Joyful Stars June 2016 Blog Hop

Aloha! Welcome to the Joyful Stars June 2016 Blog Hop. On the 10th of each month a group of Close To My Heart consultants and friends share artwork using some of our favorite products. This hop is a circle, so it doesn't matter if you are coming from my dear friend Nancy's blog, or if you start here on my blog. Just continue around until you're back at the blog you started on to make sure you see all the fabulous projects. The leader of the Joyful Stars team, Joyce, also has the list of all our bloggers for the month. You may want to keep her blog open in a tab just in case you get lost along the way!

This month Calypso is the featured paper packet from Close To My Heart. One of the stamp sets in the Seasonal Expression 2 catalog featured with Calypso is Hawaiian Hibiscus. I used this stamp set to play with different coloring techniques. I can't deny I love using alcohol markers, but I also love using the waterbrush. There are 3 waterbrush sizes in the Seasonal Expression 2 catalog! My favorite way to use them is with ink pads.

using the ShinHan Touch Twin markers

Using the blender pen and ink pads

Using the waterbrush with watercolor paints

Using the waterbrush with ink pads

What's your favorite technique for coloring in stamps? I would love you to leave a comment and share before you hop on to Marie's blog.  

Cricut Make It Now Card

I was looking through the Make It Now Projects in Cricut Design Space and saw stunning cards using Anna Griffin content. So I bought the digital cartridges for Anna's Flourish Cards and Embellishments and Anna's Garden Cards and Embellishments and made this card.

Cardstock and Stamped Sentiment is from Close To My Heart

Pattern Paper is from Stampin Up

Recently I saw videos on You Tube from Jennifer McGuire talking about using a laminator to apply foil to stamped images and die cuts. I had foil sheets in my stash and decided to try it out. I stamped the image in Verasmark and embossed with clear detail embossing powder,  I put the foil over that and ran it through my laminator three times. I'm sure I'll be playing around with this technique again!

CTMH Alcohol Marker Techniques

I made this quick 3 x 3 card to play with my alcohol markers. I stamped A True Thank You - Oklahoma Tornado Relief Campaign stamp set then colored it in with the Cotton Candy alcohol marker. I made dots using the Alcohol Blending Marker. The Alcohol Blending Marker removes ink so my image has this cool texture to it. I matted the stamped image on to Black Glitter Paper and also used a layer of For Always Textiles on this card.

Here is a video from Close To My Heart that inspired my work and has some other techniques too!

FSS Hollyhocks Card

This card features the design Hollyhocks from Fred, She Said. For this card I think you can see how some of the blooms look like they are popping up. That's because they are!

Here is a quick technique to add some dimension to your focal point.  Print the image twice and hand cut some of the blooms. Then attached those blooms to the card with foam dots. The last finishing touch I did was a dot of liquid glass in the center of each bloom. I think these quick and easy details make a difference.

Practicing with Copic Markers

Copic Markers are a high quality brand of alcohol-based markers that artist use. From what I've learned they are top choice for Anime artists. A few years back I saw stampers and scrapbookers begin using these markers. Since then I've been investing in them. They are quite expensive.

I've said it on my blog before I'm not a fan of coloring stamped images. I usually stay away from stamps that are outlines for that reason. Except I love Papertrey Ink's "Year of Flowers" stamps. My first few attempts at coloring with Copics haven't gone well.

A few weeks back I went to a friend a fellow Close To My Heart consultant's house to learn more about using them. I think the key is using various shades in a color family and blending by going back over colors. I'll be taking classes at Creating Keepsakes in a few weeks. Here are my practice results: