'Bokeh' water-color cards...

Hello! It's Monika here today, bringing you couple of colorful cards. I am absolutely smitten with water color techniques these days, especially with the 'Bokeh' technique. HERE is a great video on how to do one of the versions. 

On my first card, I used bold Fall colors:

I used yellow, orange and crimson water-colors (any type of inexpensive water color set will work) on the background. The secret is to use water color paper! Just like in the video, I created my own  circle template out of window sheet. I die-cut the circles using my Spellbinders dies. 
The heat embossed greeting is from So Thankful clear stamp set. The leaf was die-cut with one of the dies from Season of Change die set.

The second card is just as bold, but with different colors (you might have seen this card on Split Coast Stampers): 

Here, I used yellow, blue and green colors. The sunflower and greetings came from Prim Blessings clear stamp set. The leaves were die-cut with one of the dies from Small Leaves die set.

I hope I have inspired you to try this fun technique or just make something fun today...

Thanks for stopping by,

Monika

Season of Change

Hello! It's Monika here today, bringing you a Fall card. It was time to pull out my Fall images and dies this weekend. I needed to change up my theme a bit, and give me butterflies a break! :o)

I love using vellum, so I decided to show you couple of different ways you could dress up your card with it.

I used it on the background to tone the bright color down, plus to give a nice texture to it by dry embossing it. It has such a neat effect when you 'alter' the vellum that way. Depending on the thickness of the vellum paper, it might rip a little bit, but sometimes I don't even mind that... just adds to the texture.

I also used it on the leaf. I die-cut couple of leaves with Season of Change Leaf die out of vellum and white card stock. Then I stamped the leaf image from Season of Change clear stamp set, with 2 different colors on the vellum piece. (Make sure you let the ink dry!). Next I sponged and curled the edges. The white leaf was also sponged on the edges. Then I just glued the 2 pieces together , using adhesive only in the middle.

 I used Grunge Borders clear stamps set on the background. The greeting is from Autumn Collage clear stamp set.

To embellish my card, I used brads (also to hold the vellum in place), buttons, ribbon, twine, and cheese cloths.

Thanks for stopping by,

Monika

Clean and Simple with Sweet 'n Sassy

Hello! It's Monika here today, bringing you Clean and Simple (CAS). I'm known for my messy/distressed style, but I always admire simple cards... and sometimes, LESS is more! So I set out to play around and come up with some CAS designs.

I decided to use the new Grunge Border clear stamp set as my base set...

For my first card, I used Kraft paper, and just added similar hues and white. The images are from Vintage Postcard, Thinking of You , and New Beginnings along with New Beginnings Butterfly die. The butterfly is die-cut out of vellum, stamped with VersaMark and embossed with white embossing powder (something you've seen me do over and over-and I can never get tired of the soft look). 

On my second card, I used bright colors with the awesome chevron image. (You might have seen this card on SplitCoast Stampers. I made if for one of the challenges at our last release party.) This was super easy to make, and you can change the colors to work for the occasion. The quote is from Kindness clear stamp set.

On my last card, I used the negative image of a die, Season of Change Leaf. I stamped the white base card with the wood grain image. You can also just stamp a piece of white card stock, and tuck it behind the die-cut image. The quote is from the new Autumn Collage clear stamp set.

Hope we will see some of your CAS creations.

Thanks for stopping by,
Monika