Tag Archives: Watercolor Pencils

Beautiful Gallery Happy Halloween Card

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Beautiful Gallery Happy Halloween Card

This Beautiful Gallery Happy Halloween Card I thought was somewhat of an original idea when I made it, but then I saw that Sara Douglass had made something very similar on Instagram on the @stampinupofficial account! I got the idea to use one of the scenes in the Beautiful Gallery 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper as the background for a Halloween card from seeing people buying framed paintings of scenery like in a thrift store and then painting extra things on the picture. I think I also saw something on an Instagram story from one of my favorite gift shops that reminded me of that. It all made me think of the Beautiful Gallery paper as a background for the two stamped characters in the Spooky Halloween Stamp Set .

I’ll tell you how I did mine, then tell you about Sara’s, and show you what the paper looks like on its own. My card base is made with Crumb Cake cardstock. I chose a scene in the Beautiful Gallery DSP that I thought could work with the two Halloween characters. It has a grayish/brownish sky, some green hilly land, and some white stalky flowers in the forefront. I cut this paper down to 4″ x 5 1/4″ to fit the front of the card. Before adhering it, I colored in the sky a little bit to make it look a little spookier. I used a Small Blending Brush to lightly add some Petunia Pop ink in the clouds and some Pumpkin Pie ink in the lighter horizon area just above the trees and hills.

The two characters were stamped from the Spooky Halloween Stamp Set on Basic White with Memento ink. Normally I would color them with Stampin’ Blends markers, but I felt they might be too vibrant for the Halloween scene so I used Watercolor Pencils instead. I chose a variety of colors of the pencils from my old set. You can choose from Assortment 1 HERE or Assortment 2 HERE. I used to love to color with these pencils! After coloring, if you like, you can use a Blender Pen to smooth out the lines or blend some colors. If you are using Basic White, you want to color lightly and not overdue it or the paper will pill a tiny bit, Or you can stamp on watercolor paper. You could also use Water Painters, which are now back in stock. I forgot I bought the Spooky Halloween Dies so I fussy-cut these two costumed characters. You can buy the stamp set and dies together in the Spooky Halloween Bundle and save 10%.

The two Halloween guys are popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals, some little bitty pieces, although you could adhere them flat on the card as well. The greeting is in the Spooky Halloween Stamp Set and is stamped in Petunia Pop ink on Basic White, then cut apart with Paper Snips scissors. I also used my Small Blending Brush to add a little bit Pumpkin Pie ink to make it look a little spooky. The greeting is also popped up on Dimensionals. The little stars in the sky are from a gift a special friend brought back for me from Japan as she visited all kinds of stationery stores on her trip!

This was such a fun card to make and I’m happy with the way it turned out. This is what the paper looked like before I started.

Beautiful Gallery Paper Halloween Card

On the @StampinupOfficial Instagram account, Sara Douglass used one of the other papers, the one with the cottage. She used reinkers in Gorgeous Grape and Smoky Slate with a Water Painter to add color to the sky. She used White Craft ink to draw in two little ghosts in the foreground and one tiny one farther and added eyes to the ghosts with a Black Stampin’ Blend Marker. I love what she did with the scenic paper and the little ghosts! Go check it out.

Softly Stippled Thanks Card

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Softly Stippled Thanks Card

Remember, Sale-A-Bration is going on at Stampin’ Up! this month and next month! With a $50 purchase, you can choose this Softly Stippled 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper FREE! This paper is very versatile with stippled florals, earthy colors, and textured-looking designs. You will be able to use this paper for many cards and projects.

The card base is Melon Mambo with a layer of the Softly Stippled paper. This pattern is a Pool Party pastel-colored texture that looks like a woven fabric! Just looking at the card, you would think the paper is embossed or has a physical texture on it, but it’s just the look of the paper.

Another sheet of the Softly Stippled paper has black and white flowers all over. They can be left as is or they can be colored. I chose a few of the flowers to color and then fussy cut with my Paper Snips out of the sheet of paper. For this card, I used Watercolor Pencils and then softened the coloring with a Blender Pen. Stampin’ Up! sells two different boxes of Watercolor Pencils, Assortment 1 and Assortment 2. Back when I became a Demonstrator, coloring with Watercolor Pencils and a Blender Pen was my favorite way to color! I used Melon Mambo for the pink flowers and Daffodil Delight for the yellow ones. The leaves are Granny Apple Green and Mossy Meadow and also some Old Olive. On the yellow flowers, I added a tiny bit of Calypso Coral too. You can combine colors and then blend them with the Blender Pen. The yellow flowers are adhered directly to the card. The pink flowers are popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The greeting is in the Artistically Inked Stamp Set. It is stamped in Melon Mambo ink and die cut with one of the label dies in the Something Fancy Dies. There is even a matching larger die that you can use for a layer in Melon Mambo.

To finish off the card, I added two Melon Mambo Glossy Dots to the greeting. But I couldn’t stop there! It just seemed like I should also add some Iridescent Rhinestone Jewels down by the flowers. Sometimes you have to know when to stop…but I went ahead anyway on this card! I don’t think it’s too overdone!

Here is another card I made with two other patterns of the Softly Stippled Designer Series Paper.

Go shop at Stampin’ Up! and put in an order of $50 or more so you can choose a FREE Sale-A-Bration product!

Over the Moon Cow Card

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Over the Moon Cow Card

Another stamp set that didn’t jump off the page at me at first until I saw some fun cards made with this stamp set! This Over the Moon Cow Card will just be a silly card to send to someone! There are some other fun cows in this stamp set and funny sayings to go with them. You’ve got to check out the Over The Moon Stamp Set.

I think the boots on the cow made me think of red boots which made me start with a Basic Black card base and a Real Red layer. I used my Stamparatus to stamp the cow and the saying.

I decided to use my Watercolor Pencils and Blender Pen to color the cow instead of my usual Stampin’ Blends markers. I have to say, when I first became a Demonstrator I absolutely loved our (older) watercolor pencils and using the Blender Pen to smooth out the color. Now that I am used to Stampin’ Blends, I don’t care for the Watercolor Pencils as much but then they are not as expensive as the Blends. So it’s nice we have lots of choices! I still think it is kind of magical to use the Blender Pen or Aqua Painter to smooth out the coloring with WC Pencils, so maybe I do still like them! They give a softer look I think.

The little tufts of grass are stamped in Granny Apple Green and then colored with the Granny Apple Green WC Pencil. So there you can actually see the difference between the ink and the pencil. I also scribbled in some Early Espresso to look like dirt and then used the Blender Pen over the whole area. You do have to be light-handed and careful doing this right on Whisper White as it won’t hold up to very much moisture. Shimmery White Cardstock or Watercolor Paper are good choices if you want to get serious with the WC Pencils and Blender Pen or Aqua Painter.

I wondered if the whole plain white background was okay or not, but opted to scribble in some blue to suggest sky and again, used the Blender Pen over this whole area, carefully. I’m not sure Memento Ink was the right thing to use with the WC Pencils but it worked out. If I had thought ahead I might have used Stazon instead.

If you like cows or animals or just want to make some fun cow cards, get the Over the Moon Stamp Set in the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog!