Inspire Me Monday... Rewind!

Note from Power Poppy Headquarters! Every now and then, we'll take a trip back in time to revisit an older Inspire Me Monday Feature! There are so many good ones out there, sometimes it's kind.... to rewind! It gives some oldies but goodies a little extra play. 

Hello! Dina here for Inspire Me Monday. I've been having lots of fun making these 9 block cards lately! Last month on my blog I shared some cards that looked like quilt squares - today I'd like to show you how I created a little mosaic using a stamped image. Take a look at my finished card, and then I'll walk you through the process of putting it together!

I started by cutting out 9 squares from adhesive-backed label paper. You could use a punch or paper trimmer for this step, but I love these handy Grid Works dies from Sizzix - 9 precise squares (7/8") in one pass.

I removed the backing from the squares and lined them up on another backing sheet, side by side, in a 3 x 3 square.

I stamped the Peonies with dye ink onto my grid...

...then colored the image with Prismacolor pencils. The square with the stem in it ended up kind of boring, so I left that uncolored and just focused on the flowers and the background.

I positioned each colored square on to an Inchie Square using tweezers - I love that tidy border around the edge!

Instead of the stem, I stamped one of the Inchies with a sentiment from the Dynamic Duos: Peonies and Tulips set... those tiny sentiments are perfect for Inchies and tags! Love them. With a mosaic design like this, you could reassemble the de-constructed image, but I chose to mix it up a bit, turning and switching the squares around until I came up with an arrangement that felt balanced to me.

Here's a closer look at the card...

... and the full project again. That card base is from my huge stash of gel prints... some of them are just TOO PRETTY to use!

Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by!

Inspire Me Monday: Screen Divider Card

Hey there - happy Inspire Me Monday! I’ve got a fun project to share today that I hinted at on my blog a few weeks ago - you might remember if you were here for the Camellia release hop! My project today is a Screen Divider Card - this is a tutorial from Splitcoaststampers that we featured last month during our Holiday Tutorial Blitz, but it's a great card for any occasion.

The instructions and measurements are all available at the link above. For this version, I wanted to use a single colored image to cover all 4 panels - the panels can be cut and decorated separately, but aren't we all looking for ways to cut corners and speed things up? This was a great way to color the panels all at once, and the larger Camellias were much easier to color in. Even at this size, the detail is incredible!

I set the margins to 0" and resized the Camellia image to 9.34" x 6.37". (Those measurements don't have to be precise! Just somewhere around there will give you the size needed for this project.) NOTE: Be sure to set your printer settings for borderless printing - otherwise, you'll have a quarter-inch white border around the edge.

The piece I needed for my screen divider panels is 4" x 8.5", so I trimmed across at 4" and then cut the rest of my sheet into card front sized panels and created two other cards.

Before coloring with markers, I used a glaze pen to protect the tiny stamens of the flowers. The glaze pen acts as a resist medium, even with alcohol markers.

After coloring, I added some deeper shading with a pencil.

My panel was cut into 4 equal pieces, 2-1/8" wide.

I sponged the edges of each panel lightly so that each one seemed like its own design.

Here's a little tip for cutting the legs of the screen divider card - I centered and stuck my die to the back side of a Post-It note. the edges of the note helped me to position the die right where I wanted on the edge of the card each time.

I folded the card in half and cut the center panels first, then did the outer panels.

I always score around the edges of each panel for a more finished look.

Here's a closer look at my finished creation!

I hope this gives you some ideas for using digital stamps in a larger format! These little cards make beautiful decorations as well. Happy holidays to you!

Inspire Me Monday: Glaze Masking

Hi, Dina again! It's Inspire Me Monday, and it’s my turn to share! Yay!

I wanted to share one of my favorite masking tips with you today... this is a favorite especially for small or detailed images, and Marcy has created some beautiful images for this holiday release that feature lots of small elements and beautiful details.

Traditional masking involves fussy cutting a shape out of thin paper to cover up areas we've stamped. Nobody wants to do that on a small image. Right?? For watercolorists, there are brushable masking fluids, but they can be fussy as well, and take a little practice to work with... and the patience to wait until they're *completely* dry before removing them... *ahem*

Do you have a Glaze Pen? I have a few. These are made by Sakura, and they're typically used to add a little shiny accent to a colored image. I had noticed that they're described as waterproof, and guess what?! They are. And they are my secret masking weapon.

Here's how I made today's card. I stamped in StazOn ink onto watercolor paper - this stamp is from the Bottlebrush Holiday set. When you watercolor, it can be tricky to lay down an even wash of color, or to avoid painting in tiny details. I started by using my Glaze pen to mask off some highlights.

Here's what that looks like - can you see where they're 'glazed'? Also - I love that the highlights are sketched in to remove the guesswork (thanks Miss Marcy!!). I added dots to the larger ornament where they're indicated too. Let the glaze dry completely before you add water, or it will run.

While the glaze was drying I moved over to the bottle brush tree and filled in the ornaments, then covered them with a coat of glaze. I did my watercoloring with Peerless watercolor sheets... I like to use them for detailed images because they're so easy to pick up in small amounts and with tiny brushes.

I watercolored over the dried glaze on the ornaments, and you can see how the pen resisted the paint. Here I'm adding another layer of glaze over the dried paint so that I can wash the area later. Sometimes we forget that masking can be done in stages and layers.

 

Back over to the tree, where I added some random dots for little snow spots. A tip for getting a good, even flow from your pen - move slowly.

I stamped and shaded the banner and glazed it too.

Now I can add some color to the tree, and those glazed dots will stand out like painted snowy tips.

Except for the tree, the full image is actually covered with glaze at this point, so spritzing water over it will not affect my protected coloring.

Here I'm adding color into my misted background, and the glaze is resisting the color and water. This makes it so easy to do this fun wash! This does work for sponged backgrounds too, and with alcohol inks, in case you prefer another medium.

Here's an angled shot so you can see the water beaded up on the glazed ornaments.You can just dab that water off for quicker drying time.

Here's my finished card, with a few added splatters. My background panel was made with strips of gel printed paper.

Close up...

And at an angle so you can see the shine - I love that it's functional and pretty at the same time!

Thanks for letting me share!

Ink, Spray, Smash, and Stencil!

Hi, Dina again! It's Inspire Me Monday, and it's my turn to share!

Over at Splitcoaststampers we're in the middle of our annual Hope You Can Cling To card drive.... this is the 5th year we've had the event, and it's always a great time - a full month of chatter, prizes, virtual hugs, tears as we remember loved ones, and always a whole lot of card making! There is a card-making challenge posted daily, and cards that are made in response to the challenges are sent to MD Anderson's Cancer Center in Houston. The cards are set out in baskets in the breast cancer ward, for patients to share with each other or send to a family member, or for visitors or volunteers to use to brighten a patient's day. Last year over 4000 cards were sent - I can't wait to see the total this year!

We're so excited to have Power Poppy involved as a sponsor this year! I hope you'll come over and take a peek if you haven't been involved already. Miss JULIE is hosting today's challenge, and one of the techniques she chose as part of her challenge needed a new video on the site. I'm the video girl, so I put a video together to demonstrate the Ink, Spray, Smash technique (you can click HERE for the photo tutorial). While I was playing around with glossy cardstock and inks, I tried another variation with a stencil just for fun.

These are the cards I made using the backgrounds from the video... all of these are in my box of Hope You Can Cling To cards which is going postal today!

I love these little holiday vignettes - I colored this one with Peerless watercolors, using a great masking technique that I'll share with you next month! (stamp: Joyful Arrangements)

This is one of the stencil backgrounds - I love the subtle pattern that the stencil left in the blended color. This image was colored with Distress and watercolor markers. (stamp: Sunny Harvest)

I watercolored this image at the same time, again with Distress watercolor markers. This background was actually a 5th print that I didn't show in the video, taken from the ink on the stencil. (stamp: Sunny Harvest)

I'd love to see where this tutorial takes you - each print has such different results ... and of course I'd love to see you support our Julie in her challenge today!

Thanks for letting me share!

Inspire Me Monday - Mosaic Stamping

Hello again! Dina here for this Inspire Me Monday. I've been having lots of fun making these 9 block cards lately! Last month on my blog I shared some cards that looked like quilt squares - today I'd like to show you how I created a little mosaic using a stamped image. Take a look at my finished card, and then I'll walk you through the process of putting it together!

I started by cutting out 9 squares from adhesive-backed label paper. You could use a punch or paper trimmer for this step, but I love these handy Grid Works dies from Sizzix - 9 precise squares (7/8") in one pass.

I removed the backing from the squares and lined them up on another backing sheet, side by side, in a 3 x 3 square.

I stamped the Peonies with dye ink onto my grid...

...then colored the image with Prismacolor pencils. The square with the stem in it ended up kind of boring, so I left that uncolored and just focused on the flowers and the background.

I positioned each colored square on to an Inchie Square using tweezers - I love that tidy border around the edge!

Instead of the stem, I stamped one of the Inchies with a sentiment from the Peonies and Tulips set... those tiny sentiments are perfect for Inchies and tags! Love them. With a mosaic design like this, you could reassemble the deconstructed image, but I chose to mix it up a bit, turning and switching the squares around until I came up with an arrangement that felt balanced to me.

Here's a closer look at the card...

... and the full project again. That card base is from my huge stash of gel prints... some of them are just TOO PRETTY to use!

Have a great week!