Blossom Shaker

At long last, my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers arrived in the mail from Japan! I have been drooling over these markers for a long time and finally bit the bullet and ordered the 48 pack.

These markers are SWEET! They are unlike any other marker I've used. They feel like a paintbrush (thus the real brush) but in a marker form. The colors blend wonderfully well, wet or dry as long as you use watercolor paper.

My first task was to create my swatch list to show each marker in both dry and wet states on watercolor paper. Once this was done, I stamped a slew of images on watercolor paper using Ranger Archival Ink.

I spent the day coloring; such fun to try blending colors together to create new ones and to add depth and dimension to colored images! Coloring with these markers really is a breeze!

For the image on my shaker card, I used a stamp from Indescribable Gift. I used Light Carmine, Carmine, Pale Green, May Green, Brown and Dark Brown.

I would scribble a little with a marker and then blend the rest using my Aqua Pen. If needed, I would go back over a section to give darker shading.

I die cut my image using the Squares Collection Framelits and also cut a polaroid-type frame from Early Espresso card stock as well as a square of Window Sheet.

I adhered the colored image to a Watermelon Wonder card base using Fuse Fast Adhesive and put strips of foam tape around the image.

On the under side of the Early Espresso frame, I put a strip of Sticky Strip and pleated a length of Cucumber Crush Dotted Lace Trim. I also used Fuse Fast Adhesive to secure the window sheet.

I placed a selection of sequins on top of the colored image, inside the foam tape. I then removed the protective strip from the tape and adhered the frame over the sequins to form the shaker.

I stamped the sentiment from the Watercolor Wings stamp set on Cucumber Crush card stock using Archival Ink and then punched it using the Washi Label Punch.

The sentiment was adhered with Dimensionals at the bottom of the frame.

What have you colored with the Zig Clean Real Brush Markers? Leave me a comment below!

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Indescribable Gift Meets Butterfly Basics

Inspiration may come from several different sources–a technique, a product, a design or a color combination.

Because color is very important to me, I am constantly in search of new resources to inspire me in this area. I found a wonderful resource in the magazine, Color Made Easy from Better Homes and Gardens.

It was easy to translate the color swatches in the magazine to the Stampin' Up colors to come up with even more fresh color combos to use in card making!


For my card today, I was inspired by this page:

I translated the color combo from BHG to the Stampin' Up colors of Cucumber Crush, Melon Mambo and Whisper White.

I am really enjoying using the Stampin' Blender Pen with my reinkers to give a watercolor look to my stamped images! However, my card today caused me a bit of grief.

I actually colored my stamped image twice; the first time, I stamped the sentiment over the colored stamp only to find out it was not completely legible :(

The second time I colored it, I thought I would have to color it a third time because I got some ink on the white parts!

Luckily, I utilized a method from Jennifer McGuire to get rid of my mistake. I used a craft knife to scrape lightly over the errant ink area and then blended the paper fibres a bit using a white eraser. That method, paired with a vellum cover-up saved my bacon!

The card itself was pretty simple to create. Using my MISTI, I stamped the flowers from the Indescribable Gift stamp set using Tuxedo Black Stazon ink on Watercolor Paper. After a quick pass under my Heat Tool to set the ink, I used Melon Mambo, Cucumber Crush and Soft Suede reinkers with my Blender Pen to color in the stamp.

I used a die from the Circles Collection Framelits to cut out the colored stamp as well as a same sized circle from Vellum.

Using both the die cut and the original vellum piece, I placed both in my MISTI and stamped the sentiment from Butterfly Basics using the Stazon ink again. Using the original piece of vellum with the die cut allowed me to make sure the round die cut did not move while I was stamping it.
I used tiny amounts of Snail Adhesive on the colored sections of the stamped image to attach the vellum piece over top.

I used a non Stampin' Up embossing folder–Christmas Vine by Craft Concepts–to emboss the Cucumber Crush matte. I did this because I needed a larger embossing folder to emboss the matte. This matte was then adhered to a Whisper White matte.

I then angled strips of Melon Mambo stitched ribbon across the matte, securing on the back with Sticky Strip. This completed matte was then attached to a Melon Mambo matte that had been previously adhered to a Whisper White Thick card stock card base, using Fuse Fast Adhesive.

The circular stamped piece was adhered onto the card front using Dimensionals. A RV09 Copic Marker was used to color five rhinestones and they were adhered to the vellum matte.

The Bitty Butterfly Punch was used to cut a butterfly from Melon Mambo card stock and then I used my Wink of Stella pen to glimmer it up a bit! I also inked the edges of the butterfly using Rose Red and a Sponge Dauber.

Finally, the butterfly was adhered to the card front using a dab of Crystal Effects.

Close-up showing the effect of the Wink of Stella pen.

What have you watercolored using the Blender Pen? Leave me a link in a comment below!


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Watercolor Wings: A Study In Neutrals

It's always such a delight when a card you've envisioned comes together!

Last night I started playing with a card that had been rolling around in my mind for about a day.

I got my mattes all cut and my stamping and die cutting pretty much done. Usually I finish a project, even if it is late but I was still recovering from a late night from the previous project so I headed to bed!

This morning, I was able to finish my card and I am more than pleased with how it turned out!

I started by stamping the large butterfly in the Watercolor Wings set on Very Vanilla card stock.

I used Sahara Sand to stamp the first stamp, Crumb Cake for the second and Tip Top Taupe for the third. I die cut it with the Bold Butterfly Framelits.

I then used the Butterflies Thinlits Dies to cut a detailed butterfly from Gold Glimmer paper. I also cut a small detailed butterfly from Gold Foil paper using the Bold Butterfly Framelits.

I stamped the inked butterfly with Versamark and then heat embossed it with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder. I repeated the process to produce a smooth as glass shiny butterfly!

I attached the Gold Glimmer butterfly to the stamped butterfly using Crystal Effects and then attached the smaller Gold Foil butterfly on top. I liked the beautiful contrast of the clear embossed butterfly through the openings in the Gold Glimmer butterfly!

Next, I used my MISTI to stamp the flowers from Indescribable Gift in Tip Top Taupe on a 4 3/8" square Crumb Cake matte. I also stamped the sentiment from the Watercolor Wings stamp set.
I adhered the stamped matte to a Very Vanilla 4 5/8" matte using Fuse Fast.

Using Sticky Strip, I adhered a strip of Vanilla 5/8" Satin Ribbon across the bottom of the matte and then added a strip of Gold Sequin Trim.

I adhered a 5 1/4" matte of Tip Top Taupe to the 5 1/2" Very Vanilla card base using Fuse Fast. I then adhered the top matte to the card base using Dimensionals.

The butterfly was attached in the bottom right corner using both Crystal Effects and a couple of Dimensionals.

A 5 1/4" Crumb Cake matte was stamped with a section of the same flower stamp, using Tip Top Taupe, and then the matte was adhered to the inside of the card.

Close-up detail of butterfly

I just love the look of the gold and the neutral colors together. The Tip Top Taupe works especially well with the Crumb Cake.

What will you or have you created with the Watercolor Wings stamp set? Let me know in the comments below!

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Indescribable Gift

Got my Blendabilities out to color my card for today. I really wanted to color the apple blossoms (I think that's what they are?) from the Indescribable Gift stamp set.

After stamping the image on Whisper White with my Tuxedo Black Memento ink, I used my Pink Pirouette for the blossoms themselves and Wild Wasabi for the leaves. For the stem I used the two darkest markers in the Skin Tone assortment.

I chose to cut the completed image using the Window Frames Collection Framelits and cut a matte from Pear Pizzazz. (In retrospect, I should have cut the matte from from Wild Wasabi but in the end, I had three different yet complementary greens on the finished card!)

I chose a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2" card base of Soft Suede. I then faced a bit of a dilemma. I wanted to use Pink Pirouette paper behind the blossoms and I wanted to emboss it but the embossing folder would have been too small. Too compensate, I cut strips of Pink Pirouette from the Subtles Core'dinations collection and embossed the strips using the Decorative Dots embossing folder. I then used the now retired sanding block to reveal the white dots on the card stock.

Since the blossoms that I had colored looked closer in color to Crisp Cantaloupe than to Pink Pirouette, I chose to ink the edges of the embossed strips with Crisp Cantaloupe ink, using a Sponge Dauber.
I adhered the strips to the card base using Fuse Fast and trimmed the excess using my scissors. I then adhered both Calypso Coral and Lucky Limeade Ruffled Ribbons, now retired, in between the embossed strips.

I used Dimensionals to mount the Pear Pizzazz matte and the colored blossoms and then stamped the sentiment on Calypso Coral card stock using Versamark. I heat embossed it using White Stampin Emboss Powder and punched it using the Modern Label Punch. The edges were inked with Soft Suede.I adhered the sentiment using Dimensionals to complete the front of the card.

I cut a matte from Naturals White card stock for the inside of the card and used Soft Suede to stamp a portion of the blossoms in both the top left and bottom right corners, stamping off first. Edges were inked using Calypso Coral ink and the matte adhered using Fuse Fast.

I chose the colors of this card because they make me think of Spring. Hopefully, it isn't too far away!

Do you find that you are stamping in Spring colors to beat the winter blahs right now? Drop me a comment below to let me know!

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