Inspired By...Love How You Lilac

 Hello, it's Thursday, you know what that means! The new challenge at Inspired By is Love How You Lilac with a beautiful floral bouquet and a pun to go with it. I don't get the pun (do you?) maybe you can explain it to me, but lilacs are my very favorite flower so I will start there! 

I love this beautiful new-to-me stamp Sweet Centerpiece from Penny Black. I stamped it onto watercolor card stock and used the Mungyo 46 pan watercolor set as suggested by Dawn Wholeslagle  on her fabulous LIVES and kept the coloring very simple. These images were too small to really build up layers but I kept with the colors in the challenge photo.  Masking the edges, I added a background with a dauber and Distress Oxide inks to really help the floral image to stand out. This is a 5X7 card that will go to someone special when the need arises. 

This card will make it's way to the NBUS blog as the stamps are brand new. I am so glad you were by to visit today! I appreciate your time and kind words.

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Penny Black - Sweet Centerpiece, The Greetery - Fresh Air Stamp Set (sentiments)

INK:Distress Oxide Inks - Antique Linen, Dried Marigold

Accessories: Clear drops, WPlus9 - 5X7 Layers Dies

Inspired By...Hello Baby Flowers

Hi there, have you been inspired lately? I've been seeing foiled cards everywhere and was inspired to get out my foil and laminator and prepare a few backgrounds last week. One came in handy for the challenge at Inspired By! I went with the theme of Hello and Flowers. Here's my card.

I love mint and peach together so it was easy to incorporate those hues in my design. A few details: I used Thermo Web Deco Foil in gold and Transfer Gel with a stencil to create the foiling. Adding gold thread behind the focal point repeated that element. The stamps and dies used are from The Greetery: Opposites Attract (new stamps to me and I will surely be using them often!) and Birthday Blooms. We are thrilled to have so many participating in our challenges, and it's delightful to see your beautiful work in the gallery. 

Hope you will be inspired to play along! I will be adding this link to the wonderful challenge at NBUS, where I go to be inspired! 

Thank you for coming by, have a great day.

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Watercolor Birthday

 Hello, crafty friends! It's me on a Monday, just popping in with a card for a couple challenges and some watercolor fun! I am glad to see you.

The weekly challenge at Waffle Flower is one you shouldn't miss! This week's theme is embossed resist watercolor. 

You know I love to watercolor so I pulled out Bouquet Builder #6 and dies and painted with my Mungyo 46 pan set. Embossing the image in Rose Gold (Altenew) adds a soft glow. Embossing first helps those hesitant to watercolor because the embossing holds the water in place. 

I had a foiled strip already made using a polka dot stencil so I added that for a focal point and to carry over the gold as an accent. That lets me add this to the challenge at The Paper Players to use polka dots on a CAS card. 

I am so glad you came by to visit today! Getting to stamp just for fun makes it a happy day for me! Take care. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Color Hues #18 Purple and Teal

 Hi, and welcome back to my blog for the next installment of color duos at Color Hues! Purple and Teal brings many things to mind but I decided to go with an abstract background for my card. 

I heat embossed the background stamp in white and sponged inks to add color. I die cut the HAPPY and some stars in white and gold foil, and the birthday in a dark purple card stock.  

This card was fairly simple to make and will be even easier to give! I can't wait to see the wonderful inspiration from the rest of our terrific team. 

Hope you will join us! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used are from Honey Bee Stamps:

Diamond Daze Background Stamp, Happy Birthday Word Dies.

Inspired By... Orange You Lemonade

 Hello, sorry I've been missing most of this week! We find ourselves on the go more often now that things are getting a bit back to normal. 

Thank goodness for a new challenge at Inspired By to keep me going with some stamping. This challenge is called Orange You Lemonade, a good punny line. My subtitle might read Make Mine Sweet and Juicy, lol! 

I pulled out the Summer Citrus stamp set (WPlus9) and did some masking and creative inking. 

I masked a rectangle across the card front and filled in with random stamping in black adding the colored layer over the images. I purposely left some misalignment of the images for more interest. The label and a few die cuts were placed for the sentiments. I drew in details with a white gel pen.

I will be honest, I had real trouble choosing a layout. I would like it better if there was ONE focal point but I decided to just go with this. I didn't want to cover up the stamping!

What will you make to show how our photo inspired you? 

Thanks so much for you visit today, my friends. Orange you glad you came? 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: WPlus 9 - Summer Citrus, Basic Labels; Pinkfresh Studio - Floral Notes Stamp set

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Basic Black

INK: Gina K Black amalgam; Wplus9 - Queen Bee, Lime Light; Ranger Distress - Carved Pumpkin, Picked Raspberry: Versamark and white embossing powder

Inspired By: Celebrate Her

It's May! Along comes pretty little May, as the song says, and I am loving this weather! April brought us a chance to travel and now I am happy to be back at my station on the screened porch to write this post. 

It's a great day to Celebrate Her with the challenge at Inspired By! 

I chose flowers in similar colors to the inspiration photo and added a feminine touch or two to the bouquet for my Thinking of You card.  The scalloped circle die is from PTI and the softly striped papers are from Waffle Flower. I chose the inks first and felt lucky to find the papers to match the colors! Finally, I added pearls to the coral flower centers. 

How will you be inspired by our theme?  I can't wait to see! Please get your craft on and join us!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Pinkfresh Studio - Lovely Blossoms stamps and dies, Just Because 

Inks: Altenew

Color Hues #17 RED and ORANGE

 Hey, hey! Happy Saturday! It's time for our new challenge at Color Hues, friends! Let's give it a go for red and orange this time. 

I'll bet you thought I would do florals. And, yes I did. And maybe you thought that I might include an ink blended background or bold stripes. I did think of that , but will save it for next time. 

I tried something I've been wanting to do with this combo. I made a template using stamp images that I have on hand for a turn about card. How fun is that! 

Combining images from a couple or three sets works well for this. I chose mostly solid images. Choosing the ink colors makes all the difference. I used Pale Tomato and Orange Soda (SSS) combined with Wild Mango and Warm Wool (WPlus 9.) I don't know why the red has a pinkish vibe. It really is a soft red. 

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After trimming the image down, I used a stitching die to add a bit of interest, and placed two focal images on the left side. Snipping the images out, I kept the Copic Coloring simple. Can't wait to see what you will create with these gorgeous colors!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI - Floral Fantasy, Let's Fiesta; Waffle Flower - Wish

Paper: Neenah Solar White, SU - Pumpkin Pie

INK: WPlus 9 - Wild Mango, Warm Wool; SSS - Pale Tomato, Orange Soda

Accessories: Lawnfawn - Just Stitching Double Rectangles