Watercolor Bouquet of Love - a Must Have Set!

I looooove this stamp set, Bouquet of Love, from the July Collection. Yep - it is from the July collection, not August, but guess what?! It's still available and it's worth picking up!

First, it will fill an A2 card. Yep - full-sized right there and isn't it fantastic!

Second, it has a matching die, which is also still available!!

Third, it has awesome sentiments that fit in the space on the pitcher. I didn't use any of them on this project but you totally could. :)

4th, this stamp set will work for get well, sympathy, anniversary, birthday, thinking of you, hello, just because, friendship, new baby and so much more!

And, you can watercolor it in so many different colors. Check out some variations. I can't get enough of the Peerless Watercolors!

Hope this inspires you to play with your watercolors or think about making a super small investment in some. The more you practice, the better you'll get with them. I cut the Peerless sheets into fourths and use a quarter sheet at a time. They last so long as you barely have to dab your waterbrush in them to pick up the color - super concentrated! And, they're so easy to travel with and use wherever you go. I watercolored both the grey pitcher and red pitcher images above in the Chicago O'Hare airport while our plane kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed. It was a great way to pass the time. And, I also watercolored on a balcony in the Smoky Mountains. Isn't this a great place to color?

All supplies are A Muse Studio and are available in my webstore: www.amusestudio.com/seleise
To find the Bouquet of Love, click on the web link, then click on stamps and you can either search for bouquet or you can click on past collections and scroll down. Happy shopping!

Have a wonderfully creative day!

Watercolor Pitcher - July Collection

The July Collection is here and it's wonderful! If you're a cardmaker, there are beautiful berries, shells and this gorgeous floral filled pitcher. If you're a scrapbooker, there are travel, alphabet and date sets. And, there are digital pocket scrapbooking materials too! (which are also awesome for cardmaking!) If you're a planner/smash booker/journaler, there are labels and time stamps and it's all fabulous!
Check it out: July Collection PDF

I adore pitchers with flowers! I have several stamp sets like this and they're all so great to use for friendship, get well, sympathy and thinking of you cards. They make fabulous birthday cards too!

This image is stamped on Bristol and watercolored with Peerless Watercolors. Do you have those yet? They're so easy to use and so transportable. Here's a photo of the work in progress.

The watercolors are those flat bits of color. The Peerless sample pack comes 2X2 and I cut them in four pieces and mount them with glue dots on watercolor paper. It's scored in half so you can fold it up (with a bit of acetate between the colors  - that you can also use to mix colors on). Take that, a paper towel, a waterbrush and some pre-stamped images and you're able to watercolor almost anywhere and there's no mess beyond a little water. :)

By the way, the single flower is featured on my previous blog post. :)

Hope you'll give Peerless a try. I'm sure glad I did! And, check out the July Collection. There's something for everyone!

Have a super day!
www.amusestudio.com/seleise

Watercolor! Sunset Expressions

I have been way busier this January than I originally thought I would be so my blog got pushed to the back burner. But, I've got cards to post and so am going to jump back into my blog in a big way with tons of pics in this post!

In December, there was a sympathy card swap with some fellow consultants. I make a lot of sympathy cards but was looking for a new way to approach them. It was bitterly cold outside so what better thing to do than sit with a warm cup of tea or coffee and get some stamping on, right?

The inspiration for the card happened as I drove home from work. There in front of me was the most amazing sunset. The sky would light up with colors and shades of oranges and golds and purples and pinks. Amazing! Don't believe me - here you go:

I searched through my camera and found a few other sunsets for inspiration.

 I posted about it on facebook and a couple of friends sent me their favorite sunset pics:

Aren't they amazing?! So glad they shared!

So, that was it. The cards had to have awesome sunsets with something stamped in silhouette. What could be better than that? I looked at my different coloring mediums and there in the front were my Peerless Watercolors. Perfect!

I took a rectangle piece of Bristol cardstock (our watercolor paper) and spritzed it with some water, picked up some color with my waterbrush and went to town adding colors. The sky was the limit (no pun intended - lol!) as the colors of a sunset in Kansas can be any color. Layers of colors- dabs of this  and that were added in. If the paper started to pill up, more water was added and back to blending and adding of colors. Here's the batch of swap cards:

As you can see I played around with colors, dark/light, blending/not blending, etc. But, I love all the variations. This had to be a class card but the design would have to be modified a bit:

I left the inside simple. And, if the class peeps chose, they could leave the sentiment off because this is also just a perfect notecard to have on hand. 

I watercolored first, dried it and even ironed it and then stamped the Sunny Side of Life image with Versafine Black ink. Versafine is a great ink to use when you have a lot of detail on your stamp. It's an oil-based pigment ink and dries fairly quickly. It's acid-free, archival, non-toxic and fade resistant.

So, this card turned out to be a favorite of many at class. It was fantastic to see all the variations of sunsets so I want to share - here you go:

Aren't they great! I just love the different variations and different layers of color and the joy shown in all of them! It was fun because many didn't care for the backgrounds until they stamped their image and then it was a wow moment!

I was asked if you could stamp first and then watercolor. I wasn't sure outside of embossing the image first, if this could be done. So off to the A Muse message boards to ask and got responses right away - so great to have helpful peeps! The answer was yes. If you stamp with an archival ink such as Versafine or Ranger, you can stamp first, let the ink dry and then watercolor. Other inks may start to bleed when wet and trust me, you want the color to move so you want the paper to be wet.

These cards are so easy and fun to make. I'll be back with more watercolor posts soon. I do want to tell you that the Peerless Watercolors are just great. You can make a carrier to make them easily portable. The color lasts a really long time. I've taught several watercolor cards in class and have also done a bit of watercoloring myself (ok - more than a bit) and I'm just now starting to replace my first sheets. I cut mine into fourths to use and those are the sheets I'm talking about so I still have three more to use before I need to buy a new set. After this class, I'll probably have to replace a few more but it will be totally worth it.  Here's a post that will tell you more about them and show you how I have mine mounted: http://amethystcat.blogspot.com/2014/10/simple-swirls-watercolor.html

Visit my webstore to pick up some bristol paper, a waterbrush and your Peerless Watercolors: www.amusestudio.com/seleise

I hope you've enjoyed this post of watercolor and sunset love. Have a wonderfully creative day!

Watercolor Poppy with Gold Shimmer and Champagne Glitter!

 When you have this much glitter, it's hard to get a great picture. But, it's all good because this card has shimmeriness from the watercolor to the glitter. Such sparkly wonderousness! Yes, those are words....maybe...not so much...lol!

First the Stained Glass Poppy stamp set was watercolored with the Peerless watercolors and then some peerless gold shimmer was watercolored on top and then champagne glitter was added on the edges. fabulous!! Isn't it pretty on the papaya and onyx cardstocks! The top layer is the Bristol watercolor paper.

A little corner rounding and a round sentiment piece was added. I know the picture looks a little brash and bold but in real life - it's not too much. It's a beautiful sympathy card to send to someone.

The inside is simple as the front says it all.

Shop Online

Have a wonderfully creative day!!

Pretty Peonies - Same Colors, Two Variations

Pretty Peonies 2 is one of the new sets this year and it's so pretty because it's the buds of the peonies before they've bloomed. I love peonies and always think of time spent at home and at the cemeteries in the spring. We always went to the cemeteries on Memorial Day and would put home-grown flowers at all the graves. We'd take the peonies, iris, daisies, sweetheart roses and whatever else was blooming to put in the buckets and jars and cans sitting around. As I got older, I'd go cut flowers and put together the arrangements. We were always at the cemeteries before and after Memorial Day as Grammie put out Rebekah flags at Couch cemetery and Mom and Dad had flags to put out at the Randall cemetery. I loved helping and it was always a special time to hear stories of family from Mom and Grammie and spend time with Dad following the hand-written map to put the flags on the veteran's graves. Great memories.

So, here are two variations of the same card. The first I used in my class this month. I decided to leave it sentiment free so it could be used for a birthday, sympathy, get well, thinking of you or just as a pretty notecard.

This card is on vanilla cardstock with a layer of bermuda in-between. The peonies are stamped with amethyst and heather and the leaves are in bermuda. The 3/8" vanilla twill is also stamped with leaves using  the bermuda ink. I love that the vanilla twill takes ink so beautifully, don't you?

As you can see below, more peony groups are stamped inside. Isn't that pretty?

The second variation uses the same inks and cardstock. The corners have been rounded on opposite corners and after the card was assembled, it was sprayed with stardust finishing spray. It's a pretty and subtle touch that enhances the card, don't you think?

The inside of the card has the peony groups without the leaves and a sympathy sentiment from another stamp company.

If you'd like to make your own Pretty Peonies 2 card, you can pick up the products in my webstore.

Pretty Peonies Notecard

Stamps:            Pretty Peonies 2, p. 41, $13.99      

Cardstock:       Vanilla (40), p. 116, $7.50

                        Bermuda, (20), p. 113, $7.50

Ink:                  Amethyst, p. 112, $5.95

                        Heather, p. 114, $5.95

                        Bermuda, p. 113, $5.95

Other:               Vanilla twill 3/8”, p. 124, $5.95 (10 yds)

                         3D Foam (442 pieces), p. 136, $3.95

Have a wonderfully creative day!! 

Thinking of you

How about a little peony action on a thinking of you card. Some copic coloring, a touch of petite polka dot paper and a sweet sentiment.

And, more of it follows into the inside. soft and pretty for someone who needs a "hug with a fold in the middle". :)

www.amusestudio.com/seleise

Have a wonderfully creative day!!

Sponged Masked Borders - One Layer Sympathy Cards

Sympathy cards are something that are always needed. And, many times they go through the mail so this one-layer sympathy card is a perfect card for that sad occasion. It's made by masking off a border and using sponge daubers to ink the masked off area. I used pumpkin, nutmeg and eucalyptus for this one. Isn't that a pretty combo! The retired beautiful botanicals is stamped in nutmeg and the sentiment (also retired) in eucalyptus.

You can make a mask out of a thin paper or use masking paper but I actually use post-its. For these I used the 3"X5" because they were big enough to go across the card front. They're tacky so they stay in place and they're thin so it's easy to sponge over them. The tip for sponging is that you start on the post-it and move onto the card so you don't tear up your sponge daubers.

Here's the inside - simple and thoughtful and room for a brief note.

It also looks great in a horizontal card format with a smaller border. The beauty of this card is that you can make it so many different ways with the same inks and stamps.

Here's a version with our new beautiful birthdays stamp set. And, the edges of the card are inked. So pretty. Almost looks like sunset. :)

And, if you switch up the inks, you get another great look. This one is grape, buttercup and eucalyptus. These are great cards to have on hand and would make great notecards too, just leave off the sentiment.

To pick up these inks, Beautiful Birthdays stamp set and sponge daubers, visit my online shopping site: www.amusestudio.com/seleise

Have a wonderfully creative day!

Embossed Vellum Butterfly Card

Here's a great notecard for someone going through a tough time or dealing with a loss. It features a butterfly from Papillon, embossed in white on vellum cardstock. Isn't that pretty? I trimmed around the image but didn't go right next to the embossing. You definitely could but I tried it and liked the small border better.

Once the butterfly is embossed and cut (in that order), fold the wings up slightly and glue the body of the butterfly on a circle die-cut from the Everything's Rosy paper pack. Leave the wings free so flutter over the edge of the circle die-cut from the card front.

Here's a closer look.

And, here's what it looks like from the inside.

Isn't this pretty? You could do the cut-out look with lots of different stamp sets. I'm partial to Papillon though as butterflies always work for cards of this type.

And, check out my helpers (two of my youngest nephews) who cut out all my circles. Such cuties!! Start 'em early on crafting!

All of these products are available in the new catalog that went live on July 1st!! yea!! Check out all the goodies here: www.amusestudio.com/seleise

Have a wonderfully creative day!!

Thinking of You - Washi over Polka Dots

Polka dots, a little washi and a purple bird along with a kind thought is one way to create a card for someone struggling with loss.  This washi tape roll is my favorite in the Keep Calm washi tape trio.

Here's the inside. I love the combination of the essential sentiments stamp set and the you're too kind stamp set with the polka dot patterns stamp set, don't you?

I'm so sad the essential sentiments stamp set is retiring. It's a great time to pick it up though at 45% off.

Shop Online

Have a wonderfully creative day!

Have Faith

Here's the same card you just saw but in purple. The blackberry ink is a beautiful option for this sympathy card, don't you think?

Charming gardeners is a lovely set for many types of cards. Www.amusestudio.com/seleise Have a wonderfully creative day!!

Thinking of You - Sympathy

Layering stamps are a great way to make a simple but lovely sympathy/thinking of you card. This card uses the script background, essential sentiments (retiring stamp set) and charming gardeners. Eucalyptus and bermuda inks were used. But, you could also just use eucalyptus and stamp once on scrap paper and then stamp on the cardstock to give a faded look.

Here's the inside. I like to repeat a bit of the outside image as I feel it finishes off the card.

Shop Online to get the retiring products at a great discount! 

Have a wonderfully creative day!