Unity Stamps Sketch Challenge

This week the challenge at Unity Stamps is to make a card using this sketch:

I decided to make a sympathy card for a dear friend who just lost her mother last week.  She is loved by many people so this sentiment is perfect for her.

I used watercolor paper because I wanted to use my Brushos color crystals.  They are intense paint powder that is water-based. The colors are brilliant and transparent.  They’re mainly for impressionistic work, but I love the way they run on water color paper when I use the wet-on-wet technique.  You can also do sprinkling, spritzing, and other techniques.  I’m still getting used to the intensity, and at first I was getting mud.  I’m getting closer to liking them much more now that I can control them better.

I started out by brushing gesso on the paper and after it was dry I then used a stencil and modeling paste with this awesome stencil.  I let it dry, then I used the Brush powder adding a little water on my palette and coloring the branches.  Then I just spritzed the paper with water and threw a miniscule amount of the crystals on the background.

I used a Unity Stamp that came with one of the Kit of the Month collection, What Lies Within Us.  I wanted the girl to be walking in a field of grass so I masked the stenciled branches and stamped her directly on the watercolor paper using Memento ink.  I also used the Brusho crystals.  I then went back and used a pen to outline the scarf, the branches, and the hair.

For the sentiment, I used printed vellum and outlined the edge to make it stand out, then I aded a few sequins.  If you look closely at the vellum, you can see it has faint leaves all over.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my sympathy card.  I want to give it to my friend personally, but she leaves on the west side and there is construction going on, so I’ll mail it.  Be sure and stop by the Unity Stamp store this week, they are having a FUNtastic sale!

Until next time,

Create something awesome today!

Carmen

Live With Promise

I had some spare time this weekend (I don’t know how that happened!) so I watched a free video on Youtube “Fawn Whispers” with Tamara Laporte while waiting for Monday to roll around so I could start on another Life Book 2016 lesson.  It is going to be all about quirky birds! I watched the first two videos while snuggling on my couch.  The weather turned ugly today; cold, windy, rain, and probably snow!

As I was saying, I followed along as she created her project because I wanted to go through her process.  The face came out a little different than hers.  The video is in fast speed, so I had to stop it and do my thing, then start again.  All in all I really liked how my piece came out.

I used 11×14 watercolor paper again for this one.  Collaged it with some tissue paper I found on clearance at Michael’s and lightly used my Caran De Arche watercolor crayons. I also used acrylic paint, and watercolor pencils. I’m usually very heavy handed when it comes to paint, but since I used watercolor crayons the paper showed through and I like it!

I’m always looking for the opportunity to use all of my crafty finds that I’ve picked up on sale and I was able to use the Faber Castelle Texture Gems in gold and white for the heart and the crowns.  Some may call it hoarding, but I call it preparing for the future!  LOL

I also used a Tim Holtz stencil to give the crown and her dress and cape some texture.

I first used the gems for the crown on the girl and decided to add some dots to the fawn’s crown as well as the heart.

I found my stencil with this quote and used a black molding paste so it would stand out.

The tiny butterflies are from the same stencil.  You can see the tissue paper that I used for the background.  I finished it off with throwing some white dots all over it.

Here is the stencil I used to add the flowers and leaves with a black ink.

I also added doodles with a white marker and a white gel pen and acrylic paint through another stencils in other places throught this piece and a script stamp.

My husband liked it a lot too, but he said that I need to make darker skinned gilrs too.  Yes, dear, that’s my next project.

Thanks for visiting and have a warm, cozy, day crafting!

Carmen

 

Life Book 2015 – Week 35

Bonus Lesson – Create New Possibilities with Andrea Gomol

Are you in a rot?  Andrea showed us some fun and helpful techniques to nurture the inner Creatix (Feminine Archetype – Goddess who produces new creations.)  Also how to overcome creative block with some simple but effective techniques to jump-start and bring our creative mojo in no time.

She said think of a word and work around it.

My word was FAITH

Next, I thought was about what gives me faith is.  Unquestionably, God’s word, the Holy Bible does just that.

Reading the Bible daily gives me hope and joy to know that my prayers are answered.

I used Psalm 105:3-4

Let the hearts of those seeking Jehovah, rejoice.

I used watercolors, stencils, and modeling paste.  On one of the stencils I used glass beads and I love the great texture and shine after I wiped the color off.  I’m definitely using this medium again!

Can’t to start on Donna Downey’s homework!

Until next time, happy crafting!

Carmen

Life Book Week 19 – Shadow and Light

Wow, two posts in one week!!  I must really be behind!  Nah, just taking my time, LOL!

This lesson was presented by Jessica Swift.  She is an awesome pattern designer from Portland, Oregon.  She designs hand carved stamps and other media.  You should go to her shop and see all the amazing things she creates!

This was so much fun!  I got to use some of the stamps I created myself when I took Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s Stamp Carving Class a while back.  Please go visit her too – she is obsessed with carving stamps LOL.  I also purchased her book Carve Stamp Play which is full of wonderful carving and how-to pictures!

But I digress, sorry about that.

I only made one stamp for this class because I tried to make the one thing I have difficulty with – circles!

Since I will be creating a big journal at the end of our creative year, I opted for creating two pages on one large watercolor page.

I divided my page in half by adding painter’s tape to the middle and right hand side so I could have a border.  I will be cutting off the paper on the left side, then folding the whole page in the middle.

The left side is the light part.  I used acrylic paints in greens on the bottom layer and Speedball block printing ink in turquoise for the stamps.  I used a favorite stamp of mine at the bottom because this is the one my grandson’s friend made for me.  It has two small ants at the bottom of the flower, cute!  Then I stamped the leaves on the borders followed by one small stamp I turned right or left to make a border.  Then I made lines with my dotted home-made stamp for journaling.

The dark side on the right is a combination of different shades of purple acrylic paint and then I used a pink Speedball block printing ink with the home-made stamps.  I also added some white dots with the white paint marker.  My husband was really impressed when I showed him this page .  Made me happy!

This is the upper part of the light page.  I added black dots with my Pitt pen.

A close up of the border I used between the two pages.

Sorry about the picture bellow, it warped a bit on the right hand side.  You can see a closeup of the 1/2 flower I made with the leaves on the dark page.

The bottom right with the line stamp and white dots.

And the closeup of the flower with the white dots.

I was really happy to use all the different types of pens and materials I have accumulated in the past seven years since I started playing with paper.

I go to Joann’s, Michael’s or Hobby Lobby and go straight to the clearance section to find anything that is on clearance I can use  in the future.  I have found quite a bit of goodies every time!

Next week we will be having a substitute instructor – I promise to be nice to her, LOL!  Apparently Flora Bowley is having some family health issues and will not be posting so Jenny Doh will take her place and Flora Bowley will do her class in the summer.

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned, lovely friends, and see what new project I have in store.

Until then,  happy crafting!

Carmen

Life Book 2015 Week 10

This has been one of my favorite projects yet!  Playing with ink sprays and getting messy is my kind of play time!

Layers of Your Heart With Tamara Laporte was this weeks lesson

This month’s theme is Celebration and gratitude

We created a concertina page with several hearts where we wrote what we are grateful for.  Here is mine:

I love how we created this background using different colors of spray inks on the pocket concertina as well as each heart.

This is the front heart.  I tried a little faux calligraphy for the title “Layers of My Heart”

The rest of the hearts are decorated in different techniques.  I wrote on each one what I am grateful for beginning with my Spirituality, Family, Nature, Technology and Friends.

I will be making more of these grateful hearts for sure!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs, Carmen

Life Book 2015 Week Nine

Lynn Whipple posted a very fun project with watercolors this week for us on Life Book 2015.  Lynn is a wonderful artist and I hope you go visit her blog.  She has awesome acrylic paintings as well as mixed media.

Favorite Favorites

I’m just letting go when it comes to creating now a days and this is what I came up with.  I used watercolor washes as the base for this Native American jar and I hated to cover up the frame, but I did just to follow the class.  Since I used salt on the wet watercolor, it left a beautiful texture.

Never the less, here is my Jar of Favorite Favorites

We were instructed to write in different colors of ink, stamps, or other media of our favorite things .

I went a little wild using my pinkies on this one, but I liked the overall effect.

Thanks for visiting again and see you very soon when I post my next lesson.

Hugs, y’all!

Carmen

Life Book 2015 Week Seven

Two more outstanding lessons for us this week in Life Book 2015 provided by  Jill K. Berry and Violette Clark

Jill’s video was about creating a Heart Community Book with characters representing the people in our lives who encourage us of inspire us in our artistic journey.  For my theme I chose Alice in Wonderland.  Most of my family knows me as Alicia (Alice) so I thought it would be appropriate to make each of these figures to represent members of my family

The Queen of Hearts represents my mom.  She was so creative and had a big heart!  She would make us paper dolls and the clothes and furniture to go with them.

Alice represents my daughter.  She has inspired me since she was a little girl playing with her dolls and writing in her journal.  She is also an artist and my biggest fan.

The Knave of Hearts represents my BFF who started me crafting right after I went through Cancer treatments and surgery.  She knew I had problems with my fingers and couldn’t cut with scissors so she introduced me to the Cricut and the rest is history!!  She is also very funny, creative, caring, and playful!

And last but not least, The Mad Hatter represents my husband.  Although he is always complaining about my craft room, supplies, and shopping, he is also very supportive of the things I’m involved in.

For the faces I used Peachy Keen stamps Wide Eyed Kids Assortment, watercolor pencils, markers, acrylic paint and cardstock to paper piece the clothes.

I still have one more project to do and I will post that as soon as I finish.

Have an awesome weekend, my friends, and happy crafting!!

UPDATE

As promised, here is the project I made for Violette Clark‘s bonus lesson.

This one represents what we love about our community or our home and it includes the Kingdom Hall where I worship.

Close up view of my “Magical House” and the words that make it perfect for me and my life.

Love, Respect, Honor, Jehovah God, Peace, Caring, Brotherhood.

This is a close up of the girl.  I drew just half of the girl’s face and used markers, watercolor crayons, acrylic and a bit of glitter. I tried to make her look like Frida Kalo, but didn’t quite achieve it.  I did draw her prominent eyebrows and added flowers in her hair.

Thanks for stopping by and see you here for the next Life Book lesson.

Happy Crafting!

Carmen

A Mailbox for your Wedding Guest Cards

Hello my crafty friends.  For today’s post I made this 3D Mailbox from theLove Letters SVG File  Isn’t this cute!!  It’s the exact replica of a real mailbox.  It’s very study and comes with a flag, front and back rims, and handle.

I used these colors because my niece chose them for her wedding and I really loved the combination

I also used the Full Split Monogram File for the letter L for the front of the mailbox as well as the inside.  You can purchase the whole alphabet set, or buy the letters individually.  For the LUCERO I used the free font Typography Times Regular.

Here you can see the mailbox opened with the wedding guest cards inside.

The opening will accept card envelopes up to 5×7 inches

I also added the Mr. and Mrs. cut from the Mr and Mrs. Page Kit

On the flag I stamped “Thank You” on both sides.

Be sure you account for the flag on the side panel when you add your own words, otherwise the flag will obstruct the Mr and Mrs, as in my case, but I also added it to the other side as you can see here:

For the name marquee, I cut out the 2015 using the same free font and added it to both sides as well.

Or you can add “Established” and the “Date” of the wedding.

And finally the back of the mailbox.  Isn’t this fun?  It has the same openings as a real mailbox.  I added the a ribbon since the ribbon cannot be added to the front because of the handle.

I used the Spellbinders Mini Blooms and leaves to cut out the flowers and I attached them to the front and back rims.

So there you have it a 3D mailbox that can be used for many occasions – just let your imagination run wild.

This is where you can find the Tutorial for this mailbox.

Until next time; happy craftying!!

Carmen

Sympathy Card and Teapot

 Hello everyone!  Today I am sharing a project I made for a dear friend of mine who lost her husband unexpectedly.  I made one for her mother a couple of years ago when she was going through Cancer and she loved it, so I surprised her with this one made especially for her.

I used the  Honey Bee SVG file from SVG Cuts

Her favorite color is burgundy and I was fortunate to find the K&Company paper that matched exactly for the panels

I also made her a sympathy card using a couple of Unity Stamps.

Beautiful Life Blessed Memories Sentiment Kit

I used watercolors to color the image and stamp the sentiment.  I also used one of the sentiments for the inside of the card.

Thanks for coming over to visit today!

Happy crafting!!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I hope you are having an awesome October with all the weather changes and the beautiful colors all around.

Since I am a Breast Cancer survival I’m always looking for ideas to make paper projects to share my support for my “Warrior Sisters,”especially in October.

I looked at the Bewitched Boutique SVG Kit from the SVG Attic and I though of my BC Awareness stamp by Unity Stamps “Kick Cancer’s Butt.” I had some left over paper from another project and translated my thoughts into creating this kit.

As you can see they can be presented as a set, or individually.  The Boot is hollow inside so it can be filled with cookies, candies, or even tea bags, chocolates, etc.

On the card, I added the tag to the top and a BC Awareness ribbon on the toe.  Here are some close ups:  

I used pearls for the buttons.

I added a ribbon with roses and pearls to the boot to make it look more Victorian.

The front of the boot has very thin ribbon because the holes are very small, but they can be enlarged with your crop-a-dial and use wider ribbon.

 I also used the witches hat, but converted it to a favor box.  This box can also be hung with a ribbon or twine and placed as a center piece on the table.

I hope you enjoyed seeing what other projects can be created with this SVG kit and think about other occasions you can use it just by changing your paper and embellishments.

Have a wonderful week and see you in November where I will post another idea for your table decorations.