Club Scrap Team Challenge: Weather Florals

Time for Team Challenge at Club Scrap. You should have arrived from:  Hetty or if you are lost, you can start at the begging by clicking  

This month we used the stamp set: Weathered Florals

What is there not to love about Florals.  Using these wonderful stamps I set out to explore different ways to color them.  There is a 4th card that was made with this set, and it is in the previous Blog post.  It was made for the "Can You Case It" Challenge.  Really should be included here as it is goes along with this exercise.  But scroll down and have a peak.  

Card 1: Color Pencils with Glaze Pen embellishments

This is the simplest of the cards.  I stamped in Versfine Onyx Black having intended to use heat embossing and then coloring with copics.  But I had a new ink pad, Amazing what a difference the new pad made, and just loved the boldness and crispness of the image.

I lightly colored with my Prisma Pencils and then tried various methods to blend.  I had stamped on Neenah solar White, so I had a slick surface with little tooth.  First try was a blending tool made for markers, not much happened.  Then tried the Dove blender with little improvement over the other tool.  Thought about using vaseline as I have heard it works well, but there was not one tube or jar of vaseline in my house that had not been used on dog or horse and I was not going to go to the store.  Then I remembered Gamsol.  Not sure why I have that but I think I was needing mineral spirits for something and that was what HobbyLobby had.  So with a blending stump and Gambol, I blended and shaded.  Love the outcome but it lacked pizzaz.  So I grabbed by Glaze Pen in Black and highlighted the centers of the flowers and the swirls.  Still too flat, so out comes my Wink of Stella, Perfect.  This is a card that needs very little else, Beautiful finished and says it all.

A2 card, Kraft Card Base, Purple Mat from Kit.  Nothing else.

Card 2:

Water Color and flowers go together like Peanut and Jelly, you can do without one or the other, both together magic.  I struggle to get that truly watercolored effect with stamps.  I took a water color class (2 actually) through On line Cards.  Dawn from Wplus 9 is a beautiful watercolorist and I have enjoy watching her videos.  So she empowered us to cut lose and go Impressionistic.  Well here is my rendering.

It does not look anything like the stamp, I think Hibiscus when I look at this and thus the foliage reflects that impression.  When you are painting florals and are lose with your paint, the entire process has it's own mind set.  It is very hard to force it to become.  This is a wet on wet technique with layering of color.  It took me several days to get it just right.  When I thought I was done, I would leave it to dry and then fiddle a bit more.  Finally I just walked away.  There are things I would change, but in whole it is fine and while not true to the stamp is a card I would gladly send, only thing needed was a sentiment, I put that inside, I just could not bear to risk messing it up with stamping.  

I used third generation stamping with a grey archival ink and then wet the paper, dropping color onto the wet areas and let it flow.  I allowed it to start to dry before adding any additional colors.  The foliage was created using brush strokes and a double loaded brush (2 colors on different sides of brush).  

I used Arches Cold press paper for this card.  I think for cards this is not the best choice as it is very thick and hard to have a single layer card.  My Canson paper is easier to use for card fronts, but this technique uses a lot of water and a good paper was essential.  I used  a layer of fun foam and placed it under a book for a little while and it was smooth and no buckling noted.    I also used Scor-tape to adhere.  This is a A2 card, mounted on White paper and Matted with red from the kit.  A few sequins add a bit os sparkle.  

There is not much more I can say about this card.  There are many water color techniques and many ways to achieve results.  Time and patience plus practice is needed.  I am not as comfortable with watercoloring as I like control, but it is a good exercise to explore color and how different paints and paper can be used to get different results.

Card 3, back to our comfort level, well Sort of!!

I wanted a card that truly reflected the stamp.  I lost that in my watercolor card and decided the ink needed to be part of the process.  In the first one, I used the faint outline of the stamp to guide me in my initial color placement, but with movement of the paint on the paper, the lines were quickly obliterated.  So I pulled out my distress inks!!

Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive, Picked Raspberry, and Chipped Saphire a stamp and water, all set!

 I used several stamps in the kit and stamped the images onto Ranger Watercolor Paper.  

Using a craft mat, I applied ink to the mat.  

I first wet the area to be colored with clear water to get the ink activated.  Then using a water brush dropped more color onto the petals.  Made sure that the area to be colored had a dry border.  So I moved around the flower, allowing each section to dry before adding water to an adjoining area.  When the flowers was finished and dry, I activated the green foliage stamping to blur those edges.

I also dropped additional colored blobs to represent flowers in the background.  This is to help balance and get the focus on the flower that is now clearly in the forefront.  Looks ok, but while I like the background, the flower seems wrong.  So after drying, I get out my distress markers.

The markers are used to add the detail back into the painting.  This is similar in water coloring, where there is a primary layer and then you add more pigment with less and less water to create details and definition.  I did try this with distress, but it is wetter or wetter, no real pigment change and the ink migrates readily.  The distress markers give that color concentration and if too harsh can be softened with water.

Here is after using the markers.  The final step, was to use a black micron marker (copic .3mm to add additional detail.)

The more obvious area for this last step is the center and the background flowers and stems.  This too is an A2, matted on Purple and the card base is Kraft.  Wonder why everything is purple.  I was trying to get a card that was truly purple looking for the Challenge at "Can you Case It".  Purple is very hard to photograph and have it read purple.  This flower is more purple than it appears here and the Matt is a beautiful purple.  Pink just steals the show!!

Well that is it for this challenge from me, but continue on to your next stop :  Debbie at Deb Duz Scrappin.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting

Josette

Links:  Weathered floral Stamp

Crewel & Unusual Club Scrap Deluxe Kit

Distress inks: Picked Raspberry, Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint, and Chipped Saphire

Cotman tube watercolors

Arches Cold Press watercolor paper

Ranger Watercolor paper

Club Scrap Blog Hop: December Kit: Navigation

This is an amazing kit.  If you love pirates, sailing ships or old word this is the kit.  It is full of wonderful images and sayings.  The colors lend themselves to a vintage feel or can be enhanced with color.  Very versatile.    You should have arrived here from:  Hetty.  If you get lost, you can start at the beginning by following this link:  Club Scrap Blog Hop.

My Cards:

I went with the ship and vintage theme.  I had made a treasure chest for the Team Challenge, and was going to use the shadowbox card as the card.  Then changed my mind.  Once I started down that road, it was hard to change focus.  But I like all three and they would be perfect for a man or boy.  

Card 1:  

Lets start with the simplest and work to the most complex.  As you know I like to learn something new and this month was no different.  I had used my Distress Markers for the Watercolor Blog Hop and decided to continue with that at least for one card.  I have all the markers and am sad to say I haven't even begun to learn what I can and can not do with them.  They have a place in my kit. 

I think the markers enhance this image better than anything I could have tried.  It gave the vintage feel due to the muted tones of distress.  

This is how it was colored.  I work on a glass mat.  Scribbled the markers onto the glass and added water, painted onto the image.  After finished, I enhanced the edges with distress ink and cut out.  

I used many markers:  to name a few: Ground Espresso, Evergreen Bough, Barn Door, Festive Berries, Vintage Photo, Frayed Burlap, Chipped Saphire and Peacock Feathers. The ink pads were Bundled Sage, Broken China and Charmed Clover.  

The tag was stamped in Brown Ink and heat embossed with clear.  Here are some tidbits:  I used the back of one of the pattern papers.  We often forget about the back.  But for tags it is perfect and will match the project well.  I needed in antiqued, so inked it with Distress Ink in Ground Espresso and sprayed with water.  Perfect match.  Rather than finding that die, fussy cut to match the area that the tag needs to go.  It is just paper, if you make a mistake, cut again.  I shaped it and used foam dots for dimension.

Final steps.  One of the pattern papers was used as a mat, then a dark brown and finally mounted on a tan A2 card base.  The ribbon is seam tape that was left over from making the trunk.  If you did not see that project here is the link:  The trunk and Treasure inside the box.  Card one done!!

Card 2:  

This card is similar but has a bit more detail.  

The image was stamped in brown ink and heat set with clear embossing powder.  It was then colored with colored pencil.  After coloring a Dove blender was used to smooth and enhance certain areas.

After coloring the paper was torn with the idea of creating parchment.  or a piece of old paper.

Using Distress Ink: Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso, the edges were inked and further distressed and shaped.  

A mat was torn in roughly the same shape as the image, distressed with Ground Espresso and a distressing tool.  

This is an A6 finished card.  A mat was cut slightly smaller than the finished size with the darkest brown paper.  A pattern paper was cut thinking about the image that would show.  A ribbon wrapped and held in place with by a metal eyelet.

This tag was created the same way as in Card 1: using the backside of the mat paper, stamped in Brown ink and heat set in clear, distressed lightly with Ground Espresso.  Of note here, the tag is cut and shaped to fit into that corner .  The edges are chopped to give distinction and interest.  That focal piece is going to steal the show, but we want to make sure that the birthday message is present.  It has to do with design and how the eye moves around the paper.  

The focal image was added with foam mounting tape, and the edges shaped to give the impression of a folded or rather unfolded parchment.  I think this worked very well.

Card 3:

This card was the most challenging from a process perspective.  I wanted to make a shadow box card like the Recessed Window Card whose direction can be found here.  There is also a link to a YouTube Video.  Anyway, I wanted to "changed it up a bit".  I am not overly happy with it, but the technique of possibilities for this type of card are endless.  

So lets walk through the steps.  

First I cut a card that would finish at 6" square.  Since I had 6 inch paper I just cut it in half.  At the center scored (6") and again 1/4 inch from first score.  That gives us the "spine".

I deterred from the video instructions by using a die.  I am visual and having a die to measure is easier for me.  

Once it was centered, I drew around it and scored it just like in the original instruction.  Then using a knife, made the cross cut as described in the general instructions, folded and added score tape to the flaps.

I cut out mats that would fit into the "window area".  The first a Dark Brown was cut exactly to the size of the opening and then a smaller was cut from patterned paper.  The next step I missed photographing.  My son makes model sailing boats and he had a lot of little pieces left over from a ship.  I glued these pieces down with glossy accents.  Then this was secured inside of the window.

Next I cut a piece of acetate and stamped the sailing ship and "you are here" stamp to the acetate.

Using the dies I cut a frame from the green pattern paper and then put score tape around the outside.

The center row of score tape was removed and the acetate with the ship stamped was centered over the from and adhered.
A second piece of acetate, slightly larger was cut out.  Foam tape was added to the inside of the frame covering the center and outside score tape.  The score tape is used to help secure this.  It will act as a backup glue should the glue on the foam tape fail to hold securely.  Probably over kill, but I live in Texas and it is hard to get adhesive to stick when humidity is high.

Flitter and beads are added to the acetate that was stamped, and the second piece of acetate adhered to the foam tape.  Are you following me.  This was hard to photo with all the glare from the glitter and the acetate.  In other words we are making a sandwich.  The frame is the Bread for example, acetate with stamping the "meat", glitter "the cheese", plain acetate the second "piece of Bread".  More score tape was added and this sandwich was affixed to the front of the card.  Creating a window pane over the box.  Whew!!!

A view of stamped acetate, mat with "things" and the beads.

Inside:  the center from the frame was used to cover the box and then message cards were matted and adhered to the mat:

Wooden arrows were distressed with ink and finished the layout.

On the bottom, a mat was cut from white paper in kit, a journaling tag added and a bow was made from left over ribbon.

Finished inside. You can see the "spine here.
All that was left was to add an embellishment to the front and call it done.

Thank you for stopping by.  Your next stop is:  Annette

Supplies:
With the exception of ink, glue, markers, colored pencils, and some of the ribbon, all of the supplies came from December's Kit: Navigation

If you would like to learn a technique or have an idea, post a comment.
Thank you for hopping and
Happy Crafting,
Josette