Colored Pencils on Kraft

Hi stampers! Today is Leap Day, almost a bonus day and particularly useful in the shortest month of the year. I made an Easter/spring card today since you can start to feel spring in the air. I used colored pencils and Distress Paint on kraft cardstock.

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.

I enjoy using colored pencils on kraft cardstock, or almost any kind of tinted cardstock, since it gives a nice effect. For this card I used an older set by Tim Holtz / Stamper's Anonymous called Spring Sprung and combined it with background stamps and a stencil. At first, I planned to place flowers in the bunny's hands, but instead made a dimensional heart-shaped balloon.

Die cut a tag from kraft cardstock. I didn't want to jacket to be black, so instead I stamped it with Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide Ink. I used my MISTI to make sure that the tag stayed put during stamping.

Leave the stamp and the tag in the same place and ink the stamp with Jet Black ink. Avoid most of the jacket, but add black ink around the edges of the jacket.

Color the image with colored pencils. I used Prismacolor pencils. 

Add shading with grey shades. Draw a line to create ground for the bunny to walk on, and add some scribbles.

Add highlights with a white paint pen and a white gel pen.

Die cut the faceted heart from Tim's Vault Rosettes set, from Backdrops Vol. 5 paper. Fold along all the fold lines and glue together with Simon Says Stamp craft glue. 

Stamp the image on Simon Says Stamp Masking paper and cut out. Use Tim's Harlequin stencil together with white and pink Distress Paint to create the background pattern. 

Leave the mask in place and white emboss foliage from Spring Sprung. 

I sanded and inked the edges of the heart and glued a string to the back. It was adhered to the background with Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam Tape. 

The top of the tag was stamped with Simon Says Stamp Halftone background and Potting Soil ink. Ink the edges of the tag with shades of brown Distress Ink. The sentiment stamp comes from Tim Holtz Crazy Talk.

Let the bunny hold the string for the balloon. Here you can also see the effect of the white highlights better. 

I restamped the foliage with Potting Soil a couple of times. The sentiments were stamped on Tim's Pocket Cards.

The small faceted heart is so cute and works great as a balloon.

Thank you for joining me here on this Leap Day 2024. 

See you soon again! 

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.

Vintage letter with feather pen

Hello crafters! We have had another weekend of fun birthday celebrations here. Most of the snow is gone and the first snowdrops have appeared in the garden.

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 Fur or Feathers theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. Fun! Don't miss the last project by our February guest designer Cassie Lynch.

I went with the feathers theme, but instead of making a bird project, I made feather pens. The feathers are meant to be guinea fowl feathers, a bird I saw often in South Africa. The card has a vintage letter-writing theme, celebrating sending letters, which was once the main means of communication between people who were too far away from each other to meet. 

Die cut three feathers from watercolor paper using Tim Holtz Feathery.

The feathers were white embossed with Simon Says Stamp Halftone Background (I forgot to take a photo of that step). Smear Distress Inks on a non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and press the feathers into the ink.

I wanted a thin paper for the letter, similar to vintage letter papers and found a thin notebook paper that worked. I stamped it with Simon Says Stamp Ledger Paper background.

Next it was stamped with Simon Says Stamp Old Letter, using Archival Ink Cobalt. This is one of my oldest ink pads, but it is still working perfectly.

The paper was inked with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap. 

Then I splattered Uncharted Mariner and Scorched Timber on the letter. 

I tucked a second piece of notebook paper behind the letter to make it appear as if the letter had to pages. The sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Butterflies.

I added a few pieces of Design Tape Trims to the background.

The feathers have interesting shades of brown, grey and blue, together with the characteristic dots on guinea fowl feathers.

I stitched some old buttons to the card.

The tips of the feathers were colored with alcohol ink and I also dropped alcohol ink on the card to make it look like ink splotches. Hello friend was stamped with Tim Holtz Crazy Talk set.

I added three pieces of twine to the card too.

I hope you will join us this week in our Fur or feathers 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 stopping by here 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.

Wood planks background

 Hi friends! Today I have a card to share with a fun wood plank background.

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.

I wanted to make something like a worn wooden fence or a worn wood plank shed and used an embossing folder together with Distress Ink and gold wax. The flowers were die cut and colored with Distress Ink.

Start by applying shades of brown Distress Ink to a non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and press watercolor paper into the ink. Emboss in Simon Says Stamp Wooden Planks folder.

When the ink is dry, add more ink with an ink blending tool. This step will increase the woodgrain texture.

Cut the planks and distress the edges. 

Glue the planks to old book paper. Cut the top planks with a pair of scissors before gluing, to give the image of broken planks. Apply Sizzix Luster Wax Gold here and there.

Die cut Simon Says Stamp Fresh Cut Floral Stem from Ranger heavystock paper.

Apply Distress Ink to a non-stick craft sheet and mist with water. Press the flowers into the ink. Let dry and repeat until you are happy with how they look. Make the smaller petals darker.

I wanted it to look like someone had nailed the sentiment to the planks. The sentiment comes from Tim Holtz Odds & Ends and was stamped on scrap inky paper. Adhere with Tim's brads.

Shape the flowers with a shaping kit before assembling, for extra dimension.

Glue the two flowers to the background. 

I used mummy cloth / cheese cloth, lace trim, a twine ribbon and Small Talk sticker for the base of the card, with just a sprinkle of blue sequins. The latter were added so that the color blue would appear elsewhere on the card, not just in the flowers.

The Luster Wax adds a nice shine to the wood planks. 

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! 

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.

The Neighbourhood Art Journal

Hello stampers! We are in the middle of a birthday period now, with my eldest having celebrated his birthday this weekend. 

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.

We have a Not a Card theme this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I hope you will join us! Don't miss the stunning project project by our February guest designer Cassie Lynch.

I made an art journal page this year, celebrating homes and neighborhoods. Apart from the numbers stickers, this is a one layer page. It was done on a grid page in my Dylusions Square Ledger Journal and using the Simon Says Stamp Village stencil set to create the neighborhood scene.

I started with the stencil with the windows and the moon/sun. The windows were inked with Mustard Seed and the moon/sun with Mustard Seed and a little Ripe Persimmon. I used Tim's new Tiny Blending Tool for the inking. The stencil was adhered with Simon Says Stamp Very Very Low Tack Tape. Leave the stencil in place and apply Sparkle Texture Paste over it with a palette knife. This step gives a sparkly look, but most importantly, will also protect the yellow areas from the subsequent inking.

Continue with one of the house stencils. The grid pattern makes it easy to line the stencils up. Again, I used the Very Very Low Tack Tape to keep in in place. Ink with Salvaged Patina. 

Next, continue with Frayed Burlap. As you can see the Sparkle Paste resists the ink.

Next, I used Uncharted Mariner. 

For the last houses, I used Ground Espresso. Aren't the Tiny Blending Tools cute?

I wasn't sure what color to use for the sky. I imagined this to be very early in the morning and didn't want a too dark sky. Use the stencil to mask out the top buildings. Then create a frame with Very Very Low Tack tape to protect the background. Ink with Lost Shadow. 

Remove the tape.

I added a few dots with a white gel pen, but decided to leave the houses as they were, without adding too many details. 

The title was stamped with Tim Holtz Worn Text and Potting Soil Archival Ink.

I stamped a frame around the village with words and sentiments. They come from Tim Holtz Tiny Text and I placed them out and moved them around before deciding where to stamp each sentiment. The corners around the stamped edges were drawn with a brown Tombow pen.

I really like how the ledger grid pattern is visible through the inking, and particularly so on the darker houses. The print ink must create a resist effect.

I also added a few Clippings Stickers to the background.

More Worn Text stamping. I stamped and wrote some of the street numbers that I have lived at through the years.

Don't worry if the alignment of the stencils isn't perfect. My alignment was slightly off once, but that created a nice highlight at some of the houses.

I hope you will join us this week in our Not a Card 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 stopping by here 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.