A Colorful Life Designs - two more for the road!

 

I'm back today with my final projects as a guest designer for A Colorful Life Designs!  I have had such fun - and shared a few ways we can use these wonderful ACLD stencils on our cards!

My last card features that little teaser I mentioned last week: Sea Foam

Here is how I made it the perfect environment for a sleepy seafaring sailor - although how he could sleep through those waves is beyond me:

MFT You Keep me Afloat stamps and dies; 

starburst sentiment strip dies, plus Stitched Scallops - no longer available.

This time, I purposely inked up the stencil on my glass mat, spritzed it with

water and flipped it over on an A2 panel of Neenah 110# cardstock.

Okay, yes, it did warp - but I knew I would be sending it through my die-cutting 

machine after it dried to cut the waves - flattened it out nicely!

ONE more!

Oh Happy Day is a sentiment from The Stamp Market.

A sprinkle of Martha S. punched butterflies, and the centers of my 

groovy flowers are leftovers from an old Dotted die from MFT.

This Groovy Flower Mask brought me right back to the 70's!

Who remembers avocado green? My panel was stenciled in a traditional way,

using Peeled Paint Distress Oxide inks - keeping the center a little less intense.  Then my micron pen went to work, again, to bring out the groovy-ness! 

A splash of black splats, and die-cut with a stitched rectangle, and

it was a happy card completed!

Thank you, A Colorful Life Designs! and my friend Amy for inviting me 

to delve more deeply into the wonderful world of stencils!

I had a blast!

=] Michele 

Dive into A Colorful Life!

 

Hello again!  Are you ready for my next dive into the ocean of stencils from A Colorful Life Designs?  Did you see what I did there?  

ACLD's School of Fish 3x6" stencil jumped right into my boat cart!

Here's my first play - with a quartet of Catherine Pooler inks... and a bit of debossing for some ocean current ...

I'm very sad to say I didn't write down the colors - but please see these

inked up with the colors you love most - fish of any color of the rainbow 

can be found under the sea!  This old cover plate isn't available any longer - but

if I told you it was wood-grain, you might have just the thing in your own stash.

My wonderful die-cut sentiment is from Waffle Flower - called Sentiment Additions combo.

Let's dive in to my next card...

Sentiment from PTI - Ways to Say with Sympathy c. 2017

This beauty was once again the result of rescuing that leftover ink on my stencil[s]... isn't that water-y-broken-china-ink gorgeous??  I'm giving you a little teaser here for the next time... those ocean waves?  More A Colorful Life Designs soon...

=] Michele

A Colorful Life - Guest Designer

My friend Amy Schrock, of Amy's Wares, invited me to have a play with a few gorgeous stencils gifted to me from A Colorful Life Designs - thank you, Mary Kay!  I don't have, or often use 'stand-alone' stencils as the star of my cards.  There are so many mixed media artists I am in awe of!  Amy is one of them!

During the month of April, I will be popping in with cards using these incredible ACLD stencils - my way!  I hope you enjoy them!

First up - Flower Overlay stencil!  From my time spent with the fantastic gals at the CAS Mix Up challenge, I remembered a technique in which we used a micro pen to outline the open spaces of a stencil - it worked a charm on these oh so groovy flowers!  

So simple:  after using primary colors of distress inks through the stencil on a 6x9" piece of watercolor card stock, splashing them with water, I kept the stencil in place I used micro pens to outline the flowers and added a few dots of interest.  Then I found a stamp set to add the floral centers...

Then it was just a matter of finding a fun way of finishing off the cards!

These Mama Elephant word dies, a little tag, and a bit of quilting thread 

did the trick.

Wow, kinda bright for me, right??  Even though I love them - and the fact that I got two cards from each stenciled panel - I thought of another way to add ink... sponged water-coloring!!  This time on regular old Neenah Solor White 110# cardstock!

• It's as simple as smooshing inks, 
• having a little dish of water on hand - not too much water!
• grab a few blending sponges, 
• and dab away until your heart's content!

After allowing it to dry, I used the outline trick again... here's how they turned out...

I know - the sentiment is pretty special, right?  SO true!  

From The Stamp Market Kindness Matters

Oh yeah - those are more my colors! A pen and damp brush and a bit of grey ink were used to

add a bit more interest to the centers of the flowers.

Oldie but goodie Paper Smooches word die!

Thank you ACLD for your generosity - and Amy for the invitation to play!  You can find this 6x9" Flower Overlay stencil HERE at A Colorful Life Designs!

=] Michele