My first tutorial...Watercolor Sparkle

Well at least on my blog...I actually have a tutorial over at SCS...Stamping on Candles

But this one...well I am not sure if I came up with it - I do know I discovered it myself soon after getting my Water Color Crayons and having an "accident" while crafting...I accidently grabbed the Versamarker instead of my Aquapainter

I have used this particular technique ALOT when I do swaps because I personally feel it is a little beyond ordinary...

So I give you - Watercolor Sparkle...(hey if anyone can come up with a better name let me know)

So what do you need....


Watercolor Crayons
Versamarker
Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder
Permanant Ink (I used Basic Grey)
Stamp set with open design
Embossing Gun
and of course Cardstock




Stamp your image using a permanent ink











Use Watercolor crayons to add color to the stamped image - it doesn't have to be fully colored in...in this case I used a lighter yellow (So Saffron) in the middle, a rose color (Regal Rose) ringing the yellow and finally a Coral (Cameo Corel) on the outside






Use your Versamarker to blend the crayon together - I work from the middle out using circular strokes







Dump your Iridescent Ice EP on the image...you want to do this fairly quickly after you have blended your colors with the Versamarker. Shake or tap off any excess - the EP will only adhere to the areas you have used the versamarker on.

Use your embossing gun to melt and set the EP






Finally put your card together...now you have a card with a beautiful, colorful sparkle image.











Side view to see the sparkle...





I have used the technique a number of times you can see samples

Sparkle Birthday

Ornament Card

Sparkle Butterfly

I {heart} stampin' gal val

If she ever reads this blog she is going to think I am a big stalker...and I am of her BLOG

She comes up with the cutest ideas...so do a lot of people but what I love about her is they are uncluttered, simple and well fabulous...

She had a posting one day about using Junkitz paper to create easy beautiful cards with no stamping involved... and another one where used preprinted cards she and very little stampin'. I will tell you that after i saw the Junkitz cards I HAD TO buy that paper and recreate them...

I have pitures of her completed projects in a little folder (yes I obsess much) and whenever I need a quick card and I am not in a creating mood I usually find one of hers to CASE because they are fast quick and simple - but STUNNING...

So I was wandering around a LSS in my parents hometown and back in the corner were some holiday Around the Block papers...I thought to myself "self these are cute" and my self replied "yes they are you MUST buy them"... so I bought them, brought them home and put them away...


Yesterday I decided to clean up my workspace since I had finished most of my holiday crafting and I came accross the paper...so I decided to whip up some cards...they took me all of an hour from start to finish....


Cards I dub - "Val style"...

I used Around the Block "Seasons Sayings" "and "Christmas ribbons" - I simply cut the word blocks out...on the dark red ones I swiped the edges with a little white craft ink...on the green ones a bit of SU Pomegrante ink. I used prefolded white cards I bought from Micheals (note these are 4 x 5.5 cards) and some dark green and wine organdy ribbon I had hanging about that I had dug out of the $1 ribbon bin at Micheals.

I cut the Christmas Ribbon paper into 5.5" x 2" strips and attached it to the bottom portion

The saying blocks are popped up on SU dimensionals. I thought about adding some colored brads to the sides or the the blocks like Val did with her Junkitz ones...but since I was planning on giving them to my husband to give to his coworkers I decided not to waste my precious brads and kept them simple...

So my final cost - let see...

.75 per sheet of paper (it was on SALE :) )

1.00 for the ribbon (cause I still have half a roll of each left)

~$1.65 for 11 cards and envelopes (got to love that 40% coupon - $3 for 20 cards)

so my final cost for 11 cards (note I had more squares left over but a few were too big for the size card I had) is about $4.15 - so a whopping .38 cents each to make...

I have recently found out that Around the Block makes a ton of other "blocked" word papers...I'm in heaven....

and better yet a great place to get them is A Scrapbookers Legacy - which is having a fabulous holiday sale of 40% off EVERYTHING... plus get FREE goodies...and FREE shipping on orders over $50. I have bought from them before and have had fabulous service...(and no they are not paying me to say this :) )

ACK - only 12 more days til the big man comes...

OK a post today without pictures... {edited to say NOW there are pictures :) }

More about my musing on being a crafty person in this the Holiday giving season....

I enjoy crafting - it all started with a Creative Memories party about 8 years ago and well probably thousands of $$$ later I am swimming in the big pool of crafting...

BUT...just because you are crafty and you make things you think are...well...pretty cool - doesn't mean everyone does...

My favorite place on the web has to be Splitcoaststampers I have been a "member" since May of 2004 and I have seen some simply wonderful and stunning creations...

some of them I have CASED for my personal use...others I have CASED to give to friends and family...

Some of the creations have been so breathtaking I look at them and think "man I would love to do that BUT who would appreciate it" - sure my good friends who are crafty like me would appreciate things...my sister who is pretty artistic in her own right would appreciate things....my best friend in the whole wide world - Michelle - would appreciate things...but beyond that circle it turns into a crapshoot...

I just finished up personalized BIA journals for my nieces for X-mas...(pictures tommorrow I promise) - I thought about really embellishing them out but in the end I decided to go simple, for fear that they won't appreciate the work I put into them...Sure I could have save myself a lot of time, money and sanity and just bought them a little journal and wrapped it up...but in my heart I am a crafter...

So that is the crux of what I am getting at...here I sit among all my crafty stuff - itching to make something...I do elaborate plans in my head - I sketch out my ideas but when it comes to actually implementing them I fall short...either I give up and don't make something as elaborate that I had planned for fear that the receiver will just throw it in a drawer or I just give up altogether and buy something storebought and call it good...

anyone else feel this way?

Edited to add pictures of the journals...see this is what I am getting at - I had ideas to add more ribbon...maybe an extra felt flower or two with a rhinestone brad...but then I just decided to stop...and leave them as is...had I known that they would really APPRECIATE them for what they are I might have gone a step further... but for all i know in a months time they will be shoved under a bed somewhere...

Sometimes I surprise myself...

So one of the things I love to do is make slider cards...for popcorn and hot cocoa.

This year I had a friend order some popcorn sliders for Halloween and she asked if I could make some for the Holidays...

Why of course!!!!

It also needed a place for a gift card and a To: From:

Not a problem - or so I thought...then I got to the nitty gritty...how to have a place for a gift card...how should I do a To: From: label...

Hemmed and Hawwed...hawwed and hemmed...tried a few different things that were a no go

THEN I finally came up with this...

The pouch itself is 6.5 inches tall and holds a small bag of microwave popcorn.

The front has a small card (3.5 x 4.25 folded) - inside the card is a small pcoket I made using designer paper - it will fit a standard gift card perfectly. The top half has a little decorated To: From: label.

The card is held closed with the scalloped circle. The circle is popped up on dimensionals on the bottom half.

It is hard to see in these pictures but I did use a bit of cinnimon Stickles in the centers of the flowers on the front stamp, the scallop and inside next to the Merry Christmas.

28 more days...

ACK......only 28 more days until Christmas!!!!

so every year I send out close to 75 cards....all handmade. In previous years I have taken part of lots of X-mas card swaps and sent those out - sort of fun sitting on my bed with all different types of Holiday cards surrounding me trying to "match" the card to the receiver.

This year time just got away from me and I didn't participate in any swaps...so I am on my own for creating holiday cards...something "easy", something "quick" but something "good" - and since I can't stand making more than 20 or so of the same cards...it means a few different designs....

Officially a Craft Ho with no willpower...

Until yesterday I owned 4 different trimmers/cutters, A cuttlebug, a Bind-it All, various types of scissors and scads and scads of other stampin and scrapping items...

I managed to resist the call of the Cricut...

This week i heard of a little rumor...a rumor that Wal-mart was going to be selling a special "holiday" Cricut with 2 cartridges for the price of $119...my heart quickened...but I told myself I really didn't need one...really...I didn't

I went out Black Friday shopping with my mother and my sister...we didn't even leave the house until 8:30...and we even stopped for a pastry and coffee....

We went to Target and to Walgreens and to Tuesday morning...we were looking for a specific item for one of my daughters...I strode through the Walmart and couldn't help myself...I had to go to the craft section...

They only had the $189 ones with one cartridge...a nice lady helped me check the price but it was truely $189 - I asked about the $119 ones and she told me the rumor was in fact true but they seemed to be out of them...

Wasn't meant to be....

So today I drove home from my mothers and realized I needed a few items from my local Walmart - so I left the kiddos with my husband and headed out to Wally-World...

I hit the craft section looking for a wreath form (for a project I am working on) but no such luck...I decided to go around the back of the craft section and check out the clearence section...on the back endcap what do i find but TWO Cricuts...both with 2 cartridges and a big beautiful sign that says "Holiday Cricuts - $119"

I have no willpower....none at all....

Sometimes SIMPLE is better...

I love clean simple lines...what I love even better is quick, fast stamping too...

If you happen to peruse the isles of Target you will see a trend now-a-days with very simple notecards ... an image and a small saying on a basic folded white notecard and that's it...and for that you pay $2+... not me - I get them same look for a fraction of the cost (umm yeah I don't include the cost of my stamp set...)

Last year I made up a set of cards to show my customers that you don't need a whole lot of stamp sets to envoke different feelings in your cards...you can do fun, whimsical and elegant all in one. The two stamp sets I used to create my set were both from SU - Many Merry Messages and Holiday Tag Team -

I used only a handful of colors - Old Olive, Kraft and White for the cards themselves and then basically Black, Red & Olive for the colors with a little Saffon, Bashful Blue and Gray thrown-in

Next...I used the very cute SU Sell-a-Bration set - Very Punny (retired)...Can I just tell you to make this whole set took me LESS than 10 minutes...yes - I grabbed some SU notecards, the stamp set, my black stamp pad, some Black Gingham ribbon and a few markers and in less than 10 minutes I had this...

seriously simple and seriously cute

And last but not least...I won't say this is my best work...because it is far from it....and I was just trying to hurry up and get stamp and ink to paper to have a collection to showcase two SU sets - Year After Year and In My Thoughts - with these two sets you can easily make a card for just about any occassion - birthday, baby, graduation, wedding, friendship, holiday. I used Su notecards (gosh I love having them on hand), Watercolor pencils and Blender pens to color in...and various bits of ribbon...

So remember when you are stampin'...sometimes simple is better