Splashes of Watercolor

Have a Groovy Day!

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Hi, y'all!  Unlike what seems like all of blogdom, I am not at CHA this week!  AND I needed a quick birthday card for a coworker who is about my age.  Enter….the stamp set reminiscent of the 60s, Lava You from Our Craft Lounge!  I can definitely remember having a groovy lava lamp as a kid!

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I colored the lamp with my Copic markers and used a piece of acrylic for the lava lamp shade, glued on with Ranger Glossy Accents.  The lamp is popped up on some foam mounting tape.  I thought the background paper was a little psychedelic looking too!  The dotted line under the sentiment banner is from the Big Birthday Wishes set.

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Well, that's it for me!  I hope you're having a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

Hearts - Color Throwdown 176

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Happy Wednesday!  It's time for another Color Throwdown and this week Miss Joan is our hostess-the-the-mostess!  I love the colors she chose…perfect for a fancy heart Valentine featuring zig zags!

Here's the combo:

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I adore that bed!

I also made my card for this week's Our Craft Lounge challenge OCL101 to use zig zags!

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I chose the new stamp set from Our Craft Lounge called Every Heartbeat.  Such a simple set, but oh-so-versatile!  I embossed the wide distressed zig zag (heartbeat) on Rose Red cardstock with clear embossing powder, and I stamped the multiple zig zag image in Memento Desert Sand onto the kraft background.

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The seam binding was dyed with Pool Party ink.  The branches and some of the hearts are die cut from old book pages that were painted with watered down Claudine Hellmuth gesso.  The branches were then pounced with the Pool Party ink pad.  I simply layered the hearts and stitched up the middle, leaving the ends of the thread loose.  The eyelet lace is vintage from my Mom's stash.

Look how perfectly that resin flower from the Maya Road Embellishments Kit matches the Rose Red!

The card base is only 3 1/2" wide, so the layered cardstock strips and heart that extend over the edges only add enough width to make the card 4 1/4" wide.

Now is the time for you to check out the gorgeous creations that the CTD design team has put together for you!  Here are the links:

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I hope you can play along with us this week.  If you don't have the exact colors, you can use whatever you have that is close.  Link up to today's post on the CTD blog. 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!  See you soon!

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Crazed!! - a new E-Team blog hop!

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Crazed….meaning Faux Crazed Porcelain.  It's a really cool technique developed by the fabulously talented Wendy Vecchi.  Here's a link to her original post:  Faux Crazed Porcelain.

And speaking of crazed…yes, I'm crazed!  It's been a hell of a week.  My computer hard drive died so I've been without one for 2 1/2 days.  On top of that, my computer sits at my craft desk, so the only time I was home to craft, I couldn't because the PC guy was at my desk working.  Tonight (Thursday) is the first time I've had to actually sit down and create.  I won't even mention all the other craziness of my week!

I guess what I'm trying to say is please excuse the simplicity of my project today.  I promise you won't be disappointed in the other E-Team members' projects!  They're wonderful!!!

So, let's talk blog hop business first.

• Leave comments on all the blogs anytime between today (Friday) and Sunday, Jan 22nd. 
• 3 winners will be chosen to each receive a $25 eP gift certificate.
• Winners will be announced late Monday, Jan 23rd, on the eP blog.

On to my project…

Daisy, our wonderful, fearless, generous leader, sent me Fancy Pants Metal Charms.  So of course I had to try to make a Faux Crazed Porcelain charm!

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The charms each have their own template to use to cut photos or patterned paper to fit inside the frame.  How cool!  I used 2 of those templates to cut images of a seahorse and an angelfish from my On the Boardwalk 8x8 paper pad from Graphic 45.  I also decided to sponge some Ranger Distress ink (Tumbled Glass) onto the images to get to more of a water color.

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Then this was my process:

I used Glue N' Seal to glue the paper onto the charms.  Then came 2 more coats of Glue N' Seal, letting the glue dry thoroughly between coats.  As I put the second coat on I also added some Martha Stewart luster glass microbeads (clear).  I thought they looked like bubbles!  Then came 2 coats of Ranger Glossy Accents, again I let each coat dry thoroughly.  Finally , I applied one more medium coat of Glue N' Seal.  When it dried, I brushed on a fairly thick coat of Ranger Crackle Paint in Rock Candy. 

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I had to leave this to dry for a couple of hours, so I went to my grandson's basketball game!  When I returned I helped it along a little with my Heat it Craft Tool.  The seahorse charm turned out just as I'd hoped but it seems I put too thick a coat of the Crackle Paint on the angelfish because it turned out much too cloudy to use.  I sponged some Ranger Distress ink in Gathered Twigs onto the seahorse charm to darken the Crackle Paint and to make the cracks show up better.

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Then I used my Copic marker (E77) to color all the silver of the charm to get a more vintage look.  I attached the charm to a chain I already had with a jump ring.  I also colored a silver seahorse charm that I had in my stash with my Copics and dyed some seam binding with Ranger Distress ink in Antique Linen.  These were each attached with clasp rings through both sides of the chain (pulling it together) about 1.5 inches above the Faux Crazed Porcelain charm.  Using the clasp rings will allow me to remove the ribbon and smaller charm and just wear the Faux Crazed Porcelain charm alone on the chain.

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So that's it for today's project.  You definitely have to hop on to the other E-Team blogs now.  You'll be thrilled to see their projects!  And don't forget to leave comments along the way!

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Thanks so much for taking the time to visit with me today.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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Small Friend - Color Throwdown #175

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Hello, everyone!  It must be Wednesday, 'cause it's time for a new Color Throwdown challenge!  The super-talented Danielle is our hostess this week and I really love her color choices!  So versatile!

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Have you ever come across some images that WOW'd you and you knew you had to have them??  Well, that's what happened to me when I found A Day For Daisies.  Tammy Thompson's images are so beautiful, with a fairytale quality that I've not seen anywhere else!

I got this image as a newcomer FREEBIE for liking the A Day For Daisies Facebook page.

I just had to color it up for this week's CTD challenge!

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I colored her with my Copic markers and gave her lots of sparkly accents with Atyou Spica pens. (Click on the picture to see it larger.)

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I'm guessing you'd like to see more inspiration using these colors!  In that case, head on over to our team's blogs to see their fabulous creations:

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Well, thanks so much for stopping by today, folks!  I'll be back this Friday (Jan 20th) for a brand new E-Team blog hop!  See you then!

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Lola has a lollipop!

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Hi, everyone!  I hope your week has started off well.  I'm enjoying my extended weekend, so I'm a happy stamper!

I was browsing Pinterest this weekend and came across this great card which was pinned by the oh-so talented Debbie Corbari.  How cool is that?

Well I wanted to try it, and decided a much smaller version would be easier, perhaps.  It was fun and just perfect for use with my Lola Love stamp set from Our Craft Lounge!

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I used Scor-Tape on a punched cardstock circle, and started in the center of it with my Maraschino twine.  Easy!

I also used this week's CPS251 sketch:

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Well, that's it!  So, I hope you're off today too and having fun!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

My Heart...

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Well, from the title of my post, you would think I'm posting a Valentine's card, right?

Not so.

Actually this is the card I made for George for his birthday, using the new Every Heartbeat stamp set from Our Craft Lounge.  Why wouldn't you use love as the theme of a birthday card for someone special in your life?

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This was super simple and quick, and it still rocks!!  (Even if I do say so myself!)

Thanks for stopping by to check it out!

Hot Cocoa - Color Throwdown #174

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Good Wednesday morning, everyone!  I'm hosting the Color Throwdown challenge this week!

Since we've chosen to use inspiration photos for our color schemes this year, I decided to browse the internet for ideas. I'm quite sure it's no surprise that I chose a "beachy" color scheme this week! This artwork's colors immediately caught my eye, but I also love the fascinating watercolor ethereal beauty of it.

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So did I do a watercolor or even a beach scene?  NO!  I chose to use my new Hot Cocoa Cutie a la modes image from My Favorite Things.  LOVE HER!!!  And doesn't this color scheme work well with the cocoa theme?  I thought so!

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The base of my snowflake was die cut from a piece of corrugated cardboard and after it was all assembled I coated it with Twinklets Diamond Dust (FloraCraft).  I used the my tape method to separate the sentiment in order to put part of it on the inside of the card.

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This card is going to a very special lady who will soon be celebrating one of those "milestone" birthdays.  Hope she likes it!

Please be sure to visit all the blogs of the design team for some awesome inspiration:

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Thanks so much for stopping by, y'all!  I hope you'll decide to play along with us at the Color Throwdown!  You can get all the deets at the CTD blog.

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Keep Calm and Sail On!

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Today the Our Craft Lounge DT is joining forces with the Lily Pad Cards Dream Team for a double challenge! 

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What fun!  I love the color combo and immediately thought of making something cool and icy.  Then I said to myself…"Wait! Why not use these colors for a silvery-moon-on-the-water-at-night card?"  So that's what I did using the new Smooth Sailing stamp set from Our Craft Lounge.  (Brace yourself.  I think you're going to be seeing a lot of cards using this super fun stamp set!  There's a lighthouse too!)

I also wanted to use the really cool MOJO222 sketch for this week:

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So here's my card.  I'm showing 2 views so you can see the silvery paper moon and the glossy background.

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I created the background using glossy white paper and Ranger Distress inks.  I simply pounced the colors on with my ink blending tools. 

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Don't you want to play along with us?  You can knock out both challenges with just one card and have a chance at winning some fabulous Our Craft Lounge stamps!!  Check out the OCL blog and the Lily Pad Cards blog for the challenge details.  We'd love to see your creations! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Welcome, New Year! - Color Throwdown #173

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Welcome back, everybody, to a new year of Color Throwdown challenges!

I hope you are all refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to begin anew!  I know I am!

Barbara is starting us off this year with her color choices:

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She also designed our new graphics that we'll be using this year!  Pretty cool, huh?

I pretty much took the inspiration photo literally and decided to make a "Welcome, New Year!" card.  I pulled out my glitter paper for the starry night behind the Skyline Border Die-namics die cut and used the By the Numbers die collection for the 2012. Behind the numbers I used my Crafter's Workshop mini Punchinella template and my N7 Copic marker to airbrush the stars.  I tied on a ribbon and that was it!

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I hope you'll decide to join us this week for the CTD challenge!  Let's start the New Year off with a bang!  You can get all the challenge details on the Color Throwdown blog.

And be sure to check out the gorgeous creations of our oh-so-talented design team:

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Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

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