HLS October Watercolour Challenge - With a Twist of Gold

When you think of gold I'm sure you think of jewellery, treasure, sentiments and all sorts of things.  Do you ever think of a bed frame?  Well, think about it.  Wouldn't a gold bed frame be absolutely awesome?

I just recently got this Art Impressions "Irresistible" stamp set and was itching to use it.  I knew I'd love watercolouring it but I also wanted to do the "twist" for this challenge.  I almost moved on to a different stamp when it came to me:  the bed frame could be gold.  And the card was "born".  I love the image.  It's drawn so well and who wouldn't love that cat?  I went to town with my watercolours, using nice bright shades because this "old broad" may be sick, but she is feisty.  To finish off, I added a few gold pearls.  I think I used the twist quite well, don't you?

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers October Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of gold.

HLS September ATC (Artist's Trading Card) - Vintage

I love Vintage.  There are such a lot of possibilities. I love Vintage, and so creating my ATC this month just meant deciding which type of vintage I would spotlight in my card.  In the end I  decided to stick with the sepias which really lent themselves well to my theme.  What can I say?  Sepia reminds me of the old photos and that's my idea of vintage.

I love the images I stamped in this card.  They're from a retired set which I can't seem to let go called Artistic Etchings.  I combined some retired newsprint designer paper with Crumb Cake and Soft Suede.  The distressing and sponging look great sponged with the Distress Oxide ink, Frayed Burlap, don't they?  I stamped the key and crown using the Distress Oxide ink, Vintage Photo (appropriately named for this project).  The Eiffel Tower is stamped in Soft Suede and then matted with Copper Foil.  That old fashioned button looks perfect against the woven copper ribbon which I've pulled into odd shapes.  I chose to use the sentiment "Dream" because visiting Paris is a dream of mine.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC September Challenge with its theme of "Vintage".

HLS September Anything Goes With Dies - Love You

I bought a new die and was "itching" to use it.  It's a beautifully designed die with a boy and a girl kissing on a swing.  It's a perfect size for using the branch from the Best Birds set from which I could hang the swing using some black thick Baker's Twine.  I decided that I would use the die-cut of the couple as a silhouette and also keep the sentiment in a nice bold black.  The rest I coloured.  The grass, for example, is stamped using Mossy Meadow ink and the grass stamp from the Enjoy Life set.  In fact, the sentiment also comes from that set.

For the branch I used the Best Birds set and my Stampin' Markers.  The wood is a combination of Gray Granite and Soft Suede while the leaves are a combination of Mossy Meadow and Old Olive.  That setting sun background is a combination of the Distress Oxides.  I wanted to keep it on the warm side and so used the Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey and Fired Brick.

I had such fun creating this card.  Everything worked together even better than I had anticipated.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers September Anything Goes With Dies Challenge.

HLS September Christmas Challenge - With a Twist of Trees

Among the cards in my Christmas stash, I always like to include a few which are simple, elegant, and non-traditional.  That's what I decided to do with the card I created for the Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge.

Although the challenge is an "anything goes", I decided to play along with the "optional twist of tree".  I took my inspiration from a piece of Designer Paper which is simply white with black trees randomly spaced on it.  I used a base of Heavy Whisper White cardstock, added a layer of Basic Black and then added the piece of Designer Paper.  Then I heat embossed the evergreen from the Lovely as a Tree stamp set using black embossing powder on vellum.  When that had cooled, I cut out the embossed tree and mounted it on the die-cut white rectangle with its black matte.  To finish off, I die-cut the word "peace" as well as a star from some silver foil cardstock.

The card is simple, elegant, and worked out as beautifully as I had hoped it would.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

 

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers September Christmas Challenge with the optional twist of tree.

HLS September Watercolour Challenge - Optional Twist Butterflies

We've had a weird summer.  So much smoke has drifted over to our province from the nearly 600 wildfires burning in British Columbia that many of the birds and butterflies haven't been evident.  With September bringing colder nights (and days) in this part of the world, I think that I will be waiting for next year to see many of these delightful creatures visiting my flowers.  By now you'll realize I'm thinking of butterflies because that's our Optional Twist for September's challenge.

For my card I went "wild" with some of my Distress Oxide inks and also my Brushos (the lovely Gamboge in particular).  I think the colours are particularly appropriate for September as the greens will be turning yellow and orange this month.  But don't the colours make a wonderful background for that sparkling die-cut butterfly?  And because butterflies do make my heart sing, what could be a better sentiment than this one from the Happy Little Stampers Born to be Wild stamp set?  The black heat embossing really makes it pop against those background colours, doesn't it?

I had such fun creating this card.  Playing with watercolours brings me back to my childhood and brings back such great memories.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers September Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of butterflies.

HLS August ATC (Artists' Trading Cards) Challenge - Water

I love water.  Drinking water.  Lakes. Rivers. Streams.  Oceans.  Rain.  I love water, and so creating my ATC this month just meant deciding which type of water I would spotlight in my card.  In the end I made two cards, one with a pond in mind and the other with the ocean in mind.  It was a tie.  What can I say?

For those who don't really know much about Artists' Trading Cards, the absolutely unbreakable rule is that they must be 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" in size.  As for the rest, it's like the sports cards that boys and girls often trade.  In other words, the front reflects the theme while the back of the card has the artist's information.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC August Challenge with its theme of "Water".

HLS August Anything Goes With Dies Challenge

It's so much fun to work with dies.  Especially since I just received an order with some new dies that I'm dying to try out.  How serendipitous that I need to use dies for this challenge.  And you get to see it here, first.  Yay!

Isn't that die of the moon and bullrushes gorgeous?  I decided to keep it very simple and just coloured a background.  Then, after attaching the die cut to my background and adding the birds, I attached it all to a simple Basic Black base.  Anything more would have taken attention away from the striking silhouettes.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers August Anything Goes With Dies Challenge.

HLS August Christmas Challenge - With a Twist of Sequins

Little by little I'm adding to my stash of cards for Christmas.  It makes me feel good to have these put aside and not to be frantic to create them all later, when I should just be relaxing and writing to my friends and family.

For this card I decided to go with the "twist of sequins" offered as a choice with the challenge.  Since I made that decision, I went about looking through my stamps, deciding which one would look best with the addition of sequins.  No, I didn't make a shaker card.  I chose this reindeer stamp instead.

Since I was house-sitting at the time I made this card, I actually found this fantastic stamp among my daughter's things.  Do you think I remembered to write down what the name of the stamp might be?  Let's just enjoy it and if I get time, I'll see if I can find that out.

I used a lot of H2O paints to colour this creation.  I thought the shimmery colours were perfect, especially with the added tiny silver and gold sequins.  I used the lovely Gina Marie Pierced Chain die set to cut out my stamped piece and then added a Merry Merlot matte before attaching it to the base of Heavy Very Vanilla. 

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers August Christmas Challenge with the optional twist of sequins.

HLS August Watercolour Challenge - You Colour My World

Can it be August already?  It won't be long before school begins again and then, of course, Autumn.  But for now it's still summer and the flowers are glorious!  The lilies and roses (and countless others which will remain unnamed since I just know the basic ones) are blooming and leaving their wonderful perfumes in the air.  If you haven't guessed by now, the optional twist to our August Watercolour challenge is "flowers".

For my card I used a Tim Holtz set of stamps which also came complete  with a set of stencils.  Of course I used the stencil and for the flower, I chose the pretty rose which I stamped and masked so that they would look as if they were beside each other.  Flowers are such fun to watercolour, aren't they?

You can see the splatter stencilling behind the roses.   I had such fun creating this card.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers August Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of flowers.

HLS July ATC (Artists' Trading Cards) Challenge - Coffee

I love coffee!  What better optional twist for our awesome July ATC Challenge than "coffee"?  Since I have images, dies and even Designer Paper which all reflect my love for this brew, this was a challenge I could happily embrace.

For those who don't really know much about Artists' Trading Cards, the absolutely unbreakable rule is that they must be 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" in size.  As for the rest, it's like the sports cards that boys and girls often trade.  In other words, the front reflects the theme while the back of the card has the artist's information.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC July Challenge with an Optional Twist of Coffee.

HLS July Anything Goes With Dies Challenge

I love working with dies and punches.  Along with some of the gorgeous colours of cardstock, using the die-cuts alone or with stamped images or sentiments, it's easy to create gorgeous cards or layouts.  I combined the adorable Foxy Friends set and punch with a wonderful leafy circle and die-cut paw print.  Don't those colours just "pop" against the background?

For my background, I took a piece of Basic Black and sponged patterns using my Craft White ink.  I left enough of the black to allow it to stand out nicely against the base of Smoky Slate cardstock and also use the Smoky Slate for my paw-print.  The leafy circle is cut from Old Olive cardstock and the little fox is a combination of Cajun Craze and Whisper White cardstocks.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers July Anything Goes With Dies Challenge.

HLS July Christmas Challenge - Skating Santa

Santa Claus works hard over Christmas.  All the more reason to have some fun whenever possible.  What could be better, during those breaks between supervising his complex of workshops and checking on who is being naughty or nice, than some fun skating and enjoying that lovely crisp air?  I've cut Santa out from some gorgeous paper which I have stashed away (can't use it---it will be gone!).

I used some Coastal Cabana cardstock for his skating rink and some more of that lovely paper as a background.  It looks great stamped with those trees from the Nature Sings stamp set, doesn't it?  To finish off, I die-cut my sentiment from some Whisper White.  I just love the carefree look on Santa's face, don't you?

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our HLS Anything Goes July Christmas Challenge with the optional twist of Santa.

HLS July Watercolour Challenge - Have a Magical Birthday

Here in Canada we open July with a huge birthday party.  You see, Canada's birthday is on July 1st.  So we bring on the games, ice-cream, pop-corn, cake, dancing and, of course, the fireworks.  How perfect is it that our theme for the Happy Little Stampers July Watercolour challenge is "Birthday"?  I love it!

For my card I decided to use a gorgeous Stampendous mermaid and friends stamp set with matching dies.  The image just begged for some watercolouring and I was happy to oblige.

What you can't see very well is the shimmer of the Yasutomo metallic watercolours which I've added to the tail, globe and crown.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our Anything Goes Watercolour Challenge with the Optional twist of a Birthday.

HLS June Watercolour Challenge - A Little Smile

My goodness!  It's already June and time for another Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge.  While the challenge is always "Anything Goes" this month the twist is to add a Smile.

I used a piece of Mixed Media vellum paper to stamp my happy little Smile stamp.  Yes, it's retired, but how could I get rid of those adorable little hedgehogs?  Once the ink was completely dry, I began my watercolouring, using my Derwent Inktense and Watercolour pencils.  Once I had coloured everything to my liking, I took my AquaPainter and brushed over the colours.  Some I did "fast and sloppy" to spread the colour beyond the lines.  Others I brushed over lightly to keep the images clean and bright. 

Afterwards I used my "wonky" rectangle die which adds so much lovely interest to the border, don't you agree?  Then I mounted the piece to a base of Heavy Whisper White, raised on foam Dimensionals.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our Anything Goes Watercolour Challenge with the Optional twist of a Smile.

HLS May Watercolour Challenge - Make a Wish

I love CAS challenges (that would be "clean and simple").  How happy am I that this month's twist for the HLS Watercolour Challenge is exactly that?  Very happy.  And I'm happier still that I can use one of my Happy Little Stampers stamp sets for the challenge.  Bonus!

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

I'm using the Dandelion Wishes stamp set for this challenge.  The single dandelion clock with some of the seeds lifting up into the breeze really appeals to me.  And so I used my Memento Tuxedo Black to stamp that and then also used it to stamp short blades of grass along the bottom to "ground" it.  Last, but not least, I used it to stamp my sentiment just to right of the top of the image.  

All that black on the white seemed a bit stark and so I took the splatter stamp from my new Stampin' Up! Artisan Textures set, some of the new Grapefruit Grove ink, and stamped it over a light wash of the same colour so that it appeared to be blowing out of the dandelion clock.  Love the effect!

To finish up I used a base of Heavy Whisper White and a matte of the Grapefruit Grove cardstock, attached the stamped piece and my card was done.

I love the simplicity of the card and those images and hope you do, too.  Check out the other awesome samples at our HLS May Watercolour Challenge.

HLS April Watercolour Challenge - Wild Thing!

Time for the Happy Little Stampers April Watercolour Challenge already!  My goodness, how time flies!  This time our twist on the challenge is all about rainbows.  I knew I'd be having fun with that!

Ever since I bought the New Release Happy Little Stampers set, Born to be Wild, I've been imagining that wonderful image of the Zebra coloured in rainbow stripes.  With the optional twist of this month's challenge, I finally had an excuse to get out my watercolours and "go wild".  

Since I decided to use the "Wild Thing - you make my heart sing" sentiment, I thought the addition of some musical notes would finish my card off perfectly.  I carefully shaped the die-cut music around the zebra, leaving him free to flaunt his colours.

A narrow strip of Washi Tape with tiny hearts below the sentiment, and the card was done.

Check out the great samples created by the other Happy Little Stampers and then link your own creation up to our HLS April Watercolour Challenge.

Happy Easter!

A few years ago I bought a stamp at Michael's.  I fell in love with the adorable image of the chick which had just hatched from its shell.  With Easter upon us, I thought it was about time to introduce the stamp to ink and created this sweet ATC.  For those who aren't familiar with that acronym, that means I've created an Artist's Trading Card.  The dimensions are set in stone:  2 1/2" x 3 1/2".  On the back the creator has his/her name, the name of the stamp and the date.

I hope you'll all have a very Happy Easter with family and happiness surrounding you. 

I'm entering this in the HLS March ATC Challenge - Anything Goes with a Twist of Sparkle

And in the CAS on Friday Challenge #129 - Easter

Everything is Better With a Friend

When I found this wonderful House-Mouse Designs image by Stampendous in a darling little craft store in Calgary a couple of months ago, I fell in love.  What could be sweeter than the House-Mouse combined with a beautifully drawn image of a hummingbird?  Of course I bought it!  Now, finally, I've introduced the images to ink, thanks to the Addicted to CAS challenge and its theme of "birds". 

I stamped the image onto a piece of Watercolour paper using my Stamping Platform to ensure that the lines would be evenly stamped.  Before removing it from the platform, I took a sentiment from an old Hero Arts stamp set and added that along the bottom right.  After letting the ink dry completely, I commenced colouring.

Because a friend of mine introduced me to Prismacolors and Gamsol, I decided to use that colouring technique.  I loved the versatility of blending several colours together for my Hummingbird.  The House-Mouse was easy enough, as was the flower, but that brilliantly coloured bird was my challenge. 

When I had finally achieved the look for which I was striving, I added some clear Wink of Stella to the jewel-tones of the feathers and was done.

I can see myself enjoying many more hours, playing with this image.  

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:  

House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge #262 - Anything Goes

Addicted to CAS Challenge #132 - Birds

Double D Challenges - Just Wing It

Peace - CAS Christmas March Challenge

I was happily surprised to see the creation of this CAS Christmas Challenge.  CAS is one of my favourite styles.  Of course it helps to enter a number of Christmas Challenges throughout the year because it takes away the pressure of having to create a whole bunch of Christmas cards just before the deadline.  That, unfortunately, has too often happened in past years.

This month's challenge for the CAS Christmas Challenge is all about Holly.  I was surprised to see that I've kept a number of lovely retired stamp sets, all of which have various images with holly.  I even found a gorgeous stencil of holly and berries.  Making the card was far easier than deciding which image I would use.

In the end I chose the lovely sprig from the lovely (but retired) Watercolor Winter stamp set.  Instead of using the second stamp to add the colours, however, I decided to hand-colour the leaves and berries.  After adding colour with my Prismacolor Pencils, I used a paper stub and Gamsol to blend the colours.  Then, to add some dimension, I shaded in a very light shadow of green in areas, following the form of the image.  When it was completely dry, I added a touch of clear Wink of Stella to the highlight on each berry and also to the shadow behind the image.

For my sentiment, I turned to the retired Peaceful Wreath set and used the word "Peace", stamped in Green. 

I'm entering this card in the CAS Christmas March Challenge - Holly

And also in the Merry Monday #282 - Inspirational Photo Challenge

Twofer (March 2018 - Blossoms)

Well, I finally feel well enough to attend to some obligations and to catch up on partly begun projects.  Of course I'm still not functioning at full speed (neither brain or physically).  For example, I knew I had created my two card for Darnell's Twofer Challenge and that I had taken photographs.  All that was done before I got ill.  For some reason I had it in my head that I had also partially written the post---this post right here.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the draft (titled "Twofer") and found nothing but the title.  *sigh*

Here I am, finally putting this post together.  The blossom stamp which I decided to use is by Altenew and is called "Extra Special".  I fell in love with the clean lines of the image, the fact that it was a "triple stamp" style with which one can actually stamp in the details and colours, and also the wonderful sentiments.  Of course it took me over a year to finally use it after I bought it.

For the first card, I  used Memento Tuxedo ink for the outlines and sentiment.  For the colours, I decided not to do the "triple stamping" but, instead, decided to use the brand new set of Chameleon alcohol markers which I had just bought.  I love the way the colours virtually blend and shade themselves.

After adding a very narrow matte of the same green as the leaves, I attached the layers to my base of Heavy Whisper White and the card was done.

Challenges:  Crafting With An Attitude #37 -  Anything Goes

For my second card, I used black pigment ink to stamp on Silver Foil.  Once that was perfectly set and dry (thanks to my heat gun), I used the matching die to cut out my image (did I mention that the Altenew stamp set came with a die?)

I know black is one of the first colours that comes to mind with a death or funeral but my decision to use it was based purely on its wonderful contrast to the silver foil.  Since I also intended to heat emboss the sentiment in silver, I knew the black background would make it "pop".

To finish up I added a matte of silver foil and then also added rhinestones to the centres of the flowers, once I had coloured them black.

Challenges:  HLS March Anything Goes With Dies Challenge

Of course one has to show both cards together for the Twofer Challenge.  Are you ready?  They look fabulous together, don't they?

I don't know why I waited over a year to finally use this set.

I'm entering these cards into the Twofer Challenge #3 -  Blossoms

I'm also entering these cards into The Flower Challenge #18 - Anything Goes