Happy Floral Birthday | Delicate Flowers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Happy New Year to everyone, as well! It's been a super busy holiday season here, but it's time to get back at it. I have a lot planned for the new year, and hopefully we can get everything back on track soon.

Today's card is stamped with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink on Bristol Smooth cardstock. I used the Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Markers to add some very soft colour to this design.

I wanted it to be bold and beautiful but still look incredibly delicate, which I think it does quite nicely.

The floral images are stamped from SSS Delicate Flowers and the greeting is from the SSS Sketched Flowers sets. I love that many of these sets can be mixed and matched to get the perfect look.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Thoughts Mini Series | ft. Simon Says Stamp "Beautiful Flowers" and 2 Kinds of Watercolour Pens

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a card (and video - two days in a row, peoples!!) featuring the Beautiful Flowers stamps set from Simon Says Stamp. I received this in one of their monthly kits, but I think it is still available independently on their site. I wasn't sure how much I was going to love the giant floral images, turns out I love them a lot and I cannot wait to get more. There is a Sketchy Flowers coming in the October card kit, but that hasn't made its way to me yet.... I've been checking every single day and it's like that commercial where the little kid looks so hopefully only to be woefully disappointed - that's me. Every. Day. I can only imagine what my neighbours think when I shuffle back to the house empty-handed.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

So I've done some cards using the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and I've done some cards using the Tombow Dual Brush Pens but I've never used the two together. Until now. I didn't have quite the palette I wanted to use in either set, so I ventured just a bit out of my comfort zone and used both sets. 

I stamped the image using VersaMark embossing ink and heat embossed it with Ranger's Rose Gold embossing powder. It's pretty, but it really wasn't as "rose-goldy" as I would have liked. I have a new powder that has arrived (between the filming and the voice-over for this video) and I'm looking forward to trying that out.

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think!

Gilded Butterfly Encouragement Card | ft. Urban Stamps, Nuvo Gilding Flakes and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

A while back I created a gilded butterfly card (which you can see here), I loved the card so much that I decided to create a tutorial video to go along with it.

The card today is a little different, as it is a 9"x 4" card. It fits nicely in a legal size envelope so it won't require additional postage; and that is always a good thing!

Or you can watch in HD over on YouTube!

The images are stamped with VersaMark ink on Bristol Smooth paper, then embossed with Ranger's Sticky Embossing Powder. The gilding flakes I used are the Radiant Gold Gilding Flakes by Nuvo. Please watch the video above for the full tutorial on how I created this card. And see just how crazy these flakes are. I'll be cleaning up these flakes for days. LOL they are everywhere!

In real life, the butterflies are super shimmery, unfortunately it doesn't really pick it up all that well on camera.

I don't often finish the insides of my cards, or if I do they are an after thought depending on who I am giving them to. But here is a shot of the inside that has been embossed with gold embossing powder. 

I hope you like today's card (and video!) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and now on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Watercolour Wishes | ft. Clearly Besotted "Merci Beaucoup"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I know that many of us started making cards as a way of expression. We don't always have the words, whether the right ones or enough of them to convey what we feel, and while we could easily pick up another form of art; painting or drawing, we're drawn to cards because of the emotion an image can send.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and maybe that's true. A handmade card is like that. We channel our emotions into colouring or painting, stamping or paper piecing and the recipient knows the time and effort that was put in. They know the love and thought behind the little card they hold in their hands when they open the envelope.

For some people, a card is a card; but for others they can feel the difference between something that was lovingly (and often painstakingly) put together instead of one that was grabbed off the shelf while getting a jug of milk.

To begin, I stamped the rose from Clearly Besotted "Merci Beaucoup" set with Antique Linen Distress Ink on Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper using the MISTI. I used the MISTI for this because the ink is so light it takes a couple stamps to get an impression that you can see clearly while colouring.

I then used a mix of my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and Distress inks to watercolour the image.

Once that was completely dry, I returned the panel to my MISTI and stamped the greeting from CTMH "Cursive Birthday" with CTMH Cranberry pigment ink. I then adhered the panel to a piece of coordinating cardstock cut just a bit larger, and mounted the whole lot to a standard A2 size card base.

To finish off the card I added a few clear droplets from Pretty Pink Posh to look like drops of dew. These droplets have a bit more dimension to them than I would like, but the final result is always amazing.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and now on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Thoughts Series | Watercolour Birthday ft. Clearly Besotted "Fresh Flowers" and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today, I wanted to share a birthday card that I had created for my Grandmother. She loves florals, so I had no option but to choose Clearly Besotted. Their floral collection is like nothing I have ever seen before. The detailed designs lend a sense of realism, while still giving us all the space we need to colour using any medium we like.

She also loves watercolour, so I opted to use the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers as my medium for today.

To begin, I stamped this floral image from Clearly Besotted's "Fresh Flowers" with Antique Linen Distress Ink on Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper. I chose to use Antique Linen for my stamping because I wanted to do a "no line" watercolour. Distress Inks will react with water and the lines will fade away when you apply the watercolour to an area. I suggest using the MISTI or another stamping tool because of the texture of the paper, you'll want to get a good impression.

I then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, applying the colour only where I wanted the darkest areas to be then using clean water to pull the colour out towards the edges of each petal. It's important not to work in areas that are right next to each other so they don't bleed together.

Once the image was completely dry, I used my white gel pen to add highlights to the ends of the little stems (?) in the centre of each flower.

My greeting, from CTMH "Cursive Birthday" set is stamped with CTMH Gypsy pigment ink. I added a scattering of coordinating sequins across the panel and adhered the watercolour piece to a slightly larger piece of purple cardstock. Then I mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Mixing Mediums | Happy Birthday ft. Clearly Besotted "Sunshine & Smiles"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

By now, it should be no surprise that I love to colour. I have a bunch of different mediums over on my Product Review page and I would encourage you to try as many as possible. Having options means you can do whatever you're in the mood for; and that's a wonderful feeling.

To begin, I stamped this flower (I'm not sure what it is) from Clearly Besotted's "Sunshine & Smiles" set with Antique Linen Distress Ink on Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper. I chose to use this Distress ink because I absolutely love the look of no-line watercolouring, and the Antique Linen is perfect for that.

I then used a mix of Distress inks and my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to colour the image in. With both mediums I used a small #2 round watercolour paint brush with clean water to get the colours moving. You can certainly use a water brush, but I prefer the control I get with a regular paint brush.

Once the panel was completely dry, I stamped the greeting from CTMH "Cursive Birthday" set with Goldenrod Pigment ink by CTMH. Because of the texture of the paper and the finicky nature of pigment ink, I stamped this with the MISTI.

I then adhered a panel to a piece of coordinating cardstock that I had in my stash and mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card, I adhered a scattering of yellow sequins across the panel. Typically, I would have used my glitter pens over the petals, but I didn't want the ink to reactivate with the moisture.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Monster Hugs | ft Lawn Fawn "Monster Mash" and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

We've all needed a get well card for someone we care about. Whether they're just feeling down and we want to help cheer them up, or there's an illness and our only expression is the written word. It's always nice to know that someone, somewhere is thinking about us when we need that support the most.

I've done many get well cards, usually floral thinking of you type things that are pretty or simple cute designs to make someone smile; but what about those kids that are under the weather? With social media recording our every day lives, we see more and more these really sick kids that are missing out on family gatherings, birthday parties and school.

Today I have a get well card, specifically for those kids. They may be going through things that most adults could never dream of, but deep down, they're still kids - and finding the right expression, something they will understand is very important.

To begin, I stamped the monsters from Lawn Fawn's "Monster Mash" with CTMH archival ink on Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper. I created my own greeting using part of the sentiment from the same set and the large letters from CTMH "Framework Alphabet".

To colour each area, I added a line of colour with the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers where I wanted the deepest colour and then used clean water to pull the colour out. If you haven't used these markers, I highly recommend you check out my review (linked above) and give them a try. These were definitely one of the best purchases I have ever made.

For the grass and the sky, I wet the paper with clean water then dropped in the colour from the pen, I wanted it to be rather vibrant, so this took a couple layers - there is a ton of pigment in these pens and they blend incredibly well.

Once the panel was completely dry, I used super sticky two-way tape to adhere it to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Thoughts Series | Cheer Up ft Clearly Besotted "Sunshine & Smiles"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Now that Christmas is over, and we've had our white winter wonderland, I'm pretty done with winter. I'm done with the snow and the cold and the biting wind. If you look outside it doesn't look that bad, it looks crisp and clean - then you open the door and you're blasted with sub-zero temperatures that just make you want to curl up in bed with hot tea and a book.

In the hopes of spreading some warmth, today I have a bright card that I'm hoping will cheer us all up as we trudge through yet another week of temperatures in the -25C (-13F) range and snow halfway to our knees.

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper with my powder tool and stamped the sunflower (or maybe a daisy) image from Clearly Besotted's "Sunshine & Smiles" set with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with detail white embossing powder.

I used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to add colour to the image; starting where I wanted my darkest shadows to be, then using my water brush to pull the colour out towards the ends of the petals and the leaves.

Working in relatively large sections, I wet the paper around the image then dropped in colour, pulling it to the edges of the paper to create a soft blue background.

Once the panel was completely dry, I stamped the greeting from the same set using CTMH Archival ink. I chose archival ink as it is waterproof and won't run if the paper is still a bit damp. If I were a patient person, I probably would have done the greeting in a mid-grey or even an ochre. But I don't have those in archival ink.

I used super strong two-way tape to adhered the panel to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. Then, to finish off the card, I added a scattering of yellow sequins across the piece.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Anything Goes

Clean and Simple Note Card | ft. Technique Tuesday "Budding Poppies"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I have a super clean and simple, single layer note card. I had done a review of the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers last week, and while I had them out on my desk, I thought I would put together another simple card.

I have never used stamps from Technique Tuesday before and was extremely pleased with the quality of the stamp and the fine detailed lines I was able to achieve when stamping. Definitely a company I will buy from again.

To begin, I cut a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock to 11 x 4 1/4" and folded it at 5 1/2" to create a landscape side folding card. I then prepped the front with my powder tool and stamped the poppy image from Technique Tuesday and the greeting with VersaMark ink and heat embossed both with gold embossing powder.

I then used the 029 Geranium Red Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker to add a line of colour at the base of each petal and my water brush to pull the colour up towards the edges. Even though the Bristol paper stops the ink from seeping in and drying too quickly, I still work one petal at a time so I don't get a harsh line of colour.

I then added a strip of gold glitter tape across the bottom as an accent and to avoid having it look as though the flowers are floating in the middle of nowhere. An accent strip adds just a little something extra and grounds the image.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Gilded Wings | ft Nuvo Gilding Flakes and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

A little while back I did a review on the Nuvo Gilding Flakes and showed how you can gild an image and then colour it afterwards with Copic markers. Today, I have a card that uses this technique but instead of using Copics I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (which I also recently reviewed) to add the colour to the image.

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock with my powder tool. I then stamped the small and medium butterflies from Urban Stamps "Butterflies" with VersaMark ink and then heat embossed them with Sticky Embossing Powder by Ranger.

I have found the trick to using the sticky embossing powder is to remove the heat from the paper as soon as it is melted. Get your heat gun good and hot before bringing it to the paper and remove it as soon as the powder melts. I discovered that if you allow the heat to stay after the powder melts it won't be sticky, it just cooks. And that defeats the purpose. It has taken me some practice, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Once the powder was melted I used the Radiant Gold gilding flakes, pressing them down with my finger, then burnishing them away with a stiff brush.

I then used 022 Carmine Red and 052 Bright Yellow Zig Markers to add the colour. These markers are fantastic on the Bristol paper. The smooth surface stops the colour from seeping into the paper and drying too quickly. For this card, I drew a thin line of the red at the base of the wing then a thicker line with the yellow and used my water brush to pull the colour out to the edges. You could also skip the water and use the lighter colour to pull the red out to the tips, but I wanted a softer watercolour look.

To finish off the card, I added the greeting from Stampendous "Happy Messages" with the gilding flakes as well, then mounted my panel on a top folding A2 sized black card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

If you hop over to my Facebook page, I currently have a poll going to see what you want to have reviewed this week. Voting closes December 14th 2017 at about 1:00pm MST, so if you want to vote click on over and do so!

Product Review Series | Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and a Completed Card

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

This past week on my Facebook page, I ran a poll to see what you were interested in for this week's review. Well the votes are in and 65% of voters wanted to see the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.

In April of last year, I did a post about these Zig markers and about the gauntlet I went through to get my hands on them. It didn't occur to me until just recently that I never actually did a review of them! Whoops!!

So here it is, as always this review will be long and full of pictures, so grab a coffee and enjoy! And don't forget there is a card at the end!!

My current storage system has them broken into three groups; neutrals, cools and warms. This isn't ideal, I'll be honest. I would love to find another way to store them but frankly I haven't gotten to it yet. I like the three mini mason jars as they just sit on my desk but when I come up with something new, I'll be sure to share it.

So a couple of things:

• These are super vibrant. A little goes a long way - and that's good because they are pricey.
• They blend super well. Don't feel like you need to buy the whole lot to get a good range of colour, any colours you may not have can very easily be created with a little practice.
• Can be used with or without water (I'll have examples below)
• They will reactivate after drying if new moisture is applied. Very handy for those times you may slip out of the lines.
• They have an actual brush tip. It doesn't just look like a brush, it is a brush, so in a lot of ways it's like painting.
• These come in open stock as well as packs of 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and finally 80 (If you checked out my other post - linked above - you'll see why I got the 60 pack instead of the smaller one that I had originally wanted)

Here I just wanted to show you a close up of the brush tip. It is amazing. Like any other brush don't apply a lot of pressure - more pressure means a wider stroke and that's okay just be careful not to damage the tip.

There are about a million printable swatch cards online for these guys and that's fantastic. However my printer doesn't take watercolour paper, or Bristol paper or any paper that it doesn't like the look of depending on the day, so I made my own. This way I could keep them in basic colour groups, I could arrange them the way I wanted and I could omit any markers that I didn't actually own. 

Swatching is good for a couple of reasons (and I have a post coming up all about it), firstly it gives you a basic idea of what the marker feels like when you use it. How fast the pigment comes out and how much pressure to apply. It will also show you the true colour. I know they try and try to put the colour on the bottom of the marker or the pen but really they don't always match up - and that's frustrating to find out in the middle of a project.

There are two ways that I personally use the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.

The first is with Bristol Smooth paper. I use Strathmore 100lb Bristol Smooth - it's white but almost has a creamy colour to it. It's incredibly smooth and mostly useless for coloured pencil but it works like a dream with these markers.

In the picture above, I have stamped this floral image from Clearly Besotted with CTMH Archival ink. Using Archival ink is incredibly important as it is waterproof, and these are water-based markers, so you see where I'm going with this.

I work in small areas, adding the darkest colour where I want the deepest shadow to be, then add the lighter colour and blend the two together. The smooth surface of the Bristol paper keeps the marker from drying as quickly as it would on regular cardstock, allowing you to blend. Don't wait too long though as it will dry. 

I keep a paper towel handy to wipe clean my lighter colour. While the brush will pick up the darker colour it will not seep up into the brush nor will it ruin the tip so feel free to blend away.

For this second example I am still working on Bristol Smooth paper because I love the smooth texture, but this can be done on watercolour paper as well.

I prepped this piece with my powder tool and stamped the rose image from Clearly Besotted with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.

For each petal I added a fine line of my blue and then pulled it out using the clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen. You can also do this with water, but I wanted my flower to sparkle. I repeated this process with each petal, wiping off the glitter pen whenever it was picking up too much colour.

I did the exact same process with a green for the leaves and stem. I wanted to show this close up as it is also the completed card for today. There are only two markers used for the colouring of this entire flower. One blue and one green. 

Overall I'm incredibly happy with these markers. You can use them the way I have described above, or you can scribble them on a palette and pick them up with a brush. These have all the best things about watercolours and all the best things about markers - rolled into one!

For this completed card, I coloured the flower from Clearly Besotted as I described above, I then masked it off and lay down a stencil and spritzed a light blue mist through it. Because this is Bristol Smooth paper, the areas where the liquid pools in the corners of the stencil will be more intense than if it were pulled into the paper.

Once that was dry I heat embossed the greeting in the same silver.

I hope you enjoyed today's review and card. If you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, please drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. 

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I find interesting, that I use and that I have purchased. All reviews are based on my experience with them and are my opinions only. I am not given reward, incentive or payment to write a review.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge 

Challenge #245

 Thank you for voting for this card!

Pirate Party | ft. Lawn Fawn "Ahoy, Matey" Stamps and Pop-Up Dies

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share one of my very first attempts with the Lawn Fawn "Pop-Up" dies. And because it's me, and I can't do anything the easy way, I'll be showing the Stitched Hillside Pop-Up and the Hillside Ocean Waves Add-On.

I very quickly discovered that creating a pop-up card is a lot more "work" than I regular card. It's also like creating two cards in one. There's the outside, which still has to look attractive and make people want to pick it up and then there's the inside (the real star of the show) which has to completely blow their mind.

I assume that I will get faster over time, but this card took a bit of time. And by "bit", I mean "a whole friggin' lot".

For the front of the card, I wanted it to be appealing, but very subdued. I have never tried doing a whole card front in a vintage look and I thought a treasure map would be a great place to try it out.

To begin, I cut down a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and stamped the palm trees, the X, the North Arrow (compass-looking thing) and the water waves using Antique Linen Distress ink. I then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to add very dull colours to the map, but still give it depth.

For the torn edges, I used my fingers to rip all the way around the panel - I find this to be more organic than if I were to use a die. I sponged Antique Linen over the entire panel, then Scattered Straw towards where I wanted to start building my shadows. I then used Gathered Twigs, and finally Ground Espresso to create the finished dirty/burnt look around the edges.

Behind the map, I sponged Gathered Twigs on a piece of patterned paper and adhered that to the front of my standard A2 sized card base. I covered the back of the map with two-way tape and set that aside until I was ready to assemble the whole card.

I wanted the inside of the card to be very opposite of the front. I wanted this to be bright and cheery and really, really POP!

I stamped out all my images using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured them with Copic markers, and used the Brother 2 Scan N Cut to cut them all out. This was especially helpful for the large palm trees (from Critters from the Past) as well as the treasure chest with coins and bird, as I used the masking technique to create my own flat images.

I used the Stitched Hillside Pop-Up die to create the base for my layers. I sponged Antique Linen, Scattered Straw and Tea Dye on the foremost hillside and down the base of my card to create the sandy beach.

I cut both sets of waves from the Stitched Hillside Ocean Waves Add-on die and used Distress Oxide ink (Broken China and Salty Ocean) then spritzed with clean water for the oxidized look. The smaller wave fits perfectly over the smaller hill and I adhered it there. The largest wave took a bit longer to dry, so while that was happening I used my cloud stencil and Tumbled Glass Distress ink to create a soft cloudy sky. I then adhered the back wave directly to the card base.

Once all my setting pieces were in place I was finally able to add all my little images and put together my scene. At the bottom of this post is a zoomed in picture of the inside of the card. Don't forget to check that out.

It was after everything was together that I decided I wanted the coins to sparkle - so I added clear Wink of Stella glitter over the coins, then covered them with Glossy Accents by Ranger.

I stamped the greeting using CTMH Chocolate Ink. Once the Glossy Accents were dry, I was able to put the map on the front of my card.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

I will definitely be making more pop-up cards, but maybe "for the art of it" or special occasions, definitely not as a replacement for my beloved single layer cards.

Floral Thoughts Series | Get Well ft. Clearly Besotted "Miniature Florals Collection"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today, I wanted to share a card where I use a small floral image with some masking to create a little bouquet. I chose the Black Eye'd Susan from Clearly Besotted's "Miniature Florals Collection". 

I absolutely love the floral images that Clearly Besotted has, and to make it even better, they took their large images and shrunk them down to create the Miniature Florals. Not only is this handy if you aren't looking for a big flower, but you can also finish off the inside of the card using the smaller version. Clever!

To begin, I stamped the flower on the left on Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper using CTMH Archival ink. Archival ink is waterproof and the one from Close to my Heart gives an excellent crisp impression. I then stamped off that flower and stamped the middle, masked that one and stamped the one on the right.

As I wanted the one on the right to be the shortest, I used just a piece of scrap paper to mask the bottom part of the paper so that the stem wouldn't be hanging down.

I removed the masks and used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to colour the images in. Once those were dry, I used clean water to dampen the background and scribbled on the light blue randomly, then used more water to pull the colour out and get rid of the harsh lines.

Once the panel was completely dry, I prepped the top left with my powder tool and heat embossed the greeting using gold embossing powder.

To finish off the card I took some gold thread and looped it about the bottom a few times and tied it off, cutting the loops of the bow.

Using super strong two-way tape I adhered the watercolour panel to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. I then decided that the flowers needed to shine a bit, so I added clear Wink of Stella over the blossoms.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Growing Up Up Up | ft. MFT's "Up in the Air"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Every year for my niece and nephew I make a card that coordinates with the theme for their birthday party. My sweet little niece turned three this year, and when I was talking to her mom it turns out that she never received her card for her second birthday.

Totally weird, because I have the sketch in my art journal from last year and I distinctly remember making the card but I couldn't find it any where! So I had to make a new card for her.

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper with my powder tool and stamped the hot air balloon images from MFT's "Up in the Air" set with VersaMark ink and then heat embossed them with clear.

Now if I were to remake this card, I would probably heat emboss in gold or silver - while it looks great in real life, the clear embossing does not pick up well on camera at all.

I then coloured the images with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and used my Prisma water brush to pull the colour out.

I heat embossed the greeting with the same clear powder and then used pinks over top of it to create an emboss resist. I die cut that with the banner die from the Blueprints die-namics, and popped it up on some foam tape.

I used some super strong two-way tape to adhere the watercolour piece to the scalloped panel die from MFT's Blueprint die-namics #27. Then I popped the whole piece up on some foam tape and then mounted that to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Autumn Birthday | ft. Inkadinkado and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Yesterday was my Grandfather's birthday. As long as I can remember he's been a gruff, no nonsense kind of man. But he's also always been the kind of man who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He's the strong, silent type - not really brooding and definitely not missing anything that happens around him. Never mistake his silence for indifference.

So it's always a treat when I give him a card. I get the "Thanks, kid" but I see the sparkle in his eyes that tells me he really likes it.

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock with my powder tool, then stamped the maple leaf image from Inkadinkado with VersaMark ink randomly around the panel and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.

I then used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to add colour to the outline of the embossing and clean water to pull the colour out. The yellowish leaf on the very bottom right was a bit too bright for me, so I went over it with a bit of green, just in the middle and pulled that out to give it a mottled look. I used the light grey to go around the outside of the leaves, pulling that out with clean water, to give them some shadow.

I then prepped a piece of vellum and heat embossed the Happy Birthday greeting from CTMH "Cursive Birthday" with Copper Detail embossing powder by Recollections. I added a few tiny drops of liquid glue behind the script so it wouldn't show through the vellum, and used adhesive on the back to ensure the banner would stay stuck.

I mounted that panel to a piece of green cardstock then adhered the whole piece to a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss out on any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge

#236 Inspired by Anita Bowden

 Thank you all so much for your votes and support!

Amaryllis Just Because | ft. Wplus9 and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Before my father passed away, he took a keen interest in botany. I'm not saying he went all out and had a green house or anything like that. But he did like to try growing things from seeds. Apple seeds, orange pips, a little maple, those sorts of things. I think he liked the feeling you get when you see something you have nurtured take form.

His favourite, though, were Amaryllis. He would get the package of bulbs and take such care in removing that dead skin that forms, and planting it, and watering it and watching it grow.

I got this stamp right before he passed away, and afterwards I could never really bring myself to use it. It hurt too much. Even now, as I'm writing the screen blurs from tears. I can't even explain how much I miss him. How much I hate that my girls probably won't remember him. Too much of a downer today? I'd apologize, but today it's about expressing the emotion behind the art.

To begin, I prepped to pieces of Bristol smooth cardstock with my powder tool and stamped the Amaryllis from Wplus9 in VersaMark ink on the smaller piece. I heat embossed with white powder and then stamped the Amaryllis greeting below and repeated the embossing.

I took the floral blossom and stamped that with VersaMark randomly on the larger piece to create my own patterned paper and heat embossed that with white powder as well.

I then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to add a bit of colour and pulled it out with my size 4 Prisma waterbrush.

Once those were both dry, I popped the smaller panel up on foam tape and adhered it to the larger piece. Then I added a piece of green patterned paper behind that for a nice border and to tie the green from the leaves into the rest of the card.

Finally I mounted it all on to a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me over on the right side bar. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card if for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

STAMPtember - Stamp It

Try Stamping on Tuesday

Freehand Thanks | ft. Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by, I hope you are having a great day.

Recently, my Mom went on vacation to visit some family on the island. She had a fantastic time and wanted to express her gratitude. My Aunt has always been a huge supporter of my work and any art that I put together. So when Mom asked me to create a thank you card for her, I wanted something that I knew they would both love.

To begin, I roughly sketched in the horizon and the scene using a regular pencil. I then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to add the islands then my Prisma waterbrush to pull out the colour. Once that was dry, I added the water and again pulled out the colour; always being careful not to trap the pencil under the colour. Once it's trapped it's not coming out.

I erased any pencil marks and added darker shades of each colour to give it some depth. Finally I sketched in the palm trees, right over top of the scene that was all ready there. The great thing about these markers is the ability to layer colours.

Once everything was dry, I used my light and medium grays to add some shadows. I then stamped the sentiment using CTMH's Archival Black ink.

To put the card together, I adhered the watercoloured piece to black cardstock to give it a border and then put the whole thing on a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't all ready, please follow me over on the right side bar so you don't miss any future posts; if you are viewing this via mobile device, scroll to the bottom and click "View web version" first. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Add a Sentiment

Watercolour Dahlias | ft. Wplus9 and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

I created this card for my Mom's birthday, this is one of my absolute favourite floral images. While I'm sure there is a traditional way to colour dahlias, I typically let my imagination take flight and colour with what calls to me.

This is also my first time joining the Flower Challenge as well as the Cards Galore Encore Challenge. Check out their links below and I hope you'll play along!

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore 140lb coldpress watercolour paper with my powder tool and used VersaMark ink to stamp the beautiful Dahlia image from Wplus9 "Beautiful Bouquets" and heat embossed it with white detail embossing powder.

I then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to add a tiny bit of colour where I wanted the petal or the leaf to be the darkest and used my Prisma waterbrush to pull the colour out. After all the petals and leaves where done, I traced around the lower right side of each area with my light grey and pulled that out to create a shadow.

The greeting from CTMH's "Sending Smiles" is heat embossed with detail silver powder.

I used some super sticky two way tape to adhere the watercolour paper to a piece of coordinating patterned paper and then put the entire piece on a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't all ready, please follow me over on the right side bar. If you are viewing this via mobile device, scroll to the bottom and click "View web version" first. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

The Flower Challenge #11

Cards Galore Encore Challenge

 

Selected as Design Team Favourite by Denyse and Carole For the August 2017 Challenge #44

Thank you so much, ladies!!!

Watercolour Florals | ft. Hero Arts and Zig Clean Color Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

If you're like me, you see these super pretty cards online and then get a million ideas on how to use that stamp; so you rush out and buy it only to forget about it completely.

No? Just me? Huh.

I got this stamp a while back because I saw all these super pretty cards online and I had to just rush out and buy it, only to forget why I wanted it in the first place. So when I saw the inspiration by Anita Bowden in the Muse challenge, along with a Happy Birthday Challenge and an Anything Goes challenge I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I'm not going to lie, the execution of my idea took a wee bit longer than I wanted, but now that I have the hang of this one, I'll probably make a couple more with different colour palettes for my friends.

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth 100lb cardstock with my powder tool. I then positioned it in my MISTI and stamped this Hero Arts "Large Blossom" using VersaMark ink. I actually did it twice so that I was certain the black embossing powder would stick where I wanted it when I heat embossed it.

I then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers in Carmine, Light Carmine and Bright Yellow for the flowers; and May Green and Mid Green for the leaves and stems. To get a nice blend I put only a bit of each colour at opposite ends of each section and used my Prisma watercolour brush to bring the two together.

Because Bristol isn't actually watercolour paper, it is best to use a very light hand when it comes to adding the water. You can always, always add more, but once you have too much the paper will warp and pill -- no one wants that.

Once that was completely dry, I heat embossed the sentiment using the same black embossing powder.

I then added a bit of twine to the left and bottom of the panel, and adhered the whole piece to a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't all ready, please follow me over on the right side bar. If you are viewing this via mobile device, scroll to the bottom and click "View web version" first. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge #228

Inspired by Anita Bowden

and

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Happy Birthday

and 

Stamping Sensations August Challenge

Anything Goes

 

Product Review Series | Tombow Mono Sand Eraser 512A

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

I don't know about you, but I have been hearing a lot about the Tombow Mono Sand Eraser, everyone is using it and it honestly seemed to be too good to be true. Like one of those things where we all like the rest of Tombow's products so why wouldn't this one fall in line as well?

Dimensions of the Tombow Mono Sand Eraser 512A

So naturally, I had to get one and test if for myself. I purchased the "Tombow Mono Sand Eraser 512A for Ink". I tested this using my 8 most frequently used mediums for card making. I will post the before and after photos and then I will go through each and discuss what I found.

Below, on the left is my tester sheet. I used 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I chose this cardstock because it my primary choice for card making and felt that since I would be using this the majority of the time it should also be the one that I use for testing. On the right, I have the exact same sheet after using the eraser. I attempted to make each of the marks as though it were "accidentally" done through regular use.

1. Ball Point Pen: An accidental scuff with a regular blue ball point pen should pose no problems. The sand eraser takes the light scuff right off with very little damage to the paper.

2. Pencil: Comes right off. I'm not sure why you would choose to use the sand eraser over a regular white eraser when it comes to getting pencil off, but you never know, so I thought I'd include it.

3. Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker: (Deep Green) This took a lot of effort. A very light scuff should be no problem but if you drop the marker tip down (we've all done it) you may have to cover it or start again.

4. Tim Holtz Distress Marker: (peacock feathers) This eraser won't help you. As you can see above I was unable to get much of this marker off the page at all. There was substantial damage to the page and the results were not worth it.

5. Memento Tuxedo Black ink: We've all scuffed a stamp or gotten ink on our fingers. Provided you didn't drop the entire ink pad face down on the paper, this eraser should help you. I was able to get the light scuffs off, with very little effort and very little damage to the paper.

6. Copic: There's no hope. Because of the way Copic markers work, I didn't expect the eraser to yield any results.

7. Black Glaze Pen: Will remove the light smear with very little damage to the paper. And honestly, who hasn't smeared an eye at least once?

8. Pigment Liner: (Staedtler Pigment liner 0.3) medium damage, removes tail.

Overall, I'm rather impressed with this product. It also removes most coloured pencil provided you are working with decent quality paper, it also removed glitter pen from my clear Gelly Roll Stardust pen.

Pros:

• Quality vs. Cost is very good
• Widely available, in art stores or online
• Works on a huge variety of mediums
• Requires very little pressure
• Very little to moderate damage to paper, depending on the pressure you apply

Cons:

• Very Crumbly/Breakable
• Leave a lot of dust during use

I found it worked best when I held it upright and only used a tiny bit of pressure, working in small circles. That reduced the amount of damage to the paper. Because of the amount of dust the eraser leaves behind during use, I found that wiping it away won't help the situation, use a loose brush or tip and tap the piece over a garbage to remove the grit.

I hope you liked today's review. If you haven't all ready, please follow me over on the right side bar so you don't miss any future reviews or projects. If you are viewing this via mobile device, scroll to the bottom and click "View Web Version" first. You can also follow me over on Facebook. If you have any questions about this review, or have a suggestion for a future review, toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know. I would love to hear from you.

*Disclaimer: I am not sent products for review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I find interesting and that I purchase myself, with my own money and I receive no incentive, reward or payment to do so.