Creating and Connecting

Thank you  Just Us Girls Challenge  for having me back as guest designer this week.  The theme "Black, Gold, and Cream" brought so many ideas to my mind, but I have been playing with alcohol inks again recently and had never tried this color combination and wanted to try it.  I hope you like how it turned out and that it inspires you to try something new. My tips for this week are short: 1. To avoid the ink from sticking to your dies or die cutting machine magnet or plates add a layer of wax paper before you die cut. The metallic inks seemed to be dry, but I don't know what would have happened if I would have waited longer.  I am not much for waiting.  You can ask my husband:) So after about 15 minutes I did my die cutting. Here is a photo of how I learned what I learned.  (And since then I learned I could remove all this with isopropyl alcohol...Yay!!!) 2. I found that the metallic alcohol inks work best when you lay down a lot of 91% is...

I am super happy to be back again to be a guest designer at the  Just Us Girls Challenge where the Trend Week theme is "stripes". I thought it was a good time to do a little watercoloring with some florals from Altenew's Golden Garden stamp set to add to my stripes. Oh wait, any time is a good time to watercolor florals!  I used Crafter's Companion Torn Panel background die for my stripes. Tips on how I achieved this look in watercoloring: 1. My basic method usually is that I work in two layers. In the first layer I add color with some depth. In the second layer I add more color and depth, and texture. 2. Use the right amount of water in your little "well" made with the embossing. Make sure it is lightly pigmented.  Then you add darker pigment into the light. You know you are at least close to the right amount if, when you add the darker pigment it spreads fairly slowly and doesn't take over the whole area.  If the pi...

I am super thrilled to be a guest designer at  the Just Us Girls Challenge #521 where the word week theme is "bow".  To avoid having to tie a bow I had to pull out an old Whipper Snapper Designs stamp called Birthday Angel to find a bow (or 2). In saying that I may be telling me age, lol, given how old that stamp is.   Please make sure to check out all the wonderful cards the JUGS team made: Carol, Sue , Angie, Vickie, Ina, Bobby, Nancy, Lisa, Maria, and Cécile . And please drop by the Just Us Girls Challenge #521  and enter your "bow" card!   I look forward to being back at JUGS again next week!  As a teaser, my card will include watercoloring and an Altenew stamp set.    Thank you for stopping by! Betty   If you enjoyed your visit please click on the "Follow by email" button on the right side of this post and follow me on my journey.