Autumn Dreaming with Chou & Flowers

Hi, friends!  It's another Monday with Walter on the blog.  We're moving into my favorite time of the year - autumn.  I know that a lot of people don't want to rush the last few weeks of summer but I'm ready for some much cooler nights & mornings, beautiful colors, and the wonderful smells.  That's what inspired my design for this week . . . dreams of autumn!  I used two gorgeous stamp sets from the Chou & Flowers My Little Garden release to create it: Bird Cage and Artist Garden.

My thought was to have artist canvas and easel from Artist Garden be the vessel that displays the main image.  I started by stamping them onto a 4"x5.25" white cardstock panel.  I then took the woman on a swing stamp from Bird Cage and stamped it onto the center of the canvas.  With that done, I started to color the image of the woman.  I used a combination of markers from my stash to add both the main color and details.

I then used a light yellow gray alcohol marker to add a plain color around the edges of the canvas - using flicks of the brush tip to make uneven marks around it.  I then used light shades of red, orange, and yellow to blend a sunset around the woman.

I decided to add some leaves from the Artist Garden set on each side of the swing, stamped them with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink, and added some red highlights to the leaves with an alcohol marker.  A small brush and Pumice Stone Distress Oxide ink add a light gray/brown hue around the outside of the canvas.  I lightly spayed the whole stamped panel with water, let it dry, and then lightly sprayed it with rubbing alcohol to help fade the image a bit and make it look more dreamlike.

The final steps were to create the sentiment strip and faux washi tape strips that I used to embellish the card.  For the sentiment strip, I ink smooshed a strip of white cardstock into a mixture of Rusty Hinge Distress Ink & water and dried it.  I then stamped the word Dream from Bird Cage with Vintage Photo Distress ink.  I stamped two pieces of the faux washi tape with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink, colored them with markers, and fussy cut them.  The sentiment and embellishments were then added to the card.

An overall simple card to create and one which could easily be switched to a spring or summer theme.  It would be fun to do that and have the same design, with different color schemes for those seasons, to send to someone special over the course of the year!

Thanks for spending this time on the blog with me today.  I'll see you here again next week.  Until then . . . be well!

Topflight Products Used:

Chou & Flowers - Clear Stamps - A5 - My Little Garden - Bird Cage - MON114

Chou & Flowers - A4 - Clear Stamp Set - My Little Garden - Artist Garden - MON115

Tsukineko - Versafine Clair Ink Pad - Nocturne

 

Vacation! with Chou & Flowers

Happy Monday, friends!  It's Walter on the blog with you today and this week's theme is the outdoors.  We're now in the last weeks of summer and I thought it was fitting to use this theme to offer the last of the beach scenes for the year.  I used some beautiful stamp sets from Chou & Flowers to create the scene.  It's an overall simple card created with just stamping, a little fussy cutting, and a lot of coloring.

I began by stamping my A2 background panel using the Summer Souvenirs - Beach Huts stamp set and Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.  The row of beach huts fits perfectly onto the panel to provide a perfect beach background.  I then took the sand detail stamp from the View of Paradise stamp set and repeat stamped it around the sand area of the scene using a medium brown ink.

I colored my panel starting with the sand.  I use Ohuhu alcohol markers as I find they blend nicely and are cost-effective alternative vs. other brands.  I used a darker tan color called Khaki to go around the edges and then used a lighter tan color called Sand to fill in and blend it all together.  I then used several shades warm gray, neutral gray, blue, and red to finish the scene.  I went over the areas that I left white with a white gel pen to add some texture and make them pop.

I then stamped my beach umbrella, beach chair, and beach accessories using stamps from the View of Paradise stamp set using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.

I colored the images and then fussy cut them.  I adhered the beach accessories directly to the sand area with glue and the umbrella & chair with some double-sided foam tape.  Voila . . . a finished card to celebrate vacation!  As I previously said, it's a very simple card.  Sometimes it's fun to stick to the basics on just focus on scene rather than trying to incorporate lots of different techniques.  I love the vibrancy of the colors and all of the little details that tie it all together.

I hope that you enjoy this card!  Are you sad to see summer coming to an end or are you happy that fall is right around the corner?  Let me know in the comments below!  I'll see you again next week for some more creative fun.  Until then . . . be well!

Topflight Products Used:

 Chou & Flowers Summer Souvenirs - Beach Huts

Chou & Flowers View of Paradise

Versafine Clair Nocturne

Dreams Come True with L'Encre et l Image

Happy Monday, friends!  It’s Walter on the blog with you today and the theme this week is Anything Goes.  My mind immediately turned to another my favorite brands, L’ENCRE at l image, and one of their recent releases, Arsene my Sweetheart.  This character is adorable and so versatile – he can be royalty, a clown, a magician, or just a simple boy like I portrayed him this week.  I paired him with elements from another L’ENCRE product, Imminent Departure, to create a wonderful, inspirational card.

 

I began by deciding on the placement of my paper airplane, boy, and paper boat.  I then stamped those images onto an A2 sized piece of watercolor paper and then stamped them again onto masking paper.  I created masks to protect my images and make it easier to watercolor the background.  Once the masks were fussy cut, I covered my images and got ready to color the panel.

 

I used colors from Lindy’s Magicals Nantucket Pearls (Whale Watch Blue & Salt Water Taffy) to watercolor a blended evening sky.  The Lindy’s Magicals blend so easily, and the bits of mica give such an amazing shimmer.  I started by misting my panel and then sprinkling a little bit of Whale Watch Blue at the top of it.  I used a paint brush to move the color around while spraying with additional mists of water as needed to move & lighten the color.  I continued adding blue and then started to mix in a little Salt Water Taffy about 2/3 of the way down the panel before switching to just the pink to finish it off.

Once dry, I stamped the compass image behind the paper airplane and my sentiment with clear embossing ink.  I sprinkled silver embossing powder over the compass and removed the mask.  I then sprinkled white embossing powder over the sentiment and heat set both images.

 

I was now ready to add color to my stamped images.  I removed the remaining masks and started coloring them with alcohol markers.  I used two light shades of cool gray color the paper airplane and boat.  I chose colors for the rest of the boy image that would allow me to use just a few to not overwhelm the scene.  I have a tip for you for coloring hair – especially curly hair – that a friend passed along to me.  I began by uniformly coloring his hair with a darker shade of brown.  I then used the fine tip end of a lighter brown to add little dots to lighten up portions of the darker brown.  The final step was to use a darker shade of orange and add more dots.  Coloring hair this way gives it the illusion of texture and highlights that make it more interesting than just one color.

I finished off the scene using a silver metallic marker to add varying sizes of dots in the sky to represent stars and then adding three Hunky Dory Diamond Sparkles Silver Pearls.  This scene is so charming and cute!  The sentiment, which translates to “I want my dreams to come true,” is so fitting and is certain to inspire and encourage someone.

I hope that you enjoyed this creation and post.  I’ll see you here again next week.  Until then . . . be well!

Topflight Products Used:

Arsene My Sweetheart

Imminent Departure

Lindy's Magicals - Nantucket Pearls

htHunky Dory Diamond Sparkles Precious Pearls Silver & Gold

A Funny Little Romance

Hey there, friends!  It's another Monday and another post with Walter.  This week's theme is PaperArtsy and I was so torn between a serious card or one with lots of whimsy since they offer so much of both.  Ultimately, something fun and whimsical won out - but I did throw in a touch of some serious elements.  I fell in love with these Zinis characters as soon as I saw them on the Topflight Stamps website - they're just so cute and fun.  The way that the little guy looks so adoringly off to the side while the little woman throws her hands up in the air (waving them like she just don't care!) looked to me like two people in love.  That's exactly what my design this week celebrates . . . a funny little romance.

I began this scene by deciding where to place my two Zinis, PaperArtsy - Zinski Mini - ZINI 36 & PaperArtsy - Zinski Mini - ZINI 37, and stamping them.  I knew that I wanted to put a stenciled heart between them and wanted to leave enough room between for that.  I then grabbed some masking paper, stamped both onto it, and fussy cut my masks.

I was ready to begin on my background once the masks were applied.  A really simple way to color a background without ink blending is to apply the ink with a baby wipe.  I pressed by inkpad onto my glass surface, grabbed a baby wipe, picked up some ink with it, and began to press the wipe against card panel.  You may swipe it across, gently rub in circles, or simply press & apply as I did to create a more gradient look.  I believe this a great technique to use in this design since it is so whimsical.  I then grabbed my pouncer brush with some white pigment ink and just lightly pounced around the panel.  This step serves two purposes - it lightens up the color a bit and also helps to give a blended look to the panel.

Lots of repeat stamping was done to finish off the design before adding the stenciled heart.  I used several stamps from PaperArtsy - Mags Woodcock - EMW004 to add in background text and a couple of floral elements.  With the stamping finished I could now move on to stenciling.  Rather than simply ink blending the heart, I thought it would be more fun to use some acrylic paint to form the shape using PaperArtsy - Stencil - Mags Woodcock - PS515.  This definitely didn't give me an exact replica of the heart on the stencil since I applied the paint with a palette knife rather than a brush.  I am okay with that though because it gave me a more imperfect & whimsical looking heart that truly goes so well with these characters.  I did one last thing to add a little more character to it - used a small sanding disk to gently sand away some of the paint & distress it.  I love the result!

I finished up by coloring these two little love birds and florals with alcohol markers and then adding in some bling using Hunkydory - Diamond Sparkles Glitter Gemstones - Amber Sparkles.

What do you think of my funny little romance?  Do you enjoy designs like this?  Let me know in the comments!  I'll see you again on the blog next Monday with another project.  Until then . . . be well!

Topflight Products Used:

PaperArtsy - Zinski Mini - ZINI 36

PaperArtsy - Zinski Mini - ZINI 37

PaperArtsy - Mags Woodcock - EMW004

PaperArtsy - Stencil - Mags Woodcock - PS515

Hunkydory - Diamond Sparkles Glitter Gemstones - Amber Sparkles

Fall Woodsy Scene Cards with Lavinia Stamps

 

Hi friends!  It's Autumn Clark from SewPaperPaint with you today to share a couple of inky fall creations featuring gorgeous stamps by Lavinia. 

My first card features the gorgeous Fairy Toadstool stamp.  I created a moody forest floor scene by blending Lavinia Elements inks.  I added some shading to the hills by tearing a piece of paper and sponging around it, and then by adding some ink with a water brush.  I added the Fuzzy Caterpillar as the central creature. 

I completed the scene with the Woodland Ferns, Silhouette Folliage, Mini Meadow Mushrooms and the Hazel Tree (stamped as grass).  Along the ground, I stamped the Mini Dots stamp to resemble dirt.  I added details with a Uniball white pen, Posca markers and Pan Pastels.  I drew gold paint dots then used a Q-Tip to blend the Pan Pastels over to mimic fireflies.  So fun!  

My next card features Fox Set 2.  I adore these amazing silhouettes!  I masked a punched out circle and did another ink blended background with Elements inks, using another sheet of torn paper to sponge the hillside.  Next, I stamped the Seasonal Tree.  I filled in the sky with a stamped pattern because it was too plain.  I used the Whimsical Wisps and Wild Vines. 

For the forest floor I used the Silhouette Foliage again, with the Fairy Buttercups and the Berry Leaves.  I finished with splashes of water and ink for a grungy look.  I really enjoyed creating these stamped scenes.  I hope they have inspired you. xx, Autumn