Sunday, April 30, 2017

Lil' Inker Designs Mini Release Blog Hop

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I am really happy to be able to participate in this blog hop as I have been a long time admirer of Lil' Inker Designs and had the pleasure of receiving the gorgeous and uplifting Be the Reason Someone Smiles Today stamp set when I went to Stamping Away earlier in April (I had to pinch myself that I was there with such incredible woman that I admire for not only being amazing crafters, but amazing women.  I may be dating myself, but I felt a bit like Wayne and Garth bowing and saying "We're not worthy!" when they met musicians they idolized. lol).

Remember if you get lost or need to start from the beginning please CLICK HERE.

So as a big stamp lover it is a pleasure to work with well designed stamps  like the one I played with today which is part of Lil' Inker Designs' mini-release available today (May 1 at 12:01 am EST):

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I made two simple cards for you today.  I played with water, inks and embossing powder on watercolor paper for the cards.  

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For the black embossed card I went with cooler colors and emphasized the "today" by cutting it out from a reject panel I had embossed (don't throw away those less than stellar tries!) and mounted it all on a piece of patterned paper attached to a card base.

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On the second card I colored in warmer tones with white embossing powder and trimmed closer to the image before adhering it to a white panel and then to a vibrant patterned paper covered card base.

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As this stamp is so stunning you really don't need to do much!  

Your next stop is at the incredibly talented Jessica Frost-Ballas's blog!

Please do not forget to comment on each stop for a chance to win some awesome prizes from Lil' Inker Designs!

Happy hopping,
Shay.

Saturday, April 29, 2017

April Leading Lady Shirley Bampton | Take Five

As April comes to a close we sadly must bid to our awesome April Leading Lady, Shirley Bampton au revoir.  The last five weeks with Shirley have been full of artistic exploration, amazing inspiration, tempting techniques and sheer delight.  Shirley always comes up with something unique, refreshing and sure to cultivate creativity and play.  I feel so very blessed Shirley shared her talents with us this month!

If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE or her sensational second performance stretching the use of your stamps CLICK HERE or her triumphant third performance that is sure to impress you CLICK HERE or her fantastic fourth performance that's a colorful adventure CLICK HERE.  

Lucky for us all we have her final command performance today.  

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Hello, and thanks for joining me on my final appearance as April Leading Lady for Winnie & Walter.  I'm so glad April has five Saturdays - I got an extra week to play with these lovely W&W goodies :)

This week I've been playing with the Scenery: Stripes 2 stamp set.  I wanted to make patterned backgrounds, so I started by transferring the stamps onto a large acrylic block, and kept them pretty much in the order they appear on the stamp sheet.  I grabbed three Distress Inks (Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron and Evergreen Bough, then inked, spritzed and stamped.  Spritzing gives a loose watercolour effect to the images, which is what I like!

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I stamped four panels all the same, then I started playing around.  So, going clockwise from top left round the photo below:
The first one I left as is. 
The second one I re-inked the stamps in the same order, rotated the card 180 degrees and stamped so that the pattern reversed.
The third one I inked in Versafine Onyx Black, deliberately not getting full coverage so that it didn't completely dominate (it's going to be a background after all), then offset stamped.
The fourth one I inked in Versafine Onyx Black, again keeping the coverage grainy, rotated the card 180 degrees and stamped.

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Ok, so now what should I do with them?  As they stand they don't look too promising, but as soon as you lay images on top of them, the strong patterns recede into the background as your eye focuses on the foreground.

Cue some cute pairs of creatures from Big Hugs With Evelin T Designs, and some fab sentiments and speech bubbles from Sketchy Thoughts.  And the co-ordinating cutaways, Big Hugs with Evelin T Designs Cutaways and Sketchy Thoughts Cutaways made it really easy to pull these cards together quite quickly.  Each panel was trimmed first to fit my base card.

So, first off the block were the giraffes, watercoloured with the same palette of Distress Inks.  I used Memento Teal Zeal for the bubble to get the granular effect of the speech bubble to show.

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Here's the second card.  Again, I used colours from the same palette for the animals.  When you use a limited colour palette it doesn't matter that animal or people colours are unrealistic.  In fact, it helps to give cohesion to your design.

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For card No. 3 I chose to go with a coloured base card for a more vibrant look.  I stamped the speech bubble with Distress Ink, and you can see that the definition of the image is lost, but you get an overall graininess instead.  I added the minimum of colour to the elephants - just a hint of shading - to balance out the background patterns and the speech bubble.

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On this final card I spritzed the Distress Inked speech bubble before stamping, which gave a smoother coverage.  On this card and the previous card I kept the darker colour to the bottom so that it could ground my images.

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Well, that's it from me as Leading Lady for April.  I hope you've enjoyed my performances and I hope they've inspired you in some way. 

I'd like to thank Shay for allowing me to hog the spotlight for the last five Saturdays, and for her generosity in donating a $30 gift card to the Winnie & Walter store to give a way on my blog.

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And if you want to be in with a chance of winning it, all you have to do is leave me a comment on my blog post.  To be in with FIVE chances of winning, make sure you've also left a comment on my first post here, my second post here, my third post here and my fourth post here.  You don't have to leave a comment on all five posts to be eligible, but you'll increase your chances of winning!  And while we're loving the love you're leaving on the W&W blog, they don't qualify, so you do need to comment on my posts.

The winner will be chosen randomly from all comments left over the five posts by midnight Wednesday UK time, and I'll announce the winner on my blog on Thursday.  Good luck!


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Monday, April 24, 2017

Spring Fling Collaboration Blog Hop

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Hi there lovelies!  It's Shay here and today is the big day! 

w&w is thrilled to be part of this fabulous event. We have partnered with 15 other stamp and papercraft companies to do a special blog hop and will be giving away 16 prizes to 16 lucky winners!

Blog hop begins today, April 24, 2017 9:00 AM PST
Ends Friday, May 5, 2017 9:00 PM PST
Winners announced: Friday, May 12, 2017, 9:00 AM PST

Here's how you enter:

1) Follow this blog and each participant in the hop
2) Comment at each blog stop
Bonus entry: Share this post or any of the social media posts with #2017SFMS for an added entry to win the Lawn Fawn $30 online gift certificate.

You should have come from the terrific Technique Tuesday, but if you are lost here is the full blog hop list:

12) Winnie & Walter <--YOU ARE HERE
13) Impression Obsession <-YOUR NEXT STOP

Now on to the projects we have to share with you.

I had the opportunity to play with some of the sensational stamps by some of my fellow sponsors, Concord & 9th and Reverse Confetti, along with w&w products.

I want to say something right here...I feel incredibly fortunate to be among such kindhearted, giving and startlingly talented and creative business owners.  I am blessed to have met Angie and Greg of Concord & 9th and the privilege of hanging out with Jen of Reverse Confetti and they truly are all stellar people.  I love that I have a chance to work with their designs for this hop.

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Of course spring is all about flowers to me along with happy, bright colors.  I really can't stop making backgrounds so please indulge me in my obsession.

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For my first card I used Love Blooms by Reverse Confetti which includes solids and outline flowers for so many options in stamping and then the little clusters of dots is from Petals 'n Posies also by Reverse Confetti.  I stamped away with Distress Inks (I use Versamark ink first).  I then cut out a center strip from the background panel which I stamped the sentiment from A Friend Like You (such an awesome stamp set!) with Versafine ink.  I popped up the center panel with foam dimensional adhesive onto the card base making sure all the panels lined up on the card base like they had when they were a single panel.  Under the center panel I added some trim that I created using the larger rectangle die from Essentials: Audrey Cutaways.   Lastly I added some yellow enamel dots.

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For my second card I swiped Distress Inks (I had inked up the base with Versamark ink prior to using Distress Inks as I have found success doing that to use Distress Inks for stamping) over the base of the flower image found in the beautiful Wildflower stamp set by Concord & 9th before I flipped it over and stamped it right side over the blocks of color. I then filled in the rest of the background with other images from the set.  I then cut the panel using the larger rectangle from Essentials: Audrey Cutaways and attached the floral panel to a blue card base.  Using the same blue cardstock I cut out "celebrate" from The Big, the Bold and Party Cutaways 3 times and glued them together before adhering the sentiment to the card.  Last I attached the Sparkling Clear Confetti Mix from Pretty Pink Posh.

Keren Baker joined in on celebrating this blog hop by creating this breathtaking card:

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Keren has a talent for making cards that are full of movement, dimension and beauty and this card is no exception.  She was inspired by The Card Concept "Fresh Flutters" photo challenge and I adore her take on the photo. Keren allowed her card to move beyond the usual rectangle like she did in this one HERE.  She used In Bloom: Addie's Garden and In Bloom: Addie's Garden Cutaways for the flowers and leaves and cut out the butterflies using Essentials: Audrey Cutaways and the sentiment is In a Word: Congrats Cutaway.  She loosely colored in the flowers and butterflies for such a fresh look.  Isn't this card a delight?  To be honest, Keren's projects always makes me feel a bit stunned by how awesome they are and I am relieved that my cards did not have to follow her card. lol  Always best to end on a high note, right?

Your next stop is the incredible Impression Obsession!

Before you head to the next stop with the incredible Impression Obsession, I wanted to mention that we are having our Spring Fling Sale thru tonight, Monday, April 24, 2017 at 11:59 pm CST if you wish to pick up any w&w products at a discount. ;-)

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Thank you so much for joining us!

Have fun hopping,
Shay.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

April Leading Lady Shirley Bampton | Take Four

Our April Leading Lady, Shirley Bampton aka shirley-bee is back for her fantastic fourth performance!  If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE or her sensational second performance stretching the use of your stamps CLICK HERE or her triumphant third performance that is sure to impress you CLICK HERE.  You are in for a treat today as Shirley takes you on a little colorful adventure.

And now we present Shirley....

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Hello, peeps!  I'm having such a good time being Leading Lady at Winnie & Walter, and I really appreciate the comments you've been leaving me, both on my blog and the Winnie & Walter blog.  

So, here I am for Take Four.  I'm fascinated by the Mini Scenery: Bed of Roses stamp, and I wanted to try different ways of colouring it.  I suppose the most obvious way is to colour the actual flowers neatly inside the lines but I rarely colour neatly (on purpose - I much prefer to slosh colour around).  Here are the results of my little play session.

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For my first card I raided my stash and found this piece of mixed media paper that had been coloured with various Distress Inks.  I just stamped in Versafine Onyx Black onto the panel, not really worrying about how the image lined up with the colours.  And to be honest, I don't think it matters, do you?  I trimmed the panel, ran a black marker pen around the edges and mounted it onto white card.

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Another raid of my stash produced a panel that had been smooshed with Distress Inks.  Again, I just stamped over it in Versafine Onyx Black, trimmed the panel and ran a black marker pen around the edges before mounting it onto white card.

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I think we'll call this next technique 'speed painting'!  I stamped the image onto white card, diluted some Worn Lipstick Distress Ink onto an acrylic block, loaded up my paintbrush and sloshed the colour on very quickly, without trying to fill all the white space.  I reloaded the brush and went over some of the areas again to get a deeper colour.  The background and border is Crushed Olive, although it looks quite yellow here.  I use a No. 4 round brush for all my Distress sloshing.

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So, what happens when you splat Distress Stain onto the roses?  This!  I wanted the splats to extend beyond the image frame, so some of the flowers got double splats.

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At that point, I thought I'd finished playing, but then I decided to ink the image with Distress Stains, stamp onto mixed media paper and pull the colour in with a wet paintbrush.  Distress Stains are juicier and more intense than Distress Ink, so there's more colour to work with than if you inked the image with a Distress inkpad.  I used a clean paintbrush and water, then if I needed extra colour I just lifted it from the residue on the stamp.

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For my final card, I inked the stamp with Distress Stains exactly as I had on the previous card, stamped it onto mixed media paper, then spritzed water in stages until I got the effect I wanted: artsy (hopefully!).

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Well, I hope you've enjoyed my little experiments, and seen how to get more mileage out of one stamp.  Maybe I've inspired you to try different ways of adding colour to your stamped images. 

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Shay has generously donated a $30 gift card for me to give away on my blog.  To be in with a chance of winning, just leave a comment on my blog (comments on the Winnie & Walter blog won't be included in the draw).  To increase your chances of winning, make sure you've also left comments on my previous Leading Lady posts on my blog:  Take One here, Take Two here, and Take Three here.

I'll see you next Saturday for my final post.


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Friday, April 21, 2017

Wishing You with Lydia

Hi there everyone and happy Friday! Today I have a bold, bright one-layer floral card with a little bit a simple masking. I am so looking forward to summer and this is kind of like summer flowers, right?!?!

 

I started by masking out a circle, to do this I simply cut out a circle from a sticky note- you could use a die or draw a circle and cut it out it's totally up to you! I then stamped my florals around the edge of the sticky note circle. I used In Bloom: Lola's Bouquet and a number of bold, bright dye inks. As you can see I didn't mask the flowers or leaves out and simply stamped over images, it gives a fun, carefree look.

 

I do love how fresh and summery this looks! For the sentiment I used Wishing You, I removed the stick note after I was finished with the floral stamping and stamped the sentiment in black inside the masked out circle.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope this card made you smile!

Hugs, Lydia x


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Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Happy Mother's Day with Kelly


Hi Folks! My mom is a "faces" person ... she loves anything with a cute face. So when I started thinking about her Mother's Day card this year, I turned immediately to the Welcome to the Family with Evelin T Designs set, which is bursting with cute-faced animals. I mean seriously, is there anything more cute than a teddy bear hugging his little bunny?!?


I very loosely watercolored these little fellas with just one color each. Not because of some grand artistic vision, but because it makes it simple for me. I tried to give certain areas more definition, like adding a shadow under the bear's plump tummy, and around where the bunny's leg would be. To show the love that these two have for each other, like Mom and me, I added two red woodgrain hearts from Essentials: Audrey Cutaways in between the panels.


The bear and bunny are on watercolor paper that I've die cut with the scallop panel from Essentials: Noelle Cutaways. To give it more weight, and to help smooth out any warping from the water, I cut several layers of the scallop panel and adhered them all together. The sentiment, a favorite from an early set called Parentville, is mounted on foam tape. Then they are all mounted on a few patterned papers to finish it off.

I can't wait to give this to my mom next month. I know she'll love it!

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly



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