Getting Ready

Getting Ready is another great stamp by Lili of the Valley. This was colored on watercolor paper using Tim Holtz distress ink markers. You can't see it in the picture but I used wink of stella on the dress. It adds a lot of sparkle but it isn't distracting like glitter. When I am tight on time, I like to make simple cards like this one. I precolor the images to speed things up even more. 

Lili of the Valley

This stamped image from lili of the valley is adorable. Actually, all their stamps are adorable! I chose, Feathered Friends, to watercolor. I used my new distress markers to watercolor this image. It is very easy to do and I love the results. I was in a water coloring mood one day so I sat down and painted a bunch of images. I like to have them ready so my card making sessions aren't so long doing the painting and card making at the same time. I do like to pull some papers to match my inks and then store the colored images and the papers in a plastic folder. Then when I am ready to make cards, I have the time consuming part done already.

Here are some great tutorials on watercoloring with distress markers.

Birthday Girl

This card was made from another Lili of the Valley stamp. For this card I chose to use distress inks to watercolor the image on watercolor paper. The solid papers are from my Michael's Recollections paper pack, the yellow stripe paper is from my stash and the pink, orange and yellow stripe paper is from Paper Adventures called Matchmakers by Jill. I made the bow out of some organza ribbon I had and I added some sparkle with my clear wink of stella pen. The mini "happy b-day" word stamp is from my stamp stash to add some texture I poked holes with a T pin.

These cards are great basic card sketches. Try making one with your own stamped images and papers!

Bunny Love

I have been playing around in the studio and came up with this cute bunny card. The image is from Lili of the Valley. It is a simple layout embellished with some flowers from Prima, a few leaves from two Martha Stewart punches and a bit of sparkle from my wink of stella pens. The pink gingham is from Making Memories Background Basics, Pastel Pink Gingham item # 14447. I don't know where I bought the floral paper from, it was in my stash, but the solid papers were from my Recollections Pack from Michael's. I used Prisma colored pencils to color the image and odorless mineral spirits (oms) to blend.