Beautiful shades of green

Hello friends! Did you have a good weekend? We did a mix of chores (tidying up, garden work) and fun stuff - soccer, picking blueberries, hanging out with friends, bicycle ride and going to a little market. We bought some homemade jam and marmalade.

It is Monday and this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Monochrome challenge. If you have never done a monochrome project before, this is the perfect time. It is a lot of fun to work with shades of only one color. 

Don't miss the stunning project by our September guest designer Anne Redfern.

There is just something so amazing about green, and even more so when you see many shades of green together. I think it has to do with nature and walking in forests. My favorite forests are those with a mix of pine and leaf trees, partly because you get so many more shades of green then. I found a photo of the boys playing among fall leaves and decided to use that. It was taken three years ago, so they are quite a bit smaller than now. 

The background is Tim Holtz Motif cardstock, which has patterns that will resist inks and mists. Here you can see the middle white part which is the original look of the cardstock and the way the woodgrain pattern appears once I inked it with Distress Ink. There are different patterns in the pack, and also kraft papers with the same resist patterns.

I also used the Sizzix 3D Leaves embossing folder and embossed a piece of green watercolor paper that I found in my scrap box. Then it was inked with Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint to make the leaves more visible. Most of it was covered up in the end, but this would also make a great background for a card.

The leaves were die cut with Tim Holtz Skeleton Leaves set, from various green scrap papers that I found. One of them was a left over paper from when I tested different shades of green watercolor mixes for another project. Those ended up being my favourite leaves - it's the leaves with areas of white. That paper could easily have been thrown away, since on its own it was hard to use, but for die cutting it was perfect.

I like to add bits of glossy pieces on projects, and for this layout, I die cut the title from glossy paper. The top word was inked with Moved Lawn, making it darker towards the bottom. The mat was inked with Twisted Citron.

Glue them together, for a great, glossy, green title. Here you can also spot a piece of paper stamped with the SSS Leaves Background stamp, which I also found in my scrap box.

The patterned paper comes from Tim's new Abandoned paper stash, which I love. The papers are meant for Halloween, but they work for any theme. Wonderful colors, textures and patterns.

The Farm Tractor from Whimsy Stamps was colored with Prismacolor pencils, and then cut out. Leo loves tractors, so I added it mainly for him. He actually picked out this stamp when he joined me for my last SSS order.

Some of the leaves have a pretty teal shade, which fits well with the green.

The photo was framed with a frame from Tim's Halloween Layers and Baseboard set. That frame actually inspired the whole project, since I loved the vintage look of it and wanted to use it for something non-Halloween.

I hope you will join us this week in our Monochrome challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

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

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog 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.

Watercolor Florals Tutorial

Hello friends! Today I have a borderless watercolor tutorial to share with you. I used a floral stamp, but the technique works for other images too, and for any type of project. 

I hope you aren't missing all the inspiration at Simon Says Stamp during STAMPtember®. Today, the brand of the day is Memory Box, and I used one of their lovely stamps here.  

This started out as an art journal page, but then I changed my mind and framed it instead, so that I can give it as a gift to someone. I had a cheap frame that I got in a sale box at our local grocery store recently. This project might look hard, but it is much easier than what it looks like. I used a beautiful Rose Bouquet stamp set by Memory Box. 

Working on watercolor paper, start by stamping the floral stamp with Antique Linen ink. We want to use a light ink, so that the edges will almost disappear. For a different effect, emboss with white embossing powder, or stamp with waterproof black ink.

Mix up some watercolor paint. I always test my paint on scrap paper first, to make sure I have the shades that I want. Start with the lighter blue and then drop in a darker blue towards the center. Before the blue paint dries, drop in yellow in the center. You can also do the same technique with Distress Ink, by smearing the inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush.

Continue with the roses and the leaves. Don't cover the whole design with paint, but instead leave some of the paper showing, which creates highlights, and gives the coloring a loose look. I decided that the light was coming from the top left, and made the roses and leaves lighter on that side.

Continue with the rest of the design.

The background was painted with very watery light brown paint, since I wanted it to be a little darker. I forgot to take a photo of the shading step. Mix a relatively light shade of grey and paint a shadow on the darker side of the arrangement. This grounds the flowers to the paper and adds dimension. When everything was dry, I decided to add some lines and highlights with a white gel pen too.

Splatter a tiny bit of dark grey watercolor paint on the background, focusing on the shadow areas.

Stamp randomly with a script stamp with a light brown ink. I used Vintage Photo Archival Ink and stamped once on scrap paper first. The script stamp comes from Tim Holtz's French Marketplace set.

I stamped the sentiment on a different paper first and cut it out, but then decided it would look better stamped directly on the background. It comes from Simon Says Stamp Uplifting Thoughts.

Here's a closer look at the shadows and the white gel pen work.

If you don't want to add the script, you can skip that step.

Some of the lines still show, and I liked that, since they almost look like a soft shadow. If you want them to be invisible, paint over them.

I cut the paper down to 8 x 6 in, so that it would fit into my frame. You can leave the paper a little larger if you want to, with more space around the flowers.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog 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.

Tumbling Leaves Canvas Tutorial

Hello friends! I hope your weekend was great. We went to a viking market and for a bike ride. The boys also got new rain boots, red ones. They both needed to wear them today because it is pretty wet and rainy.  

I hope you will join us for this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. We are celebrating STAMPtember®, which has started at Simon Says Stamp. It's a month filled with surprises and inspiration, and even more so this year since it is the 10th STAMPtember®. Our theme this week is Stamp It. For me, stamps are the most wonderful and versatile product that there is. There is also a huge STAMPtember® release of new Simon Says Stamp products.

Don't miss the beautiful projects by our September guest designer Anne Redfern. 

I made a canvas panel this week, inspired by the beautiful Tumbling Leaves stencil from the STAMPtember® release. Sentiment stamps were used both as background elements, and to create the title. I wanted to see how Scribble Sticks would work on a canvas, and it turned out that they worked great. The canvas is 5 x 7 in. You can also do this technique on a card or in a journal.

Start by applying texture paste through the stencil with a palette knife.

When the paste is dry, paint with white gesso. When dry, add a layer of Dina Wakley's Clear Gesso, which gives extra tooth for the Scribble Sticks.

Scribble with light and dark brown around the leaves and at the top. Don't worry about how it looks. There are three Scribble Sticks sets available: set 1, set 2 and set 3. I used crayons from all three.

 

Mist with water and watch the magic. You can smooth out some areas with your finger if needed.

When dry, color the leaves with the autumn colors. You can also add purple, but I left it out today. Don't worry about perfection.

Use clean water and a paint brush to turn the Scribble Sticks into watercolor, letting the colors blend slightly in the process.

When dry, add some subtle shine with metallic Scribble Sticks.

If you want to, add a shadow with a Ground Espresso Distress Marker. You can use water to dissolve it somewhat.

All my 6x6 in SSS background stamp have been missing since the move, and I was happy to finally find them. Stamp the background with a text stamp. I used Good Reading.

Splatter brown and metallic Scribble Sticks on the background. Wet the crayon with water and flick the tip with a paint brush.

You can use sentiment stamps as background elements. Here I stamped words and phrases from Tabbed Sentiments. It doesn't matter if they aren't totally readable.

 

Stamp a sentiment with brown Archival Ink on a Tim Holtz Journal Card. Cut the card into a strip. The lace was die cut with Tim's Crochet set and the branches behind the title were die cut with his Fall Foliage from gold paper. I cut another sentiment from the SSS Sentiments Strips 4 set.

Finally, I glued some sequins from the SSS Sunken Treasure set to the background.

The mix of readable and not so readable words makes for an interesting background.

By adding a simple shadow, you give dimension to the leaves.

You can even stamp small words over the texture paste, as you can see, even 'happiness' stamped across to leaves, is readable.

I hope you will join us this week in our Stamp It challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

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

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog 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.