January Leading Lady Greta Hess | Take Two

Our January Leading Lady Greta Hess is back for her sensational second performance!  If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE.   Greta is-oh-so clever with her coloring on her awesome cards today!

Ladies and gentlemen, Greta...

Thanks for all the positive comments on my initial Leading Lady post.  I'm so appreciative of your support.  Now it's time for Take 2.

This week I wanted to show you some ways to add color without the traditional art of coloring, since that's not one of my talents.  I often use solid images, but I'm not restricted to them.  Here are some cards with open images & techniques anyone can do.

First up is a card using the adorable snowman from Snowy Holiday with Evelin T Designs. 

Using a couple solid circles from Scenery: Dotty, I stamped 3 times, overlapping the circles, with Distress Inks weathered wood & faded jeans on a watercolor panel.  Then I spritzed to make the ink run.  I used my heat tool before repeating the process & adding splatters.  When it was completely dry, I stamped the snowman in Delicata Sapphire Blue several times using a stamp positioner.  Then I stamped in Versafine Clair Morning Mist.  The gray ink didn't really change the blue, but just made the image a bit crisper.

I added Shimmer Pico Embellisher to parts of  the snowman for clear sparkly dimension.  The sentiment is from The Big, the Bold & the Happy & I added a few clear sequins. Next is a fun Valentine's Day card using a die from Essentials: Tilda Cutaways that makes an opening for a gift card.

I began by white embossing Mini Scenery: Bed of Roses on Bristol paper so I could color with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.  They are great for a messy watercolor technique that doesn't require staying in the lines or adding shadows--perfect for me!  I used 3 purple markers & a blue gray, mixing with a little water.  After it dried I cut out the gc holder & then spritzed with shimmer spray.

The white embossed sentiment strip made with words from The Big, the Bold & the Happy was mounted with foam tape.  The background is done with white dye ink & Scenery: Pennsylvania Polka Creative Screenings.  I didn't want the actual gift card to detract, so I covered the back of it with a scrap of Bristol paper colored with the blue gray Zig & dry embossed with little dots. My last card is another example of messy watercoloring.  This time I stamped a beautiful leaf image from In Bloom: Renee's Leaves across the top of a white panel in Distress Inks pine needles & evergreen bough. 

Then I "stamped" the ink pads on a flat palette, added water & picked up the color with a small brush to paint the leaves--again not staying in the lines.  When it was dry, I stamped in a darker blue green dye ink for more definition & then in Delicata Silvery Shimmer purposely not lining up the stamp.  The sentiment from In a Word: Thanks was stamped in dark gray ink to match the mat.  I left off embellishments, but did add some silver splatters. Hope I've given you some inspiration, even if you do traditional coloring.  Remember to leave a comment on my first post to be in the running for a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card.

Check the Take 2 post on my blog to see how you can get another entry into the drawing.  I'll be back next Saturday for more fun with wonderful Winnie & Walter products!

Celebrate with Keren

Autumn may be waning, but this card by Keren is just too gorgeous for any time of the year!

Hello! How are you all? It's changing outside- the summer has drawn in and Autumn or Fall is upon us. I adore the  In Bloom:Renee's Leaves It is one of my all time favourites! I decided to pair it with an easy colouring technique using pigment  powders. The Infusions contain both pigment and a walnut stain that rather perfectly echoes the decaying leaves. You just need to spray water over it until you've the desired amount of colour. The longer the powder sits in the water, the more the walnut colour comes through- so if you want a brighter colour, simply dry off or blot off quickly. Now you just need to trim out, and begin to  compile the card. For the sentiment I used another Winnie and Walter product. I love the In A Word: Celebrate Cutaway I sandwiched some turquoise thread in between two die cuts. Then simply arrange the leaves and add a few sequins to add interest. I hope you enjoyed seeing one of the older sets again- it's well worth looking back to seeing what wonderful sets you might not have seen in a while! See you soon, Keren x

October Leading Lady Trina Pham | Take Two

Our October Leading Lady Trina Pham is back for her sensational second performance!  If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE.   Color me impressed with today's incredible cards!

Ladies and gentlemen, Trina...

Hello again!  I'm back with my second leading lady post for Winnie & Walter (W&W).  But before I get to this week's projects, I want to thank everyone who took the time to leave me such encouraging comments here, on my blog and on my IG account.  It was heart warming and I am so pleased you liked my cards!  Ok, who's cutting onions and making my eyes water? 😂  All right, enough of that.

For this week, I'm dialling back the bright colours and cute factor, and focusing on colouring botanicals on colour cardstock.  It was just a little over two years ago after starting my blog that I learned how to colour.  Terms like shading, highlights, cast shadows, etc. were foreign to me, but they make a huge difference in giving images depth and realism.  I love to colour now and am still learning lots.  So when it comes to colouring on colour cardstock, I think of color pencils first.  However, I am exploring a couple of other methods this time.

COPICS

Who knew, but you can colour with Copics on colour cardstock as long as the cardstock is a light colour!  Copics is my favourite way to colour, so I was excited to test this out.

On an A2 size Smoky Slate panel, stamped and masked the images from In Bloom: Elsa's Flora in the upper right corner with Copic friendly black ink.  Removed masks and coloured the image (except for the mistletoe berries) with Copic Sketch markers R27, R24, R14, YG17, YG03, Y06.  Since there is no white Copic marker, I used a white Prismacolor pencil to colour the mistletoe berries.  I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to blend and colour with Copics.  And the Colorless Blender worked like normal, too! 

Next, I die cut with In a Word: Merry cutaway three times from scraps of white shimmer paper and stacked them for dimension.  The sentiment from In a Word: Merry stamp set was white heat embossed on a black strip.  The panel was adhered to a white card base and clear shimmer added on the poinsettias finished off the card.

DISTRESS OXIDE (DOx)

The second medium I wanted to try is watercolouring with DOx inks.  These inks have both dye and pigment properties and it's the opaque pigment property that allows the colours to show on dark cardstock.

On an A2 size Early Espresso panel, the leaves from In Bloom: Renee's Leaves were inked with VersaMark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Barn Door DOx inks were smooshed onto my craft mat, then using a watercolor brush, picked up the colours and coloured in the leaves.  As you can see, the DOx inks does show on dark cardstock, but it looked dull and unimpressive to me.  I thought maybe I used too dark of a colour cardstock, so I attempted on Kraft cardstock.

This time I heat embossed the images in black and added Mowed Lawn DOx ink to the colour palette.  It was a bit better, but still too dull for my liking.  So comes out my Zigs and I was a lot happier with the result after intensifying the colours and adding shading.

Added black splatters to give some texture.  Because this is not watercolor paper and I was a little heavy handed in some areas with water, the paper pilled a bit.  If you try this, use water sparingly.  

Completed the card by diecutting In a Word: Thanks from white and black cardstock and offsetting it for a shadow effect.  Adhered it over a torn strip of vellum to make it stand out even more. 

And I tried to salvaged what I could of the first dark brown one.  Used my Zigs on it as well then popped on a bright shiny gold sentiment to finish.  To be honest, I will most likely stick to color pencils when colouring on colour cardstock.

GIVEAWAY

Just a quick reminder, Shay has generously offered a $30 gift card to the W&W store for me to give to one lucky commenter on my blog Phamtastic Design.  For your chance to win, leave a comment on any of my leading lady posts by October 31.  I will randomly pick a winner from all the comments left across the four posts.

Thank you for hanging out with me.  Have a wonderful week!

WCMD 2018 | Number Cruncher Challenge with Keren

To get all the information about w&w WCMD 2018 CLICK HERE.

Happy World Card Making Day everyone!

I'm really happy to be hosting another challenge for you. This isn't taxing, it's easy as 1,2,3!! I've called it the Number Cruncher challenge and it's all about numbers. Let me show you my example and we'll count the ways to do the challenge!

The most obvious way of fulfilling the brief is to use actual numbers. The Typecast: Cary Numbers Cutaways  are what I've used to make the number background. Cut them all out of white and use to make a simpler background or just use the individual numbers to highlight a special birthday. I'm not saying you couldn't even spell out a number using alpha dies! ;-)

This close up gives you a clue to the other way you can tackle the conundrum; using numbered groups of elements. Our eyes like odd numbers, so grouping elements of 3 or 5 or 1 is perfect. See how I've used the group of 3 leaves (& yes, I only used 2 acorns !!), 5 nuvo drops and the single sentiment. Think of sequins or buttons, paint splats etc-  too many ways to count!

I can't wait to see the creative ways you tackle this challenge. I'm certainly not a fan of maths, but creating with numbers is a lot more fun! Are you ready to take this on? 1,2,3...GO! x

Prize: One randomly chosen project that is linked up will win $50.00 gift credit to the w&w shop.  **Remember for rules about the challenges to read up HERE.**

>>>LINK UP<<

An InLinkz Link-up

Celebrate Fall with Gayatri

Hey everyone,  Gayatri with you with my first project for the month of September. Hope your are starting to enjoy the cooler weather in your place and the start of fall. I am heading to spring down under. I cannot wait for warmer weather. It was a very cold and wet winter. Not much sunshine at all. I am over it and cannot wait for warm weather glorious sunshine :)

I have a fall card to share with you today. I love this card for its gorgeous rich fall colours. Here is the card.

I started with sponging distress oxide inks in Aged Mahogany, Ripe Persimmon, Gathered Twigs, Fossilized Amber and Mowed Lawn on a white panel. I sponged the Fossilized Amber in the centre and the rest of the colours randomly around it. 

Then I stamped the leaves from In Bloom Renee’s Leaves stamp set on the edges of the panel using black ink. I used Simon’s intense black ink as it is good with watercolouring. I also stamped a few nut images to fill in gaps.  I kept the centre of the panel clear of any stamping. I will used it for the sentiment.

Then using a brush and clean water, I coloured the stamped leaves and nuts with water. The property of distress oxide inks are they go chalky with water. The colours fade to a whitish chalky finish. This makes the images significantly lighter than the background. I love the effect. To make the leaves and nuts pop, I added drop shadow using comic cool grey markers C3 and C1. 

Using the white gelly roll pen, I added highlights to the images. Then I spattered some white, gold and black paint spatters all over the panel. I left the panel to dry while I worked on my sentiment.

The sentiment is made up of both die cuts as well as white heat embossed stamped sentiment. The die cut “FALL” sentiment is from Typecast: Cary Cutaway. I die cut the word “FALL” three times, stacked and glued the alphabet for dimension. Then I brushed it with clear shimmer and added highlights using white get pen. The secondary white heat embossed sentiments are from The Big,the Bold and Seasons stamp set. The strips of the secondary sentiment is adhered above and below the “FALL” die cut sentiment using foam adhesive. Finally a few sequins in the same colours as the background to finish the panel. I glued the panel to the card base using liquid glue. 

All the supplies used to make this card are listed below. Hope you liked my card for today and got inspired. Thanks so much for stopping by. Until next post, have a lovely week.

September Color Combo with Heather H. (Challenge)

UPDATED: with extended deadline!

Good morning! Heather here stopping by this morning to share a new Color Combo Challenge with you! As summer turns to fall, I decided to start working on some fall cards, which naturally fit so well with thank you cards!

Here is my color inspiration for this month - we have recently been so enjoying all the yummy fresh peaches in season. Eating at LEAST one a day! So here is the color inspiration I chose:

{image credit}

I created my stamped background using In Bloom: Renee's Leaves and a variety of different peach toned inks from Simon Says Stamp, and did some simple outlining with two shades of a Copic Warm Gray marker. I then die cut the panel using Essentials: Audrey Cutaways for a fun scallop edge, and added some glittery green splatters using some Altenew Shimmer Spray.

The sentiment was die cut from black cardstock with In a Word: Thanks Cutaways, and sewn onto a strip of vellum with torn edges. I then tucked some small pieces of foam adhesive behind the word and attached it to my panel, then attached that panel to a soft gray cardbase.

Now - I have a few favorites from the last Color Challenge to feature! It was so hard to narrow it down! I loved seeing everyone's take on the challenge - whether using the color combo I gave, or coming up with their own. Sooo...I decided to pick two people that used the given color combo, and 

First up - this absolutely gorgeous card by Shona Chambers! Love how she rocked the bold colors, and all the fun layers and details! Seriously beautiful!

Next up, Marlena createdt his totally fun and whimsical Christmas card! Love the playful feel to it, and the fun layers! Bravo!

Next up, this coloring made my jaw drop! WOW! Pooja created this stunning card - make sure and head to her blog to see her fun color combo that inspired this!

And finally, I adore the color combo that Greta H picked for her fun graphic card! What a clever way to use that stamp set to create a wreath - LOVE this so much!

>>>RANDOMLY CHOSEN WINNER<<<

No. 18 | Greta H

Greta's card is elegant and clever.  I love her hand-stamped wreath and the colors are soothing and sophisticated.

Greta, please email us at info {at} winniewalter {dot} com with the subject "August Color Combo Challenge Winner" to claim your prize.

>>>CHALLENGE<<<

New challenge will post on the second Monday of each Month, and will end on the Friday before the next challenge begins to allow time to pick a winner and some favorite entries to feature.

Now it's your turn to play along!

1. Create a new project using the September Color Combo. 
2. Use at least one (1) winnie & walter product.  This can include Cutaways (dies), Creative Screenings (stencils/masks), printable/digital items, cut files and/or stamp sets.  Remember we offer freebies in our shop.  Our freebies can be used to create your project(s) for this challenge.
3. EXTENDED!  Link up your project below using the InLinkz Link-up by 11:55 p.m. CST on Friday, November 9, 2018.  
4. Enter as many times as you want before the deadline.
5. This July Color Combo Challenge may be combined with other challenges found here on the w&w blog or elsewhere. 

One randomly selected entry will receive a $25 gift certificate to Winnie and Walter. YAY!!! I can't wait to see your entries! 

Thanks for stopping by - have a wonderful day!

An InLinkz Link-up