Hi Everyone! This is Bev. Today we are welcoming the very creative Ana Anderson to our blog! I am so glad you are joining us. And you're going to be happy too when you see Ana's beautiful classic card and her step-by-step instructions! Take it away, Ana.
When I first saw this Fresh Peonies stamp set I couldn’t wait to color it with as many coloring mediums as I could think of. For today’s card I chose to watercolor this beautiful image with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.
To start I stamped the image with Versafine Onyx Black ink and chose the marker colors I would be using on it – Dark Pink and Light Pink for the flowers and Mid Green, Pale Green and Deep Green for the leaves.
Hello, Julie here. Today I am sharing a video showing you how to use masking to create a watercolor background on a flower card. (I've also made a step-by-step tutorial of the same project, in case you would rather read than listen.) I used the the Kind Cosmo stamp set for my card but this technique would work well with many of the stamp sets in the Greenhouse Society Collection.
Step-by-Step Tutorial
Starting Out
To begin I stamped my Kind Cosmo image on watercolor paper with waterproof ink.
Marking the background
First step was figuring out and marking where I wanted my background to be. I used a ruler that has a zero in the middle on one side, so I could keep things symmetrical. I decided that I wanted my masked background to be two inches wide. I centered the ruler at the top of the page, marked it at 1 inch on each side of the zero, and then I marked the same points down at the bottom. Next was the height of the masked area. I decided that the masked area should be 2.5 inches tall, and that it didn’t need to be centered top to bottom, so I centered the ruler vertically on the side, then looked at my zero and marked 1 inch below zero, and 1.5 inches above. I marked that on each side, and then used the ruler to find and mark where the lines intersected with little tiny pencil marks. I didn’t want those marks to be very big or dark, so they’d erase easily later.
Next was the masking part. I took my washi tape, and stuck it down just over those little marks, so that it barely covered them. This is so that when it came time to remove the mask and erase the lines, I wasn't erasing through paint. I put down all four sides and pressed the tape down to seal it. I sealed it well enough that paint couldn’t get under it, but not so well that when I removed it I tore the paper.
Starting the Gradation
Once the masking was done, I was ready to start my painting. I wanted my background to be sort of a gradient from green to blue. I got my watercolors set up, along with my handy dandy water pen, and a piece of paper towel. I started out with my water wash. I didn't start out all that precisely, because it’s just open background space, but I did get precise when I came to around the edges of the flowers. I wanted them to be white, which is why I decided to do a background – so they’d stand out, and not look like I just didn’t bother to color.
Turquoise Next!
I took the green about half way up, and then started in with the turquoise. I started with the wash, and as I went I took the opportunity to touch up a bit of the green that didn’t go on quite as smoothly as I would have liked. I overlapped the green a bit to get a smooth gradation, adding a little green to the turquoise. Once again, I went more slowly and precisely around the edges of the flowers. I spread the turquoise to about three quarters of the way up the background. I went back in around the edges of the flowers and darkened the color up just a touch to add contrast.
I kept an eye on it as it dried, since as I go back over previous colors, sometimes I end up with uneven spots. When that happens, I just go back in with my color and touch things up.
Dark Blue
I started in on my darker, bluer blue next, beginning with the water wash before the blue. I got tired of adding blue slowly, so I added a bit more water to my blue paint block, and picked up a lot of color on my brush. Because I got my water wash in really well, I could just touch my brush to the page, and my extra intense load of color flowed from the corner beautifully. I may have put a bit too much color in here, but I just used my brush and clean water to pick up and spread it out a bit. If I had decided that this was too much color to spread around, I could have used a dry paper towel to blot it up while it was still super wet, and then started over again.
And because I had such an intense bit of blue here, I added a bit more of the turquoise to balance the intensity.
Yellow Centers
Next were the centers. First the water wash, and then I went in to the centers of the flowers, adding a bit of yellow to each. As Bev has pointed out, cosmos come in all kinds of colors, but they all have a nice yellow center. So you can be pretty creative with the color of the petals, and as long as it has the yellow center, you’re good. I added a little bit of orange for some shading, and kept going on it. I went back into the colors, adding a bit more color, smoothing and spreading the color some more, and then darkened the color around the flowers for some extra contrast.
The Unmasking!
Next I very carefully took off my masking tape. I went very slowly so I could stop if the paper started to tear, and I pulled it off at a very sharp angle, which seems to help avoid the tearing.
Clean Up
After the tape was all off, I took a clean eraser (clean is important, as a dirty eraser can leave marks) and removed my little marks. The corner marks are most important, because I planned to cut the paper down to go on my card and would end up cutting off the marks on the edges anyway. I went around and erased all the marks.
Finishing
As you can see, my example piece has been cut down to about 4 by 5.25 inches, and put on a 4.25 by 5.5 inch card front. My final piece is on the right. I really had fun with this project!
I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about masking a background and that you can use something like this on your next project. Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Thursday Morning Everyone! This is Bev here with a quick introduction. Today I am happy to welcome Yasmin Diaz to the Technique Tuesday blog. Yasmin is an amazing card making artist. I know you will enjoy seeing her tutorial and the beautiful cards she made with the new Fresh Peonies stamps and matching dies!
Hi everyone, Yasmin here. Today I’m thrilled to be sharing these friendship cards that I created featuring the Fresh Peonies Stamp Set and Fresh Peonies Crafting Dies. They were so much fun and easy to make, so in today’s post I’ll be sharing with how I white heat embossed, and water colored them! Without further ado, let’s jump into the tutorial.
To begin with I started by scoring two A2 standard size white card bases, and I set them aside while I started working on the card panels. For the first card I white heat-embossed the peony cluster directly on the watercolor card panel, and I water colored with coral and green tones. Then, to make it stand out, I added a touch of light blue to the background. Once the water coloring was dry I gold heat-embossed one of the sentiments, and to finish it off I adhered the back of it with double sided tape to one of the white card bases.
For the second card I white heat embossed the peonies on a piece of watercolor paper, then I water colored it with orange and green tones. Once the water coloring was done, I set it aside while I ran though the die cutting machine a piece of gold mirrored card stock along with the Friend die included in the fresh peonies crafting dies, as I wanted to combine the ‘Friend’ word with one of sentiments from the stamp set. For the card layout I adhered the friend word in one of the lower sides of the card, and then I gold heat embossed one of the sentiments underneath it. Finally, I used the Fresh Peonies crafting die to die cut the peonies cluster. And to finish it off I adhered the peony cluster above the sentiment, and I adhered the card panel to the other white card base.
Here is a closer look on the die cutting and heat embossing along with the water coloring using the beautiful Fresh Peonies stamps and crafting dies.
I hope you had a great time here with me, and most of all that you get a bit of inspiration from the cards that I shared today. Thank you and happy crafting.
Written by Yasmin Diaz. All photography provided by Yasmin Diaz.
Hi everyone. This is Bev. I have been having a lot of fun playing with the Build a Birdhouse crafting dies and I have so many tips I want to share with you for using them. You can watch the video, or keep reading to make sure you see all the project ideas and see all the tips too!
Tip 1: Don't Cut Apart Your Dies!
Now my first tip may seem a little odd. I recommend that you leave these dies connected. In other words, don’t nip apart the connectors between each of these dies. Here is why. First, some of these dies are small and easy to lose. Second, these birdhouse pieces are designed to be mixed and matched in a bunch of different colors. Since none of these dies are nested just leave the dies connected and make lots of die cut roofs, perches, and birdhouses. And don't forget that in addition to cardstock and patterned paper, these dies will cut out felt, thin chipboard, cork, thin wood paper, fabric, and more. Those unusual materials make great birdhouse parts!
Tip 2: Keep All the Extra Die-Cut Birdhouse Pieces!
My next tip is don’t throw away the extra birdhouse pieces. Instead keep them together for future projects. Here at the Technique Tuesday offices, we keep the dies in a plain envelope and we keep all those pieces in that same envelope with the dies. Having all these extra birdhouse pieces in one place makes it easy to create a quick card, gift tag or scrapbook layout later.
Tip 3: Use a Glue Pen or Fine Tip Adhesive Applicator!
Once you’ve picked out the pieces you are going to use for a specific project, you need to adhere them together. If you are working with paper, I recommend using a glue pen to adhere small, die-cut pieces together. I prefer this Quickie Glue Pen. A high-quality glue pen lets you add a small amount of glue right where you need it and dries clear too.
If you are working with more porous materials, like felt or chipboard, you’ll need a stronger adhesive and more of it. For these porous materials, I prefer this On Point Glue. Now the first thing I like about the On Point Glue is that it has a very fine tip that lets me get the glue where I want it to be. It also has a little pieces of metal, really a pin, inside the lid that slides down into the tip to keep it from clogging. And the adhesive is pretty strong so it will keep these heavier materials together better.
Tip 4: Make the Entrances Look Dark and Shadowy!
Once you have those pieces adhered, you need to decide what to do about the hole in the front of the birdhouse. Now, one option is to leave the hole open. But I wanted it to look dark and shadowed, so here’s how I do that. I cut out a piece of black or dark shadow colored cardstock. Then I adhere it to the back of the birdhouse. Not only does this provide the shadow color, the dark piece is actually behind the birdhouse so it adds just a bit of dimensional interest too.
Tip 5: Cut Down Your Birdhouses!
Another tip is that these die-cut birdhouses are designed to be cut down. We made them this way so that you could adjust the size to fit better on your specific project. Plus being able to make different sized birdhouses lets you make more visually interesting projects. To make different-sized birdhouses, just trim off the bottom of the one-hole or three-hole birdhouse die cuts. Then add roofs or perches!
Tip 6: Cut Out Some White Pieces and Add Patterns!
My final tip is to also consider die-cutting out some birdhouse pieces from white cardstock or watercolor paper. You can use a fine tip pen to add a wood grain pattern or some other pattern to your birdhouses. Or use your favorite coloring medium to add shadows and highlights. For example, Tam used Copic markers to make it look like there are red shingles or corrugated steel on the roof of this die-cut birdhouse accent.
I hope you enjoyed these tips and projects featuring the Build a Birdhouse dies. And I hope you are inspired to go make some cards, gift tags, or accents for your scrapbook pages using some of your own die-cut birdhouses.
PS: The Build a Birdhouse dies are part of our Fresh Cut Studio Collection of Crafting Dies which are all less than $10. And if you become a member of the Fresh Cut Studio auto-ship program, you'll pay even less!
Hi Everyone! This is Bev. I am so excited to welcome Ashley Horton to our blog today. I have admired Ashley's traditional scrapbook layouts and Traveler's Notebook projects for a long time. When she agreed to be a Guest Designer for us, I knew we would see some awesome projects. I hope you enjoy Ashley's tutorial!
Hi there! I’m Ashley Horton, and I’m so excited to be a Guest Designer with Technique Tuesday during the months of March and April. Today, I am sharing a layout in my Traveler’s Notebook, using the Love Home Stamp Set. I love working with stamp sets, because they are so easy to use for any project you are creating, whether it’s Traveler’s Notebooks, cards, scrapbook layouts, etc.
I started my Traveler's Notebook layout with a large photo and paired it with a Pie Chart patterned paper in the TN insert. In the center of the Pie Chart, I stamped the "Life at Home" sentiment as the title of my layout. Sentiments in your stamp sets, can easily be used as the title for your project, and I love that you can use them over and over again. Then I added a little bit of journaling and embellishing to complete the left-hand side of the layout.
I thought it would be fun to include some stamping on the photo, so I used the Oval & Rectangle Stitched Label Dies with a rainbow patterned paper. I loved that the rainbow patterned paper coordinated with the Pie Chart colors. Then I stamped two sentiments in black ink, from the Love Home stamp set onto the die cut pieces. I placed one at the top right-hand side and one at the bottom left hand side of the photo. Placing the two stamped sentiments this way, helped to add great balance to my TN layout.
And I just couldn’t finish this TN layout, without using the cute bird house image from the stamp set. I knew it would be great to use it to create a fussy cut embellishment. I stamped the bird house in black ink on two different patterned papers. Next, I cut out the pieces and trimmed away the bottom portion of the bird house on one of the patterned papers. I adhered the roof to the other part of the bird house and then placed it at the top of the Pie Chart.
Hello, Julie here, with another coloring video! Today’s project uses the new Beautiful Narcissus stamp set and Copic markers. Copics are a fairly new medium for me, so I learned a lot as I prepared for this video. The first thing I learned was how to pronounce it – a little like cope-ic. I even went to the official website to watch a video just to hear how they pronounced it. I still think it looks like it should rhyme with topic, but oh well.
Step-By-Step Instructions For Coloring the Beautiful Narcissus image with Copic Markers
If you'd like to print out step-by-step instructions, here they are. Or bookmark this page for future reference!
I stamped my image on multimedia paper here, with a water-based ink. Because many waterproof inks are alcohol-based, they don’t work so well with the alcohol-based Copic markers. It just blends into the color you’re adding. So, water-based inks are our friends here.
I started with the greens. I found the color system easy to navigate, with the help of the Copic Marker site’s color chart and explanation. I chose three colors in the yellow green family - YG21, YG23, and YG25. I started with the lightest color, YG21, and filled in all the leaves and stems. After that, I put in shadows with the medium color, YG23. Then I used the darkest color, YG25, very sparingly in the very darkest spots. I will say that the stems here are fairly thin, so I didn’t do any detailed shading on them. Next, I went back to YG21 and used it as a blender. Now, I could have used an actual colorless blender to do this, but I didn’t really need to, as the lightest of the three colors worked well. This final layer blended the three colors a bit, and smoothed out any hard lines.
Next came the flowers. I used three markers from the yellow family – Y13, Y15, and Y19. I started with Y13, the lightest color, then the medium color, Y15, then the darkest, Y19, and finally went back in with the lightest and blended them. One of the things that have kept me from trying Copics in the past was the fact that when I started to put down color, like I did here with the light yellow, it would start out looking sort of muddy. Tam, here at the office, encouraged me to keep trying, and I came back to a trial piece that I hadn’t liked as I colored it, but which looked amazing once it was dry! So these yellows are going to dry to be nice and bright.
Next was the orange center. I used three in the yellow red family YR00, YR02, and YR04. Of course, I started with the lightest, and filled in the whole shape with it. Then the medium color went in, and because the lighter color is so light, I used a good bit of the medium. Next comes the darkest, which I used for just a couple of shadow touches. Finally, I used the lightest orange to blend them together.
Once the flowers are all done, I started on the puffballs, which Tam and I decided are thistles, so they’re blue. I started with B60, and just swirled it around on each of the bits of fluff. Next was a touch of B63 for the start of the shadows, and finally some B66 for the darkest bit. The blending here started out looking a bit muddy but dried nicely.
And lastly, I did the thistle stems in brown (I thought of them as dried thistles). Because these stems are thin, I once again only did the barest bit of color, avoiding any shading, because it got out of control when I tried too much detail with these.
Here is the final piece. I added a touch of the blue in the little tie at the bottom and now I’m ready to make a card or gift tag out of it. I’ll see about putting the finished product up on the website when I’ve finished it.
I hope you enjoyed seeing how I used Copic markers to color the Beautiful Narcissus image. And I hope you saw something you can use on your next project!
Hello, Julie here. In today’s video I’ll show you how I created some cool envelope art using the Joyous Juniper stamp set. The stamp set is part of our Greenhouse Society Collection of stamps and matching dies. I had a lot of fun with the Joyous Juniper stamps and am really looking forward to making more envelope art with it!
Step-By-Step Instructions For Making Envelope Art
If you'd like to print out step-by-step instructions, here they are. Or bookmark this page for future reference!
First, I stamped the image on the envelope using waterproof ink. Then I put a piece of chipboard into the envelope so that nothing could bleed through to the other side of the envelope, and to avoid any bumps from having creases or layers of the paper underneath. I got this piece from an old pad of list paper, but chipboard like this comes in all kinds of random packaging. Next I got out my water pen, my palette block, a piece of paper towel, and Distress Inks for the first half of this project. I spread my inks onto the pallet, a bit of Iced Spruce, and some Stormy Sky.
To start the coloring, I put down a water wash and then added color from my block. On this paper, the water wash is going to soak into the paper really quickly, so I had to do it in small batches. A little bit of water wash, and then color over that, then a little more water wash, and so on. This ink layer is just fairly flat color, starting with the Iced Spruce in the leaves and stems. This is just to provide sort of a background to the pencils. The color coverage just comes out smoother with a flat color background under the pencils.
On the berries, I did pretty much the same thing with the Stormy Sky, one berry at a time. Wash and then color, and repeat.
Next came the pencils. I started with brown and greens for the stems and needles. Light Umber went in first, and I put it in pretty lightly on the stems only.
Once the brown was in, I went into the needles with True Green, which is a sort of blue-tinted green. I just went into the ends of the needles with this, because I didn’t want to layer too much color on at once. Because this paper doesn’t have a lot of tooth, it’s possible that at some point the color won’t layer on any more.
After that was the warmer Apple Green along the base of the needles.
Next was the Olive Green, which went on the stems over the brown, as well as the very base of each needle, to provide some shadow. I went back and forth with these colors until I had something I really liked.
Then, I started in on the berries with the Peacock Blue. I went over the berries with light circles of the peacock. Next was the Ultramarine Blue, which set up the shadow areas.
A bit of Violet went in after that, to make the shadows nice and rich.
Once I got that in, I went back in with the Peacock blue pretty thickly over the lighter areas. It’s about the right color for the sort of smoky blue I wanted for my berries, so I wanted it to kind of take over. Next I went in with the white, over that second layer of Peacock blue and sort of smoothed it out, and lightened it up.
A little more ultramarine went into the shadows to blend them a little more, and then I started with the colorless blender.
With the blender, I tend to move from dark to light so that if I have color built up on the pencil, I don’t get an accidental blob of dark color in the light area. Somehow it’s easier to blend a lighter color into the shadows than it is to deal with dark in the light. You can also just wipe the color off the blender pencil between berries if you want, using the paper towel.
Last, I added a bit more white as a highlight or shine – that little ‘ting!’ This required a bit more pressure, because I’d built up so much color in this area already.
And I did all the berries like that, and ended up with something like this.
I placed a label die cut on the front of the envelope and sponged some ink around it to make a space for my friends’ names and well, a fake address. The thing I loved about using the Joyous Juniper Stamp is that it fit perfectly into the pointed envelope flap. I love that on the back flap you see this beautiful image, but on the front, you just get a hint of the image, while the space for the stamp is still free. You can add your return address here on the front, or on the back somewhere. Keep in mind that as you get more on the envelope, the more likely it is that it will have to be hand-canceled. This just costs a touch more in postage, but shouldn’t slow anything down too much.
Looking for a last minute Christmas project idea? One you can do with kids? Today we are sharing a snow globe ornament project made by Teri Anderson that features the Dani Deer Stamp Set and the matching dies. This project would work well with any of the Animal House stamps and dies. Choose your favorite cute critter and make a custom snow globe ornament for friends and family!
You will need:
Cute Critter that has been stamped and cut out
Plastic snow globe ornament jar
Bean bag filler
Tape
Step one: After you color and cut out your cute critter add “L” shaped paper tabs to the backside bottom.
Step Two: Glue or tape the tabs that are attached to your critter to the inside of the lid of your snow globe jar.
Step Three: Add a handful of bean bag filler to your jar and then screw on the lid with the cute critter attached. Now he’s on the inside of the jar.
Step Four: Using red tape, add fun & festive paper around the lid base for extra pop.
Step Five: Use ribbon or twine to embellish the top of your snow globe ornament.
Here is the finished snow globe ornament!
How cute is this?! I love how Teri added little snowflakes to Dani the Deer. I hope you enjoyed seeing how to make your own Christmas snow globe!
Isn't it fun when you get something that is all wrapped up with a ribbon and a bow! Whether it's for a birthday, anniversary, graduation, wedding, or Christmas, the Bow on the Border Crafting Die will let you add that special feeling to your next card. Here's a quick video introducing this new die. Plus check out the super-cool Bow on the Border projects from the Technique Tuesday Design Team! I think you are going to love all the crafty possibilities!
Do you ever wait until the last minute to put together a birthday or anniversary card? Here's a quick fix for that situation.
Make a white card base that is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" and score it.
Unfold the card base. Use the Bow on the Border Crafting Die along the left edge of the card.
Cut out 3 different strips of pattern paper. Adhere two of them to the inside of your card. And adhere the other piece to the outside of the front of your card. (If you want to get fancy, add a few stitch lines with your sewing machine after you've adhered them to your card.)
Then add a stamped sentiment.
Want to make a bunch of Christmas cards? We've got a recipe for that too. You are going to love this.
Make a white card base that is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" and score it.
Unfold the card base. Use the Bow on the Border Crafting Die along the left edge of the card. Save the little white pieces from the inside of the bow.
Run the Bow on the Border Crafting Die through your die cutting machine again. (Heather used red cardstock. You may want to use green, blue or some other color.)
Put the ribbon pieces and bow pieces back into your white card. Use some tape to keep them in place.
Cut out a 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" piece of patterned paper and adhere it to the inside of the card.
Add a sentiment.
Repeat each of these steps to make as many cards as you need.
If you want to get the most cards for your time and money, do the same card design but use different colors of paper. For example, Heather was able to use the white ribbon and bow pieces that come out of card shown above, and put them into the red card-base shown below. And similarly, she put all the red ribbon and bow pieces that she cut out of this card base back into the card shown above. How fun!
I hope you enjoyed seeing these Bow on the Border project ideas! We'd love to see your projects too. Share them with us on Instagram and Facebook. Be sure to tag us and use the #TechniqueTuesday hashtag.
PS. Do border dies make your card making heart flutter? We've got lots of different border designs available so you can make cards for all kinds of different occasions. Here's a link to all the border dies!
Hello, Julie here! In today's video, I will show you how to use watercolor markers to add contrast to images in the new Luscious Grapes stamp set. These new fancy-schmancy watercolor markers were a gift for my birthday. I love them and am excited to show you how to use them!
If you'd like to print out step-by-step instructions, here they are. Or bookmark this page for future reference!
I started with Canson watercolor paper and stamped the cluster of grapes using a quick drying, waterproof ink.
I wanted to make the grapes be the color of Concord grapes, which is mostly blue with a hint of purple. So I started out with the blue marker and added a swoosh of color in the bottom of each of these grapes. Then I used a little water to spread the blue throughout the grape. Once I had the blue distributed, I went back in and added just a tiny spot of purple for the highlight. And as usual, I want back and forth between the colors. On some of the grapes I added more of the blue to intensify that color. You can get this great sort of gradient going, because you’re doing essentially wet-on-wet water coloring.
Once all the grapes were done, I started in on the leaves. I used the yellow marker to add a base layer. I wanted an autumn leaf color scheme, like the grapes were just ready to be picked, so the colors I used were generally warm. I just went around the edges and along the veins of each leaf with yellow. I didn't want to overwhelm the leaves, just give them a yellow base with a little color everywhere. I used my brush to spread the yellow around to make some nice gradients. There’s a lot of detail within the leaves that could get lost, so I tried to make sure that where the leaves overlapped, the bottom leaf was a bit darker than the part of the top leaf that’s covering it. The darker areas provide a little more contrast which makes the leaf details a bit easier to see.
Next I went in with the orange watercolor marker. In my set that was Cadmium Red, which was the closest to orange that I had. I picked a few spots to make reddish orange... mostly in areas I wanted to make sure had some additional contrast as well as more intensity. I went back and forth between the orange and yellow, and used water to move those colors around. I planned ahead to put green near the reddish orange areas on the leaves that were underneath. Since red and green are complementary colors I knew that the green would make those areas seem even redder which would help make those areas pop.
Next I used the red watercolor marker. In my set of makers this was named Alizarin Crimson as opposed to the Cadmium Red hue, which is a little bit more orange. I used the Alizarin Crimson to add a little more intensity to the areas that were already headed in the reddish-orange direction.
Next I added a bit of Sap Green to a few spots. This is where you need to be a bit careful. Because red and green are complementary colors, (which means they’re on opposite sides of the color wheel), they will create a neutral color when mixed. I made sure I didn't add any green to areas that already had red in them. I knew that if I did mix them, they would turn a muddy brown.
Next, I used a couple brown shades on the stem and vine areas. I used the lighter color along the top of the stem. Then I used water to spread the color out a little. Because it was pretty wet, the dark brown went in like a dream and spread itself out a little bit. By going back and forth with the brush and the markers, you can get the colors to go where you want them to be.
And here is my final piece! I went back in and added more color in a few places. I added some darker green on top of the lighter green to add contrast in one or two spots, but only very sparingly.