Blowing the Dust off the Gel Press

Ready for day 3 of my Spring Card Class? We were doing some gel press techniques. I have to be honest. I’ve had a gel press for about 6 years ( a gift in my goodie bag from a crop I attended) and this is the first time I’ve used it. I have no idea why I never used it before as it really is a lot of fun and it’s so unique!

We paired the gel press with some embossing as well, again something that I don’t do near enough (although it did make me realize I don’t have any clear embossing powder in my stash….say what???? )

I needed some birthday cards to send out, so I focused on that sentiment but really mixed and matched here.

The left card is using some Gina K stamps and sentiment (you’ve seen this set before from another online class I did last year), with a Plaid Crafts stencil to add an extra layer of texture to the gel pressed panel.

On the right we have some gel press and watercoloring and it is paired with a stamp and die set from SCT delivered online (this is part of an online card class from the spring that I haven’t finished yet so stay tuned for another card with this set). This one I brayed the watercolored ink and then added the panel onto the gel press. It gave me some lighter and darker parts, which I think adds some great interest to this card. I did some gold embossing and I love the gold on this!

Our flat card, which was actually my first gel press panel, I cut out the flowers using a CTMH stamp and die set (again from a previous online card class) which had been heat embossed with some gold embossing powder.

The inks were from Your Next Stamp for this one. I went with some pink/purple/teal combo, which is a little out of my wheelhouse but I love it with the gold embossing!

Get out your gel press and have some fun with it! There is no right or wrong way ( I even left a little ink on mine for the next batch).

Entered into these challenges:

Alphabet challenge: Embossing

Beyond the Blue: Flowers

Creative Fingers: Anything Goes

Classic Design Challenge: Anything Goes

Do -Al Creative Challenge: Group ( I used my gel press to create 3 different cardstock panels)

TOB: November

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! I know not everyone celebrates but we do here in Canada and my son was an avocado! Of course he was happy with all the candy he got but it was really cold here! There was ice and snow in some areas!

On to this month’s challenge for Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge!

Another great mood board for you!

Inspired by the green and the witch, I did a fun ink smooshed background and then used my Recollections stamp and die set for the witch, sentiment and black cat. Some glittered ribbon and just a small piece of DP and a few enamel dots to finish off.

Don’t forget to stop by the blog to play along with us this month and to see what the rest of the DT has created.

Weight Watchers & Wine

Happy Wednesday all!  It’s challenge day at Penny’s and to go with our anything goes theme, we have a couple of great sponsors again this week!

Our first sponsor is Oddball Art, who will be providing 3 images from their store for the winner this week!

Our second sponsor is Sparkle & Sprinkle who is also providing 3 images of the winners choice!

My card today is using one from Sparkle & Sprinkle! It’s called Wine Friends.  It actually comes with 2 sentiments but this is the one that caught my eye when I saw it!

I did just some basic watercoloring for the image this week.  I used this week’s  sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches.  The DP is just from my stash.  The sequins are from Stampin Up and I broke out my new Nuovo Dots in black for just a bit of an extra touch.

I cut the image/sentiment out using my CC designs die and my big shot.

I hope you like it and don’t forget to stop by the blog and see the fabulous creations by the DT using images from both sponsors!  Jump in and play with our anything goes challenge! Can’t wait to see what you create!

 

Boys and their Toys

Friday is here again, and I’m posting on the Sunsational Stamps blog today with my inspiration piece.

Today I am using the image from the Scrapping with Lisa designs called Jimmy.  I thought he was a fun masculine image to play with.

 

Rather than coloring with my copics like I normally do, I decided to go with some watercoloring today, just because I’ve not done it in awhile.  So as you can see, like a watercolor painting, some of the areas are darker and some have varying degrees of lighter color.  It was fun to get back into it.

I went with lots of layers and just a few embellishments with this one today.  I hope you like it and don’t forget to stop by the store and shop around!  Remember, tomorrow is our blog hop so pop by and see what I have for you then!

DP: Boy crazy (MME)

Punch : EK success

Sentiment:  Stampin Up

Cardstock: Michaels

Twine: unknown

Watercolor pencils: unknown

Hello Summer blog hop!

Hey there! Welcome to my leg of the Hello Summer blog hop celebrating the first day of summer.  You should have arrived from Paula’s Blog.  if you are just starting here, head on over to Ashley’s blog where the fun starts and she also has not only the blog lineup but the list of great prizes that you can win as well.

 

I hope you are having fun so far and checking out all the great projects.  Honestly, I totally forgot that today was the first day of summer.  My days seem to blend in together! Summer always reminds me of the trips I took to Europe several years ago.  One of my favorite places was Rome.  I wandered the cobblestone streets for hours just soaking up the sun, culture and atmosphere of such an amazing city.  If I could, I would return in a heartbeat and experience it all over again!

This is the card I created for the hop today.

I received this image for a card challenge at my LSS and it just brought back all those European memories for me again.  When I looked at it, the first thing that came to mind was watercolor painting.  So I decided to color it with my watercolor pencils instead of my Copics this time.  The DP is so old in my stash that I don’t even remember the name of it.   I thought it was called Grandma’s Attic but I’m not sure.   The sentiment is one that is left over from the package that I won in a blog hop and is MME.  The flowers and ribbon are from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope that your summer is amazing and that today is just the start! You are now off to visit Ellen and see what fun she has for you!

 

Entered into the following challenges:

Anything Goes Challenge Blog: Around the World (Travel)

Celebrate the Occasion: Welcome Summer

Paperminutes: Based on a Movie (Roman Holiday..I love this movie!)

Creative Monday’s –-Summer

Love To Create: Summer Fun

 

 

 

In distress

your projects that is!! This week at AiFactory, we want you to put your card, layout or project in distress..rip it, tear it, wrinkle it, distress it with a tool, scrunch it, ink it, whatever you can come up with, we want to see it this week!  As always you have a week to upload your project to the AiFactory challenge blog here.  They have to be there by 10:30pm EST on Wednesday June 23 to be entered to win the prize of the digital stamp set and a chance to be a guest designer!   If you upload from an online gallery, please label your project with AIF#40 so we can find it easily.

For this week’s card I did a lot of distressing and used my Tim Holtz Distress Inks (practically had to blow the dust off of these!)  The image is from a new image this week called Best Dad which is of course perfect for Father’s Day which is coming up on Sunday (I have 4 cards to make!).  We all know how hard it is to find masculine images so you’ll want to snag this from the Vault as soon as you can..you can find it here

Remember, you don’t have to use AiF images for your projects but we would love it if you do.  We have a great freebie section to choose from.

I colored the image with my watercolor pencils (again with the dust blowing) and then went over it with some Vintage Photo Distress ink.  I got out my handy dandy distressing tool and did all the edges of my card and for the PP I crinkled it first then ran the ink over it and then did the edges.  I added some string and a clip that I had in my stash.  Instead of brads, I used some little washers I picked up at Home Depot and then adhered them with Glossy Accents..I hope you like it!

Make sure you check out the rest of the DT and what they created for you this week!

Penny

Georgia

Melissa

Lawren

Audrey E

Audrey R

Fink

Laralee