Zen Guitar

My Son-in-Law's Dad has a birthday coming up, and I sent him a card that I was pretty happy with.  What I'm sharing today though is a piece I Zentangled and slipped into his card.  I love how this turned out.

The paper is Strathmore 140# cold pressed watercolor card stock.  I sprayed it with Radiant Rain mists, so it has some sparkle to it in real life.  the guitar shape is from a Dreamweaver stencil (LL 3028).  This is actually somewhat reminiscent of some tangles I did for Son in Law for Christmas, but music runs in this family, so this design is getting a workout.  They turn out somewhat differently each time though, and I do like this one.  (Continuing my obsession with the curved version of the Por Fin tangle - can't seem to stop using it).

Thanks for Everything!

I've been having a lot of fun with watercolor techniques, and stencils are a natural for that.  I love the Magenta Spring templates, and have used them quite a bit.  

For this project, I took a piece of watercolor paper, and taped it down with a piece of painter's tape across the middle of the card stock.  This gave me a place to add a sentiment later.  I taped the stencil down on top of the card stock, and applied Versamark ink through all the openings.  I removed the painter's tape, and applied JudiKins opaque white embossing powder to the Versamark and heat embossed.  I then applied Distress ink, using a mini blending tool, applying different colors randomly around the card.  I sprayed the watercolor paper liberally with water that had Perfect Pearls Pearl mixed into it.  I sprayed quite a bit of water, so that the colors moved and puddled.  The embossed areas resisted the color, and stayed white.  I like how the Distress colors stay pretty true and vibrant and don't turn to mud.

I stamped the Thanks sentiment in the center, and then decided that I wanted something more.  I ironed the card, placed between sheets of waxed paper, so that the shiny white embossing powder came completely off.  I then stamped the Script and Postmark stamp across the top and bottom in Versafine, Smokey Grey.  I added some pearls for bling.  I couldn't find a color of paper to mat it with that matched, so I colored the edges of some white paper with a Copic Marker.  I also colored some of the pearls with the Copic marker.  I love how this turned out; it's a fun and easy technique.

Stamps used:

07.837.H  Thanks for Everything

75.085.M  Script and Postmark

Template used:  TM-42  Berry Branch Template

Other products used:

Distress Ink:  Seedless Preserves; Peeled Paint; Spiced Marmalade 

Perfect Pearls - Pearl

Versamark Ink

JudiKins White Opaque embossing powder

Versafine Inks:  Onyx Black; Smokey Grey

Copic RV69 (For Mat)

Strathmore 140# Watercolor paper

Hero Arts Mixed Accents

Watercolor Background

I have been really enjoying playing with dye based inks to create watercolor backgrounds, and I especially like Distress Ink for this purpose.  A new favorite technique is to apply the ink to an acrylic block and stamp with the block.  In this case, I used a round acrylic block.  No brushes were used in the making of these cards!

Distress Ink was applied to the round acrylic block, randomly.  I was careful not to apply the ink on top of each other so I wouldn't contaminate my pads.  The mixing happened when I sprayed the inked up block with water that was mixed with Perfect Pearls Pearl powder.  The block was sprayed with enough water so that the colors could bleed in to each other and blend.  Be careful not to spray so much so that when you turn the block over it drips onto your work.  (Which is what I did the first time).  Stamp the inked block onto watercolor paper for your background image.  

After initially stamping the acrylic block on watercolor paper, I noticed I still had a pretty good amount of ink on the block, so I spritzed it with water again and stamped a second time on another piece of paper.  The "You are Awesome" card is the result of the second stamping.  I really like both of them for different reasons.  I used Magenta stamps over the background, and added some enamel dots from My Minds Eye.  Easy and fun to do!

Materials Used:

Today I Choose Happiness (first stamping):

Magenta Stamps:

42.207.N  Echinacea

07.845.G  Today I Choose Happiness

23.114.C  Dots

Round acrylic block

Distress Inks:

Peacock Feathers

Squeezed Lemonade

Seedless Preserves

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Perfect Pearls Pearl

Enamel Dots from My Mind’s Eye “Cute” collection

140# Strathmore cold press watercolor paper

You Are Awesome (second stamping):

Magenta Stamps:

42.210.P  Sunflower

07.876.F  You Are Awesome

23.114.C  Dots

Round acrylic block

Distress Inks:

Peacock Feathers

Squeezed Lemonade

Seedless Preserves

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Memento Rich Cocoa Ink

Perfect Pearls Pearl

Enamel Dots from My Mind’s Eye “Cute” collection

140# Strathmore cold press watercolor paper

Alcohol Ink Swirls

Last month at play day at Art'n Soul, one technique we were trying out was to get a tub of water and float drops of alcohol ink on top of the water.  We then took pieces of watercolor paper (I use 140# Strathmore cold press) and dragged them through the ink.  I love the effect, and I will definitely use all of these pieces for cards.  It was very difficult to predict how any individual piece would turn out, but it was definitely the case that the bright colors work the best.  We used Ranger alcohol inks for this technique.  Some I liked better than others, but I liked them all.  Sorry if the camera work is not up to par - I took these pics with my iPhone.

On the one below, I tried to stamp and emboss an image in white; but it was a failed experiment.  I didn't take into account that alcohol ink will stick to glossy just fine.  You can faintly see a bicycle image in it - this is the Magenta bicycle stamp 42.192.N

This "thanks" that I die cut from a previous project happened to land on one of the marbled pieces on my desk.  This will definitely be a "thank you" card in the future!

I took one of the pieces and Zentangled on it, and then wrote a note on the back to send to my new friends in Iceland.  I hope they like it!  I really liked using the color in this piece.

Magenta May 2014 Challenge!

May 2014 - Magenta Challenge :

ANYTHING GOES!

Create a Card, a Layout or even an altered object if you feel like it,

the only rule to follow is to use at least one Magenta product :

papers, stamps, embellishment, Peel Off's, chipboard and more...

You have until May 29th to enter!

You could win this Magenta Prize :

This prize is from Magenta's newest Spring collection!

You can use ANY Magenta product for your entry.  I used a couple of the newest stamps for my very clean and simple card:

Magenta Stamps used:

42.208.N  Poppies

07.875.F  Always

Other Products used:

Tombow markers:  899; 847; 835; 098; 491

Glossy Accents

Clear Wink of Stella

Hero Arts Blush Mixed Accents

Onyx Black Versafine Ink

Judikins Detail Clear Embossing Powder

Watercolor paper

So Silk Beauty Pink paper

The poppy image was stamped onto watercolor paper (Strathmore cold press 140#) with black Versafine and embossed with Detail Clear embossing powder.  I colored the flower with Tombow markers, and used a wet brush to move the color around until I was happy with the shading and the look.  Glossy Accents was applied to the center of the largest flower for a little shine, and clear Wink of Stella was applied to all of the flower petals for some sparkle.  The sentiment was stamped with black Versafine.  Image was mounted onto So Silk Beauty Pink for matting, and then mounted onto a white base card.  Hero Arts Blush Mixed Accents were applied for a finishing touch.

Please click here to go to the Magenta blog.  You can see all of the projects from the Design Team, and you can enter your project using in linkz.