{Spotlight Project} Monika Creates a Stationery First Aid Kit

Hello, everybody. I'm back again with some more inspiration for you. This week, I hope to inspire you to stretch your crafting skills and join me in creating this little handbag sized folder. It is a sort of Stationery First Aid Kit. 

I don't know about you, but I quite often get caught out in situations needing pen and paper, an envelope or just simply something nice to write some details on. Thinking that something has to be done about this whilst thinking about my upcoming Spotlight Project, it was a question of now or never!
So here it is, this Thursday's Spotlight Project using our current Stamp Club set, Bloom Sketches combined with Boxed Blooms & Bold Sentiments and Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds.

{Spotlight Project} Shery Plays with Gift Wrapping Paper and Creates an Easy Mixed Media Card

Hi, everyone! I'm back with another spotlight project (plus a bonus project with video). In my previous spotlight posts (this one and this one), I showed the mixed media tags and canvas panel I did when I had a play with the newsprint gift wrapping paper I found in my stash. In today's post, I'm sharing the mixed media card I made using some more of that gift wrapping paper. I have a photo tutorial so you can see how I put this card together -- it's really easy! But first, let me show you the finished card:

STEP 1

I adhered a piece of the gift wrapping paper onto 140-lb watercolor panel (4" by 5.25") using Liquitex gel medium. [Tip: Use a base that's really thick and won't warp easily.]

STEP 2

Using an old card, I applied watered-down white gesso onto the panel. [Tip: If you spread gesso unevenly onto your surface, you'll get a nice texture when you apply paints, inks, sprays, Gelatos, or other wet mediums on it.]

STEP 3

I loosely watercolored blue zircon and plum crazy Twinkling H2Os onto the panel once the gesso was dry. [Tip: To get a colorwash look, paint the panel with water first and then apply the paints. Let the colors pool along the edges/crevices. Tilt the panel to allow the colors to drip and blend. You can also use a heat tool to move the colors around.]

STEP 4

I stamped one of the background stamps in the Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds set in VersaMagic aegean blue chalk ink (tone-on-tone), distressed the edges with a TH distressing tool, and inked the panel with VersaMagic Jumbo Java chalk ink. I also splattered a bit of white gesso onto the panel. [Tip: Subtly grunge up your background by partially stamping images in a color that is similar to your background color. It will give your background a textured look without the added bulk.]

STEP 5

On scrap card stock, I stamped the backside of the sunflower from Bloom Sketches in VersaMagic mango madness chalk ink three times.

STEP 6

I flipped the stamp over and inked it up with VersaMagic gingerbread chalk ink. [Tip: This technique is great for coloring your images quickly when you know you're going to be fussy cutting them. It's also a great technique to use when you want to get that offset-print/retro look (like how I did in this card).]

STEP 7

I fussy cut the sunflowers and ran a dark brown marker along the edges to hide the white edges.

STEP 8

I have a Cuttlebug but I must admit I'm too lazy most of the time to take it out and use my dies. I needed some leaves for my sunflowers so I simply took a piece of textured card stock (DCWV) and cut out the leaves. I creased the leaves, distressed them, and applied VersaMagic hint of pesto chalk ink on the edges. 

STEP 9

The last step is putting the card together! I adhered the panel onto my card base before adhering everything else. I used foam dots and double-sided tape. I stamped the sentiment from Bloom Sketches in jet black archival ink onto scrap white card stock, cut it out, and matted it onto dark blue textured card stock. And my mixed media card is done! That wasn't so hard now, was it?

I have one more project (a mixed media layout) to show you that features our stamps and the newsprint gift wrapping paper. (I'm getting so much mileage from just one roll!) I'll share it in my next spotlight post. 

Before I go, though, I'd like to share another mixed media layout that I did for the current challenge at Time Out Challenges, a challenge blog that Nonni and Sandie own. (Check it out and come play!)

Here's a partial shot of my 12" by 12" layout:

That's the hubby and me, by the way. (Photo was taken 11 years ago, a year before we got sentenced to life married.) And here's a video where I show how I put together the layout from start to finish. It's a little over 13 minutes -- in fast-forward motion, captioned, and accompanied by Mozart my voice-over narration (!).

Thanks for stopping by! See you in a couple of weeks!

~Shery

 

{Spotlight Project} Live in the Moment Mixed Media Canvas

Hello! Here's the second installment of yesterday's spotlight project. Short and sweet: it's a video of the mixed media canvas I did yesterday when I was playing with gift wrapping paper, Twinkling H2Os, and the newly released Bloom Sketches set. First, here's a look at the finished canvas:

And here's the video. It's a shorty -- only 7 minutes, 38 seconds. It's done in my usual style: in fast-forward motion, captioned, and accompanied by Mozart. Enjoy!

 

Other supplies: Life is Good (SRM Stickers); Twinkling H2Os, Inktense Blocks, Gesso and Gel Medium (Liquitex), Distress and archival inks, Memento ink

{Spotlight Project} Monika Creates a Layout with the Boxed Blooms

Hi, everybody. As promised some more inspiration for your fabulous Boxed Blooms and Bold Sentiments stamp set. I'm guessing that most of you have by now made it one of your faves.

Today, I'm working with the daffodil image. Well, one could say it's the wrong time of year, but it's never too late to catch up on some scrapbooking. And that's exactly what I've been up to.

To create this beauty you need:

- Stamps: Boxed Blooms and Bold Sentiments, Holiday Artsy, SENTIMENT BUILDERS: Celebrate,VIGNETTE: Celebrate Artsy, and Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds
- Inks: Black Memento, dye inks in brown, yellow, pink and blue
- Ink Markers: black, brown and dark yellow
- ProMarkers: tulip yellow, buttercup, gold, burnt orange, leaf green, pastel blue and blender
- Card stock: white sheet of 12x12" plus a piece of brown card for matting
- Tools: large soft brushes for blending inks (I used shaving brushes), craft knife, steel ruler and cutting mat plus colour spritzer/spray tool for use with markers
- Other: post-it notes for masking, sequins to add some sparkle

I started off by creating my masks for the daffodils and roughly deciding on the layout by placing my elements onto my 12x12" piece of card stock.

I then stamped the daffodils masking them off as I went along. With all three of them stamped and masked, I used my brushes to blend the inks (yellow, pink and blue) for the background.

I then stamped the large 'celebrate' (SB Celebrate) in brown followed by the splashes (Holiday Artsy) in yellow and pink before stamping the small 'celebrate' (Celebrate Artsy) in yellow, the word 'cherish' (Boxed Blooms) in brown and the smaller words (SB Celebrate) in black.

I then added a bit of background stamping (Mini Mixed Media) in pink and yellow. As I didn't want this to be dominant, I first stamped some ink off on a piece of scrap before stamping onto my scrapbook page. This type of generational stamping allows for a softer effect.

To finish off my stamping, I added a couple of brushstrokes (Celebrate Artsy) in pink to my bottom left daffodils, again using this type of generational stamping.

I then removed my masks and coloured my daffodils using my ProMarkers. I did this in a sketched style rather than focusing on perfect blending, which I think works well with this layout. I then cut around a couple of corners using my craft knife, added some splashes in brown and dark yellow and finished off by adding my matted photo and some sequins.

There is also a craft-along video which covers most of my decision making on the layout, masking and stamping in my usual casual style.


Hope you feel inspired to use your stamps in a different way.

Enjoy and Happy Stamping!!! :-)

    
 

{Spotlight Project} Shery Makes Her Favorite Kind of Cards

Hello, fellow stampers! It's my turn to share a project this week. I'm back with another one layer card.

One layer cards are my favorite kind of cards to make but there's another reason I decided to make them this week: my craft area is still a disaster after 2 weeks. I bought crates and a 7-drawer rolling cart a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, I haven't made any serious progress in cleaning, organizing, and downsizing my craft supplies. My craft area is in shambles. Fortunately, I don't need much to make one layer cards...just stamps, inks, and post-it notes.

Here's my card. In addition to the Boxed Blooms & Bold Sentiments stamps, I used Vignette: Eclectic Florals and words from two Sentiment Builders sets, Happy and Thank You. (Shooting videos isn't possible until I could clear my craft table so a photo tutorial will have to do for now.)

1.

I stamped the daffodil three times on my card base,

stamping first in the middle and then with a post-it note,

I masked the image before stamping on the upper left and

lower right. I used jet black archival ink because I will be

watercoloring the daffodil in the middle. [You'll want to 

use ink that's permanent and waterproof for stamping if

you plan on using a wet medium later on.]

2.

Next, I stamped my sentiment. [Tip: If you are using

words from different sets, "audition" them before

stamping by laying them uninked on your card. Try different

orientations. In my card, I let the layout of the boxed

daffodils dictate how I would stamp the words. And

here's another tip: don't be afraid to mix and match different

sizes and fonts. Use the design principle of contrast: bold with

regular, caps with small caps, serif with sans serif, slab with script.]

3.

I then watercolored the daffodil in the middle with

Inktense Blocks. You can also use Distress inks for

watercoloring, but I find the Inktense Blocks to be

more vibrant, especially on cold-press watercolor paper,

like the one I used for my card base.

4.

I masked my daffodils with post-it notes before

stamping my flowers in Memento inks

(Lilac Posies and Bahama Blue).

5.

I added some spatters on my card and affixed a

couple of adhesive gems to the flowers. (I was lucky --

I found the gems in the plastic container that happened to be

on top of one of the empty crates.)

When I'm making one layer cards, masking is my favorite technique to use because it helps create an illusion of depth. 

Here's a second card I made using the steps above, only this time I went all black so the middle daffodil would pop. For texture, I used one of the stamps in the Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds. Instead of watercolor paper, I used 100# (270 gsm) premium heavy classic white card stock and Distress inks to watercolor the daffodil. 

I hope you enjoyed my short photo tutorial and that you were inspired by my cards. Why not try making a one layer card too? See you in a couple of weeks!

~Shery