Carrie Stamps

Pan Pastel Sunset for Peek A Boo Balloon

Hey there my stamping friends. Today I am bringing you Episode 2 of my January Stamp Set of the Month series, featuring the Peek A Boo Balloon stamp set by Avery Elle. 

Today my balloon is flying over the mountains at sunset with a few forest friends aboard. 

I decided that since this was a large, slim line card, I wanted to use PanPastels to create the sunset background. They go on so fast, it was perfect for this large surface. If you are not familiar a slim line card is one that fits into a legal sized envelope. The card base measures 9-1/4" x 7-3/4" scored at 3-7/8", so the closed card is 9-1/4" x 3-7/8".  The front panel of this card measures 9" x 3-3/4". This is the piece that I used the Pan Pastels on to make the sunset. You can see how beautifully sunset fades from red to orange to yellow. That is because of the highly pigmented PanPastels. They glide so softly on the card stock and blend together with ease. It only takes a small amount to get this nice even coverage.  Make sure to watch my video below to see them in action. And I will talk about using a fixative. 

I used several Avery Elle stamp sets for this card. They have so many Peek A Boo critter sets that you can mix and match with this balloon.  The Fox and Bear are from the Polar Peek A Boo Pals stamp set and the bunny is from the Peek A Boo Pals stamp set. I knew I wanted to crowd some critters in the balloon, I thought it would look so cute. And they had to be forest animals flying over the mountains, which are die cut using the Stitched Mountain borders by Lawn Fawn. 

I am loving the slim line card and am thinking there will be a few more in this months series.  What do you think, do you like the slim line card?  Have you made one before?  I think this stamp set lends is self well to this size of card. 

If you have any clever ideas for this Peek A Boo Balloon stamp set please leave a comment and let us all know. I have so many more, I can not wait to share them all with you, so make sure to tune back in next Tuesday for more ideas with this stamp set. 

Be sure to check out the video below. And if you have not yet done so I'd love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel. 

 

You can find all the supplies I used to make this card listed and linked for you below. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions! 

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by and letting me share my creations with you. I will be back soon with more stamping inspiration for you and on Tuesday I will have another creation with the Peek A Boo Balloon for you!

Peek A Boo Balloon Episode 1

Happy 2020!  I am going to love this year, I can already tell. 

Today I'm kicking off a new stamp set of the month!  The Peek A Boo Balloon set by Avery Elle. 

Each week in January I will be bringing you new ideas with this stamp set. This week's card is inspired by the frequent visits our neighborhood gets from hot air balloons. They fly right over our house. 

Idaho is a great place to see lots of hot air balloons. And it just so happens that we live were most of the hot air balloons land. So in the spring through fall we get a lot of fly overs in our neighborhood. And often we get to see them land. A few times they have come close enough for us to even talk to the riders while flying over!  It's very exciting and I always take pictures. Here is one of my faves, just outside my house.

So, this had to be my first card with this set. 

I love the elephant in the balloon, he's so big and is floating in a balloon, so cute. 

I used distress oxide ink, Salty Ocean to create the sky background. And the roof and chimney is a die set by Lawn Fawn, Roof Top Border. All the stamped images are from Avery Elle. You can use any of their Peek A Boo critters in this ballon set, which is why I love it!  

You can check out the making of this card in the YouTube video below.

 

I will be back again next week with another fun idea with this set. If you have not yet done so, I'd love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I have new videos coming out regularly. 

Below I have listed and linked all the supplies I used to make today's card. Please let me know if you have any questions. And if you choose to shop the links below know that doing so helps support this blog and YouTube channel, thank you so much for your support! 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by! And have a blessed 2020!

Episode 4 - Cocoa Stand Festival

This is the last one, the last episode featuring the Cocoa Stand stamp and die set by Avery Elle.

This is the card I have been waiting to make!  I combined all three kinds of stands, Cocoa Stand, Tree Farm, Sledding Stand into one card. One long card.  The finished card is 4" x 9-1/2" and fits in a legal size envelope.

I just adore this stamp set and had to much fun making this card. One of the reasons I love it is because I had so much fun coloring in the images. Every week I have shown you a different medium to color these images in with . This week I used Watercolor pencils. And I AM IN LOVE with watercolor pencils now. I have used them in the past but this time something clicked and I was lost in coloring. I think it is because I have been watching Sandy Allnock, the colorist extordinare, color with watercolor pencils and not only was I inspired but I learned a few things.

So what did I learn about coloring with watercolor pencils?

1.Coloring with watercolor pencils is not like coloring with colored pencils. Think of watercolor pencils as a way of laying down paint. You do not need to worry about blending, about it being neat and smooth. Use the watercolor pencils as a tool to put color in an area. The blending and magic happen when you wet this color and paint with it.

2. Paper matters. I had been using my watercolor pencils on white card stock. And the results were fine. But nothing to get excited about. So I did what seems obvious now and used watercolor paper. The difference was big enough that I started to love watercolor pencils. It was a way for me to get a watercolor look with more control than using straight up watercolor paints.

3. Light to Dark.  When I paint out watercolor pencil I want to start with the darkest color I have laid down, but I found the opposite to be best.  The reason I start with the light is so that the dark does not over take the light color. When you wet watercolor pencil coloring you are able to pick up that color and move it. I dont want to darken my lightest areas. So, I start with the light and work my way into the dark.

4. Go towards the line. I also found that when I paint I need to paint going towards the outline of the image. Otherwise I am removing the paint at the line. But when I paint moving towards the line I a moving color in that direction and am able to blend the lighter color with the dark.

5. Clean your brush often. Went painting over watercolor pencils the water with the pencil makes paint and your brush is picking up that paint. You can easily transfer that to another section of one image. Now an area that you want to be light could be contaminated with the paint on your brush. So, I clean my brush off even when painting one image that is the same color, so I can maintain the light areas. For example, the strings of lights I painted for this card, each light bulb has a lighter area at the bottom, I was able to maintain that by cleaning off my brush in between each light bulb.

Be sure to watch the video below to see the making of this card so you can see the things I learned about watercolor pencils in action. I will be using Arteza Expert Watercolor Pencils, set of 72.  I love how nicely these pencils blend out with water and the price for 72 pencils is perfect for a novice watercolor pencils user.

 

 

Below are all the supplies I used to make this card. Affiliate links have been used, at no cost to you. But you did support my blog and channel by clicking on my links, thank you so very much! Thank you so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you, let me know your experience with watercolor pencils in the comments below.

Pink Hot Cocoa Stand

Hello there and welcome to Episode 3 of my Cocoa Stand series. Every week I am bringing you a new idea with the Avery Elle stamp set, Cocoa Stand. And today I am actually making a Cocoa Stand. In the past two Episodes I have made a Tree Farm Stand and and Sledding Stand.

I knew that I wanted to do a pink, red and brown card for this hot cocoa theme. It is my current fave for Christmas cards. So I started with an ink blended background. Using ink blending brushes that my daughter spotted in the dollar store!

And I have to say, I was very impressed with how well the dollar store blending brushes worked!

These are the three brushes that my Dollar Tree store had. A dollar a piece.  I would like it if they had a bigger size.  However, these worked great for the background I made that was a full card front size.

For the background I ink blended Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide inks. Which I then splattered with water and Avery Elle Clear Shimmer Spray.  Can you see why I love pink for Christmas? This background just makes me happy.

Then I set out stamping and coloring all my images from the Cocoa Stand stamp set and Polar Peek-a-Boo Pals stamp set.  It was a lot of images, but I kept the coloring simple with a small selection of Copic Markers for the coloring.

I love that the moose looks like he just busted into the stand and got the lights all tangled up in his antlers.  My other favorite thing about this card, is how I made gave the sides of the stand candy cane stripes.

The creating did not end with this card, as with all the other cards in this series, I made a matching gift tag!

The little bear is popping up out of his pink hot cocoa cup! On both of these cards I used Nuvo Jewel Drops in Cocoa Blush to make it look like there is cocoa spilling out. These drops dry translucent with a tint of brown. Perfect for my creations!

The cup, cup wrap and straw are from the Coffee First Die set by Fun Stampers Journey.

You can check out the making of these projects in the YouTube video below. You also have a chance to win today's card, just by leaving a comment on the video over on my YouTube channel.  Winner will be announced on next week's video.

 

Have  you made any pink Christmas cards?  Or is pink too much for you on a Christmas card?  I'd love to know you thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment below.

All the products I used to make this card are listed and linked for you below.

Affiliate links have been used. That means that I get a small percentage of any sales made through these links, at no cost to you. Shopping links of the bloggers who inspire you means that you get to support that maker and they will keep bringing you creative ideas. Thank you so much for your support, it means so much to me!

 

I appreciate you stopping by to visit me and let me share my creations with you!

 

November Stamp Set of the Month Episode 2

Hello there my stamping friends. Today's post is Episode 2 of my November Stamp Set of the Month series, featuring the Avery Elle stamp set, Cocoa Stand. For this card I am using the stand to make a sledding stand. And because it is more fun to go sledding with friends I am also using the Polar Peek-a-Boo Pals stamp set from Avery Elle to add some friends to the scene.

It wouldn't be a stamp set of the month series with out a shaker card!

I am in love with the Winter Kiss clay snowflakes from HoneyBee Stamps!  They are the perfect winter shaker card element!

This week I did all the coloring with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. They are the easiest markers to color with. They are water based and blend with each other!  I'm a big fan!  My number one tip for using these markers is to use them on Bristol Smooth card stock, otherwise you will not be able to blend them out.  In this photo you can see the coloring on the sledding stand really well. I was going for a white washed look. I used the 901 Gray Tint marker to add the lines to the boards and do shading around them, I love how this turned out.  I also love all the peek-a-boo pals that Avery Elle has, the little paws popping up in the snow, it's just adorable!

This month I will be making gift tags to go with each of the cards. Today's gift tag features the Special Day tag die set by Fun Stampers Journey, it's a die set I use all the time.

I kept this tag simple as I know these things will most likely get tossed. But if you wanted to make a special tag then you could easily make this into a shaker tag. Here's one I made last year: https://www.carriestamps.com/weblog/2018/12/stay-cozy-ornament-card.html

Also, on this tag you can see that I did not do ink blending on the polar bear.  That is because I used white card stock that is not Bristol Smooth. I was able to color, but not blend. Also, the ink saturation is much darker than on Bristol Smooth card stock. So, the lesson learned here is that you can use the Zig Clean Color Markers on card stocks other than Bristol Smooth, but they will not blend and the color will be much darker.

Now, let's watch the video, the making of these two projects. Make sure to click over to my YouTube channel and comment on this video. Every one who comments will be entered to win the this card!

Below I have listed and linked all the things I used to make today's projects. Affiliate links are used, which means I get a small percentage of the sale when you click and shop my links, at no cost to you. Thank you so much for your support, I love bringing you new ideas every week.

 

Thank you so much for stopping by, tune in next week for episode 3! I will be making a Cocoa Stand this time!

 

Tree Stand Episode 1

It's a brand new month and that means its time for a new stamp set of the month! This month my daughter Hannah picked my stamp set!  She chose the Avery Elle stamp set, Cocoa Stand. It is a super cute stamp set that you can make a Hot Cocoa Stand, Tree Stand and Sledding Stand. Hannah also gave me some rules for this week's card. She challenged me to use Colored Pencils to color with, and to use only one color of card stock beside white and I was only allowed to use one pen.

I love challenges like this, it helps me make something I might not think of on my own. If you have an idea to challenge me with for next week's card leave a comment below.

All the coloring was done with colored pencils!  And the only pen I used was a white gel pen for some hightlights. I am very happy with the texture I was able to get with the colored pencils on the wood of the tree stand and on the trees themselves.  You can see how I did this in the video below.  But it is just a matter of adding in lines with a heavy hand and then coloring over them with a light hand and a few shades of your choice of colors.

I really had fun with the colored pencils, it had been a while since I colored with them. I was very happy that I was able to get texture for the wood planks, it turned out better than I thought.

And here are the cute gift tags to go with today's card. I kept them simple because gift tags are usually tossed but you still want them to make a package super cute!

Check out the video here, and be sure to watch it on YouTube and leave a comment for a chance to win today's card.

Thank you so much for watching, commenting, and liking my video's, it means so much to me.

Below I have listed and linked all the things I used to make today's projects. Affiliate links have been used, that means I do get a small percentage of the sale when you make a purchase. At no cost to you.  Thank you so much for your support!

 

I'm so glad you stopped by, I love sharing my creations with you! Don't forget to leave a comment and let me know what you think I should do with this stamp set for next week.