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

Summer Snow Queen Mixed Media Canvas

Hi Bloom Friends! It's Lisa with you this fine Monday and I am so thrilled to bring you my project today. I've had a color scheme in my head for quite a while and I've really been wanting to use it on the Summer Bloom Girl Stamp, which is a little ironic....seeing as it's Winter. :)

I knew Summer NEEDED to be a Snow Queen. She NEEDED to be dressed in elegant whites and golds. Her eye is a dazzling glass glitter. Her hair is touched with gorgeous Gold Leaf Mica Flakes. This canvas is texture, glittering golds, shimmering metallics and I wish I could hug it. (Yes, I'm crazy like that.)

There are a few steps involved but here we go!
1. Using a sticky back canvas, prime the canvas using Clear Gesso, so the colors of the watercolors don't alter. Allow to dry.

2. Adhere random pieces of white pieces of tissue paper on top of the sticky back canvas (just enough to cover an are where the stamp will go). Coat will Gel Medium. Go for texture! Allow to dry.

3. Stamp Summer using Distress Paints. These are a water based acrylic paint that are VERY water soluble. Spritz the bottom areas of her hair with water, if desired. Mix different areas prior to stamping for different tones to the paint. (I used Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Tarnished Brass, & Frayed Burlap.) Heat Set.

4. Once dry use watercolor pencils to create shading. I used TWO watercolor pencils for the shading and one for her pupil. That's it! Oh and this is when I did her iris with the glass glitter, too.

5.  After all the shading is done to your satisfaction is when you get to go crazy adding your flowers. This is entirely up to you. The size, the colors, the amount, etc. Since I was going for a white/gold theme that's what I did here.

6. Then start building your background. I used old packaging. I tore some cardboard off of a box then ripped the top layer of paper from it here and there and coated it with white gesso. I also added in some Mica Flakes in Frosted and a tiny sprinkling more of Glass Glitter in Gold Rush.

7. Using the Color Bloom Spray in Gold Foil and the 12 x 12" Bubbles Stencil I gave a 9 x 12" canvas a light coating with the spray. Just enough to have some of the pretty gold shine through. I highlighted some of the circles (or "bubbles") with a gold watercolor pencil and also with a Gold Pan Pastel for extra shine.

8. Prior to adhering everything together I wrapped some Prima Trim around the corrugated cardboard piece and then adhered that to the canvas. Then I attached a small strip of glitter trim to the bottom of the corrugated cardboard and across the trim. Finally, removing the backing and adhering the Snow Queen!

Here are some alternate views:

This photo shows her flowers a little bit better, I think.

It was a little hard for me to take the photos without them looking grey, White is just so hard to photograph!!  But, I just love how this turned out and I hope you'll make your own "Snow Queen" Bloom Girl.

Products Used:

Prima:

Prima Bloom Girl Stamp (Jamie Dougherty Designs):  Summer

Color Bloom Sprays:  Summer Sky, Vintage Metal – Gold Foil

Mica Flakes: Frosted, Gold Leaf

Prima Stencil: 12 x 12” Bubbles

Prima Flowers:

Prima Medley Treasure

Prima Jubilee Christmas Collection 

London Collection – Majesty

Interlude A

Frost Mini Sachet

Prima Trim

Art Basics Soft Matte Gel

Art Basics Gesso, Clear

Other:

Ranger Sticky Backed Canvas

Blick 9 x 12” Canvas Art Panel

Pan Pastel Gold

Ranger Distress Paints: Walnut Stain, Tarnished Brass, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo

White Tissue Paper

Faber –Castell Design Memory Craft® Art GRIP® Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils

Pocket Page Inserts by DT Louise :) :) :)

Hello Hello Fellow Bloom Girl Fans :)

Today I would like to share with you some pocket page inserts that I made using the wonderful Bloom Collection Cling Stamps from the Insta Chic range :)

I have created the 3 main sizes of 6 x 4, 4 x 4, and 3 x 4 inch.

If you click on the images they are linked to product pages for Prima Marketing :) :) :)

so love these Instachic range of Bloom Girl Stamps, they are just the perfect size for the 6 x 4 inserts. I have white heat embossed these using a fine embossing powder, on a painted background.

The Bloom Collection metal flowers are just the perfect touch!!! :)

For these 4 x 4 inserts I have done some fun resist embossing with water colour paints. 

These are the new release Bloom Collection Metal Flowers that I have used to embellish the inserts I so so luuuurve them :) :) :)

Other products that I have used are;

• Cardstock
• Distress paint
• Water colour paint
• Felt tip pen 005
• Adhesive rhinestones
• Embossing ink and powder

Well that is it for me for the moment, I will be back later in the month with more of my creative fun with the Awesome Bloom Collection! :) :) :)

Happy Creating, Louise :) xxx

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.