Brayered Sky Tips

Here are some things I like to remember when doing the brayered sky background. Rather than having a note floating around somehwere, I thought, why not post it on my blog. Now, I didn't come up with all of these ideas by myself. Some I read on SplitcoastStampers, others I discovered while working on my projects. I'm just compiling information for reference.

These are thing I have found work for me and things I'd like to remember to try.

Things that work for me:

• Roll brayer on scrap paper first to lighten the color.
• Use a torn paper mask for each layer - keeps from getting the straight line; it's hard to blend out that straight line.
• Use a sponge to blend colors - using the darker color of the layer above, sponge that color onto the lighter color to blend the "line". Repeat with the next color and layer. I use the yellow sponge from SU!, cut into quarters.
• Let the project "set". It WILL look better in the morning.

Things to try:

• Use glossy paper.
• Use cosmetic sponge. This is a denser sponge than the yellow SU! sponge.
• Use spectrum / rainbow ink pads. I have two on order...if they would just get here!

Some color combos to try:

• Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Not Quite Navy (tried this - love it)
• Barely Banana, Groovy Guava, Ruby Red

I'd really love some more color combos to try!

JLO Sneak Peek #5

I love this! Brayered sky & brayered grass! The tree is from JessicaLynnOriginal's Relaxation Tree for All Seasons, due to be released on Feburary 1. Stamped in Chocolate Chip, colored with Copic Markers. I received Fluffles Leap from Wish RAK. I cut out Fluffles and two piles of leaves. Colored with Copic Markers. The red toned leaves were accented with Sakura Glaze Pen in Clear. Colors for the brayered sky: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Night of Navy. Colors for the brayered grass: Mellow Moss, Garden Green & Handsome Hunter.Tricks used in creating brayered sky - roll on scrap paper first and sponge the lines with the darker color from the layer above.


Stamps: JLO Relaxation Tree for All Seasons, Fluffles Leap
Paper: Paper Trey White, Bravo Burgundy, Night of Navy
Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Night of Navy, Mellow Moss, Garden Green, Handsome Hunter, Black, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Copic Markers, Sponge, Brayer, Sakura Glaze Pen Clear, Xyron
Techniques: Brayered Sky

JLO Sneak Peek #4

This was the very first image I created with JLO's Relaxation Tree for All Seasons. I was not happy with the image I had created. I thought the brayered sky was ugly, the black tree was stark. It sat on my desk for almost a week. It started to look better. I've always said that brayered skies need to "set". Soon, I grabbed the white gel pen & added some snow. Propped it up & looked at it for the next two nights. Last night, I decided to add some expensive white dust bunnies...uhhhh...white fun flock. I used my Martha Stewart Glue Pen to apply the Fun Flock. Then I grabbed the snowflake from the Relaxation Tree for All Seasons set and stamped snowflakes in SU!'s Whisper White Craft. I stamped over that with Palette Glue and dumped the dazzling diamonds.

About two Christmases ago, Dale got me a new coffeepot for Christmas. This one has a cone filter...the old one had a basket filter. So I have this almost full package of basket filters. I have been using these filters as embossing powder & glitter trays. They work GREAT! I still use the plastic pans for the "dust bunnies".

Back to my project...the main image is mounted on Basic Black. Stamped more snowflakes in Whisper White on the Night of Navy card base.

Brayered sky colors are Going Gray, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Night of Navy. Tree was stamped in Archival Jet Black, colored with Copic 100 Black.

It's very simple...peaceful...


Relaxation Tree for All Seasons is among 10 stamp sets to be released by JessicaLynnOriginals on February 1!

ATV Starter

We've had ATV "issues"...so Dale spend a day or two tuning up our three ATVs. Phil's needed a new carburator, so he bought the parts & took it to a friend to be rebuilt. Mine needed a new battery & spark plug. Dale's needed a starter. Hoo boy, did it need a starter. Back in December, Dale was parking that thing on the front porch (ugh)...so I was going to just take the garbage to the dumpster. Rather than walk, I thought I would ride his ATV. Dang thing wouldn't start. It just sat there making noise. Ugh! So, Dale did some calling, a new starter for his Honda ATV was $300 smackeroonies! Ouch!

Now my husband is not an internet, E-bay, online purchaser at all. Not at all. So he goes to looking on E-bay...they have gobs of Honda Starters. He found the one he wanted

JLO Sneak Peek #3

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I wanted to use the heart from the soon to be released Relaxation Tree for All Seasons.



I think this is cute, whimsical & fun. I especially LOVE the plaid Two Scoops paper with the Garden Green.

I stamped the tree in Chocolate Chip & colored with Copic Markers. Stamped the heart leaves with Real Red Craft Ink and colored with Copics. Most of the hearts are outlined using the Sakura Clear Glaze Pen (I love that pen!). Using the heart stamp from the Relaxation Tree set, I stamped hearts on Real Red CS using Archival Black and on Pretty in Pink CS using Real Red Craft. The pink hearts were colored in with Sakura Scouffle Pen. It's supposed to be puffy...I didn't get puffy. I don't think I like that pen. I attached those cut out hearts with pop dots.

The sky was sponged with Soft Sky; the grass with Mellow Moss. Drew in the grass sprigs by hand using a YG67. The pile of hearts is from Loads of Love - colored with various Copic Markers.

DP is Basic Grey Two Scoops (yummy paper). Card base is garden green. Card size is 6 x 6.

Stamps: JLO Relaxation Tree for All Seasons, Loads of Love
Paper: Garden Green, Basic Grey Two Scoops, Paper Trey White, Pretty in Pink, Real Red
Ink: Real Red Craft, Archival Jet Black, Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Soft Sky
Accessories: Sponge, Copic Markers, Sakura Scouffle Pink, Sakura Glaze Pen Clear, Pop Dots
Techniques: Sponging

JLO Sneak Peek #2

Here is another sneek peek of the JLO Relaxation Tree for All Seasons. This stamp set plus nine others (ten total) will be released on February 1!

For this project, I used some items I received through the Wish RAK forum on SCS: the prima flowers & the designer paper. I also received the watercolor brush I used for the sky through Wish RAK.

I stamped the tree in Chocolate Chip, colored with Copics, removed some color with the colorless blender pen. Stamped the leaves, colored with Copics. I used my Sakura Glaze Pen in clear (love that thing!) on the leaves. New Spring leaves are shiny! I also used Copics and the glaze pen on the songbird.

The primas were attached with cyrstal effects. I attached clear Dew Drops in the flower centers with crystal effects as well. The flower petals are stiff.

Card base is Soft Sky, the bottom half covered with DP. The main panel is attahced to DP and Cameo Coral. That panel is mounted with pop dots.

The sky is painted with a watercolor pen and Soft Sky. I made my palette by squishing the lid into the pad & picking ink up from the lid.

Here's a close up of the details. You can see the glaze on the leaves - see how shiney they are.







Stamps: JLO Relaxation Tree for All Seasons
Paper: Soft Sky, Cameo Coral, DP
Ink: Soft Sky
Accessories: Clear Dew Drops, Sakura Glaze Pen Clear, Copic Markers, Pop Dots, Watercolor Brush, Crystal Effects
Techniques: Watercolor

JLO Sneak Peek #1

I love this scene. That's me...feeding the cows! The lady, the cows & the sentiment are from MFT's Punny Farm. The barbed wire fence is from Rubbernecker. The tree and the birds are from the soon to be released JessicaLynnOriginal Relaxation Tree for All Seasons. JLO will be releasing 10 sets on February 1!

I stamped the fence first. Masked the fence, then stamped the tree. All images are colored with copics. Check out the cool shading on the lady! I do believe I finally got it! YAY me! I stamped some leaf clusters on another page and cut those out and mounted them with pop dots. This is my "summer" tree. The MFT lady & cows were also stamped on another page and trimmed. I ran two cows through my Xyron. The third is mounted with pop dots. Here is a close up of those details.

The sky is sponged with Soft Sky. The grass with Garden Green & Mellow Moss. The card itself is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 - folded one sheet of Chocolate Chip in half.

Stamps: MFT Punny Farm, JLO Relaxation Tree for All Seasons, Rubbernecker Barbed Wire Fence
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Night of Navy, Paper Trey White
Ink: Soft Sky, Garden Green, Mellow Moss
Accessories: Copic Markers, Sponge, Pop Dots, Eclipse Masking Tape
Techniques: Masking, Sponging

Busy Time

Brrrr! It’s Eski-mooooooo cold in Kentucky this morning.

Looking on the bright side, it is only 7 degrees outside. It was supposed to get down to 4.

It's going to be a busy day! Tonight is the Pack Meeting & we are having our Space Derby. Phil has Hunters’ Education tonight with several of the Boy Scouts. Since my husband & I cannot be two places at once and we’re both needed at the Space Derby, the Scoutmaster is taking Phil to his Hunters’ Education class, while we put on the Space Derby for the Cub Scouts. Phil did really well at last night’s class, according to his dad. It started at 6:30 and went on until 9:30. WOW! Long class. It’s another three hours tonight, four hours Saturday, plus the hands on (shooting) session. They mentioned three ways to fail the class! Haha – (1) no class participation, (2) mishandle firearms or (3) fail the test. They went on to mention the test had multiple choice and true / false type questions. It had 80 questions and you fail if you miss 15 of the questions.

I did not get to make my Cruiseabella card last night. But I did play with my new JLO stamp set. JLO is having a HUGE release – ten stamp sets – on February 1. Each member of the DT is featuring one stamp set – mine is Relaxation Tree for All Seasons. This stamp set has THIRTY stamps. (Yep…I counted them on Wednesday night – thirty stamps!)

I was apprehensive when JessicaLynn shared the news that she selected me for the “tree stamp set”. But - that's what being on a design team is all about - expanding your horizons, accepting challenges and doing the best you can do. I have done several images (for the lack of a better word here), using various techniques (Jessica…calm down…stop jumping up & down…oh my – you just squeezed the breath out of me with that hug!). I made a Halloween tree, a couple of spring trees. Then, last night I hit JACKPOT with my summer tree! OMGosh! It’s gorgeous.

I had a “DUH?!” moment last night. I was attempting to use the “bush stamp”. Then it hit me –it was a set of leaves! OMGosh – what a gorgeous tree it made.

Wanna see pictures?

Tee Hee…soon my friends…soon.

Ellen Hutson Order

My Ellen Hutson order arrived yesterday. I had ordered the At You Spica Clear Copic marker, the Sakura Glaze Pen and the Sakura Soufflé Pen (in pink). I decided I was going to color images during my lunch break today. So this morning I grabbed my Copic Markers, my Basic Grey Two Scoops 6 x 6 Paper Pad, some Cruisabella images (from Wish RAK) and my new pens from Ellen Hutson. I like this…I believe I’ll be stamping much more during my lunch break! My plan is to make a card with the image tonight after work. I already have the DP picked out, the image colored…now to think of a sketch…and a sentiment.

I also ordered some clear Dew Drops from Ellen Hutson. They are soooo precious! I told Phil I ordered diamonds. (Bwahaha – no wonder Em at StampingBella likes to play in the Bella Bauble bins. I’d be playing in them too! But oh gosh – this is just a little cup FULL of Dew Drops. Tiny dew drops…I was afraid I would lose one!)

Won’t they make awesome headlights for Crusiabella’s car?

More Fluffy White Stuff!

We woke up this morning to more of the fluffly white stuff called snow! YAY! We don't get much SNOW in Kentucky! They called off the county schools today. Phil is studying for his orange card...they have the classes beginning on Thursday. So this extra day to study is working out well. He's 13 and a half and he's so excited about this! I waited for daylight before venturing out. The roads were not too bad, as I made good time getting to work this morning.

Stay tuned! I'm expecting the new JLO stamp set anyday now! JessicaLynnOriginal is launching 10 (count 'em - TEN) new sets on February 1...there's sure to be one you love!

White Fluff & Sparkly Chipboard

Thursday - WOW! We woke up to some white fluffy stuff that quickly turned to slush. My little doggie didn’t stay out long this morning! While waiting for the school bus, my son made her an ice ball to play with and to eat. Brrrr! I sure did enjoy the snowfall while it lasted. I waited for daylight before heading out to work. The roads were wet, wet, wet. The road crews did a good job! Schools were delayed an hour today. My son really did enjoy that extra hour at home this morning.

Believe it or not, the sparkly chipboard is looking good. The glimmer mist made the cardboard wet & the layers started separating. Of course, I did saturate the heart with the glimmer mist. Hey – I was trying to get some color on it. I know glimmer mist is not color, but it did make a really nice sheen. I was piddling around some more tonight and I inked the edges in whisper white craft ink…can’t get into the inside of the heart…I’ll think of something. I’m thinking white out might just do the trick.

On another note, I anxiously am awaiting the arrival of my JLO stamps! I’m so excited. Hopefully they will be here by Saturday, so I can PLAY!

Sparkly Chipboard

I am thinking about ordering some of the sticky chipboard letters/numbers and the new chunky glitter from the new SU! Spring/Summer Collection. I did see a sneak peak from the Spring Mini (Inspiration) that shows even more chunky glitter in four other colors!

I’m piddling around tonight. I took a small SU! chipboard heart and traced the shape on a sticky sheet with an X-acto knife. After adhering the sticky sheet to the chipboard & removing the red liner, I dumped some white glitter on the tape. Ugh! Sparkly cardboard color was not what I had in mind. I think I should have put some color on the chipboard before I put the sticky sheet and WHITE glitter on. But I was lazy…I didn’t want to plug up the heat gun to dry the craft ink that I would have had to use to color the chipboard. I wanted to use red glitter, but I had used all my red glitter for another project previously.

In an attempt to add some color, I sprayed the sparkly cardboard with Snowflake Glimmer Mist - this is a blue color. At the moment, it's partially dry, with a slight blue tint. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Since the new sticky chipboard letters come with red liner sticky tape, I’m sure they will be cardboard colored. I’ll try it with colored glitter next time! (wink)

What's a widget?

Something you clean your windshield off with?

BWAHAhaha...

I'm still not sure I know what the heck a widget is, but I do believe I have the subscription feature added to my blog correctly now!

Pocket Hearts

I saw today's Try A New Technique (TLC151) challenge on SCS and WOW! Make a pocket heart. The samples were gorgeous. Of course, I had to go to work...so I could not create then. I did, however, manage to print out the template & cut that out. After a busy day at work, I arrived home, with supper on my mind. We had just brought home a fresh beef on Monday, so I was thinking hamburgers & french fries. It has been a long time since I've fixed hamburger patties. Boy - they were delicious. Jerry, they gentleman who prepared our beef, really knows how to fix hamburger patties. They were the best.

After having a delicious supper of hamburger & french fries, I created my pocket heart card. This was a FUN project.

I pulled out SU!'s retired Loves Me DP. I traced the template & cut it out. After scoring and folding, I grabbed my tool kit and mat pack. I stuck the mat inside the heart & punched a hole. I layered two teal Prima Sprites, a hot pink Prima flower and a pink rhinestone brad from SU!'s Fire Circle collection. I wanted to mat the heart, and was having NO luck trimming out the circle part of the heart. So I grabbed my mega scallop circle punch and punched two Taken with Teal circles and used them to mat the heart. I used SU! Chocolate Satin Ribbon and Close to Cocoa grosgrain ribbon in the lower corner. I used my corner rounder to create the scallop strip at the top. I used my small rectangle punch to punch two holes for the ribbon. One ribbon is a sheer twinkling pink; the second is SU! Pretty in Pink Taffeta. The sheer ribbon is twisted and attached behind the prima with glue dots. I mounted the pocket heart on pop dots.

Here's a close up view.



I love this card. It's too pretty for an envelope!

On another note, the primas were from a Wish RAK exchange, the taffeta ribbon from a SU! Team share and the rhinestone brads were a prize I won for the SU! Team card swap. Each time we meet, we do a card swap & vote for our favorites. It was my first time participating in the swap & I was flattered they chose my Dare 2 B Baroque card as their favorite.

A Double Challenge

I've been wrestling with BillyBootBella. I wished for this image in the SCS Wish RAK forum. My wish was granted. I love this image; however, I just don't feel like I've gotten a decent card made using this image. For this project, I used SC158 - make a kickstand card.


I'm fairly pleased with how this turned out. I used SU's River Rock as a card base, layered Basic Grey Figgy Pudding on SU's Close to Cocoa. The corners were notched with the notch punch. The main image was colored with Copic Markers. The raindrops are from MFT's Rain or Shine and they are stamped in Bashful Blue. The image was trimmed and matted on Soft Sky and Close to Cocoa. On the inside, I used my corner rounder to make scallops on a strip of another pattern from Figgy Pudding. The River Rock double stitched grosgrain I received in a ribbon swap with my local SU Team. I attached the ribbon around the card with sticky strip, but before I adhered the ribbon to the card, I attached a small piece of ribbon. After adhering the larger piece of ribbon to the card, I then tied the small piece into a knot. That seemed to work better for me than to tie the ribbon around the card.

Too much excitement?

Is there such a thing? I'm super excited today! I "attended" my very first MFT Cocktail Party in the SCS Member Forums last night. WHOO! What a ride. Those speed reading classes from Junior High 7th & 8th grades are really handy! I have (correction - had) some birthday money from Mom. I have been saving it since October because I didn't know WHAT to get! So I ordered Punny Farm and It's a Jungle Out There . Happy Birthday to me! Thanks Mom!

In the meantime, Beth from Freckled Fun Designs is creating an awesome blog banner for my new blog. I can't WAIT to see how it all comes together! I "got freckles"! Woo Hoo!

JLO DT Announcement

I've been selected as a member of the first JessicaLynnOriginal Design Team. WOW! I'm very excited about this opportunity. Jessica has added two of my creations using her Punny Invisible Cows to her store's home page.