Wednesday, July 27, 2016

WWC78 - Jean's Theme Challenge

This week we have a somewhat different type of challenge for you. Jean is hosting our very first Theme Challenge, based on the letter B. That means you can make your project using any image that starts with a B, such as:
You can use as many Bs as you want - or only one. Some of the Watercooler Artists have been very clever and used quite a few Bs! Click here to see them.

Since it is summer time and there are, hopefully, a lot of them around, I decided on a bee image. Plus, I just got the fabulous and fun Pun Intended stamp set in my last order. It has a very cute bee image and a super-cute sentiment to go with it.

See what I mean?
Oh - and I also used the colour blue in Marina Mist. I actually took my colour scheme from the dotted pattern in the Serene Scenery Paper Stack. This is a fun collection of photo-realistic designs on one side of each 6" x 6" sheet and some cool graphic designs on the other side.

Staying with a circular motif, I stamped the bubbles with a stamp from Playful Backgrounds, in Marina Mist, right over top of the dotted DSP. On the Delightful Dijon card base, I stamped a few bees in DD.

The main focal bee is embossed with Copper Embossing Powder - love that stuff! I think I have used it on every card I've made in the last little while. Marina Mist was also used  to  stamp the sentiment. Then I layered the Whisper White circle onto the Marina Mist circle and attached it with some Stampin' Dimensionals.

Quick, easy and cute! I ended up with three Bs: bee, birthday and blue. How many Bs can you work into one card?

Check out what the other Watercooler Artists have done at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge Blog. Link yours up and join the fun!
 

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Celebrating 3 years of Hopping!

http://wackywatercoolerstamping.blogspot.com
That's right - we are celebrating our 3rd Anniversary! Can you believe it? And we have all of the original Hoppers from that very first Blog Hop from July 2013. To see the complete list of participants visit the home blog - Wacky Watercooler Stamping.

If you started at the top of the list, you are probably totally awed by all the wonderful creations, and have just arrived from Marsha's blog. She is always a tough act to follow!

I will start with my CASE (Copy And Share Everything) from that original Blog Hop. As usual, there is so much inspiration from this group. But, when I came to Kath R's Faux Watercolouring card - that was it! Here's Kath's card:
 And here is my version:
I kept the background monochrome with Crumb Cake cardstock and ink. All the images in the background are from the fabulous Tuscan Vineyard stamp set and it is embossed with the Brick Wall Embossing Folder.The focal image is done on Watercolour Paper. I used Stampin' Write Markers in Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Emerald Envy and Soft Suede to ink up the bunch of grapes stamp from Tuscan Vineyard.

First, I spritzed the Watercolour Paper with water - you want it pretty wet - but not soggy. Then stamp with your inked stamp. It will go all fuzzy, but don't worry! The magic happens with the next step.

Let it dry. Re-ink your stamp with the same colours and stamp again over top of your first stamp. This will give your image definition. I then ran it through my Big Shot with one of the framelits from Lots of Labels. A few loops of Copper Wire and some strands from the Burlap Ribbon are the finishing touches.

My next card does double duty - it's an anniversary card using one stamp set that was new in 2013 and is still current - Gorgeous Grunge. It is full of wonderful textures and so versatile. I chose the image that reminds me of rain falling - which led me to think about a song from a few years ago - It's Raining Men (don't remember who sang it) - which in turn led me to think about Raining Flowers.

Whew! It really is strange sometimes how the mind of a stamper works. But, here is the result of all that twisted thinking:
I used mostly InColors for this: Dapper Denim, Peekaboo Peach and Cucumber Crush. The centres of the flowers are coloured by using the Clear Wink of Stella pen dipped into Daffodil Delight ink.

The little flowers are from the Rose Wonder set. I stamped them with Dapper Denim and Peekaboo Peach onto Whisper White cardstock then coloured them with the same colours using my Aquapainter. After coloring, I went back over the petals with the fine point of the corresponding markers.

Again with Dapper Denim ink, I stamped the outline image from Rose Wonder an the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes and cut it out. I thought all these colours needed something to sort of ground them, so I added a strip of Burlap Ribbon. It seems I couldn't stop adding things - such as the Pearls Basic Jewels, which I thought looked nice against the rustic Burlap Ribbon.

Dapper Denim - I'm really liking that colour! - makes a great card base for this design.

And, there you have it! Happy 3rd Anniversary to all my fellow Watercooler Blog Hoppers! Click on the 'Next' button below to go to Jean's blog. She is one of our Alumni - and never ceases to amaze us.
https://jlfstudio.wordpress.com
http://wackywatercoolerstamping.blogspot.com
http://coffeepotstampingcafe.com

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

WWC77 - Marsha's Colour Challenge


http://watercoolerchallenges.blogspot.ca/
This week we have a wonderful selection of colours, courtesy of Marsha. I loved working with these colours, and after seeing what the other Watercooler Artists have done, it's clear that this colour combo fits any style. Here's what we had to work with:
I immediately thought watercolour! It's my favourite technique. And Very Vanilla cardstock is great for watercolouring. It adds a soft undertone to the colours.

Since I had just received the Rose Wonder stamp set, it is the perfect choice for colouring.
This image is all one big stamp and I simply inked it up with Archival Black ink and stamped it onto the Very Vanilla cardstock.

Using an Aquapainter, I first coloured the entire rose with a layer of Pink Pirouette, not worrying about creating shadows, or even covering the whole image. Then I did the same thing with the leaves and Mint Macaron.

One thing I've learned about watercolouring, is that it is important to let the ink dry thoroughly before adding another layer. You can either let it air dry, or hurry things up with a heat tool. I like to stamp several images so I can colour the others while waiting for each layer to dry.

Once it was dry, I went over the leaves again with Mint Macaron, but just applied ink randomly to give it some variation in tone.

For the rose, my next layer was done with Sweet Sugarplum, taking care to not cover the Pink Pirouette layer completely. After that layer was dry, I went over it again just in a few spots where there might be shadows.

Once that layer was dry, I went back to the Pink Pirouette and did a quick wash over everything to smooth out any lines that might show between the layers. You do want to be careful not to use too much water or the cardstock will begin to fray.

The banner at the top, as well as the sentiment and little hearts are from the Thoughtful Banners stamp set, stamped with Night of Navy and Pink Pirouette for the hearts. I do have the coordinating punch, but cannot find it after my move, so I fussy cut it. I wanted it to have a bit more substance, so I glued it onto some Night of Navy cardstock and then cut it out again, leaving a bit of a border of Night of Navy. To make the hearts glossy, I covered them with glue from the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

Next, I thought the centre of the rose needed some bling. My thought was to put a tiny Rhinestone Basic Jewel there, to look like a dew drop. However, the only rhinestones I could find were the retired jumbo sized ones. So, I went with it! Go big or go home, right? Here's a closeup:
A mat of Sweet Sugarplum sets of the main image panel nicely and I like how it looks with the Night of Navy cardbase.

To see what the other Watercooler Artists have done, visit Watercooler Wednesday, then show us how you would combine these lovely colours.
 
 

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

WWC76 - Penny's Clean & Simple Butterflies


Welcome to another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge. This week Penny has given us a Clean & Simple (CAS) Challenge with a theme of Butterflies. Since there are many ways to interpret what Clean & Simple is, the team of Watercooler Artists have decided to clarify our interpretation of Clean & Simple:

Rules for our Clean & Simple Challenges:
Either a single layer upon which we stamp or a base with a single layer upon which we stamp. Since we use embellishments for any other type of card, no embellishments or die-cuts or anything except the simplicity of stamping for the "clean & simple". That gives a clear reason for its name. And what is simpler than stamping? That will allow heat embossing since, if one decides to use a colour, heat embossing would show better than simple stamping. But no embossing folder embossing. Clean and simple.


Cardstock - stamps - ink - that's pretty much it. What I like about this, is that it shows it is possible to create beautiful cards with just the basics. Here's what I did:
I chose to go with just a card base of Thick Whisper White cardstock. This CS is amazing. It's heavy enough to stand on it's own and it stamps beautifully. I have even watercoloured on it. For the butterfly image, which is from the Butterfly Basics stamp set, I inked it up with the new Calypso Coral Ombre stamp pad. This stamp pad gives you various shades of one colour, from light to dark. It does work better with a larger image, but I still like the little bit of colour variance on these. You can see it better in this close-up:

To give a bit more interest, I used the little dots stamp from Timeless Textures with Peekaboo Peach, one of the new InColors.

The sentiment is also from Butterfly basics, and I did something different with it.
Instead of using ink, I coloured the stamp with the Gold Wink of Stella pen. It gives it a bit of sparkle.

And that's it! Clean & Simple!

Now it's your turn to give it a try. Visit the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog and check out what the other Watercooler Artists have come up with, then link your creation.

 


 

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

WWC75 - Deborah's Sketch Challenge

http://watercoolerchallenges.blogspot.ca/
Welome to another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge! This week Deborah has given us this sketch to follow:
Now, you might think having to follow a sketch is limiting. Not so. While we do still follow the sketch as far as all the layers and details go, there are options. Such as, flipping the sketch to make it horizontal instead of vertical. Which is what I did.
I used Thick Whisper White cardstock for my card base, and 3 of the patterns from the Floral Boutique Designer Series Paper. Don't you just love the crisp look of the Night of Navy and Whisper White?

The main flower image is also from the Floral Boutique DSP. It is fussy cut, which took a while! I do not mind fussy cutting, usually, but this did take a bit longer than I had anticipated. However, I love the results.

Now,  I did run into a couple of snags when creating this. First mistake I made was to glue down all my layers - before I stamped the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes. Why is that a bad thing, you ask? Well, as you can see from the angle, I did not get it straight.

And I know better! Usually, I stamp my sentiment first. That way, if I mess it up I can flip the cardstock over and get another chance. I really wasn't paying attention here. Since I didn't have time to start over, I thought I would use this as a lesson to all of you - of what NOT to do!

Next problem I ran into came when I wanted to use my Basic Jewel Pearls for the 3 embellishments. I know I have a package. In fact, I know I have several packages - somewhere! I'm still looking for them...

So, I tried to make 3 dots using the Clean Wink of Stella. It sort of worked - except they are all different sizes. But, hey, that was my intent! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Stay tuned - once I locate my MIA pearls, I'll make some adjustments to this card. And do something about the crooked sentiment.

But, all of us at the Watercooler really want to see your take on Deborah's Sketch Challenge. Visit the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog to see what the other Watercooler Artists have done with it, then link up your creation. It's as simple as that!

WWC211 - Kath's Feminine Anything Goes Challenge

https://watercoolerchallenges.blogspot.com/ It's a feminine theme this week from Kath. A perfect opportunity to play with my new butte...