Art Impressions make stamps full of whimsy and humor that allow me to create individualized cards that leave the recipient with a smile and a giggle.  To create this set of cards I combined the Art Impressions stamp “stress, chaos, and mayhem” (#4158)With Amy Tangerine watercolor paints by American Crafts Simples Stories, “I Am” collection Glue Dots Adhesives Chameleon Detail Pen

Here are the details on how I created these cards.

1. Watercolor your lady. Stamp the ‘tired’ lady on watercolor paper with permanent ink. This prevents the ink from bleeding when you wet the paper and add paint. I used Amy Tangerine’s watercolor set to paint my ladies. It has a good assortment of colors that can be mixed to create even more colors.
2. To achieve the graduated watercolor effect I used the wet-on-wet technique. I fill in an area (like the pants) with a thin layer of water. Then I add wet paint. I add the paint color to the areas that would be darker due to shading.For example along the top of the pants and where the two legs touch.  Because I added a thin layer of water, the paint will bleed out and get lighter in intensity.
3. Once the paper is dry I went back in with a watery purple to add a second layer of shading.
4. When totally dry take the Chameleon Detail pen and trace the black lines, this will help the image to pop.

5. Build card bases using Simple Stories paper.
6. Position your ladies so that they fit into the paper.
7. Add Simple Stories embellishments
8. Stamp and add the sentiment. For this card, I cut out tags from the Simple Stories collection and one from vellum. The words on the background paper added more subtle humor to the card. I used the Sizzix die set to cut my tags. I stamped the Art Impressions sentiment and then cut out each word separately and adhered to the card using Glue Dots Micro Dots. For this card I fussy cut around the flower to tuck the lady behind the flower and incorporate her into the background. The background on the card was made by simply sticking all the Simple Stories square stickers on the card base. After adding my lady to the card stock I simply took the Chameleon Detail pen to add a border.

Happy Friday everyone!

To see more of Kerry Engel’s work follow her on INSTAGRAM – Click Here