watercolor series: Just brush it on

 

Hello! Welcome back to the second installment of my watercolor series. Goodness, life has been a little crazy! I’ve been helping a young bride with her wedding decorations. The wedding is next Friday. Eeps! I’ve never done anything like this before, except for my own wedding, so I’m hoping everything goes well without any glitches!

But I’ve finally gotten to share this project with you. This one is very simple and very easy, and I love simple and easy! One thing you will probably not find here at Sweet paper Treats is a lot of complicated and time consuming projects. Who’s got time for that? But my aim and my goal is to share doable, fun, easy to recreate projects that inspire you in some way.

This card would be a great one to mass produce since it is a quick one. This time I simply wet my watercolors and brushed them onto a piece of water color paper. I chose colors that flowed well from one to the next for a gradient look.

Wait for the watercolors to dry, or zap it with your heat tool, and then stamp your sentiment on top.

 

I love how the colors flow together and I love how artistic it looks without the difficulty.

Love this look? You may want to check out these beautiful watercolored escort cards. Stunning! And this sweet note card from rifle Paper company.

I’ll be sharing a watercolor scrapbook page idea next time, so I hope to see you then!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

watercolor series: color outside the lines

Hello and welcome to the first installment of my water color series!

I just love water coloring and have been having so much fun exploring ways to use water colors in my paper crafting. I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite water color techniques. I hope you’ll come along with me on this little journey through the fabulous world of water colors. We’ll look at different ways to use water colors, so hopefully you’ll pick up something new along the way.

I don’t plan to explore the many different types of water colors out there. There are a lot. You can buy water color pencils, crayons, paints, etc. etc. I simply plan to look at some of the different techniques you can use. Maybe at some point I will take it upon myself to write a post about the different water coloring options there are out there. But that’s a post for another time.

Water colors are a messy, casual look, and maybe that’s part of the reason I love them so much. It’s hard to mess them up! Remember when you were little and you were taught to color inside the lines? Well, we’re going to throw that right out the window today, because when it come to water coloring, the messier the better and staying inside the lines is actually not necessarily encouraged.

I started off by heat embossing my image with black embossing powder. I like to emboss my image when water coloring so that the image stays crisp and well defined when layering the water colors on top. But embossing is not necessary, so you can do whatever you wish for your desired results. Just make sure to use a water proof ink if you plan to not heat emboss your image.

Then I got busy with my water coloring. I used a water color palette I found at my local art store. It comes with lots of different colors in little pots. I love them! It reminds me of the water color coloring books I used to love as a child where you wet your brush and pick up the color from the little spots of paint on the page. The colors here are much more vibrant, of course, and I love that you can mix in more water to tone it down, or really pick up lots of paint for more vibrancy.

The trick is to not worry too much about those lines. It’s a little tough, actually. Especially for those of us who happen to be perfectionists. The idea of coloring outside the lines can be a little frightening. but I promise you, the more you can let loose a little, the better the end results will be!

I decided to “mess” it up even more by dropping big drops of ink from my brush onto the finished image. You should let your image dry first before doing this if you want to keep your drops of paint from running into your already painted part. I didn’t let it dry completely before dripping on the black paint, and at first that big black blob on the flower petal bothered me. But I decided to embrace it as just part of the fun of the water coloring. But next time I would definitely give it a little more time to dry. That’s what I get for being impatient! If you are impatient like me, you can always use your heat tool to help speed up the drying process.

What’s your favorite water coloring technique?

Thanks for joining me today, and I hope you’ll come back next time when we’ll explore more water coloring fun!

 

 

 

Moxie Fab World stamp of approval!

Today I’m so excited to share a little Moxie Fab-ness with you! You see, over on the Moxie Fab World blog they like to feature cool stamps from cool companies, and today they’re featuring none other than Market Street Stamps! And I’m super excited that out of all the awesome stamps Market street Stamps has to offer, they chose to feature my Dreamcatcher stamp set! Head on over to the Moxie Fab World blog and check out today’s Stamp of Approval post for a chance to win a bunch of stamps from Market Street Stamps, including Dreamcatcher.

I whipped up a little project using Dreamcatcher to share with you today.

I’m really into water coloring these days and made this little framed art piece by heat embossing the dream catcher image and then water coloring it. It was simple and quick, and I love, LOVE the look of the layers of dried colors. Goodness, I can’t even explain why it makes me happy, but just the entire process of layering on the messy, watery colors and then seeing how they dry into something so pretty is just plain fun!

 

I also added some stamped stars after the water colors had dried for added dimension.

Do you love the water color look too? It’s so popular right now, and for good reason. If you love it like I do, stay tuned here to Sweet Paper Treats, because I’ve got more water color goodness in store for you, coming really soon! I plan to start a mini series on water coloring and exploring all the fun ways to use this medium in your paper crafting projects. I’m so excited to share it with you, so I hope you’ll come along with me.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope your day is simply beautiful!

 

 

Pub cards: Paper Crafts Magazine- May/June 2013

I just received the latest issue of Paper Crafts Magazine in the mail this week. I always love to receive it, especially if any of my cards happen to grace the pages. This time I have three cards in the magazine, although all of them appear in the digital version only. Did you know that each month Paper Crafts Magazine offers digital only content, above and beyond what you’ll find in your print issue? You can read all about the benefits of the digital content on this blog post over at the Paper Crafts Connections blog.

All three of my cards appear in the ” Raiding the Kitchen” feature of the magazine, which highlights cards made using kitchen supplies in a unique way. I thought I’d pick my favorite of the three to share with you today.

This card is a favorite for a few reasons. One, I adore the color scheme. A neutral paired with bright, colorful accents always makes me happy. This time green and orange bring a punch of color. I also love the chipboard leaf accents.

Can you guess which kitchen supply I used on this card? Give up? The flower is actually made out of designer cupcake liners. I made them by snipping out the round bottoms and folding them up into a flower shape. Fun, huh?

Some other things that make this card a favorite are the spiral paper slivers. Those curly things were made by cutting very thin strips of paper and winding them around a pencil so they’d curl up. How cute would these be as accents to a pumpkin accent, or grapes cluster? I also really love the tiny metallic paint spritzes on this card. They are nice and shiny, hopefully you can see that in the photos. I think the metallic paint just adds a little glam to the card, but not too much to detract from the casual feel of the design.

My other cards that appear in this digital version of the magazine use twist ties and drinking straws! Go on over and check it out! There are a lot of amazing cards in the digital isssue that don’t appear in the print version. If you’re already a subscriber to the print magazine, just let Paper Crafts know you’d also like to receive access to the digital version for free! Otherwise, you can chose to subscribe to either the print version, the digital version, or both over at the Paper Crafts Magazine website.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Super Star!

Hello, and happy Monday morning to you! Hopefully you’ve all have a great, relaxing weekend and are ready to get this week off to an amazing start!

My son turned 14 last week. Yeah, I really can’t believe he’s 14!! He is an amazing young man, and Eric and I couldn’t be more proud of him. He really is a super star kind of kid. The kind that just shines at whatever he does. I whipped up this card for him in approximately 3.78 minutes. It was a quick, throw-something-together-because-his-birthday-really-was-yesterday-and-shame-on-me-because-I-hadn’t-even-made-him-a-card-yet, kind of card.

I had just picked up these fantastic die cut and chipboard shapes packages from Basic Grey just a few days before, so I grabbed a few of those, along with some Studio Calico embellishments and set out to make a card suitable for a cool, 14 year old boy.

I used a happy birthday stamp from the Grunge set from Skipping Stones Designs and stamped it repeatedly sometimes picking up new ink, and sometimes not for a fun look.

And those enamel dots are simply my very favorite embellishment right now. I just want to put them on everything. Just saying.

And before I go, I thought I’d share a few things that are making me happy this morning. Just because.

1. remembering the hugs and smiles from the kids in our three year-old’s Sunday School class. They are so, so cute!

2. the sun is shining. It’s chilly outside, but I’ll take the sun!

3. discovering what kinds of things are planted at our new house. I see some pretty flowering trees and other plants starting to emerge. Love that!

4. waking my kids in the morning. It’s one of my very favorite parts of the day. My second favorite part is putting them to bed at night. Sometime I’ll explain why these are my favorite times of the day.

5. the grungy metal cart I found last week. My husband is skeptical, but I know it’s going to look great. Only a fellow junk lover would really understand, I’m sure.

6. flowers. I still have some bouquets I received when my mom passed away. They make me happy whenever I see them.

Hope your day is lovely! Thanks for stopping by!

 

8 weeks…and I miss you

That’s how long it’s been since I blogged! 8 weeks.

I’m not sure how that’s possible.

In those 8 weeks my heart has been torn in so many different places.

I really wanted to devote more time to blogging. To make this place what I dreamed it could be. But at the same time I always sensed it wasn’t quite the right time. I couldn’t place my finger on why, exactly. But maybe now I know.

On March 28 my mom suffered heart failure and slipped into a coma. One she would never return from. My mom passed away on Sunday, April 7. Just three days before her 67th birthday. The last few weeks have been filled with so many different emotions. Pain over the fact that my mom was going to die. Joy that she would be at home with Jesus, with a new body, and reunited with loved ones gone before, including an infant son who died 40 years ago. Peace that could only come from the Holy Spirit through the many, many prayers of family and friends. Anguish over decisions no one should ever have to make. Sorrow over watching my dad go home alone, without his companion of 45 years. Comfort from seeing so many people come out to support our family over this time. Hundreds.

My mom touched a lot of lives. And I miss her. Even now the tears come as I type.

I miss her great, big, hearty laugh that could be heard across the room. I miss her smile. I miss her voice.

I think about the fact that no one will ever bake Hartshorn Cookies like she did. No one. Or cream puffs. Or pie.

I hate to think of my kids growing up without Grandma. They’ll miss her birthday cards and Christmas gifts.

I think of all my mom taught me over the years. How to be a hard worker. To not complain about your lot in life. And when life knocks you down, you just pick yourself up and keep going.  You don’t quit. She taught me how to keep house. How to cook. How to garden. She let me explore my creative side. She let me be myself, even though it was hard for her when I turned out to be different than she wanted or expected me to be. She loved and accepted me anyway.

I miss her.

And I’ve really missed you too. I’d like to hop back in, if there’s still anyone here reading this dusty old blog. Bless you if you are! I wouldn’t blame anyone for giving up on this neglected blog of mine.

About my card. I made it using a mixture of my Studio Calico kits. This one uses paper from the Neverland kit and embellishments from various past kits.

I also incorporated some stitching and paint splatters. I wanted this card to have a dreamy, ethereal look, and I love how the patterned paper helped me achieve that.

The sentiment is this one from Market Street Stamps. I stamped it in grey, but stamped it off once for a softer look and omitted the last word.

 

Before I go, I’m assuming most of you already heard about Google Reader being shut down in July. If you do follow my blog via Google Reader there are other options. You can follow my blog on Feedly, Bloglovin or  Netvibes. I’m currently using Feedly and Bloglovin’. Deciding which one I like better. I use Feedly when I’m on my iPhone, which is often how I read blogs these days. I’m not really sure which one I like best for reading on my computer since I haven’t really tried either of them out a whole lot. I still use my Google Reader and probably will until I can’t any longer. But just so you know that there are other options.

If you’re still here reading this, thank you. I know I skipped out for quite a long time. I’m back. I’m really back this time. Thanks for sticking with me!

art journal- fill my life with color

Today’s project is a fun, messy one! I was playing around with some techniques I learned from Wilna Furstenburg’s Art Class Workshop over at Two Peas in a Bucket. It’s fantastic, by the way! I recently discovered Wilna’s work and I just love it! Love her style! Love the techniques and pages she shared in the workshop! Worth every penny, in my opinion. Watching her videos makes me want to immediately go and scrapbook. She has a style that really speaks to me. Her pages aren’t elaborate or complicated, but the techniques she uses make her pages shine.

You may have already seen the crayon art that was so popular on Pinterest a while back. My son made a few of those drippy crayon canvases and they turned out so cool looking. He has one of them displayed in his room. I never thought to use that technique in my scrapbooks. But Wilna did! I decided to try it out on an art journal page first since I had this idea for a page in my head and it seemed like a great technique to use to get the look I was going for.

 

What I really love about this technique is the vibrancy of the colors from the melted crayons. You just can’t achieve that same look with paints or mists. Plus, it’s just plain fun to watch the crayons melt and run down the paper. I melted my crayons on a separate piece of watercolor paper and then trimmed it down before gluing it down in my journal. Art journals are a great place to try out some new techniques before committing them to a page.

I thought about using the whole rainbow spectrum of colors, but in the end decided to stick with reds, oranges, and yellows. This page has special meaning to me. It’s about a prophetic word I received some time ago about God filling my life with color. Since then it’s been a fun journey to see how God is going to fulfill that prophecy for me. I can see some areas of my life where He is definitely making it colorful and vibrant, and other areas where I don’t quite understand this prophetic word yet and must wait to see the rest unfold. That’s why I chose to leave out some of the colors. I’m beginning to see some of it fulfilled, but not all yet.

The melted crayons kind of speak to me in a special way too. I love how the run together, running down over a blank sheet of paper, creating vibrancy and beauty as they flow. It reminds me of that verse that speaks about how Christ came that we might have the abundant life. A vibrant and beautiful life. And as I allow him to mold me and shape me, my life becomes a thing of beauty for all to see.  I am the paper, my life the page. Christ is the crayons melting all over it, covering up the ugliness and the places that are vacant, until all you see when you look at me is the beauty of Christ. He’s got a whole lot more to work out in me. There’s so much more ugliness there yet.  It will not be finished until I get to heaven. But hopefully my life will become an ever increasingly beautiful masterpiece created by Him alone.

Thank you for allowing me to share a piece of my heart with you today.

Hope your day is beautiful!