Inside weather

This has been a week to stay inside, as the outdoor temperatures are hot!  This thermometer is on my patio, in the shade.  Needless to say, I didn't spend much time outside.  This is our hottest time of the year here in the southern Nevada desert, so we expect this weather and enjoy being inside.

I have spent a lot of time in my craft room, making cards.  I made the backgrounds with watercolors on watercolor paper.  After spreading very wet blobs of color onto the paper, I placed plastic wrap over it and pressed it down with lots of wrinkles.  Once dry, this gives a variety of results.  I played around with stamps and have found that solid (silhouette style) stamps work the best of this background.

 

I had fun trying to create framing to compliment the in colors.

Wrapped watercolor

As I look for ways to motivate me to make more cards, I enjoy reading the blogs and watching videos by great cardmakers.  I really enjoy Jennifer McGuire's creations.  Recently, this technique inspired me:  Wrapped watercolor
This technique involves placing crinkled plastic wrap over a wet watercolor background.  Results can vary greatly.

My creations look nothing like Jennifer's, but I'll keep trying.  My first card turned out really light and I didn't think it would work, so I tried on with more intense colors.  That one looked unusable.

I managed to add some stamps to create an acceptable card.  However, my darker creations gave me a lot of challenges.

I stamped some storm clouds over the upper section, then a row of palm trees in the lower portion.  I didn't like it at all.  Then, I pulled out my Twinkling H2O watercolors and added some glowing sunny areas to create a sunset.  The sentiment seemed appropriate.  This image doesn't show the real glow, so I took a flash photo to show how shiny it really appears.

In real life, the image is somewhere between these two photos.

Man's birthday card

Once again, I'm out of ideas.  My brother's birthday is coming soon and I couldn't think of a card for him.  I decided to use an idea I used a few month's ago for a man's card.

I embossed the background cardstock with a wood grain embossing folder and added some darker brown ink to the raised part.  Next, I stamped the sentiment onto a wooden business card.  I attached the sign with brads, then added the die cut hammer.  The card has a lot of texture and was fun to make.