Category Archives: Karin

Sketchbook Bouquet

Posted on February 9, 2021 | 4 comments

It may be bitter cold in Kansas today, but I’m dreaming of warmer weather and beautiful blooms. Today Taylored Expressions is releasing the limited edition Field Notes 2 kit with my second stamp set illustrations in the Field Notes series, Sketchbook Blooms!

I had so much fun watercoloring these stems! I paired them here with the Frame in Frame 2 cutting plates for a pretty scallop border.

The Taylored Expressions Field Notes 2 Kit includes:

Sketchbook Bouquet stamp set
Sketchbook Bouquet die and stencil
Splatter Background – hello!! SPLATTER!
Watercolor cardstock
Beautiful watercolor envelopes and printed seals

I love the sentiments we were able to include with this beautiful bouquet. They will work for words of encouragement or sympathy.

May hope fill your heart today.
With heartfelt sympathy.
I’m so sorry.
May many beautiful memories be a comfort.

As an extra element of fun in conjunction with this kit, Taylored Expressions is offering three curated small sets of Karin Brushmarker Pro. I had the fun to select five coordinating colors to include, and my Karin color picks are:

Fire Red
Soft Peach 1
Ochre
Pale Orange
Cool Aqua

There are two other color bundles available for a full field of vibrant blooms. Here, I’ve used my colors here for beautiful pop on the TE 111lb watercolor cardstock.

My favorite way to watercolor is to emboss the images and sentiments with detail gold embossing powder on the TE watercolor cardstock and color from a palette of the colors with a watercolor paintbrush.

It’s so cold outside today, so I’m thrilled with something fun to celebrate. I hope your day includes stamping, hot coffee and beautiful dreams of spring! If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see what the Taylored Expressions team has created with the new Field Notes 2 Kit.

Stay warm, and keep crafting! Thank you for stopping by!

4 Comments

Posted in Field Notes, Karin, Taylored Expressions

a PIG DEAL from Taylored Expressions

Posted on June 30, 2020 | Leave a comment

Something fun from Taylored Expressions today! Love this adorable and limited Farm Fresh kit that releases today. Each kit includes:

Gingham Check Background Stamp
Farm Fresh Stamp Set
Farm Fresh Critters Stamp Set
Farm Fresh Critters Dies
Set the Scene – Grass Stencil Strips
6 Mini Wobble Springs
6 Custom Envelope Seals
6 Colored Envelopes

I had so much fun pairing my cute farm critters with Karin Brushmarker PRO. I have a whole herd of critters to show you today! A few of them are pig deals! 😉

As soon as my kit arrived, I got busy coloring images with Karin Brushmarkers, then the cards came together lickety-split! These quirky chicks are adorable, and I kind of feel like they are crafty chick friends hanging out together, because look at their fun rainbow banner for their chicken coop!

The wobble heads included in your kit make for fun interaction without any extra fuss. LOVE THAT!

For my next card, I paired the cute cow with birthday elements from Big Grumpy Birthday. BOOM! They are scaled perfectly for these critters! I used the kit grass stencil and a cloud stencil with my Taylored Expressions Blender Brushes for a fast and easy background. The whole scene is mounted on a stamped gingham (LOVE!) background panel.

While you are shopping at TE, check out the Karin Brushmarker PRO collection. I am loving these markers for ease of use and beautiful blends. I love the look of these pens and how they feel when you hold them. I love the vibrant ink colors and the see-through barrel. The ink is a liquid technology that allows you to see and use every drop of ink in the barrel. No waste!

The pig deal sentiment cracks me up! I already know exactly who I’m sharing this card with! Chuckling as I think about that because he tells us frequently, in jest, that he’s kinda a big deal. LOL

I’ll be making lots of cards with this set, and I love the addition of the fence! Great little anchor for cute scenes! I paired this scene with the cute sun and cloud dies from Taylored Expressions. All elements are cut from watercolor paper and colored with Karin.

My last card today features the horse. I always wanted a horse when I was growing up, and my grandpa always told us, “nope. horses are hard on fence.” LOL I have no idea if that is true or not, but there was zero percent chance he was adding horses to his herd of Black Angus.

I hope you’ve enjoyed a little tour around the farm today! Please stop by Taylored Expressions and snatch the Farm Fresh Kit up. The kits loaded with fun and in limited supply. I kept thinking about all of the ways I’d mix and match each element in my everyday crafting. So fun!

Picket Fence: Beauty in Song

Posted on January 23, 2020 | 1 comment

More Picket Fence Studios today. I loved coloring this bird from Beauty and Song. The main image is stamped here and embossed with gold embossing powder and colored with the Karin Brushmarker PRO. I use a simple waterbrush to blend the colors.

The Karin Brushmarkers blend effortlessly – directly from the pen or from a palette. Therapeutic and easy. The embossing and stark contrast gives it a bit of elegance. I finished my colored image with a thick sentiment strip and sequins for a clean and simple card that is the perfect pick-me-up to someone you love and easy to mail!

If you want to talk about simple wow cards! Stencils for the WIN! Here I’ve used the new Picket Fence Studio Flower in Heart Stencil. I applied pink ink with a blender brush, paired it with sentiments from the new Seriously Literally sentiment set. and added a few crystal drops.

I’m getting wrapped up to leave for CreativeWorld in Frankfort, Germany on Friday. I’ve not been to Germany before, and though I don’t expect to see much outside of the tradeshow, I’m hoping I’ll have pictures to share on my Facebook page – Lori Craig Designs. Please join me there!

Thanks for stopping by! Stay warm, friends!

1 Comment

Posted in Karin

Picket Fence 2020 Creativation Release

Posted on January 18, 2020 | 3 comments

What!? What? I’ll tell you what!I’m thrilled to be guest designing for Picket Fence Studios to celebrate their Creativation release today! So many cute things in this release, and I have several projects to share with you today! If you like to color, you will LOVE these sweet new designs!

My first two cards feature Piper and Peach Checking the Post! I’ve stamped my images in Fade Out from Ink on 3 on to Taylored Expressions Sugar Cube paper and used the no-line watercolor technique with my Karin Brushmarker PRO pens.

Here’s a close up of card number 2 with the set Piper and Peach Checking the Post and the Loads of Mail background. I had so much fun with these images! The die cuts leave the perfect white edge in my opinion, and I used green Karin markers to color the clumps of grass separate before cutting. This could be an addicting watercolor technique for me!

Two weeks ago I set aside the weekend to work on my design projects for this release, and I had invited a few friends over to stamp – girls who live in fairly close proximity to me. Imagine my surprise when Laurie Willison showed up with Jill Hawkins tucked into her car! Jill lives a plane ride away, and I will never forget how special and magical it was to have someone fly in to surprise me for a weekend. #treasure #craftyfriendsarethebestfriends. Jill sat next to me that weekend, and she couldn’t resist playing with the Loads of Mail background stamp. The image is embossed in white and watercolored with the Karin Brushmarkers and an aqua pen. The sentiment is from the fun new set, Absolutely. Seriously. Always.

Crafty Squad – Laurie Willison, Jen Shults, me, Jill Hawkins, Nichol Spohr, and Caren Bartholomew

Here’s a picture from our impromptu stamping weekend! I’m truly grateful for the beautiful people in my life because of stamps and ink.

I’ll be back in the morning with more of my favorites from this release! Thanks for stopping by!

I hope the weekend brings you time for stamping and relaxation!

3 Comments

Posted in Karin, watercolor

This is My Happy Face

Posted on January 16, 2020 | Leave a comment

Am I right? I do get accused of a having a grumpy face sometimes, to which I say, “if I’m grumpy, you’ll know it!” LOL None-the-less, I love Big Grumpy at Taylored Expressionsand his ! So much that the new Big Grumpy Valentine sayings arrived on my doorstep this week – can’t wait to make a few loving cards with those. LOL

A week or so ago, I found a YouTube watercolor tutorial done by Jessie Banks through a mutual Facebook group. I loved the layered, dreamy look of her vibrant color, and knew I wanted to give it a try!

[youtube]https://youtu.be/9fr5X2MGInI[/youtube]

Isn’t that video fun to watch? (Please leave Jessie some YouTube love and a thumbs up!) Trust me, it was even more fun to paint!!

Like Jessie, I masked my images with masking fluid. I love this Moltow Masking Fluid Pen, and unlike others I have bought and tried through the years, this one doesn’t gum up on me between uses. I didn’t cover my entire image with masking fluid – just about a 1/2″ border to keep him clean. You can see on the left side of the sign that I got thin coverage in a few spots, but I was really pleased overall. Lifted clean after sitting on my watercolor paper for several days.

The background was painted with Daniel Smith Watercolors that I purchase from my dealer, Lydia Fiedler’s Watercolor Split Group on Facebook in convenient half-pan splits! It’s a great way to purchase beautifully curated collections of top-quality, beautifully granulating color. Above is the mixing chart created with my Janes Split from Lydia. Look at all of the color created with 15-16 colors! Gorgeous color in a tiny palette!

Big Grumpy and the sign were colored with a fairly new watercolor, the Karin Brushmarker PRO from Marker Universe. I love the vibrant color and fluid ink flow from these pens. You can use the color straight from the nib for watercolor or hand-lettering or create a palette. They blend beautifully straight from the nib with a watercolor brush, but I do prefer to paint with the grays from a palette I just scribble on a piece of plastic or acetate.

For the white gauche step, I used Winsor Newton white gouache. love the rich, opaque look. If I’m being super lazy, I use the liquid Dr. Ph Martins Hydrus in a bottle. It’s great for quick and easy splatter.

Can’t wait to try this technique again and improve my “clouds”, but overall I love how this turned out. Let me know if you try it!

I’ve been busy prepping for a guest release spot that I’ll share on Saturday, so stop back by! Have a fabulous Thursday!

Seasons Givings Year 8

Posted on December 31, 2019 | 223 comments

Welcome to Seasons Givings Year 8

Edit 1/5/2020 – 10:00pm – Thank you for stopping by. Comments for my entry are closed. Winner will be announced Tuesday.

One of my favorite posts of the year, and thank you to my dear Latisha for inviting me to participate again. I love the season of giving, and I especially love being able to give back to our community!

Continue reading →

223 Comments

Posted in Daniel Smith, Karin, Marker Universe, Taylored Expressions