Watercolor flowers tag tutorial

Hello stampers! It is winter outside, but today I have a flower tag to share. I often paint or use fairly light-coloured backgrounds when watercoloring images, but here I have painted the background in dark shades instead.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Simon Says Stamp has a brand new release called To Be Loved, filled with stamps, embossing folders and dies which are perfect for Valentine's, but also for many other occasions. It coordinates very well with the To Love collection.

The tag was partly inspired by my Frostie Snowman tag, which had a dark watercolored background, but with much more texture than what I used here. I wanted a calmer background for the flowers. I used the new Simon Says Stamp Pixie Dust stamp set for this tag, in combination with watercolor paint.

Start by stamping the large flower from Pixie Dust on a tag die cut from watercolor paper. You can of course also make a card instead.

Color the flowers with watercolor paint, keeping them light. Leave some of the paper white, for highlights.

Paint the leaves. Drop a little blue paint right into the green mix on the paper.

Add darker shades to the flowers and the leaves.

Paint the background with two shades of blue, using the lighter shade more towards the center and the darker shade more towards the edges.

White emboss a sentiment, stars, and a swirl from Simon Says Stamp Pixie Dust on the tag. 

I am having fun using some of my old ribbons, such as the white organza ribbon here. The pink ribbon is dyed May Arts Faux Wrinkled Silk Ribbon. It was dyed with Distress Ink.

I added some details to the flowers with a black pen and a white gel pen. There is Star Dust Stickles in the white embossed stars.

These flowers were a lot of fun to watercolor.

Add thin veins to the leaves with a black pen.

If you accidentally painted where you wanted the paper to stay white, you can use the white gel pen to lighten the area again.

The sentiment also comes from the Simon Says Stamp Pixie Dust set. I also used Pawsitively Dazzling Dusk Gems. 

You can try this technique with many different stamps and colors. 

Thank you for visiting!

Happy Christmas crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Wooded Cabin Card Tutorial

Hello crafters! I hope you are well and had a good weekend! We have a lot of snow at the moment, which also inspired my card for today's post.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

This week we have an Add Some Texture theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. Adding texture is definitely one of my favorite things and there are so many options and fun techniques. I hope you will join us! Our January guest, Pauline C has created another beautiful project this week. 

I made a card where I added texture in different ways: dry embossing, inky resist, a gel pen and some glitter. Simon Says Stamp Wooded Cabin 3-D embossing folder was used for the card, in combination with Distress Ink, colored pencils, Stickles and Micro Glaze. The technique is fun and easy!

Start by dry embossing watercolor paper in the Simon Says Stamp Wooded Cabin folder. Mist the paper with water before embossing.

Color the trees and the cabin with colored pencils. I used Prismacolors. I also added some shading to the path and the snow. I left some of the white showing on the pine trees, as snow. Next, cover the embossed areas with Distress Micro Glaze. I forgot to add the Micro Glaze jar to this photo. Apply it with your finger. This will protect the colored areas, and the white areas from the ink in the following steps. 

Smear Distress Ink to a non-stick craft sheet and mist with water. Press the paper into the ink. Let Dry. 

Repeat the previous step again, also adding some Hickory Smoke. Let dry and repeat again if you want even more texture.

I added a final layer of ink, namely Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide ink. Smear on a non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and just lightly touch the paper to the ink here and there. Don't overdo it. 

Wipe off ink from the Distress Glazed areas. Add snow to the sky with a Sakura Classic White Bold Line Gelly Roll pen. Use the pen to add more snow to the pine trees too.

Add dots of Star Dust Stickles to the sky and cover the snow in front of the cabin with the glitter gel. Don't apply it to the path.

Stamp sentiments on white paper and cut into strips. This is a favorite sentiment of mine and comes from Tim Holtz Nature's Wonder. Here you can also see all the layers of ink in sky.

I glued Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Dusk Gems here and there, for even more sparkle.

The white gel pen work might look a little messy up close, but it looks great from a distance.

My favorite part of this resist technique is that the Distress Micro Glaze will not cover every little bit of paper, but there will be spots without the glaze. In this areas, the ink will stick, adding texture and interest. You can see it clearly on the cabin. 

Distress the edges of the watercolor paper before mounting on cardstock. 'Winter' comes from Simon Says Stamp Forest Scenery.

I didn't quite capture the glittery effect of the Star Dust Stickles on the photos. 

Join us this week in our Add Some Texture challenge! You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

New Year Art Journal

Happy New Year! I am looking forward to a new year or creativity. I always enjoy creating a new folder in my computer for the projects of a new year. 

It is time for the first Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge project of the year.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

This week we have a Something New theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I hope you will join us! For this first month of the year, Pauline C will join us as guest. Don't miss stopping by her blog Passion for Papercraft. 

Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products by a specific designer/company. This week it is AALL & Create. You can find their range of stamps and other products here. You don't have to use their products to join the challenge, but it is fun if you do.

I usually make an art journal page at the start of a new year, or at the end of an old one. This years version features golden hearts in the background, symbolising my most important wish for the year, namely that my boys will be as healthy as possible, despite the various autoimmune diseases that they now both have. I used AALL & Create Flower Press stamp for the flower and Simon Says Stamp Falling in Love stencil from the new To Love release.

I worked in my Dylusions Small Creative Journal on a page that had already been coated with gesso. Apply Distress Texture Paste through the Simon Says Stamp Falling in Love stencil. Let dry and repeat to cover the page. 

Paint with Distress Paint and mist with plenty of water to blend.

When the paint was dry, I first tested to watercolor two hearts that I knew wouldn't be visible. I wanted a brighter gold color and decided to paint the remaining hearts white.

When the white paint was dry, I painted the hearts with Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry paints, using two shades of gold. This paint is very sparkly.

I added shading to the hearts with a pencil.

AALL & Create Flower Press was stamped on heavystock paper with black ink. The stamp was designed by Tracy Evans. 

Color with Prismacolor pencils, using the white pencil to blend the colors. After that I inked the card with brown shades of Distress Ink, but seem to have forgotten to take a photo of that step. 

I splattered the background with a little Scorched Timber paint. Simon Says Stamp Tattered Leaves were die cut from gold kraft-stock paper. 

I also misted a little water on the inky background, for texture. The Prismacolor pencil will resist the Distress Ink.

The hearts are very shiny.

The letters and numbers were die cut from Simon Says Stamp glitter cardstock using Tim Holtz Vault Seasonal Sketch set. I also added a few Small Talk stickers.

Join us this week in our Something New challenge! You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.