It's a Big Birthday Challenge!

Hi all and Happy Wednesday! Hope you are having a wonderful week so far! I actually got to spend some time in my crafty place and enjoyed just coloring! Want to see what I've been up to??

When I first started stamping, my mom and I would LOVE to color up some of Art Impressions Golden Oldies -- we'd make all kinds of silly cards for friends! When I cleaned out my stamp room recently, I found a couple shoe boxes full of these stamps and realized they needed some love! And, while I was looking to see if these stamps were still in production, I stumbled upon the Art Impressions blog a they were hosting a challenge too!

So, what's the challenge? Well, it's all about BIRTHDAYS! So, I decided to dig into that box and make a fun card for a friend who has an upcoming birthday!

On to my creation!

I have to tell you this sweet angelic lady was fun to color up! Ironically, my family was watching World War Z when I decided to break out the Copic markers to color. Nothing like coloring up an angel when you're watching a zombie movie! LOL! 

I digress! I stamped Birthday Glory on Cougar Opaque White Card Stock using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and then, as I said, grabbed my Copic markers and went to town! After I was done, I did add a little razzle dazzle with some glitter glue. I cut the little lady out and popped her up on my card front. All of the papers are a mix of Echo Park patterns. Add a little seam binding ribbon in white and some bling and.... ta da! 

Here's a close up!

And here's the fun part.. the inside! I love this little sentiment -- Angel Food! I also stamped the angel in a light blue off to the side. See?

And that, my friends is it! If you want to check out the Big Birthday Challenge for yourself, just click HERE! In the meantime, I have some other Golden Oldies just begging to be colored up! Stay tuned for some more fun with those! 

Hope your hump day is shaping up nicely! See you back here soon! 

~Julie

Flowers for a friend....

Do you ever color up images and then stuff them in a drawer to make into a card later? I don't do that a lot now, but I used to. I used to keep extras that I colored up while teaching a class to save for a rainy day.

Well, last weekend, I was digging through some of the drawers in my stamp room and found one that I did on watercolor paper using markers and some really fun stamps from Art Impressions. It was just there on a scrap piece of watercolor paper calling my name. And guess what? It was actually a rainy day! ;-)

So, I grabbed my new Nesties and went to town to make a semi-easy card.
If you click on the link above for Art Impressions, you'll see the kind of "watercolor" stamps I used. They key is to stamp by inking up the stamps with Marvy markers, mask the areas (like the gloves and the water pail) and accent with flowers and the grass. Then, when you are done, you simply take a damp water brush and meld the colors together to make these hand stamped images look like you painted them yourself!

The rest is easy. Use the Labels 3 Nestability to cut out the watercolor image and a second for a mat (I used Bo Bunny paper). Use a distressed background stamp (SU) with Antique Linen ink, paper pierce the edge and distress, add some brads and a little hardware and ribbon! The tag was done with a fun little set I bought years and years ago from Hero Arts. I made it into a tag thanks to a 1" circle bunch. And..... done!

Now... to a story. I honestly could not believe this one! On Saturday, my family and I went for a short walk to our favorite island nearby that is separated from our neighborhood by the Yellowstone River. It's not uncommon to see some fun creatures big and small. We've seen porcupine, ground hogs, beaver, heron, deer, and fox. Well, on Saturday we saw a beaver and it was just sticking out its head staring at us while we stared at him. I was kicking myself that I didn't have a camera. As we walked away, honestly I said, "The only thing better would be to see a bald eagle." Well, we finished our walk and didn't see one....... at least not then.

The day melted into evening and we had seized the day by barbequing. As we were eating our steak kabobs, right over our house we saw this circling above.... Holy cow! Are you kidding me? It was a bald eagle circling over the nearby field. I didn't get a shot of what happened next because it happened so fast but out of nowhere a hawk of some sort dive bombed the eagle in mid air causing them both to spin out. I guess the hawk didn't want the eagle in "his" territory. It was a sight to see! What was hysterical is the hawk was half the size of the eagle. It had some ki-hon-ays!

So, I guess, be careful what you wish for!

Well, thanks for stopping by my place, see you back here tomorrow!

Another O2M, N2U and a big thank you!!

First things first, I want to say thanks to my gal pals Diane and Cheryl for giving me the You Make My Day Award. These ladies both rock. Every time they share a comment, you can actually read the smile that comes with it! So.... right back at ya ladies! You make my day too! I am supposed to go ahead and tag those people that make my day -- but I can't! Too many! So, I am just going to say a very heartfelt thanks!

Today's creation is another really old one! But, I think the technique is one that really is unique. It creates watercolor "paintings" with the help of a stamp! If you've never checked out Art Impressions line of watercolor stamps and techniques -- you should! Click HERE to see some of the "pieces" you can stamp together to create scenes. And HERE to see some of the fabulous art in their gallery. You kind of have to dig around to see this technique, but it gives you some ideas!

Basically, what you do is ink up these stamps with markers and then "build" on the scene. The lovely thing about it is - there isn't any masking! You just start with the pot and go from there. Better yet? They have books to teach you step by step. Ok, by now, you probably think I work for AI. Nope. Just think this is an underrated technique and happen to love it!

Here's a close up of the topiary so you can see how it is "built." I used Marvy markers to do this. They are highly concentrated in the color department and really work very well with these stamps. Once you stamp the image on watercolor paper (I used 140 lb, coldpress paper by Strathmore - found at Mikes), you just run a damp watercolor brush over it to meld the colors and give it that watercolored look -- very cool!

Happy Thursday! Tomorrow means another Stamp Simply challenge! All I have to say about this one is --- it just might dazzle you!!! :-) That's my hint!

The Feeling of Fall

A few weeks ago, I picked up this stamp by Art Impressions at my LSS to get ready for a class on watercolor. I spent today painting in the colors of fall and thought---that time of year isn't all that far away! This card was done, not with traditional watercolor, but by "scribbling" watercolor pencils in areas and using an Aquaflow brush to blend and move the color on the watercolor paper. I can't wait until the summer, winter and spring images come in!

T.G.I.F.!