Just Add Ink 722: Just add a sketch

Wow this was a challenging sketch for the new challenge at Just Add Ink and I'm really interested to see what everyone comes up for it. My first thought was a card front of cascading banners  and then I had an aha moment and recalled I owned a very old background stamp from MFT stamps Balloon Strings which I had seen someone turn sideways and make a lovely watercoloured scene with hills and sky etc. which I always had wanted to have a go at but never have until today, when I went beachy. You can see the original card that inspired me HERE by Karin Akesdotter.

I've used my mini Distress inks to make the beach, the sea and the wee island in the distance and I used different colours in different panels but at the same time trying to follow some of the curves. I smooshed the pad onto my glass panel and then using my no. 4 round brush and water painted. It was very therapeutic.

I don't have every Distress colour as an ink and was wishing I had Antique Linen for the beach at the time but looking at my panel I really like the Tea Dye, the Antique Linen may actually have been too light.

Supply List:
Stamps: Balloon Strings (MFT), Flippin' Fabulous (HB - sentiment), Beach Day (EE - wee gull)
Distress Inks (RNG): Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs, Walnut Stain, Tumbled Glass, Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean, Stormy Sky

Paper: Distress Watercolor (RNG), Vellum, Neenah Solar White #110
Other: Versamark inkpad, Alabaster White EP (BM), Copics, no 4. round paint brush, glass mat, stitched rectangle die (LF)
Challenges: JAI #722

I hope you can rise to the challenge and join in too. I love my card and definitely going to have a go at Karin's scene after this.
✿Karen✿

I was a bit stumped with this colour combo

I have to admit the latest colour combo challenge at Just Add Ink had me a bit stumped: Coastal Cabana, Starry Sky and Berry Burst - these are all Stampin' Up! colours and I have in my stash the first two. I thought Dragonfruit (C9) looked pretty close to Berry Burst so that's what I used instead. Often when I stumped I will just watercolour something up using the reinkers and as I had recently received a hydrangea stamp I thought that would be a great flower to colour as hydrangeas often have a real range of shades.

I also wanted to play along with the latest Tic Tac Toe challenge using the first column (flowers, embossing, gems). I have dry embossed with an embossing folder plus white embossed the sentiment and added lots of gems.

Of course the flower I coloured doesn't have a die so I ended up fussy cutting it out and as it was watercoloured I used my 100 Copic black marker to try and blacken the edges and tidy the cut edges up a bit, this worked fine apart from where the marker went for a skid on the petal!!

I've also acquired from the SU! retirement sale the Dots & Spots coverplate die, I was so happy they reduced it finally to a "real price" as it retired. I wasn't prepared to pay $72 (kiwi dollars I'm talking about) for a coverplate die no matter how cute it is, when most companies charge half that price and I added a really old SU! embossing folder for some more dots (Perfect Polka Dots).

Supply List:

Stamps: Paint-A-Flower: Hydrangea (ALT)

Ink/re-inkers: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Versamark, Coastal Cabana (SU!), Starry Sky (SU!), Dragonfruit (C9)

Paper: Coastal Cabana (SU!), Starry Sky (SU!), Dragonfruit (C9), Neenah solar white #110lb, Watercolour (Fabriana Artistico cold pressed)

Other: Dots and Spots die (SU!), Perfect Polka Dots EF (SU!), white EP, no. 4 round paintbrush, Magic Potion Ombre glitter drops (PFS), 2mm foam squares (SP), Copic 100 black marker

Challenges: JAI #699, TTTC #246

I'm really happy how my card turned out - I don't make enough flower cards, so it's nice to tuck one away in my stash. Also, again those colour combos that stump me always look fab when KReated too, Thanks for popping in.

EDITED: 2/5/24: Really happy to be chosen as the JAI Winner and big thanks to them for pushing me outside my comfort zone. This was the kind comments from their DT:

Striking combination of dotted background and

beautifully soft hydrangeas

Beautiful hydrangeas are a lovely way to use

the challenge colours in Karen's fun design

Such a pretty use of the challenge colours.

✿Karen✿

Having another go at Watercolouring

I'm really happy to report all Christmas cards have been posted away and it's not even December, so back to finishing off earlier classes I have signed up for.

Today I am finishing of the watercoloring with Manushree, this was supposed to be wet on dry techniques. I started-off like her but I didn't like the look of drawn fine lines with darker paint as my second layer if I'm honest, so ended up in the end doing a bit of colour removing with water and pushing the paint back towards the centre or where ever I wanted the shadow to be. I'm really happy how this turned out, I think I also prefer the colour palate of big flowers one colour and smaller flowers another colour, it looks more cohesive to me. Again this class was more about teaching us techniques with watercolour than making a card. My first go you can see HERE.

I have to say the watercolour paper they supplied takes a lot of water, I love it apart from it's cream. I still can't get over that the image is just stamped with Metropolis a dye ink.

Supply List:

Stamps: Nothing but the Best (PFS), Basic Banners: Celebrate (PFS) (plus matching dies for both stamp sets)

Ink: Metropolis (PFS), Seaside (PFS)

Paper: Watercolor (PFS - being released in 2024), Neenah Natural White #110

Other: Watercolor Artist Paints (ALT), Starry Skies Ombre glitter drops (PFS), Floral Backdrop (PFS), Blanket Stitched Rectangles (PFS), stamping foam

I can see the end is in sight for my February Create and Connect with Pinkfresh Studios with only one class to go - the mash up with Jennifer McGuire. Thanks for popping in and I hope you have a fab day.
✿Karen✿

Having a go at Watercolouring

Still trying to finish of my classes I signed up for at the beginning of the year for so I can start 2024 with a semi-clean slate. Not sure if I'm winning but slowly getting there.

One of the classes from Pinkfresh's February 2023 Create and Connect virtual class was Watercolor Flowers with Manushree Mishra, if you Google Manushree she's does amazing watercolour images so I was really looking forward to having a go.

Of course when the supply list came she was using liquid pH Martin (which is not available in NZ) with the suggestion to use Daniel Smith watercolor paints. The latter is available here but horrifically expensive. Either option would have cost me more than the price of my class so decided I was going to stick to what I owned which is a Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour palette (18 colours) plus I have received over the years some Daniel Smith dot palettes but then I saw my local craft store had a reasonably priced half pan watercolor paint set from Altenew (Artist's Watercolor) so I thought that would give me a bigger range to play with. As you can see there are heaps of colours (24 to be exact) in the tin and they are really intense and creamy, with quite a good range of colours plus black and white.

But in the end I still used the dark pink (no. 34) from my Gansai Tambi set as it was closer to what Manushree was teaching but the other colours/paints came from the Altenew set. The first card she was teaching was wet on wet techniques and she almost did a different way  on each petal.

I wasn't that happy with my shadowing, I probably had too much water on my paint brush but I did enjoy painting alongside her. Today, I went back in with my ZIG Real Color brush markers in close shades and add a bit more shadowing and it actually looks quite good!!

I don't like the colour of watercolour paper if I'm honest which is why I use Ranger's as it is white but I think this is the paper that Pinkfresh Studio maybe releasing next year, it's quite cream but it was lovely to watercolour on, so I may have to change my mind. The image has just been stamped with a mid-grey dye ink; Metropolis and there's no bleeding at all. So to hide the cream and plainness of the cream watercolour panel I splattered with some red-gold paint (maybe too much) and the same dark pink watercolour from the Gansi Tambi sets. We were supposed to add a foiled sentiment but I didn't like that there background card was WHITE so I stamped Happy Birthday from the set with my Versafine Nocturne ink and clear embossed it on C9's Lemongrass card stock as I felt that was similar to the leaf colour. The Ombre glitter drops are Butterscotch, one thing about taking 9 months to do the class I have the whole range of  Ombre glitter drops now (Champagne was supplied in our kits originally).

This is a very simple card, the corners have been rounded using the largest Rounded and Braided die which was also in our kit and last but not least the stamp set is called Nothing But The Best and is part of Pinkfresh's recent release so it is available to purchase now.

Simple Sympathy Cards

Firstly happy world card making day (WMCD). I think it's the first Saturday in October and not an actual date. BUT IT IS TODAY, we just need the rest of the world to catch up to us ;)

I've been playing in the craft room but it's for an upcoming challenge so can't share yet with you all so thought I would blog about the "Simple Sympathy Class" with Libby Hickson for Hero Arts which I really loved. This was part of my #cropandcreatedelivered with SCT aka "my big box event". These are the four cards we created:

And this was our class kit of goodies (post class which is why my dot palette looks "used":

One of the things I was looking forward to in this class was that we were doing some simple watercolouring using a Daniel Smith Dot Dream palette. I've actually received a dot palette a few times before in kits but had no idea how to use it. In essence it is very small drops of Daniel Smith watercolour paint dried on a printed palette. It must be quite an effort to create them when a lot of dots and our one had a lot of dots but they are allow you to try DS watercolour paints which are incredibly EXPENSIVE $50 in NZD approximately a tube. I am very happy to say in my hands I do not need incredibly expensive watercolours. If I'm honest I could see no advantage over these than any other watercolour medium I already own. They were very bright but I don't think the expense is justified for the kind of dabbling I do with watercolouring but it was certainly fun to try them out under tuition.

We received as well as the dot palette With Sympathy stamps, dies and transfers coming in the Spring release for HA in February 2024. I loved this set and the transfers were amazing with white ones and black ones. My 2 pages of transfers has been cut up quite extensively and Libby suggested it was a good idea to use a small staple to keep the transfer sheet with the backing sheet.

The card below is just a wash of Mayan Yellow, Green Gold, Kingsman Green and Manganese Blue Hue paints from the palette. Dried and repeated. Dried again with a heat tool and then the transfer applied, it stuck so well to the watercolour paper. All the transfer images are in the stamp set but I love them and definitely going to buy more when released.

This card is multiple stamp images gold embossed onto black card stock (don't forget your embossing buddy powder tools) and then each image coloured in with the same shade. Some of the dots on the palette were iridescent or duotone so they are actually very sparkly in real life.The sentiment is also a transfer added to a white scrap.

This was the easiest card - it's all transfers. I love, love the white transfers on Kraft cardstock.

Last but not least the same image stamped and gold heat embossed and then Copic coloured up, die-cut out, popped up on foam and arranged in a wreath. The base card was supposed to be a very pale blue Hero Arts ink blended around the edge of the base card. I ended up doing a blend with Aqua Sky and Sea Glass which are light blue and light aqua inks from Concord and 9 as I felt that was a good match to the BG11 Copic used on some of the leaves.

I really loved this class and the images in the stamp set can be used on all sorts of cards. I've even used a black transfer on my recent play with faux dip dye play card.

✿ Karen ✿

Playing with Magicals again

I say magicals, but it is a combination of Lindy's Magicals (cattail copper brown and ponderosa pines olives), Nuvo Shimmer Powders (falling leaves) and Ken Oliver's Color Burst powder (burnt umber).

Lately I have been playing with my shimmer powders trying to do water colour wash backgrounds with limited success. I am happier with today's play and the shimmer is pretty amazing IRL.

AAA Cards current challenge is hot and or cold drink. I was thinking of doing a coffee card but decided I would play with my powders some more and use them to colour up some die cuts. I sprinkled a small amount of powder on my wee glass mat from WRMK and added 1-2 drops of water with a pipette then swiped the die cut through the pools of colour, dried with my Ranger heat tool, and added more colour.

Hopefully you can see the copper shine below better, I'm sure coconut trunks are not coppery and shimmery but wow it does look magical!!

When I think of AAA cards I think smaller images which is where the idea of a cocktail came from. This one comes from a set called On the Beach. I normally do more watercolouring with my Zigs on Strathmore Bristol smooth and even though I'm using the rough side of the Ranger distress watercolor cardstock, the Zigs worked fab on it.

Supply List:

Stamps (all LF): On the Beach (coconut cocktail plus matching die), Beachy Christmas (sentiment and coconuts - hand cut out)
Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne Black, Early Espresso (SU!)

Paper: Distress watercolor (RNG), Neenah Solar White 110#

Dies: Tropical backdrop (LF)

Zig Real Colour brushes: Dark brown, mid brown, oatmeal, orange, yellow green, light blue, shadow mauve

Other: 1mm foam squares (SP)

Challenges: AAA #241

A few of our family are flying to Fiji on Wednesday for a week, so I'm thinking my subconscious me wants to go too but I hope they enjoy those cocktails in the sun whilst we battle cold, rain and fog back home. There's plenty of time to join in with the challenge as they always give us 2 weeks. I love having some time to think of an idea, create a card and manage to take a picture on a gloomy winter's day. Have a fab day and you can be like me dreaming of cocktails in the sun, thanks for popping in.
✿ Karen ✿

More magical mess!

I played 2 weeks ago with my shimmer powders and at the time I wasn't really that happy how it all worked out, you can see that post HERE. I thought I would have another go with some subtler colours from Lindys Magicals range.

I had seen a video of someone after my first attempt using an old stamp packaging packet to smoosh on some colour to make a watercolour wash so that was my starting point. 

I still think it looks a hot mess but it was my first go using CTMH Watercolor Paper which you can purchase as 12" x 12" packs, I'm guessing to make a watercolour page to scrapbook on. It's a lightweight watercolor paper so I wouldn't want to add too much water but it worked fine for what I was attempting to do here. You get 10 sheets in a pack (Z3146) but it doesn't seem to be available anymore to purchase, so no bargains of the year to be had.

Supply List:
Stamps: Floral Bliss (SSS), Inky Bouquet (PFS - sentiment)

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Versamark

Paper: Watercolor (CTMH), Terracotta Tile (SU!), Neenah White #110

Lindy's Magicals: Salt Water Taffy, Cape Cod Coral

Other: Pixie Dust Ombre glitter drops (PFS), white EP

I wasn't happy with the white opaque film in some places, doing some research it seems like their are opaque and transparent Magicals. My magicals came from a Nantucket Pearls set, so I'm guessing these are "opaque".

I thought I'd have another go dissolving some Magical in a few drops of water and then painting this time using a thicker watercolour paper. I think this was better and then thought I'd do a few splatters. I should have left well enough alone but then decided to do a more diluted wash and I'm not sure if that was a good idea as the "splatters" reactivated with more liquid touching them.

Supplies as above but Smoky Slate card stock from SU! and Fabriano Artistico extra white cold pressed watercolour paper. Starry Night Ombre drops and I have clear embossed the "thank you". I have added a few more magicals to the mix (Whale Watch Blue, Sea Grass Green and Rusty Lantern Lime) plus Lemon Yellow Color Burst powder from Ken Oliver Crafts.

The 2 cards side by side:

Well again the cards didn't turn out how I wanted but think I'm learning a wee bit more each time, hopefully I'll be closer to how I envisage it appearing in "my head" where all card ideas are waiting for me to try. Thanks for popping in.

✿ Karen ✿

Floral Bliss

Good morning all, its still pouring down with rain in Hamilton and if I didn't need to go out to finish of Mother's Day present etc I'd think yah I can play all day in my craft room. My poor country, parts of it are under emergency management, we no longer are land of the long white cloud but land of the torrential weather bomb.

But back to the crafting I was trying to play along with the gorgeous inspiration board from the latest Just Add Ink challenge and also combine it with The Flower Challenge "soft pastels", theoretically a match made in heaven as JAI is soft and dreamy Also it's interesting that JAI's picture has inspired more lilac cards than pink ones, I saw pink as the predominant colour but thought I would do a SOFT wash of pink and lilac to cover all bases.

Well I now know no matter how much water you try and tone down Nuvo's Cherry Bomb shimmer powder it's never becoming a soft pink!  I really like the concept of what I was trying to do for the challenges and going to share my card but trying to tone down the Cherry Bomb made it a bit of a mess. it's still pretty and the good thing was I had fun making it.

Supply List:

Stamps: Floral Bliss (SSS), Stripe-tastic Edge (YNS), Inky Bouquet (PFS and it's matching die)

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Versamark, Dragonfruit (C9)

Paper: Distress Watercolor (RNG), Black, Neenah #110

Nuvo Shimmer Powders: Cherry Bomb and Lilac Waterfall

Other: Twilight Ombre glitter drops (PFS), white EP

So back to the challenge and hopefully a more pastel look, this time I thought I would watercolor in with a paint brush so I could control the intensity of the colour. So I got out my Gansai Tambi Pearl paints (pink, lemon yellow, may green, white gold)  and my Zig Pearlescent watercolours (black pearl) to play with. Well I've managed to mute it down but I like the brighter one best but am using this card for the challenges as much softer. 

Supply List:

Stamps: Floral Bliss (SSS),  Inky Bouquet (PFS and it's matching die)

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Versamark, 

Paper: Distress Watercolor (RNG), Black, Neenah #110

Other: Magic Potion Ombre glitter drops (PFS), white EP, Gansai Tambi Pearl paints, Zig Pearlescent watercolour paints, Master Layouts 1 die set (GKD)

Challenges: JAI #651 , TFC #80

I may have another go at the Flower Challenge, not that I am very good with pastels as it's a monthly challenge but unfortunately Just add Ink's closes today so I'll finish with both are "better than horrible" and I'd have no problem using them to give to somebody.

✿ Karen ✿

First play with Distress Watercolor Pencils

I'm sure I am not alone I saw all the fab people online playing with Tim's new brainchild last year and went and bought all 3 sets and then never touched them! I have told myself this year to stop watching so much stuff online so I can't be tempted and I don't have to own it all. One of the bloggers I love said recently "I am not a craft store, I don't have to have everything" and that is so true.

Scrapbook & Cards Today have a FREE magazine  you can read online. It is fab and chock full of scrapbooking and card making ideas. I would purchase a hard copy but shipping to NZ is horrific (they are in Canada) so I'll just read online. They also do lots of free stuff and yesterday had scheduled a Facebook Live with Jenn Shurkus who as you know I love, using my new stamp set from Lawn Fawn Wood You Be Mine and using distress watercolor pencils. They have a 2 page story with Jenn and 2 others using the distress pencils in their current magazine (Winter 2022). You can see that 2 page spread HERE and if you want to read the whole magazine online you can check it out HERE.

Jenn made it look so easy but I found it quite hard to build up layers and I did dry in-between. I followed Jenn's colouring methods, sometimes dry pencil to paper, then wet and spread with my paintbrush. Sometimes I used wet paintbrush to pencil, the only thing different is I added some Vintage Photo to one of my beavers (LHS one).

Some pencils seemed really pigmented which is what I thought looked really fab when I saw the original lives promoting the distress pencils (Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Tattered Rose, Vintage Photo, Salvaged Patina) and some seemed really dry and I could not really get a good water reaction happening (Walnut Stain and Kitsch Flamingo). I also found you don't want to paint over your lines as it dulls the lines with almost a white film/pigment. I went over the worst lines with my black sharpie fine pen. 

I am going to have a go at recreating this card just using my mini Distress Inks and watercolouring with them but if I am honest I don't think I needed these pencils in my life. Even though my background doesn't look as smooth as Jenn's I really like my splotchiness.

✿ Karen ✿

For Lindsay

The crew at Color Hues have made this week's challenge all about LINDSAY who was part of their design team and their challenge is to honour her with her favourite hues and to be inspired by what inspired "her". Now that surely is a challenge worth entering to honour and remember her.

Now this week's hues are purple and blue so I immediately thought of my most inked stamp Mondo Hydrangea (Essentials by Ellen) which I think is perfect for this challenge. My favourite technique with this stamp is watercolouring so I thought I would use my "new to me" Nuvo Shimmer Powders I picked up at SENZ and my favourite white cardstock post-SENZ for colouring whether it's blending or watercolouring on, that honour goes to Lavinia Multifarious Smooth and Supreme white cardstock; which I love and is now an essential in my craft room.

Trying to show the shimmer of the watercolour wash and the glimmer in the black glitter with this close up but not sure if I succeeded.

I sprinkled the powders on my stencil mat from Waffle Flower and added a few drops of water to make a wash and then painted in each individual flower with my no. 2 round brush. I couldn't cope with the leaves just being "blue" so added a bit of green.

Supply List:
Stamps: Mondo Hydrangea (EE), You (Photoplay)
Inks: Veramark
Paper: Lavinia Multifarious, SSS #120lb (trying to use up) but a great card weight for the base of the card, Vellum Paper (SU!), black glitter (CTMH), scrap of black cardstock (?SU!)
Dies: Mondo Hydrangea (EE), You (Photoplay), Blanket Stitched rectangle (PF), Hexagon Tile coverplate (PF), sentiment strips (Photoplay), A2 Layering (Waffle Flower)

Nuvo Shimmer Powders: Violet Brocade, Lilac Waterfall, Blue Blitz, Falling leaves
Other: Alabaster White EP (Brutus Monroe), no. 2 rounded brush, foam strips

Challenge: Color Hues #46

Now I personally didn't know Lindsay but she sounded an amazing positive person and crafter and my sympathy goes out to her family and friends. There are some amazing cards honouring her so do check out the challenge site and if you have time join in with the challenge.

✿ Karen ✿

Christmas in August has commenced

For those that have followed me for awhile way back when I was a SU! demo my team and I ran our Christmas events "CIA" in August mainly because originally it was when we could get stamps, DSP as we used to be behind the States by a month. 

I am still trying to do at least 2 card challenges a week but I'm especially making sure I do any Christmas ones I find. I'm hoping come Christmas with stamping classes and extravaganza and online events I have signed up for I will have enough cards in my swag to send out. I have to admit I don't like bulk producing cards and it kind of sucks the pleasure when you do the same thing over and over.

Anyhow I found a new site and it's linked on the RHS of my blog with the Challenge sites called 52 Christmas Card Throwdown they may do a challenge every week all year so I'll be well and truly set up in 2023. 

This week's challenge is their 28th of the year and is a technique challenge - watercolouring.

I knew exactly the set I wanted to use as it's a set I have had in my stash a very long time and never been used! It was SSS monthly kit in December 2016 which is all honesty meant it turned up in NZ at Christmas or in the new year of 2017. So too late for me to use but I have always loved it as it's so adorable. I'm also going to play along with a couple of Simon Says Stamp challenges. 

I do easy watercolouring smooshing my mini distress ink pads on my stencil mat and then using a no. 2 round paint brush I fill in each section I want to paint with water then the smooshed ink colour. It's actually very quick and easy the hardest thing was fussy cutting them out as watercolour paper is quite thick.

I also managed to incorporate my new Whimsical Woodland 3D embossing folder from SU! in the background. I have swiped over the top of the embossed images with my white pigment ink pad.

Supply List:

Stamps: Merry and Bright (SSS monthly kit Dec 2016)

Ink: Versamark, Unicorn White pigment (HA)
Distress inks: Brushed Corduroy, Festive Berries, Fossilized Amber, Gathered Twigs, Kitsch Flamingo, Lucky Clover, Peacock Feathers, Salvaged Patina, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Tattered Rose, Twisted Citron

Paper: Granny Apple Green (SU!), silver glitter, watercolour (RNG)
Other: Alabaster White EP (Brutus Monroe), no. 2 round Silver Velvet watercolour brush, Waffle Flower stencil mat, Honey Bees gem stickers : Hugs & Kisses, Whimsical Woodland 3D EF (SU!), single stitch line rounded square frame (MFT), mini stampin' dimensionals
Challenges: 52 Christmas Card Throwdown #22-28, SSS Instagram Challenge (layers), SSS Wednesday Challenges (anything goes)

My lovely card got an honourable mention at Christmas Card Throwdown.

✿ Karen ✿

Is there something in the water??

3 of my favourite challenge sites have challenged us to go nautical or under the sea and AAA have asked for along the edge. 

It makes it semi-easy when you have a brief to fill i.e. the along the edge so I thought I'd mask off the majority of the card front and using my green and blue shimmer powders and create a watery look. As this is CAS I was trying to make a one layer card but I discovered watercolouring on Neenah White is horrendous but I'm sure I can use the scraps to die cut out for some future project. The masking tape didn't even really stick to it properly and so I didn't even get a straight edge. 

I then thought I would try some of the new card stocks I picked up at SENZ and my second attempt is below and I used some Multifarious Lavinia smooth and supreme card which was fab! Looking at the Lavinia web site it says "tried and tested with several mediums. One card that does it all, from Watercolour Inks to stamping. It works with Oxide inks and Brushos beautifully. The perfect card for all your crafting needs." I'll definitely be using it again as it is white where my Strathmore that I love normally is a cream colour

Once it was dried I added a few school of fish and some seaweed and in my box of left over images I also had a left over mermaid and wee fish after I had helped my 2-½ year old granddaughter make a birthday card for her mum who is our family's mermaid being a NZ champ and rep at springboard diving when a teenager. 

At the time we used Strathmore Bristol Smooth card stock and my old Ranger Distress markers which are well and truly past it but reactivated with the aqua painter at the time and made some fun images.

Because my mermaid was a wee bit bigger than my watercoloured panel and I didn't want to cut off some of her hair I cut off ¼" of the RHS of the card front. I actually like having the wee white strip on the LHS. 
 

Supply List:
Stamps: Mermazing and matching dies (MFT), Whale Done - sentiment (SU!), Mermaids - starfish (HA My Monthly Hero May 2017)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Aquamarine (PF), Tidal Pool (PF), Bermuda Bay (SU!), Versamark

Paper: Lavinia Multifarious, Neenah #110 , Bristol Strathmore smooth, Bermuda Bay (SU!)

Other: Ranger distress markers, white embossing powder, clear Wink of Stella, Nuvo shimmer powders (Blue Burst and Atlantis Burst), Ken Oliver Crafts color burst (Turquoise), Tinby Color Crush (Blue Heaven), masking tape

Challenges: AAA Cards #220, Addicted to CAS #225, Just Add Ink #614

Well if it doesn't stop raining in New Zealand we may all be living under the sea sooner than we expected. Hope the sun is shining where you live!
✿ Karen ✿

Another dreamy colour combo

I think it's because it's so gloomy, grey and wet in New Zealand at the moment that I am loving all the soft "dreamy" colour combos on some of the challenge sites at the mo.

Even if you don't have time to join in, check out all the fab cards from the design team and those that rose to the challenge for CAS Colours & Sketches.

I really wanted to have a go with my new background Stained Glass hot foil plate and it's matching stencil that I have just acquired and I thought these 3 colours would look great on a "stained window" and they did.

 I added a reverse foiled sentiment from the fancy script hot foil plates and also watercoloured up the Cherry Blossom using re-inkers.

 

I added the wee excess strip inside the card to finish it off:

Supply List:
Stamps: Forever Blossoms (SU!)

Ink: Blushing Bride (SU!), So Saffron (SU!), Soft Sea Foam (SU!), Versamark

Paper: Neenah Solar white crest #110, So Saffron (SU!), Soft Sea Foam (SU!), Watercolour (RNG)
Hot foil plates/dies: Fancy Script (PF), Stained Glass (PF), solid hot foil die (PF)

Dies: Master Layouts 2 (GK), Cherry Blossoms (SU!)
Other: Stained Glass stencils (PF), blending brushes, round no. 2 water brush, clear embossing powder, clear Wink of Stella, foam squares, matte gold gimmer foil

Challenges: CAS Colours & Sketches #479

EEK just realised I probably didn't make it CAS - focused too much on the great colour combo and I probably only needed the hello but I love my card so happy the challenge got me KReating it!

✿ Karen ✿