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!

 

 

Funny Valentine

 

I meant to blog this yesterday, but in between the kid’s Valentine’s day crafts, errands, and evening plans, the day kind of just got away from me. There’s still a little time to whip up that last minute card for someone dear to you.

This card was inspired by this pin on my Valentine’s Day Pinterest board. I giggled when I saw it and I knew I HAD to make a card like that for my husband. I knew he’d get a kick out of it too. That card is for sale on Etsy, so if you’d like to purchase it, please go check out the Etsy shop here.

I kept the design masculine, since it’s for my husband, of course, and the guys aren’t usually into pink and frills and glitter, and all that jazz. You can add hearts for guys. Neutral or red colored hearts are great choices for guys. I had a plan to do a post on how to make a hot pink heart work on a masculine card, but that didn’t happen. The idea is there, though, so maybe another time.

 

We had a crazy, crazy morning here and I didn’t even get a chance to snap photos of the Valentine’s Day treats I made for my kids. They turned out cute, though, and the kid’s were so excited about sharing them with their classmates. I think the best part for me about making them was that Chloe had such a fun time helping me. Hers required quite a few steps and lots of glue, but she stuck to it and really was a huge help in getting them all done. Crafting for my kids is great, but having them craft alongside me is even better.

So far my morning consisted of being late for the bus, a child who couldn’t find his coat, same child ran out the door without his school work, a dead battery in the car, and a last minute blog post before I run out the door for my Bible study. Ahh…but it’s all good. I plan to have a fantastic day anyway. I’m so thankful for the love of my husband and kids and that I get to have a date tonight with the guy with the cute butt!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

Bitty Valentines

 

I love making tiny Valentines to tuck into small spaces, like my kid’s lunch boxes, or my husband’s pocket. Over the last few years we’ve had a Valentine’s mailbox tradition, where I tuck small candies and other treats into each of my children’s little mailbox each day for a week or two leading up to Valentine’s Day. At least one day out of the year I like to incorporate a letter or sweet note letting my kids know some things I love about them. These sweet little valentines are just the ticket. Small enough to tuck inside the mailboxes, yet roomy enough to add a little note inside.

What I love about making tiny cards, besides their overall cuteness, is the fact that I can use tiny scraps and little bits of this and that to make a little masterpiece. Little bits of paper. Tiny embellishments that would just get swallowed up on a larger piece.

 

I used some new Basic Grey papers in the True Love collection. The 6×6 pad is a great size for smaller projects like these tiny cards.

I love Valentine’s day! Yeah, I know it’s highly commercialized, and one could argue that it’s silly to have a day to express love when we should be doing that always. But I love setting a day aside to celebrate love and the people in my life that mean the most to me! I love making themed treats and gifts and decorations. LOVE it! I’m looking forward to next year when I can decorate my house a little more.

My son, Isaiah, would like to make some of these for his classmates, assuming I can find the whoopee cushions at a reasonable price. LOL! Boys!

Chloe chose to make these cute mice.

And, of course, I have a bunch of great treat ideas for Valentine’s Day saved on my Pinterest board. Speaking of my Valentine’s Day Pinterest board, I have a project to share with you tomorrow that was inspired by one of my pins on that board. Extra points to those of you who can guess which one it is! Hint: it’s a fun one!

Do you have a special Valentine’s day tradition? I’d love to hear about it.

The house is coming along nicely. I’m excited that i can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel in regards to construction. In fact, for the next week we have no workers scheduled to come in at all! I can’t even tell you how much i’m looking forward to a week of having no one around during the day but me! No one asking me questions and forcing me to make decisions about all kinds of house related things! No stepping around ladders, or bodies, to get where I need to go. No feeling like I have eyes watching every move I make in my own home. Bliss, I tell you! I will enjoy it, because the following week we start redoing the flight of stairs leading to the second floor where our bedrooms are. It will require us to stay off the stairs for about three days while the stain and poly cures. Not sure at all how that adventure will go, but I guess we’ll laugh and make do the best we can. And camp out in the family room, perhaps. I plan to use this next week, where I’ll have fewer house decisions to make, to catch up on other projects. Like redesigning my blog, and scrapbooking, and ordering curtains and fun stuff like that. Yay!

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing part of your day with me!

 

Pick a Pattern- any pattern!

 

Hello, friends! It’s good to be here again!

My blog hiatus is still not fully over, but I wanted to swing by today to share something with you all.

Over the last several months, perhaps even the last year or so, I’ve felt this blog growing a little stagnant. For several reasons, I guess. One of them being that my heart wasn’t in it. It felt like a chore to blog. Like something I HAD to do. I felt that something had to be done. Either I was going to spend the time making this blog into what I wanted it to be, or I was going to quit blogging altogether. Go big or go home, I guess.

I have to admit that for quite a while I was in the quitting camp. I just didn’t know if this blogging thing was really what I wanted to do. I felt like I desperately needed a break. From blogging and from crafting commitments, like design teams. I felt a kind of burn out from doing what was expected of me. I really don’t know how people manage to serve on several different design teams for long periods of time. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve LOVED the design teams I’ve gotten to be a part of, and I hope to be a part of more teams in the future, when the time is right. But I felt like I had to make this my time. To really focus on my blog and where I wanted it to go, or didn’t want it to go.

A little while ago Angelica and Jorge from Market Street Stamps told all of us that they were restructuring their team, which wasn’t a surprise. All of us had been serving on the team for quite some time, longer than any of us could have expected, and I totally understand why companies desire to change things up every once in a while. To me, especially with the move and everything else I had going on, it felt like it couldn’t have come at a better time! Like it was meant to be.

I felt like this was the time to take a break. To focus on the move, my family, and to really think hard about what I wanted to do, and more importantly, what God wanted me to do. Was this whole blogging thing really in His will for me to do, anyway?  I knew that I wanted to make more time in my schedule for spending time in the Word, getting to know Jesus better. Making the time to fall deeper in love with my Lord. I know I don’t want blogging to take center stage and consume me.

I still don’t have all the answers, but I think I do know that I’m not ready to quit. Instead, I feel ready to go bigger. Get better. To take this old blog in a new direction. I don’t know all the particulars, like when and how and what. But I’m thinking and planning. Mapping things out. And I’m excited!

I’m hoping to fund my new blog makeover entirely from my income from my published work, so I have to keep working hard at that. So I can make things happen.

That is why I asked you last time what kinds of things you like to see in a blog. I appreciate the feedback you gave me! Thank you!

So, here are some ideas I’ve been contemplating for my blog going forward:

1. Tutorials. Simple, but fun techniques and ideas for you to try. Who knows, maybe even a video now and then?

2. simple posts with simple cards and scrapbook pages

3. tidbits about me. I don’t think I have anything particularly interesting to share about me, but like some of you mentioned, I enjoy getting to know the person behind the blog too.

4. more crafting. My head is bursting with crafty ideas I’d like to share. Not necessarily paper crafting, but other kinds of crafting. I thought it would be fun to share those kinds of things from time to time.

5. What’s inspiring me lately.

6. sketches and how to use them.

Got anything to add? See anything on that list that really doesn’t appeal to you at all? Like you’d totally stop reading my blog if I did THAT? LOL! I’d love to hear your honest opinions, really!

So, this Pick a Pattern thing? This is the type of thing I imagine I would like to incorporate into a new blog. Techniques, tips and ideas, like this one, for you to try out yourself.

This idea came to me when I had a little pile of scraps lying on my work space. Some of my favorite scraps that I planned to turn into a card. When I sat down to create, I noticed that all the papers were striped. Was it even legal to make a card using all the same pattern like that? Surely that’s breaking all kinds of design rules, right? Well, call me a crafting rebel then, because I like breaking the rules. Making something work that really shouldn’t. And so I did. And you know what? I think it’s my favorite card to date!

So…Pick a Pattern and use it many times over in your design! 

I really think the mix of stripes works here. The color palette is simple and refreshing, keeping the design fresh and trendy, and not too overbearing. The stripes vary in color and scale, and I placed them going in different directions. 

The glass button helps keep the design looking fresh and light and not too heavy and serious. A few playful ink splatters keep it fun as well.

so, now that we know this can work with stripes, how about combining some other patterns.

How about some floral patterns? Can they work too?

 

I’m glad you asked, because I think they totally can! Here I used a mix of old papers and new. Notice the difference, though, from the first card to this one. With the stripes I chose all different colored stripes, but all had a neutral background in common. For the florals I chose a color scheme to work with and chose patterns in those colors. They all are flowered patterns, but they have different colored backgrounds, the scale of the designs vary, and not all the designs incorporate all the colors.

 

To make this work, choose a color scheme to work with and pull out patterns that fall into that color scheme. Vary the scale of the patterns and try mixing the background colors. For instance I don’t think it would have worked nearly as well if all my designs had a brown background. Mix it up.

OK, let’s try one more. How about Polka Dots?

 

I love the playfulness the mix of polka dot patterns lend to this card! I broke it up just a tiny bit with the arrow patterned dots, but I think it would have worked equally well had the pattern been solid dots. Again, vary the scale of the design, some small dots, some in between, and some larger. Notice also, how all the patterns have a colored background with white dots, except for the large circle, which is a white background with dots in the other colors incorporated on the card. This difference allows the large circle to become the focal point since the difference is what draws your eye there.

 

I chose embellishments on these last two cards that further complimented the overall pattern choices. Here, the enamel dots work so well with the polka dots, and the ink splatters fit right in.

So, go ahead! Give it a try!

Chose your patterns- dots, stripes, florals. arrows, chevron, triangles, damask, etc. etc. and see if you can make this concept work for you! Some things to remember that might help you out:

vary the scale of the patterns

Chose a simple design with backgrounds that coordinate, like multi-colored chevrons on white backgrounds.

On more complex patterns, chose varying backgrounds, but keep the color scheme in mind.

Allow the patterns to be the focus of the design. Too many other things going on are a distraction. 

Chose embellishments that further support the design

All rules can be broken! Even the ones I just listed here. Have fun and enjoy the process!

I hope you’ll give it a try. And if you do, I hope you’ll tell me about it. Above all I hope you can take away a different way of looking at things. Maybe try something you hadn’t thought of before. That is what inspiration is all about!

Thanks SO much for stopping by today and sharing part of your day with me.

 

-BRENDA