Pool Party time

If you follow my blog you know I love the Lawn Fawn Create with Us series. I love that Kelly Marie and Jenn give us regular free classes using Lawn Fawn products complete with colouring guides. You can check out all the Create with Us classes they have done HERE.

As my Lawn Fawn collection has grown I am able to now go and do some of the older classes. My Pool Party set is so damn cute and I've used the odd stamp from the set on other cards but OMG  this class is so fun. And even though I didn't have the background coverplate die I'm really happy how my second card turned out.

The 2 cards together:

And up close card one:

Really simple but effective background, draw 3 circles of water on some watercolour card stock and then smoosh Peacock Feathers distress ink on a "palate" and then paint in the water, breaking the lines and allowing to mix with more water. When dry add some waves from the set and the cute colored critters. Little things which mayn't show in my picture is the llama's sunglasses has a layer of black Sakura glaze pen drawn over the stamped image to make glossy, but what a fun and really easy card to whip up.

The second card was a bit more tricky but not really.

The sunray background is made with Liquid Stardust (LF) and in real life it truly is so sparkley, now I have used my Sunray stencil from Lawn Fawn a bit but using my Waffle Flower grip mat to hold my base card (which is Salvaged Patina blended on the cardstock) and the stencil was a doddle, so easy nothing moves. I've added the Liquid Stardust with a round foam applicator the way Jenn did and went up the stencil lines but when I was doing it it blew me away at what a cool effect. I only have mini distress ink pads so I used my full sized Salvaged Patina distress oxide to make the base background.

I don't own the wavy background coverplate die but just used a simple wave border and added a Ocean accent (LF) to pop up the diving kitty. I cheated and didn't make a background with Peacock Feathers and just used my Teal Topaz card stock (SP) again. The other cool thing about this card is the ball, the floatie, the dive mask and the droplets all have a layer of Glossy Accents on them and they look so good IRL. I bought the small bottle for Jenn's Creative Art Journey class and I recall her saying everything works better i.e. doesn't clog if you actually use it, including our gel pens.

But I just love this card I think when I remake it I'll chop the teal cardstock up with multiple wave shapes and put back together like a jig-saw which I think will be as good as the background coverplate but I do think the Ocean Wave accent is purrfect too to pop up the cat through the "water".

The 2 cards reflect all 4 critters from the set and it's nice to have different ones at the beach.

✿ 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 ✿