WWC211 - Kath's Feminine Anything Goes Challenge

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It's a feminine theme this week from Kath. A perfect opportunity to play with my new butterfly dies. This large die is a really quick way to make a WOW card.

I used Brushos on Shimmery White cardstock to colour the paper for the butterflies. On the Whisper White layer, I stamped the bubbles from Beauty Abounds using Tranquil Tide ink. The card base is Mango Melody, which matches really well with the Yellow and Gamboge Brushos.

Visit Watercooler Wednesday and see how everyone else played with this feminine challenge.

WWC210 - Heidi's All About Occasions Challenge

Amost any time can be an occasion for thanking someone. Heidi hosts our Occasions Challenge this week, and I always need thank you cards.

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I attempted to do no-line watercolouring and it didn't quite go the way I wanted? If you missed it, check it out here. 

I wanted to give it another try and the Beautiful Day stamp set has two gorgeous line drawing images that are perfect for this technique. The flower petals are coloured with only one colour - Blackberry Bliss. For the center, I used Crushed Curry as the base and when that was dry, dotted over the top with Mango Melody. Shaded Spruce was used for the leaf and the fun bubbles from Beauty Abounds are stamped with Blackberry Bliss.

The flower was done on watercolour paper then matted with Blackberry Bliss.  On the Crumb Cake background, I stamped more of those bubbles  with Crumb Cake ink.  Love those bubbles!

What Occasions do you have coming up?  Show us your projects at Watercooler Wednesday.

WWC209 - Marsha's Masculine Anything Goes Challenge

Time for another masculine challenge, brought to us by Marsha.

One of my favourite ways to make a colourful background, and also one of the easiest ways, is to use Brushos. If you aren't familiar with Brushos, they are highly pigmented colour crystals - and a lot of fun to use.

One of the appeals, for me, is the unpredictability of the final outcome. I like to use either watercolour paper or Shimmery White cardstock. Both types can handle a lot of water. Simply spritz your cardstock then shake a teeny, tiny bit of Brushos onto the wet surface and watch the magic!

That's how I did the focal point on this card.

I used the Rectangle Stitched Rectangles dies to cut out both the watercolour paper and the Mossy Meadow frame.

The grasses and the sentiment are both from the SAB stamp set, Home to Roost, stamped with Early Espresso.

I love the Crackle Paint background stamp, and used it with Mossy Meadow ink on Whisper White card stock. The card base is also Mossy Meadow.

Visit Watercooler Wednesday to check out what the rest of the team has done. 

WWC208 - Charlotte's All About Occasions Challenge

This week's challenge from Charlotte is a perfect chance to use some new things I just got from the 2019 Occasions Catalogue.

Sometimes, when I get a new stamp set, I like to just play around and randomly stamp images. So, I opened the Beauty Abounds set and an assortment of ink pads. There was a scrap of Whisper White cardstock on my table that looked the perfect size to experiment on.

Next thing I knew, I had something I really liked! Take a look:

Since I needed to make thank you cards, I used the 'thanks' sentiment from the stamp set. Colours used are: Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Mango Melody, Blushing Bride, Powder Pink, Granny Apple Green, and Poppy Parade.

Wow - that's a lot of colours in one little piece!

I matted the image panel onto Gorgeous Grape. Confession: I didn't plan to mount it askew - the piece slipped when I turned it upside down to rub the back and by the time I realized it, the glue had set. So - I went with it.

Since I had more new things to play with, I wrapped it with the new Old Olive Linen Thread. I already love this stuff! To finish it off, I used a Floral Romance Seal.

The DSP is from Botanical Butterfly, which is one of the awesome offerings in the Sale-a-Bration brochure. A card base of Gorgeous Grape finishes it all off.

Have an occasion coming up that you need a card for? If you need inspiration just visit Watercooler Wednesday. 

WWC207 - Helen's Feminine Anything Goes Challenge

Helen brings us the Feminine Anything Goes  Challenge  this week.
 
I'm trying to not automatically think "flowers" everytime I make a feminine-themed card. So I looked through my stamp sets and came across Mediterranean Moments.

I hadn't used it for a while and I've been wanting to try the "no-line watercolour" technique. First off, I should have picked a less-detailed image for this technique. Technically, it started out as no-line. But when I had finished, something didn't look right. So, I added back some lines. Thinner lines, but still lines.

What do you think?

I used watercolour paper and first stamped the umbrella lady from Beautiful You with Sahara  Sand, then masked her off and stamped the scene from Meditrannean Moments, again using Sahara Sand.

Most of the colouring was done by picking up ink from the lid of an ink pad with my Aqua Painter. After everything dried, I got my Watercolour Pencils and used the Aqua Painter to pick colour up directly from the pencil. This gave me more concentrated colour for doing highlights.

I trimmed down the image panel and mounted it on a card base of Blueberry Bushel. I didn't use any background stamping on the card base as the focal image has enough colour to stand on its own.

Now, must go through my stamp sets again and find a better image to try no-line watercolouring.

For more inspiration, visit Watercooler Wednesday and check out the rest of the team.

WWC206 - Anything Goes Challenge

This week's challenge is a fun one - anything goes! You can do any kind of project you want.

My project is a result of trying to clear off my work table. I found a piece of Whisper White cardstock I had used to play around with the wood slice stamp from Rooted in Nature. But, I was using non-wood colours and tried masking.

I'm not sure what I originally had in mind, but when I looked at the stamped images I immediately wanted to doodle on them.

On the Granny Apple Green image I used the fine tip journaling pen and for the Balmy Blue and Highland Heather images I used a white gel pen.

A thin border of Basic Black cardstock is perfect to set it off on the Granny Apple Green card base. And, just like that, I have a note card to send off to someone.

What will be your "anything goes" project? Link it up at Watercooler Wednesday.

WWC205 - Donna's All About Holidays Challenge

Holidays throughout the year are great card-giving occasions and it's always nice to have them made and ready to go. Like, for Christmas cards, instead of scrambling at the last minute.

For my Christmas card this week, I used a set that I loved as soon as I saw it in the catalogue a couple of years ago. Once I got it however, I drew a blank when it came to using it.

This week, I came across it during one of my on-going, not-always-successful attempts to get organized and decided it was time!

 After all that, this is a pretty simple design: stamps, ink and cardstock. And a little bit of bling.

I stamped the palm tree and the seashells with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured with various Stampin' Blends. The "sand" was created with the mountain-shaped image from Waterfront with Crumb Cake ink.

For the strings on the shells, I used some Sharpie ultra-fine tip markers. Some of the shells got a Basic Rhinestone for some sparkle. And to continue with the tropical theme, I used Coastal Cabana cardstock for the card base.

I thought it was fitting to set it on one of my shell trivets that I brought back from a trip to Maui many years ago.

Wondering which holiday the rest of team picked? Check it out at Watercooler Wednesday.

WWC204 - Gail's Masculine Anything Goes Challenge

It's my turn to be host this week for the Masculine Anything Goes Challenge.

Looking for inspiration, my eye fell on a jar of silver embossing paste, and I realized I hadn't used it in quite a while. Then, I went through a stack of long-retired stamps and pulled out one I really like - but, again, hadn't used recently.

And, this is what happened:

On a piece of Whisper White cardstock, I first stamped the Off the Grid stamp randomly with Gray Granite. I used the brick stencil with the silver embossing paste.

Since I had no idea what theme this card would be, I started going through my stamp sets and when I came to the Animal Outing set, the light bulb went on!

The rhinoceros is second generation stamping to make a lighter image, and the sentiment is full  strength. To make the frame around the image, I embossed some Galvanized Foil with the Corrugated embossing folder and cut thin strips from it.

Mounting it all onto a Gray Granite card base finished off the monochromatic look.

Take a look at Watercooler Wednesday for more inspiration and then show us your masculine design.

WWC203 - Karen's All About Occasions Challenge

It's always great to have a supply of cards on hand, ready to grab when needed, for any of the occasions that come up throughout the year. This week, Karen hosts our All About Occasions Challenge to help you do just that.

Last week I showcased a multi-ccoloured background I did using Stampin' Up inks on my 3" x 5" gelli plate. Since I couldn't stop at just one, this week's card also features a background done on the gelli plate - and a brand new stamp set.

Using my brayer, I applied Merry Merlot and Mango Melody inks to the plate in stripes, then used Whisper White cardstock to pick up the ink.

That gorgeous horse is from a brand new stamp set, called Let it Ride, from the 2019 Occasions Catalogue. It is an outline stamp, but I made it into a silhouette by stamping with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and then colouring it all in with a black paint pen. The sentiment is also from that set.

To add interest, I stenciled a compass using Mango Melody ink and then stamped the sentiment over it. The trees are from the Let it Ride stamp set, and I used Shaded Spruce to stamp them, letting them spill over onto the Crumb Cake cardstock.

I made this into a birthday card, with this sentiment from Beautiful Day and Shaded Spruce:

Now, I just have to share something about this card. After I had it all put together, I happened to look at the back - and saw smudges of Shaded Spruce ink! How did that happen? No idea. Now what do I do?

Well, after a few minutes of thought, this is what I did:

I have to say, it's the first time I've decorated the back of a card. LOL

What occasion do you have coming up? Make a card and share it on Watercooler Wednesday.

WWC202 - Dawn's Feminine Anything Goes Challenge

Welcome to our first challenge of 2019! Dawn brings us a Feminine Anything Goes Challenge.

For a few months now I've been obsessed with a new crafting tool - the gelli plate. It is a soft, squishy surface that does the most amazing things and is used to make mono prints.

Typically, they are used with acrylic paints. I'd been thinking for a while about trying my Stampin' Up inks on it. So, when I got down to making my card for this challenge, I thought - why not give it a try? And I love the results!

 I used my 3" x 5" gelli plate and brayered Granny Apple Green, Mango Melody and Balmy Blue onto it.  Then I placed a piece of Whisper White cardstock on top of it to pick up the ink. Love the way the WW cardstock works for this technique!

I  used the circles from Playful Backgrounds to stamp some texture in each of the three colours. For the focal image, I thought black would look too harsh so I went with Blackberry Bliss - my most favourite of all the returning colours. The sentiment and dancing lady are both from Beautiful You.

Then, it was an easy choice to use Blackberry Bliss for the card base. And that was it! I had so much fun doing this background I did a few more and you may see them pop up on my blog in the weeks to come.

Now go  to Watercooler Wednesday and see how the rest of the team is starting the new year.