An Ode to Hollyhocks - Inkon3 Blog Hop & Giveaway

Are you a gardener?

One of the many things I love about Santa Fe is the flowers in the spring.

To have really beautiful flowers like they do there, the soil temperature has to drop at night, which ours never does. (Dropping down to 90 degrees doesn't really count).

This spring when we went, the hollyhocks were blooming in profusion - that is one of my favorite flowers, but I have to visit them in other states, so I did.

They come in all different colors, and they actually grow fairly tall and are a pretty sturdy plant - they were springing up out of teeny cracks in the sidewalks there and it was just a joy to see.

So of course I had to have this new hollyhock stamp! It's a nice size for watercolor, so I used my Daniel Smith and some Fadeout ink to bring it to life. (Colors used: Quinacridone Rose, Quinacridone Magenta, Burnt Umber, Carbazole Violet, Permanent Yellow Deep, Raw Sienna,  Green Gold)

Now, I did cheat a bit on the flower centers and stray from the artwork a bit - I just kept mine very flat and simple.

I added the most detail to the large flower in the center, and left the others a little lighter and less detailed just to draw your eye there. I kept the colors pretty limited, which I like to do, and I used the small sentiment from the hollyhock stamp set in black in the corner.

Hollyhocks 4x6 Clear Stamps [ INK ] Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink [ INK ] Blackout Waterproof Detail Ink [ INK ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors [ BLIC ] Escoda Versatil Brushes [ BLIC ] Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. Cold Press... [ AMZUS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSW | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | SBC ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | ELH | CST | ART | SBC ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Multipurpose Liquid Glue by Stampin' Up! [ SUP ] Nesting Porcelain Bowls - BLICK art... [ BLIC ] Fabriano Extra White Cold Press... [ BLIC ] Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... [ AMZUS ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... [ SSS | ART | BLIC ] Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue, 0.88... [ ELH ] Ink Off Cloth [ INK ] Ink Off Stamp Cleaner [ INK ]

Now the cool thing about Fadeout ink is that it was designed to grab that watercolor pigment when you start painting and emphasize the stamped line. Then over time, it fades out completely.

Here's a terrible cell phone photo of how it grabs the paint. See how easy it is to see the lines?

Then it just fades over time.

Pretty cool stuff. She also has a great black hybrid ink for both alcohol and watercolor, AND she has a new cleaner that will remove staining from your stamps, as well as a cute purple cleaning towel. 

Her team is having a blog hop today and invited me to join them to celebrate her new release - how could I say no? Here are the designers in the hop today, and if you comment on each blog in the hop, you'll be entered to win one of two $25 shopping sprees at Inkon3. 

Anthony Macaluso

Cheryl Hoogenstyn Becker

You are Here >> Lydia Fiedler << You are Here

Kristin Courtney

Kelli Cool

Ink on 3

Ilda Dias

Dana Kersey Joy

Courtney Miles

Have fun hollyhoppin'! :)

Loveyameanitbye.

Playing With Paper (Literally) and a Giveaway

There is nothing I love more in the world than watercoloring. It's truly my favorite.

But life just gets crazy most weeks, and sometimes you need an easy way to make a beautiful birthday card.

That way came to me in January, in Phoenix, when I basically melted into a puddle of joy at the Alexandra Renke booth.

This was my introduction to her incredible art, and I literally screamed. Everything she makes is so incredibly beautiful, I kept going back to the booth over and over to stare at her stunning watercolor images on her paper, and on her teeny, delicate dies. Her style is so unlike anything I've seen before that I was just in amazement.

I spoke to her then about possibly doing a hop with the MISTI Design Team and she said yes, at which point I almost fainted dead away.

She curated a package for each of us, and I got to see them all before I mailed them out to the team - everything was so beautiful. I can't wait to see what everyone has done.

But today, I have to use what drew me into her booth. Her breathtaking paper. This paper gives me everything I love on a card without the hours of painting. There's stunning watercolor, and sweet images, and beautiful, soft colors. And all I had to do was die cut it to have a gorgeous card!

First, I cut out the little giraffe from this paper - the little dots are printed on the paper - with my Circle Infinity Dies. I cut another circle from black cardstock for a shadow. Then I layered the Balloon design paper onto the card base. It's hard to see here, but this paper has little splatters of watercolor all in the white space. For that reason, I wanted to cut the sentiment from that too so it would match, so I carefully arranged her beautiful Happy Birthday dies - they are two separate dies, so that made it easier - in the white space of a scrap of the paper and cut the words. I cut another set from black and glued them together, not quite aligned. I glued them down onto the card base and added some Like Magic sequins. The card base is Desert Storm.

It's so fun to have a simple way to make a card that looks just like I watercolored it.

Alexandra Renke Dies, Happy Birthday... [ ELH ] Circle Infinity Dies (H) [ HA | CST ] Alexandra Renke Circus Design Paper... [ AMZUS ] Amazon.com: Alexandra Renke 10.519... [ AMZUS ] A2 Tortilla Recycled Envelopes,... [ PPR ] Kaisercraft - Clear Stamper [ AMZUS ] Alexandra Renke Washi Tape - Circus... [ JGG ] Like Magic Sequin Mix [ N&T | SSS ] Ranger .5 Oz. MINI MULTI MEDIUM MATTE... [ SSS | MFT | ART ] Marvy Uchida JEWEL PICKER Tool 91GRC [ SSS | MFT | ART ] Neenah Environment 100 LB SMOOTH... [ SSS | MFT | CST ] Lawn Fawn BLACK LICORICE Cardstock... [ SSS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSW | HA | SSS | ELH | SBC | MFT ] Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth [ AMZUS ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... [ AMZUS ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ]

Now I had to have a cute envelope for the card, and she also has GORGEOUS washi tape with her art on it. I had a roll of the circus tape which was perfect for my sweet giraffe card, so I pulled out one of my "ready to rock" envelopes. This is a package of gorgeous recycled envelopes that have little flecks of color in them, and I take a whole package when I get them, and put my #lettersforhenry stamp on them as well as a postage stamp. So I always have 50 envelopes ready for just an address and some washi tape - that little bit of time savings makes me mail more cards!

A2 Tortilla Recycled Envelopes,... [ PPR ] Kaisercraft - Clear Stamper [ AMZUS ] Alexandra Renke Washi Tape - Circus... [ JGG ] Tsukineko VersaFine Clair NOCTURNE... [ SSS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSW | HA | SSS | ELH | SBC | MFT ]

But wait until you see my tip for getting perfect washi tape edges. Where have I been, just ripping my tape into jagged tears like an animal? No more! I found an awesome little tool for my washi that I love. This is one of those things like the MISTI that I feel like buying three of in case something happens! Check out my quick tip video on perfect tape, and you'll see a sneak peek of the project I have on the My Sweet Petunia Blog today. It's a cutie. Watch below or click here to watch in HD on YouTube.

Nifty, eh? I thought you'd like that.

So now - on to the hop!

Alexandra Renke

My Sweet Petunia

Ilina Crouse

Karin Högger

Jeanne Streiff

Manuela Wuhrmann

Kia Gibson-Clapper

Alexandra Seußler

Ceal Pritchett

Diana Weinheimer

Giovana Smith

Andrea Moritz

Stephanie Severin

Corinna Schneider

Susan Wymer

Judith Versluis

Chris Dayton

Brigitte Schwetz

Marci Snee

Frau Pony

Lydia Fiedler

Loveyameanitbye.