It's Dandelion Wishes Week at All Things Stampy

I have a little treat for fans of the Dandelion Wishes stamp set. This week I will be posting a Dandelion Wishes project every day, from Monday to Friday.

We begin with this intensely coloured card with a bright watercoloured background, with a bit of salt technique thrown in.

On top of this we have the dandelions and greeting, embossed in Blackberry Bliss, using that oh so clever Stamparatus technique. This is where you stamp with the Stamparatus - in fact, I did this twice as it can be quite tricky to stamp onto watercolour paper, so stamping again gives you a sharper image.

Then, with the stamped cleaned off and the paper in the same position, you stamp on top with Versamark so you can add the clear embossing powder and heat it up for these stunning results.

And that’s just about all you have to do – with a background like this and such a beautiful image stamped on top, all you need is a piece of ribbon to finish things off.

Picture Perfect with watercolour sea salt background

I really should start writing the recipes down for my projects as soon as I’ve made them, especially when it’s something with lots of different colours on, like this one. I confess I am guessing the ink colours but I’m confident they’ll be correct!

So… beginning with some watercolour paper and some reinkers, I painted broad swathes of ink (Old Olive and Calypso Coral) and, while it was still wet, I sprinkled the ink with coarse seasalt. This creates the unusual starburst/floral effect.

The flowers are stamped as follows:

1. Blushing Bride

2. Calypso Coral stamped off

3. Calypso Coral

The leaves are stamped as follows:

3.  (yes, I started with 3 - I find it easier) Old Olive stamped off

2.  Old Olive

1. Mossy Meadow

I think that’s all you need to know. 

Picture Perfect Photopolymer Stamp Set [140520] £24.00	Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock [138341] £6.50	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £7.25	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock [133683] £6.50
Watercolor Paper [122959] £4.50	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad [133645] £6.00	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [126953] £6.00	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad [126983] £6.00
Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad [131172] £6.00	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [122934] £3.00	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [100531] £3.00

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Summer Silhouettes with watercolour salt technique

This is another of my watercolour salt backgrounds; one of the nice things about this technique is that you end up with lots of lovely backgrounds which you can use at a later date to create a quick project.
I stamped the sadly soon-to-be-retired Summer Silhouettes on top and embossed some white seeds in white. I kept the card really simple, with some pink spatters on the background, to allow the main panel to remain the focal point. 

Summer Silhouettes Clear Stamp Set [126447] £18.00	Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set [130517] £18.00	Awesomely Artistic Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139950] £18.00	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490] £6.50
Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688] £6.50	Watercolor Paper [122959] £4.50	Jet Black Stazon Ink Pad [101406] £7.25	Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad [101731] £7.25
White Stampin' Emboss Powder [109132] £4.50	Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad [126956] £6.00	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [122934] £3.00	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [119672] £3.00

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Crafty Friday project: watercolouring with salt

This morning’s Crafty Friday class was lovely and relaxing, and we played around with the watercolour salt technique. This is very easy to do but can produce the most stunning results that will make you look like a real artist! This is what we did:

1. Take a piece of watercolour paper
2. Paint all over it with clear water
3. Using ink refills, paint across it roughly with two or more colours
4. While it’s still wet, sprinkle with salt crystals (the sort you put in a salt grinder)
5. Allow to dry thoroughly (you can speed it up with the heat tool)
6. Use as backgrounds for stamping

The effects are interesting and unpredictable; mine has resulted in flower-like images with dark centres; I don’t know where the dark centres came from! 

I stamped on top of mine, then white embossed the flower heads so they stand out. I wanted a very small greeting, so dug out Sprinkles of Life , which was perfect for the job!

And while I’m at it, I’ve already predicted that Sprinkles of Life will retire, but I’d like to add to that prediction and  divine that Summer Silhouettes will also end up on the retiring list. I have no inside info, I promise you, this is a psychic hunch!  We’ll know for sure on 18th April, then you can judge for yourself just how psychic I actually am! 

Summer Silhouettes Clear Stamp Set [126447] £18.00	Sprinkles Of Life Photopolymer Stamp Set [139971] £19.00	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490] £6.50	Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688] £6.50
Watercolor Paper [122959] £4.50	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [100531] £3.00	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [119672] £3.00	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] £5.50
Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad [101731] £7.25	White Stampin' Emboss Powder [109132] £4.50	Heat Tool - Uk Plug [129054] £27.00

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Around the World Blog Hop - Flowering Fields

It’s time for another Around the World Blog Hop, taking you on a tour of the globe without even leaving your seat. During the hop, you’ll visit a blog in each country served by Stampin’ Up!® and see some really beautiful projects by talented demonstrators.  You may have arrived here from the talented Julie Davison’s blog, but if not, don’t worry as there is a full list at the end of this post. 

Our theme this time is “floral” which, despite my brave foray into this area earlier this year, doesn’t really come naturally to me. I’m much more comfortable with leaves and animals. But for this project I dug out my trusty watercolour paper to have a play with an old favourite, the salt technique. 

For this technique, you create a watercolour wash (I used Old Olive and Island Indigo reinkers) and then sprinkle seasalt crystals on top. The salt absorbs the liquid around it, creating unpredictable and beautiful patterns. You must allow the paper to dry completely before brushing off the salt. 

On top of the dried project, I stamped flowers in Stazon and then coloured them using my Wink of Stella brush as a blender pen. Did you know you can do this? You can use the clear Wink of Stella brush pen to pick up ink from your inkpad lids and paint with it. Simply brush Wink of Stella onto scrap paper to clean it off again. So the flowers are beautifully shimmery in real life, although the photo doesn’t do them justice. 

I next stamped in Old Olive around the edges of the tag using one of my new favourite stamp sets, Timeless Textures (which I also stamped on the Whisper White card base). 

I was in full technique mode, so even dug out my heat gun to emboss the greeting. I love the look of white text on black and simply stamping is never enough. 

To make my efforts worthwhile, I made several of these tags which I have saved for future projects....

But now it’s time to head off to the next blog on your tour, which is in the Netherlands. Please check out Miriam’s project and be sure to leave her a comment! And if you lose your way, here’s the full list of blogs taking part. Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your journey!

Marie-Josée Trudel (Canada)http://alapause.blogspot.com 

Alisa Tilsner (Australia) http://www.alisatilsner.com
 

Julie Davison (United States) http://juliedavison.com
 

Helen Read (United Kingdom) http://allthingsstampy.blogspot.com
 

Miriam van Eyden (Netherlands) http://miriam-cardsandscrapping.blogspot.com
 

Kristine McNickle (New Zealand) http://www.creativestamping.co.nz
 

Anke Hämsch (Germany) http://leipzig-stempelt.blogspot.com
 

Liz Goldhawk (Canada) http://lgoldhawk.blogspot.com
 

Cécile Ortiz (France) https://lezardsdecilou.wordpress.com
 

Barbara Meyer (Austria) http://barbaras-kreativ-studio.blogspot.com

Flowering Fields Clear-Mount Stamp Set [141303] £0.00	Timeless Textures Clear-Mount Stamp Set [140517] £18.00	Tin Of Cards Photopolymer Stamp Set [138946] £15.00	Chalk Talk Framelits Die [129983] £22.00	1-1/4" Burlap Ribbon [132140] £7.25
White 1-1/4" (3.2 Cm) Jute Ribbon [137904] £8.25	White Stampin' Emboss Powder [109132] £4.50	Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688] £6.50	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush [141897] £7.25	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490] £6.50
Watercolor Paper [122959] £4.50	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad [131181] £6.00	Tip Top Taupe Classic Stampin' Pad [138325] £6.00	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad [131180] £6.00	Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad [138323] £6.00
Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad [101731] £7.25	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [126953] £6.00	Jet Black Stazon Ink Pad [101406] £7.25	Island Indigo Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [122932] £3.00	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [100531] £3.00

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