Inspired by... A Peony

Hello all! Welcome to the second installment of.... HUES TO USE... a little challenge of sorts where we throw three colors at you each week in hopes that these shades will give rise to some cataclysmic color expression in your very own craft room! 

Today is not even close to a stretch for us. In fact, the source of inspiration is one that melts Marcy's heart every time she sets her sights on one of these beauties!

Take a gander at this larger than life beauty -- will you? And those colors! Those colors are like buttah! I am going to call them Sugar Sweet Pink, Goldenrod and Shades of Jade. Back to that bloom, if you spotted this 'Coral Supreme' Peony on Marella's Insta-feed then you probably remember her saying something unbelievable like "this little guy is actually the size of an espresso cup!' Huh? That is a small but mighty bodacious blossom if I ever saw one! And now, you get to use this fierce floral as your "color muse" in Hues to Use! (See what I did there?)

Moving on to my own creation! I have a fast-paced double tutorial here. Super easy stuff, yet super fun as well.  For starters, here's a peek at my finished creation! 

As you can see, I used this stamp set -- Soothing Sympathy -- for my card! This was going to a friend who has been battling some serious stuff in life - not a loss per se -- but facing a medical issue with her husband that has been so heartbreaking. Since she lives in Idaho, I decided to put some prayers in a card, smack a stamp on it and send it off to her to hopefully lift her spirits a bit. You'll notice, if you look at the stamp set below, I did a bit of masking when using the small peony in the stamp set. 

So, just like how most masking begins, I grabbed a Post-It Note and stamped that Peony at the top, where the sticky portion is. And then, since I only needed to mask the top, I only cut out the stop of my mask. See?

From there, I added the mask, stamped and kept on doing this until I had a peony border all along the left side of my card....

From there, I decided that I wanted to create an effect where the sentiment "Sending Love & Light" had almost a cascading effect using two different shades of ink -- a soft shade (Angel Pink Memento) and one that stood out (Tuxedo Black Memento). So, I lined up my card front in the MISTI, securing it with the MISTI's magnets, like so!

Then, lining up my sentiment exactly where I wanted it on the acrylic portion of the MISTI, I inked it up in pink and started to stamp! 

Now, to create this cascading effect, I simply moved my paper up 3 blocks on my grid, reinked, stamped, and repeated until I had a border of pink sentiments. I knew I wanted the second to the last stamped sentiment to be black. So, I kept inking up my stamp with pink ink, stamping all the way to the bottom and leaving a space for where my black inked sentiment would sit. I moved my paper up, cleaned my stamp, inked it in black and... ta da!!!! I have that punch of black, right in that cascading row. I realize it is somewhat hard to see that soft pink, but it is there and in real life it is just that sweet and soft touch, which I thought really added to this card! 

From there, I grabbed these Copic markers and got to coloring! R81, R83, RV00, R0000, G20, G21, G24, Y13, Y35, G0000. I also added a little razzle dazzle thanks to some glitter glue to the stamens on the flower. You know I gotta have a little bling! ;-)

Here's a close-up look at the cascading sentiment....

Here's a close up of that flower to show off a bit of that masking effect....

And here's one last look at my card! 

So, grab the closest shades of Sugar Sweet Pink, Goldenrod and Shades of Jade and get that creatively colorful mojo a flowin'! I can't wait to see what you create using this trio of springtime colors!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for stopping by!

~Julie

Inspire Me Monday: Look at your stamps in a new way

Hello Friends, How are you today? My name is Kathy Racoosin and I am super excited to be back today for another “Inspire Me Monday” feature. 

Working with Power Poppy stamps is always a pleasure but, the hard part is deciding what to use because all of the stamps are so beautiful. Today I mixed two different stamp sets and I will be sharing a few masking tips and showing you that it’s ok to ignore some mistakes. 

Before we get started I wanted to tell you why I am using the hands. I was hoping that my hands on the card would resemble a vase .... according to my niece not so much lol. 

After I finished my card I decided to google images of "hand vases". (I tend to do things in reverse)  In retrospect I could have cut a hand out and popped it on top of the other hand and I might have a achieved the look I was going for?

Or... I could have drawn a simple vase in the stamped hands inspired by this vase.  

Flipping the hand would have made a cool vase. If you take anything away today maybe it will be to look at your stamps with a different eye and to google for some images first :)

I used the Folk Heart and the Planning for Magnolias stamp sets. 

I know some of you like to see the colors that are used so this photo is for you. 

The hand was stamped with a Copic friendly ink and slightly off center. (I am using the mini Misti)

The images was stamped again on some masking paper and placed on the left hand. A “post it” was placed down to mask off the thumb. (note: see the part of the thumb peeking over the post it paper.)

This is what happens when you don’t pay attention when masking off an image.... a partial thumb and a lovely smudge BUT, that's ok you won't notice these things on the final card.

Using the acetate sheet that your stamps are on can guide you for placement when using the misti.

After stamping the magnolia branch I decided to add some more greenery.  I tore up some of the sticky side of a “post it” note paper to mask off any petals that might get in the way of stamping more greenery. 

 Stamping an extra image and cutting it out will hide most mistakes. The magnolia in the vase will be cut out and used to hide the lost half thumb. 

I have shared this before and thought I would again in case you missed it. For a quick and easy background add some quick color with your alcohol marker. This technique is also a great way to disuse any smudges. 

Use an old rag with a pile on the rag. Take some Copic blending solution to add texture and to get rid of the lines when you colored the background. Add just enough solution to damped the rag. Blot the damp rag on the background. Fluff up the pile on the rag and blot again. Repeat. Use the heat gun to dry your paper before you start coloring. If you are using light colors use a "0" to “erase” or remove any purple that may have bleed onto the image. Otherwise you can color on top of the color if you are using bolder colors. 

That’s it for today and I hope that you picked up a tip or two. Thanks for your visit and have a wonderful week.

Kathy

Inspire Me Monday: Primroses put on a SHOW!

Hello all and welcome to another Inspire Me Monday with your hostess, Julie Koerber! Today, I am going to work a little masking magic to show you how you can take a darling trio of primroses and make your very own “auricula theatre.” What, pray tell, is an auricula theater? Well, it’s a piece of garden decor that lets the small but mighty, bold-colored primrose put on a BIG show! This method of display started in 17th century Europe and has been a lovely expression ever since. Since primroses are delicate and sensitive to too much light, these hutches were created to protect, yet show off these beauties too! See?

Source: tpholland

Or, how about this sweet structure with all of those moss-covered terra cotta pots? LOVE!

Source: spitalfieldslife.com

So Ms. Marcella and I were talking not too long ago and she said, “We really....ReAlLy.... REALLY have to show folks how to make their own auricula theatre with our Potted Primroses set! At the time, I had NO idea what an auricula theatre was. Auracula what? Afterall, I am a brown thumb. Marcella is the epitome of a green thumb! I digress. I wish you could “hear” Marcella when she gets excited. She talks, oh, about a thousand words a minute and has mini screams mixed in for good measure. How could I say no when she asked me to give you all a “how to?”

So, here goes — a peek at how YOU can make your own auricula theatre thanks to a little ink, a stamp set and a few Post-It Notes! Let's get started!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• Potted Primroses stamp set
• Ink color of choice (I used Memento Tuxedo Black)
• Post-It Notes
• detail scissors
• Copic markers or coloring medium of choice

LET’S START... by stamping our trio of pots image onto our card stock and then make a mask using a Post-It Note.

CONTINUE... by cutting out your mask and laying it over top your stamped image!

WITH THE MASK IN PLACE... Take the single stamp from the Potted Primrose set and stamp it off to the left of your main trio.

NOW... You need to make a mask of the single primrose. You’ll notice I didn’t trim around it completely because I planned to build my theatre from the bottom up. So really, the most important part of the mask is the top three flowers. 

WITH YOUR BOTTOM LAYER MASKED... stamp the primrose trio again at the top. You can see that I stamped it so that the little note “Primula Auricula” sign would be masked in the second image. I didn’t want multiple signs in my final theatre if that makes any sense! ;-) From here, you’ll just keep moving your two masks and adding primroses — either the trio or the single pot — until you have the configuration that you like! 

There will be times when you set your mask down, and stamp over top only to have a piece of your image missing, like you see below....

DON'T WORRY! This happens! And, here’s how you fix it!

WITH THE HELP... of a Copic Multi-liner pen (.01mm) you can fill in the gap with ease!

And, after mixing it up and masking along the way, here’s a peek at my auricula theatre in the making! One additional tip — as I masked, I made sure that the flower I was laying down would hide the end of the shelf from the primrose trio. This way the shelf looks continuous — the way it should! 

Aren’t those little pots darling? I couldn’t wait to color them up. And.... so I did! I used Copic markers and after I was done, I knew that my “theatre” needed a little bit of pop in order to look like the real deal. 

TO CREATE.... the auricula theatre, start with a 5-3/4" by 5-1/2" piece of kraft paper. On the 5-3/4" side, score at the 1/2" and 3/4" lines and then flip the paper 180 degrees to get the other side at the 1/2" and 3/4" lines. Afterward, I took the Spellbinders Labels Seventeen and centered it in between the two most inner score lines and cut that center portion out.

FROM THERE.... I stamped the two corners using the large round primrose stamp from the Potted Primroses set and Memento Toffee Crunch ink. Then, I folded along the score lines so that once folded, it would, in essence, create a little box. The cool thing is that if you are mailing this, you just need to collapse the box to one side or another to make it flat! Since there’s no top on the box, it does this easily! 

ABOVE IS A PEEK AT THE INSIDE.... of the card! I used another sentiment from the Farmers Market stamp set and then, again using Memento Toffee Crunch, I stamped the large primrose on the inside corner as well.  

AND HERE’S A LOOK AT MY FINISHED CREATION!  I added a few pennants (notched strips of decorative paper from the Carta Bella Yesterday paper collection), a rhinestone adorned paper flower and the sentiment is also from the Potted Primrose set. It really says “A Cheery Hello,” but when I stamped it on a 1/2" pennant strip, the “a” was cut off and, well, I thought it still worked! ;-)

So with a few Post-It Notes, a fun and cheery stamp set and some markers, you too can make your own auricula theatre. This one doesn’t even need a green thumb to care for it but it’s bound to deliver sunshine to one lucky receiver! 

Thanks for joining me today! Have a fabulously creative week! 

~Julie