A real CRAFTY card!

Gosh this card was so fun to create!

It truly is a work of art. This is another card from Jenn Shurkus 2024 Creative Art Retreat. In our kit we received the stamped images and sentiments as well as our Distress watercolor paper. These were from a Honey Bee set called Crafty, we received in our kit the dies from a set called Lovely Layers: Paint and Palette to create our artist palette.

I did a lot of the fun bits for this card last year and as I recall we ink blended on the Distress card stock with our Distress ink pads and blending brushes and then we added more layers on top with the corresponding or a darker Distress watercolor pencil. We added the layer on top by wetting the pencil in our water pot letting it get soupy and then scribbling a line on a cello bag which we made into a U and smooshed down on top of the "matching" colour below. Dry with heat gun and repeat with next colour. It really made a fun background with so much interest. We also watercoloured in the palette and the "paint spots" using the Distress watercolor pencils. Then added a double layer of Glossy accents.

I'm going to have another go at recreating this card but will use the wee artist mouse we received in our 

kit from CCC as I couldn't justify buying a stamp set and die with paint brushes and paint tubes but I definitely want to practice creating the background like this plus make another palette!

Thanks for popping in (3 cards to go now I think from this kit)...

✿Karen✿

Tofu Hugs time

Gosh it's been awhile since I've blogged about a class card. I went through a phase of signing up for countless card kits and I love them but as I've shared last year the breast lump found mid-year effectively wiped out the last six months of 2024, so my class kits have got on top of me with my DT commitments which never seemed to go away. Which is why my resolution for 2025 was less class kits and only one DT commitment. I hope to resume doing challenges again but I really want to finish of what I started in 2024 and in some cases I have a few kits left from 2023 too.

The relentless heat is finally dissipating in NZ as we head into Autumn so I thought it's time to finish of a class kit that I received in June 2024 as only a few cards to go. It was part of Jenn's Shurkus' Creative Art Journey and this if I'm honest is the only kit I will sign up for as long as I can afford too. She still has a few spots left for 2025 if you wanted to join in on the fun.

I've ended up doing the card twice with both the stencils that came in the kit, the one on the left is Flower Garden by Gina K Designs and the one on the right is an exclusive stencil designed by Jenn for the event called Sun Arch. Tofu has been stamped, then Copic coloured as a calico cat and I loved the technique she shared for doing this. The colour is laid down with 2 darker colours and then 2 lighter colours are added as a dab to make it more organic I think it worked great by the way. We then masked Tofu and stenciled over the top finishing at his tail. We just blended our pink ink to finish it off and we made the "ground" by using two of our darker Copic colours. A bit of Prisma glitter to birdie bottoms as it wouldn't be a Jenn card without some glitter! Tofu Hugs by the way is a Purple Onion Designs stamp.

Four cards to go to finish of the kit, all the Copic colouring done, its just a matter of creating the backgrounds so hopefully this kit will be put to bed in the next week. 

Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Love Art - YES I DO!

Love Art is the name of a really cute stamp set from Colorado Craft Company that I received in my Creative Art Retreat with Jenn Shurkus recently. I love how we have made our own hearts by hand drawing with a wet paint brush and filling in colour with Distress Watercolor pencils, drying, and adding 2 more inner layers. Then everything splattered with matching Distress Paint. The images have been coloured in with Copics. I also added paint to the paintbrush tip the mouse is holding. Prisma glitter has been added to the outer edge of the hearts. I was lucky and found the matching die in a craft store in Australia as this is one set that you definitely need the coordinating die.

I did two versions, one with Saltwater Taffy and the other with Salvaged Patina.

This set has some really lovely "arty" sentiments but I felt that this one made the card quite versatile to use for any occasion. This was a really fun card and I'll definitely play with the techniques I learnt here again.

✿Karen✿

More Distress Watercolor Pencils with Jenn

My Virtual Art Retreat Journey with Jenn Shurkus slowly gets blogged, about the same rate as me creating the cards. Again we have used Distress watercolor pencils to make our background plus the exclusive stencil Jenn designed and collaborated with Stuff by Belle to make for the event registrants. Ranger as well as being very kind and providing us with a jar of Slippery When Wet Lunar Paste also provided us with an exclusive Stampers Anonymous stamp set Jenn curated and resized from various SA/Tim Holtz sets.

This is the set we received this year, plus I have blogged TWO other cards using this set HERE and HERE.

For the first card we have used the pencils Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers and Uncharted Mariner for our Ombre effect background behind the stenciling/waves. We have used our fingers to dab small amounts of Distress paints directly to the stamps (Salvaged Patina, Uncharted Mariner, Saltwater Taffy and Walnut Stain) to make our own ephemera. We have used Distress Watercolor paper for all creating which Jenn provides in our kits.

We have used Distress Rock Candy glitter plus some white splatters to finish off. I actually cleaned of my stenciling with a slightly damp baby wipe, Jenn preferred to leave as is but I thought it was a shame to hide it.

The last card using this set is not at all nautical and uses the pendant stamp in the set and we have coloured directly to the stamp in a "rainbow" and then we created a stand alone Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide image which we have fussy cut out. I really like the grey on top of the watery rainbow pendants. 

Unbelievably no glitter just a few glitter drop gems from Pinkfresh Studio to finish off! The base card has had Distress inks in corresponding colours lightly blended around the edge too.

Well I have officially finished 3/4 of my kit box (approx. 9 hours down - 3 more to go) and I haven't used a Copic marker as yet and yes I still have more backgrounds that I have created with the Distress Watercolor pencils but finally my tins were able to be put away at this stage.

I have shared 5 of the 13 cards total in this kit so there's still 8 more to go and as you may know by now I love cute and there is lots of cute to come. Can't wait to share with you all another day ......

Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

I did it my way Jenn!

To be honest I can't believe I managed to do it again, yes I got my orientation wrong for another mixed media card with Jenn Shurkus, I'm not trying to do it different but I keep making the same mistake. This card maybe is even more complex than the last card I managed to do "my way" which you can see HERE.

I might start off with the supplies for this card; again we are using our exclusive stamp set from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous curated from many sets and maybe resized by Jenn as well which has been created for this event as an exclusive stamp set. It's a red rubber stamp set and perfect for doing the mixed media techniques Jenn loves doing.

• Distress Paints: Saltwater Taffy, Salvaged Patina
• Distress Watercolor Pencils: Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold, Saltwater Taffy, Scorched Timber
• Distress Rock Candy glitter (RNG)
• Waves stencil (NN) and Slippery When Wet Lunar paste (RNG)
• Crunchy Leaf Ink (LF) - waterproof and alcohol proof
• Distress Watercolor paper (RNG) and mister bottle

To create our background we dipped the first 3 watercolor pencils (as listed above and in that order one at a time)  in our tub of water, rubbed onto a plastic bag, misted and  smooched on the card with the bag in a U position. Dried with a heat tool and move onto next colour. After drying we could also add more colour if we felt we needed it.

We then used the Scorched Timber and moistened and rubbed over the "script" stamp. Misted very lightly and stamped.

The stamped image Explore, Dream, Discover  was created  with the stamp on a block and we have used  the Distress paints. We added a tiny drop to our work surface (glass or craft mat) and then using our fingers we rubbed lightly over the stamp, stamped in the middle of card stock, reinked up again with our finger and stamped either side. 

At this stage the A2 Panel was cut down to 4" x 4-3/4" and the plan was to have it at the top of the card above a small left over Lunar Paste wave we'd created from another card (which hasn't been revealed or finished by me as yet). The waves were coloured in with the Squeezed Lemonade and Saltwater Taffy Distress pencils and also trimmed to be 4" wide. Both panels were splattered with the 2 paints.

This is where I go wrong again! I added the wave to the bottom of the A2 Card leaving small "equal" border and then added the background panel on top of it lining it all up on the side and leaving small white border at the top. When I go to next stage I can see I've got it wrong but it's too late, ca la vie, it still looks fab

The shell stamp was added directly to the base as well as a small piece of extra watercolor paper with Crunchy Leaf ink. We have used our paintbrushes to just paint on the lines the Salvaged Patina paint.  We added Rock Candy glitter to the white parts of the shell and I used my Glossy Accents instead of Collage Medium which is why it's so lumpy, it's still cool and my way again!

I seemed to have had more white space at top and bottom so ended up using all 3 words to fill in some of it, Jenn only added one word for her card. Also I prefer to use 1mm foam squares/strips, I know Jenn uses 2mm.  A few gold glimmer drops from Pinkfresh Studio and viola done. It's hard to believe we are 2/3rd of the way through this Virtual event around 8 hour mark and no Copic Colouring as yet and still 2 more mixed media cards to come. They certainly take longer to create but a lot of fun. 

✿Karen✿

Going nautical with Jenn

I'm slowly working away at my Art Retreat box from Jenn Shurkus. This box is different than other boxes I've received in the past as more mixed media focused so working with Distress Watercolor Pencils, stencil paste and now Distress Paint which I have never used before today.

Again we were so lucky to get an exclusive stamp set curated for the event from Stampers Anonymous and Tim Holtz, the set contains 12 stamps which have been selected from various sets and resized for what Jenn planned to do. 

For this card we were working with 4 of the stamps in the set. 

We started off with a base of watercolour paper and smooshed some Salvaged Patina Distress watercolor pencil to "centre" of an A2 panel, dried it with heat tool and then splattered Walnut Stain paint in a diagonal, then used our dirty water in our cup to splatter on same diagonal before drying with a heat tool. 

We then applied a wettened Pumice Stone distress watercolor pencil directly to the script/ledger stamp and spritzed lightly with water if not wet enough and stamped on the LHS (yes LHS), restamped without recolouring or wetting below first stamp impression. Dry again with heat tool.

This is where I managed to swap the orientation of my paper and when I used my Saltwater Taffy pencil and stamped it 4x I stamped it  with the script ledger on RHS. Then we did the same thing with the row of numbers using Uncharted Mariner pencil, the first impression and wettest one is top RHS, and then restamped bottom LHS.

The anchor was painted with Uncharted Mariner, Jenn's reasoning for using paint was that it was opaque and would sit on top of what we had created underneath. We then coloured in the holes of the anchor with white paint (Spellbinder's Splatter White) and when dried filled in with Distress Collage Medium and then sprinkled with Distress Rock Candy.

The wordfetti is an emboss resist - white embossed image and then the card coloured in with the paint left over on our work space. This was when I realised my anchor was upside down compared to Jenn's card but truly it doesn't matter and I added my wordfetti strips on the LHS in the "white space".

 When everything was dry we chopped 1/8" of all for sides and then mounted on an A2 card base where we had lightly ink blended Uncharted Mariner Distress ink. I've added a few Champagne glitter drops from Pinkfresh Studio.

Well writing it down here there were a lot of steps maybe this is why I am slowly working my way through the kit but again really enjoying the process and letting go as you don't know what will happen or even if you will stamp the right way up ;)

Thanks for popping in and I should have more to share real soon as the cards are coming together really fast now as so much prep already done, so that's a wrap for card 13 from this box.
✿Karen✿

Be Fearless

This is the name of a new Pinkfresh Studio stamp set which was only officially released June 1st, 2024. Imagine my delight to have received the stamp set in my Creative Art Retreat box from  Jenn Shurkus pre-release, I'll have to wait a few months for the dies, stencils and press plate to arrive down under to buy them but as you can see below you just need the stamp though Jenn and her team have stamped and die cut out the Be Fearless for us and it wouldn't look as pretty if I had to do it by hand.

Jenn's Creative Journey Art box truly is a retreat the majority of our panels are cut, images are stamped and die cut so we just have to make pretty backgrounds and colour things which equals my happy place! The retreat is over 2 days with 2 sessions each day, both being 3 hours long. Normally the first day you spend time making backgrounds and colouring things, day 2 you make cards. This year we actually had to do some home work and stencil 4 panels with the Luna Paste we received using 3 different stencils we also received so they would be dry in time to colour up in class.

Well I'm working at my own pace and I have finished session one day 1 and unlike other events we haven't Copic coloured anything yet, we've being doing backgrounds and colouring with Distress Watercolor Pencils, also unlike other retreats of Jenn's we actually have a finished card after session one. You would have had to have done other events with Jenn to know that this is incredulous!

Anyhow onto the card where we have stamped the images from the stamp set randomly over a piece of Distress Watercolor paper with a waterproof ink.

We have then loosely coloured in the images with the distress pencils and then when dried coloured in with an even lighter wash.

Colours used for flowers: Saltwater Taffy, Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Sweet Mustard, Twisted Citron, Salvaged Patina, Shaded Lilac.

Same colours used for wash except no Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade used instead of Sweet Mustard.

When dried we have trimmed an 1/8" each of all sides from the A2 panel or could be 1/4" inch of top or bottom and a 1/4" off one side but finishing off with a 4" x 5-1/4" panel to add to our card base. Sentiments been popped up with tiny bits of foam and a few gold glitter drops from Pinkfresh Studio to complete the card.

I'm actually feeling a bit overwhelmed with getting behind on Virtual classes in a box but this event is definitely my top pick for events to do if you are lucky enough to get in!

✿Karen✿

Let's Get "Striped" with Time Out Challenges

I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to be the Guest Designer for Time Out Challenges latest challenge. It's a real fun one too; to use stripes on your project. You have 2 weeks to have a go and you too could be a future Guest Designer for a challenge (if you want too) AND Lawn fawn are generously sponsoring this challenge so you could also win a $25 Gift Card to the Lawn Fawn store, how cool is that!

I'm using a card idea that Jenn Shurkus, taught me/us at a 2023 Virtual Art Retreat. I've modified her idea and am using a stencil and distress inks to make my stripes. Jenn loves making fab backgrounds. In her original class we made very loose streaks of colour using Distress Watercolor Pencils as our background then placed our dark grey Copic coloured image on top. 

I've used a stencil to re-create her look and working with my smaller blending brushes to blend in the stripes. As I am actually using a slimline stencil I die cut out a perfect stitched rectangle with Lawn Fawn's largest Inside Out Stitched rectangle die. But oops I'd been a bit messy and there was gold embossing powder on my plates and I had gold speckles on the RHS after running through my Big Shot. As this was my second go at doing the panel, I went into how to fix-it mode. So spritzed with shimmer spray and water and blotted but felt it needed some black splatters. I used my Licorice spray bottle to add a few drops by unscrewing and just tapping lightly the tubing for the nozzle to make controlled wee drops/splatters. When I sprayed it was much too dark on my practice run. 

My first panel I added a glitter paste through the stencil after ink blending and it looked fab but had a few funny reactions around some of the stripe edges which is why I tried again to make my striped panel.

Supply List:
Stamps and dies: Humbled and Grateful (PFS)

Distress Inks (RNG): Worn Lipstick, Kitsch Flamingo, Dried Marigold, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, Salvaged Patina, Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet

Paper: Hammermill white, Neenah #110, Black

Other: Versafine Clair Nocturne ink, clear embossing powder, Frost shimmer spray (imagine), Licorice Izink dye spray, distress mista bottle, small blending brushes (TE) and foam strips, Inside Out Stitched rectangle die (LF), Horizontal stripes slimline stencil (PFS), Warm Gray Copics (W2,4,6,8)

Well this is a fun, fun challenge and there's no doubting that adding stripes is really effective so hope you can join in as well but definitely check out the Time Out Challenge blog to see the the inspiration on show.

I'll also enter my card at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge which is an anything goes challenge. I also see Just Us Girls would like us to use  a stencil so I'll also enter their current challenge.

Thanks for popping in.
✿Karen✿

Creative Art Retreat: fun colourful stenciled background aka "card 7"

One of the things I love about Jenn Shurkus classes is she makes colourful backgrounds which normally involve ink blending. This card is no exception and it's even more special as she actually designed the Flower Medallion stencil herself and collaborated with Stuff by Belle to get it made. This was an exclusive item for attendees of her November 2023 Cape Cod in-person art retreat and also for the few of us that were lucky enough to snaffle up a left over kit when they went on sale. 

My last Art Retreat with Jenn the Newton Nook Designs card was one of my favourite cards and this one is even more fun as we have 3 kitty cats with a fun image to colour up. The cat on the left is holding a fire extinguisher and the inside sentiment reads "your birthday is starting to become a fire hazard". One of our family members is actually a fireman so guess Russell may inherit this card for his next birthday but to be honest anyone should LOL at how gorgeous and cute the cats are. 

We've only used half of the A2 panel that we ink blended (we cut it in half) and we just made a quick approximation of the blend we used with the stencil directly to the top of the A2 card base. Isn't that fun! Colours used Mustard Seed, Kitsch Flamingo, Shaded Lilac, Salvaged Patina, Mustard Seed again. You get fun colour combos happening where the colours blend, I also love the big balloon die cut out of Pixie Dust Sparkle card stock (LF).

✿Karen✿

Creative Art Retreat: Simple blending for a sky scene aka "card 6"

I really liked a lot of things about this older Hero Art's stamp set we received in our kit. It's called Sky's the Limit Balloons but apart from the images and sentiments which I think are delightful we received in our card kit die-cuts from Cloudy Sky Scene die (also HA) in white and Pearlescent vellum (LF). 

I've never seen a cloud die like this before and the clouds and the balloon looked amazing peeking trough the Elegant Window Fancy die (also HA). You can find the stamp set and the 2 dies on the Hero Arts website plus various stores are still stocking them all (just not in NZ).

We stamped the balloon directly onto our white card and then masked the balloon and the basket and did a really simple sky using Salvaged Patina and Shaded Lilac distress inks. It's quite subtle but it allows the balloon to shine and pop.

Some fab Crystal Glimmer enamel stickers from Honeybee Stamps to finish off the scene. I'm really liking these enamel stickers they really do look like small water drops.

✿Karen✿

Creative Art Retreat : Simple ink blending aka "card 13"

I thought I would share today another ink blended background using the same colours of distress ink I shared yesterday HERE plus using the Corner Rainbow stencil again to actually make a quick and easy blended background for our silhouette wild flower images.

This is an easy concept and could be used with any circle mask but Jenn has chosen to use the inside of the sun to get more value from the stencil. I love how at her "art retreats" she uses products from different companies. Here we have Stamper's Anonymous exclusive stamp set created for the retreat with Lawn Fawn's stencil and card stock plus the Distress inks and Ranger Heavy cardstock for blending on. Jenn prefers to use the Distress Inks as they give a cleaner blend as opposed to the Distress Oxides.

These are the same ink's used in yesterday's "cool" rainbow" card. From left  > right: Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Salvaged Patina, Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet. The A2 card panel was just cut down and matted up on Cilantro and Rainforest card. A wee bit of splatter from the splatter image in the stamp set and a bit of PFS bling (Sapphire jewels).

I think this is a striking but simple card which could be modified to work with many other colours.

✿Karen✿

Another Creative Art Retreat kit and card "one" reveal

My favourite virtual class kit in a box last year's was Jenn Shurkus's Art Retreat mid-year and I enjoyed it so much that I told myself it was a definite yes for 2024. As I follow Jenn on social media I looked on as she was planning an in-person retreat at Cape Cod late Nov 2023. The venue looked amazing and I told myself if I won Lotto I would go, of course I didn't win Lotto but think I won the Lottery as I actually managed to snag one of her extra kits that she sold after the event. The day they went on sale her website couldn't cope and kept on returning error messages. I though oh well it wasn't meant to be BUT around 30 mins after it was live I managed to order one. And no I wasn't sitting on my PC trying, think I'd actually given up and gone off and made coffee and toast for breakfast. Shortly after that time they were all sold out, so I was lucky.

I chose the cheapest shipping option and lo and behold USPS got it here in under 2 weeks. This is how my box of goodies looked when it arrived.

Opening the box:

Peeling back the tissue paper; of course it has to be teal ;)

Below; Simon Says Stamp stamp set, Gina K stamp set, another exclusive stamp set from Stampers Anonymous (the images are from other sets but have been resized), last but not least a small pack of Distress Watercolor Pencils from Ranger in the wee striped bag. As I already own all 3 sets I have a few spare pencils now, which I probably will gift to a friend to play with.

Below; stamp sets from Pinkfresh Studio (and bling), Trinity Stamps and Honey Bees (and bling).

Below; stamp sets from Hero Arts and Colorado Craft Company plus a Floral Banner die from Gina K.

Below; Lawn Fawn goodies, Corner Rainbow stencil set and Fruit Salad 6x6" DSP pack, both of the latter I already owned but surprisingly I didn't own the stamp set.

Below; wee racoon stamp from  Purple Onion Designs, stamp sets from Avery Elle and Newton's Nook. Jenn has also collaborated with Stuff by Belle to design her first stencil.

Below; last but not least all 17 card kits ready for us to create with, in each card kit there will be Ranger Heavy or Distress Watercolor card stock if needed. As you can see no stamp sets came with dies this time and finding them can be problematic and expensive to get to NZ. This time quite a few of the sets are quite old so it will be even more problematic to track down would be my only negative I can say about this class kit. It's great value and I love, love that everything is just waiting for me to colour and make colourful backgrounds, it really make it so fun. I normally only try and find the die if I want to play with the stamp set again and it's fiddly like the CCC Hedgehog one.

It's a 3-day weekend here and it's a bit wet and dreary so it seemed the perfect weekend to start on my 17 cards I will be creating. I was very diligent yesterday and Copic coloured up all the stamped images.

This little cluster of sea-faring images have all been fussy cut out by hand and then the outlines have been inked up with a Black Memento brush marker. I can't wait to make this little scene card it is fabulous in the guide book, looking above you can see the wharf scene we still have to colour up.

I'll finish off today's post as it is very long with "card one" in the guide - the main supplies are the Colorado Craft Company's Hedgehog Day stamp set, Lawn Fawn's Corner Rainbow stencil and Fruit Salad DSP.

Isn't this just adorable! There is no doubting that the Anita Jeram images they sell as stamps are stunning but isn't that a fun rainbow too. I also love the Copic dotted "ground", plus of course there is glitter and the bling from Honey Bees (Crystal Glimmer Enamel stickers) gives just a hint and looks almost like a wee water drop.

✿Karen✿

The last cards from the Art Retreat with Jenn for real (this time)

I started blogging the cards using the Art Retreat exclusive stamp the other day (HERE) and realised the post was going to be too long plus I was hungry so hopefully this will wrap up this Virtual event today which is sad as I have absolutely loved doing this event even if I poddle along at my own pace and I can't wait for the next one in June 2024. 

I absolutely loved making lots of backgrounds and learning new techniques, I loved how bright and colourful the cards have been, so much teal and pink!! I also loved that all the prep was done for me so I could just be KReative and have fun. I still feel it is worthwhile to sign up and get the resources as most of the stamps will still be available to purchase or you can use something similar in your stash, unfortunately you can't use the Stamper's Anonymous exclusive stamp set as that was provided for the original class registrants. 

Today's TWO cards  both use the butterflies and actually use the same techniques to produce quite different cards.

For this card the 3 butterflies have been arranged in my MISTI and then lightly misted a couple of times, we have taken our Distress watercolor pencil which has been dipped in a pot of water directly to the stamp, starting from the lightest colour (Salvaged Patina > Picked Raspberry > Villainous Potion), misted lightly again and stamped to the smooth side of a piece of Distress Watercolor paper. I made 3 printings from the colouring, misting between each stamp. The images above were the second (RHS) and third impressions. I have stamped one of the sentiments in the set with Versafine black ink directly to the panel after it has been trimmed. Jenn's idea was to add to a black base (RHS) but I also added one of my panels to a Bermuda Bay (SU!) base and I've added some glimmer drops from my stash to both. Both panels have some Distress Rock Candy (RNG) added using Matte Collage Medium (RNG) to white spaces on the butterflies wings.

The next card used the same technique with different Distress Watercolor Pencils ( Salvaged Patina > Peeled Paint > Villainous Potion). The image was then dried and the panel was put back into the MISTI and Ground Espresso distress ink was added to the clean stamps and stamped over the top of  our watercoloured images. We lightly added a shadow around each butterfly by painting with just water around the butterfly but not touching it and then applying a light wash of Speckled Egg from a wet Distress pencil and then using just water on the brush pulling the shadow out to fade it.

When dry we used the "script" stamp which had been lightly misted and then coloured with a wet Walnut Stain pencil and stamping off the block in the spaces, using our fingers to press down in places. Drying again and then splattering with the Salvaged Patina pencil.

I've distressed the edges of my watercolor paper and I was wondering why I didn't have a chocolate cardstock piece to mount on but I see I was supposed to use a sponge and Ground Espresso ink to colour in the base card at the edges but I mounted up on Soft Suede (SU!) cardstock and made a few sentiments which are white heat embossed. I also used my FIRST stamping from the first technique as even though I like CAS the first card wasn't floating my boat but I really, really like this card and technique. Distress Rock Candy has just been added this time to the butterflies body. I'm not sure you can see it in the photos but looks great in real life.

And the 3 impressions with the first colour combo:

Well that is the end of blogging about the retreat with Jenn Shurkus aka Creative Chick, it was a blast and I love taking classes with her, she's a fab teacher and she also has on her website classes using a lot of Lawn Fawn stamps but also a lot of Distress techniques. I've done the Distress Watercolor Pencil one before which was fab, you can see my efforts HERE.

I have to also admit this is only the second time I have totally completed a virtual retreat and I have revisited some of the cards already and remade them, so I think that is testament how much I enjoyed the event.

✿ Karen ✿

Last cards from the Creative Art Journey Retreat part 1

Gosh I have had the backgrounds completed for over a month but never put on a card base until now. This is the conclusion of the Creative Art Retreat I did with Jenn Shurkus. I learnt so much from this art retreat making colourful backgrounds. Today's blog post I share the cards we made at the retreat using an EXCLUSIVE stamp set from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous especially for our retreat. 

My understanding is all the images on this set are from other sets of Tim's which he has allowed to be resized to a size wanted by Jenn. So there were 300 of us doing the retreat plus Jenn so I guess I own one of 301 sets of this stamp set, does that makes me feel special, hell yeah. Thanks Jenn for being you and Tim for allowing this, Yes Jenn is on his design team and also offers a lot of distress classes. I've taken her Distress watercolor class already and loved it so it was great to revisit the pencils again for the last 3 cards from the retreat. Looking at the set above we've already used a few stamps on other cards including the fab stenciled dirt and veggie card, we used the French Script. I have to admit using this stamp set and the wee ones from Purple Onion Designs it was fab stamping with red rubber again. Photopolymer stamps have improved heaps but they still aren't red rubber!

Let's see how good my memory is one month on as I wrap up this retreat in blogland for me.

The first card was my favourite as I love the vibrancy of the colours, we've used only set 1 from the Distress pencils in rainbow order. As always starting with the yellow. Work down the rainbow, then return to middle and work up the rainbow.

Using our Misti we've placed the circles upper left hand corner and working with Ranger watercolour paper on the smooth side.

Before starting we have misted our stamp a couple of times with a fine mist from about 6" above. The pencils are dipped in a water pot and then scribbled directly on the stamp in approximately a half circle, making sure we got down the new colour before we let it blend/bleed into the colour above or below. If the pencils look dry when scribbling re-dip into the water pot.

Mustard Seed in middle > colouring down > Peeled Paint > Salvaged Patina > Villainous Potion > Picked Raspberry

Back to middle, going above the Mustard Seed > Rusty Hinge > Fired Brick > Picked Raspberry > Villainous Potion. Then mist ONCE from high up (approx. 12" above). Stamp and remove card stock, re-mist again once from 12" above and re-stamp.

I liked the vibrancy so I only stamped 2x. All the sets have a rainbow in them or you could choose your own rainbow if you own all the sets. Let dry naturally then splatter with Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed and Salvaged Patina. I love the splatter you get from a Distress watercolor pencil it is so good!!

Jenn gets a much finer splatter than I but she is the Queen. When everything dry stamp the sentiment message in Versafine Black ink. Then we have added Distress Collage Medium in half circles in some of the clear gaps and then poured on Distress Rock Candy and let dry over night. Jenn loves cutting off her edges to give a clean look but I'm pretty sure I just cut off a 1/4" from the bottom and the RHS and then the card base has some Wendy Vecchi washi tape assortment 2 on the RHS and bottom, a few Trinity stamps fab flat clear sequins from our Confetti Mix and viola done!!

This was a much bigger post than I imagined, so I will finish the last of the art retreat tomorrow with the butterfly cards I made.

✿ Karen ✿

Another Platform Card

Lawn Fawn have the most fabulous interactive dies and my friend Sarah and myself both think the pop up platform is the "bees knees" it's actually really easy and packs a real wow.

So I had to laugh that Jenn Shurkus gave us all the bits cut out to make one including the new pop-up clouds and cloud wrap around. Lawn Fawn donated for our Retreat Kit the Better Day set which I thankfully didn't own and isn't that wee bunny just adorable.

Now if someone could help me photograph a pop-up platform card I would be rapt but it folds down so you can post in a standard envelope.

✿ Karen ✿