"free gift"...

Hello my wonderful friends!

I have been busy working on several tutorials that I will be posting later this week, but I took a little break from them to just have a little fun...  

I fell in love with this stamp (and the others on the set), so I bought the magazine they came with. If you are wondering, it is the "free gift" that you get with the Quick Cards Made Easy magazine for July 2013. 

ok... I admit... sometimes I look go to JoAnns and look at their magazine rack, then buy magazines JUST for the "free gift". I've gotten some darn cute stamps that way! LOL!

If you have ever worked with watercolor mediums of any kind, you know that they don't work well on kraft paper. However, if you paint a layer of gesso onto your kraft paper and let it dry, it opens up all sorts of doors for creativity!  That's what I did for this card. 

Once the gesso was dry, I ran it through my Big Shot using Tim Holtz "Fancy Frame" embossing Folder. I then used a sanding block to sand off the gesso from the embossed areas. This left a lovely primed "canvas" that I could stamp and watercolor on. 

My Seasonal Distress Markers came, so of course, I had to give them a work out! Iced Spruce is my new fave for jeans!!! Isn't that the perfect color?

I didn't have the string I wanted, so I scrounged around.. I finally ended up pulling a thread of jute out of a piece of burlap from my fabric stash... It worked beautifully!

Enjoy!

~Kassi

Supplies Used:

Paper: kraft

Ink: Archival, Distress

Stamps: Elizabeth Bell "Quick Cards Exclusive"

Other: Tim Holtz "Fancy Frame" embossing folder, jute, pearls