Brushed Birds Collage

Good morning crafty friends!

I have certainly been enjoying challenges and I'm jumping right in with a card to share for the Make It Monday challenge at PTI where Stephanie inspired us with her lovely card using different types of papers.  I went searching for my papers and combined a polka dotted page from last year's planner and a corrugated textured panel for the card base.

 I pulled out mulberry paper from my stash, and added a sentiment embossed on a piece cut from a shiny gold envelope. Adding a touch of gold embossing at the top of the panel and gold thread tied the elements together. Making this collage was so fun! I stamped the Brushed Bird in Aqua Mist and Blueberry Sky inks. 

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Tile Letters Valentine

Hello, welcome back!
Every once in awhile it's time for a card that is just plain fun. We have friends that are so special! They invite us over often, love to get together at the spur of the moment, and enjoy playing games like we do. We get crazy laughing over games together and we always leave their home feeling cheered. 
This card is for them! 
I pondered the sketch at CAS(E) THIS for the week and thought I might skip it. But remembering this never-been-used Letter Tiles set (from Simon Says Stamp) got the wheels turning and this card is the result. 

I was so happy to dig out the chunky wooden heart from my stash to embellish. 

Hope you enjoy your day! Thanks so much for visiting my blog. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

SNOW for Merry Monday

Hello!

I've had a busy crafting week and I wanted to be sure to get my card posted to add to the Merry Monday Christmas Challenge while there's still time.  I'm new to this challenge but it fits with my goal to spread Christmas card-making throughout the year. And the designers are top notch! 

This week's theme is: SNOW. Who doesn't love that?

I'm also seeking challenges that help me to integrate some of my old (or VERY old) supplies with the newer stuff. I need to spread some stamp love around and enjoy using what I have. Like this cute little Be Jolly snowman and die from Avery Elle.

I'm finding myself coming back to ink blending again and again. Today's card combines Blue Jeans and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide Inks. 

Once I got started I had two made before I knew it.

Hope you're enjoying a lovely weekend and thanks so much for visiting today! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

January 2018 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Hi friends! I can't believe how fast this week has gone by and now we're at the end of the month too. 
It's a good day to join the Blog Hop at PTI and get inspired! I love playing along.  

We had a lovely photo to spark our creativity this month. I was inspired by the pale pink paired with brights, the floral centerpiece, the polka dots and lots of white space with black accents. These elements combine beautifully with the birthday theme. 

I inked up the Beautiful Berries Spring stamps in Green Parakeet, Leaf Green, Pale Blush,  Raspberry Fizz and Autumn Rose. 

I die cut a rectangular panel in the card front and behind it placed white card stock with a sponged background using the pink inks. Added a bit of spattered ink and a few sequins. 

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Embossed Stencil Valentine

Hello friends,
It's a Wednesday afternoon of a busy change-filled week here. Everything's fine but life happens, and ours has felt some unsettling emotional highs and lows the past few days. 

I'm welcoming and inviting my favorite therapy - stamping -  to work it's wonders!

There's something so soothing and thoroughly engrossing about stamps, paper and ink and the things you can do with them. I've been experimenting with techniques lately and while I enjoy that it does put me out of my comfort zone when it's time to incorporate them into a card. 

Today's card highlights a stencil technique completed with embossing paste and then heat embossing. 

My panel began with kraft card stock and the Caroline stencil from Simon Says Stamp. I filled in the spaces with embossing paste in an even layer. While it was still wet, I sprinkled on embossing powder and heat set it. Loved the resulting elegant shimmer with a bubbled rich texture. 

The embossed panel was layered over a white card base and a white panel blended with inks. I also blended inks for the love die cut, and backed it using the shadow die to cut a vellum layer. 

A foil strip, hearts and a pearl are the simple embellishments. 
I don't send too many Valentines, but they are so fun to make that I will be finding friends to send them too.

Thanks so much for visiting today! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Adding this to the challenge at Inspired! where the creamy goodness and texture of the cookies inspired me. 

Supplies used:

Stamps:  None

Paper: White, SU - Crumb Cake, Card Stock Vellum, Foil Sheets - Copper

Inks: Distress Oxide - Worn Lipstick 

Accessories: WOW! Embossing Powder Silver Pearl, Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste, Simon Says Stamp - Caroline Stencil, Love Dies

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Your Special Day

Hello!  Hope you're having a good weekend in spite of the cold, flu and well, other news. 

It's time to jump in at the very end of the challenge with Papertrey Ink with today's card. 

I've been wanting to make a feminine card with all the things I love: flowers, soft pastels, ribbon, lots of layers and vellum. Sequins! Yes, don't forget sequins! 

I was inspired by this gorgeous card from the amazing Melissa Philips. 

Searching for soft subtle patterns, I used DSP from my stash (Authentique). I stamped flowers from the Vintage Linen set using inks in Autumn Rose and Lavender Moon, adding details with a white gel pen and a shimmer pen. I wanted the stem and leaves to blend in, so I colored them a pale gray with Copics. Like Melissa, I chose a scalloped die cut border, a vellum tag embellished with a ribbon bow  
and... you got it!
Sequins. 

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Using Distress Oxide Inks

Hi there, how are you doing today?
I got to playing around over the holidays with backgrounds made with Distress Oxide Inks. I made two of them into cards today and I'll share them in a quick post. It feels good getting them off my desk and into the ready-to-mail pile.Do you send Valentine's? Now that we have grands, I will be sending them for sure!

Both backgrounds used the same colors: Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral and Wild Honey. Can you tell I received the new colors for Christmas? 

For the first card, I blended the inks for a fairly straightforward background, adding droplets of water and splatters of ink and white paint to add texture. I made a shaker, sandwiching the sequins mix between two sheets of acetate and stamped the sentiment in Staz On ink (from SSS Big Scripty Greetings) on the top sheet. The small hearts were die cut from the same background when I removed the large heart, and I added black stitching to complement the black sentiment. A wink of shimmer and a few sequins complete the adornments on the card front.

For the second card, I blended the background and then wet a background stamp (MFT - Distressed Stripes) and while damp lay it over the colored background. This allowed the color to LIFT, forming beautiful stripes.  Again, shimmer and spatters of water and white paint were used. The sentiment (from SSS: Hello Beautiful) was embossed in white on a banner. Behind the three die cut hearts, I placed a white panel stamped with the Falling Hearts background stamp from SSS. Sherbet Shimmer Glitter Nuvo drops were dotted here and there.

Wow, this was supposed to be a quick post. Hope you liked it! 
Have a great day, thanks for visiting!  

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

          Make something beautiful!

Blooming Birthday Wishes

Hello!
I'm surrounded by a winter wonderland today and it's so so pretty. We don't usually get this much snow, but having several inches suits me just fine today. Nowhere to go but upstairs to do a little stamping in the craft room. 
It's always a good week when I get to create with the 
CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge and the sketch is such a fun one today!

I had stamped and die cut the floral spray when I was having play-time with the Fill In Blooms stamps. If you missed it, those posts are HERE and I give a brief tutorial HERE. If you don't have this set yet, I hope to give you good reasons to get it! If you have it, I want to inspire you to use it! I guess you can tell it's at the top of my list right now.

For today's card, the background was stamped with Dapper Denim from Stampin' Up! For the flower details and small die cut branches I used Flirty Flamingo. I love navy and pink together! 

I'm glad to be getting this post going in the last hours of the challenge, so I'll list the other supplies used below.
Thanks for visiting! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used ~

Stamps: Banner and sentiment are from WPlus9 

Paper: DSP from MFT

Accessories: Dies used for circle frame is from PTI - Don't Forget to Write Kit

A "Twofer" means two good things at once!

Hello my crafty friends. 
I remember telling you I had been so craftily busy and I had cards just lined up waiting to be posted for you this week. 
I didn't lie. Those cards are still waiting in the wings.
It happens every January. There are SIX family birthdays this month, plus we made an almost 800 mile round trip over a weekend, and....
you get the picture. 

But today is special, know why?  Because it's my day to play in Darnell's new Twofer Challenge! You can find out all about it on her wonderful blog HERE. Darnell is just the friendliest, funniest and one of the most fabulous stampers out there.  I just can't wait to show you the two cards I made for this theme: feathers. 

Mine are on birds. 

 Here is my "twofer" sample photo, using the same images two ways and for two different occasions. 

I made the card with the chickadee for my husband's birthday, using watercolors to create a wintry looking background. Pulling out my Tansai Gambi watercolors, I brushed on shades of blues and violet, plus a wee bit of green.

PTI's Winter Woods is the set I used for both cards.The berries from the set were stamped in black as accents, well, just because I needed a triangle for balance. 

For the second card, I wanted a springy look and clean bright colors. The chickadee turned into a Baltimore Oriole, or my version of it. 

As this post is getting long, I will post the supplies under my signature for you all. 

Thanks so much for visiting! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Winter Woods stamp set and dies

Paper: Ranger Distress Watercolor paper, PTI Harvest Gold

Accessories: MFT Die-Namics Stitched Scalloped Basic Edges, Poppystamps Dianna Border Die, twine

More with Fill In Blooms

Hello, welcome!
As I shared in yesterday's post (see it HERE) I focused over a period of several days on exploring with the Fill In Blooms set from Concord and 9th. In just playing around I made a few observations that I found helpful. So that I don't forget what I learned, I need to WRITE it down (aren't we all that way?) I'll write it here so that you can share it too! 

This is a different kind of post for me, so bear with me.
My samples are in the come-just-as-you-are state. Nothing fancy here.

The essence of this stamp set is the background color that fills a complete A2 card.  The first step is to experiment with different inks. Which types of ink give the best coverage? I tried dye inks from Stampin' Up!, Hero Arts and PTI with similar results. But I discovered the BEST inking I got was with the Distress Oxide Inks, as in the medium blue sample below. See how crisp the floral details are?

My second bit of advice is to choose whether you want bold contrasting colors in your floral pattern, or softer complimentary or monochromatic shades, as in the soft green and light gray samples. For an even sharper contrast, I used black and navy for the background color. This is dramatic and beautiful! 
The great thing about this set is how user friendly it is and forgiving.There's no way you won't have a great result no matter what you stamp it with.

 

Try combinations you've never used before and have fun! I found it helpful to search online for fabrics/swatches that inspired me with different color ideas. 

Lastly, I found that added details with colored pencil gave depth and interest as in the light blue flowers above. 

The best thing about this set is that you don't have to color in all the images. Leaving lots of the images white as in the yellow sample makes it fast and easy to complete and it looks great!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Fascinated with Fill In Blooms

During the Christmas holiday I would use spare minutes here and there exploring the wonderful possibilities of the Fill In Blooms stamps and dies. Kudos to Concord and 9th for creating stamps that are uniquely innovative and allow the user to create inked floral patterns. 

Fascinated, I spent time playing with different ideas and color combinations every chance I got. Finally it's time to complete a card, and here are two for you.

My first card uses Tomato Red ink for the background, with cantaloupe and greens added to the blooms. I added berries, a leaf cluster and the sentiment that were embossed in gold.

The background color for the Hello card was stamped with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Ink. 

Keeping the leaves a soft green, I popped in bold colors of red and blue for the flowers. I'm having trouble with my photos lately, but I have to say how bright and pretty these colors are in real life. This card measures 3.5" X 5".

Thanks for visiting today!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

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Hello, it's a new year! Just a Note for you

Hello, happy Monday to you! Just a quick post from me today as I'm going to take advantage of clear roads and get a few errands done. 

Over the weekend I cleaned up and organized the stamp studio, and stumbled across some never-been-used supplies which were perfect to put together for this easy card. I've listed them at the end of this post for you. 

The music notes were stamped on a white panel and added to a white card base, with the heart die cuts on top. I love how the musical notes are part of the large heart image. The red line, musical notes and the sentiment were stamped onto the card base. 

I'm playing along with the new layout at CAS(E) This Sketch!
I just love this card design. 

Also adding my link to the Simon Wednesday Challenge - Something New.

Thanks so much for visiting today, I love hearing from you!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps:  SSS - Music 2 My Ears, MFT - Music Notes background

Ink:  Wplus9 - Sweet Gelato, Little Piggy

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