Before you read on I want to draw your attention to the "STAY IN TOUCH" link just above. Click there to sign up for my newsletter. You'll be so glad you did! Many thanks ~ Chris
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BLOG HOP
I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.
If you would like to receive my newsletter please click on the Stay in Touch link at the top of my blog. You can also check out the Stampin' Up! catalogs link in the same location. If you don't have regular Stampin' Up Demonstrator and would like hard copies of any of our current catalogs please feel free to email me at [email protected]
I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.
If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the February host code, YPYJ7NWJ, I will send you a free gift. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.
If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.
Before you read on I want to draw your attention to the "STAY IN TOUCH" link just above. Click there to sign up for my newsletter. You'll be so glad you did! Many thanks ~ Chris
Hello, my crafting friends! I hope your weekend is going well. Today I'm doing a little blog hopping with Stamping Inkspirations, organized by my friend Angie, MacKenzie.If you have arrived here from the blog hop, I'm Chris Smith from St. Paul, MN.
Today Angie has us doing a color challenge with some beautiful colors.
Blushing Bride, Polished Pink, Fresh Freesia Bumblebee and Garden Green. Are you thinking spring and flowers? I might have been too. Except, we've been traveling for much of the past few weeks and even though I was just barely organized to sign up for the hop, I apparently wasn't when it was time for me to pack to head up north to check in on the big lake. Even though I keep a second stash of ink pads up there - I don't have the in-colors and this combo has three of them. I do have a stash of ink refills so I set about trying to recreate the colors by mixing them with others as needed and adding white craft to lighten if necessary. I used some sponge daubers to blend the colors onto Basic White cardstock and ended up with these:
I used Rich Razzleberry and a little Highland Heather mixed with a healthy amount of white craft refill to approximate Fresh Freesia.
For Bumblebee I used Crushed Curry and a little less white than I normally would.
My Polished Pink stand-in was Flirty Flamingo with Melon Mambo mixed with the white.
The green sheet is mostly Garden Green with a bit of Bumblebee blended in.
I've always love the "oil painting look" but haven't done this technique since Stampin' Up! started carrying the Blending Brushes which are a little quicker to use. My older technique requires sponge daubers and I'm starting to think that they work better if they are old. When I ordered new daubers a few years ago, the sponge would expand when I put craft ink on them, becoming very wobbly and hard to control. Now I am wondering if the sponge gets stiffer as they age because they worked beautifully now. So if you try this, use some daubers that have been in your stash for a while... I'll add a how-to video towards the end of the post.
Second problem ... I only brought two stamp sets with me thinking I just had to work on a color challenge for Monday which I intended to be masculine. All I had to work with were On the Horizon Bundle and Wildlife Wonder stamp set. What to do, what to do? I thought my chances were better with the bundle and it's dies...
Other than my limited supplies the scene is a bit inspired by our trip to Green Valley AZ earlier this month when we went to visit my parents for mom's birthday. They have a lovely view of the Santa Rita mountains with a bit of Green Valley's dessert flora in between them and the mountains. I decided to take a chance cutting up the die cut with the string of little trees to see if I could create some quasi Prickly Pears.
I applied my desert flora over the bottom edge of the card, trimming off the excess in an attempt to add to the depth. I say you should try anything once.
I also tried a trick I've done with blended backgrounds in the past. Trim off one edge and turn it upside down as a border. You can do this on one or both sides.
Here are some other pictures from our recent travels, noting the difference in climate and scenery...
The first is looking towards the Santa Rita Mountains from my parents' patio.
The second shows Cowboy Whiskers Prickly Pear as seen during a trip to the Sonora Desert Museum last Saturday. You don't want to brush up against one of these but I really thought the name was appropriate.
One of the cards I made with Mom, a birthday card for a quilt loving friend. We used the quilt dies from a holiday catalog a few years back along with the Flowering Cactus Medley from last year plus her new Cactus Cutie Bundle. Sorry for the poor pix - it's the only one I took.
Finally a shot of Lake Superior, near Tofte, MN before we left to return to St. Paul earlier this morning. It was 15 below!
Here is an older video of the sponge dauber blending technique - with even more cacti (Flowering Desert) from the archives:
Gosh, I'm chatty for a Saturday... all because I thought I needed to explain how I got to my card... Now for the rest of the blog hop, next stop is the amazing Tricia Butts:
I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.
If you would like to receive my newsletter please click on the Stay in Touch link at the top of my blog. You can also check out the Stampin' Up! catalogs link in the same location. If you don't have regular Stampin' Up Demonstrator and would like hard copies of any of our current catalogs please feel free to email me at [email protected]
I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.
If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the February host code, YPYJ7NWJ, I will send you a free gift. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.
If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.
Before you read on I want to draw your attention to the "STAY IN TOUCH" link just above. Click there to sign up for my newsletter. You'll be so glad you did! Many thanks ~ Chris
Today we have the theme of Furry Friends for our Crafty Collaborations blog hop.
If you are following the Stampin' Dreams blog hop and are new to my blog, welcome to my inkpad. I'm Chris Smith. Normally I stamp in a little pantry sized studio in downtown St. Paul, MN but more often than I care to admit, it carries over onto our nearby dining room table.
At first I didn't think of otters as furry friends and thought I would feature a bunny today... but we've been traveling and stamping time got tight so plan B was necessary. I decided to feature a group of projects I did during a stamping play date with one of my he'Artstringstampers downline a while back. There will be plenty of time to talk bunnies later...
So, otters have fur right? In fact, unlike most other marine mammals, otters don't have blubber and instead use a very dense water resistant fur to keep them warm. That must be what makes them so cute! The projects I'm going to share with you today use watercolor pencils (and a whole bunch of other stuff we had out on the table) to make that fur come to life.
As you can see here, even though they are called watercolor pencils I don't always use watercolor with them. They are SO versatile. I used them dry on several of these pieces as I think this gives a little more texture to their fur.
This card uses a number of dies. One of my he'Artstringstampers team buddies was visiting and I played with her Layering Diorama Dies to create a simple pond. The grass and leaf are from the Palms Dies in the mini catalog. Finally, I added one of the Tasteful Labels Dies to add my embossed greeting.
Can you see all of the ways I used my pencils? I love to start soft and then add pressure to intensify my colors as I did at the edges of my little pond. A little more green for variation to my Granny Apple Green grass. And, finally the textured look of the otter.
Something to keep in mind about watercolor pencils: if you are using water with them you will want to use a water resistant ink like Stazon Jet Black. If you plan to use them dry you can use either the Stazon or Memento's water based ink, Tuxedo Black. Sometimes I get away with using waterbased ink when I'm using blender pens, as long as I let it dry several hours and use a light touch with the Blender pen. Otherwise it is safest to use Stazon with anything that will be wet or damp.
Here are a few more:
I stamped the otter, hat and greeting on a Crumb Cake that had been precut with the Tailor Made Tags dies. I have to say that I love the old fashioned typewriter font with this set!
Similar use of the pencils, this time stamping directly on the Crumb Cake makes coloring this little guy super easy.
I used the White Stampin' Chalk Marker for the pompom.
This gets a fun ribbon treatment that is simply a mix of scraps: Pool Party Sheer and White Glitttered Organdy colored with a Granny Apple Green Blends all tied up with Black & White Baker's Twine from the Playful Pets Combo.
This next project is one that got away from me a little but I'm going to share it anyway since you might want to try some of the features if you have these supplies. You know I had to keep playing with Liz's Diorama dies:
I combined the dies with Art in Bloom hybrid bundle, using the folder inked with Mossy Meadow to emboss the Pear Pizzazz top layer.
Tone on tone Mossy Meadow stamping of the leaves on the middle layer.
More "dry" watercolor pencil on the actual pond layer with just a bit of pencil shading around the edges.
Finally the tag that started me down this path. I had originally seen some Otter tags by the talented Trayce Bauer on Instagram (@inkingtheedges 11.24.21 post). This was my version:
I used Blender Pens with the pencils. It's still a good look, just without the texture but I make up for that using Trayce's idea of the embossed Pool Party background.
Amazing Otters is a Sale-A-Bration set. That means that you can get it "free" with a purchase of $50 (US). It is only available until the end of February. I think these adorable critters will definitely earn their spot on your stamp shelf. As you can see, they will play nicely with so many other stamping supplies!
Now it's time for the rest of the blog hop. Depending on how you interpret "Furry Friends", Stampin' Up has at least 20 stamp sets featuring one or more of these critters. If I'm looking at the trail correctly you should be taking a virtual hop to see the talented Denise Willerton in Canada:
I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.
If you would like to receive my newsletter please click on the Stay in Touch link at the top of my blog. You can also check out the Stampin' Up! catalogs link in the same location. If you don't have regular Stampin' Up Demonstrator and would like hard copies of any of our current catalogs please feel free to email me at [email protected]
I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.
If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the February host code, YPYJ7NWJ, I will send you a free gift. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.
If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.
Before you read on I want to draw your attention to the "STAY IN TOUCH" link just above. Click there to sign up for my newsletter. You'll be so glad you did! Many thanks ~ Chris
Today I am blog hopping with the Around the World on Wednesday team:
We have a great theme for this month's Around the World on Wednesdays Blog Hop. It's all about Basic Essentials. What do we use on a daily basis? Well, I think that the item I order more than any other item in the catalog is Basic White Cardstock. Part of the reason is that I really do like "white" space. But it is also because I love blending colors together and that also requires white cardstock. Today's card will show you both of those features plus a few more essentials!
This card was inspired by my friend Barbara, a fellow color challenge hostess. She chose the combination Night of Navy, Balmy Blue and Just Jade. She also suggested "dessert" of water. Since we were traveling to visit my parents last week, I needed to work ahead and chose supplies and techniques that were well within my comfort zone: White, CAS, blending... The bundle, On The Horizon, seemed like a natural for simplicity and getting the water feature covered.
I started by blending a quarter sheet of Basic White cardstock with the three challenge colors working from Just Jade on the bottom, Balmy Blue around the middle and Night of Navy towards the top. I like to give my cards the illusion of being taller than they really are by adding a border so I cut a half inch strip and applied it to the right front edge of a white card. (Essential item #2 is my trusty trimmer! In fact, next on my to-do list is a class for a group of new stampers who just ordered trimmers last month...)
Then I cut the grass and "water" using the Horizon Dies. I love to use dies with blended paper as it can provide a little more variation and realism.
I stamped the birds and "BREATHE" in Night of Navy on second quarter sheet of Basic White. Though this color was in the challenge, it is also a color I frequently pull out to get to know a stamp set. If I was going to use only one color with white cardstock it would be Night of Navy!
Before attaching the die cut images, I ran the stamped piece through my Stampin' Cut & Emboss with my most used embossing folder, Tasteful Textile 3D Embossing Folder. (I actually have two of these - one to use with white craft ink...) There is no theme this folder can't work with. It's also really good for making your cardstock look just a little like watercolor paper.
Attach the dry embossed piece to the card base, apply the die cuts and you're done.
Now it's time to check out the rest of the blog hop. I'm so curious to see what others consider their essentials. Brenda Nelson is next!
I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.
If you would like to receive my newsletter please click on the Stay in Touch link at the top of my blog. You can also check out the Stampin' Up! catalogs link in the same location. If you don't have regular Stampin' Up Demonstrator and would like hard copies of any of our current catalogs please feel free to email me at [email protected]
I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.
If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the February host code, YPYJ7NWJ, I will send you a free gift. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.
If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.
The content in this blog is the sole responsibility of Chris Smith as an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator and the use of and content of classes, services, or products offered is not endorsed by Stampin' Up! Images copyright Stampin' Up!
