Inking Royalty Blog Hop – Christmas in July

Welcome to InKing Royalty’s July Blog Hop! During this year’s blog hops, we are enjoying a year of celebrations. This month’s projects celebrate Christmas in July. Demonstrators have been able to order new products from the upcoming August-December Mini Catalog, so prepare yourself for a gorgeous mix of new products, products available in the Annual Catalog, and returning favorites. What fun! We are excited to share our creations with you today! After you read my post, I hope you’ll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.

I have been trying to find my crafty mojo.  Life has created many distractions as I’m sure it has for you as well.  When I’m feeling overwhelmed by it all I normally just want to be left to myself and be creative.  Lately, I have just wanted to do nothing, and those times that I have tried to be super creative I really had no ideas/didn’t like what I was creating.  It just was not working.  This is when I decided that I need to step back and create for the sake of creating. Not caring about the outcome.  (Creat for the trash can) So, I taped my fingers and thought about what to make.  That’s when I remembered this month was The Daily Marker 30 day coloring challenge.  And I thought yes! This is perfect. I will just color some images and see what I come up with.  Knowing this hop was all about Christmas. I pulled out the Christmas Rose Stamp Set and some watercolors and begin to play.

Christmas Rose Bundle

This rose is so much fun to color!  I was enjoying it so much that I colored the rose three times on Sunday afternoon.  That means you get three versions of one card idea!  Such fun!  One of the things I like best about paper crafting is there’s always something you can do.  Not feeling creative, then work on that stack of cards you never put together (I know you have at least one stack). Feeling creative but, don’t know what to do?? Work on your UFO pile (I know you have a pile of unfinished objects) Not sure what to do??? Color an image to use later for a card,  CASE a card design or technique, let Designer Series Paper do all the work. There are so many ways to get creative even when you are not nessacearly feeling very creative.

• I started by heat embossing the image with what I thought was gold embossing powder on watercolor paper.  Then heat set the image  This was the moment I decided I put the wrong lid on the embossing powder.  Cause,  that’s not gold y’all
• Then I set out to watercolor. Talking my time and just trying to relax and enjoy the process.
• Two things I want to work on 1. Adding contrasting colors to each section.  2. Adding dark shadows.  These were things I knew I needed practice with  #practicemakesprogress
• The designer series paper is out of the In Good Taste paper pack
• The sentiment is from the Itty bitty Christmas greetings

• This was the second attempt at getting darks dark and lights lighter.  One of the things I am trying to learn is how not to lose the lights while still adding darker colors on top.
• For each card, I used the green to create shadows in the red. Then red to create shadows in the green
• This card was heat embossed with silver… well, cause I couldn’t quite figure out why my gold embossing was not gold!!!
• It was after die cutting out the flower and picking the Designer Series Paper I wanted that I decided something wasn’t right. What was bothering me???  I thought maybe it’s the white edge.  So I painted the edges very lightly and gently with green and blue.  And wha-la it was all better!
• The designer series paper is a returning paper in the August-December mini  catalog, Toile Tidings paper

We are on the home stretch! One more card to go! Who’s missing baseball???

• For this card, I used my favorite piece of Designer Series Paper!  I adore these watercolor stripes so much! They are from the Forever Greenery Designer Series Paper
• This heat embossing is actually gold!!! I opened a new container of embossing powder so I know this is actually gold!
• A die I use that has not even been mentioned that is definitely worth the mention is Stiched So Sweetly dies! Y’all these dies are AWESOME!!! I really could use them on every card

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you’ll hop along to the next stop on the blog hop, Jackie Beers at Blueline Stampin There’s lots of inspiration to be found in this group – and you don’t want to miss it! I’m going to leave you with this up-close of who knows what color of embossing powder that is. I want you to see the way the green adds an awesome shadow to the rose. And vice versa how the red adds interest to the green leaves. The key (which is easier said than done) is to add a very very small amount of contrasting colors.

Each of your comments makes me smile! Please, comment HERE.

I just want to take a moment and tell Janneke thank you for hopping along with us today! Guest hoppers always make the hop extra special!  I’m looking forward to seeing what Janneke and all the Royals have to share today!

If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:

1. Brian King at Stamp with Brian
2. Ann Murray at Murray Stamps Ink
3. Janneke Dijkstra-de Jong at Happy Stampin
4. Candy Ford at Stamp Candy
5. Linda Krueger at The Stamp Coach
6. Shawn de Oliveira at Shawn Stamps
7. Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp
8. Julie DiMatteo at The Paper Pixie
9. Joanne Brown at Stamping with JoJo
10. Lynn Kolcun at Avery’s Owlery
11. Jennifer Spiller at Westside Paper Creations
12. Jackie Beers at Blue Line Stamping
13. Sheryl Sharp at Sharp Notes by Sheryl
14. Sue Jackson at Just Peachy Stamping

Thank you for being here today! Let’s all go and have a good day and remember to find a little time to be creative!

Peace my friends-