Autumn Blessings for Freshly Made Sketches

 Hello. thanks for joining me at my blog. Today I'm excited to be guest designing at one of my favorite card challenges. Thank you to the team at Freshly Made Sketches for inviting me!

I have a fall card for you today. Have you been jumping in to all the best fall things now that it is official? I couldn't resist pulling out some of my fav stamps from the Autumn Blessings set by WPlus9 designs. 

I went for a soft look today by using Cold Press watercolor paper and stamping in a soft brown ink. Using Distress Inks and re-inkers, I watercolored the sunflower wreath, adding Glossy Accents to the berries. Sponged the banner with pale ink to match the flowers. 

The stamps and dies form a gorgeous wreath. I did take the liberty of cutting that up and arranging the florals to fit the sketch. FIrst thinking of using a basket under the banner, I decided it just needed a twine bow. 

I hope that you will enjoy seeing the samples from the terrific DT and take a crafty break so that you can play along! See you next time. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Happy Mail

 Hello friends, glad to be back! 

I had a bit of time in the craft room yesterday. I got into some of my stash piles and made a fun card. 

The great sketch at The Paper Players inspired me to sift through some of my patterned papers to see what would work with the layout. I love using something that's been hanging around awhile and giving it a new look.  This paper from Waffle Flower is making it's final appearance today. I've now used it up, yaaay!

I used the Postal dies from WPlus9 to cut the crimped edges and added a sentiment from The Greetery. Here's the terrific sketch from Anne Marie. 

Thanks for coming by to visit today. Life has been a bit busy lately, hope things are going well for you. I will be back tomorrow, for sure!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Leafy Layers for you

 Hello again, and welcome to my blog. I made a card for the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and I'm writing a quick post tonight to enter it before the deadline tomorrow!

I thought the Leafy Layered Dies would make a great fall card. Inking backgrounds is one of my favorite things to do lately. I began by running white card stock through the embossing folder, and then lightly adding layers of ink to color for an ombre effect. 

Cutting a strip of this panel for the card front, I also die cut the leafy layers, adding some sponging for shading and a few gold leaves. 

Assembling the elements according to the sketch, I took a literal approach. 

I hope you are enjoying these fall days. It will be "official" in a couple of days. I appreciate your spending some time with me here on the blog today. Let's do it again soon!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supplies: Concord & 9th - card stock and inks in Buttercup, Spiced Cider, and Cayenne. 

Spellbinders: Embossing folder (ret) and foiled sentiments

The Flower Challenge Reminder - Use dies!

 Hello friends, I hope your month has gone well as we transition from summer to fall. For us in the south, fall brings welcome cooler temps and wonderful Carolina blue sky weather! 

I'm back with a second card using dies for The Flower Challenge, and I went all out with cut-outs for this card! Speaking of Carolina blue...

have a look! Besides the dies, this card is all about the colors. I pulled out my card stocks and mixed a combo of colors that I love. Using the Zig Zag Chevron Die I combined two soft blues and intertwined them as a base for the floral arrangement.

 It was a delight assembling these flowers and stems into a bouquet. The die cuts were just the right size so they could be glued and assembled without being too fiddly.

Gold sequins were added and a gold foil sentiment to dress it up a little. I hope to see you playing along with your die cuts and cards showing up in our gallery! 

Thanks for your visit today, make it a great one! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

I am happily adding this to the gallery at NBUS as the stamp and die are brand new! 

A Special Remembrance for Color Hues

Hello friends! 

Today we are joining forces with other stampers to honor our dear friend. You may remember that our precious design team member, Lindsey, passed away last year. The purpose of this hop will be to honor Lindsey, celebrate her life and all that she loved, as well as spread the word to raise funds for Clear Cell Ovarian Cancer Research.  

How can you Help? You can find all the fabulous details and the start of the hop at Emily's Blog HERE!

In honor of Lindsey, the Color Hues team has created a variety of cards using her favorite color combo of Purple and Red.  See our weekly challenge HERE. 

Pulling out a stencil, white card stock and ink I came up with a design. 

A floral design, you're not surprised, are you? Distress inks supplied the color as I ink blended on white card stock, then cut and die cut the elements using that panel. Some of the flowers have a pattern from the stencil, and some were just inked with one color. 

I will list supplies below. Thanks so much for your visit and for joining us in this tribute. We hope you will enjoy the hop! There will be loads of amazing crafters to inspire you!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supplies used: 
Penny Black - Hypnotic Stencil
MFT - Flower Bouquet Builder, Dies and Stencils
Spellbinders - Sketched Floral Embossing folder, Simply Perfect Mix & Match sentiments

Do you love your four-legged friends?

 Hello! Thanks for stopping in for a visit today. For those in the US, it's a day to take a break from our labors. That's a great reason for me to spend time in the craft room. I appreciate that you spend a bit of your valuable time here on my blog. I am grateful for every one of you! 

I do love my four-legged friends. We are without a dog now, but I hug lots of other people's dogs! We also have deer that come by our back yard every day to enjoy. The Paper Players asked for us to play along with the theme of four-legged friends this week and I did just that. 

I have quite a few new sets from Penny Back that I bought to encourage myself in two ways. First, I want to practice my watercolor skills with paints, and they have so many pretty and cute (like this bear!) line art images. I will practice, and practice some more! 

I stamped the image with Warm Wool ink (WPlus9). This is my favorite ink for a soft outline that looks black. I stamped onto Canson Water color paper, and used Distress re-inkers to color, adding some sponging for the sky, and a few details with Prismacolor watercolor pencils. I did a bit of masking when adding the sky. 

Secondly, I want to try to simplify my stamping processes. I can stamp images in batches, and color them when I have a short span of time, not needing to complete a card in one sitting. I'd LIKE to go more to a clean and simple style, but we will need to wait and see if that happens! 

Entering these challenges:

The Paper Players 

NBUS  Critter Crazy Challenge SSSWednesday Challenge  AAA Birthday - animals and 
PBS Saturday Challenge 

That's it from me for now, have a wonderful day! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft!
                 Make something beautiful!  

Penny Black supplies used: Stamp - Showered in love, includes sentiment; Background Basics stencils

All Abloom for The Flower Challenge!

 Hello friends and crafty colleagues, I hope you are doing well today and enjoying doing what you love. 

I LOVE flowers and today I am announcing that I've been asked to design for The Flower Challenge! Our challenge extends all month long with a mid month post featuring a second design from each team member for further inspiration and encouragement. Our goal is always to give an enthusiastic nudge so you can play along! 

For Challenge #84 we are asking you to use a die and make a card where flowers are your main feature. That's easy, isn't it? 

For my card, I've pulled out the new stamp called Abloom and the matching die, and used Altenew watercolors to color.

Paired it with pretty papers from Honey Bee stamps and tied it up with a bow! 

Please visit the blog HERE to see the fabulous DT samples. Watercoloring and flowers are a happy place for me, I look forward to posting more each month.

For now, I'll say 'Bye! til next time. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

 I am happily adding this to the gallery at NBUS as the stamp and die are brand new! 

Color Hues #71 Thanks

It's good to be with you on this first day of September! I love this month, the back-to-school time brings happy memories. And its the beginning of my favorite season. At Color Hues new challenge, Tracey has chosen Tangerine and Violet. Could be for a fall vibe? Or maybe you'd choose a Halloween theme? 

 I'm happy to be playing with a few supplies from my new goodies pile. I wanted to use the Postal Collage Bundle and the colors lead me in the direction of fall elements. How about leaf dies?

My thank you card was so much fun to put together. I can't wait to use the Postal Collage stencils to make a colorful bunch of paper stamps.

Please join us to play along, this is sure to be a great challenge! I hope to see you in the gallery. Thanks so much for your visit today. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supplies: Concord & 9th card stock and Leafy Layers Dies