Spring brings flowers!

April 1 brings a new monthly challenge of ANYTHING GOES AND INCLUDE A HANDMADE BOW at Craft-Dee BowZ.  I've chosen to do something different than my usual 'coloring' and have taken out my old faithful rubber stamps from the early 1990's by Art Impressions and my Tombo watercolor markers. I've stored these markers for 15 years in a plastic container with their sketch tips down and every single one I picked up still worked!

I colored each rubber stamp with a watercolor marker and then stamped it. Sometimes I'd stamp more than once to get 'generations' of stamping. After I finished stamping, I took a small watercolor brush and would 'paint' some areas with water so the colors would bleed. Although I didn't learn my technique on-line, since those were the days we all took classes at our local stamp shops, you can see the technique here.  I saw kits by Art Impressions at the latest convention in Mesa, Arizona where they sell an unmounted rubber stamp and also 2-3 small greenery or flowery stamps together to make a project. In the 90's, each stamp was bought separately so I've collected a varied assortment of stamps to use.

That's a button in the middle of my bow, but I've 'adjusted' it a bit. I didn't have the perfect color that I wanted so I took my Versamark pad and inked the top of the button and sprinkled some purple pearl embossing powder on it and then kept adding more and more embossing powder until it was nice and soft and then I took a watering can charm, cut off the top loop, and pressed it into the hot embossing powder so it became embedded in it. Then I heated it up one more time to be sure that nothing short of an atom bomb could dislodge it. I made this birthday card for my friend, Roxie, who loves different techniques and it has to travel from Arizona to Michigan and I refuse to have someone open up a card and it's falling apart.

And this is my bow. It's a double loop and you can see how pretty it turned out. I'm super happy with my new bow tool by Craft-Dee BowZ.  I was a 'hand' bow maker for years and then when I wanted bows with more than one loop I experimented and tried nails in a piece of wood (BTW even clean nails leave a mark on the ribbon). And then when I got my Craft-Dee BowZ tool and now double and triple loop bows are so easy to make!

I attempted to use my solid papers to make a frame around this watercolor, as if it were matted. I didn't want to over-embellish this, but I had these perfect pearls which I used to continue the "framing" of this picture.

The challenge at Craft-Dee BowZ this month is ANYTHING GOES AND INCLUDE A HANDMADE BOW.  I hope the cards you've seen today at Craft-Dee BowZ by the Design Team have inspired you to add a bow to your project and enter it in our challenge.

                                                                                 Hugs,
                                                                         Gail

This card is entered in the following challenges:
Crafting with an Attitude, Fussy and Fancy, QKR Stampede, Throwback Thursday, Sister Act, Creative Corner, Crafty Calendar, 613 Avenue Create, Come and Get It, Sentimental Sundays, Stamp and Create, The Pink Elephant, Amusing Challenge, Whoopsi Daisy, Crafting from the Heart, Eureka Stamps, Craft Your Passion, Aud Sentiments, Little Miss Muffet, Di's Digi Designs, Simply Create Too, Little Claire's Designs, One Stitch at a Time, Corrosive Challenge, Melonheadz Friends, Not Just Cards, Scrappers Delights, TimbroScrapMania, Art by Miran, Monday Morning Challenge, Natalie and Amy's, Crazy Challenge