From the Herd - in watercolour

I wanted to make a Birthday card for my cousin Kengee, who's a bit of an outdoorsy person, so I thought what better stamp sets to use than "From the Herd" & "Just Sayin'". I think this stamp set will always be one of my favourites, the characters just look so funny : P

Stamp sets: From the Herd, Just Sayin' & Hardwood
Card Stock: Watercolour, Whisper White & Crumb Cake
Ink: Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Cajun Craze, Blushing Bride, Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie & Crushed Curry
Extras: Burlap Ribbon, Chevron Ribbon Word Bubbles Framelits
Techniques: Watercolouring

Bokeh, Birthdays & cheesecake

I had to make a birthday card for my sons friend Lusanda, & decided to do a gift card holder for the gift card we'd bought him, but I wasn't sure how to decorate it... Then I remembered the weekly email from splitcoaststampers & the Bokeh technique.

For more on other gift card holders & links click here.

Stamp Sets: Adventure Awaits & From the Herd
Card Stock: Tempting Turquoise, Basic Gray,Water colour
Ink: Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay & Craft White
Extras: Envelope Punch Board, Mini Brads, Ribbon & Smoky Slate Blendabilities.

Inside the gift card holder I stamped the balloons in Basic Gray ink & water coloured with all the blues from the bokeh & added white chalk pen.

The gift card happened to be dark grey which is why I used Basic Gray in the colour scheme. Although the ribbon I had wasn't the right colour, so I used the medium Smoky Slate Blendabilities to colour it in, even though this left the ribbon a bit stiff, it turned out the perfect colour.

The Bokeh technique is quite fun & worth a try.
You need to wet the water colour paper with the aqua painter, then add watered down ink (approx 10 drops water to 3-4 drops ink) with the aqua painter, keep adding the colours randomly until all the paper is full. Allow to dry or use the heat tool to sped things up. Once dry add some white circles with a sponge dauber, white craft ink & some circle stencils or masks.
Splitcoaststampers Watercolour Bokeh tutorial

 It was my partner Pete's 40th just recently, so this was the card I made for him, not much to do with 40 I know... but I just love this stamp from the herd. I think it looks funny on every card I see it on.

Stamp Sets: From the Herd, Just Sayin' & Hardwood
Card Stock: Crumb Cake
Ink: Versa Mark & Crumb Cake
Stampin' Write Markers: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Smoky Slate, So Saffron, Blushing Bride, Pumpkin pie, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red & White Chalk Pen
Extras: Black Embossing Powder, Word Bubbles Framelits, Burlap & Aqua Painter

I used the aqua painter to wet the images before adding the colour with the markers, then spread the colour around with the aqua painter. More on this colouring technique 

I asked Pete what kind of cake he would like for his birthday & he said cheesecake, so I made him Turkish Delight cheesecake! I basically just used the Toblerone cheesecake recipe, replaced the Toblerones with white chocolate, omitted the coffee & added a little bit of Rosewater essence & musk flavour + pink colour.

 Once the base is done they just needed to be filled with the cheesecake filling & topped with a swirl of whipped cream & an extra piece of Turkish Delight on top...Yum!

I only made little ones so they would set in time for dessert. 

Monsters Inc. Punch art card

On the weekend our little neighbour Max, turned 3. Every year year his parents give him a nice big birthday party with a theme, this year it was Monsters Inc. So of course I had to make him a Monsters Inc, card for his birthday.

Stamp set: Word Bubbles
Card Stock: Pacific Point, Coastal Cabana, Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, Basic Black, Bermuda Bay & Naturals Ivory.
Ink: Pacific Point, Coastal Cabana, Old Olive & Versa Marker.
Punches: Owl Builder, Scallop Edge Border & lots of circles.

The horns are from owl punch, the eyelid is just cutting a moon from a circle & the teeth (could've been better, but run out of time) are made from punching the white with the scallop edge border punch, then moving it back in between the scallops instead of matching them up.

Dark & Spooky Cards

I know we don't really celebrate Halloween here in Australia, (well I actually take my kids "trick or treating" at Old Gippstown) but I just couldn't help myself, I had to make something Halloween.

Stamps: Holiday Home & Gorgeous Grunge
Card stock: Mossy Meadow, Basic Black, Whisper White & Vellum.
Blendabilities: Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy & Colour lifter.
Ink: Mossy Meadow, Pacific Point, Night of Navy Elegant Eggplant, Smoky Slate & Memento Black.
Extras: Top Note Die, Washi Tape, Circle Punch & Acetate (for making stencils).
Techniques: Tearing, Alcohol Colouring, Masking & Sponging.

Here you can see I've used a craft knife to cut the door open on the house, then I stuck in a ghost that I stamped in Smoky Slate onto Vellum, fussy cut & used a glue dot to adhere.
I also masked the edges of the windows before stamping the ghosts again in Smoky Slate ink, then used the colour lifter to lighten them a little bit.

This card was for my daughter-Jayda's friend, so Jayda stamped & coloured the girl with Alcohol Markers herself, (which I thought she did a pretty good job), then came to me & asked me to make the rest of the card to go with it....
Her requests were to match the girl, in colour bule, purple & black, as well as keeping it spooky. We also need somewhere to put the money (which was her present + chocolate).
Stampin' Up! Stamps:  Sassy Salutations, Gorgeous Grunge & Wicked Cool
Other Stamps: Devilish Donna- Kenny K
Card stock: Concord Crush, Basic BLack & Whisper White.
Ink: Concord Crush, Night of Navy Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight & Basic Black.
Extras: Circle Punch & Envelope Punch Board
Techniques: Masking & Sponging.

This one was for my sister in-law, so Jayda also stamped and coloured in the girl on this card as well since it was for her auntie. The idea was to make it like Linda (the recipient) who wanted red & purple ombre hair.
Stampin' Up! Stamps: Just Sayin'
Other Stamps: Devilish Donna- Kenny K
Card Stock: Riding Hood Red, Basic Black, Very Vanilla & dsp?
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Elegant Eggplant & Basick Black.
Extras: Word Bubble Framelits, Washi Tape, Spiral Punch & Striped ribbon. 

Double Diamond Fold Card

Ok, it's finally here...
I am sorry about the wait and the quality of the video, my son was playing around with some music in the background which kind of adds extra noise.
The video is at the bottom of the page.

This was the card I demonstrated in a workshop, which is missing the word bubble and I had coloured the fox with Cujan Craze on this one.

I scanned this from an A4 page that I had drawn the diagrams onto, so if your having trouble reading the measurements it should print out ok to be readable... I hope. 

Card stock base is Soft Suede and all other card stock is Crumb Cake.
Hardwood background stamped in Early Espresso and all other images stamped with Vesa Mark and embossed with Black embossing powder.
All images are coloured with Aqua Painter, Stampin Write Markers and the White Chalk Pen.
I will get a video up on the details of the colouring technique.

Background stamp is Hardwood and the words "hey there" is from Word Bubbles.
All other images (animals, trees & mushrooms) are from Life in the Forrest.

In this picture you can see all the score lines and folds, as well as the stamps.
I wrote on the underneath of the card before giving it away, there is loads of room to write on and for the kids to add their weird pictures too (as my son often does).

I will try to improve my video making skills.... you'll just have to bare with me until I do.  : )

                                         

 This video shows more of the watercolouring with Stampin' Write Markers.

Keeping mind that you need to use water based ink when blending with the water pen (Aqua Painter).