Christmas Snarky Cat & a Sale

Welcome to the weekend, crafty friends! One last post for October 2020 playing along with CCEE Stampers - a cat of any color and using my NBUS stamp set from Tim Holtz.

I used my Arteza Real Brush Pens to color this snarky guy. I do have the 96 piece set and have lots of choices, but a smaller set would work just fine. Arteza is having a sale through tomorrow, Oct. 31, 2020 20% off with the code treat20. 

There is a great You Tube showing many techniques on using these pens: https://youtu.be/NWTgHrruP4Y

I basically used the "dry on dry paper" technique with a tiny bit of water.

Here is a download image from Arteza's website showing all the colors for the Real Brush Pens swatched:

I picked up the Stampers Anonymous Stamptember 2020 set from Tim Holtz with Snarky Cats. This was exclusive during the month of September for Simon Says Stamp and sold out and will not be reproduced: 

But, lucky for us, Tim designed a set that is very similar called Snarky Cat Christmas and will be available soon at A Cherry on Top and Scrapbook.com stores:

If you have some time and love these little guys like I do, you might want to watch Tim in his Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=743717369543122&ref=search So much inspiration, it's crazy!

I began with a piece of Ranger Inkssential Water Color Paper - a nice bright white - and stamped the image with Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink. I used Gina K. Masking Paper and stamped the cat onto it, fussy cut, and masked the cat before I stamped the present. Whatever image you want in the foreground is stamped and masked first. So in this case, the cat.

The coloring was simple, as I mentioned above. Once that was completed, I heat embossed with Hero Silver Embossing Power the little stars/snowflakes at the top. The sentiments were white heat embossed on black card stock with Wow Opaque Bright White Super Fine Embossing Powder. Because the font is fairly small I wanted to use a super fine powder to pick up the details.

Just a couple of things to mention - I used Scrapbook.com's double sided 1/4" adhesive (on sale for $1.99 at the time of this writing!) to hold the watercolor paper front good and tight to the card base. The sentiments are popped up with slivers of 3M foam tape and the eyes, trim on the hat and bells and Nuvo Crystal Glaze on them for some nice shine and dimension.

Thanks for joining me today and enjoy your weekend!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

The Great British Baking Show Card!

Welcome to The Great British Baking Championship Card! "On Your Mark, Get Set, Bake!!!" Do those words sound familiar? If you watch the show you know they begin every challenge with those words, or ones similar. I have had this unique red rubber stamp set from Paper Artsy in my stash for a while and when I looked at it, I knew immediately it was going to be a slimline card honoring the show:

Yes, I am playing along with the NBUS challenge again...I really do like using my "Never-Before-Used-Schtuff"!

If you are a watercolorist or interested in dipping your toe into the watercolor world, Arteza is having a Sale now through Monday, October 26, 2020: Save 20% on watercolor essentials with promo code AUTUMN. Shop now.

I used my Arteza Real Brush Pens for the cakes in this card. I have the 96 piece set because I love having all the options. If you are a beginner a smaller set would work just fine.

When I first received my 96 piece set, I swatched out the colors as I usually do with any new coloring/painting medium. I have several Waffle Flower Crafts swatching set, but this one is particularly for watercolors and it works great. It is called Watercolor Swatches Combo:

My swatches I keep together with a chain for easy reference:

For the swatching, I started with the Arteza Expert Watercolor paper - 140 lb. cold press in a cream color. I stamped the 12 squares with a watercolor safe black ink - most likely Scrapbook.com's Black Hybrid Ink.

I do the swatching for 2 reasons: 1) I want to know how the medium works, especially on the paper that I would most likely use, and 2) I then have the exact color chart for use when I am coloring. Sometimes the color on the outside is not the color that comes out of the pen/brush, etc.

Back to the card...As I mentioned, we are great fans of The Great British Baking Show. It's in its 8th season so we have watched a lot of episodes. When I saw the cakes and the word "Bake!" from the Paper Artsy stamp set ZA24 by Elena Zinski, I knew I had to make a card with that theme...or maybe next a journaling page?! I actually have had this in my stash for several years. Elena's unique style really appeals to my daughter.

The cakes needed some sort of background, so I thought the i-crafter Comic Half Tone Dots would give just enough movement to work. This is NBUS to me (at the time I made this card) and I really like those dots...I tried it in greys and black, but went with the black for contrast.

Here is a close up of the cakes:

I hand wrote the "Ready" "Set" in a black journaling pen and tried to match the font of "Bake". The inside has a cute sentiment from the stamp set, too:

I was happy with the results. This is a unique card to send to someone. I have to find another fan of the show and send it to him or her!

Thanks for visiting today. I hope you have a chance to pick up a good sale this weekend and enjoy your NBUS!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

PLay Time Wobble

I made this little cutie card from items on clearance from Spellinders using Arteza Real Brush Pens. Yes, my dears, more NBUS! And a thank you to Darnell for creating the NBUS challenge!

Spellbinders' Sale ends tomorrow, Sunday October 25th an extra 15% clearance! Both the Play Time Artist Trading Stamp (A little over $2.00!) and the Little Big Greetings (Around $15.00) are on the sale. 

I colored my little cutie monkey and bouncy ball with Arteza Real Brush Pens. So vibrant! They are also on sale until Monday, October 26th for another 20% off.

I started with the Comic Half Tone Dots stamp from i-crafter stamped with Versafine Black Pigment Ink onto a piece on Neenah 80lb. Solar White card stock. This gives some movement in the background:

I die cut the dots with Spellbinders' Nested Clipped Squares:

The greetings on both the outside and inside are from Spellbinders' Fun Stampers Journey Little Big Greetings:

These stamps are red rubber and stamp beautifully! Look at these sentiments, something for every occasion.

Our little monkey is popped up with a Hampton Art Action Wobble, another NBUS in my stash.

So he is a movin' and a shakin'!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed my little cutie! Thanks to Darnell @ NBUS for encouraging me to use my Schtuff!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Altenew Paint-a-Flower Hydrangea with Honey Bee Stamps

Hi sweet friends! I am back with a post for Freshly Made Sketches #458:

This is actually a lesson on how to salvage a card that has gone wrong. I had created a card base with gold embossed stamping onto Ranger Inkssential Water Color Paper, my favorite watercolor paper. It is pure white, has a rough and a smooth side, goes through my printer well for digital stamps and handles water just fine! The image was the hydrangea from Altenew's Paint-A-Flower Hydrangea stamp set. 

I colored in the design with Altenew's 36 half pan set and basically used pink and green colors. Next, using Gina K.'s masking paper, I masked the image and then stamped the whole card front with a retired background stamp from MFT called Morrocan Lattice Background using Scrapbook.com's Camel Hybrid Ink. I like this particular color and ink type. It isn't too light, but not too dark and hybrid inks dry right away so no smudging!

At this point, I didn't like the pink I used at all and the background stamp didn't leave enough white space. I just set it aside and felt it was perfect for this card sketch by die cutting it apart! Moral of the story; don't throw out your "mistakes" for awhile. Let them sit and look at them with fresh eyes. They may be salvageable.

I used Honey Bee Stamps, Honey Cuts Bold Alphabet Set and die cut the letters for "friend" where I thought the design was best. Normally you can use the positive & negative pieces when you die cut a word, but I was all over the place with this one.

I wanted a nice soft background for the "Friend" word and ink blended Altenew's Limeade Crisp Dye Ink with their large ink blending tool. It leaves the most beautiful soft edges. 

I took the card panel to my splat box and sprayed & splattered gold shimmer from a Heidi Swapp spray I've had in my stash for a long time. 

The word "sweet", cut from gold card stock and its outlined background, cut from vellum, came from Honey Bee set called Home Sweet Home:

This Honey Bee set can be used in so many ways. If you are a cross-stitcher or embroiderer you'll recognize these tools!

The inside sentiment is from My Favorite Things Sassy Pants Birthday Greetings 2. I know this is hard to read sideways, but if you can, there are some great sentiments here.

I finished with a few gold metallic pearls in my stash. I was really happy with the outcome and I hope my ageless friend will like it, too.

Thank you to Freshly Made Sketches for the inspiration and I hope to see you playing along with them, too! They are a weekly challenge. Stay well, sweet friends!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.