White Gel Pen

Just Keep Swimming!

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know, these fish look cool, elegant and creepy all at the same time. The color choices have created a neat look, but almost skeletal.  Well, you get the idea, right?

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To get the water color I simply pulled open my drawer of distress inks and grabbed four colors making sure they were dark to light.  I did a wet on wet water color technique to blend the ink together putting dark at the bottom and going up to the lightest color.  I came back in with a brown for the sandy bottom and stamped the stones in the same color.  Having some sunshine at the top peeking in was a great idea, but with my blue choice I got more of an algae look, but it looks good too.

The fish were stamped in black stazon to allow me to water color all around without ruining the image.  I knew I was going to go back with gold, so I didn’t worry about how dark they looked.  Guess I should have.  The sea weed or plant guys were stamped in green tones all around the fish and spritzed with water to soften the images.  The stamp set also came with these cute little bubbles, for the fishies of course.  So they were stamped in the darkest blue I used for the water.  I also used a splatter image from the Touch of Texture stamp set to give the water some dimension.  Even with all the color it looked kind of flat.

Then it was time for the gold guilding flakes.  The second layer of the fish set was stamped in glue and the flakes were pressed over that.  I let it set for just a moment before I started rubbing around with my finger then a bristle brush to remove the excess.  The gold sure does shine.  Different than embossing, but still exciting.  I tried to glue on some googly eyes, but it made the card look too silly, another time for those.  So I just drew some little dot eyes with a white gel pen.  Maybe a bit too creepy, but I left it.

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The sentiment was stamped in versafine black ink on velum cardstock.  While it was still moist I sprinkled iridescent ice powder over the top and heated it in place.  So sparkley and pretty.  I had some fun threads that matched and down they went.  A fun, but interestingly elegant card.  I sure had fun making it though.

Have a creative day!

Moana

You’re How Old?!

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

This was an experiment all the way around.  The only thing I hadn’t used yet was the paper. The color burst powder is some crazy cool stuff, but new to me.  That was an adventure. Well, the brushing of color, adding and removing, stamping, spritzing and general mess making left me with this. I wasn’t quite happy with it, but let it be shared anyway. It is so silly after all.

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I began the adventure with some of the color powder on a pallet, added water and began to apply to the background area.  It was actually very dark purple to start with. The blue came second, and then both were lightened tremendously.  Then I tried tapping bits of powder here and there on the piece and spritzing with water.  A cool, and very different look happened then.  That is where it looks like sprinkles of color.

It ended up making my wording look very muddled and hard to read.  I had to outline the stamping with a pen and chose a brush tip just too wide.  That is why it looks so very wonky. Like I said, I stuck with it.  I painted the adorable little bird and was getting pleased again.  Then I went too far and applied wink of stella to that bird.  The gold wasn’t a problem, it was the white area.  It got onto the stamp lines and instead of stamping over again, because I would have had to use my stamp-a-majig, and I didn’t feel that adventurous.  My mistake, because my pen drawing over the goofed edges really didn’t do the stamp justice at all.  Like I said, mistakes were made, products were experimented with, and I still thought I wouldn’t get judged too much on the final product.

My card base was made with pacific point card stock and layered with basic black. Nothing was layered up, just adhered heavily with fast fuse to keep that paper under control. It really got a proper working over. I do want to try again though.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Beautiful Ride for Newlyweds

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

It may be hard to tell, but there are an absolute ton of colors going on here.  I had a blast working on this set.  When I finally finished I was a bit surprised to see how late it got, but it was worth it for sure.  I love making wedding cards just for special people in your life. This one is no different.

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I worked the colors to create a sunrise look and I think it turned out really nice.  I was having a chocolate craving last night, so I settled for chocolate chip paper.  Not quite delicious, but it still worked out.  That led me to marina mist for the car color. From there everything else just came together.

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I wanted a gift bag to go along with the card to give the gift card something to go in.  I think I will put a tiny selection of rich chocolates around it, wouldn’t you like to get a treat too? Opening gifts can be exhausting for a newlywed couple, so they deserve a sugar boost along the way.

The details in this set are really busy and probably hard to notice.  I think a project like this should look simple even if you know better.  Not everyone knows how much work goes into a tiny work of art like this, but that doesn’t stop me from sharing them.  Just a few more weeks and this card will find its way to the deserving adorable couple.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Beautiful Ride for My Nali Bug

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

This card has been in the planning part of my brain since the spring catalog came out.  I waited to get the set because I thought it would be one more for me than anything else.  I just might turn out to be wrong on that one, but we will see.  I made this one for my oldest daughter, Denali.  Some of my pet names for her are Nali, Bug, and the coziest is My Nali Bug.  That is just what this card is, My Nali Bug.  I shared it with her before this blog went live and she was so cute about it.  How fun is that!

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I simply stamped the car in the lower portion of my water color paper and got the ink out.  I had originally thought to write her name on the car door, but changed to the balloon last minute.  I think I could get lost in this stamp.  How many creative ways have you seen one of these cars painted in the years they have been driving on the roads?  My brain is thinking of ways to make them on this little guy too.  So much fun and never enough time.

Simple layering of my two focal colors, and this card was done.  I enhanced the layering inside the card to give it a bit more color, but that is really it.  I added some wink of stella to the windows and the silver ink areas of the car.  I touched up the rims with a white gel pen.  It wasn’t perfect, but the surface wasn’t ideal for that pen.  The texture of cold press water color paper is my favorite, so there will be some concessions here and there.  Good enough.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Glittering Holidays

~ moanaj ~ 1 Comment

After nearly a two week run of a clean and simple holiday gift set I have been more than ready to make something fabulous.  That is exactly what I did, if that sounds a bit showy, well, just look at it!  I have been planning it all week.

Glittering Holidays

I really just had the flowers in mind and knew they should go on top of a box.  So, to get my brain going, I picked some paper, ink and a stamp and got to work.  The paper alone was just lovely.  I stamped in a way to further elongate the tall box I had in mind.  I really wanted it to be about the flowers.  I did have to use my hot glue gun to keep these guys in order.  After they were assembled I attached them to each other.  The ribbon is threaded between them to hold them on top, so they are not attached otherwise and can be used again.

Glittering Holidays

The box is just scored every two inches for the side measurements and the same for the top and bottom.  Simple there for sure.  I closed the bottom, but just folded the top in place.  I am so going to use this for a wonderful gift, so I needed to get back inside.  Not just for a blog post, nope.

Glittering Holidays

My husband actually designed the card for me.  We chatted while he drove to work and he did a great job with the stamp choices I must say.  I stamped in silver ink and heat embossed in clear to give it an extra shine.  So pretty.  I added flowers with metal rimmed pearls in the centers and added a thin ribbon to finish it off.  The ribbon also helped tie the gift box in as a set.

Glittering Holidays

Have a creative day!

Moana

Lovely Amazing You

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

When you live in a house with teenage girls you get to enjoy all of the fun that goes along with it.  That includes having a healthy obsession over a fun band, One Direction.  My husband bought us concert tickets last fall, as a Christmas gift, and the concert was this last weekend.

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While we were waiting for the show, I studied the stage and, guilty as charged, I started thinking of a card idea.  Well, why not, right?

Lovely Amazing You

I used three different stamp sets to put this together, and I could have done more.  I love how so many sets have these little accent stamps that can be used tons of different ways.

Lovely Amazing You

This comes down to a thank you card that will never be sent, I am sure my daughter will just want to keep it.  It was a blast to be with my girls, watching them totally fan girl over their ‘boys’, and revel in their happiness.  Just like Christmas morning magic for a child, really.

Have a creative day!

Moana