Canvasette: Cornucopia card on canvasette with markers

Couldn't resist one more.....I am loving this canvasette paper!!!  Here's card two:

Can you tell I'm in FALL MODE?  I love everything about fall....the cool, crisp air, colorful leaves, fall foods, fall clothes, the smells and sounds.....everything!  I'm even more into spending time in my craft room.....stamping fall scenes, of course!  Gotta love all those rich, earthy colors and textures!

Hope you get to try this canvasette paper soon.  See my previous blog for the first card and details.

Blessings,

lynda

Technique Tuesday - Fall Still Life Canvasette

I was poking around in Michael's Craft store a while ago, and came across this pad of card stock weight paper with the texture of canvas.  It's called Canvasette, and looks and feels much like canvas that oil painters use.  I thought I would give it a try.  Here's my card:

 

I was really pleased with the look, and thought it looked rather like an oil painting.  If you click on the picture of the card, it will enlarge it, and you can see the canvas-like texture a little better.  In person, it really makes you wonder if it is, indeed, an oil or acrylic painting!

I started by stamping my image with permanent ink - I used Ranger's Sepia archival ink.  I chose the sepia, so that the outlines would be less noticeable than if I stamped with the standard black outline.  I felt this sepia gave the image a more oil-painted look.   

I then just started 'coloring' with Tombow water-based markers, blending and shading as I colored.  That's it!!!  It's that easy.  The paper does all the work.  I added some sponging to give it an aged look and soften it a little.

The stamp is one of my old favorites from Art Impressions.

Next time you're in Michael's, stop in the art department and pick up a pad of this canvasette and try it out.  You'll be amazed at how easy it is to create this look.

Blessings,

lynda

Technique Tuesday - Halloween Cards With Mesh

I was rifling through my stash, and found some pieces of mesh fiber "paper" that I just had to play with.  This isn't really paper, per say, but fibers that are woven together to create a piece of woven material that makes terrific backgrounds or accents for cards and/or scrapbook pages.

I was thinking halloween (already, right?  I know), and here's what I came up with:

I decided to keep the cards similar by using the same papers and colors.  The first card uses some black mesh material.  I used orange ink on the happy halloween, and tapped some black ink here and there.  A simple tag die cut, with some eyelets (remember those?) and checked ribbon complete the look.

On the second card, I chose white mesh.  The tag was hand cut, and the bats were from a punch.  I added some pen stitch lines on the white panel across the front of the card.

So, that's it for today.  Keeping it simple with two easy, clean halloween cards.

Blessings,

lynda

Technique Tuesday - Soldier/Flag Card With Distress Inks

I was inspired for this card this past weekend when hubby and I spent an evening down at the beach to see the flags commemorating the brave fire fighters who lost their lives on 9/11.  I remembered the gorgeous stamps I purchased at the recent stamp convention in Rochester.  These stamps are available from Our Daily Bread HERE. 

 I used ODB stamps with Tim Holtz distress inks - weathered wood, aged mahogany, and brushed corduroy.  I inked the stamps with the inks, then stamped onto ivory card stock.  Going for a distressed look, I sponged the brushed corduroy along the edges, and used my Making Memories distress tool along the edges.
I finished with a Spellbinder's die and distressing, and some twill.  The cause ribbon at the top was created by rubbing my weathered wood stamp pad directly onto the twill (I cut the twill in half lengthwise to make it more narrow).

 

My friend, Arlene, bought one set, and I bought another.  We got together to stamp this weekend, and used each other's goodies and had so much fun.  I created this distressed version, and Arlene created an entirely different looking card with the same stamps! 
Do stop by Arlene's blog to check out her take with these awesome stamps.  You can find Arlene's blog
HERE  at SundayStamperPapercrafts.blogspot.com.

Blessings,

lynda

Technique Tuesday - Deep Marker Coloring

I'm baaaack!  Thanks for all the emails and concern about my welfare.  All is well, I just got a little overwhelmed with my new job, our home remodeling, the heat, a golf club to the forehead, and the kids moving week.  Whew, I'm reeling just thinking about it all! 

But, though I've been sporadic for a couple of weeks, rest assured, I'm here to stay!  And I'm missing my stamping and blogging BIG TIME!!  I am looking forward to this coming weekend to play with some of the new stamps and dies I purchased at the rubber stamp show here in Rochester last week. 

For this week's technique, I'm pulling out a card I did for a class a few years ago at the store.  This giraffe or any similar stamp is the perfect image for this deep coloring technique.  To begin, stamp image onto good quality white or light card stock.  Emboss with black.  For the giraffe, I chose a very light shade of tan Tombow marker, and "colored" the entire giraffe with the lightest color.  Working fairly quickly, I took the next darker shade, just a hint of brown, and added that shade, starting on the left side of the neck, face, and horns.  I used a Dove blending marker to blend the two colors together where they meet.  I continued on with the next darker color, and finally finished with the darkest shade of brown, using just a bit of it to show shading.  After each color was added I went in with the Dove blender and blended the line where the two colors met.

 TIP:  When finished coloring with markers, heat set slightly (not too much as you don't want to melt the embossing).  This will "set" the color so that it doesn't continue bleeding into the fibers of the paper, causing it to fade.That's it!!!  

Close-up of marker work

Easy-peasy, right?  The key is to not be afraid to use color and add the deep shades.  That is where you will get the contrast that makes your image "pop!"

See you next week with one of my new stamps and another technique!

Blessings,

lynda