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Sep 12

September 12, 2020

Birthday card with Whisky Business from Stampin' Up!

An Old Fashioned Card Using Whiskey Business

As you can see from the card photo, my blog title is a play on words as the card sentiment is “sending you an old-fashioned birthday card.” But I think the design of this card, using the Whiskey Business stamp set, is rather old-fashioned.

Birthday card with Whisky Business from Stampin' Up!

There was a time when everyone used black mats for all their images. I didn’t do that a lot because it often struck me as being too heavy for a lot of images. However, I think it works perfectly for this card. It helps with the linear design and works with the dark background and over all tone.

Actually, this card just evokes an old-fashioned sensibility to me. I love historical fiction (books and movies) and I can imagine the men withdrawing from dinner to have cigars and whiskey. Then again, maybe its just the wood paneled background!

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Dec 1

December 1, 2019

Card made with Gather Together stamp set by Stampin' Up! featuring Merry Merlot and watercolor.

More Watercolor Fun with Gather Together

Sometimes I think I could spend days playing with watercolor and my Gather Together stamp set. Not only are the leaves fun to color, but the pumpkins are, too! Especially if you go beyond orange and venture into other gourd colors.

The pumpkins on this card are all orange, though. Colored with Pumpkin Pie, naturally. Ah, but the leaves. I’ve had so much fun playing with different ink colors and my trusty aqua painter. These leaves started with a little Crushed Curry and Old Olive, then a tiny bit of Pumpkin Pie, but I wanted them to be more red and I tried Merry Merlot. I like the result, and the orange of the pumpkin plays well with it.

Detail of watercolored leaves on Gather Together stamp set card.

I had a vague thought of two or three leaves (more…)

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Nov 1

November 1, 2019

Gather Together leaves in brilliant fall colors, watercolored with inks

Watercolor Fun for Brilliant Autumn Leaves

Recently I shared a card using the big leaf from the Gather Together stamp set that I had colored with watercolor pencils. (see it here)  However, my favorite way to color autumn leaves is with watercolor.

Detail of autumn leaves card using Gather Together from Stampin' Up!

One reason is the colors blend and wash together, just as the colors do on real leaves as they change. Also because its just fun to play with watercolor.

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Aug 2

August 2, 2019

sailboat birthday card featuring the color Pretty Peacock

The 2019 In Colors: Pretty Peacock

Today’s card features Pretty Peacock, a nice warm blue-green color. We’ve had colors in this range before and I think they play well with others, which makes it a good versatile color to have. I’ve used a paper from the Woven Threads designer series papers that’s all Pretty Peacock for the background. The pattern gives it a nice texture that’s not too busy.

This is a masculine birthday card, featuring one of the sail boats from the Sailing Home stamp set. I stamped it in Memento black ink and colored it with three Stampin’ Markers: Pretty Peacock, Crushed Curry and Gray Granite. I also used the Pretty Peacock marker to color one bird from the three seagulls stamp.

sailboat birthday card featuring the color Pretty Peacock

I wanted to keep the card fairly simple, (more…)

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Oct 19

October 19, 2018

Country Home: vintage style that’s on trend

The Country Home stamp set is one of my favorites from the Holiday catalog. It’s not exactly vintage and its not exactly rustic, but it is definitely on trend. It seems that every store I go into these days has milk cans and cotton plants!

I’ve made lots of cards with this set and this is one of my favorites.

Card featuring Country Home stamp set by Stampin' Up and designed by Paula Cannon, using watercolor technique.

With a tall image like this you can change up a basic layout with a simple square mat that doesn’t frame the focal image. For this card I used the coordinating Country Lane Designer Series Paper. I also used the DSP to inspire the colors in my foliage. For the milk can, I stayed on trend and kept it traditional with the smoky slate gray.

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