September Leading Lady Carson Riutta | Take Four

As September wanes we sadly bid ado to our sensational September Leading Lady Carson Riutta.  The last four weeks with Carson have been bursting with color, vibrancy and excellent design.  Carson's abilities for eye-catching, inspiring and astounding projects along with her clear instructions are exceptional.  I am so grateful for Carson sharing her amazing talents and skills with us this month!

If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE or her sensationally brilliantly bold second performance CLICK HERE or her triumphant third performance with a trio of terrific cards CLICK HERE!

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

Today's post is so bittersweet for me.  I'm excited to share my last project  as your Leading Lady for the month, but I'm also a little sad to be saying goodbye to all my new card making friends.  Your comments have been so lovely and I've really enjoyed spending time with you all, here on the blog.  I just hope that if you've enjoyed my posts you'll head over to my Instagram, pineandplum and follow me there so that we can keep in touch over our shared love of papercrafts.

For my last project, I went a little crazy and made quite a few cards and tags.  I started with yet another watercolor technique using my beloved Distress Stains.  I did grab a glass of water this time and spent a good half hour laying down some vibrant and punchy colors onto watercolor card stock.  For each of the papers you see above, I used three colors of stain and simply layered them willy nilly onto the paper until I was happy with the outcome.  When I was finished with them all, I laid them out over my work space and began flicking water on them.  The water pulls up some of the color and you get that ghosting of water droplets, that you can see in the photo above.  I think this final step adds so much interest and depth to the colors.  It really elevates the background from a sloppy watercolor to a very interesting little piece of art.


I then spent some serious time creating those beautiful little mosaic tags using the fabulous Multifaceted and Flawless Cutaways.  These die sets are a perfect example of a product that is so "stand alone" good that you can create for hours simply doing what is was intended for.  The mosaic shapes are so fun and have so much possibility that you don't have to think outside the box with these.  They are well designed and simply stunning.

The warm watercolor background looked so good with the gold paper that I decided to leave some of the gold shapes intact when creating my mosaic.  I love the way the different textures play off of one another, how the soft glow of the watercolor and the sharp glitter of the paper contrast so nicely.

I'm not gonna lie here, I did have to run to the craft store to pick up some suitable ribbon to finish this project off, but I'm so glad I did, because now I own that gorgeous gold ribbon and can make the most stunning little gifts with these golden tags!

There was one watercolor background that I ended up having a bit of a crush on and couldn't bring myself to die-cut.  I decided to create a card with it instead, using a simple glitter sentiment from The Big, The Bold and the Fun Cutaways along with some small embellishments.

I repeated the whole process with the cool color backgrounds I had created, but this time I used different colored glitter papers to frame the tags and kept the mosaic pieces entirely cut from the watercolor backgrounds.

I was so happy about that blue streak through this diamond, and the way the ghosted water droplets look like bokeh, that I almost squealed when this one came together.  I absolutely love a relatively easy technique that turns out quite stunning, it can make us all feel like artists!

As a finishing touch for the tags I glued a few matching sequins down to give them a bit more sparkle and then tied them with matching satin ribbons.  One ribbon is nice, but in my mind, two or more is always better!

And finally I turned my last mosaic diamond into another card.  This time I played around with some Glossy Accents to give the diamond some literal shine and popped it off the card front from some extra dramatic flair.

Thank you so much for all your time and attention this past month.  I've had such a wonderful time playing with the Winnie & Walter products and reading all your lovely comments.  Don't forget to head over to my blog and leave a comment‎ to enter our end of the month drawing for a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card.



Take care and happy crafting friends!

Carson

My Precious

The Big, the Bold and Fun

Flawless Diamond Cutaways

The Big, the Bold and Fun Cutaways

True Multifaceted Circle Cutaways

True Multifaceted Heart Cutaways

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September Leading Lady Carson Riutta | Take Three

Our September Leading Lady, Carson Riutta, is back for her triumphant third performance!  If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE or her sensationally brilliantly bold second performance CLICK HERE.  Today her talent for design, color and drama are showcased with a terrific trio of cards!

Without further ado, Carson.... 

Hello again, my lovely Winnie & Walter friends!  I'm so excited to be back sharing yet another set of bright cards full of contrast.  Before we get into the cards though, I just want to say "Thank you" for all the lovely comments you have left here on the W&W blog and my own blog, Pine & Plum.  I haven't had a chance to respond to your comments from last week, but I want you to know that each and every one makes my heart go pitter pat.  

This week I wanted to play around with some very bright and vivid backgrounds.   Last week, while I was creating the quick and dirty watercolor cards, I color washed a few pieces of watercolor card stock in a light, pink, purple and peacock, I then let them dry and forgot about them for a few days.    When I sat down to create for this week, I decided to get a little messy and turn those watercolored papers into the backgrounds you see here.

I used the fantastic Scenery: Pattern of the Rings Creative Screenings and some mist to create a fun misted ring design over my watercolor card stock.  Now when you have a background that has a lot of pop and color it can sometimes be difficult to add too many embellishments, especially colorful ones.  So to keep these cards clean and graphic I decided to go black and white with my florals.  

In fact, my desire to go black and white is the reason I chose to work with these gorgeous geometrically inspired florals from the In Bloom: Eva's Favorite Flowers stamp  and die set.  The fact that there were an array of lined images and solid images made this set perfect for working with strong contrasting colors.  The fact that the shapes are so symmetric really makes the black and white pop off the page as well.  I'm kind of in love with this set!

So all this is to say that next time you're working with a strong patterned paper or a bright and messy creation of your own as your background, try embellishing with only black and white to achieve a striking and unforgettable look!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll give the black and white look a try. And don't forget to head over to my blog, Pineandplum.com, and leave a comment for a chance to win a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card! Winners will be announced at the end of the month. Remember, if you comment on all of my Leading Lady posts over on my blog you can earn an extra entry for the drawing!  Good luck!

I'll see you one more time next week for my final Leading Lady post, I'm getting a bit verklempt just thinking about it.  Until then, take care and happy crafting!

Carson

In Bloom: Eva's Favorite Flowers

Kindness with Evelin T Designs

Kindness with Evelin T Designs Cutaways

In Bloom: Eva's Favorite Flowers Cutaways

Scenery: Pattern of the Rings Creative Screenings

InLinkz.com

September Leading Lady Carson Riutta | Take Two

Our September Leading Lady, Carson Riutta, is back for her sensational second performance!  If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE.  Carson's dramatic flair is in full evidence with her brilliantly bold projects today!

Ladies and gentlemen, Carson.... 

Hello again, my Winnie & Walter friends!  I'm so happy to be back sharing another design and technique with you today.  But first I have a confession to make.  I love watercolor, but I often do not have the patience or skill to create those gorgeous watercolor florals that you see everywhere these days.  So I've come up with a quick and dirty way to create a similar look that anyone can pull off without leaving your chair to clean a brush or freshen your water.
 

Instead of classic watercolors, I use my Distress Stains for this technique.  I use a long acrylic block as my paint palette, a water mister, a paint brush and some baby wipes.  All of these supplies are within reach of my craft desk, which is key for me to watercolor.  If I have to go get a glass of water and some paper towels from the kitchen, then the process is over before I've even begun, yes, I'm really that lazy!  



I start by stamping my floral images from the stunning In Bloom: Addie's Garden stamp set in a waterproof black ink onto watercolor paper.  I love my Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink.  Then I squeeze some Distress Stain onto my acrylic block, spritz the stain with water to tone down the colors a bit and then I sloppily paint a lighter layer of color over my stamped images.  This "sloppy" technique only works if you're going to be cutting your images out with a die or scissors, once you are done painting.  



Next, you want to grab some darker color stain (less watered down) and paint it around your image while the first layer is still wet.  I chose to add paint along the stamped lines for the leaves and the roses while I added the color to the center of the daffodil.  As you can see, I did this rather quickly and without much precision.  This technique is so forgiving that you really can't mess it up.  Your results will be striking and bold no matter how precise you are while painting.

Once your florals are dry, die-cut them with the matching InBloom: Addie's Garden Cutaways and marvel at your gorgeous work!  Then find a way to use them on a cute card.  I love to play around with unusual card shapes and circle enclosure cards are some of my absolute favorites.  If you're adding a circle card to a gift, you can hole punch it and tie the card to the gift with ribbon for a super cute look!

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  Don't forget to click over to my blog, Pineandplum.com, and leave a comment for a chance to win a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card! Winners will be announced at the end of the month, and remember if you comment on all of my Leading Lady posts over on my blog you can earn an extra entry for the drawing!

Happy Crafting!

Carson

In Bloom: Addie's Garden

Kindness with Evelin T Designs

Scenery: Into the Woods

In Bloom: Addie's Garden Cutaways

The Big, the Bold and Fun Cutaways

InLinkz.com

September Leading Lady Carson Riutta | Take One

Today we are thrilled to introduce our September Leading Lady, Carson Riutta.   Carson is an incredible artist whose work I have followed for years.  Her bold use of color and pattern, skills at memory keeping along with card making and ability to use a single product in a myriad of ways is so inspiring.  

Over the next few Saturdays in Carson will be leading us on a journey of her own design and imagining.  Make sure to visit her blog, Pine & Plum, to see more from her and for a chance to win a giveaway! 

Please give Carson a big round of applause to welcome her as she steps onto the stage for her first performance as our September Leading Lady!    

Hello! My name is Carson and I am so thrilled to be your Winnie & Walter, Leading Lady for the month of September! I have been an admirer of the Winnie & Walter products for years now, but I've never had the opportunity to use them and now that I have, well let's just say, I've been wowed!  

I'll be gushing soon about the products, but first let me tell you a bit about myself.  I'm an Environmental Scientist turned stay at home mom, who discovered paper crafts as a way to stay sane and creative between diaper changes and afternoon naps.  I started with cards and branched out into all kinds of paper crafts, including scrapbooking, project life, and art journaling, but cards still remain the favorite of all my creative endeavors.  I'm a bit of a color addict and usually create with bright, bold colors and lots of contrast.  Stitching and paint splatter are my signature finishing touches and I like to get a little messy. Since discovering the joys of paper, my family and I have moved from Northern California to Washington State and then across the country to our new home in North Carolina.  With all that change, this hobby has been a beautiful constant in my life and a way to make friends, like you, all over the world who are a part of this wonderful online community.  You can learn more about me and my work by visiting my blog at pineandplum.com.

Let's get to the cards, shall we?  Today, I want to talk to you about how I create when I get my hands on new products and try to persuade you to do the same.  When I sit down with new products, I always pick a main image to work with, I choose a color scheme for my inks and then I decide on a neutral for my sentiments and papers.  Once those elements are chosen I try to make a trio of cards.  I keep those three elements constant, but work with different techniques and mix in coordinating supplies here and there.  I love that I can make three very different cards, stretch a new central image by using it in three different ways, and yet the whole process goes rather quickly as I don't have to make nearly as many decisions as I go.  Let me show you how these cards came together as an example.

I started the process by choosing the cactus images to work with from the Kindness set designed by Evelin T.  I loved that there were two sizes of cacti to work with and that they went well with the interesting sentiment you see above.  I then decided to go with my first instinct and create a desert scene with an intense sun to really highlight the "harsh climate" phrase.  So naturally I picked my ink colors from there, bright reds, oranges, yellows and greens.   The bright colors needed a strong contrasting sentiment so I went with black on white.  The pink blooms are actually stamped with the same red ink from the sun, but look pink as I used a blender pen to color them in.  Those blooms are from the super versatile In Bloom: Lola's Bouquet by Joni Andaya stamp set,  a coordinating set I brought in to spice things up a bit.  I'm infatuated with ink blending at the moment and I've found that this idea of a series of cards allows me to work with my favorite go to technique for the first card, but then I'm forced to think outside the box for the following two cards in order to make them look different.

For my second card, I decided to stamp the smaller cactus and create a patterned paper.  I loved the look of coloring in the cacti with the blender pen so I repeated that process.  I used fewer colors and a different bloom image for this card, but kept my inks and sentiments in the same scheme and so even though the card is very different, the two go together well.  I die-cut the Adventure sentiment from The Big, the Bold and Fun Cutaways and stamped the phrase "have an" with black ink onto vellum from the matching stamp set.  To add a little texture I finished it up by sewing straight across the sentiment and leaving the thread ends out.

For my next and last card in the series I wanted to bring back those intense reds and oranges and create a landscape in a different way than I had with the first card.  The Scenery: Stripes stamp set was absolutely perfect for this and made this card so quick and easy.  All in all I was able to put these three cards together within an hour, which for me, is very fast.  Three complete stand alone cards would take me at least an hour each.  I hope the next time some new products cross your desk and excite your muse that you'll try this technique of making a coordinated card trio.  It's a lovely way to really work your new products and stretch your creative muscles while getting the most out of your precious crafting time.

I'll be back every Saturday this month sharing more cards and fun techniques with you.  I hope you've enjoyed the first installment and I would love to know if you are planning to give this a try or if you've crafted this way before.  I'm hosting a giveaway over on my blog, Pine & Plum, all month where one lucky commenter will win a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card.  I'll randomly pick a winner at the end of the month from all the comments left on my Saturday posts over there, so please come visit and let me know what you think!

Happy Crafting Friends, see you next week!

Carson

In Bloom: Lola's Bouquet with Joni Andaya

Kindness with Evelin T Designs

Scenery: Stripes

The Big, the Bold and Fun

Kindness with Evelin T Designs Cutaways

The Big, the Bold and Fun Cutaways

InLinkz.com