A Very Special Person

Hello, happy Tuesday! It's amazing how you can begin to make a card with one thing in mind and it turns out to be way beyond what you expected! Both in the making and the result. That's what happened to me this week. 

Over the weekend, I started out wanting to use a die cut flower for the JUGS challenge. What began as a simple search for the right flower, turned into looking at past classes to remember how to use the chosen flower. And then realizing that my aunt - the last remaining of my mother's family is having a 98th birthday soon. Thus, my title: A Very Special Person. Here's the card! 

Ample ink blending provided the background panel and all the colors of the flowers from Altenew's Fresh Flowers Die set. I used Fresh Dye Inks in Teal Tempest, Honeydew Melon, and Blush Rose. It's amazing how you can blend the Honeydew Melon - a greenish yellow with the teal and get a new shade of pale green. ALso used the melon to tone down the pink on the petals.

The sentiments are from the Cascading Flowers stamp set.  Embossed in gold. I tried so many different sentiments out but ended up liking this best. The big happy Birthday will be inside. 

Thanks for hanging in there with this post. I am going to leave these supplies out in a prominent place so I use them again before I forget how!  Have a great day. 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

 Challenges:
Just Us Girls Die Week - flower die
Beautiful Blossoms - ATG
Triple B - Birds, Blooms and Butterflies

Lots of Love

Happy first day of May! I always love the first day of a new month and May is one of the best! If April brings showers, and then May flowers, allergies are sure to follow! On a good note, the vertigo I'd had last week is on the way out. It's been good to be outside again  and feeling better too.

Starting out the post with something new! A pretty circle frame that I wanted was out of stock, so I found this one instead (Pinkfresh Essentials: Ornate Circle) and got to creating. 

 It is an amazing delicate frame that can be used to completely die cut the circle as I did here, or left in the card front with just the points cut to add texture.

Also new to me, I embossed a panel using the Altenew Soft Blossoms EF. I colored with sponged Altenew inks, and the coordinating stencil set. Then if you can believe it, I CUT that panel up by hand for the focal point. Sponging a bit of ink behind them, I popped up the flowers with foam. The sentiment is from the Soft Blossoms stamp set and is the only stamping today. 

Thanks so much for your visit. I hope your day is going well! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

I'm adding to the following challenges:
NBUS: of course, with new EF, stamps and stencils and hugs to dear Darnell whose kindness and craftiness encourages so many!
The Card Concept: I was inspired by the soft pastels for my Clean and Layered Card. 
                                     Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes
                                     Inkspirational: Seasonal occasions - Spring                                                   flowers, Mother's  Day

A Little Perk

 Hi card makers! I love card challenges so much for the inspiration and incentive they give me to get crafty. Yesterday after seeing the sketch at The Paper Players, I got busy. Here you go! 

I'm setting aside a few older stamps to play with in coming days and had pulled out Cup of Kindness from Concord & 9th and a new paper pad from Penny Black. I really love the versatility of this set. It has great sentiments too! The card process is pretty self explanatory. Just die cuts with a little stamping. I spent more time getting a photo of this card than I did making it. Isn't that refreshing? 

Thanks for coming by. It means so much to me to have you visit. Hope your day is great!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Challenges: 

The Paper Players 

Little Red Wagon  Make It Sew - I used a stitched rectangle panel
Love Those Pretty Papers

More with Butterfly Blooms Take 2

 Hello, happy Saturday! Spring has brought very warm weather our way, and lots of blooms! One downside for me is that I now am experiencing vertigo, probably related to allergies. Limiting my motions helps keeps the worst dizziness away, so I am making use of some of my stamping supplies. Butterfly Booms to the rescue! 

This cute and simple card was fun to make and will be flat to send. I kept trying to  add embellishments or some thing to even out the layout - is it the vertigo or just me, that thinks the balance is OFF just a bit. Ha!

I used the card kit contents from SSS in April, including the stamps, stencils and washi tape for the horizontal panel. Altenew inks provided the colors and my scissors
cut everything out. 

I hope your world is not spinning and you are steady on your feet. Thanks for your visit today!  Come back soon!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Challenges listed:

Freshly Made Sketches

Beautiful Blossoms Anything Goes Florals

JUGS Just Us Girls Stencil Week 

New Mercies

Hello again, stamping friends. I seem to get on a roll with stamping and then lose it for a couple or three weeks. How did it get to be almost May already? There's been just a bit going on. Normal life stuff keeping me busy. Today's rain made it cozy to catch some crafty time and much needed therapy - watercoloring. 

I used Distress Ink re-inkers to color the pretty stems from Penny Black's new-to-me Love Blooms stamps and dies. 

The Color Throwdown asks for cards using yellow, sage and coral. I blended the card front with Distress Oxide ink in Brushed Sage. I also wanted to play along at the Stencil Fun challenge.  I was distressed to find that I reduced my stencils to almost none with our big move last fall, but I found this one from Vicki Boutin that fits the bill for their suggestion of patterns. I used it with sparkle paste above the flower. It shows up a bit better in the photo below. After the fact, I wonder if the card would look better without the stencil? 

Lastly, the Blessings set from Penny Black gave the scriptural sentiment. I'm sharing this at the Word Art Wednesday Challenge. Thanks for coming by for a visit and some of my ramblings.

Hope it's been a great day for you! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

More with Butterfly Blossoms

Hello friends, I hope your day is going well and your week too. 

Here are two more of the cards I made with Butterfly Blossoms. The pretty papers and vintage vibe of this kit from Simon Says Stamp make card designing a delight.  Today's cards are clean and simple. One is elegant, while the other is a bit playful. 

Using two sheets of DSP and an ornate frame works for the birthday card.  I stamped the sentiment slightly to the side. I didn't want to cover up the butterfly in the center.  Like the cards I shared yesterday (HERE in case you missed them) I cut flowers from some of the paper to use as embellishments, with pearls. 

The next card uses two frames and a sheet of DSP adorned with twine and a couple enamel accents. They were a freebie for first time subscribers to the monthly card kit. I love the bit of whimsy from the "just soar" element. 

I'm still working on cards with this set! It amazes me how much gorgeous inspiration there is for this kit online. I looked at all of it! While there is some pressure when designing with a kit to make a card that is totally unique or different from the others - the possibilities with this kit seem endless! Apart from these that I've posted, I will make four more cards that completely CASE some of the wonderful ones designed by others with what's left of my supplies.

Thanks so much for joining me today and for your kind comments. Happy crafting to you! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Butterfly Blossoms

 There's something new in the house! I've been so excited to get my April card kit from Simon Says Stamp. Many of you made the cutest cards with last month's kit that I was inspired to give this month's kit a try. It includes stamps called Butterfly Blossoms and the prettiest of papers! 

I made four cards with the supplies today, and here's a look at two of them. For my cards, I used some of the dies I've purchased recently to add unique details. 

For the first card, the patterned paper is the star. I highlighted the flowers with Nuvo drops, and added gems to butterflies fussy cut from the paper. I made paper with strips of washi tapes included along the bottom of the card. 

I really like the neutrals and soft green shades. Soothing for a sympathy card, I think. 

The second card uses collage paper which I adhered to a panel and then die cut to make the background. I love the texture, it's like tissue paper.

I used the stamps for the floral images and butterfly, which I also fussy cut. Pearls, ribbon and sparkle paste (on the butterfly!) add the finishing touches. I hope you've enjoyed my post today! It feels good to me to be back for a visit. I'll share more tomorrow! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

I'm adding this to challenges: 
One of my favorites is with Darnell, at NBUS where we use our      never been used stuff!
Addicted to Stamps & more is asking for die cuts.