Bloom Girl Gardenia with Easy Background Tutorial

Hi my sweet Bloom friends. It's Lisa here with you today and I have a little tutorial today on how to create a fun background for any card, but ESPECIALLY your Bloom Girls (and upcoming Guys, too.) Here's the card I created using the technique:

1. Start off with watercolor paper. Jamie has awesome watercolor paper!! Did you know? She does! It's a beautiful, thick paper that is A4 sized. Just trim a sheet to 4 ¼ x 5 ½" and place Frog tape or other low-tack painter's tape around the edges.

2.  Using an acrylic block (mine was 1 x 7" long) rub a Gelato® completely all over one side. Spritz with water and then press (rather hard) onto the paper. Before removing the block, lift the block in different areas. This will give you a more watercolored look - more random.

3. Repeat the process for each color you wish to use. It's completely fine to overlap the colors and to let them drip into each other. (For this card 4 Gelatos® worked perfectly.)

4.  Prior to doing any stamping with your Bloom Girl it is important to allow the background to either air dry or heat set. **Do not get too close with your heat tool if you use a high temp embossing gun.**

5. I do stenciling and spraying PRIOR to stamping, which may seem weird. But I do this so I don't get too hung up on placement, It just feels more organic to me that way. I hope that makes sense. The times that I don't do it this way is when I'm using a texture paste or things that require layers.

6. Stamp Bloom Girl Gardenia using an Archival Ink. (I used Coffee by Ranger.)

(You can see the stencil over her facial area.)

7. Once the Bloom Girl is stamped the rest is really up to you and how you want to embellish and finish it up -- what you want to add to make it YOUR OWN. :) You can see my close ups to see what I added (and the product list, too.)

Another angle:

If you're more of a visual learner (some of us are - myself included!), here is a video I created with this same technique for Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft®.

I hope that you enjoyed this fun technique and will use it on one (if not MANY) of your next Bloom Girls!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Products Used:
Prima:
Prima Bloom Girl Stamp (Jamie Dougherty Designs):  Gardenia – 980207
Jamie Dougherty A4 Watercolor Paper - 980269
Color Bloom Sprays:  Summer Sky, Vintage Metal – Gold Foil - 573805
Mica Flakes: Frosted, Gold Leaf – 961756
Glass Glitter, Gold Rush - 961657
Prima Stencil:  Checker - 960179
Prima Flowers:
*Prima Sugar Bloom Collection - 549053
*Talia Tempting - 574680
*Cartographer Adventurer – 574529
Bloom Typewriter Keys - 573065


Other:
Ranger Archival Ink – Coffee
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft®:  PITT Artist Pen (Dark Sepia – 125), Gel Medium, Gelatos® (Iced Coffee, Cinnamon, Iced Chai, Gold Champagne), Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencils (Medium Flesh – 151, Cobalt Green – 156, Raw Umber – 180, Burnt Siena – 283).
My Favorite Things – Hot Fudge Cardstock

Christmas Inspiration with Sophie Bloom Girl and Lisa

Hi everyone! It's Lisa back on the blog with you today. I'm sharing a card with you today that (of course is HERE), but will also be seen over on Prima's blog as with rest of the Bloom Girls DT. We're participating in their 12 Days of Christmas Cards this week so this card and so many of the rest of the team have cards to share.

I used Jamie's gorgeous Sophie Bloom Girl stamp as my focal point here. But, when I was going through my stash I realized I didn't have much in the way of Christmas paper!! Such a travesty, I know. However, I do have papers from Prima that could serve double duty and once I pulled those out I knew exactly what to do. Yay!!

The paper collection that I used is Free Spirit. And I colored Sophie with Copic markers (I use the term loosely since I'm still really bad at it...Lol!!). Then I knew I just wanted everything else to be in shades of gold, cream, white, that kind of thing. And it really makes the reds and greens "pop" more. It's always fun going through all my flowers and embellishments finding just the right things. :)

Here's another angle:

In this photo you can really see all of that dimension! It's a heavy card. And lots of pretty shimmeriness on it. (I think I just made up a word.)

And a little close-up of her pretty face. (I even gave her a teeny tiny earring!)

I hope you enjoyed my card today, but more so I hope that you got inspired by what you can do from NON-traditional Christmas elements. There isn't a Christmas sentiment on this card and yet, I think, it still looks very Christmas-y. Don't you?

Don't forget to check out the Prima blog for ALL of the Bloom Girls awesome creations! You are sure to be inspired.

Have a wonderful week!

Watercolor Bloom Girl Window with Lisa

Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday. It's Lisa with you again. (Didn't I just see you all?) And I have a very, very cool card to share with you today. I am in LOVE with how this turned out. I started to make something else twice, and then I saw THESE resin pieces and a little light clicked in my head and I knew exactly what to make.

Here she is:

My heart goes pitter-patter when I look at her. I wish you all could see her in real life.

Here's what I did to create this beauty. I stamped the Karlie Bloom Girl in Archival Black Ink on watercolor paper. Then I took the resin frame and figured out what part of her I wanted to be "in color" and traced inside of it.. Everything within the frame would be color, and everything outside the frame would be black and white.

Now, I could have taken a very easy road and just colored the inside of the frame and left the outside as is, but it would have looked very flat. So, the entire thing IS watercolored. ALL OF IT. Yes, there are many shades of greys, blacks, whites, silvers, etc. It was challenging, but fun. Especially her face! I added bits of Wink of Stella in clear to really make it shimmer and shine. Oh! I also added some enamel accents in black and white in a few areas, as well. It's very dimensional.

This card was so easy to make. Here is my very short supply list if you want to make one for yourself:

a) Karlie Bloom Girl Stamp
b) Watercolor Pencils
c) Resin Frame
d) Watercolor paper
e) Colored Cardstock
f) Foam Adhesive
g) Strong glue for adhering frame
h) Water & Paintbrush
i) Standard adhesive
j) Wink of Stella Pen
k) Black & White Enamel Accents

That's IT!! Anything else that you add is up to you. You certainly don't even need the last two on the list. I hope that you enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing all of your creations on the Bloom Girl Creative Group on Facebook.

Just Breathe Tag with DT Lisa

Hi Bloomies! ;) It's Lisa with you today and I decided to spread my wings a little and do something I hardly ever, ever, EVERRRRR do: play with Copics. In fact, not too long ago I sold almost all of mine. I have about 25 or so left. So, this will be far from perfect, but I did have fun and I got a LOT of help from my Design Team mate Mindy (thanks sweets!).

I really wanted to NOT make a canvas or a card, so that's why I chose to make a tag. And tags are so fun to make. They can be so many sizes! This one is large at 4 1/8 x 8 1/2 and very 3-dimensional. It can be given as a gift on it's own or hung ON a gift. I just love tags. When was the last time YOU made a tag?

Here are some close-ups of my pretty Bloom Girl Sharon Tag:

I don't pretend to be an expert at Copics. I'm not. But, I sure had fun playing with them and I may break them out again. Who knows? And those of you who know how to use them and use them well? Have my FULL respect. They are not easy to master. Or even play with...ha! But I do hope you enjoyed my tag anyway.

Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday. :)