Using up the bits and pieces...

Hello, friends! I'm here with you today to share a card made up with some bits and pieces left on my desk from The Daily Marker 30 Day coloring challenge from a month ago. 

 

I started by stamping the Concord and 9th Flourish using my Zig markers onto watercolor paper, then going over them and filling in any less than perfect spots with a wet paintbrush. Once I had finagled them by adding more color and shading to get the flowers and leaves the way I wanted them, I tried to go for a bit more of an artistic look than I'm used to... I scribbled a little of each flower's coordinating Zig marker onto an acrylic block, then diluted it with water and painted the watered down color around each flower to create a Monet-ish effect. 

My next step was to heat emboss the greeting, from Concord and 9th's By Your Side, using silver embossing powder. To tie in with the silver embossing, I trimmed down the sides of the watercolor panel and added some silver sparkle glitter paper from The Ton to be peeking out on the sides. I mounted the entire thing on a Summer Sunrise card base from PTI.   

Here's a little bit closer look at the watery Monet effect. I like it, but I think I prefer the more precise shading used with my normal method. Fun to try new techniques, though! As one of my daughter's Winnie the Pooh books reminds us, how well would you know you liked your old things if you never tried anything new? 

Ellen Hutson Pins-Sights Challenge!

Hello, friends! Happy Sunday to you. I'm here today with my submission for the Ellen Hutson August Pin-Sights challenge, Here is the fabulous inspiration photo: 

 

 

Stunning, right? Soooo much to love in this photo. Pinks, corals, flowers, ikat, stripes, gold.... So many potential design roads. 

 

Here is what I came up with: 

 

I chose to focus on those beauuuuutiful pink flowers, the cake with the pretty tone-on-tone lacy piping, and the pink ribbon around the bottom of the top cake layer. I started by heat embossing those incredibly stunningly massive peonies from EH's new Mondo Peony stamp set using white embossing powder on Canson Montval Artist series watercolor card stock. I used only two shades of pink Zigs: Peach Pink and Sugared Almond Pink. They're by far my favorites... Just enough blue undertones to make them "cool." I used just Peach Pink on the largest peony, Sugared Almond Pink with just the tiniest bit of Peach Pink in the medium peony, and only Sugared Almond on the smallest peony. I fussy cut them and the leaves (which were colored with an Emerald Green Zig). After arranging them on my 4.75x7 card base, (because those giant peonies needed more space than a typical A2 card base), And adhering them with dimensional adhesive, I decided to add some plain white heat embossed peonies to the card base itself to mimic the lacy piping on the cake. 

 

You can see the white heat embossing a little better in this photo. It's very subtle, so I decided to add some clear Wink of Stella shading to the base of each petal to add just a touch of shimmer. The sentiment comes from the Concord and 9t set Beautiful Words. I heat embossed it in white on a strip of PTI's Lovely Lady card stock (more pink with blue undertones!)  then die cut three of the "lovely" from C9's Wonderful Words deep pink card stock to stack together for a dimensional die cut. 

 

 

The final step was to add some sequins and gems from Lucy Abrams. 

 

I hope you've enjoyed this project! I'm loving playing along with these new-to-me challenges. Off to go check out the other submissions! With an inspiration photo like this one, there are sure to be a bunch of stunning entries. Have a fantastic week, friends! 

 

A Blog Named Hero and The Ton!

Hi there! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend. I'm here with a quick post for the collaboration between The Ton and A Blog Named Hero. The challenge this month was to use a pop of color... As you all know, I can't get enough pink peonies, so I thought that I would color a pretty pink peony for my "pop" of color! 

I started by using The Ton's signature Rose Gold Embossing Powder to emboss the peony from Large Peony #1. I then water colored it with my Zig markers and fussy cut it out. The card base was created with the Hero Arts Woodgrain background stamp, a definite staple in any craft room! I stamped it with black ink on a white card base, trying to stick with the semi-monochromatic color scheme. This sentiment (from the Kindness stamp set) was stamped in Versafine and heat embossed with clear powder to make it really pop.   

 The shaker part was a little tricky. I wanted a rose gold frame to tie into the rose gold EP, but I couldn't find any rose gold colored foil papers in my stash, so I die cut some of the Heidi Swapp Minc toner paper and used rose gold foil and my Mini Minc to create my shaker frame. Then, I filled it with a variety of fun sequins from The Ton's massive sequins selection. I just love how the sequins "sprinkle," and they tie into the sentiment so perfectly!  I hope you're all having a fantastic weekend! I've been doing some shopping for fall clothes today... Family pictures are in a month or two, and I always agonize over our clothes for weeks and weeks before finally deciding on something. But shopping for sweaters and jeans have put me in the mood for cool weather, chunky scarves, and boots! Summer, you have officially been dismissed. See you back here soon, friends! 

Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge!!

Good morning!! I hope you all have had a marvelous week. After a fantastically fun weekend last weekend at Junkie Fest 2016, I have spent this week's nap times playing in my craft room with some new goodies from Concord and 9th. This month is their one year anniversary, and I just fell head over heels for a few of their new sets. It just so happens that one of my good friends, the ridiculously talented rock star Ms. Jessica Frost-Ballas, has started a new challenge blog for Concord and 9th products called Where Creativity Meets C9. They're trying to finalize their Design Team, and I just had to put my new goodies to use for an entry! 

My projects today are a little outside of my normal comfort zone. Distress Inks, smooshing, splatters....  Hope you like them!!  My first card is something that I've had rolling about in my brain Since I first saw the sneaks for the new Happy Day set... A soft, vintage-y cake. I immediately broke out my antique gold embossing powder and got to work.   

I die cut and embossed the cake and banner images, then used my neglected Distress Markers to color the stunning cake. I used Tattered Rose, Dried Marigold, Milled Lavender, Victorian Velvet, and Worn Lipstick. Some were colored directly onto the watercolor paper, while some were colored on a clear block and picked up with my wet paintbrush. I added some Spectrum Noir shimmer to the large flowers and the banner, then covered them in Glossy Accents and set to work on the background.   

I initially had in my head that I wanted to blend a soft, peachy pink-ish background, but I didn't have Dried Marigold in an ink pad, just a marker, and so I had to improvise a little, and I'm really pleased with the way this turned out. I think the blended background would have been too bright. I simply used my Dried Marigold, Worn Lipstick, and Victorian Velvet markers, scribbled them on some acetate, and spritzed them liberally with water and Tsukineko shimmer spray.  Tip: when smooshing or even ink blending, try to choose three colors that would come near each other on the ROY G BIV spectrum, and make sure the middle color is related to both colors. So, in this case, I used a purple, a pink, and an orange. The pink blends nicely into both the orange and purple. I scribbled on the purple and orange far enough from each other that the pink could go between and not blend to make a muddy brown mess.    After my pretty, shimmery background was dry, I heat embossed some of the sparkle images using the same gold embossing powder,  as well as a few more sparkles in Delicata Gold. I popped up the banner and cake, then slid some toothpicks behind the banner to make it look as if the banner were popping out of the cake. Some sequins finished it off! You can't see it very well in the photos, but the shimmer on this card is fabulous!! Very festive and sparkly!     

This next project is one that I've had ruminating for awhile. I love this sentiment from the new live action Cinderella movie. It's definitely something I need to keep in mind more often... I want to watercolor this in a larger version and put it in my daughter's room (of course, that's if we ever sell our house. :eye roll:) I knew this sentiment would take up most of a standard A2 card front, so I cut a 4.5x7 in card base, and a 3.75x6.25 inch watercolor card stock panel. I heat embossed flowers and foliage from the Wildflower set using the same antique gold embossing powder. I was so in love with the color scheme from the cake card that I used it again on this one. I water colored all of the flowers and fussy cut them.   

Next came the background. I used the Upper and Lower script alphabets, along with a smaller type alpha from my stash, to create the sentiment. I embossed it into watercolor card stock, though, so I did have to go over the script words with my Versamark pen. After my heat embossing was finished, I scribbled some Dried Marigold, Worn Lipstick, and Victorian Velvet onto a clear block and water colored them over the sentiment. The last step was to mix some gold acrylic paint with water and do my first attempts at splattering! Jess so inspired me this past weekend that I had to try some splatters for myself. Next time I will be more patient and wait until my watercolor end background is dry. Some of the splatters spread out a bit, but c'est la vie. I added a few "dew drops" using Glossy Accents, but no sequins. There must be something wrong with me.    I hope you enjoyed these projects! I am so excited to have another challenge blog to watch and play along with! Now I'm off to go check out the other entries.... SO many talented crafters have entered! Have a fabulous day and a wonderful weekend, friends!!!       

Ellen Hutson Challenge, Take 2

So, I'm back again with a super quick post. I wanted to create another post for the Ellen Hutson Calling All Artists challenge, so I pulled out the Mondo Poinsettia set and my trusty Zig markers and got to work. 

 

I started by heat embossing the main poinsettia image and leaves from Mondo Poinsettia and some foliage from Mistletoe and Holly around the edge of the watercolor panel. I water colored all of the images and die cut the Wplus9 sentiment three times from white card stock, then some silver foil. I stacked them all and adhered them together. 

 

After I had finished water coloring the main panel, I thought it looked a little flat, so I stamped and embossed another couple of poinsettias and colored them so that I could fussy cut them and pop them up. I added some white Wink of Stella to the centers if the poinsettias, then covered them with Glossy Accents. The last step was to add some pretty coordinating sequins. 

 

I hope you enjoyed this little holiday project! I can't seem to make holiday cards in traditional colors when it's hot out... Oh well. Pink poinsettias are so pretty. I'm at a "Junkie Retreat" with some fabulous stamping ladies. First time away from my kiddos... I'm sure I miss them more than they miss me. (But I think daddy certainly misses my helping hands haha!) 

 

Have a fabulous weekend, friends! 

 

Thank you!!

Today's post is a really special one for me. I'm not the type of person who likes to make a big deal out of my accomplishments. I get embarrassed and I don't want people to think I'm full of myself. But I'm competitive by nature (totally at odds with this other aspect of my personality), and so when I joined Instagram on the last day of 2014 and started following some truly amazing crafters, I started noticing the sheer volume of their IG followers. I was so awestruck, thinking I'd never get very many followers or be on any design teams, and today, I'm here to celebrate the fact that I reached 1000 followers a few weeks ago, and I'm so incredibly grateful for it. 

My card today is not one that is particularly intricate or technique-y... just pretty watercolored flowers, some sparkles, and some sequins... You know, my usual ingredients for a card. I used the insanely beautiful Ranunculus Bouquet from Wplus9, heat embossing it with white filigree embossing powder onto some Montval watercolor paper. I colored it with my palest Zig markers: Sugared Almond Pink, Blue Haze, Emerald Green, Green Shadow, and Lavender. So many of my projects are intended to be super pale and delicate, but end up being far more vibrant than I initially intend, so I was really happy with how this one came out. 

To add the greeting, I die cut the Hand Lettered Thanks die (also from Wplus9) from silver glitter paper from my stash and added in "you're the best" from the coordinating stamp set in London Fog Memento ink. The last little finishing touch was to add some Sparkling Clear Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

I truly am so grateful for the support I have received over the last year and a half, not to mention the friends I've made. Okay, truth time, and I'm sorry if this is corny... I've always felt like I was kinda on the outskirts of most everything.... school, grad school, even my friends. I'm a shy person, and it's hard for me to feel like I belong. But over the last year and a half, I've finally felt like I found some people with whom I truly belong, and I am so happy to have finally found a place to be myself. So thank you. I know 1000 followers is not a huge amount, not compared to some of those wonderfully talented people in this industry, but it is truly a personal milestone and an honor for me to have that many people who want to look at my dabbles in cardmaking. :)

In honor of my personal triumph, I'm giving away a $15 gift certificate to one of my favorite crafty retailers: Butterfly Reflections Ink! I'm so grateful to Vanessa for choosing someone as unknown as myself to be on her Design Team (and now for a safe space in which to shop without judgment lol!). I'm going to be choosing from my Instagram post showing this card, as this is to celebrate my Instagram followers, after all, so head on over to my Instagram page: @eamidgett. One commenter on the IG post will be randomly selected to win the gift certificate!! I will choose next Monday, August 15, at noon Central Time!

Good luck, and THANK YOU so much!

More Hydrangeas for Ellen Hutson.

I have a love affair with hydrangeas. And it's so difficult to find beautiful hydrangea stamps... well, it WAS so difficult. I'm totally smitten with these Mondo Hydrangeas from Ellen Hutson. I resisted for far too long, and I kept seeing stunning examples of them on IG, so I finally just gave in to the inevitable and purchased it. Boy, oh boy, am I glad I did!! I have the Mondo Magnolia and Mondo Poinsettia already, so now I've completed the (current) Mondo collection. *Here's hoping that Julie has more mondo flowers up her sleeves!!!*

Today's project is being entered into the Ellen Hutson Calling All Artists challenge on the EH blog. We were to focus on an EH set and accent with another company that EH carries, so I grabbed Mondo Magnolia and Blessed from Mama Elephant, some detail white embossing powder, and my trusty Zig markers and went to town! 

I started with an A2 sized panel of Montval watercolor paper. I heat embossed the main flower image three times around the edge, creating a frame, then added in some leaves here and there. Then came the really fun part... watercoloring! I used Light Carmine and Tea Rose Zig markers, concentrating the darkest shades in the center of the hydrangea petals, then pulling the color out with my Zig markers. The leaves were done with Emerald Green Zig markers, and I concentrated the color along the interior veins and along the farthest points on the sides, to try to give the illusion of a curve on the leaf. I wanted a contrast to the background, so I used the Cobalt Blue Zig marker, just outlining lightly along the edges of the flowers. The pigment is concentrated enough that I don't need to lay down a whole lot of color to get quite a lot of coverage with my wet paintbrush. 

Now, I didn't want to cover up too much of the panel, since it wasn't a quick process to color all of those lovely (numerous) hydrangea petals, so I die cut a piece of vellum using The Ton's Stitched Rectangle dies. I heat embossed my sentiment from ME's Blessed, then decided that I needed to color a couple more of the single hydrangeas and a leaf to accent it (and conveniently hide my dimensional adhesive!) I thought about adding sequins, but was talked out of it, and looking at it a few days later I'm glad I didn't add the sequins... it'd be too much on this already-busy card. 

Well, that's it for me today! I hope you've enjoyed this post (my second for today *gasp!*). Have a fantastic week, friends!!! 

I've got the blues...

Not really the sadness kinda blues... though I do have a little of that now that I don't have an excuse to color daily for #thedailymarker30day... I've just got lots of shades of blue in my project for today! I love having so many colored pieces available to just quickly turn into a card, and the Daily Marker challenge certainly stocked me up! 

Today's project is brought to you by Papertrey Ink's oldie-but-goodie Friendship Jar: Summer Fillers. I resisted this series for a long time, because I couldn't justify spending so much money on the starter set when the only stamp I wanted was the jar. But when they released their "Just the Jar" mini sets earlier this year, I jumped on it, and I'm so glad I did. Just LOOK at those hydrangeas! Aren't they fantastic?! Hydrangeas, while not my absolute favorite flower, are in the top three, beaten out only by peonies and anemones. This particular rendition of these hydrangeas reminds me of my wedding. We had beautiful blue hydrangeas everywhere, and they were just this shade of blue. I wish I had even a slightly green thumb, because I would love to have a variety of shades of hydrangeas in our yard. 

To start, I heat embossed the mini jar and that beautiful arrangement of hydrangeas onto Canson Montval watercolor paper using white detail embossing powder. To get that neat turquoise-y mint on the jar, I started by outlining the edges of the jar with the Light Blue Zig marker, then blending that color out with a Green Shadow Zig marker, then pulling the color out and fading it with my wet paintbrush. I really love this color combination and am going to have to remember it. It looks like the antique blue mason jars to me! I colored the hydrangeas with Cornflour Blue in just the centers, using my wet paintbrush again to pull the color out and add shading. A bit of a blue halo around the bouquet and some dark gray shadows to ground it on the bottom finished off the background. 

To finish off the card, I die cut the "note" die from PTI's Don't Forget To Write kit three times from Blueberry Sky card stock, glued them together, then covered it with Glossy Accents to add some dimension. The frame was created by die cutting Spring Rain card stock using my Double Stitched Rectangle dies from The Ton. The final step was gluing down the die cut and adding the sentiment in Smokey Shadow ink.

I hope you've enjoyed my project! I recently reached 1000 followers on Instagram, and I'm planning to do a giveaway in celebration of reaching that personal milestone. I'm trying to decide what prizes to give away, so be on the lookout for an official announcement! Have a fantastic day, friends!

A hodgepodge in pink and orange...

Hello, friends! I'm here with you today to share a card made with watercolor pieces from my participation in #thedailymarker30day challenge, which is now (sadly) finished. I watercolored a bunch of the blooms from Honey Bee Stamps's Country Blooms stamp set in my favorite "fiesta" color pallette and created a fun little card! 

To start, I heat embossed most (if not all, I can't remember) of the bouquets and blooms from the Country Blooms set. I just really love sets that have the bouquets already created for you, so you can just stamp and go instead of having to stamp and create a mask and stamp again and remove the mask and it's just too much work for this lazy busy mom. Anywho... After stamping and heat embossing those darling little posies with white embossing powder, I colored them with various pinks and a Summer Sunrise-ish Zig marker. I really love this color pallette... so fun and happy. I fussy cut them all out (which was not the most pleasant thing in the world for someone as impatient as I) but luckily for me Honey Bee has now released dies to go along with several of their previously released stamp sets. Excuse me while I go and try to find a buyer for my kidney for ALL of the new goodies I want that have come out recently.... 

Okay, I kinda need my kidneys, so I will just have to wait. The rest of the card was created fairly simply. I started with a white card base, upon which I used PTI's Summer Sunrise ink and my Clarity Stencil Brushes to create a pretty halo in the center of the card. The frame and greeting were created with some pretty hot pink card stock. I die cut the stitched frame from The Ton's Double Stitched Rectangles, then popped it up around the edge of the white card base with some foam adhesive. I then used the "gift" die from PTI's Don't Forget To Write MIM kit and die cut the same pink card stock three times, then adhered them all together, adding the stamped portion of the sentiment with Orange Zest ink. The final step was adhering the blooms on the card using a combination of score tape and foam adhesive.

I hope you enjoyed this project! It's nice to be able to break out my supplies from so many different companies and pull them together to create a pretty card.

Under the sea...

Hi friends! I'm here today with a much more youthful card than I normally create... but I'm trying to branch out of my flowery normal style and be a little more versatile. Mermaids are so very popular right now, and I couldn't resist this little beauty from The Greeting Farm. One of my favorite things about participating in #thedailymarker30day is that I have a bunch of watercolored images just waiting to be finished into a project. I colored this Ariel-inspired mermaid a couple of weeks ago, and I thought she would be perfect for a shaker card. 

To start, I heat embossed Maisea onto some watercolor card stock using silver embossing powder. I then used my Zig markers and a wet paintbrush to color her, adding some clear Spectrum Noir sparkle pen to the flower in her hair and her pretty tail, which I then covered with Glossy Accents. My 2.5 year old daughter saw her when I was trying to take a photo of her for Instagram and subsequently ran off with her shouting "Ariel! Ariel!" At least she's recognizable... Luckily, I was able to find her again and put her away somewhere high up where my little girl wouldn't be able to abscond with her again... 

Next came the background. I ordered the Coral Reef dies from Avery Elle during Butterfly Reflections Ink's last sale, and I knew they were the perfect proportion to work with Maisea on this card. I die cut them from silver shimmer card stock and then went to work on the background of my shaker. I started with a teal, a blue, and a deep purple Zig marker, which I scribbled on a piece of clear acetate. I then liberally spritzed it with water and "smooshed" my watercolor card stock down onto it, which I then held at different angles to allow some drips to dribble down and create a neat background. I spritzed some shimmer spray on top of that and set it aside to dry. (I'm so totally in love with this background. I'm going to have to remember to use my Zig markers for smooshed backgrounds more often.) 

Now, the shaker bits. I used The Reef from Avery Elle and heat embossed several of the shell images onto watercolor card stock, which I then colored with my Zig markers in complementary colors to the background. They are just the right size for adding to a shaker, and I'm so happy with how well they turned out. The sequins are from a favorite mix of mine from Lucy Abrams: Delphinium. I glued two of the silver coral reef die cuts to the smooshed background, leaving one to tuck behind Maisea/Ariel on the front of the shaker. The purple scalloped frame is from Pretty Pink Posh. The sentiment, from The Reef, I stamped onto a strip of white flagged card stock using PTI's Amethyst Allure ink. 

I hope you enjoyed this little shaker card! It has lots of dimension and several different textures, and I'm really happy with how it came out. I hope you're having a fantastic week, friends! :)