Tea Together

Hello, friends!  How was your weekend?  Yesterday I suggested an activity that is not the norm for me - hiking.  Hiking = bugs swarming my head, sticky heat, and itchy plants.  Nothing about that is fun.  But I didn't want to be boring, so asked my family if they wanted to go for a hike.  Emma and Brian said yes; Alaina and Caitlin think like me and, therefore, said no.  So it was just Emma, Brian, and I that trekked through the woods.  

Surprise!  I enjoyed it!  It was hot but the trees kept it shaded and bearable.  The bugs were almost non-existent.  And it was nice to have exclusive time with our oldest.  It was like the first 22 months of her life, when it was just the 3 of us before the sisters began arriving.  Only now she's 19 and has a much more expanded vocabulary.  And I didn't have to carry her.  Instead, she had to carry me!  

Life is full of sweet, simple moments, isn't it?  A cup of tea is a sweet, simple moment, just like a hike with the husband and oldest girl.  This Tea Together stamp set and Tea Time Dies are two retiring items I've adored!  The images are classics and, when paired with the gingham pattern in the 6"x6" DSP packs, remind me of my grandma's kitchen.

I have the card recipe at the end of this post (plus there's another Mystery Stamping Hour this Friday!).  But notice the watercolored rose.  I stamped both the tea pot and flower on Shimmery White Cardstock, which is great for watercoloring.  I used Mint Macaron and Lovely Lipstick Stampin' Write Markers to color directly on the red rubber of the rose stamp, huffed on it to re-wet the ink, then stamped it on the paper.  Because the marker ink is water-based, I was able to use an Aqua Painter to blend out the ink.  Going over the stamped image with the wet brush caused the ink to bleed just enough to create a watercolor look.  It's a very simple technique so give it a try!

Card Recipe to make this:

• Lovely Lipstick cardstock - 8-1/2" x 5-1/2", folded in half at 4-1/4"
• Shimmery White cardstock - to stamp and die-cut teapot and rose images
• Very Vanilla cardstock - to stamp and die-cut sentiment
• Tea Time stamp set 
• Tea Together Dies (discounted down to $8.60 from $21)
• Perennial Essence Designer Series Paper - 3" x 4" (my card uses Lily Pad Impressions, a retired 2020 Sale-A-Bration item, but Perennial Essence has the same look)
• 6"x6" Designer Series Paper - 2" x 4"; scrap to die-cut 
• Stitched Nested Labels Dies
• Mint Macaron Textile Ribbon
• Basic Pearls Jewels
• 2018-2020 In Color Stampin' Write Markers (lovely Lipstick)
• Subtles Stampin' Write Markers (Mint Macaron)
• Highland Heather ink pad - to stamp the sentiment

Join my Facebook group for this free, fun event here!

What is a Mystery Stamping Hour?  Read about it here!

May Reward Code = New In Color Sampler

Use the May Reward Code on orders placed in my store of $50 or more (before shipping and tax) to get a free 2020-2022 New Stampin' Up! In Color sampler!  Sampler packs will be sent out by the end of May PLUS you'll get a new catalog package from me! 

New Catalog Alert: If you have ordered from me since November, you are automatically on my list to receive a new Annual Catalog package next month.  If you'd like one and haven't ordered since November, place an order of any size to be automatically included or email me at nicole@thejoyfulstamper.com.

If you are enjoying The Joyful Stamper site

• Request a free catalog package by emailing me at nicole@thejoyfulstamper.com or with this form.
• Subscribe to The Joyful Stamper Stampin' News, a weekly email that delivers fun, tips, and specials right to you.  Get a free exclusive Stampin' News Subscriber pdf tutorial as a sign-up thank you!
• Shop my store anytime to give yourself the best crafting experience.  Check out the Clearance Rack and Discounted Bundles while you're there.
• You'll love my crafting videos on The Joyful Stamper YouTube channel!  Subscribe while you're there and click the bell so that you always have fresh inspiration.
• Looking for community, a hobby, or a way to make extra money?  My team of My Joyful Stampers has a place for you!  Read more here.

I love stamping and I love Stampin' Up!  Thank you so much for choosing me as your demonstrator.  I am grateful for YOU!

Happy Half Hour Live Stamping Class - Flowering Foils Designer Series Paper

Have you really looked at the Flowering Foils DSP Sale-A-Bration offering?  It's accented with metallic foils of rose gold and silver AND the patterns are perfect for coloring!  The pack has 3 sheets each of 4 patterns, so there's lots with which to play and experiment.  That's what I had a blast doing this past week.  You have to see the results on today's Happy Half Hour Live Stamping Class!

Every Tuesday at 2 PM ET I go live on The Joyful Stamper Facebook Page.  Everyone is invited - those of you curious about stamping, new to stamping, experienced at stamping, or already a Stampin' Up! demonstrator!  Watch the replay below to see different ways of coloring (I was a little nervous to make a watercolor wash live, but I did it)!

You can find the project sheet for today's Happy Half Hour Live projects here.

March Ordering Reward

This is the tutorial bundle to my in-person class that is nearly always full!

• Orders between $15 and $149 (before shipping and tax) placed in March 2020 with Nicole Steele through my store will receive by email my March Class Tutorial.   
• You must use the Reward Code JSPSUZYB.  Click here to see where to type in the Reward Code.  
• If your order is over $150, do not use the Reward Code (you'll want to use the Stampin' Rewards yourself!) but you will still get the March Class Tutorial. 

If you are enjoying The Joyful Stamper site

• Want a catalog and don't already work with a demonstrator you love?  Request a free catalog package by emailing me at nicole@thejoyfulstamper.com or via this form.
• Never miss a beat in the stamping world - subscribe to The Joyful Stamper Stampin' News, a weekly email that specially delivers fun, tips, and specials right to you.  Sign up and get a free exclusive Stampin' News Subscriber pdf tutorial as a thank you!
• Stamping is more fun with pretty products you can count on.  Shop my store anytime to give yourself the best crafting experience.
• You'll love my crafting videos on The Joyful Stamper YouTube channel!  Subscribe while you're there and click the bell so that you always have fresh inspiration.
• Looking for community, a hobby, or a way to make extra money?  My team of My Joyful Stampers has a place for you (and the Starter Kit is the especially ULTIMATE bargain right now)!  Read more here.

I love stamping and I love Stampin' Up!  Thank you so much for choosing me as your demonstrator.  I am grateful for YOU!

Tissue Paper Watercoloring Technique

I'm a HUGE fan of the Splitcoaststampers site (SCS for short) and their quarterly themed stamping events called Virtual Stamp Nights.  On a specified Friday night and all day Saturday, hourly challenges are posted and we have one hour to create a project that meets the challenge requirements.  I love it because of the adrenaline rush, of the freedom from overthinking, and the pretty sweet stack of cards I have at the end of the event.  

The most recent one (Floralpalooza) had a Tissue Paper Watercoloring challenge.  I'd never tried that before so I dove in.  I cut about 10 5"x7" pieces of white tissue paper, pulled out some ink pad combinations and a Stampin' Spritzer filled with water, my largest clear stamping block (it's what I smooshed my ink pads on), and got to work.  I used my Heat Tool to dry them quickly, then picked my favorites to make into cards.    

These colors of Poppy Parade, Melon Mambo, and Flirty Flamingo were gorgeous when blended together.  They radiated so much energy that I had to use this image and sentiment from Beautiful You.

The sentiment is stamped in Versamark on Poppy Parade cardstock, heat embossed with Black Stampin' Emboss Powder, and mounted on a small rectangle of Basic Black cardstock.  The frame was created by nesting two Stitched Rectangles on a piece of Basic Black cardstock and running them through my die-cutting machine.

I tried what the original tutorial suggested and lightly swiped a Versamark pad across the watercolored tissue paper, after it'd been glue to a piece of Whisper White cardstock (to give it more stability).  I then sprinkled on Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and melted it with my Heat Tool.  The scatter of gold Metallic Pearls adds to the drama and energy of this card plus highlights the color contrasts with the black.

This color combination of Old Olive, Pretty Peacock, and Rich Razzleberry went well with Hold On To Hope.  I added a torn piece of Vellum cardstock to highlight the gold embossed cross.  

I used the large branch image in the set to stamp on the watercolored tissue paper.  I used Old Olive ink to stamp on the Old Olive watercolored sections, Rich Razzleberry in those sections, and Pretty Peacock in those sections.  I love the tone-on-tone look that varies throughout the card!

This ribbon began as the Gold Metallic Edge Ribbon, which is actually Very Vanilla Satin.  However, Stampin' Blends Markers can be used to color this ribbon!  I used the brush tip of a Dark Blackberry Bliss marker.  There's nothing complicated about doing this, either - just swipe the tip along the ribbon and the color flows out effortlessly.  Make sure you have scrap paper underneath the ribbon to catch the ink that comes through the other side.

See the Tissue Paper Watercolor Technique here.

March Ordering Reward

This is the tutorial bundle to my in-person class that is nearly always full!

• Orders between $15 and $149 (before shipping and tax) placed in March 2020 with Nicole Steele through my store will receive by email my March Class Tutorial.   
• You must use the Reward Code JSPSUZYB.  Click here to see where to type in the Reward Code.  
• If your order is over $150, do not use the Reward Code (you'll want to use the Stampin' Rewards yourself!) but you will still get the March Class Tutorial. 

If you are enjoying The Joyful Stamper site

• Want a catalog and don't already work with a demonstrator you love?  Request a free catalog package by emailing me at nicole@thejoyfulstamper.com or via this form.
• Never miss a beat in the stamping world - subscribe to The Joyful Stamper Stampin' News, a weekly email that specially delivers fun, tips, and specials right to you.  Sign up and get a free exclusive Stampin' News Subscriber pdf tutorial as a thank you!
• Join me every Tuesday at 2 PM ET on The Joyful Stamper Faceboook page for my free Happy Half Hour live stamping class.
• You'll love my crafting videos on The Joyful Stamper YouTube channel!  Subscribe while you're there and click the bell so that you always have fresh inspiration.
• Looking for community, a hobby, or a way to make extra money?  My team of My Joyful Stampers has a place for you (and the Starter Kit is the especially ULTIMATE bargain right now)!  Read more here.

I love stamping and I love Stampin' Up!  Thank you so much for choosing me as your demonstrator.  I am grateful for YOU!

Bonus 6th Way To Use Peaceful Poppies Elements

It's Friday!  Fun things happen on Fridays, right?  When my daughters were little, we called it Fun Friday and planned special things for this day.  It didn't necessarily involve going anywhere - we'd make ice cream sundaes for dinner, or play all their favorite board games.  Other times, we'd get movies from our library and Brian would make his "famous" popcorn.  One Christmas, knowing our Fun Friday tradition, my brother and sister-in-law got us a family scrapbook that had a variety of silly activities and fill-ins we could do together.  It gives us lots of laughs now to page through it and see what the girls recorded 12+ years ago!

In the spirit of Fun Friday, I have a *bonus* sixth way to use the Peaceful Poppies Elements.  

I watercolored three of the pieces from the included pre-printed watercolor sheets, using an Aquapainter, and Blackberry Bliss and Old Olive inks.  The white embossed lines resist the applied ink and really stand out from the watercoloring!  

Tip: to watercolor, squeeze a drop of ink from a bottle of re-inker into the lid of an ink pad.  Fill the barrel of an Aqua Painter with water, then squeeze a few drops into the ink pad lid to dilute the ink.  Pick up color with the Aqua Painter and apply to the Elements piece.  I found it easier to watercolor first, then pop out the pieces.  If you are uncomfortable watercoloring, practice on scrap watercolor paper first.  You'll get more comfortable with it and enjoy the process!

I also used a black embossed circle and black embossed banner from the Elements Pack.  The circle highlights and anchors the boquet of flowers while the banner is the perfect spot for my heat embossed sentiment (from Sending You Thoughts).

What I love about the Peaceful Poppies Elements:

• You get 4 paper mediums to work with (colored printed pieces, black embossed, vellum embossed, and watercolor embossed).  The variety gives you many looks for just $6.50!
• You can use them as is (just punch out and adhere) or try techniques on them (like coloring with Stampin' Blends).  Both ways look pretty!
• You can make a card without any stamping at all.  This option is great when stamping somewhere other than your home (like while waiting for a child's practice to be over, or on vacation).  Just add some card bases, smaller pieces of Desiger Series Paper, a spool of ribbon, and adhesive to a plastic bag - instant DIY stamp kit!

Peaceful Poppies Elements

Peaceful Poppies suite

Aqua Painters

Check out more Elements ideas from this week's Live!

Remember, any order of $35 or more (before shipping and tax) receives the project kits to make both cards demo'd during Tuesday's Live!  Use Host Code 349VN7VY and be sure to place your order by Midnight ET tonight!

You can find the project sheet here.

Gather Together and Watercolor Pencils

What an amazing past four days we've had!  I've mentioned our love for the sport of cross country running.  Both our daughters in high school and college had important meets Thursday and Friday and we were fortunate enough to see them.  While the high school girls team did not make it to the state championships, the boys team did so we are heading to Hershey!  Our college-age daughter ran a personal best and held her team position so that she gets to race in the Regionals meet in a few weeks (that is a meet that qualifies people for NCAA Nationals).  It was an exciting couple of days with lots of time outside in the sunshine and cool weather.  It definitely felt and looked like fall.

My card for you today also definitely looks and feels like fall.  I envisioned lots and lots of watercolored pumpkins, so I got out my watercolor pencils and Aquapainter to go along with my Gather Together stamp set.

I wanted a soft, slightly blurred look so I stamped the pumpkins in Pumpkin Pie ink.  Because this ink is dye-based, it will bleed when water is added to it.  After stamping the pumpkins, I used a Pumpkin Pie watercolor pencil to color them.  I like to use a light touch and go in circular motions when using watercolor pencils.  I find this avoids indentations in the paper and coloring lines.  It also makes it easier to get the depth of color I want - it's easier to add color than to take it away!

After coloring the pumpkins, I used a damp Aquapainter to go over them.  The colors of the watercolor pencils and the ink from the stamped images began to soften and blend beautifully!  I used a Dark Soft Suede Stampin' Blend marker to color the pumpkin stems.

Other Gather Together card details:

• The pumpkins were die-cut with the Gathered Leaved dies and adhered using Stampin' Dimensionals.  The dimensionals let me layer and tuck card elements, which I love!
• The leaves were die-cut from Come To Gather DSP, also using the Gathered Leaves dies.
• The wheat bundles were stamped in Crushed Curry ink on Crumb Cake cardstock and cut with Paper Snips.
• The sentiment was stamped in Night of Navy ink on a strip of Crumb Cake cardstock.  The right edge of the strip was folded around the Come To Gather DSP and Champagne Foil layers.
• A strand of Linen Thread was tucked amid the card elements using Glue Dots.

The Gather Together set used for today's card is the one used for my October ordering gift.  Use Host Code GZU4ASKR when you order with me and you'll receive two card kits plus their tutorials as my gift to you (a $10 value).  Shop now and don't forget to add the Host Code if your order is under $150.  If your order is over $150, you''ll still receive the card kits and tutorial PLUS you'll get Stampin' Rewards (free Stampin' Up! product of your choice).

One Layout, One Stamp Set, Three Christmas Cards

My family likes to tease me that I get fixated on things.  I'll find something I'm interested in and jump in head-first, learning everything I can, testing and experimenting and stretching the limits.  If you've been reading my blog faithfully, you'll notice I did that with Halloween and Stampin' Up!'s Monster Bash suite (and my obsession with that is not over yet....next week I'll have a decor piece I made from the Coffin Treat Boxes packaging....there's a peek of it in yesterday's Facebook Live video I posted, around the 8:00 mark).

However, it's now time to jump into other stamp sets and techniques.  Today, you'll see the God's Peace set (page 28 in the Holiday Catalog) used on the same card layout, but colored three different ways.

Coloring with Stampin' Write Markers

While Stampin' Blends alcohol ink markers are great for adding shading and seamlessly blending multiple colors, Stampin' Write Markers (which are dye-based ink) are incredibly easy to use and offer vibrant, rich color.  Each marker has a brush tip and a fine point tip, but I almost always use the brush tip.  I find that tip offers precise placement of the ink and offers a more natural coloring experience.

Another technique I like to use Stampin' Write markers for is to color directly on my stamps, both clear photopolymer and rubber.  For the sentiment above, I used a Garden Green, Real Red, and Crushed Curry marker to color directly on the stamp.  This sentiment actually says, "Sending love and light your way", but I chose to color only the "sending love and light", selectively omitting "your way".  That's two techniques you can do with Stampin' Write Markers!

No-Line Watercoloring

This was my first try at no-line watercoloring.  The idea is to stamp in a very light color of ink so that when the image is watercolored, the lines disappear beneath the watercoloring.  This attempt was not entirely successful, but I'm showing it to you anyways!  I want you to see that it's ok to try new things and that perfection is not necessary.  

I used Sahara Sand ink to stamp the image and it's still slightly visible.  What I would do next time is to stamp it on scratch paper once or twice before committing it to cardstock.  That would lighten the ink sufficiently for it to disappear underneath the watercoloring.  Garden Green, Crushed Curry, and Real Red ink pads with an Aquapainter were used.

Regular Watercoloring 

I used the same supplies as in the previous card but stamped the image in Staz-On Black ink (it's waterproof and won't bleed when water is applied).  Watercoloring is wonderful in that it's a forgiving technique - there can be uncolored areas, or areas where the color goes out of the lines, and it still looks great!  The vibrancy of the color is controlled by how much water is used to paint with.  In this card, I used more water which diluted the intensity of the ink color.

Another thing I did was to brush my damp Aquapainter over my sentiment-stamped Very Vanilla scalloped square (from the Layering Squares die set).  I adore the slightly blurred look it created!

I hope these tips give you the confidence to try coloring by different methods.  My aim is to give you your BEST stamping experience!  If you need any of the supplies to try today's tips and techniques, shop my online store here.  I'm listing below the main components of my cards today to assist you.

God's Peace stamp set

Stampin' Write Markers - Regals 

Aqua Painters

Staz-On Black ink pad

Garden Green ink pad

Real Red ink pad

Crushed Curry ink pad

Sahara Sand ink pad

Toile Tidings Designer Series Paper

Get Behind-The-Scenes with The Joyful Stamper!  Follow me on Facebook for more stamping FUN.

Of course you want this!  Just ask here.

In October only, two Come To Gather card kits with any size order.

My gift to you!

Use Host Code GZU4ASKR (no exceptions, please).  Shop here.

Throwing This Out There for the TGIF Challenge!

I won the Stargazing set from Stampin' Up!'s annual catalog from a challenge my upline had for our team.  I was so excited because this set has been on my wish list!  I LOVE the starry, dreamy images and the fonts of the sentiments.  This is such a great set for graduates and anyone embarking on a new adventure.  When I saw the TGIF sketch challenge for this week, I immediately had an idea using Stargazing.  I am SO close to the TGIF Challenge deadline so I am very quickly putting this out there.  I just made this card, minutes ago!

Here's the TGIF sketch:

The background is watercolored with Flirty Flamingo ink and an Aquapainter, but it didn't turn out as evident as I'd hoped.  That was because I watercolored too big of a piece of watercolor paper and had to tear the edges to make it fit the card.  Boo! 

My process, though, was to use my Aquapainter to liberally apply water to a piece of watercolor paper.  Next, I squeezed a couple drops of Flirty Flamingo ink onto a clear block, then used my Aquapainter to pick up the ink and dab it around the wet watercolor paper.  The water took the ink where it wanted to but I tilted the paper around to control it a tiny bit.  I used a Heat Tool to dry it, since I had just 45 minutes to make my card for this challenge!

Now I have to upload this on the TGIF site!  Thank you so much for stopping by my little place on the Internet today.  I really love writing and sharing!