Mama Elephant, Up and Away in watercolour...

Hi there,

Today I'm posting a card I have made wih the awesome Mama Elephhant stamps, for their amazing blog challenge, which this month is 'Watercolouring and birthdays', and all the details can be found here...


Mama Elephant August blog challenge

So, it's fair to say, "My name is Jill and I am a watercolour addict", LOL!  Serious though, I often worry, is it time I 'walk away from the watercolour'?, ...but I just can't break up with this technique.  I love it more all the time, it looks awesome, is soooo versatile, and the results you get in next to no time...well, need I go on?  So yes, I am out and proud and going nowhere!!!

And here is my card...

I made this card for my friend who lives over the other side of the world in Austrailia! 

I started by die-cutting my cloud shapes from Mama Elephant's 'Landscape Trio's Creative Cuts', for the background, and watercolour washing them using Distress Inks (Tumbled Glass and Broken China).  Although it doesn't show up too great on the pictures, I added interest, and a more 'dreamy' feel, by adding Pearl White mica powder to my Ink.  I then stamped out this incredibly cute little monkey image, and the balloons, from the 'Up and Away' set, and coloured them using my distress inks and a water brush;  again, adding interest by mixing mica powders with my colours.  I then stamped out my sentiments from the same Mama Elephant set, and also an old Hero Arts sentiment to make sure it was obvious it was for a birthday (coz the ballons weren't enough of a give-away, right?), onto vellum, and cut them into thes little cute banners.  I knew I wwanted my card to be really dimensional, so decided to cut a front layer with an aperture, using Lawn Fawn's 'journal card' die, to really give it depth.  I tucked my little banners in the side to keep everything neat and sweet and added my little fella and his balloons to the very front.  I stamped the balloon string onto acetate and cut them out to make it look like he really is just floating along with his balloons, (nothing weird about a monkey floating through the sky on a bunch of balloons surely?), and there you have it.  I have added a few 'progress pics', to give a better idea of my process.

I love Mama Elephant, and I love watercolour, so really enjoyed playing along with this challenge and really like how my card turned out.

As always, I would love to read your comments.

Thanks so much for popping by.

Jillxxx

Make the day special blog challenge...

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share another card I have made for the Make the day special blog challenge for April.  If you have ever visited my blog before you will know how much I love this online shop...well they only just went and got one better (!!!) ...seriously, they have just added 'Neat & tangled' stamps to their, already amazing, supply list!!!  Good news for my collection - bad news for my bank account.

It is their first blog challenge so the rules are simple - anything goes :) woop woop!!

So, my current favourite things in this world ...Make the day special, Neat & tangled, watercolour and sequins...and here you go...

I stamped the background, using the Neat & Tangled 'Hope anchors' in clear embossing powder and 'watercoloured' the card using various distress inks (if memory serves correct I used picked raspberry, peacock feathers, spiced marmalade & seedless preserve).  Then, once the background had dried, I ironed (yes, ironed - not a word I use too often) the embossing powder off - a technique I learnt recently from a Jennifer Mcguire video (another of my favourite things in this world :),  I then embellished very simply with a few sequins and there you have it.

I really hope you like, I would love to read your comments xxx