Floral Happiness with Elizabeth

There all kinds of floral ideas blooming in the Studio.  Join us as we share our bouquets of colorful happiness.

My floral journey started here:

This was a gift given to me and my husband at Christmas.  This canvas bag contained a cellophane wrapped package of delicious pistachios.  The bag was fabulously constructed and I couldn't part with it after removing the nuts.  I instantly thought it could be art-cycled!!!  The reverse side had nutritional and manufacturing information so both sides needed a makeover.

Which lead to this:

Side A

Side B

The majority of colorful mediums I used included lots of white and clear Gesso, acrylic paints mixed with a textile medium, VersaCraft Inks, VersaMagic Inks, StazOn Inks, Faber-Castell PITT Big Brush Pens, a white paint pen and a heat tool.

Some images might not be overly visible, but they added immense depth and texture to the overall design.  Other images were used as a base to do some freestyle painting.

These are some of the Penny Black stamps and stencils you might spot throughout the design.

Get your vases ready.  Jill will be sharing her beautiful bouquets next.

Same Stamp Challenge: Cup of Java with Elizabeth

One stamp, one Studio, two designers, two cards... what will two friends create when they both reach for the beautiful Penny Black stamp, 30-475 Cup of Java?

This cup of java is perfect for a tag!

The tag was created by sandwiching the die cut present bow between two stitched rectangles.

Cup of Java was stamped on watercolor paper in Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored with Grumbacher watercolors.  After fussy cutting the design it was glued to the front of the tag.  The sentiment was stamped in Onyx Black VersaFine.  A few twinkling dots were added with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

Here is a snapshot of the Penny Black supplies used:

The die cut bow not only makes a cute topper for the tag, but it also allows a string or ribbon to be looped through it which makes attaching it to a gift a snap.

Same Stamp Challenge: Cup of Java with Jill

One stamp, one Studio, two designers, two cards... what will two friends create when they both reach for the beautiful Penny Black stamp, 30-475 Cup of Java?

I go through stages of SURVIVING on coffee so I especially love this stamp.  I have two cards to share with you featuring this same stamp.  For the first, I made a more intricate design--coloring my image with Copic markers, fussy cutting, and then layering onto a background created with die cuts.

And for the next card, I had a more simplistic, nearly one layer approach.  My image was stamped and then painted with watercolors along with the background. I can imagine that love certainly lives (and gets rejuvenated) in many cups of java. :) 

Penny Black Supplies

Card One: 30-475, 30-472, 51-410, 51-441, 51-281, 30-275

Card Two: 30-464, 30-475, 30-275, 51-095

And stay tuned... I smell the aroma of fresh coffee so Elizabeth must have something brewing, too!

Same Stamp Challenge: In Paris with Elizabeth

One stamp, one Studio, two designers, two cards... what will two friends create when they both reach for the beautiful Penny Black stamp, 40-609 In Paris?

For my design, I created some Parisian mixed media.

A very special girl I knew was turning twelve and she was having a Paris-themed birthday party and I thought this card would perfect in keeping with all her French festivities.

I started by adding white gesso to a manila tag along with a piece of torn sheet music.  A combination of acrylic paints and chalks were applied to the tag with lots of water misting.

In Paris was stamped on all the colorful happiness in Paris Dusk Memento ink.  A subtle stenciling of dots was floated into the design.

To keep the sentiment crisp and clean, I stamped it with black StazOn ink on heavy tissue paper and adhered it with matte gel medium.

A little bit of freehand text in white added a message that is probably only readable by me and my heart.

After edging the tag with Delicata Gold ink it was attached to a card blank with dimensional foam tape.

Penny Black Supplies: In Paris 40-609, Snippets 30-283, Dotlets 25-007, Letter Background 1999L

Merci beaucoup for visiting us while we visited Paris via stamping!