I have collected so many digital images that I just never seem to think about once I store them away in the appropriate folder on my computer. After seeing a recent Instagram post from Kathy Racoosin (@kathyrac) where she colored a gorgeous digital image, I was inspired to go through my stash to find something that I could use on the birthday card that I was making. As you’ll see, I decided to start pretty small, but I’m hoping that it will inspire me to use more digital images in the future.
I started by ink blending my background (4×5 1/4″) using Distress Oxides Broken China, Blueprint Sketch, Faded Jeans and Black Soot. As you can see, I had a slight mishap on the lower part, but I kept going because I figured that I could “hide” it a bit with my dog image. (For some reason, the mishap isn’t so obvious on the real card. Lighting and camera seem to highlight it.) I finished the background adding some water spritzes and some white heat embossed stars using Simon Says Stamp Birthday Celebrations stamp set. The final touch for the background was a few clouds cut from vellum using Ellen Hutson Silver Linings die set. In order to hide the spray adhesive on the clouds, I simply added some white gel pen lines.
On to the stamping and coloring…Using Spectrum Noir paper, I stamped the heart balloon from Concord & 9ths Monster Love stamp set using Gina K Amalgam ink, and I printed the cute dog from Bugaboo Digital Stamps (RPHello). After some very basic coloring, I fussy cut both images and put them aside to dry a bit.
Putting everything together was easy. Using foam squares for some dimension, I adhered the dog and balloon in places that would leave room for the birthday banner. Before adding the banner, I tied and glued the string around the balloon end. While I let that dry, I stamped the greeting using Hero Arts Stamp & Cut Ribbon Messages stamps, but I knew that I wanted to have a portion of the banner to wrap around the balloon string. To do this, I used the partial die cutting technique that Jennifer McGuire has shown many times on her blog. I let the die cut most of the image, but left the left side of the die off the cutting pad. Using my scissors, I added a bit to wrap around the string.
Once the glue was dry on the balloon string, I attached the banner and glued the string to the dog’s paw, and called it done!
Thanks for visiting 🙂
p.s. If you’re not following Kathy on Instagram, you really should. She is so incredibly talented and a genuinely nice person. Also, be sure to check out Bugaboo Digital Stamps to see some adorable images.
For this card, I paired it with the Hero Arts Wave Background stamp. First, I cut my piece of Bristol paper using the Memory Box Stitched Rectangles Layers die. I’ve had the My Favorite Things Rectangle Peek a Boo Window die for forever, but I’ve never used it; so I thought I’d give it a try here. Once that was done, I placed it on my vertical, top folding A2 card base and lightly traced the window. After taping off the area around the penciled window, I white heat embossed that open space using my Hero Arts Waves Background stamp. The coloring was very simple. I used some Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers in various blue shades to create my ocean.
This card uses two watercoloring techniques. The background was made using, as Kristina Werner says, ink smooshing. I added Worn Lipstick, Fossilized Amber and Abandoned Coral on a piece of acrylic and spritzed it with water. I grabbed a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper and placed it upside down on top of the inks and smooshed it around—Voila…an ink smooshed background!
I came across the Northwoods Rubber Stamp Solid Fern wood stamp when I was cleaning out some of my craft things the other day. I have never used this stamp (it’s probably been in my stash for at least 5 years or so). I decided to give it a try.
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