Watercolor Painting with Coffee

My friend, Mary, told me about some portraits she'd seen that were painted with espresso!  She said they were striking and looked like sepia photos!!  She knows me and knew that I'd be challenged to give it a try!  Thanks, Mary!!  The most difficult part was brewing the coffee so I could get lots of different shades of brown to use.  I drink very weak coffee so the palest shade was easy.  The darker shades were much harder to achieve.  I felt like a mad scientist brewing espresso double strength multiple times, but that gave me the medium color, then I took some of that and added a few spoonfuls of instant coffee to get the darkest color.  Once I had the medium and dark color, I added some water to each to get shades in between.  Altogether I had 5 colors to paint with ranging from dark to light!

When I started painting, I was hooked!  The coffee behaved exactly like other watercolors and smelled delicious!!  I enjoyed it so much that I didn't want to stop so I have 3 cards to share with you.  On the first one, I used a flower from Tim Holtz Flower Garden stamp set.

After I finished painting with the coffee, I masked the flowers and added some interest to the background with stencils from My Favorite Things and Tim Holtz.  I used Distress ink and a blending tool for this.  The swirl at the top is from a Stampin' Up set called Baroque Motifs and the sentiment and "beautiful" die are from Concord & 9th.

I wanted to see how coffee painting would look on a more whimsical image, so I painted one of the cute little boy stamps from Lilli of the Valley.  I was very pleased with how it came out!  The browns fit perfectly with the old-timey look of the image!

For the extras on this card I used MFT's double stitched rectangle STAX and Picket Fence dies

On the last card I have to show you, I embossed Altenew's Persian Motif stamps with white embossing powder.  I was worried that the coffee might stain the white embossing, but it didn't.  I liked the simplicity of this card and thought it would make a good sympathy card.

The frame around the sentiment on this card is from MFT.  It is called Stitched Rectangle Scallop Frames and the sentiment is part of Hero Arts Prayers stamps and die set.

This was a really fun experiment.  I hope you enjoyed looking and that maybe you might give painting with coffee/espresso a try!  Thanks so much for visiting!

Janet 

Build-able Bouquet

I finally had some time to play with my new MFT Build-able Bouquet stamp set.  I just love how whimsical they are.  They are beautiful flowers but don't look like any real flower so you can color them any way you want!  I did have one bit of trouble when I went to cut the flowers out with the dies.  When I tried to line up the flowers with stems inside the dies, they didn't line up and didn't cut right.  If I lined up the flowers, the stems weren't right and if I lined up the stems the flowers didn't line up right.  I'll have to give some thought to this the next time so it will work.  I stamped 2 of each stamp in the set and then colored them all in coordinating colors and cut them out.  I used most of the flowers and leaves on my first card.  It was fun arranging them and rearranging them until I got a flowery corner that I liked!  

For my second card, I used the left over flowers and my Blueprints 13 dies.  I used Peerless Watercolors to make both backgrounds.  I got some good news about Peerless Watercolors today.  I've had mine for a long time and I am just about out of my favorite colors.  I contacted the company and found out that they will be selling individual dry sheets of color very soon!!!  I was thrilled!

Thanks for looking and for visiting!

Janet

Supplies Used:

Stamps: MFT Buildable Blooms

Dies: MFT Build-able Bouquet, MFT Blueprints 13, Lawn Fawn Hugs, Impression Obsession 

                 Get Well Soon

Cardstock: Black Linen, SU Garden Green, Canson Aquarelle Watercolor paper, White  

                 Cougar Opaque

Miscellaneous:  Peerless Watercolors

  

Another Watercolor Background

Here's another card with a watercolor background.  I used reinkers for this one, too.  I do love them so when they come out good!  The frame is from Lea-bilities and is called Flower Frame.  Isn't it pretty?  It was a gift from a friend and I just love it.  I used white fun foam to pop it up and it worked great.  The Thanks is from Hero Arts.

Inside the frame I made a little scene with one of the cute little elephants from MFT's Adorable Elephants set and flowers from MFT's  Blissful Blooms set.  I've had both sets for a little while, but this is the first time I've used them. Here's a close-up 

Here's a an angled view so you can see the fun foam.  It works so well to pop up anything.  I'm addicted!

Thanks for visiting. If you have any thoughts or questions, please leave a comment.  Have a good weekend :)

Janet 

Watercolor Background

I've continued to work on my watercolor backgrounds and I'm liking my results more and more.  It's true what they say about practice!  I liked the results I got with my Peerless watercolors best but I found that I was using a lot of the pigment to make a pretty background.  So for this card, I tried using some reinkers and I was really happy with how it came out.  The colors are so bright...it makes you feel happier just looking at them!  I used a border die from Memorybox in white at the bottom of the card.  I couldn't find it on their website, but I found another one called Martingale border that would be just as pretty.  You can find it here.  Here is my card...

The Sending is a die from Simon Says Stamp.  It comes in a set with a Wishing die.  There are coordinating stamp sets too with lots of great words that go with the sending and the wishing!  The words I used are from the Wishing set.  Here is a close up that shows how the fun foam gives dimension to the delicate die. 

Sequins and a washi tape border strip finish things off!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Janet 

Everything Old is New Again

I hate to admit it, but in my stamp room, I have a big box of project bags containing half finished projects. I made the original card and had great plans to make some extras for my stash but then life got in the way so I stored all of the materials in a bag until I could get back to it...and never did!  (Please tell me I'm not alone in this!) One of my stamping resolutions this year is to finish these projects or toss them.  The card below is one of those projects.  I used to LOVE embossing with brass stencils and a light box!  Since the creation of embossing folders and the Big Shot, I haven't done much with my brass stencils but this card made me miss them and want to play with them again!

I've heard that brass stencils can be embossed with a Big Shot but I'm not sure of the sandwich order.  I'm going to do a search to see if I can find it.  That would be so much quicker than using a light box and a stylus!  Here's a close up of the flower bouquet.

All of the supplies were from Lasting Impressions.  I couldn't find the papers or the stencil that I used here, but there were lots of really pretty new ones!

Thanks for visiting,

Janet

 

More Watercolor for Card Makers - Intermediate Techniques

I had some time to watch another lesson from this wonderful class and give it a try and I really enjoyed it!  In Lesson 2, Dawn taught us how to embrace the water and its unpredictability!  I used Peerless Watercolors and Canson Aquarelle watercolor paper for this one. Here is my version of the pear background that she taught in class...

As usual, one wasn't enough so I had to try some more.  I was thinking about Easter and Peeps and tried the technique using Peeps for my background design.  I tried using multiple colors but didn't like multi-colored peeps so I gave up and didn't go too crazy with color on this one. I used Koi Watercolors and Strathmore watercolor paper.  I used fun foam to pop up the letters.  They are from MFT and I thought the tiny holes in the letters wouldn't work with the fun foam, but they did and perfectly!  Here is the card...

Since I had everything out on my table and I had the time, I just kept playing and made another background with butterflies.  I drew the butterfly and I'm not really too happy with it, but I do like how the water and the paints blended together for this one!  

Thanks for visiting, hope you stop by again soon :)
Janet

Stampin' Up Garden in Bloom

Last week I got to participate in a Project Day with my group of stamping friends!  Angela organized and a few of us did projects...it's my favorite kind of day!  We started off with lunch at Crispers and then moved on to making pretty things!  For my project I used the Garden in Bloom set by Stampin' Up.  I love the big flower in this set and had to have it.  I know it's a 2 step stampin' set, but I love to watercolor the big flower...easy and fun!!  The card I made was inspired by one I found on Pinterest that was made by Diane Dimich.  You can check out her blog here. I've been having a great time using fun foam to raise my die cuts up so her card really appealed to me...and I had to share how cool this technique is with my friends...right?!!  I didn't have the inks she used so I used Lovely Lilac, Strawberry Slush, Gable Green and Summer Sun. Here's my card...

Isn't it cool how the "hello" melts into the flower design but stands out?  I love it and it is a snap when you use fun foam to pop the sentiment up!  I used black fun foam for this card.  I have a few more examples of this technique that I will be posting in the next few days :)

Because it's difficult for more than 2 or 3 people to share ink pads for 2 step stamping at the same time, I had another little project for those who were waiting.  I used the same stamp set to make little gift enclosures and I let them try using Inktense pencils and Zig Clean Color Brush Markers to color them.  Both are relatively new to me and I'm really enjoying them.  I think it's the vibrant colors I can get from them that makes me like them so well.  The card on the left was done with Inktense Pencils and the one on the right with Zig Clean Color Brush Markers.

It's weird how the cards in the photo look like they are different sizes.  They are both the same...3 x 3. Here is a peek at the inside of the little card.  I added a black squiggle from the  Stampin Up Tin of Cards set.  I bought the set because of that little squiggle, and I use it all the time!!

 Angela, Mary and Tina provided projects, too, and they were all wonderful!  I am so lucky to have such a talented generous group of friends.  They make life good!  Here are their projects...

A beautiful floral by Angela.  The stamp is from Hero Arts...

A colorful birthday card by Mary...

And a calorie-free cupcake and candle by Tina...

The candle holder, candle and matches store in the little drawer underneath!!

I told you they were wonderful!!  I hope you enjoyed hearing about our day and seeing what we made!!  Thanks for stopping by!

Janet