Friday, March 31, 2017

Your Next Stamp - April Release Preview

Hello friends!

It is time for another release at Your Next Stamp and I am thrilled to be able to play along this month with a few of the new sets.   The new release blog hop will start tomorrow night when all the new release items hit the store, but, for now I have a sneak peek to share and the  Your Next Stamp blog has more peeks and inspiration!!


After stamping the flower and cutting it out with a Stitched Rectangle die, I colored it with watercolor pencils and a blender pen.  I cut the mat of yellow dotted paper and then used a scalloped circle and circle punch to create the little spotlight frame for the hummingbird to rest on.  The yellow sentiment strip is stamped tone on tone with the flower stamp and cut with the Stitched Scallop Edge Die.  I used a few sparkly Gumdrops in the corner and added a few Stickles to the bird and center of the flower to make it sparkle.



Thanks for stopping by!  Come again soon! : )

Tricia

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Amazing Things


Hello friends!

It's CAS challenge time again at SCS and this week we are looking for "Things with Wings".  I colored up the sweet digi of the month from Gerda Steiner designs and paired it with a sentiment from Verve.  What a fun encouragement card it makes!  I colored the image with my Staedtler Karat Watercolor Pencils and a blender pen and added the bee trail with my stardust pen.  The pretty border is from Your Next Stamp and the patterned paper is from a pack by Taylored Expressions.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Tricia


Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Daffodil Joy

From the Heart stamps has a fun sketch challenge this week!  I played along with the Daffodil digi that I colored with my watercolor pencils.  I added a few markers dots on the vase as well, for just a little bit of texture.


The sentiment is one of the few mounted stamps I still own.  It was a $1 bin find at Michaels a number of years ago and I think the font is so fun. : )

Here's a link to the challenge...


Thanks for dropping by!!

Tricia

Beary Sweet Congratulations

Hello friends!

I have a beary sweet card to share with you today featuring the adorable Honey Bear set from Your Next Stamp.


Honestly, isn't he just precious?  I colored him with my Staedtler Karat watercolor pencils and a blender pen and matted him on an assortment of patterned papers, using the Your Next Stamp Sketch Challenge sketch as my inspiration. The sentiment is from another YNS set called Whatnot Sentiments Set Four.  The colors also go with this week's Color Throwdown.





Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Tricia

Thursday, March 16, 2017

A Spring Card and Coloring on the Go

Hi everyone!

I have a card to share today that goes back to my roots as a stamper.  I used watercolor pencils and a blender pen!  I'm using some Cougar white cardstock and the colors show up vividly and blend beautifully.  And they are so easy to use! Here's my card...


I used a sweet Flourishes stamp (retired) that I've had for a number of years as well as a little sentiment that came as a thank you gift in a Verve order.  The patterned paper is from Gina K Designs.

Challenges:
Come and Get It - Things with Wings
Retro Rubber - Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes


Over Christmas I bought a small set of Faber Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils to try.  I wanted a pencil that sharpened to a point and didn't break, yet was still creamy.  I had this ideal pencil in my head and was trying to find it.  Unfortunately the FC pencils weren't quite it.  They were too big for my hand - they just weren't that pencil I was looking for.  Then a week or so ago I grabbed one of my Staedtler Karat Aquarelle watercolor pencils, that I've had for probably 20 years, to add some shading over a marker and it hit me.  Those were the pencils I was looking for!  My watercolor pencils sort of went by the wayside when copies came on the stage, and I could never find a paper that I really liked to use them on.  But the cardstock I have now is perfect and my pencils are going to see a lot of use in the future. 

I thought it would be fun to make a travel set to take with me when I am out and about this summer.  I spend a lot of time traveling here and there with my husband and might spend a couple of hours a week waiting in the car while he does this or that.  This will be the perfect way to get some images colored for cards while I'm out!

Here is the bag I found...


I linked to it on Amazon, but I got mine at TJMaxx for about $12.00.  This case holds about 36 pencils or so - stuffing it full.  Kipling has 100 pen cases, too.  I think I might ask for one of those for my birthday! Oh, and that little ape?  It the Kipling Trademark, I guess.  It comes on all the cases I saw. :)

Here's my set up...

I have --

...A little clipboard with a few pieces of patterned paper to help me choose colors.
...A stack of images stamped on 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" pieces of cardstock in VersaFine Black ink so I can use the blender pen and it won't smear.  I put these in a ziplock bag to take them along.  I have lots of different styles, from cute to fancy and big to small.  That way I can color whatever strikes my fancy at the moment.
...An assortment of watercolor pencils -- mostly old style Staedtler Karat Aquarelle with a few Prismacolor Watercolor pencils thrown in -- in my Kipling bag.  You can't really see it in the picture, but the bag has two pockets on the left, so I have two layers of colored pencils in there.  Here's an Amazon link to the new style of Karat Aquarelle pencils.  The old style is really hard to find now!
...A color swatch sheet of the pencils I have with me.
...A Marvy LePlume II blender pen which I love.  It has a brush tip that reminds me of a Copic sketch marker.  Not sure how long it will work til it dries out, so I've linked a set of 6.



So there you have it!  I am looking forward to many hours of happy coloring!! : )

Monday, March 06, 2017

Hello Sunshine!


Hello Sunshine!

The 30 Day Coloring Challenge has been so good for me!  I hope I can keep up throughout the month.  We'll see!

Today I colored a sweet PI digi and matched it with a sentiment from Verve.  I used the sketch from

Thanks for dropping by!

Tricia


Saturday, March 04, 2017

Pink and Main Hello


I had some extra coloring time today, so I made a card with a couple of sets from Pink and Main to play along with their "Spring" challenge.  Isn't this chicky from the Easter Peeps set just the sweetest??  I used some of the pretty Shades of Spring patterned paper for the background since the colors were perfect with the egg, and I used a word from the Hummingbirds set.  I followed the sketch from the Wednesday Sketch Challenge.




Thanks so much for stopping by and for your sweet comments.  They really make my day!!

Blessings!
Tricia

Your Next Stamp - For Someone Special


Good morning! 

I'm playing along with the sketch and color challenge at Your Next Stamp today, using this user-sweet Bunny in the River stamp. (It's retired... sorry!!!). I love these sweet animal stamps by Your Next Stamp.  They are so fun to color!  I just saw that they have a pile of bunnies and chicks in this style coming out tonight.  It is absolutely on my wish list!!!

I stamped the image on a piece of watercolor paper and watercolored it with Distress Markers.  The patterned paper is from Doodlebug and the sweet sentiment is from another retired set "Cuties in Flower Pots".  I used a few sparkly Gumdrops to add some dimension.




Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, March 02, 2017

In the Spotlight


One more card today!

Time Out Challenges had a fun challenge to use a love/friendship theme with a twist of spotlighting part of the image, and Word Art Wednesday is sponsored by Taylored Expressions this week and would like to see cards with their images.  For this card, I used the sweet Taylored Expressions set Much Love and spotlighted the love-smitten hedgies.

Challenges:
Time Out Challenge - Love / Spotlight Twist
Word Art Wednesday - Using a Taylored Expressions set

Thanks for stopping by!! :)


Surely Goodness


Tuesday Morning Sketches had a fun sketch this week that looked like it would be perfect to showcase one of the verses from Verve.  I used one of my favorite sets - Surely Goodness -  and stamped flowers in the center of my card, then covered it with a diagonal band of cardstock.  I cut out the verse with a stitched rectangle from Your Next Stamp, and added a few colored flowers.  I wanted some of this green cardstock for leaves, but the only piece I had left had already been used to cut out some foliage with a die from Verve, so I just cut around the outside of the negative.  They are kind of fun and quirky! :)

Challenges:

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

Soaring By...


Hello again!

I'm playing along with the Tuesday Throwdown Challenge today.  They are looking for "Things with Wings", so I used this cute parrot set from Your Next Stamp to make a clean and simple card.  The inside greeting finishes the front of the card and says "Happy Bird-Day!"

Thanks for stopping by!

Tricia