Diffused Color Background Tutorial

Today I tried the technique challenge over on SCS, which called "Batik, the colorwash way". The instructions were to make your own 'colorwash' by placing several drops of re-inkers into a mini mister (or similar small spray bottle) and then adding water to the mister. Shake to mix. Mist your watercolor paper, one color at a time, dabbing with a paper towel if you get too much color, or to help blend blobs you may get. Well, believe it or not, I dont have any mini misters or spare spray bottles and I always thought of a 'colorwash' in terms of a water coloring technique. Specifically the wet-on-wet colorwash technique. So, I decided to give my way a try and see how it turned out. The results were fun and vibrant so I made up a tutorial on how I accomplished this card in case you want to give it a try.

You will need:

Watercolor paper ~ Versa mark ink ~ Clear Embossing Powder ~ 2 or three dye-based re-inkers ~ 2 paint brushes (one small one large/broad) ~ an embossing heat gun ~ 2 sheets of copy paper ~ Iron set on high - no steam ~ and of course some rubber stamps (I used Artful INKables Autumn's Flowers)

Step 1: Stamp your images using versa mark onto your watercolor paper. Apply your clear embossing powder and heat until embossing powder is melted.

Step 2: Fill a cup full of clean water and let your large broad brush soak some up. Liberally brush water all over the embossed piece of watercolor paper...a bit of pooling is fine.

Step 3: Add some drops of your re-inkers to a small paint palette or tray and using your smaller brush, fill it with plenty of pigment and touch it to the water on your watercolor paper. It is kind of fun to watch it diffuse through the water around the embossed images. As the color lightens, add more drops of pigment until you get your desired intensity and coverage. (Color used in sample is soft sky.)

Step 4: Move on to your next color. (I used more mustard.) As you move on to other colors and different areas of the piece of watercolor paper, you may need to add a bit more water so that the pigment still flows freely from your small brush.

Step 5: If you are using a third color, move on to it in the next step. (Ruby red was used here.) Be sure to fill in all white areas of the paper that aren't covered in embossing. Set it aside to dry for a bit.

Step 6: Now place your watercolor paper onto a sheet of your text weight paper (embossed side facing up) and place another on top of your watercolor paper (to protect your iron). Using your iron press the watercolor paper until the embossing is melted and absorbed into the copy paper. You can check to see if it's all done by lifting the copy paper and if you still see shiny embossed areas, keep ironing.

Step 7: Use your watercolor wash batik in your project as desired.

I finished up my card using some yummy ribbon my husband found at a yard sale...of all places! I also layered the quote on More Mustard and Tangerine Tango cs and added a small tag stamped with the acorn and colored with copics.

If you liked this tutorial, please kindly leave me a comment so I can know what you think! Who knows, I may even start doing tutorials more often! :D

Im Nuts! (for you)

Today I bring you a creation from our final new release set: 'Deer Friends'. I have been wanting to stamp this image like this since I designed the set! I just think that chipmunk looks so smug on top of his pile of nuts. In fact, my dh thought I should draw the image this way but I thought it didn't leave much room for variety. As it is, you can stamp the chippy alone, with lots or a little nuts. It just takes a bit of masking to get it to look like YOUR creation.

I shamelessly borrowed my layout from one of my talented design team members, Jenn Muraoka. I thought the little circles down the side would lend themselves so well to the cut out nuts! Thanks Jenn for the inspiration. And speaking of the DT and inspiration...be sure to check out Terri's, Beth's and Pam's cards using this set! There are so many new critters here and all the creations are different, cute and gorgeous! Be sure to see if you can spy the discount code they are sharing with their blog readers as well...you could save 10% on your entire order on top of the free shipping for orders over $40.

Please Note: I will be updating the company site today to add all these great new creations with the recently released sets so be sure to check it out later.

Recipe for today's card:

Stamps: Deer Friends by AI

Paper: DP from Stampin' up & card stock in Chocolate Chip, Garden Green and White

Ink: Stampa Rosa Black

Accessories: 3/4" circle punch, forest grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals, Copic markers and post-it notes for masking.

Thanks for lookin'! :D

A Charming Leaf Card...For You

I wasnt planning on sharing a project today since Jenn, Pam and Beth have some lovely samples on their blogs to share with you using our newly released 'Autumn's Flowers' set. (Im so lucky to have such a talented group of designers on my team...these samples are real beauties. ) However, I just couldnt help myself when I saw they were having a "Charming Challenge" over on SCS. I mean, what could be more 'up my alley' than charms? I love them! Infact, I love them so much I recently purchased a bunch to coordinate with our stamp sets that you can purchase in the store. *wink*

So I pulled out my charm stash and knew immediately which one I needed to use to coordinate with the 'set of the day', Autumn's Flowers! Isn't that falling leaf charm just perfect? I love how the card came out all light and breezy too even though it is a fall theme card. I used my trusty SU! markers today (decided to give the copics a break, lol) in Old Olive, Really Rust, More Mustard, Ruby Red & Bravo Burgundy. Then I cut the piece to be 1 3/4 inches square and anything outside that area was cut out on the lines. I also stamped an extra leaf which was colored and cut our separately. I picked a small sentiment from our Basic Sentiments set and stamped it in the lower corner and then mounted it all on a 2x2 inch square of Kiwi Kiss with the extra leaf falling off the side. Other papers used are Groovy Guava, Whisper White and Old Olive. The decorative paper is by Bo Bunny and the satin ribbon is by SU! I did score the piece of guava paper vertically to give some texture but it isnt readily apparent in this picture, sorry!

Foxy Friend

We started with the Pond Friends* and moved onto Froggy Friend* and Daring Ducky*, threw in a little Stay Cool* and now we introduce some adorable little forest animals from Critter Country*. Can you tell I love my cute animals? I also love designing sets that can create a scene and are interchangable with each other. Both newly released sets Critter Country and Deer Friends have parts to create a scene and can be used together since they are drawn in the same style and are in the same scale. Plus they are super fun to color! :D

The card I'm sharing today uses elements from Critter Country for the main panel. I masked the fox and added the stump below, so he could get comfortable on his little perch. Another mask was added to the stump so some weeds and grasses could round out the scene. Copics were used to color the card...I had such fun with this!! I just wish I had kept track of all the colors I used - there were just SO many! lol Card stock colors are garden green, tangerine tango and really rust by SU! and white by Georgia Pacific. Black ink is my trusty Stampa Rosa Watercolor pad. I stole a stamp out of my Deer Friends set to stamp the leaf background and tied it all up with some yummy orange satin ribbon.

The Ink Girls (my Design Team) have each been assigned certain sets each day to create projects to inspire you. Today it's me, Julia and Jenn and so be sure to hop on over to their blogs to admire what they have to share. Also, be on the look out for a code they are sharing that will save you money when you order!

* Artful Inkables set names...see our store for images.

Butterfly Blessings...a NEW set to share!

Autumn is in the air here in Utah and at Artful INKables! Today we release four new stamp sets that are beyond the ordinary. These new sets have a definite fall feel without being too seasonal - so you can use them year round. My design team and I will be sharing some fun projects with you this week using these new sets. We hope to excite and inspire you but not tease you. Any time you want to purchase any of our new sets, just hop on over to the store and feel free. And while you are there, be sure to check out all the fun new charms we are now carrying as well.

The first project I want to share with you uses my favorite of the new sets being released, Butterfly Blessings. The whimsical leaf butterfly can be colored in autumn or springtime colors depending on the look you want. I colored this one using copics (Y38, Y21, E00, E07, T5) with a little pointalistic blending. The autumnal flourish was stamped using Really Rust ink to create the background. The papers used are all SU! in Basic Black, Barely Banana and white. I also used some Prima leaves, some of which I brushed with a bit of ink to highlight them.

Julia and Terri are also showcasing this set today so be sure to hop over to their blogs to check out their projects. They may also have a little code to share the will save you some green on your next order! ;)

Enjoy!

Some Awesome Scenery

My family and I just returned from a relaxing vacation in the northeastern part of Utah and I wanted to take a moment to share some pictures I took. I am in awe of the variety of beautiful landscapes here in Utah! I didn't grow up here, in fact we moved here from Virginia 5 years ago so I'm still exploring the beauty of our adopted home state. This week we camped near Flaming Gorge and took in some beautiful sights there. The kids loved camping and getting dirty and I loved the scenery. The pictures above are of this beautiful canyon with the Green River (yes, it really is a lovely deep blue-green) flowing through it. Apparently then name Flaming Gorge come from the reddish striations in the rock.


Here are a few more shots taken while we were driving through the geological loop. Here we saw many different rock formations, lots of animals and even some spawning salmon!

One of the days we took a trip to the Vernal area of the Green River. My son is a real Dinosaur nut so we wanted to drive through Dinosaur National Monument and go to the museum. It is amazing to me how, just an hour's drive can take us to an area with a completely different type of landscape! Here are some photos.


The one in the center is of most of my family (excluding me and one dog) climbing up a cliff area to look at the cool cliff drawings there.

On the way home we took the scenic route over some mountains and again we had more different landscapes to look at. We stopped to enjoy a 'ghost town' of sorts...an abandoned logging camp with some neat examples of cabins from days gone by. We also had a lovely picnic at Mirror Lake and enjoyed the view of the changing foliage up in the mountains. All in all a great trip!

Congratulations!

The winner of our Challenge prize from last week is Amy from Tethered to Home (blog). She is the winner of an Artful INKables stamp of her choice. Please visit her blogfor a peek at her creation: http://tethered2home.com/?p=1556 and Amy, please contact me with your choice and your address!