Watercolor Stamped Rose Tutorial with Dana Kirby

Hey there, it's Julie! Today I'm happy to welcome Dana Kirby back to our blog. In this blog post, Dana shares her stamped rose watercolor tutorial. Dana used her watercolors and the Sending Roses stamps and the matching Sending Roses dies to create such a sweet card! (These stamps and dies are the May additions to the Greenhouse Society Collection.)

Hi Friends! It is Dana here today sharing a card using the gorgeous Sending Roses Stamp Set from the May release.

I started my card by stamping my rose image in black ink and water coloring it with a pale blue and green watercolor. I used a lot of water, and just kept adding color until I got my desired look. Next, I used the Sending Roses dies to die cut my rose image. I set this aside and began working on my card design.

I started by die cutting the large Essential Stitched Labels Crafting Die from light gray cardstock for my center label. Next, I die cut Sending (included with the Sending Roses die set) from medium gray cardstock. I attached this to my label and stamped the rest of my sentiment (lots of love from the Sending Roses stamp set) underneath. I also added my rose image to my label at this time.

To finish my card, I used an aqua piece of patterned paper to create my card panel. I attached this to a medium gray mat before attaching it to my A2 card base. Lastly, I attached my label to my card front with foam adhesive.

Don't you just love this Sending Roses stamp set and dies? The image is gorgeous and the sentiments are definitely some of my favorites!

Dana's card is so beautiful, right? And her rose stamp tutorial using watercolors makes it so easy to replicate this card. If you aren't into watercolors, you might like my tutorial about how to color and add highlights to these stamped roses using alcohol markers. Or use the Sending Roses stamps and dies with any or all of your favorite coloring mediums. I hope Dana's card and these tutorials inspire you to make some beautiful stamped roses of your own!

P.S. If you're a member of the Greenhouse Society auto-ship program, you should already have received the Sending Roses products. Not a member? You can order these stamps and dies individually now. Or, if you'd like to save 25% off the Sending Roses, sign up to become a Greenhouse Society auto-ship member before the end of May!

Take a Blog Hoppin' Tour of the May Release!

Yay... it's finally time to talk about the May release! We've been so busy celebrating National Scrapbook Day that we haven't had time to say much about the new stamps and dies we released on May 1st. But that all changes today!

Today, Bev is sharing a quick video showing you all the beautiful butterflies, the lovely roses, and the snappy alligators and crocodiles. Watch her video to learn a little bit about each of the new products. Then make sure you visit each stop on the blog hop to see tons of project ideas!

Technique Tuesday - that's us, you're here!

Allison Arbour

Sheree Forcier

Yasmin Diaz

Ana Anderson

Jung AhSang

Natasha Kara

Dana Kirby

Amy Kolling

Latisha Yoast

Emily Leiphart

Kymona Tracey

Norine Borys

Nathalie DeSousa 

Seeka

Thanks so much for visiting and joining in on the blog hop!

How to Color and Add Highlights to Stamped Roses with Alcohol Markers

Hello, Julie here, and today I'm sharing a new tutorial showing how to color stamped roses with alcohol markers. I used the new Sending Roses stamp set from the Greenhouse Society collection, and colored it with Copic markers. I'll show you how to add highlights to your stamped images with alcohol markers such as Copics. Watch the video, or if you'd rather, you can read through my rose coloring tutorial, below.

Step by Step!

I stamped my image using alcohol safe ink on Bristol Board, which I’ve been liking a lot as an all-round paper.

I started on the leaves first, using YG23, yellow green 23. I put down a flat covering layer on all the green areas - the leaves, stems, and sepals. For the tiny spaces, I used the chisel end of the pen.

Next was YG17 in the shadowy areas to add some dimension. Once I had my little touches of the darker color in, I went back in with the YG23 and did some very light and brief blending. I try not to blend too much when I’m working in small spaces like these leaves, because the less you blend, the less likely it is that your color is going to bleed outside your lines.

Once all the green was in and blended, I started in on the flowers with R35, and covered the whole flower, trying to follow the contours of the petals. I do this because there’s a chance that the pen strokes will show up, and if they’re moving in a direction that makes sense, it isn't as jarring. So on the leaves, I mostly brushed out from the base. In these petals, on the parts that are curled, I swept from one side of the petal to the other, following the curve of the petal. Then, for the parts that are flat (or flatter) I brushed up from the base. I’m not always successful in remembering this, but fortunately, this is the first layer, and will end up being mostly covered.

Once the base color was in, I went in with R29 and start the shadow areas.

Once I had all those in, I used the R35 to blend the color out a little. The second layer smoothed the borders of the R29, and added another level of intensity to the color – sort of an intermediate between the R29 and the first layer of R35. I used this middle layer to start the hints of highlights by not covering some of the areas to be highlighted.

Now I used the colorless blender to blend the edges of my colors out. The blender mostly moves the color around, since it’s just alcohol, with no color. It thins the color and will spread it around to a degree. I used this effect to create my highlights, by moving a bit of the red out of the way for the shine. I went back and forth a touch between the R35 and the blender, until I was happy with the highlights.

Then I used Y21 to warm up those highlighted areas. Because this yellow is such a light color, it could be used by itself to add the highlights if you either didn’t have the blender pen, or just didn’t want to use still another pen color. I like the blender for softening the lines between colors without adding more color.

And I went back and forth with marker colors a touch, until I was happy and had my finished stamped rose image, like this. I used the matching Sending Roses crafting die to die cut out my flowers. To finish my rose card, I cut out two labels from the Essential Stitched Labels crafting dies and then stamped a sentiment that was included in the rose stamp set. Then I added some patterned paper in the background and assembled my card.

I really enjoyed working on this project, getting to color the Sending Roses. Of course, these alcohol maker techniques will work on all kinds of flowers like those in the Greenhouse Society Collection. The Rhododendron Flower, Happy Hydrangea, and the Sweet Succulents would all work really nicely with the techniques you learned in the alcohol marker tutorial. In fact, I just might have worked on one of those for a card for my Mom for Mother's Day. ;)

I hope you saw something you can use on your next coloring project. Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

PS: If you are a member of the Greenhouse Society auto-ship program, we started shipping the Sending Roses products to you on Friday, 5/10.

Not a member? No problem! You can pre-order these stamps and dies individually now. Or, if you'd like to save 25% off the Sending Roses stamps (and the matching dies), sign up to become a Greenhouse Society auto-ship member!

Stamped Poppy Card or Meadow Flowers? You Decide!

Hi everyone! It's Julie and I'm here to welcome Amy Kolling to our blog. Today Amy is showing us a couple of sweet flower cards she made using the Meadow Flower stamps and matching dies and the Essential Stitched Labels Crafting Dies.

When I first saw this flower stamp set, I thought they would make amazing stamped poppy cards. But the leaves don't really match those on the poppy plant so we named it the Meadow Flower stamp set instead. Whether you color your stamped flowers to look like poppies, or make your flowers be some other color, the projects you make with these Meadow Flowers stamps and matching dies will be lovely!

Hello Technique Tuesday fans! Amy Kolling here to share a pair of clean and simple cards that feature one of the latest flowers in the Greenhouse Society Collection. These flower stamps and matching dies are named Meadow Flowers.

If you google Meadow Flowers, you will find gorgeous flowers in a multitude of colors. I black heat embossed the Meadow Flowers onto Bristol Smooth cardstock and colored my images with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (No. 021, 230, 052, 070, 047, 041). Using a waterbrush, I pulled the color upward to do some shading. The flowers were die cut using the coordinating Meadow Flowers Crafting Die.

I used black ink to stamp two different sentiments from the Meadow Flowers stamp set. Then I used the Essential Stitched Labels Crafting Dies to cut the sentiments out. The labels were adhered in the center to white top folding notecards and the Meadow Flowers were added with foam adhesive to the right. As final touches, a few white gems were added for some sparkle and the corners were rounded on each card.

Thanks for sharing a part of your day with me here at Technique Tuesday!

Amy

Aren't Amy's cards lovely? Her orange flower really looks like a stamped poppy to me. Both of her cards are just beautifully simple!

PS: Are you a member of the Greenhouse Society auto-ship program? If so, we shipped the Meadow Flowers to you in April. Not a member? You can order these stamps and dies individually now. Or you can order them together as a stamp and die bundle!

National Scrapbook Day FREEBIES plus a Blog Hop

Happy National Scrapbook Day (NSD) 2019! If you are a fan of Technique Tuesday, you may already know that we usually offer a free stamp set on this quirky, crafty holiday. And that is true this year too. But instead of designing one stamp set specifically for this day and only offering that stamp set as the freebie, this year you get to choose your own set of FREE stamps or dies!

Pretty awesome, right? And get ready for even more awesome-ness. We're also having a blog hop that features those free stamps and dies.

Our creative team, along with several guest designers, have a whole bunch of projects they made using the stamps and dies in the NSD freebie section. We hope you'll visit each of their blogs and leave some comments for them along the way!

Nathalie DeSousa
Yasmin Diaz
Allison Arbour
Norine Borys
Dana Kirby
Kymona Tracey
Emily Leiphart
Seeka
Latisha Yoast
Jung AhSang
Ana Anderson
Technique Tuesday (that's us, you're here!)

If you haven't met Julie yet (or watched one of her videos), you are missing out. She works here at TTWHQ (Technique Tuesday World Headquarters) and does most of our graphics. Julie has a wonderful, quirky sense of humor along with amazing coloring abilities. When she showed me this card, I started asking her questions about what she used to color the brand-new Sending Roses image. Then I noticed the sentiment and started laughing. It's from the You Aren't Normal stamp set, which is one of the products you can choose as your FREEBIE!

I hope you saw some cards, bookmarks, gift tags, or scrapbook layouts you like while you were on this blog hop!

It's easy... here's how:

1. Go to our website and put $30 of other products in your cart.
2. Go to the National Scrapbook Day category on our website and choose your free stamp set or set of dies.
3. When you check out, enter the coupon code: NSD19

The charges for your FREEBIE will be removed from your order.

I hope you enjoyed seeing all the new projects from the creative team. And I hope you find some time this NSD weekend to make some projects of your own!

PS: Looking for a good place to start shopping? Here are some ideas:

	The May release includes butterflies, roses, and crocodiles. Sounds interesting, right? Click here to see it for yourself!
	Are you a scrapbooker? See all the stamps and dies designed just for you. After all it is NSD!
	Are you ready for Mother's Day? We've pulled together a collection of products that are perfect for cards and tags.
	Graduation season is coming up fast. Here's a link to all things grad!
	Are you on a tight budget? Check out the On Sale New section!

Beautiful Stamped Flower Cards

Good morning! Julie here. Today I am welcoming Ana back to our blog. Ana used this month's Meadow Flowers stamp set and alcohol markers to make this absolutely beautiful flower card. Be still my heart! Read on...I promise you'll be inspired to make some stamped flower cards too!

Hello crafty friends!

It’s Ana and I am back today with a card that features the gorgeous Meadow Flowers stamps. The stamps are the latest release in the Greenhouse Society Collection of flower stamps and matching dies!

When I saw this floral image, I literally ran into my craft room and stamped these beauties about 15 times! I have already made 4 cards out of the images I stamped, and I am sure I will be using all of them in a very near future.

These floral stamps are just asking to be colored, and today I am sharing a very simple alcohol marker coloring process.

I started with cutting a piece of heavyweight cardstock to 5” x 10” and scoring it at 5”. Next, I cut a piece of marker paper to 4 ¾ x 4 ¾ and using my stamp positioner, stamped the sentiment in the center and Meadow Flowers image in all four corners with alcohol marker friendly ink.

I colored the stems first with Copic markers using a 3-color blend (G99, G94 and G21).

For the flowers I used 4-color blend (AP1, AP2, AP3 and AP4) and colored them with Spectrum Noir markers.

For the stamen I chose dark yellow color I thought would look most realistic and work with the color of the flowers (below is a close up).

Once the images were colored, I added craft foam to the back of the panel and adhered it to a piece of black layering cardstock, then adhered the completed piece to the card base.

For a little bit of shine and interest, I added glass droplets.

This beautiful floral stamp set also has a matching set of dies called the Meadow Flowers Crafting Dies. I haven’t used them for today’s project, but you'll find a ton of project ideas on the TechniqueTuesday.com website using both the Meadow Flower stamps and dies. 😊

Thank you so much for stopping by today and until next time I wish you Happy Crafting!

Oh, such a lovely stamped flower card! I love the rich colors she used to color the flowers framing the sentiment. I hope you're inspired to go and make a gorgeous flower card like this with the Meadow Flowers stamp set, or one of the other flowers in the Greenhouse Society collection.

PS: Greenhouse Society members, we shipped the Meadow Flowers to you earlier this month. I hope you get them out and make a stamped flower card like this one!

Not a member? April is nearly over. That means you only have 2 days left to save 25% off the Meadow Flowers stamps (and matching dies). After that they go back up to the regular price. Click to learn more about the Greenhouse Society program and how you can save on 25% off your flower stamps and dies!

How to Color Stamped Images with Pencils on Toned Gray Paper

Hello, Julie here! Today I’m sharing tip about how to use colored pencils with stamped images on toned gray paper. I used the new Meadow Flower stamp set, but these colored pencil blending techniques would work great on any of the flower stamps in the Greenhouse Society collection. I love the Meadow Flower stamp set because it’s so versatile and looks great in so many different colors. Today I’m going to be coloring it a bit like a California poppy. I’m a California girl, and I love that state flower. Watch the video tutorial, or read through the photo tutorial below, if you prefer.

Using Colored Pencils on Toned Gray Paper

So, I have my image stamped on gray toned paper, using a waterproof ink. And I have my Prismacolor pencils, a small brush, and my ever important coffee mug ;)

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Because I’m working on gray toned paper, I’m going to start with a layer of a light color. That could have been white, but this time, I’m going to start the project out on the warm side, and use canary yellow. I’m just going to cover the entire flower with it.

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Once I’m done with that, I’ll move on to yellowed orange. This will go in almost everywhere the yellow did, because, of course, it’s going to be orange, like a California Poppy. It’ll have yellow highlights, but will be mostly orange.

Next is a smaller layer of orange. This is going to start out in the shadowy areas for now. Later I will cover more of the flower with this, but I want to start out slow. I find that it’s easier to add more of a dark color later, than it is to try and layer on a lighter color if I get it too dark.

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Once I’ve got the shadows started, I’ll move to poppy red (fitting, right?) in the darkest parts of the shadowed areas.

Once I’ve got that, I’m going to go back and forth a good bit to get the colors to balance just the way I want them to. I use the yellowed orange to blend and smooth the poppy red, and then add more canary yellow to blend that, and so on.

This paper is really nice for building up color, but I always make sure I’m using my small circles and thinking about my pressure. As the project develops, it gets harder and harder to get another layer of color to stick, and you may have to use more pressure. Just think about how hard you’re pressing, and don’t go crazy – I try to remember to increase that pressure slowly.

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And I’ll keep going until I’ve got all three flowers, a bit like this.

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Now for the leaves. Once again, I’m starting with a layer of light. First is yellow chartreuse, all over. With the stems I’m switching it up, and going from the lightest color to the darkest – in this case dark green. I’m just going to go in with a very very light layer, only in the parts I want to be shadowed.

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Next is spring green, and I use it to blend the dark green into the yellow chartreuse and to sort of bridge the gap between them. On to apple green, back to dark green, then spring green, back and forth and back and forth with a bit of chartreuse thrown in for good measure.

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And here is my finished piece.

It was fun to work with the gray toned paper, colored pencils and stamps because the color really pops, even without a huge range of color. I’m excited about playing with other color combinations, like this blue version, which I’ll finish and make into a card or something soon.

I hope you saw something you can use on your next project. If you have any questions or thoughts, please leave me a comment. I love hearing from you!

PS: If you are a member of the Greenhouse Society auto-ship program, we shipped the Meadow Flowers to you earlier this month.

Not a member? You can order these stamps and dies individually now. Or, if you'd like to save 25% off the Meadow Flowers stamps (and the matching dies), sign up to become a Greenhouse Society auto-ship member before the end of this month!

Ink Smooshing Technique - Featuring the Meadow Flowers

Hi all! Julie here to welcome Dana Kirby back to our blog. Today she's sharing an ink smooshing tutorial with us. To make her bright, beautiful cards, she used an acrylic block, the Meadow Flower Stamp Set, the Essential Stitched Labels Dies, and some Distress Inks. I can't wait to try this block printing technique with the Meadow Flowers myself!

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Good Morning and Welcome! It is Dana here today sharing a couple of cards made using this month's Meadow Flowers stamp set. This is such a gorgeous flower stamp set with so many possibilities.

To begin my card, I created my backgrounds. I used Distress Ink and a clear acrylic block. I smooshed the ink onto my clear block and spritzed my block with water. For my first card, I used Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink. The little cubes are the perfect size for this acrylic block stamping technique.

Next, I flipped the block over onto a piece of watercolor paper. I placed something heavy (to apply light pressure) on my block and let it sit for a few minutes. Once I removed my block, I used a paper towel to pick up any extra water left behind.

Once my background was dry I began working on my card design. I stamped the flower with black ink onto my card panel. Next, I added clear embossing powder to the flower images for some added shine. I attached my card panel to a black cardstock mat.

I stamped my sentiment onto a label from the Essential Stitched Labels Crafting Dies. Finally, I attached everything to an A2 card base.

For my next card, I used Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, and Twisted Citron Distress Ink for my background. I once again stamped the flower image and applied clear embossing powder. This time I added the sentiment directly to my card panel to keep things clean and simple. I once again added a black mat and then attached everything to an A2 card base.

I hope you enjoyed my cards today and give this ink smooshing technique a try. It is definitely a favorite of mine.

~Dana

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Thanks, Dana, for sharing this block printing technique with us, and for making these beautiful cards with the Meadow Flowers stamp set.

PS: If you are a member of the Greenhouse Society auto-ship program, we shipped the Meadow Flowers to you last week.

Not a member? You can order these stamps and dies individually now. Or, if you'd like to save 25% off the Meadow Flowers stamps (and the matching dies), sign up to become a Greenhouse Society auto-ship member before the end of this month!

It's April Reveal Day!

Tam & Julie here, to let you know that we are not fooling around today. We have our super-duper serious faces on, and will not stand for any kind of tom-foolery. Nor any Tam-foolery! But Julie-foolery is just fine. ;)

But seriously, we're not joking when we say that these new stamps and dies are gorgeous! Bev will tell you all about it in her new release video, below. You've probably been following along with our sneak peeks of the Monkey Business, Growing Garden, Garden Sentiments, and Meadow Flowers, but now you get to see everything!

Cool, right?

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Plus, Don't Miss The Blog Hop!

Our creative team, along with several guest designers, have a whole bunch of projects that they're sharing with you, too. We hope you'll visit each of their blogs and leave some comments for them along the way!

Technique Tuesday (that's us, you're here!)
Seeka
Dana Kirby
Ashley Horton
Ana Anderson
Kymona Tracey
Allison Arbour
Daniela Dobson
Amy Kolling
Latisha Yoast
Norine Borys
Yasmin Diaz

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We hope you enjoyed watching Bev's video, and seeing all the projects along the blog hop. If you saw some new stamps or dies that you like, head on over to the website and snag your own copies. We've included the links below!

April Sneak Peek #3 is All Ready for Spring!

So April's showers are supposed to bring May flowers, but we decided to get a jump on Mother Nature with today's sneak peek. You get some of those May flowers now!

The April entry into the Greenhouse Society Collection is the Meadow Flower. It's going to be one of the most versatile flowers in your craft room, since it can be pretty much any color your heart desires! For example, it looks lovely when the flowers are colored in the style of a Morning Glory, and brightly cheerful when colored orange like a California Poppy. I cannot wait to see what you come up with for these sweet little blooms.

The Meadow Flower will be shipped to all Greenhouse Society auto-ship members in April. Not an auto-ship member? Well don't worry, we've got you covered! You can pre-order the Meadow Flowers starting tomorrow. Or you could look into becoming a member, and having that little package to look forward to every month. Learn about all of the benefits of being a Greenhouse Society auto-ship member!

Join us tomorrow to see all the new products, watch Bev's new release video, and take a tour of the monthly design team blog hop! Our designers have been working hard and I've been seeing some absolutely gorgeous projects coming from them.

See you soon!