All You Need is Ice Cream

April 20, 2017April 20, 2017 KimberlyLeave a comment

The weather is getting warmer, you guys! Actually a little too warm. It was 85 degrees last week. In April! Kind of eerie, but I do appreciate the fact that I was able to get outside and plant my raised bed/container garden this past weekend. Small victories!

If you know me personally, then you know that I’m kind of an ice-cream-aholic. It’s my favorite. My mother even bought me my own ice cream maker a few years ago. She knows. And when the weather gets warmer, I seem to want ice cream all day every day. So, this stamp set is also a favorite, because of all the fun ice cream images. I haven’t played with it too much, but I did put together this quick card not too long ago, right in the middle of my one-layer watercolor card phase.

I stamped out a little parade of popsicles and ice cream treats with Intense Black ink, and also added a sentiment from the same Ice Cream Dream stamp set. I then painted a wash over the top in various shades of green using my Gansai Tambi watercolors. A run through my die cutting machine with a stitched rectangle die to embellish the edges of the card, a card base, a few sequins in coordinating colors and I was finished! Yum!

Now that I’m looking at this card again, it seems that I basically made a card by myself, for myself. ha. :)

What’s your favorite warm weather treat?

One Layer Watercolor Thank You Card

April 10, 2017April 10, 2017 Kimberly4 Comments

Just a quick post today to share with you this one-layer thank you card I put together. I fell in love with this card I made not too long ago, and used that as inspiration for this one.

I used the outline flower image from the Beautiful Day stamp set and some masking paper, to create a focal point of layered flowers at the bottom right of my watercolor panel. I then added a whole lot of pink and purple-toned watercolor in several layers. I made sure that the highest saturation of color was focused on the flowers themselves, but that was about as fussy as I got with it.

When the panel was dry, I cut it down to 4.25″ x 5″ size using a stitched rectangle die. Then, I stamped my sentiment from the SSS Handwritten Floral Greetings set using Intense Black Ink (I also used this ink for stamping the flowers because it’s waterproof). At this point I realized I need to add a little somethin’ somethin’ to the card, so I masked off my sentiment and added some black ink splatters here and there. I also used my Pico Embellisher in black to add some life back to the flower centers, which had gotten lost underneath all of the watercolor.

I hope everyone’s week is off to a wonderful start!

Cas(e) This Sketch #211 Guest Designer

March 2, 2017March 2, 2017 Kimberly18 Comments

I’m so excited to announce that I’m a guest designer for this week’s Cas(e) This Sketch challenge! If you’ve never participated in the challenge before, it’s great fun! Every week there is a new sketch to inspire your creativity. Here is this week’s sketch:

For my card, I decided to stamp a few images from the Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set with Versa Mark Ink and then emboss them with white embossing powder. I then added several layers of a watercolor wash in some blue and green tones, letting each layer dry in-between.

Once my panel was dry, I embellished the edges using a stitched rectangle die. I then die-cut a sentiment using a Sending die and some slate gray card stock. Before I adhered the sentiment, I stamped the word love from a Wplus9 Hand Lettered Hello stamp set with Versa Fine Onyx Black ink. I popped the Sending part of the sentiment on using multi matte medium glue. That stuff never does me wrong.

I added a few clear droplets to finish everything off.

I can’t wait to see what everyone creates for the challenge this week!

Purple Watercolor Card + a Video!

February 4, 2017February 16, 2017 Kimberly6 Comments

It seemed to me that the first post after the name change should be a watercolor one, and I’ve had some requests to show a bit more of my water coloring process, too. I thought the best way to do that was to make another of my most favorite doodle buds watercolor cards and to capture a bit of the process in a video!

I followed the same technique that I outlined in my previous post, stamping multiple images from the doodle buds set onto Canson Watercolor Paper and not worrying about making them off before I layered images on top of each other. Then I got out my Gansai Tambi watercolors.

All the while, I had my camera and tripod set up on the top of my desk so that I could capture what I was doing. Basically, the video is evidence that I have a very disorganized and erratic way of stamping and painting (but I edited out most of those parts, haha). Once I was finished, I mounted my panel to an A2 card base and took some still shots. Then I got to editing the video…

….And I basically had no idea what I was doing, which made me feel very un-hip! It took me quite a while to snip and rotate and condense everything into a video that is about one minute long. I also sped up the video quite a bit, to fit the bulk of the painting process in. And then I inadvertently ended up with a YouTube channel so that I could share the video here. Phew. Overall, I had fun making the video and I’m sure the whole process will get much less frustrating if I have a bit more practice. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Weekend!

Simple & Soft Sympathy Card

January 21, 2017January 20, 2017 Kimberly6 Comments

It’s never fun to have to make a sympathy card, but from time to time it has to be done. I usually struggle with these, because you want to convey so much through a simple card. I often find that keeping it simple and soft is the best way to go.

I started this card with a simple watercolor wash (using my Gansi Tambi watercolors). Once the panel dried, I used my largest stitched rectangle die to cut it into a 4.25″x5″ panel. I then stamped the lace leaf with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with some liquid platinum embossing powder. I also used the VersaMark ink and liquid platinum embossing powder around the edges of the card panel to give the card a bit of extra detail.

The sentiment is cut from the With Sympathy die – I stacked a few of these for some dimension and adhered them to the card with some multi medium glue in the matte finish. This is such a delicate die, and I am forever getting glue all over the place, so the matte-finish glue is a must for me! I mounted everything onto a card base with some double sided tape to finish it off.

Masculine Retirement Card

January 11, 2017January 11, 2017 Kimberly3 Comments

Just stopping by today to share another retirement card. This is another one that I made by heat-embossing a background and adding a watercolor wash.

For the background, I stamped the Simon Says Stamp Abstract Triangles stamp with VersaMark ink and used clear embossing powder and my heat tool to heat emboss the design. I then used several blues from my Gansai Tambi watercolors to add a wash over the top. To piece together the sentiment, I used the Winnie & Walter In a Word: Happy Cutaway die. I cut the word out several times from some white card stock and stacked it up to give it some dimension. It’s not so easy to find a word die for the word “retirement” (who knew?) so I created a custom sentiment on my computer and cut it out using my Silhouette Cameo. I don’t use that awesome little machine nearly enough! I added a strip of slate cardstock and some vellum behind the word just to ground it a bit – it was getting lost among all the triangles!

I tried to make this card appropriate for a male recipient, and I think it worked out pretty well! I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of a good emboss-resist and watercolor background.

Happy Hump Day!

30 Days of Coloring Comes to an End, and some favorites

December 2, 2016 Kimberly1 Comment

Now that the 30 day coloring challenge has come to an end, I thought I’d pop in to share a collage of the rest of my images from the second half of the challenge (you can see the first 16 images here), and a few of my favorites from the month.

I started this challenge (I think this is the third one that I have actively participated in) with the goal of coloring something on Every. Single. Day. of the challenge – something I wasn’t able to do in the last few challenges. I did it! And I have to pat myself on the back for keeping up!

There were several days when it seemed like life was too much in the way, but on those days I would do as little or as much as I could and tried not to get too hyper about it. Some days, when time allowed, I’d start one or two projects which would allow me to finish up the second one on another day when I felt like I had less time to color.

This time around, I used copics, watercolors (my new favorites) and inks (oh, my!) and it felt good to practice a lot of different techniques. I even got myself back into some drawing of my own, which felt really good. It’s been a long time since I drew with intention – usually I’m just doodling.

I truly believe that having a creative outlet keeps me sane and calm – especially on days when I feel anything but.

I also really enjoyed sharing my images on Instagram and receiving lots of nice feedback from other card makers. I feel like these coloring challenges do a lot to bring card makers together and allow us to share inspiration with each other.