite so far.  I love daisies and blue is always a go to color for me.  Love the fresh look of a pretty blue.

The technique is background coloring.  I lightly drew a few daisy with a watercolor pencil.  Then outlined the shapes with color.  Some of the final shading comes from the watercolor pencil.

This card is free style flowers on a piece that was first prepared with a wash of watercolor.  I used my scor board to outline the image and added a ribbon to match the wash.

The white for the daisy like flower on this piece is one of the colors in the Kuretake Gansai 36 color set.  I used these for all of the cards showcased here.

This one is again a free style floral.   I added some splatter and the sentiment directly to the piece.

It is framed with a gold metallic paper.  To give a more finished look and bring in the gold I applied a gold metallic rub on to accent the edges.

The final card in the this group was one of my small practice pieces. I found that I wasted less of my watercolor paper if I did smaller pieces.  I used the die from My Favorite Thngs " Stitched Basic Edges" MFT-599 to add some interest.

As always, thank you for dropping by.  Your comments questions or recommendations are very welcome.

SUPPLIES:

MFT Edge dies

Arches Hot Press

Ranger brushes

Kuretake Watercolor

HA Birthday Sayings

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12 tags of 2016 / February

I am late getting started with the Tim Holtz "12 tags of 2016"  technique remix challenge. I did most of the 12 months for last year and found it great fun. Couldn't resist working with the Crazy Cats for this one. Tim's Inspiration tag was more in tune with February and Valentine's Day. Given I am off to such a late start, I decided to concentrate more on the  techniques that he demonstrated this month.  It was as much fun as I remembered from last year.  One of the tags that I created for last year's challenge has been re-pinned 367 times on pintrest and another has 167 re-pins so far.  Not bad for little ole me.  Here is the link if you are curious. 

The two techniques used are:

Stencil Monoprint shown in the upper right hand corner 

Embossed Paste the brick wall in the lower left corner   

I ended up using the same stencil to do both techniques in the remix.  The stamp set I used for the birds on the wire is an older set not sure if it is still available but it is TH Visual Artistry "Life's Possibilities". The background is just the cool result of the distress ink reacting to a spritz of water.
As always, thank you for dropping by.  Your comments questions or recommendations are very welcome.

SUPPLIES:

TH Crazy Cats	TH Rubs Words	Tim Holtz Idea-ology 2013 ELEMENTS REMNANT RUBS	TH- typed tokens	TH Big Chat	TH Chit Chat
TH Stencil Bricked	Distress Peeled Paint	Weathered Wood Distress	Tim Holtz / Crinkle Ribbon	Tim Holtz Distress Markers	Tim Holtz Idea-ology 1088 CHITCHAT STICKERS
#8 tags	Texture Paste	Liquid Platinum

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Hero Arts Fabulous Flowers

The card I made for the current Hero Arts challenge Fabulous Flowers is a combination of plan and accident.

Many of my cards start out with a plan that changes midstream because of something going a bit wrong. I started with a background that I created with watercolors from my recent watercolor class. The mistake happened when I tried to stamp the flower image directly to the background. Of course, it was totally lost on this bright background.

Plan #2: Just cover it and make a new plan. What any self respecting card maker would do...right? Not bad, until I noticed that a tiny bit of the stem from my original stamping showed on the bottom edge.

Plan #3: You may notice that the hello sentiment is right on the edge of my oval. Guess what that covers up. A tiny bit of stem from my original mistake. Oh yes, one more thing. I decided to place a few scattered sequins. They also cover the tiniest little bit of that original image.

All in all, I think it turned out to be a happy accident card. Many of my cards begin this way and some of them end up becoming something I like.

Thanks you stopping by! Your comments, questions and or suggestions are always welcome.

SUPPLIES:

HA Mum Stem

Kuretake Watercolor

TH Distress Watercolor Paper

Spellbinders Oval Dies

Lucy's Little Things

SSS Hello Die

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SSS February Card Kit of the Month

Having a lot of fun playing with the Simon Says Stamp February Card Kit of the Month.  I have been a subscriber to the monthly kit for quite awhile and really look forward to it each month.  For me once I pull out the kit to make one card, often I find that it gets the inspiration started and I tend to end up with 3 or 4 cards before I put it away for the day.  
The little heart die that came in this months kit is a favorite. Each little heart has a outline cutout as well.  You can get so many perfect little hearts in a single run through the die cutting machine.

The kit also includes a generous selection of matching embellishments, like the epoxy stickers that I used on all three of these cards.  Since subscribing to the monthly kits I really don't shop for many embellishments.  These are very nice and I do use them.  As you see they coordinate beautifully with the papers and stamps in the kit.

The card below might be my favorite because it is a shaker made using the sequins from the kit.  I have finally pulled out my FUSE tool to make these see thru shaker windows.  I LOVE IT!  So easy!

  


Thank you for stopping by my blog!  I love to hear from you so please feel free to comment, ask a question or make a suggestion.  Happy card making!

Supplies:

February Card Kit	MEMENTO tuxedo black	FUSE tool	SSS Mini Heart Die	Square Pierced Dies
Scor-Tape 1/4" Crafting Tape

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