SAF 2016: Pointillism Play with Heather Nichols

Next up I believe is one of my favorite techniques.  It involved mimicking pointillism artwork.  This means artwork comprised of dots of color to make an image.  Heather taught us how to color a outline image using the end of a pencil eraser and some dot stamps.  I loved this!  There is something so carefree and fun about using dots to color in an image instead of the precise coloring normally involved used with Copics or colored pencils to color.  It really is amazing how the image starts to take shape the more dots you add.  You really can get a lot of dimension with this type of stamping.

I only have a handful of outline type stamps.  This is the only one I have that is large enough for this technique.  So thus I used the Peonies on Parade stamp set.  I used Momento Lulu lavendar, PTI amethyst allure and PTI plum pudding for my purples.  I used PTI spring moss and Momento Pistachio for the leaves.  PTI lemon tart and bright buttercup make up the center of the flower.  The sentiment is from Graceful Greetings II.  Everyone kept telling me how great the graceful greetings I stamp set was but I was still on the fence.  So when the second installment came out and I saw they had a sympathy and a get well sentiment I decided to jump on in.  I am glad I did and now the Graceful Greetings I is on my wish list!  I guess I can only run beside the bandwagon for so long before getting aboard!  I added the border from the no longer available PTI Nostalgic notions kit to the side but I felt I needed a darker purple element yet.  I didn't want to do sequins or any frilly ribbon since this is a sympathy card so I opted to color the border in with a Copic marker.    I was quite pleased with he way this looks and will have to remember to do it more in the future.

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SAF 2016: Masterpiece Inspirations with the Team

The next SAF challenge I participated in involved the design team each choosing a particular piece of artwork that inspired them to create a card similar to that piece.  I decided to mimic a beautiful card by Danielle Flanders.  In fact I decided to copy it outright..why mess with perfection right!?!

You can see Danielle's card better on her blog here. I used the brushed blooms stamp set and the exact colors Danielle did but for some reason I had a hard time blending out that Americana ink..it looked really brown so I kept adding more and more pale peony until I got it mostly blended so as you can see below my card is much darker.

I struggled a little with the background too.  I am not good at free form artistic strokes so I played around with this for a while adding ink...water...ink until I got this which looked acceptable to me!  I used a sentiment from Keep It Simple:  Encouragement because I wanted to send it to a friend who is undergoing surgery this week. 

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SAF 2016: Gilded in Gold with Danielle Flanders

My next SAF project involved using Liquid Leaf as Danielle Flanders showed us in her video.  I love this stuff!  If you haven't tried it before I urge you to get some...you won't be disappointed!  I never used gold much before but after using liquid leaf I certainly will use it more in the future.  You brush it on and it dries almost instantly leaving behind a shiny but not brassy gold finish.  This stuff is amazing!  Now it does have a rather unpleasant order similar to spray paint so you may want to open some windows when using it.  Okay enough gabbing I'm sure you want to see this stuff in action on my card now.  Oh and in case you missed it you can see the card I did for the blog hop which also uses the liquid leaf here.

I used PTI's tag sale #10 cut out of pale peony cardstock.  I cut the scallop part of the tag out of PTI's coasters then applied the liquid leaf to them.  I love Danielle's tip of using these coasters.  They cut really well and accept the gold well.  They are super thick too about the thickness of stacking 3 cardstock die cuts together.  They are super cheap too you get 25 for only $1.00.  The flowers and sentiment are from the stamp-a-faire exclusive set Art with Heart.  I just love that flower cluster! I added dots of the liquid leaf using my stylus to the flower centers.   I got the color scheme from beautiful card Kay Miller did.  You can see it here.  I added a soft swirl of ink to enhance my sentiment using the Clarity stencil brushes and some aqua mist ink.  Some iridescent sequins and much neglected fibers finishes off this tag.  Now I just have to make a gift to go with it!

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SAF: Starry Night with Amy Sheffer

The next challenge I got to participate in was the one where Amy Sheffer shows us how to create our very own starry night masterpiece using inks and paint. 

Amy makes everything look so effortless in the video but I did struggle a bit.  I am pretty happy with the way my starry sky background turned out but I did have some harsh lines from the foam ink blending tool that didn't go away when I added water.  I definitely want to try this process again using my beloved clarity stencil brushes.  My trees turned out horrible!  In the future I will draw these in with a black marker.  I also had trouble with the thread nest.  Couldn't get that darn thing to wind off the spool nicely.  I ended up wrapping it around the acrylic paint bottle to try and get a semi-circular shape.  Don't you just love those sequins!  I have a wonderful PTI forum friend to thank for those jewels!  I used PTI's Inspired by Faith stamps and dies.

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Stamp-a-Faire 2016: Master Color Recipes

I'm soo excited finally Papertrey Ink's annual Stamp-a-faire event is finally here (and gone).  It's a great event where the design team members post videos of various techniques.  We make something showcasing their techniques and we get a chance to win a prize.  This year the event focuses on mimicking the look of famous master artists.  The event ends at 7am tomorrow but the wonderful technique videos will remain on Nicole's blog.  Check them out HERE!

The first challenge involved mimicking a color scheme from a famous artists painting.  A download was providing for us to choose from. 

I chose this gorgeous colorful painting called "Date in the Park" by Leonid Afremov.  I was anxious to ink of PTI's anniversary set called Painted Petals for my card.  I remember loving a card from Betsy Veldman showcasing this set so I decided to copy it.  You can see her stunning card here. 

I used PTI's Modern Background Stencils in the middle of the card using Clarity Stencil brushes (linked in previous post).  The brushes allowed me to add a thin layer of soft ink overtop of the stenciled layer.  I love these brushes! I also added a layer of wink of stella clear glitter brush over the flowers for some shimmer. 

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Papertrey Ink Stamp-A-Faire 2015

Papertrey Ink  has hosted their annual Stamp-A-Faire this weekend.  It was amazing filled with many inspiring technique videos and tons of challenges.  In case you missed all the fun you can find info on Nicole Heady's blog HERE.

Patterns Challenge:

My daughter loves when I write messages on her napkin for her school lunch.  I decided it would be neat to tuck a little card inside her lunchbox tomorrow so thus this card was born.  I used PTI Flippin Out stamp set.  My daughter is all about the bling so I used glitter silver embossing powder for the sentiment and added some rhinestones to the flip flops.

Threads Challenge:

I am hoping to use this as a more masculine card.  I used PTI Happy Hexagons stamp set.  The sentiment is from PTI Beautiful Butterflies.

Mix and Match Challenge:

I was inspired by Lisa Johnson's amazing card HERE.   The butterfly is from PTI Round and Round Anniversary Set.  The sentiment is from PTI Year Round Puns stamp set.

 Accessories Challenge:

My kids watched practically all of the crafty videos with me but my daughter got extra excited about these bracelets.  She couldn't wait to turn Popsicle sticks into jewelry.  She decorated the bracelet with some black and white daisy paper and PTI button dies but she couldn't resist adding more bling with the silver butterfly.

So I didn't get quite as many challenges completed as I wished but I am sure all the projects and videos will come in handy long after these challenges are over.    One last look at all my cards for the Red Carpet challenge.

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