Glittered Serendipity Stamps Christmas Card

Well, I can't believe it is that time of year again! Time for Christmas cards. For this one, I am using Serendipity Stamps Merry Christmas Stamp and ornament die. The technique for the glitter, I learned from a tutorial on Split Coast Stampers. It is called Colored Glitter Inlay. I had used it earlier in the year for my Easter cards using a bunny die from Serendipity with a napkin fold card. I think this creates a very elegant card. The background behind the glittered piece is flocked to add to the richness.

Well, while I am sharing, I might as well show off the grandchildren since their clothing matches the Christmas Card....I think that is good logic! They were just here for Thanksgiving.

Above are the two girls, Lara and Harper. Below, is Harper with her brother Jackson, giving a choke hold hug. I remember all to well my son Jason doing that to his little sister, Allison! Must be in the genes!

Below is Lara with her brother Clayton. Clayton loves to decorate for the holidays and he really enjoyed the gingerbread houses we decorated this year using my Cameo and pretty stickers!

I hope everyone has a nice Holiday Season and that 2016 will be a wonderful year!!!

Easter Card, Napkin Fold with Serendipity Stamps and Colored Glitter Inlay

 

 Well, I am still among the living and thought I would post this fun card made with Serendipity Stamps and die, an Anna Griffin place mat (what works better for a "napkin fold" card?) and Colored Glitter Inlay belly band. As the card unfolds, it is kind of like going on an Easter Egg hunt! Below is a close up of the belly band and the inside of the card featuring Serendipity Stamps die and stamps.

 

 I used the Colored Glitter Inlay Tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers to make the belly band that features Serendipity Stamps bunny. I also used a Sizzix die to cut the frame from mat board.
There is also a tutorial on doing the Napkin Fold. Just today, I ordered the Accucut die that will make the folds on the napkin fold card for me. While they are not difficult at all to score and fold, getting everything precise can be a little more difficult if you are using thicker paper like the pink base of this card was made from.

 
The pink bow on the left releases the belly band, allowing the card to open up and reveal the inside message.

Below, you can see the filigree edge of the place mat that I used on my four corners on the front of the card.

Hope each of you has a wonderful springtime!

Serendipity Stamps for Fall and Winter

 Wow, it has been a while since I have posted. We have been busy moving into a new house and are still in the process, but I wanted to share these new stamps from Serendipity Stamps with you. It always seems strange to walk in stores in July and see Christmas items out on the shelves, but that is when it happens!
Above is a darling snow person with it's feathered friends. I decided to go with some fun colors, coordinating with a striped paper and washi tape. Personally, I like to color the image and then choose the paper, but some people do it the opposite way. I used regular watercolor for the background, Twinkling H2O's for the clothing and birds and Windsor and Newton Iridescent Medium for the snowman. I love the look the iridescent medium gives and wish it showed more in the photo. This card is A2 size.

 This whimsical Christmas tree seems to be dancing! The background was done with watercolor paint and salt with the image being painted in twinkling H20's. I tore the edges of the watercolor paper and turned the image at a tilt to show movement. The star has glitter glue added to go along with the glitter paper background and ribbon. This card is 5 by 7 inches.

 Autumn is my favorite season, so I always love pumpkins and gourds! I made a business #10 card using this long stamp and used the image to decorate the envelope. Here again, watercolor was used on the background with twinkling H20's for accents. I also water embossed portions of the pumpkin, the gourd at the bottom and the center of the sunflower on the right side. It is hard to capture that dimension on a photo, but hopefully you can tell.

Hoping you are all having a wonderful summer! I am heading to Pensacola, FL for a brief visit and then will be working on my old house getting it ready to put on the market. I will post photos of the new house when I get more furniture here. The thought of organizing my new craft room is daunting, but at least it is a nice big room, so it will all be in one spot and not take over the rest of the house!
Thanks for looking and be sure to check out the new stamps at Serendipity!

Serendipity Stamps Summer Flowers

 Serendipity Stamps had another Blog Hop today, featuring the rest of the new stamps. I used one of them to make these cards. The flowers have a whimsical look to me, so I used fun colors and polka dot hearts inside the lever card.
When I saw the image (and two similar to this one), I automatically thought of coloring them with watercolor or markers. It was fun to see other treatments used in the blog hop.

 The little bows, I made using a fork, a technique I believe I saw on Pinterest. I used a photo as my instructions but I see that there is a video on You Tube also. I had no problem doing it from a photo, but some might want to see a video. When I see a diagram or a card idea on the internet, I do a screen shot on my iPad and then it is there in my Camera Roll when I want to try it. Much better than looking for that little piece of paper I made a note on! Or if you see it on Pinterest, pin it and then you will be able to find it. To do a screen shot, push your home button (the round indention) and the on/off button at the same time.

I am anxious to try watercolor crayons and also markers as well as techniques I saw on the blog hop. I love this time of year when the flowers are popping out everywhere (except where there is still snow!!)

Serendipity Stamps Valentine Cupcake

 Cupcakes are so popular today! My hubby just called me on this Valentine's Day and offered to bring me a cupcake from Birmingham AL (love Edgar's Strawberry cupcakes!), as he is on his way home. I tried to think about my waistline and declined the offer.
Above is a cupcake that won't add any calories! Serendipity has some new stamps and die and there is a sale on their Hearts Page for Valentine's Day and the day after. The cupcake die also comes with a candle, so it will be great for all those birthday cards as well!
For the hearts on the card, I used some hearts that came from the "Love" die cut below. I love the scroll heart and solid heart that matches it. These would be great for weddings and anniversaries year round!

Also among the new stamps are some really cool stamps with a look of old quilts and a bicycle built for two! I am busy working on creating some cards with these new wonderful stamps and hope to share them soon.
Check out the sale on the heart stamps and die....these work year round!
Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Fun with Die from Serendipity Stamps

 I love diecutting and I love Serendipity's new die for the fall and winter! When I get new die, I like to just sit down and play with them. There are two new die, a pumpkin and an ornament.
Who says the color behind the filigree pumpkin has to be all the same color? Above, I pieced different colors, a brown for the stem and three shades behind the pumpkin...fun! Now I want to try vellum behind the filigree, for kind of a stain glass look!
Also, who says you can't cut things off of die....below, I cut off the ornament hanger and made a quilt!

 And don't forget to use the negative part of the image....both of these die have great negative shapes. I saved the little part from the ornament hanger and the two little pieces from the vine and these will be great for cards on their own.

 Who says everything has to lie flat....above, I have embossed the filigree pumpkin and then raised some of the portions for a metalwork look.....below I have used the colors of an apple, cut off the vine and added a green leaf....

 I couldn't resist doing a Christmas quilt. Also, to coordinate with the die is a Merry Christmas stamp....

 and also a stamp of the Christmas ornament....that creates a lot of possibilities!!!

 I haven't tried it with the new die designs, but I recently made a honeycomb type design with the Serendipity Heart by layering several diecuts together to create a dimensional piece.

I just began playing with these new die, so I am sure I will come up with a lot more possibilities!

Watercolor tricks for Papercrafters, using Serendipity Stamps

It's that time of year again....time for the new fall and winter stamps to begin coming out...so exciting! Of course, some images just call for the watercolor brush to come out of hiding!

I love using markers, but I still love even more the looks possible and speed of using watercolor.

 I thought I would go over some tricks of watercolor while showing you these great new images from Serendipity Stamps. I also used Spellbinders Die to cut out a couple of the images. Notice the clean little border around the diecut? This is a fun edge I did by applying embossing ink to the actual die and then diecutting the image. Afterwards, I applied clear embossing powder to the edge and hit it with the heat gun. The clear embossing powder masks the delicate edge and keeps watercolor away, while also giving a nice little sheen. I can work very quickly wet into wet to create a very cool background.
Another trick I did on the background was to apply a little paint with a sheen and then I sprinkled some table salt over the wet watercolor. Allow the paint to dry and then brush off the salt. It will create a great mottled effect. Once the cards were finished, I spattered some of the pearl color paint with a sheen over the image. Lots of things happening there, but all of them were easy and quick.

 On the ghost and quail, I also did some water embossing by manipulating the watercolor paper. I outlined the area I wanted to puff out with a stylus on the image, placing the image on something soft like a mouse pad or piece of fun foam. On the reverse side of the image, you can see the outline. I applied water to the back and then manipulated the paper with the stylus. To keep the "puffiness", I used foam adhesive tape in the raised areas. Notice that the quail image was torn out and spattering applied using brown paint. This gives a more rustic look.

 To make the pumpkin pop, I applied some glossy accents and allowed it to dry. Also, a little glitter was added to the spider, bat and face of the ghost.

 Here are a couple shots showing the cutting side of the Spellbinders die. The VersaMark ink was applied directly to the cutting side of the die and then clear embossing powder added to the cut out images. But don't throw away the outside portion...below, you can see that I applied gold embossing powder and will use this for another project.

 Watercolor paint with a sheen is a great accent like on the window and snow above. I prefer to use it in limited amounts, only on what I want to really stand out.
Another way to make an image pop is to layer a portion of the image. Below, I stamped extras of the hand with the watering can, hat, face and scarf. I used pop dots to add dimension between the layers.

The sun was really bright when I took the photos below, so the colors are a little washed out compared to real life, but hopefully you will enjoy seeing the great new images as well as try some of the watercolor techniques I have included. Just do a search on my blog to see more posts on watercolor techniques.

Serendipity also has great word stamps to go with these images, but I wanted to focus on the new images and some watercolor techniques. Enjoy! Wow, I haven't even pulled out the watercolor crayons yet....or the Copic markers! So many possibilities! Oh, and I just saw on the Serendipity website that they are offering free shipping on orders over $10....whooo hooo! I love free shipping!

Butterfly Easel Card

I have shared the beautiful Serendipity Stamps die and stamp with you. I thought I would use them on a design copying a card my friend Laura Lipe sent me a while back. She called it a butterfly easel card. Above, you can see the different layers of butterfly die cuts used. The base butterfly is cut with the card stock being folded and the area at the top of the wings not being cut. Also, a score line is placed along the middle of the top portion of the butterfly base.

A second butterfly was cut from the same color paper and the top two butterflies were cut out of a neutral color, embossed and then ink applied direct to paper.

Below is the lovely card Laura sent me:

 Above, you can see the base butterfly with the score line added and below, the depth that you can see on Laura's card.

 After securing the top layers of butterflies together with a brad, I added a pop dot between the layers to make them stand apart and add dimension. I secured the base butterfly to the card and to the one above the base using red liner tape. I figure the recipient will want to fluff and play with the butterfly like I did on the card I received, so I wanted it nice and secure.

Another idea to tie the papers all together is to give a spritz of shimmer over all the card. Tie the envelope in with the card by stamping the butterfly on the envie.

The filigree die from Serendipity would look great on the top butterfly rather than using an embossing folder, but since I was copying Laura's card, I stuck with the embossing.

I love mailable dimension on a card, and this really gives a lot of POP!

Serendipity Halloween Stamps

 Rubber Stamps are such versatile tools....you can stamp them and color them whatever color you want...you can do all sorts of edge treatment like cut and matted, torn, diecut, fussy cut...etc. You can create backgrounds. You can add dimension by embossing the paper and then adding a dimensional coating.....These Serendipity stamps are the cling stamps made of red rubber, which are my favorites!

I am having a great time with these new images.....but then, I always do love Serendipity images! I can't believe it is already October!