JUST ADD WATERCOLOUR #216

One of the biggest trends at the moment seems to be watercolouring and I thought this would be a fun challenge to set everyone this week at Just Add Ink.  You don't have to be Picasso to watercolour either, you can be as wishy washy or precise as you like.

I have a passion for colouring in, but don't claim to be an artist.  I enjoyed the whole process of putting this card together and chose to just colour shapes, rather than an image identifiable as something in particular!! Yep, I took the safe option!!

How I made this watercolour panel:
1.  I stamped the hexagons on watercolour paper with Black Staz On.  (Yes, one at a time!)
2.  I coloured in one hexagon with water only.
3.  Using an Aqua Painter, I picked up ink from the lid of my chosen Stampin' Up! colour and coloured that wet hexagon, letting the colour wash out as I moved from top to bottom.
4.  I repeated the same process for each hexagon until all were coloured.

I used two inks in each colour, one dark and one light, side by side in separate hexagons.  I also let my panel dry naturally, but you could speed this along gently with a heat gun.  Mount your panel as desired.

I made this card for my sisters birthday recently and she loved it.  I hope you do too, and try the technique I have described above.  If you do, will you let me know?  I love to hear what people think of these brief tutorials.  I have also had some requests for tutorials for the two swap cards I made for Convention.  I promise to get these done as soon as I get a little down time.  Watch this space!

I hope you feel inspired to join the challenge this week at Just Add Ink.  The design team have some superb examples of watercolouring for you to see also.  We look forward to seeing you there!

CONVENTION SWAP #2

It is the last day of Stampin' Up!'s South Pacific Convention in Melbourne and I wanted to share the second card swap I created for this event.  While both of my swaps are sponged, this is my favourite, since it also shows a scene.

The image panel actually has seven different ink colours on it and I love the way they meld into one another.  It is hard to tell where one stops and the next begins.  I have also put such contrasting colours together for the base, mats and ribbon, but I think it works well.  What do you think?

I can't wait to share some of the swaps I received in return when I get home on Monday.  I am sure I will have a few stories to share too!

CONVENTION SWAP #1

One of the joys of the Stampin' Up! South Pacific Convention is swapping card designs with fellow demonstrators from New Zealand and Australia.  The card designs can be quite simple or really elaborate, you never know what you are going to get.

This is the first of two designs I made for this convention.  I include a card recipe so the recipient knows what products I used and I have also included a brief tutorial on how I achieved the background look.  If you make ten swaps, you will receive ten different swaps in return. This is a great way to  end up with samples of product you may not have yourself.  It means I don't need to buy everything in the catalogue!

 If you belong to my Techniques Class in Wellington, Levin or Wanganui, then you will also learn how I did this!

BLUE HUES GET WELL

As you know, I am now in Melbourne for the South Pacific Stampin' Up! Convention.  Unfortunately, one of my Australian Demo friends ended up in hospital a couple of weeks before Convention began.  I made this card for her before leaving for Melbourne, to let her know how much I will miss her at Convention this year.

The good news is that she is on the mend and hopefully, won't be in hospital for too much longer.  I am so pleased to hear of her progress every day.

We are all thinking of you Juliana.  Hurry up and get better so we can meet again next year, instead.  Mark it in your diary!

WATERCOLOUR POPPIES

Why are so many people born between May and August??  What happened nine months prior that was so special, lol??  I am in desperate need of quite a few Birthday cards and I chose to use watercolouring on this card.  Those of you who watercolour know that this process can take some time.

I am delighted with the watercolour look I achieved on this card.  I am by no means an artist, but stamps and an Aqua Painter do make the process a lot easier!

I haven't put any embellishments on this card because of the very glitzy accent I used on the side of the artwork.  It shimmers and shines beautifully IRL, but very hard to capture with the camera.

This is how I achieved the watercolour look on this card:
1.  Used my Stampin' Write markers to colour my Poppy image from the Happy Watercolor stamp set.
2.  Spritzed the stamp lightly with water before stamping the image on SU's Watercolour paper.
3.  Masked the image just stamped with a post-it-note and repeated steps 1-3 along the entire side.
4.  Used an Aqua Painter to "pull" the ink colour the paper from the edges of the image.

Spritzing the stamp with water first helps the ink spread naturally when you stamp.  How much it spreads will depend on how wet your stamp is.

I head to Auckland tomorrow to begin my 2014 Convention trip to Melbourne.  I am starting to get super excited to be involved in such an amazing, invigorating event.  It is something I look forward to every year.  Follow me on Facebook to keep up to date.

GET WELL & COUNT DOWN TO CONVENTION

I shared THIS card a few posts ago and mentioned that I was working on a couple of Get Well cards to add to my stash, since I never seem to have them when I want one.  This is the second card I made that day.

It features a stamp set called Thoughts & Prayers, which I have been resisting for quite some time!  I finally caved and added it to my ever expanding stash.

Only five more days to go before I leave for the South Pacific Stampin' Up! Convention in Melbourne.  I am so excited to be sharing this amazing experience with two of my team members this year.  Being a demonstrator has so many perks, and this is just one of them.  I can't wait to meet my friends across the ditch, learn new lessons to use in my business and play with new product!!  You can follow my antics in Melbourne on my Facebook page.  Head over there now and "like" my page so you don't miss any updates from me! Of course, you could also join my team and join me at next years Convention!  I wonder where that will be..................

JUST ADD INK #214 - A NEW SLANT ON THINGS!

Oh, we have a fun challenge for you this week at Just Add Ink - a sketch challenge with a slant!

I have been seeing Tilt cards around a lot lately, and while this isn't a tilt card as such, it is still slanted, which can make for interesting card making.  I really had to think about the slant panels and still managed to muck one up in the cutting, lol

I wanted to keep the colour combination simple, so I chose the Fresh Prints Paper Stack again, and made the chevron piece my background.  I love the slant design and wanted to make that the feature of the card, so I kept the stamping and embellishing to a minimum.  I defined the white panels with Real Red and then popped them on Dimensionals for more interest.  I also made my own Enamel Dots and I love how shiny they look on the card.

I hope you will join us at Just Add Ink this week and add your own "slant" to our challenge!  Head over there now to see the clever designs the rest of the DT have created.

To make the dots:  Just punch out small circles of card stock in your chosen colour, and load Crystal Effects on top of the circles.  Make sure you use a non stick surface to put them on, such as the SU Silcone Sheet.  Leave them over night.  Adhere to your project when completely dry with Mini Glue Dots.

A VASE FULL OF GET WELL WISHES

For some reason or another, I hardly ever make Get Well cards, really only when I need them.  While having a "play" day a while back, I thought I would get a couple made that I could put in my stash for a rainy day.

I wanted something that was fairly quick and easy, first off.  I choose a sheet of DSP from the Fresh Prints Paper Stack as my background, and only used the colours in that to watercolour the Vivid Vases image.  My card base, mats and ribbon were all the same Real Red colour, which keeps it simple, but also adds punch.

Stamps: Vivid Vases, Thoughts & Prayers
Inks: Read Red. Staz On Black, Pool Party
Card: Real Red, Whisper White, Watercolour Paper
Accessories: Aqua Painter, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals, Tombow Multi Adhesive, Fresh Prints Paper Stack

All product is Stampin' Up!  Just visit my Online Store to purchase any of the items used.

GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN!!

I didn't realise I had been AWOL for so long!!  Stampin' Up!'s South Pacific Convention is just two weeks away and I have been madly planning and working on my swaps!!
  I did manage to also work on a couple of other projects too, and this is one of them!

These two gorgeous ladies reminded me of a friend that will be coming to Convention too!  They look just like us!!  I popped the card in the post to let her know how excited I was that she would be with me this year!  Melbourne, here we come!

I have used my SU inks and Blender pens to colour them.  Aren't they gorgeous!!  All product, excluding the stamped images, are Stampin' Up! and can be purchased through me.  Just click on the button below to go to my Online Store!