Distress Ink & Watercolour - My Current Obsession

I love watercolour and have made a lot of cards using watercolour techniques
but I recently became completely obsessed with a no-line watercolour
technique I saw on Scraps & Stamps.
You can check out Nicole's blog post about no-line watercolouring here.

Nicole uses a combo if Distress Ink & Peerless  Transparent Watercolours.
Her finished project is gorgeous but it got me thinking - why couldn't I just stamp the image using Distress Inks and then blend the ink with my detailed watercolour pen?
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I stamped the koi image from the Nicole Wright Designs Upstream stamp set
on to 140lb cold-pressed watercolour paper using Twisted Citron & Carved Pumpkin
 Distress Ink Pads. Now it was time to grab the water brush and start blending.

It doesn't take much to get a beautiful watercolour effect and it's oh so simple & quick.
To get a bit more definition I took my Distress Markers in the same colours and added more colour to the fins before blending with water..

To protect my images before the next step I applied a layer of Distress Micro Glaze.

The final step was to swipe the paper through some Distress Stain for a water effect.

My completed card - I love the water droplets made with the stain.

Here is another card made using the same steps but this time when I applied the
Distress Micro Glaze I made sure to spread it a bit past the image. I wanted to have more a 'halo' effect when I applied the stain layer.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today!

~~stay crafty~~

julia

Remember To Make Memories......reverse canvas

I was so happy to be invited by Nicole & Kim to watch the production of the first sets of Nicole Wright Designs Stamp Sets at Emerald Creek Craft Supplies last week. 

I left with my very own sets too!

Pre-orders are beginning to ship this week so watch your mailbox or ask your LSS
to carry the Nicole Wright Designs line of stamps.

Now on to my project ~ 

I started with a piece of watercolour paper trimmed down to fit inside the reverse side of the canvas.

I used Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass & Cracked Pistachio Distress Stain, with a wet 

watercolour brush to achieve the watery look.

For the canvas ~ i started with a coat of gesso and applied crackle paste in random spots. 

After I let this dry over night I used the same Distress stains.

I help add a bit more dimension I cut four "wavy" pieces of acetate and used 

alcohol inks to add some more watery colour.

I dragged a sheet of watercolour paper through Lucky Clover, Mowed Lawn &

 Shabby Shutters Distres Stain, sketched a few lily pads and fussy cut them out.

Here is a closeup of a finished lily pad complete with an Abandoned Coral flower.

My Koi fish were stamped on Artic White 100lb card stock from Emerald Creek.

I absolutely love it for its silky smooth finish ~ prefect to get those crisp stamped images.

I used various colours of Distress Markers to make some funky fish.

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today!

Don't forget to drop by Emerald Creek Dares blog and join in our current challenge!

Show us your Valentine's Day projects for a chance to win a $25 credit to the online store.

Koi Pond - CHA...We are on our way with Emerald Creek Crafts!

Today is the first day of CHA in Anaheim and Kim ~ owner of Emerald Creek Craft Supplies ~ and Nicole of Nicole Wright Designs are at the big show showing off their exciting new products. 

I am absolutely out of mind excited to share my first CHA project.
Emerald Creek Craft Supplies has two brand new set of stamps designed by
  Nicole Wright under the brand Nicole Wright Designs.
One is called Fallen Blossom and is a set of 5 cling stamps. The other one (used on my card)
is called Upstream and comes in a set of 6. They are beautiful!

I was inspired to make a bendy fold card using the Koi images.
There are lots of tutorials for Bendy Fold Cards on Pinterest ~ I used this one
from SplitCoast Stampers.

My card base was cut from 100lb cardstock from Emerald Creek in white then covered in a pattern paper I had in my stash. Once my card was assembled it was time to start decorating with my stamped images and accessories

My Koi images are all stamped on cold press watercolour paper and coloured with a small paint brush and Distress Markers.

I added a few of the small Koi images to my card as well ~ a few hiding away in the greenery.
The greenery is diecut from the Garden Greens die from Sizzix and then stained with Peeled Paint.

The sentiment is from the Stuff To Say set from Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection.
I first stained a piece of watercolour paper with Abandoned Coral before stamping my sentiment with Black Archival Ink.

I added some gold foil along the edges to add a bit of interest.
I just love all the layers created when the card is slotted together.

Here is my finished card ~

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Please came back tomorrow to see
 another CHA project I designed for Emerald Creek.

Be sure to visit the rest of the Emerald Creek DT blogs for more exciting CHA projects!

Karon Hughes

Diana Hetherington

Cathy Potosky

Katelyn Grosart

Claudia Neubacher

Shilpa Nagonkar

Come join us over at the Emerlad Creek Dares blog and share in our NEW Adventure!

We want to see what you are making with your NEW Christmas presents,NEW purchases, NEW techniques, NEW CHA stuff even if you are one of the lucky few to have yours right away.

Celebration Calendars....not just for Advent anymore

We all remember the chocolate-filled advent calendars we got on

 December 1 when we were kids, don't we?

The excitement of 25 days of opening the tiny doors and

chowing down on low-grade chocolate. The joy!

Well, fast forward to 2015 and the age of Pinterest and now we have 25 days of Beer calendars, and 25 days of Wine calendars. Isn't it great to be an adult? 

I had an idea a couple of years ago and it all started with my sister.

My sister is a winter baby, born on December 28 and for years I have heard that she feels 'ripped off' at her birthday because it is so soon after Christmas. 

In the Spring of 2013 I decided to make her a birthday celebration calendar - 25 days plus 3 extra wrapped presents. One for each day of December leading up to her actual birthday.

It sounds ambitious but hear me out - each box was filled with a little gift that I picked up in local stores or while away on trips. A pair of earrings from a market on Cape Cod; handwritten notes from my kids & my husband & I about why she is so awesome;  a bag of Mystic Tea from Mystic, Connecticut; chocolate truffles from Papa Chocolate; lip balm, hand lotion, a scented candle; a necklace all the way down to kitschy gifts from the dollar store. 

I have to say it was a lot of fun to look for tiny gifts that would fit into a 2"x 2" box

 and it was even more fun surprising her with it!

She loved it!

So the idea of the Celebration Calendar was born!

I found the mass produced advent calendars available to buy a little restrictive because of the box sizes and only having 25 boxes. This is where having a creative carpenter for a dad really comes in handy. Any size wood box for any number of boxes. It's awesome and so much fun!

My most recent custom box was made for my very good friend and Halloween queen, Nicole Wright.

She wanted a 31 day calendar for Halloween because who wouldn't want 31 days of spooky & creepy fun every day of October?!?

So with graph paper, pencil and Eileen Hull's XL ScoreBoard Box & Cubes dies I was ready to start designing a 31 day Halloween Calendar.

 I can't wait to see what Nicole does with the blank canvas ~~~ I know its going to be amazing!

I have to give a huge thanks to my Dad for his time & patience. I am always so amazed that he can take my ideas and bring to life in 3D!

Check out his Facebook page to see his custom made furniture & home decor...

Shuttleworth's Carpentry & Custom Furniture

Thanks for checking out my blog today!

~~~stay crafty~~~

julia