Leave it AALL with Walter

Happy Monday, friends!  It's Walter on the blog with you today and this week's theme at Topflight Stamps is leaves, which is appropriate since the first day of Autumn is this week.  There are so many wonderful choices to use for such a broad theme.  I wanted to be a little quirky in my design and my mind automatically turned to AALL & CREATE!  I pulled the Falling for Fall Stamp Set and Autumny Falls Stencil from my stash and got to work.

I began by choosing my color palette for my cardstock.  Since I'm going for a funky vibe, I decided to create a tan & orange checkboard pattern for my background.  I simply chose a muted shade of orange that pairs perfectly with the tan.  I cut the tan cardstock into strips and then into squares; adhered the squares to the orange panel to create the checkerboard.

I chose a set of leaves from the Autumny Falls stencil that would fit nicely and allow me to ink blend several around the edges.  I wanted the leaves to be a little on the lighter side and didn't want to use a heavy pigment ink to blend them.  I used a yellow ink, orange ink, and a little bit of red ink to create them.  I then ink blended a little Antique Linen around the edges of the panel to add some age to it.

An oval die was used to cut a piece from the center and turn this into a frame, which I adhered onto a cream cardstock panel.  I could now do my stamping!  I selected the delightfully adorable flower-eyed girl from Falling for Fall, as well as three leaves and a sentiment.  I arranged them in the inside of the oval and stamped them with Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves ink.

I colored the stamped images with alcohol markers and stayed with all colors from the Autumn color palette.  I think all of them work so well together and definitely give off a funky Fall vibe!  The last two steps were to use some Wink of Stella on the leaves to give them a little shimmer and then add some Glossy Accents around her eyes.  It's these little details that really make the design pop!

And, just like that, my card was complete.  I think it's a really fun design that definitely makes me fall for cozy!  Thanks for spending this time on the blog with me today.  I'll see you again next week.  Until then . . . be well!

Topflight Stamps Products Used:

AALL & Create - A7 - Clear Stamps - 1282 - Janet Klein - Falling of Fall

AALL & Create - Stencil - 6x6 - 177 - Janet Klein - Autumny Falls

Tsukineko - Versafine Clair Ink Pad - Fallen Leaves

 

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

 

The Witching Hour with Lavinia Stamps

Hi, friends!  It's Walter on the blog with you after a quick absence last week.  This week's theme for the Topflight Stamps team is Fall/Halloween, and I created a design that has a little bit of both included in it!  I enjoy a good spooky design and fell in love with Willow the Witch from Lavinia Stamps as soon as I saw her.  I used Willow as the center point of my design and added some additional Lavinia stamps to complete the scene.  It's a super simple design that relies on some masking, ink blending, and lots of stamping to bring it to life.

I began by using the Moon Stamp from Lavinia to stamp the moon using Morning Mist ink as well as to create a mask.  I fussy cut the mask and applied it over so the stamped moon so that I could ink blend the rest of the panel.  I applied Lavinia Violet Chalk ink around the outside border of the panel and then applied Lavinia Lime Punch ink to the inside.  I followed up with some Lost Shadow Distress Oxide ink and an ink pouncer brush to apply just a little hint of some mist in the scene.  This also helps to soften the very rich colors of the Lavinia Ink and cover up any darker spots.

With the ink blending done, I removed the mask from the moon and colored it with two shades of cool gray alcohol markers.  I could now stamp the rest of my scene!  I began with Willow to find the perfect featured position for her.  Once she was in place, I then stamped the Witching Hour sentiment, Mini Jinx Cat, and Willow's cauldron.  I was then able to finish the details of the scene by stamping Silhouette Grass and Silhouette Foliage.  Additionally, I used a silver gel pen to add some detail to the cauldron, gray alcohol markers to add the smoke coming up from it, green gel pens to add the position inside the cauldron, and orange gel pens to add the fire below it.  Gray alcohol markers were also used to expand the grassy area to provide some ground as well.

I absolutely adore this fun Halloween scene!  The stamps from Lavinia make it so easy to create wonderfully magical scenes.  I'll be back again next week with another project and post.  Until then . . . be well!

Topflight Stamps Products Used:

Lavinia Willow the Witch Stamp

Lavinia Mini Jinx Cat Stamp

Lavinia The Moon Stamp

Lavinia Witching Hour Stamp

Lavinia Grass Silhouette Stamp

Lavinia Silhouette Foilage

Lavinia Violet Chalk Ink

Lavinnia Lime Punch Ink

Versafine Clair Nocturne

Versafine Morning Mist

Hunkydory - Diamond Sparkles Glitter Gemstones Purple Sparkles

Notes of Love with PaperArtsy

Hi, friends!  Welcome back to the blog.  It's Walter with you today as I kick off a new week's theme, which is . . . anything goes.  I really enjoy the designs of Mags Woodcock.  I first came across her work in Somerset Studio magazine and was so excited to see her products with PaperArtsy on the Top Flight Stamp website.  This week, I used two of her coordinating products, PaperArtsy - Mags Woodcock - EMW004 - Rubber Cling Mounted Stamp Set and PaperArtsy - Stencil - Mags Woodcock - PS517 to create my card.  Let's jump into my process!

I began with an A2 sized piece of watercolor paper that I spritzed with water. Instead of painting with watercolors, I decided to paint with Distress Oxide Ink smooshed on my craft surface and mixed with water.  Using the oxide inks mixed with water gives an opaque, almost paint-like look.  I used a mop brush to first move Tattered Rose around the inside of the paper and then Antique Linen around the edges.

Once dry, I stamped the heart stamp onto the panel using Versafine Fallen Leaves ink.  I also stamped the large heart and small heart onto masking paper and set that aside.  I then stamped the image of the word Love repeated several times using Ground Espresso Distress ink.

I fussy cut each of the heart masks from the masking paper and applied them to the images.  I wanted the brown color of the stenciling to be lighter than the dark shade of Fallen Leaves so I used Ground Espresso Distress Ink to add that contrast.

I removed the masks and added spots of a varying pink color to the hearts and did that with a mixture of Spun Sugar Distress Oxide ink and water.  I then tapped the entire panel with a brush loaded with Tea Dye Distress ink to some vintage grunge.  Some subtle shine was added to the panel using the ovals on the stencil and Delicata Golden Glitz ink.  I also added some splatter using Old Paper Distress Spray Ink.  In order to add further age to the panel, I used a plastic knife to distress the edges and then ran Ground Espresso Distress ink around them.

Some kind of a floral element was needed to truly complete the design.  I stamped three of the small flowers, colored them with alcohol markers, Accented the petals with a gold gel pen, added grunge with Tea Dye Distress ink, and fussy cut them.  They were adhered with double-sided foam tape and embellished with acrylic drops that I colored gold using a Studio Light Gold Metallic Martker.

I'm really happy with this design.  With elements of love, nature, and music . . . it truly strikes the right note!  Thanks for spending some time with me on the blog today.  I'll see you again next week.  Until then . . . be well!

Top Flight Stamps Products Used:

PaperArtsy - Mags Woodcock - EMW004 - Rubber Cling Mounted Stamp Set

PaperArtsy - Stencil - Mags Woodcock - PS517

Tsukineko - Versafine Clair Ink Pad - Fallen Leaves

Studio Light - Essentials - Metallic Markers - Silver & Gold

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