FWF: Betsy the Butterfly Fairy

It's Friday! That means it's time to break out my Unity stash and cook up a little something for Friends With Flair!

This week I wanted to play with this ADORABLE little fairy stamp set, Betsy the Butterfly Fairy. I love her!  I am still trying to get comfortable with my Copic markers so I opted to color her using my Copics on some brand new bleedproof, Copic friendly paper. I learned quickly that this paper (which is much thinner than the 110 pound cardstock I usually color on) soaked up a lot of color! 

Once I got used to the difference in paper textures I think she turned out pretty cute! I kept the card design simple, matting the colored piece on some cardstock and adding some Wink of Stella and sequins to the sentiment. 

This Betsy card is available in my Etsy shop if you're interested. Thanks for stopping by on this lovely last Friday of February!  I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Nursery Art: Watercolor & W Plus 9 Unforgettable

Hi all!  Today I want to share a piece of customized nursery art I made for a friend's little girl.  It was Lily's second birthday and I wanted to make her something she could display for a few years to come.

I used the adorable and versatile new stamp set Unforgettable by W Plus 9. It features several cute little elephants and many elements you can combine with them to set a scene.  For this piece I used Antique Linen Distress Ink to stamp the images and then watercolored them with Distress Inks. The light base color blended out and left a soft, no-line look perfect for a nursery.  For more on this technique check out Kristina Werner's blog and YouTube videos. She's a genius!

To personalize my finished watercolor piece I added Lily's name in Antique Linen and created a mat for it out of chipboard using my Cricut Explore. I then adhered scrapbook paper to the mat and added a sweet little rub-on sentiment.  Last,  I added some Wink of Stella to the balloon.

I hope you enjoyed this project!  Thanks for visiting and hope to see you again soon!

No Line Watercoloring: Unity {be inspired} Challenge #8

So I've kind of been on a "no line" kick here recently, experimenting with different ways to color images without the harsh black outline.  Last week I attempted this technique with my Copic markers (see my Unity {be inspired} #7 post to see how it turned out) and this week I've been using my Distress Markers to watercolor a soft no-line look.

 

 I borrowed this technique from the amazingly talented Kristina Werner and if you haven't seen her blog or checked out her tutorial videos, I highly recommend that you do!  Following her example I stamped my cake image from Unity May 2014 KOM in Antique Linen Distress Ink.  This way, the color will blend as you watercolor and fade into the image, leaving a very light outline.  I then scribbled Distress Markers on my work surface (I use the Precision Glass Cutting Mat from We R Memory Keepers and I LOVE it!) and spritzed some water right on there and used them as watercolors to color my image.  

 

Once I had finished painting my image I hit it with my heat tool to dry it and added some white polka dots to the background with my white gel pen.  I matted the watercolor piece on some kraft cardstock and used a scrap of text paper to line the front of my kraft card base.  I added a little washi tape to make it look like the image was taped to the card and finished up with a few sequins and some Wink of Stella Glitter Brush Pen - I can't resist the sparkle!

 

After I finished this card I realized that the colors I had chosen fit perfectly into this month's Unity {be inspired} Challenge!  It was fate at work :)  Love my Unity stamps and using them to play around with new techniques!  This card is going to my mother-in-law for her 60th birthday so I hope she enjoys it!

Thank you all for stopping by!  Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think or if you decide to try some no line watercoloring!  Have a fabulous weekend! 

Thinking of You: Unity {be inspired} Challenge #7

I'm happy to be back to posting a blog! It feels like time is just running away from me!  I'm here with another Unity  {be inspired} Challenge! 

I decided to just go Copic crazy for this card and try a no line coloring technique that was probably way out of my league! I'm still learning what these markers can do and haven't quite mastered the basics yet.

Nonetheless, I chose some colors that I thought fit the bill for the Challenge color palette and went to town! I stamped the floral images from two different KOMs in Antique Linen Distress Ink and then used my copics to color them in right over the stamp lines.  Then I stamped a Heidi Swapp background, again in Antique Linen, and distressed the whole thing with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I used every Tim Holtz tool in my arsenal to make this puppy look old! 

I finished it up with some water splotches and a sentiment from yet another KOM from Unity and mounted my piece on a kraft card base with foam adhesive.

I hope you enjoyed this entry in the Unity  {be inspired} Challenge! Thanks for stopping by!!