Sandscapes

You can make a nautical themed card without buying anything! Most people have balloons and white rice in their homes and that's what you'll need to do this project. Fill a balloon with about 1/2 to 3/4 C of rice (use a funnel) and tie it off without adding any air to it. Then gather:

4 1/4" x 3" piece of sand colored paper
Sand colored Ink (I used SU So Saffrom )
Rice filled Balloon


1. Squeeze the balloon to stretch the rubber and then ink it up on the ink pad. (The ink will come off with a Stampin' Scrub & Stampin' Mist so that it can be reused indeffinately.)


2. Stamp the inked balloon onto the paper, reinking every or every-other time you stamp. Cover the paper completely.


3. Cut the paper so that the 3" side becomes two pieces, each 1 1/2" x 4 1/4".


4. Tear the pieces across the top so that they have one rough edge. Make them curve slightly so that they have a natural roll to them. Stack them so that the bottom of the piece in back is hidden. Adhere to your card or scrapbook page.


To see how to watercolor the sea creatures on this card read the tutorial Watercoloring With Blender Pens.

Watercoloring With Blender Pens

This is really so easy that I can't believe I'm posting it. But, for those of you who don't even know what a Blender Pen is it may be eye opening! I'll show you the technique of watercoloring with a blender pen and then if you want to see the other technique on this card you'll need to read the tutorial Sandscapes. You'll need:

Blender Pens (aval in the Stampin' Up catalogue)
Stampin' Pastels
Stamped Line-art Image


1. Touch the tip of a blender pen to the desired pastel. If its a light color, you may need to slide the tip across the pastel to get more color. If its a darker color, just a touch should be good. You can always test on scrap paper first if you need to.


2. Start coloring the image. Don't use a whole lot of pressure, just go easy and color as if it were a marker. When the color fades out, go back to the pastels and reload the blender pen.


3. I chose to cut mine out because it was needed on the sandscape, but, most likely your image will be complete when the coloring is done.

Watercoloring With An Aqua Painter

I love the look of watercolor! It's such a free and flowing style, and it can look bohemian or elegant. There are quite a few different ways to watercolor, believe it or not, and I'm going to try to highlight a few different ones as I post tutorials in the future. For today's you need to gather:

Watercolor Paper
Aqua Painter (A paintbrush of sorts that holds its own water; aval in the SU catalogue)
Various Ink Pads
StazOn Ink (for the main image)
A Stamp (with an outline-stlye image that can be colored)


1. Stamp your image on the watercolor paper in StazOn Ink. Remember to immediately clean the stamp with StazOn Cleaner to prevent staining.


2. Turn an inkpad upside down and squeeze gently to pool some ink in the lid. This will be your palette once the pad is opened.


3. It doesn't take very much ink for this to work. Dip your brush tip into the pool and swirl to load the brush. Color the image as you wish, adding colors until completed. We're using StazOn ink because the color won't bleed when it meets with the dampness of the brush.




4. Add the image to your project for a little touch of art!

Also see the tutorial on Customize Ribbon to Match Your Project to see how to color the ribbon on this card.

Customize Ribbon to Match Your Project

Here's a great way to custom-color your ribbon to match any project! It's really quick and super easy to do. There are a few different ways to color your ribbon; this is the least messy one. Others include reinkers, ink pads, heat tools....yadda, yadda, yadda. This one can go from start to finished on your project in about 5 minutes. You'll need:

Pastels (Mine are SU Stampin' Pastels)
Sponge Dauber
A length of Grosgrain Ribbon in a nuetral color (I used cream, but white is an option)
Spray acrylic sealer


1. Load up your sponge dauber with pastel color. You'll see how much is needed as you go.


2. Liberally apply the color to the ribbon, using a side-to-side and up-and-down motion to be sure it gets good coverage. If it doesn't get even coverage it will look splotchy.


3. You may choose to color the opposite side also. I used a slightly different shade in the same color family so that once my bow was tied it would have the depth of two colors.


4. Blow off any excess pastel dust and take the ribbon outside to spray it. Just a quick spray (not at close range) to coat it will be enough. The ribbon will have a bit of stifffness to it now but will still be pliable. Let dry for about 60 seconds and tie it onto your project! (If you sprayed too much you'll have to let it dry for longer before using it.)

To see the rest of this card being made, look for the tutorial Watercoloring With An Aqua Painter.