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Watercoloring with Brusho Crystals

I love Brusho Crystals, but I don't have the patience to work with them properly 😀

Well, I just don't let them dry in-between colours, and then things turn brown.
Like this first card, I wanted more 'blue sky' effect, maybe a hint of red as a sunset, but I put both colours in at the same time, and then went over with a brush... oh well... it turned reddish brown. But the green part actually turned out really neat, almost like a gate to a different world. The stamp is  from Enjoy Life stamp set, designed by a fellow Stampin'Up! demonstrator Connie Fitzgerald as part of her Million Sales Achiever. Quite an achievement, I must say. And I'm also very happy to say, that I don't see myself reaching that level, so I don't have to worry about designing a stamp set (although I'm pretty sure Stampin'Up! would have someone help me...)

The greeting is cut out of Brusho Crystal coloured paper using Happy Birthday Framelit.

The second card uses the same stamp set 'Enjoy Life' and the background is also made using Brusho Crystals, but this time I kept the colours a bit more separated, and went over sideways with a paintbrush.

Both cards were made using Shimmery White card stock, which can handle watercoloring better than regular Whisper White card stock. I still haven't been able to keep my card bases straight... maybe I need to dry them with heat gun....

Summer holidays are here - just breath!

I thought this was a perfect card for Tom to give out at the end of the school year. Being a teacher (in high school) is tough, so Tom is looking forward to this summer break, and I figured his colleagues must be feeling the same, so they would appreciate this card.

I made few different kind of designs and then made a bunch of the ones I liked best. All are made using Colourful Seasons stamp set and matching framelits. he card base is thick Whisper White card stock on all. And the colours are Early Espresso and Pacific Point.

The first one actually has nothing cut with a framelit and is very simple, single layer card. I stamped the blue square with inked stamp block (didn't add any water, as I wanted a 'grainy' look on this. Then stamped the greeting and the seat frame in Early Espresso and the canvas seat in Pacific Point.

The second version had the same background, but instead of stamping the chair, I cut out a chair from Shimmery White card stock using the adirondack die from the framelit set. This also is a single layer card.

The third card (which was my favourite), Has a watercolour effect brushed using a paint brush and Pacific Point ink (I wetted the Shimmery White card stock base with spritzer bottle before spreading the ink.) This card has two layers, the Shimmery White card is glued on a Whisper White card base. And the chairs are popped up with mini-dimensionals.

Thank You with Flowers

Last week I got one of my flowerbeds back in order, and I guess was inspired by that to create some flower cards.

The first one uses a 'shrub' stamp from 'Enjoy Life' stamp set. I used 4 different colours stamping the image multiple times at the bottom of the Whisper White card stock. The colours were 'Soft Sea Foam', 'Gray Granite', 'Balmy Blue' and 'Petal Pink'. The card base is 'Gray Granite'. I also used the new Petal Pink and Silver Bakers twine.

The second card is made using 'Varied Vases' stamp set and Tropical Escape 6x6 paper. The 'Varied Vases' is also designed by a fellow Stampin'Up! demonstrator Mary Fish, who designed this set as a reward for Million Sales Achiever. The colours used for stamping are 'Berry Burst', 'Soft Sea Foam', 'Balmy Blue' and... oh well.. one of the pinks... I think Powder Pink or Blushing Bride... Cannot remember and didn't write it down. the flowers are then coloured using Blender Pen and matching ink, to create a more subtle look.

cherry blossoms blooming

well... at least in these cards, as the real cherry blossoms have bloomed awhile ago.

My craft room was overtaken by a scrapbook project, which I wanted to get out of the way before staring to make any cards. Making cards takes so much less space! and is much faster too!
I believe I worked on that scrapbook for couple of weeks, then again, I created it from scratch, pages, covers etc, so that took most of the time. 

But now my desk is taken over by card making. Well, I had to create 14 cards for Tom to give out at the end of the school year and then made few cards myself.

So back to the cherry blossoms....

I have had this Colourful Seasons stamp set for almost a year now, but haven't really gotten to use it a lot. I did make some fall cards and few Christmas cards, but mainly using the matching framelits. Always wanted to make a cherry blossom card - and finally I did!
(I actually still have some cherry blossoms left, so there will be few more cards coming...)



The first card was made using Berry Burst (2018-2019 in colour) and Early Espresso. I also added some pearls on the flowers.

The second card was made using Blushing Bride and Early Espresso. I think I personally like this one better. Well the first one is just a little bit too dark for cherry blossoms. The leftover blossoms I have are Flirty Flamingo and uninked white, so it will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Renovating my old dollhouse

This is not my dollhouse, but mine was exactly like this!

So I shipped my old dollhouse to Canada few years back. Took it apart, removed some old the previous renovation wallpapers (that I did as a teenager in the 80's).

It has stayed in the shipping package since then. Now that my niece is coming for a visit in few weeks time, I had to get the dollhouse back together.


So I sanded all the pieces and removed any leftover glue or wallpaper and then painted the walls. One of the upstairs room got a copper metallic paint (I used Fusion Mineral Paint as my paint). The other upstairs room is Sterling (light gray)
Downstairs backwall is Inglenook.



Two of the dividing walls got wallpaper (just some scrapbooking paper) on one side. I left one of the dividing walls out, got more of an open plan downstairs. 

I also added one window in the small downstairs room. That was designed as a washroom, but since I no longer have any bathroom pieces (and when I was a kid, my dolls didn't really go to the bathroom...) I figured I'll turn it into a small bedroom.



The floor was made from coffee stir sticks (thinner and narrower than popsicle sticks), which were really easy to cut to size with craft scissors (I used Tim Holtz scissors). I also used the coffee stir sticks as baseboards.

The staircase railing broke on transport, so I removed the piece that had the remnants of the spindles and used a piece of paint stir stick as the railing. It's probably not to 'code' (fairly low), but makes it easier to move the dolls up the stairs ;-)

Finally furnished! Might have to paint the balcony railing....

furniture upcycling projects

So, this spring I finally decided to tackle some of the furniture painting and upcycling projects I have postponed.

KITCHEN ISLAND

I picked up this dresser few years back in our neighbourhood. It was in pretty bad shape, needed some frame work and the top was totally gone.




So I took both sides off, replaced them with new wood, sanded the whole thing, strengthened the structure and painted it all. 


The interior was bright red and I wanted to go white, so it took a good primer and several coats of white paint, but I finally got it there. The doors and the sides have been painted with Fusion Mineral Paint. 

It is still missing a top, as I need to add some bookshelves to the ends to make it double the size. Then it will serve as my kitchen island.

GUEST BEDROOM NIGHT TABLE

The next project was a small nightstand. The surface of it was in pretty bad condition, so I decided to paint it and wanted to try some decoupaging on this piece. The sides had perfect rectangular shapes, that I could fill with paper. Looking it now, I think I should have painted the piece lighter, as the contrast between the decoupage paper and the piece is a bit hard, but this is what it is now.

ENTRYWAY STORAGE BENCH

The third project was an entryway storage bench. We keep our grocery bags in this unit, and it can also be used as a bench (a bit high, but works for taller people).

ENTRYWAY SIDE TABLE FROM A SHELF

Then I made a small entryway side table out of an old white floating shelf. It needed extra support as if you would lean on it, it would have fallen off the wall, so I bought some prefab legs from the hardware store and painted them the same colour as the shelf.

ENTRYWAY SIDE TABLE

I also painted another side table at our entryway (you think one side table would be enough, but we actually have 3 tables and the storage bench in our entryway!!!)

IKEA CHAIR

Then I wanted to test Indian Inlay Stencil. I knew it is a bit finicky, but I didn't want to try this stencil on a major piece of furniture without practising with it first. This was the first piece of stencilling, where I did more than just the top. I found it was tricky to keep the stencil on its place, specially on the narrow legs. So I would next time use a stencil adhesive to keep it down better. I guess I should also work with my patience. I'm always in a rush to get the item ready, so I'm really having hard time waiting for the previous stencilling to dry before tackling the next section.

IKEA chair painted with Fusion Mineral Paint and Indian Inlay Stencil

CRAFT ROOM TABLE TOP

And then I did something for my craft room also. I did an new tabletop out of an old desk top. I painted it with Fusion Mineral Paint and then stencilled a lace pattern on top of it.