Spring Blossoms

Thinking of everyone staying at home to help battle Covid-19 and hoping all are well.  I personally am very grateful that I have crafts and hobbies to help me pass the time in a rich and varied way.  And I'm also grateful to be connected to you via the internet and our blogs.

Spring is my favourite season so I am very happy to be hosting this month's CAS Watercolour challenge "Spring Flowers".  Hopefully we can all find joy in these troubled times by seeing the earth coming back to life (though I realize this isn't the case for our southern hemisphere friends).

I, like several of the other CAS Watercolour DT members, went with spring blossoms.

I used a very old stamp that I've had for years - so nice to bring it out.  It is stamped with my new Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves ink - it gives a very good sharp image even on watercolour paper, and once dry, is waterproof.  It's a very dark brown but looks black in the photo.

I watercoloured the tiny blossoms with two shades of pink, using a very fine paintbrush.  It's hard to get shading in such small images but I did my best.  Likewise with the branch.  I splattered with some of the brown watercolour paint.

The sentiment is stamped in the same Fallen Leaves, then the panel trimmed, and a thin strip of dark pink cs added to the right to balance with the blossoms.  It's popped up on fun foam on a rustic cs base and then I used Liquid Pearls for the centres of the blossoms.

Here's a close-up of the image that shows the shading and Liquid Pearls better:

Please come and join us and fill the CAS Watercolour challenge with lovely spring flowers.  I want to stress that we are looking for SPRING flowers - not just any flowers.  So please think snowdrops, daffodils, tulips, crocuses, apple and cherry blossom, dogwood, etc.  And don't forget that you must use some kind of watercolour and must keep the card clean and simple.   There is lots more inspiration from the Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, Vicky (Crafting Clare's Paper Moments).

Supplies:
Stamps - Rubber Stampede Cherry Blossoms, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves
Paper - watercolour paper, dark pink cs, PTI Rustic Cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Buttercup Liquid Pearls, fun foam

Eat Sleep Craft Repeat 2019

My wonderful and talented friend, Loll Thompson, found a perfect house near Vancouver for a bunch of us to get together for a craft retreat.   Loll, Christine, Bonnie, Darnell, Trina, Nancy and myself were there for a week.  We were joined for two nights by Linda, Colleen and Nancy's daughter, Jeani.  And Maureen (Scrappymo/Rudolf days) came for lunch on one of the days.  It was a fabulous social time, a great break from normal routine, and we did a ton of crafting.

 Left to right: Christine, Trina, me, Darnell, Colleen, Loll, Bonnie, Nancy, Linda

Each of us led a couple of techniques.  One that I chose to lead was bleaching out an image after stamping it on backgrounds created with powdered inks or Distress inks.

I sponged three shades of blue Distress inks onto smooth white cs.  Then stamped and heat embossed the blossom image.  Using bleach and a cheap paintbrush, I lifted the background colour from within the image.

Unlike the card in this post where I added some colour to the bleached image, I really liked this one left as it ended up after the bleaching.  I bordered it with black, heat embossed a white sentiment on a strip of black, and popped the panel up on fun foam.

It was a wonderful week.  I'll have more cards from the retreat to show you in the future, but meanwhile why not hop over to all the other participants' blogs:

Loll

Christine

Nancy

Darnell (aka Dolly)

Trina

Bonnie

Colleen
Linda

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Distress Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, and Faded Jeans; Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear and white embossing powder, fun foam, bleach

Twofer Birds with a Nest

The wonderful Darnell of djkardkreations has started a new challenge blog called "Twofer".  The idea is to make two cards using the same stamp or die for two different occasions or celebrations.  The first prompt is:

I have no feather stamps or dies but I do have lots of birds.  So here's my Twofer:

I used a new die of a branch, nest, and birds.

First up I made a birthday card for a friend who is an avid bird watcher.

I've always been full of admiration for people who can colour die cuts that have no lines or definition on them.  But I gave it a try.  My results did not make me that happy, but thanks to advice from a few stamping friends, I went back over it and added more shading and definition and am now happier, though I'm going to practice with some less complex dies!

My colouring was done with Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, but then I went back in with Inktense pencils to deepen up the birds, add a bit of shading on the large branch, and some twiggy texture to the nest.

The background was done by sprinkling some blue Brushos on coated cs and spritzed with water.  When dry, I stamped the sentiment with StazOn and trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die.


My second card uses the same die to create a pale silhouette against blossom to use as a card to celebrate spring:

The die is cut from a piece of cs I'd sprayed with a slightly shimmery grey spray - it was sitting in my UFO box.

For the background, I sponged various pink and green Distress inks through a stencil, added a sentiment in green ink, and used a co-ordinating pink card base.

It's certainly far easier and quicker to use a die cut as a silhouette than to paint it!!

Looking forward to Darnell's next Twofer challenge - it's fun to come up with two ways of using the same stamp or die.

Supplies:

Stamps - unknown birthday sentiment, Stampendous spring sentiment

Ink - StazOn black (first card); Distress Peeled Paint, Tattered Rose, and Picked Raspberry (second card)

Paper - white and coated cs, watercolour paper (first card); white and pink cs (second cs)

Size - A2

Accessories - Ali Express die (both cards); blue Brushos, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Inktense watercolour pencils, Li'l Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam (first card);  Tim Holtz blossom stencil, shimmery grey/silver spray

Spring Birds

Just lately I've been woken up every morning by the singing of the spring birds - they're so busy starting their nests and courting!  Appropriate then, that I've done two cards of spring birds today.

First up is one that is still a bit wintery as it's got some snow on it, but the snowdrops are blooming on it so definitely a spring card. I made it for the SCS Free for All challenge, "Going to Pot" - use any type of pot or container on your card.

I watercoloured the image with my Gansai Tambi watercolours - love those paints! Added a Quickie glue pen and snow glitter to the snow on the edges of the pot, leaves, and branches, and along the ground lines.  And then popped it up on fun foam.

The second one is for the SCS Ways to Use It challenge to use book pages on your card.

As some of you may know, I'm a retired librarian so my professional instinct is to rebel against cutting a page out of a book!  But I have an old copy of the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady that was discarded from the library because it was falling apart so I decided it wouldn't be too painful to take a page out of it!

I found a page in the entries for the month of March that refers to various birds' nests - perfect to use with my stamp of bird, nest, and blossom.

I used mixed media cs for the image as the Zig brush markers work really well on it. And it's a fairly heavy cs so works well when popped up on foam tape. I painted it quite pale first as that's the look I like for blossom, but it looked lost against the book page so went over it all more heavily - and now it looks too bright!

I sponged the edges of the piece of the book page with Distress Brushed Corduroy and then splattered some watered down ink over it.

I'm stamping Happy Easter inside it and giving it to my best friend's mother who has invited me to Easter brunch. The dates on the book page are so perfect for it as it includes the date of the brunch! Ironically my BF's mother is also a retired librarian so I'll see how she reacts to a page cut out of a book!

Happy Easter!

Supplies for the Robin and Pot card:

Stamps: Penny Black
Paper: cream cs, watercolour paper
Paper Size: A2
Ink: Archival Jet Black
Accessories: Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Quickie glue pen, snow glitter, fun foam

Supplies for the Bird Nest and Book Page card: 

Stamps: B-Line Designs bird and nest

Paper: cream cs, mixed media cs, page from a book

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Archival Jet Black, Distress Brushed Corduroy

Accessories: Zig brush markers, foam tape

Bird and Blossom for CAS Mix-up

I just can't get enough of Loll's and Bonnie's new challenge, CAS Mix-Up.  It perfectly suits my style and interests!  The March challenge is stamping, watercolouring, and your choice.

Sponging my stencil with my Distress inks is my choice of another medium this time.

 

I used a stamp I'd never inked up before. I stamped it on a scrap of watercolour paper, painted it with watercolour paints, and fussy cut it.

The background is a Tim Holtz stencil, sponged with pink and green Distress inks. It's popped up on the card base with fun foam and the nest is popped up on the background with pieces of foam tape. 

You've got until March 24th if you want to join in with the CAS Mix-Up challenge.

I also did the card for this week's SCS CAS challenge - "Spring Critters".

 

Stamps: B-Line Designs bird, PTI sentiment

Paper: white cs, watercolour cs

Paper Size: 5.25" square

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Peeled Paint and Spun Sugar

Accessories: Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, foam tape, fun foam, Tim Holtz blossom stencil