WWC184 - Helen's All About Holidays Challenge

This week, Helen brings us All About Holidays. It's a fun challenge because you get to pick the holiday you want!

Here in the northern hemisphere, we are soon entering the season we call "fall". And with that season, comes our Thanksgiving holiday. So that's what I picked.

To me, the sunflower says fall. There is something about the sunflower that just makes me smile. Luckily, I just happen to have the perfect stamp set - Painted Harvest.

This card features a lot of new product. But, first, take a close look at the pattern behind the sunflowers. How did I do that? It's not Designer Series Paper. It's not a background stamp. Here's a hint:

When I first saw the Chicken Wire Elements in the brand new 2018 Holiday Catalogue - that goes live Sept. 5 - the first thing I thought of was to use it as a stencil. So, I played around with different ink colours applied with a sponge roller. In this sample, I used Soft Sea Foam. For my card, I used Mango Melody with little touches of Gorgeous Grape.

And, as a bonus, if you roll the ink over the metallic side of the Chicken Wire Elements, you can turn it over and "stamp" it for another look.

For the focal sunflower, I combined Mango Melody and Lovely Lipstick. The sunflowers underneath were done with Mango Melody - I stamped off once for the bottom layer and stamped the top layer full strength. That's an easy way to get different shades of one colour.

Using the stamping off technique again, I used Shaded Spruce to do the leaves. For the flower centers, I used Crumb Cake and Early Espresso, then sponged the edges with Mango Melody.

The ribbon is also from the Holiday Catalogue and is a really fun combo of Merry Merlot on one side and Copper on the other. The punched out leaves are of Copper glimmer paper, also from the Holiday Catalogue.

It's all backed by a Merry Merlot card base.

What will your Holiday be? Want to see what Holidays the other members of the team picked? Just go to Watercooler Wednesday.

WWC183 - Gail's Masculine Anything Goes Challenge

It's my turn to host the challenge this week and it's masculine.

Lately, I've been leaning to the grungy side of things when it comes to masculine card designs.

I started by stamping a piece of Gray Granite cardstock with the Handwritten background stamp and Gray Granite ink then embossed with the Basket Weave embossing folder. I then sponged randomly with Gray Granite and Shaded Spruce inks. To give it some shine, I used some Pewter embossing powder in random areas.

The guitar from Epic Celebrations was stamped with Early Espresso on a piece from Woodgrain DSP and fussy cut. For the sentiment, also from Epic Celebrations, I used Shaded Spruce ink on Whisper White cardstock, then punched it out with the Decorative Label punch.

To back up the guitar and sentiment, I tore a strip of sheet music and edged it with Shaded Spruce, then put everything on a strip of Shaded Spruce cardstock.

What is your favourite style/technique for making cards for the men in your life? Check out Watercooler Wednesday to see what the rest of the team has come up with.
 

WWC182 - Tristan's All About Occasions Challenge

This week is all about Occasions - of which there are many throughout the year. Our host is Tristan, one of the new members of the Watercooler Artists.

Lately, I seem to like doing what I call generic occasion cards. That means I don't stamp anything specific on the front. Rather, I wait until I need a card for something and then put the 'Happy Birthday' or 'Happy Anniversary', etc. on the inside.

This card was originally intended to have a lighthouse on the rock. I had even stamped and fussy cut a lighthouse. But, just as I was getting ready to place it, my eye fell on the Beautiful You stamp set that was on my table. And I went with the impulse!

I love doing watercolour techniques, and this has a lot of watercolour wash going on. Sorry, I used so many ink colours, I don't even remember them all, other than lots of blues, some pinks, and yellows.

The line of hills dividing the sky area from the water area was done with the Waterfront stamp set.

For the dancing lady, I used the paper piecing technique by stamping the image twice with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, first on a piece of Whisper White cardstock, then on a piece of DSP from Tranquil Textures. Fussy cutting required for this technique!

To add a bit of colour to her arms and legs, I used the Ivory Stampin' Blends. For the card base, I stayed with the blue theme and used Bermuda Bay.

Now, I still have that lighthouse...

What occasions do you have coming up in your card-making schedule? Head on over to Watercooler Wednesday if you need more inspiration.

WWC181 - Kath's Feminine Anything Goes Challenge

Kath brings us a feminine theme this week. This theme is one that lends itself well to going all out with all kinds of girly things, which can be a lot of fun.

Or, it can be done with simplicity, such as a one-layer card. Like this one:

Not only is this a somewhat minimalist design, but I further simplified things by using one of Stampin' Up's pre-cut and pre-scored 3x5 Whisper White note cards. Perfect for when you need to do a quick card.

The background from Bokeh Dots is the perfect size for the note cards. And using the Stamparatus meant I could easily do a lot of cards with this same design in a short time.

Because the Stamparatus has two plates, I was able to  set up the Bokeh Dots stamp on one plate and the image from Dandelion Wishes with the sentiment from Wood Words on the other plate.

Using a sponge brayer, I inked up the Bokeh Dots stamp with Coastal Cabana - one of the returning colours. I did have to ink and stamp a few times to get the result I wanted. Love the Stamparatus!

To get the dandelion image in two colours, I used Post It notes to mask off the sides of the bokeh image, and inked the dandelion image with Tranquil Tide. After removing the side masks, I then masked the stamped portion, again lining up the mask with the sides, and inked the stamp with Coastal Cabana and stamped again.

I inked the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and stamped at the same time as doing the sides of the dandelion. Did I mention I love the Stamparatus? It took no time at all to stamp a whole stack of these.

Now check out Watercooler Wednesday to see what the rest of the talented Watercooler Artists have done.
 

WWC180 - Marsha's All About Holidays Challenge

If it's Wednesday - that mean's it's Challenge Day! This week Marsha brings us All About Holidays.

You can see by the above graphic that many different holidays are covered by this challenge.  My card is a Christmas card - just because I'm still featuring cards I made when I went through piles of bits on my work table and decided to  use them up.

This is the last one I made during that session. I promise. But, it's almost time to do another clean-up!

I started by brayering several shades of blue onto a piece of Whisper White card stock. From what I can remember, there is Pool Party, Tranquil Tide and Night of Navy. The pine tree from Lovely as a Tree is stamped multiple times using the stamping off technique in Memento Tuxedo Black.

The sentiment is from Carols of Christmas, stamped with Tranquil Tide and highlighted with a white Posca paint pen. Next I ran it through the Big Shot with the Card Front Builder Thinlits.

The sparkly trees were cut from glimmer paper with the Card Front Builder Thinlits. This piece was layered on Champagne Foil and then onto a Tranquil Tide card base.

Thanks to our challenges, I have a really good stack of Christmas cards ready to send out. How is your stash coming along?

Off you go now to visit Watercooler Wednesday for more inspiration.

WWC179 - Heidi's Masculine Anything Goes Challenge

This Wednesday we come again to a masculine challenge, hosted by Heidi.

I love making backgrounds and Stampin' Up has so many products that can be used for that. One of the easiest things to make backgrounds with is Brushos colour crystals. Just shake, spritz and done!

That's how I did the background on this:

I used the Prussian Blue Brushos as I thought it looked a lot like one of the new InColors - Blueberry Bushel. To add a little texture, I did a partial stamp on the right hand side with the Postscript background stamp, inked with Gray Granite.

The sentiment, also in Blueberry Bushel, is from Animal Outing. I cut the two ovals with the Stitched Shapes dies. The leaves peeking out from behind are also from Animal Outing, stamped in Call Me Clover.

And - that's it! Very easy to do - very quick to do. I sometimes forget that cards don't have to be complicated and have a lot of elements. Although, those are fun to do, too!

Visit Watercooler Wednesday and have a look at the awesome samples from the rest of the team.

WWC178 - Crystal's All About Occasions Challenge

This week our newest design team member, Crystal, hosts her first challenge at the Watercooler.

Throughout the year there are a lot of occasions in our lives that are card-worthy. A congratulations card could cover many of those occasions - such as a new house.

My Mom had asked me to make a card she could give to a friend's daughter after she bought a house on a lake. Naturally, I pulled out my Waterfront stamp set.

I started by stamping the trees randomly on the Crumb Cake card  base with Crumb Cake ink. For the image panel, I used watercolour paper and just did a very simple mountain range with Crumb Cake, stamped off. The little houses are done in Soft Suede and the trees are Always Artichoke, stamped off, with just the tips of the trees inked up.

For the colour variations in the water, I used the stamp from High Tide with Pool Party and Bermuda Bay inks. The birds are also from High Tide. To create a frame for the scene, I used the doodle-like stamp from the retired Tin of Cards stamp set in Tranquil Tide. The panel is mounted on Tranquil Tide.

Check out Watercooler Wednesday for more inspiration from the Watercooler Artists.