Flourishes Sweet Peas

It's been a while since I've participated in the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge.
This week I have been playing a lot with this Sweet Pea set and thought "why not do it". I've coloured it with pencils, watercolour crayons and this card which is done with Twinkling H2Os. I incorparated this weeks theme which is adding a border to your card.
First I stamped  the flowers on white cardstock with Black Brilliance and embossed with clear powder.
I coloured in with several different shades of Twinkling H2Os to get more dimension in my flowers. I cut out my image using the nestabilities Labels #8.
The green cardstock has sweet pea stamped over the top half of the card with versamark ink.  I also stamped Sweet Pea in black on a scrap of white cardstock and cut out using the petite ovals.
The amethyst panel was cuttlebugged with swiss dots and then the border was punched.
The card was embellished with matching green grosgrain ribbon and mauve rhinestones.

Would you like a refresh of my Twinkling H2Os Tips and Techniques? Click Here
Were these tips helpful? I would like to know what you think.

Until next time
Inking of you All
Michelle

Twinkling H20s

Today I am going to talk a little about Twinkling H2Os. This is one of my favourite colouring mediums, in fact I have lots but I really like the H2Os because they are just so vibrant.

Twinkling H2Os are little solid cakes of watercolour paint in small pots. They are very shimmery, lightfast and acid free. They presently come in 168 colours. H2Os can be used on paper incl watercolour paper, cardstock, wood, plaster and glass.

General Instructions

Select your colours place a few drops of water into the pot to form a puddle, an eyedropper is perfect or you can spritz the water with a small spray bottle. Let sit for a good 10 minutes. By wetting the pots first this will allow the paint to soften and the colours become more vibrant. If you only want a very soft wash of colour there is no need to wet the cake first.

Next

Stamp your image. I prefer to stamp and emboss my image, the embossing helps keep the image sharp and clear. You can use a waterproof ink if you don't want to emboss, however, I find your stamped outline becomes less defined and a little 'murky'.

Now using a paintbrush or a waterbrush simply paint in your colour. As long as the paint remains wet your colours will blend nicely. The more colour you add the more shimmer you will get.

You can also use your Twinkling H2Os on dark coloured cardstock with excellent results, but for even better results on dark card I suggest using the iridescent range of colours.

You can also use the iridescent paints over top of watercolour pencils for a little extra shimmer. for example Green iridescent over any shade of green pencil.

As you can see in the photos I store my H2Os upside down. I have painted the colour on the bottom of each pot for easy reference. The colour you see in the pot is not necessarily how the colour will actually come out on card.

Direct to stamp

You can also paint the H2Os directly onto your stamp. Fter painting your stamp gently mist the stamp with a spray water bottle and stamp direct to your cardstock. Watercolour paper will also give you a fabulous result. NOTE: The H2Os will stain acrylic or clear stamps

the finished cards

Unfortunately the shimmer is not all that visible. They do look better in real life. However you can see the vibrancy that these paints are also known for.

This is a stamp from My Favorite Things

And this gorgeous image is from High Hopes Rubber Stamps

This last image is from Flourishes Stamps this is the direct to stamp method

Until Next Time

Inking of you All

Michelle

My Big Annoucement

I am very proud to announce that I am now a Design Team Member for Amazing Creations Rubber Stamps. This is a fantastic range of mix and match stamps made right here in Australia. They are now available in mounted & UNmounted .
The company is now owned by a lovely couple, Robyn and Craig Potts and as a welcome special to all my bloggers they will offer an Amazing 15% discount off the price of their stamps. (For all my USA friends a stamp worth eg $15 will come down to less than $10 as other discounts apply, a really good deal with the current exchange rate.) To get this discount all you have to do is mention my BLOG and my name.
The website is still undergoing some construction but most images are there for you to look at so come along to the Amazing Creations website for a look and take advantage of this great offer.
Now I would like to show you one my favourite images.

This card is made using the Primitive Butterfly N101, Primitive Square Border L301, Primitive strip II309, Best Wishes GG240.
(the stamps are much bigger than shown on the website, eg the primitive strip is approx 6 1/2" long the length of a card, the sq frame 3")
This was stamped in Black and embossed with a Black sparkly powder, I then coloured the image in using Twinkling H2Os. I cut out the frame and the butterfly made some wire antennae and mounted as shown.The base card has 'best wishes embossed and coloured, I then stamped the primitive strip in the corner with Versamark ink. Here is a close up, the shimmer on the wings is from the Twinkling H2Os. I hope you like these new images I will be featuring more over the next few months. The Daisy bear featured on the 12th September post is also from Amazing Creations.
Until Next Time

Inking of you all

Michelle

Twinkling H2Os & My New Stamps

My stamps from Flourishes have arrived and I have been a very busy girl. I just love this one called Siberian Iris. It is a lot of fun to work with.
I have decided to use the Iris with this weeks card sketch challenge over on SCS. This was another easy sketch and the possibilities are endless. It truly is a great sketch for a quick card.
First I stamped the orange background piece with one of the swirls from the set using Versamark. then popped it aside to dry.
Next I stamped the image ( on Watercolour paper) with Gold Pigment Ink and embossed with a sparkly powder called Egyptian Gold. It really is very pretty. I chose to colour this image with twinkling H2Os. (I can't wait to have a go with my Prismas , it will look so different but that's a whole other day)

Here is a close up of just how good the twinkling H2Os look. The shimmer you can see is natural (not caused by camera flash), This is just how they look, marvellous aren't they. Once it was dry I just layered all the pieces together using the sketch as a guide. Although it looks like it took ages to paint, in reality it probably took 30-40 minutes to put the whole card together, including drying time.

Until next time

Inking of you all

Michelle

Congratulations on your Wedding

This card was made for Tracey and Wayne's wedding. They are getting married tomorrow, September 1st. We give you our Congratulations and very best wishes for a wonderful life together.

The card was made following the MFT sketch from a couple of weeks ago #44.

The stamp from Artee Stamps (Australia) was gold embossed then watercolored with markers. I highlighted some of the flowers and heart with twinkling H2Os in a soft green. The small prima flower was also highlighted with the 'twinks' The shimmer of the twinkling H2Os show up really well in this close up.

The cardstock I chose was all bazzill and the designer paper was from 6"x6" pad called 'Romance' by Inque Boutique. Very appropriate don't you think.

Until next time

Inking of you all

Michelle