So this week's Make it Monday finally suckered me into trying water coloring for the first time. I watched Dawn McVey's video and figured it looked easy enough! I made a trip to Michael's and got me some watercolor paints and brushes.

I needed a little inspiration to get me started, so I browsed my Color Palette board on Pinterest, and came across this one....what a beauty, right?!?! I just LOVE LOVE LOVE those colors...

source

...and I just LOVE LOVE LOVE how this came out!!! Let me tell you, I never realized how relaxing water coloring is!! As a crafter and artist all my life, I've always gotten such an awesome feeling after transforming a plain, white piece of paper into something so colorful and beautiful! It was so fun watching the colors blend together as I painted each one. I will definitely be doing more of this in the near future!

After embossing the sentiment with clear powder, I started at the top with the lightest paint color and worked my way down, slightly overlapping each color onto the previous color. Once dried, one corner was punched with a corner rounder, as was the card base, and adhered securely to the base. That's it! Easy peasy!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Supplies: 
Stamps: PTI - Think Big Favorites #3
Cardstock: PTI - White
Ink: VersaMark clear embossing ink
Other: Clear embossing powder, Watercolor Paints (Michael's), SU - Corner Rounder punch

PTI MIM #152 - Layering Dye & Pigment Inks

Man, it's been quite a while since I joined in on Papertrey's Make it Monday. I thought this week's was pretty cool, so I made time to get crafty!

I stuck with my usual CAS style, and used the ink layering technique on the three large butterflies. When I tested it out on a scrap piece of cardstock, the craft color ink showed the white dots much better, and so did the pink ink. Unfortunately, on this piece, it didn't show up as well. I think this technique takes some practice and experimenting to master, because I had a hard time getting it to really show with certain ink colors. Anyone have any tips for me?

Anyway, the card base is stamped with mini butterflies along the edges. The next layer is embossed with a chevron embossing folder. For the focal point and ink layering technique, I repeatedly stamped the dot image from the Grunge Me stamp set, going from left to right across the panel. Once it was dry, I stamped each of the butterflies on top of the white pigment ink. Finally, the birthday sentiment was added in black ink. Oh, and the two corners of the focal panel have rounded corners.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: 
Stamps: PTI -Beautiful Butterflies, Grunge Me (polka dots), Quilled Elegance (sentiment)
Cardstock: PTI - White
Ink: SU - Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black; PTI - Classic Kraft, Royal Velvet
Other: Stampin' Up! Embossing folder - Chevron; Corner Rounder Punch, Foam tape

Papertrey Ink MIM #140

This week's Papertrey Make it Monday is Ink Pad designs. I have several different brands of ink pads in my collection, and I combined them to create this masculine CAS birthday card.

Thanks for taking a look!

Supplies
Stamps: PTI - Happy Birthday Mini
Cardstock: PTI - White; SU - Basic Black
Ink: PTI - Classic Kraft; Stampin' Up! - Cranberry Crisp, Baja Breeze; TH Distress - Faded Jeans, Pumice Stone
Other: PTI buttons; Black Embossing Powder; Foam Tape

PTI Makie it Monday #62 - Step it Up: Layering

I'm thrilled to have had some time to participate in this week's PTI Make it Monday! I sure learned some great tips from Betsy Veldman's video over on Nichole Heady's blog, so if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend you check it out!

I used the Mat Stack 5 Collection stamp set...one of my Favorite. Stamp. Sets. Of. All. Time! :) I don't think I will EVER get tired of using it!

So, the first one is a one layer card. It's actually very simple. I used the large label stamp, and stamped it 3 times so it bleeds off the bottom edge.

Do you recognize the Congrats stamp? Well, it's from the Signature Greetings set, but it says "Congrats You Did It!". I didn't want the "you did it!" part, so I masked off those words with a post-it note, and then finished off the "g" with a black marker!

For the second card, I found some great black and white striped paper in my stash that I thought was perfect! On top of that, I layered a smaller panel of cardstock with the main design and sentiment. For the label images, I diecut all three, and popped up the middle one with foam dimensionals. For an added touch, black pearl stickers were added to the top corners.

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear your feedback on this MIM! Have a great week!

Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Mat Stack 5 Collection, Signature Greetings
Cardstock: PTI -White
Patterned Paper: Be & My Big Ideas

Ink: SU - Purely Pomegranate, So Saffron; StazOn - Black

Other: PTI - Mat Stack 5 Die; Pearl Stickers; Dimensionals

PTI MIM #57, Colored Kissing

Whew! I finally got a chance to sit down and do some stampin' for this weeks' Make it Monday challenge! It's gettin' late, so I'll get right down to it!

Stamp sets used (all PTI): Modern Basics, Background Basics: Diamonds, & Think Big Favorites #12

Thanks for stopping by for a visit! I appreciate any and all feedback! Have a great week!

PTI Make it Monday #49: Ghost Masking

Hey blog friends! I've got a new card to share with you today. It's time for PTI Make it Monday #49: Ghost Masking. I've never heard of this technique before, so I was very curious as I watched Betsy Veldman demonstrate how to do this technique (and her card is just beautiful)! It's actually very simple. If you haven't already, you can check it out here.

I used two stamp sets: Mat Stack 2 Collection (all the black areas on the top panel), and Giga Guide Lines (tealish color images). Hopefully you can see in the pic that the teal stamps inside the circle are lighter, or "ghosted", compared to the area outside the circle. This way, the sentiment is not overpowered by the pattern behind it! I absolutely LOVE how this card turned out! What about you? What do you think?! I would love to hear your feedback.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!!

Stamps: PTI - Mat Stack 2 Collection, Giga Guide Lines
Cardstock: PTI - White
Patterned Paper: Me and My Big Ideas, DCWV
Ink: SU - Baja Breeze; Tsukineko - Jet Black
Die: PTI - Mat Stack 2 Collection
Other: PTI-Hawaiian Shores Satin Ribbon, True Black Grosgrain Ribbon; Maya Road - Trinket Pin; Recollections: Black rhinestones