August Take It, Make It Challenge

This month's challenge on the Craft Stamper blog is to use pens and/or pencils in addition to a stamped image. I thought I'd submit a card I did recently, using Inktense Pencils. These pencils will react with water, just as watercolor pencils will, but the pigment is ink and is permanent once dry.

This lovely rose image is part of a set from Altenew and is called Sketchy Rose. It's a large, open image, which is perfect for coloring.

I stamped it on watercolor paper, using Black Archival ink. Then, following the shapes of the petals and leaves, I colored close the the outer edges, using various shades of Inktense Pencils. Next, using a wet brush, I activated the color and blended it away from the edges. My goal was to have the darkest color at the edge, getting lighter as I moved inward. 

Once the rose was done, I used a blue pencil and a very light touch to lay down pigment around the rose. Again with a wet brush, I moved the pigment out into the background.

I trimmed the watercolor panel down and layered a couple of coordinating papers on the right hand side, securing everything with black stitching. I never get tired of stitching on paper!

Everything was adhered to the card front with Xtreme adhesive - this works so well to keep the heavy watercolor paper secured in place.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this - I really enjoyed using the Inktense pencils!

Immi

Unity Stamp Challenge

The current challenge at Unity Stamps is about to end, so I'm barely going to get this posted in time to participate.

As shown on their blog, here is the starting point. Participants can choose to follow the color scheme or layout as loosely as they like. I thought the color scheme was great, and I liked the card layout as well. I recently purchased the stamp set (Butterflies & Sunbeams) featured in the layout, so I decided to use that.

Here's my interpretation:

I stamped the heart & butterfly image on watercolor paper using Black Archival ink. The coloring was super simple with watered down inks and a paintbrush. The inks I used on the butterflies are Distress Picked Raspberry and Dried Marigold (I combined the two for the largest butterfly.) The heart is a combination of Distress Spun Sugar and Tea Dye. The ink splatters are Picked Raspberry & Dried Marigold.

Once that was dry, I stitched the panel to a piece of black paper with gold script I had in my stash. I didn't do the neatest job the first time around on the stitching, so I went around again, deliberately making it look at little wonky. Now no one can tell where I messed up the first time!

The card base is white cardstock, stamped repeatedly with one of the sentiments from this stamp set, using Creamy Caramel ink from Stampin' Up! Between the black paper and the card base, I layered a piece of pink patterned paper from a 6 x 6 Colorbok pad called Light Bright.

The sentiment at the top was stamped on a scrap of watercolor paper with Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I used some of the Picked Raspberry & Dried Marigold to color it, and stitched one end with black thread. I notched the opposite end, and used Distress Black Soot to go around the edge.

I hope your week is going well. I'll be back at work beginning next week - this summer has flown by!

Till next time,

Immi