Fun With Brushos

No, that's not a typo in the post title; it's not brushes! Brusho is an intensely pigmented water-based paint powder available in various colors. It's easy to use, and fun because you never know exactly how it's going to turn out. It's a surprise every time! The easiest way to use it (I think) is to heavily mist some watercolor paper, choose some colors and then sprinkle them on randomly. If you want, you can spritz extra water on to make the colors run more. This would be great for the emboss-resist technique! After it's to your liking you can let it air dry, or speed things along with a Heat Tool on the low setting.

Now for even more artsy-fartsy fun, dip your fingers in water and flick some droplets on the dried paper. Let it sit for a minute and then blot the drops off. It removes some of the color and creates a neat Bokeh effect!

As you can see, I'm still loving the Birthday Blooms stamp set. This time I used the smaller single blossom, stamped on watercolor paper and colored with a a blender pen and ink pads. Of course, I had to add a little sparkle with some Wink of Stella on the flower and its visitor. That tiny butterfly is from the free Sale-A-Bration set called Flowering Fields. Isn't it a cutie?

After the flower image was die cut, I treaced around the outside of the die to create a mat for the image. If you look closely, you can see the edges of the flower panel are edged in Gold Wink of Stella - really makes it pop!

STAMPS: Birthday Blooms, Flowering Fields (SAB) 
CARDSTOCK: Whisper White, Watercolor Paper, Have a Cuppa DSP Stack 
INK: Basic Black Archival, Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush 
ACCESSORIES: Big Shot, Lots of Labels Dies, Blender Pens, Clear Wink of Stella, Gold Wink of Stella, Stampin' Dimensionals, Daffodil Delight ribbon (ret.)

More Sneak Peeks!

STAMPS: Birthday Blooms (coming Jan.)  CARDSTOCK: Shimmery White, Blushing Bride, Mossy Meadow, Birthday Bouquet DSP (coming Jan.), Blushing Bride Glimmer (coming Jan.)  INK: Basic Black Archival, Watermelon Wonder, Mossy Meadow, Mint Macaron, Clear and Gold Wink of Stella (coming Jan.)  ACCESSORIES: Big Shot, Lots of Labels Framelits Dies, Softly Falling embossing folder, Aqua Painters, Itty Bitty Accents Heart Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

I needed some cards to send to my downline, and what better way to say "Hey, I'm thinking of you!" than to use a new stamp set from the Occasions Catalog. Now they'll have a sample to show their stamping friends, as well as a sample of the new Birthday Bouquet Designer Series Paper!

If you know me, you know I love to color, so the Birthday Blooms set caught my eye right away. I stamped the blossom on Shimmery White cardstock using Basic Black Archival Ink. The Shimmery White is sturdy enough for watercoloring, which is the technique I wanted to use. Can you believe that's Watermelon Wonder ink? You can see how if you dilute it you get a lighter shade. Aqua Painters are great for that!

How did I choose the colors for this card? Well, Stampin' Up! made that really easy for me. All I did was pick some of the colors used in the Birthday Bouquet DSP. That was how I chose Watermelon Wonder for the flower, and Mossy Meadow for the leaves. And I never would have thought to use Mint Macaron for the little accent flowers, but after stamping a sample I saw it coordinated beautifully. I should have known....SU wouldn't steer me wrong!

Shimmery White cardstock already has a lovely subtle glimmer to it, but I wanted to add more, so I used the Clear Wink of Stella over the buds and blossom. Yes, that's coming in the new catalog, too! And I used Gold W.O.S. on the stamen. It's difficult to get a good picture of it, but I tried!

Here are some of the cards that were sent out. Each one had more DSP samples inside. (That's one of the perks of joining my team! Click here if you'd like more information.)

Stay tuned....more sneak peeks are in the works!

Watercolor Thoughts

This is numero four-o of the cards from the last class. Now that all my stamping stuff is packed away, it may be a while before I have anything new to show you. And trust me, it's killing me to not be able to create anything besides piles of stuff to pack, donate, or throw away! I will be soooo glad when this move is over.

For this card, we used the watercolor bleed technique using Aqua Painters. Holding the heat-embossed image upside down, we wet a few petals at a time and then picked up a drop of ink and touched it to the "top" of each petal (which was actually the base of the petal). The ink bled down and gave the appearance of depth and shadow. It's a technique I still need to master, but it I have fun doing it!

Recipe:
5-1/2 x 8-1/2" Whisper White Thick Cardstock for card base, scored at 4-1/4"
4" x 5-1/4" Farmer's Market DSP for background
3" x 4-1/8" Perfect Plum cardstock for mat behind image
2-3/4" x 3-7/8" Watercolor Paper
5/8" x 3-3/8" Champagne Glimmer for mat behind greeting (it's retired, but you can sub Gold Glimmer)
1/2" x 3" Very Vanilla for greeting

1. Rub watercolor paper with embossing buddy to remove static, then stamp flower with VersaMark ink. Cover with embossing powder, tap off excess and heat with heat tool until melted and shiny.
2. Place a drop of ink from the refill bottle in the lid of the matching ink pad, or use a plastic lid to hold ink.
3. Turn flower upside down, wet a few petals at a time with aqua painter, and add a tiny drop of ink from lid to base of petal, letting ink run down toward tip of petal. Go lightly - you can always add more! Do the same for the leaves. Color stem (no need for bleed technique here).
4. Make a light wash with So Saffron around flower to give it a glow.
5. While image is drying, cut doily in half and adhere to back of Perfect Plum panel.
6. Stamp greeting in Perfect Plum on Very Vanilla strip, cutting banner ends by hand or with a punch. Adhere to Glimmer strip with Tear & Tape adhesive.
7. Fasten DSP to front of card base. Fasten image to Perfect Plum mat, and adhere both to DSP on card base.
8. Place dimensionals under greeting and adhere over image.


STAMPS: You've Got This, A Dozen Thoughts
INK: Perfect Plum, Perfect Plum Ink Refill, Pear Pizzazz Ink Refill, So Saffron Ink Refill, VersaMark
CARDSTOCK: Whisper White Thick Cardstock, Perfect Plum, Very Vanilla, Watercolor Paper, Farmer's Market DSP, Champagne Glimmer - retired
ACCESSORIES: Tea Lace Doilies, Embossing Buddy, Heat Tool, White Stampin' Emboss Powder, Aqua Painter, Tear & Tape adhesive, Stampin' Dimensionals

Retired and Retiring

Mother's Day is fast approaching, and since my mom is about 1,900 miles away, I won't get to spend the day with her. *sniff* So I decided to make a little gift to send with her card this year. It was easy to make the gift box, which holds six cards with envelopes, with the envelope punch board. (**See measurements below.)

I used some now-retired Irresistably Yours DSP because it's a nice sturdy weight for a box. And guess what?! The new annual catalog will have an all new version called Color Me Irresistable! It includes some colors, as well as all white! Cannot wait until I can get my hands on it!

The Peony closure was a breeze with a couple of punches and Filter Paper! Using four layers of the rectangle paper, I punched twice with the Blossom Punch, which is retiring the end of this month, and three times with the Pansy Punch. I stacked them all together, poked a hole in the middle with the Paper Piercing Tool, and held them together with a Mini Brad. They were then scrunched and fluffed, the edges dipped on the retiring Strawberry Slush Stampin' Pad, and spritzed with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz (also retiring).

The flower was adhered to a punched 2-3/8" scalloped circle of Strawberry Slush, then adhered to the box with Stampin' Dimensionals, leaving the top free to tuck the flap under. So, how did I mail it without crushing the flower? I made a little circle from Kraft Cardstock to protect the blossom and mailed it in a small flat rate Priority box!

** BOX (1" x 5" x 6") easily holds six embellished cards with envelopes.
Start with a 10" square of cardstock and punch/score at 4-5/8" and 6-1/8". Then use score lines to continue around the other three sides. There's a handy calculator HERE for other sizes!

STAMPS: Better Than E-Mail
CARDSTOCK: Irresistably Yours, White Filter Paper, Kraft Cardstock, Strawberry Slush
INK: Strawberry Slush, Rose Red, Wild Wasabi
ACCESSORIES: Envelope Punch Board, Blossom Punch, Pansy Punch, 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, Handheld Stapler, Paper Piercing Tool, Stampin' Pierce Mat, Mini Brads, Stampin' Dimnesionals

Thinking Spring

My daughter and son-in-law (Hibillies in Training) are experiencing their first winter in the mountains of eastern Tennessee and, as luck would have it, it's been one for the record books. They've been snowed in for well over a week, and it looks like they'll be snowbound for at least a week more. Quite a change for my SoCal born baby girl!

With that in mind, and with my upcoming Easter/Spring card class this Saturday, I've had cheerful Spring-themed cards on the brain. This is one that I think fits the bill. The branch of blossoms in Indescribeable Gift makes me think of fruit trees all abloom, with the promise of delectable harvests later.

The blossoms were colored with Blendabilities markers. Gosh, I love coloring! And apparently, coloring is becoming all the rage now in Europe. They've discovered what I've known for years .... that coloring is a great stress reliever!

STAMPS: Indescribeable Gift, Lotus Blossom (greeting - free SAB item)
CARDSTOCK: Whisper White, Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Irresistibly Yours DSP (free SAB item), Brights DSP Stack
INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Melon Mambo Blendabilities, Crumb Cake Blendabilities, Wild Wasabi Blendabilities
ACCESSORIES: Whisper White 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

Make it Mailable 13-13 (and a Sneak Peek!)

There is so much beautimus schtuff in the new Occasions Catalog, that I can't settle on any one product! I feel like a butterfly, flitting from one pretty flower to the next, not landing on any one blossom for more than a split second.

Case in point - this card. I tried to use everything from the pre-order on just this one card, lol.  Well, four products, anyway. Not that I exaggerate or anything.

The Peaceful Petals stem was stamped on Watercolor Paper in Jet Black StazOn and colored with an Aqua Painter in Pacific Point ink.  The stems/leaves are Pear Pizzazz and the flower centers are Crushed Curry. (Since it was going to be covered with the Fancy Foil Designer Vellum, it needed a vibrant blue to overcome the muting effect of the vellum.)  The Gold Baker's Twine complements the gold foil hearts embossed on the vellum.

That Watercolor Wonder Designer Series paper is one of those rarities for me.......I love BOTH sides of ALL the sheets. That's going to make for some tough choices in the future, I'm sure!  But with 12 designs to love, I think I'll cope somehow, haha.  And, believe it or not, I love the chevrons, as well! (I know, right? What's up with that?!) Maybe because they aren't as overpowering as some previous designs?

I can't link to any of the new products yet, because they won't be available until January 3rd, but if you would like a copy of the new Occasions Catalog when it is released, let me know and I'll have one sent to you. Trust me, you don't want to miss any of the awesomeness! I know I say that every time.  Have I ever steered you wrong???

Team Meeting & a Sneak Peek

This is the card we made at my downline meeting last night. We used the Summer Smooches DSP, which is so bright and cheerful - I just LOVE it!  If you join Stampin' Up!, you can pre-order this paper (and a bunch of other stuff) now; if you are a customer, you'll have to wait until April 1st for the promotion to start. (For more details, click on the top button on the left.)

This is a Joy Fold card, with the top flap option. (If you scroll down the SCS tutorial, you'll find the measurements for this option right under the YouTube video.) The top flap is held in place by a 1" circle, stamped, popped up on a dimensional, and barely peeking out from under the blossom.

There are actually two sneak peeks on this card - the Summer Smooches DSP and the Summer Smooches Fabric Designer Brads!

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Perfect Punches
Cardstock: Island Indiso, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Summer Smooches DSP
Ink: Island Indigo, and Daffodil Delight Classic
Accessories: Blossom Punch, 1" Circle Punch, Daffodil Delight Seam Binding Ribbon, Summer Smooches Fabric Designer Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals

Whooo Loves You?

My little cutie-patootie granddaughter is getting this card for Valentine's Day. Those googly eyes just crack me up, and I think she'll like them, too :-D  It's definitely a non-traditional Valentine!

The sentiment was printed from the computer. Inside says "Grandma Cindy and Papa Tom, that's whooo!"
Stamp: Punch Bunch (FREE Sale-A-Bration set!)
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Real Red, Cottage Wall DSP (retired)
Ink: Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Big Shot, Blossom Party Originals Die, Scallop Square Duo Bigz Die, Small Oval Punch, 1-3/4" Circle Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, 2-Step Owl Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Daffodil Delight 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Blender Pens, Stamping Sponges

Have a wonderful day today!