White Pines Does Eight Challenges

This week for design team duties over at Mary Brooks' blog, I decided to see how many challenges I could enter with my three cards.  I came up with eight.

This card meets the following challenges:

CAS on Sunday - tag
Mojo Monday - card layout
Color My Heart - color scheme

To color the tree, I inked the solid image tree stamp in Pixie.  Then I "watercolored" using ink from the lids of Poppy, Ruby, and Hollyhock.  They were just drops of colored water placed directly on the tree stamp, but when I pressed to the paper, all the colors mushed together.  After it dried, I stamped the outline of the tree over top, added the star on top, and colored the star and tree trunk by painting Eggplant ink (substituted for Pomegranate from the CMH color scheme).

The tag was done by laying a spool of ribbon over top of a piece of black cardstock and cutting using the edge of the spool as my guide.  I stamped the sentiment in White Daisy ink and drew the outline with a white gel pen.  The trick with White Daisy ink is to have the re-inker handy and add just a bit into the pad before stamping. The "ribbon" is White Shimmer trim folded in half lengthwise to make it thin, then folded in half to create the illusion that it's ribbon through a hole.  To keep the ribbon folded and adhered to the tag, I used Liquid Glass.  I also used it to adhere the pink Shimmer Trim banner on top of the black one.

Since I had my Liquid Glass out, I added it to the tree.  I filled the star and tree trunk and outlined the tree.  Have I mentioned how much I love this stuff?!?!

I made good use of ShinHan markers on this card.  The sequins are actually gold.  I colored them with three different colored markers to coordinate with my color scheme.  I colored them while still on the plastic packaging sheet, adhered them to the tag, then touched up with the marker again.  In real life, they look a little blotchy, but it's a great way to add color in the absence of ten-thousand different colors of sequins.  I also used a ShinHan marker to turn White Shimmer Trim into pink.  This takes a little time if you don't want to shred your marker, but I used the chisel tip end and pressed it over and over and over.  Again, not as easy as buying colored, but still works.

This card meets the following challenges:

Runway Inspired - color scheme and florals
CASual Friday - precious metals
Retro Sketches - card layout

Since I was playing with my White Daisy ink, I used it here as well.  Then I used more pigment ink and a dye ink to add color.  I practiced this card on a piece of scratch black paper before doing the real thing.  After stamping the wreath, I added the flowers in pigment ink.  They didn't stand out enough.  So I tried stamping the flowers in White Daisy and adding color over top.  Then I wondered if I could add dye ink, too.  It worked.  So...on the card, I stamped the wreath, sentiment, and all the flowers in White Daisy pigment ink. I cleaned my flower stamps (using StazOn Cleaner because that works best on pigment ink), then inked them again to overstamp.  I didn't worry about being exactly lined up for the second stamping.  The large flower is stamped in Eggplant dye ink, while the smaller flowers are Gypsy and Thistle pigment ink.

After running both sides of my background through the embossing folder, I lightly dabbed White Daisy ink over one side.

The colored shimmer in the background is more of the White Shimmer Trim with ShinHan marker coloring.  I cut two 1" long pieces, cut the ends to a 90 degree angle, and colored them with the markers. I find it's easier to maneuver small pieces, not to mention it saves supplies.

I popped the center panel up on foam tape and added Bitty Sparkles (comes in the White Pines WOTG) to finish.  The card is 4.25"x4.25", the center panel is 3"x3".

Any time you use pigment ink or color something other than paper with ShinHan markers, you must let it dry for an outrageous amount of time.  But...oh, it's worth it!

This card meets the following challenges:

Heart to Heart - watercolor
CASology - pretty

After the long explanations above, I'm giving you a break with this one.  Watercolor paints in lots of different colors over top of a piece of water color paper.  Let the paper dry and cut off about a 3/4" strip.  Before mounting the panels on the card base, paint the flower stamps with red watercolor paint.  It will need to be a little thicker than for the background, so play around with stamping on scratch paper to get it right before stamping the small flowers on your (dry) watercolor panel.  Stamp the larger flower on scratch paper and trim it out.

Mount your two watercolor pieces to the card base using foam tape. Cut the foam tape small enough to fit into the space between panels.  Use a double layer to mount the larger flower.

Here's the supply list (with embedded links for your shopping convenience):

Stamps: White Pines Cardmaking WOTG 

Paper: Watercolor Paper, White Daisy cardstock

Pigment Ink: White Daisy (plus White Daisy Re-inker), Gypsy, Thistle 

Dye Ink: Pixie, Hollyhock, Ruby, Poppy, Eggplant, Black

Accessories: Watercolor Paints, Watercolor Brushes, Gold Sequins (although you could use Silver Sequins just as easily), Black Shimmer Trim, White Shimmer Trim, Bitty Sparkles (come in White Pines WOTG), Dot Embossing Folder, Liquid Glass, Foam Tape, Bonding Memories Glue, ShinHan Carmine Marker, ShinHan Tender Pink Marker, Shin Han Cherry Pink Marker, Shin Han Lavender Marker, (please note: I actually used Copic markers because I own them.  I've substituted the best options in ShinHans. You could easily use Purple Shimmer Trim and Pink Shimmer Trim instead of coloring with markers), StazOn Cleaner, Micro-tip Scissors, Paper Trimmer

Since next Thursday is Thanksgiving, I'll be posting for Mary on Wednesday instead.  I'm not sure what's coming your way, but I hope you'll come back to find out.  I also hope to (update: it's live!)have a link in the sidebar to my new Christmas novella which will be releasing December 1 in Kindle format.  Here's a picture of the cover:

For a chance to win a copy of my story as well as prizes by the other eight authors in this collection, come to our Facebook party on Nov. 20 between 12:30 and 6pm.

Until next time,
Becca