Seas the Day

Holy wow!  Has it been a week already?  I'm back over on the Dies R Us blog with a fun, ocean themed box card.  How how about you head on over HERE and check it out!

See you there!

~Kristina

Petals for the Pittmans take 2

I'm back my friends to share another card I created with one of the images from the limited time, super awesome Petals for the Pittmans digital stamp set.  Only available in the Polka Dot Orchard Etsy store!
Here are some details about the Pittmans and the why behind this collaborative stamp set. This is to help out a fellow crafter and design team member, Larissa Pittman and her husband Gary.

              You can read more about Larissa and her husband Gary here: Pittman’s Go Fund Me

Several different companies and artists have contributed to the set.  You'll find it over in the Polka Dot Orchard Etsy store.  All proceeds from this limited edition set will go directly to the Pittmans.  

There is even a crafty linky up going on right now with many prizes to be won!  You can head right to the Polka Dot Orchard blog HERE for complete details.

My last card was full of lots and lots of Copic coloring.  I wanted to show you how you could color a detailed stamp in a jiffy!  Let's start off with a picture of the finished card.

I started by printing out the digital stamps onto Bristol smooth cardstock.  I then chose a color combination that I liked using Distress Oxide inks.  The colors I used are Cracked Pistachio, Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord.  I blended through the colors several times until I got that gorgeous transition.

Next I covered up the corners and flicked water drops onto the center portion of the card.  I wanted to add some texture here since it's a large open space.  Now, here's where we get to the fun part.  I actual used a water brush filled with clean water and started REMOVING the color from some of the flower petals.  You brush on the clean water, let it sit a moment and then blot it off with a towel.  The reactive properties of the Distress Oxides make it easy to remove some of the color.  Kind of like a bleaching affect...without the yucky bleach!

I just did some of the petals for more punch.  I went back to the ones that I wanted to be lighter and repeated the process.  After that, I pulled a couple of light shades of Copic markers that matched my inks.  I added in darker color on some of the petals that I didn't lighten.  The colors I used were G43, B45, RV34 and RV63.  This adds a lot of different color levels to the card without having to do a lot of work!

Once it was all dry, I cut the panel down to be slightly smaller than an A2 card base.  I printed the sentiment onto white cardstock.  Then I ran it through my Minc with a royal blue foil.  I really like how it makes it pop!  I added a dark gray panel behind the sentiment.  I cut a piece of patterned vellum with a Lawn Fawn Lacy Borders die, wrapped it around the card panel and taped it in back.  Then I glued the panel onto the card base.  I added foam tape the sentiment rectangle and adhered it down.  That's it!  

See??  You can get gorgeous color without doing a lot of actual coloring!

I do hope you will check out this fantastic stamp set available in the Polka Dot Orchard Etsy store.  Remember...it's only available for a limited time! 

You'll definitely want to check out the blog for how to link up and win prizes!  Polka Dot Orchard blog.

See you soon!

~Kristina

Petals for the Pittmans

Hello my fellow crafters.  Today I'm focusing on brand new, collaborative digital stamp set spearheaded by Polka Dot Orchard.  This is to help out a fellow crafter and design team member, Larissa Pittman and her husband Gary.

              You can read more about Larissa and her husband Gary here: Pittman’s Go Fund Me

This is a limited edition floral stamp set and you are going to want to get your hands on it!  Several different companies and artists have contributed to the set.  You'll find it over in the Polka Dot Orchard Etsy store.  All proceeds from this limited edition set will go directly to the Pittmans.  There is even going to be a crafty link up with lots of prizes to be won!

You can head right to the Polka Dot Orchard blog HERE for complete details.

Now, I about fainted when I found out which artist designed the images I used on my card today.  Gracie from Graciellie Design!  I am a HUGE fan of her art.  These images and sentiments are absolutely gorgeous and so full of detail.  So let us see what I made!

I wanted to really make these peonies come to life so I sized it to fit a 5x7 card.  I did reduce the opacity of the lines before I printed it out onto X-Press It cardstock.

Here are a few progress photos.

Here is the list of Copic markers that I used:

Cup-N0, N1, N3, N5 and N7

Leaves-BG11, BG13, BG18 and BG78

Flower Centers-YR32, YR35, YR38

Flowers-YR000, R12, R02, R05 and R59

When I printed the flowers, I also printed the sentiment onto the cardstock.  I ran it through my Minc machine to add teal foil that matches the leaves.

The only other elements I added to the card were Wink of Stella, some dots made with a white gel pen and a few sequins.  I didn't want to distract from the gorgeous flowers!

I do hope you will check out this fantastic stamp set available in the Polka Dot Orchard Etsy store.  Remember...it's only available for a limited time! 

You'll definitely want to check out the blog for how to link up and win prizes!  Polka Dot Orchard blog.

See you soon!

~Kristina

Summer Fun

It's Wednesday which means it's my turn to post for Dies R Us over on their blog.  How about something summery? 

Come check out all of the details HERE!

Hope to see you there!

~Kristina

A Sprinkle of Happiness

Happy day after the Fourth of July!  I do enjoy some good fireworks but I think my cats are ready for the noises to come to an end!  I managed to sneak away to play in my craft room and I'm here to share the results.  This card features a relatively new digital stamp set from Polka Dot Orchard called A Sprinkle of Flowers.  This set features an absolutely GORGEOUS floral image and a variety of sentiments.  Let's get to my card.

I came across this Copic color combination when I was scouring the internet for inspiration.  Since I'm a huge fan of purple, I fell in love with this blue-violet combination.  I managed to snap a photo after I finished the Copic coloring and right before I added some colored pencil for more definition.

I printed the digital stamp out onto X-Press It cardstock and got right to coloring.  

Flower- BV0000, BV00, BV02, BV25, BG000 and a touch of YG01

Leaves-G40, G43, G46 and a touch of YG01

Background-T0 and Colorless Blender 0, plus dots of all the above colors except BV25 and G46.

Prismacolor Pencils

Flower-Dioxazine Purple Hue PC132

Leaves-Kelp Green PC1090 and Limepeel PC1005

I think I added a touch of Y15 at the very center of the flower.  The card layers were created by using square dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs.  I colored the edges of the paper with the matching Copic marker so they would match the flower.  That way I didn't have to hunt through my paper collection.

After the card layers were all put together, I added the sentiment piece.  Also printed on X-Press It cardstock and the layer underneath colored with Copic.  I did add foam tape just to give a little bit more impact. 

For the final touches I added Wink of Stella all over the flower petals and Glossy Accents in the very lightest of the petal highlights.  If you look closely or enlarge the picture, I think you can see it.  It is very noticeable in real life.

Oopsie.  I did notice after I edited this picture, I took it before I added the sentiment.  My apologies!

I hope you'll check this Polka Dot Orchard digital stamp set out as well as the other 30 sets or so available in the Etsy shop!

See ya!

~Kristina

Supplies Used:

Elizabeth Crafts Designs Stitched Squares Shop at: Dies R Us	Elizabeth Crafts Designs Dotted Scallop Squares Shop at: Dies R Us	Neenah Solar White Shop at: SBC | EH	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH
Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC | EH	A Sprinkle of Flowers Polka Dot Orchard digital stamp Shop at: PDO	Copic Marker G40 Shop at: EH	Copic Marker G43 Shop at: EH
Copic Marker G46 Shop at: EH	Copic Marker BV0000 Shop at: EH	Copic Marker BV00 Shop at: EH	Copic Marker BV02 Shop at: EH
Copic Marker BV25 Shop at: EH	Copic Marker YG01 Shop at: EH	Copic Marker BG000 Shop at: EH	Copic Marker T0 Shop at: EH
Copic Marker Colorless Blender Shop at: EH	X-Press It Blending cardstock Shop at: EH

You make everything better

Wow!  I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted a project for the Altenew Educator Certification Program!  Life has gotten in the way but I'm slowly making a little more time for crafting.  I just finished up Creative Watercolor Media.  This class was taught by THREE different instructors.  I loved getting different takes on techniques from the different instructors.

The technique I'm focusing on is painting with your Altenew inks.  Let's take a look at my finished card and then I'll take you through my process.

The stamp set I'm using is called Cherished Memories.  The first thing I did was to stamp a mask of the flowers and the leaves.  I knew I was going to need them to get the look I wanted.  I cut a piece of watercolor cardstock to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and got out my Misti.  I laid out my first series of flowers and leaves to figure out what needed to be stamped first and masked.  I stamped the flowers with Dusk ink and the leaves with Industrial Diamond ink.

I then just kept working my way around the edges of the cardstock until I had it all filled up.

Next I created a palette of ink to work with by squishing Dusk, Ocean Waves, Industrial Diamond and Silver Stone inks onto a craft mat.  I generously spritzed all of the colors with water and Shimmer Spritz Spray in Sparkle.  I used a water brush to pick up the Ocean Waves ink and did a wash over all of the flowers.  I dried it with a heat tool before going in with the Silver Stone ink and doing a wash over all of the leaves.  I dried it again.  I went back to flowers and added some shadows with the Dusk ink and water brush.  I also did the same with the leaves using Industrial Diamond ink.

This is what it looked when I was done.

While the panel was drying, I started to work on the sentiment.  I had this lovely open space in the middle of the card that I wanted to fill with a die sentiment.  I went through my collection and found the everything die from the Halftone Everything die set.  It's an absolute perfect fit!  I put Stick It adhesive on the back of a slightly metallic dark gray cardstock.  Then I cut out the die three times.  I peeled off the backing and adhered all of the layers together.  Then I placed it on the card panel.

Now, here's where I'll tell you to do as I say and not as I did.  I *should* have stamped the sentiment words BEFORE I put the die cut in place...but I didn't.  Not a total loss though.  My Misti to the rescue!  The words come from the matching Halftone Everything stamp set.  I lined them up on my Misti and stamped them several times until the ink was dark enough.  

Once everything was dry, I trimmed off just the smallest of slivers from all four sides of the panel.  Then I layered it onto an A2 card base made from Neenah 110lb Solar White cardstock.  For the finishing touch I added a few dots from the Rock enamel dots collection.

I tried really hard but I just couldn't get that shimmer to show up in my pictures.  Trust me, it's so pretty!

I really appreciate you stopping by.  Hope you have a fabulous day!

~Kristina

Supplies used:

Rock Collection 4 mini ink cube set Shop at: Altenew	Neenah Solar White Shop at: SBC | EH	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	Wink of Stella - Glitter Clear Shop at: SBC | EH
Tonic Studios-Retractable Craft Pick Shop at: SBC | EH	Stick It Adhesive sheets Shop at: SBC | EH	Mini MISTI Shop at: SBC | EH	Canson Watercolor paper Shop at: EH
Ranger Tim Holtz Water Brush - Fine Brush Shop at: EH	Cool Summer Nights Altenew Mini ink cubes Shop at: Altenew	Rock Collection Enamel Dots Altenew Shop at: Altenew	Cherished Memories stamp set - Altenew Shop at: Altenew
Halftone Everything Stamp & Die set - Altenew Shop at: Altenew	Sheer Shimmer Spritz, Sparkle Shop at: EH	Jet Black Amalgam ink pad - Gina K Shop at: EH