Let's Make Two

Gratefully, we had some much needed rain yesterday and I had time to finish two cards that have been worked on bit by bit this week. No online challenges this time. Just my own goal of using a new to me die. I unwrapped that package and gave it a whirl! 

I began by combining the Curvature Die from Penny Black, and the Garden Party dies from Pinkfresh Studio. When I had a moment, I  randomly cut a bunch of these, a few in color, but mostly from white card stock. 

 Adding Altenew inks to color, I sponged with aqua, teal, pink and green, including the teal in the corner of the card front. These dies are fun to layer, the possibilities are endless! The Curvature die in white makes a soft home base for my focal point. The sentiment from SSS Happy Day is stamped and die cut. 

The fun part came with the leftover bits of flowers on my desk. Here's take 2! 

Even the Blush pink panel was already cut to size sitting there on my desk. Better to use it up! With the very simple layout, I jazzed it up a bit with  a small dot EF and a few clear crystal sequins. The sentiment is from Penny Black called Special Thoughts. My completed cards are overflowing their space, so I'm using generic sentiments in hopes of donating them. 

Thanks for visiting me today! 

I guess I do want to add this to Darnell's NBUS Challenge, the Curvatures Die is my new schtuff. That item is still on my desk, so there is more to come!

Let's Play

 Hi there, hope you're doing well! Welcome back again to my blog. 

Playing is my theme for today. A few challenges inspired me to pull out some stamps to create just for the fun of it, breaking out the not-yet-used "Let's Play" stamps from Penny Black for today's card. 

This cutie and her pup were colored using Copic markers and combined with the sentiment from Altenew and the sketch from Freshly Made .

I'm also adding this to: 
NBUS Never Been Used Schtuff
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Four-legged Friends
Penny Black Saturday Challenge   On the Go
Just Us Girls  Word Week - PLAY

Thanks so much for spending time here today. I appreciate you! 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Other supplies:
Penny Black - Let's Play Transparent stamps, Rounded EF
Altenew - Cascading Flowers stamps
Spellbinders Blush Card Stock

Joyful Day

 Hello, it's a new day! Mine has begun very early since I could not sleep. I'll bet you can guess what I did in the pre-dawn wakening. I made a card!

The background panel was ready-to-go already made with a stencil, it's from Waffle Flower Puffy Squares stencil. The boots are by Penny Black (as is the sentiment) and the flowers are bits and bobs from a few places. Figuring out what to fill the boots with and how to arrange it was the hardest part of the card! I added some shading with Copics to the boots.

It will be just in time to share at The Paper Players which ends today.

 Their challenge is a theme of spring showers which I really wanted to join since I've had this boot die on my desk for at least a month. It was bought last year and I am glad to use it for the first time now. I will head on over to share this at NBUS  as well.  I hope you can make it a great day, and take care. Thanks for coming by to visit. 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Dancing with Heart

 I've long loved this stamp and I'm so happy to feature it on today's card. 

Besides the cutie ballerina, isn't the sentiment so fun? 

I stamped the image on Hammermill card stock and colored with Zig markers and a damp paintbrush, then used the die to cut it out. I'm also using the Outlined Heart Die from Waffle Flower. I'm not sure I didn't overwhelm the image with the bold hearts and scraps of patterned papers. Part of the fun of this craft is experimenting and that is just what I did. 

I'm playing with these challenges today: 

Shopping Our Stash - Love Me Do 
Simon Says Stamps - HEART with Penny Black
Cut It Up  - This Makes Me Happy (it's the subject of my card. I love to dance!)
Just Us Girls Die Week - Heart
Penny Black Saturday Challenge - ATG 

Thanks  so much for coming by! Have a wonderful weekend. Dancing, anyone! I will be watching the Olympics.

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 
               Make something beautiful!  

A Taste of Fall

 I'm breathing some happy sighs this morning as it has been a while since I've been here on my blog and I'm pleased to have something to share! I did some coloring just for fun on these pretty sunflowers! 

Using my Copics this time, I kept it simple and light for an airy feel. I stamped the florals on the lower edge of the white card stock using Archival ink in Watering Can. 

After coloring the flowers I did some masking and ink blending for the background followed by adding a bit of white spatters. Tiny gems from Gina K (Micro Disco Ball Sequins) are very small but add just the sparkly look I love!

The Flower Challenge Sketch gave the creative kick I needed. Thank you so much for being here to visit with me today. Hope it's a good one!

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Penny Black supplies: 
Pure Sunshine Cling Stamp, Enchantingly Clear Stamps (sentiment) ; Background Basics Stencils

Inks: Tumbled Glass, Peacock Geathers

Adding to: Penny Black Saturday Challenge, The Flower Challenge, Stencil Fun Challenge , FourSeasons

Clean and Simple Birthday

 Well, hello friends. It's been a busy week but I did manage to create one card. On my last post (HERE) I used the Fresh Flowers Dies from Altenew to make a pastel and elegant birthday card. I wanted to show the versatility of these flowers, so I'm bringing you the clean and simple version of these dies today. 

Cutting the blooms from colored card stock and assembling them with the Immense ENJOY die from Penny Black made this quick as well as easy! The colors were chosen by the ladies at Color Throwdown who wanted to inspire an Americana vibe. There is still time to play! I'm glad to have this in my stash for a late summer birthday. 

Making it a quick post. Wishing you a fabulous weekend! 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Happiness Always with Penny Black

 Hello crafters and friends, I hope you are as pleasantly surprised as I am to see my third post of the week. And it's only Wednesday! 

Today's card features stamps from Penny Black, and my watercoloring with Distress Ink re-inkers. Both are things I love to create with and the time spent is like therapy for me! 

I began by stamping on watercolor card stock, and coloring the images in. Then I fussy cut each of them out. I added sponged ink and the sentiment to the card base, and layered the frame on top. I love the soft pastels; the feminine touch of pearls is the only embellishment. 

I'm so glad you came by!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Penny Black Supplies: Delightful Day, Brew-tea-ful, Overflowing; Frame It Die

I'm entering the following challenges today: 
The Paper Players Theme challenge Spring Flowers
NBUS - Never Been Used SCHTUFF -The tea cup stamps are "new" 
The Card Concept - I was inspired by the soft colors and flowers, and made my Clean and Layered Card. 

Try It On Tuesday - For a Lady   Anything Goes
Penny Black Saturday Challenge     Anything Goes

Sending BIG hugs

 Well, hello and Happy New Year! It's been a minute since I posted. Our move was almost two months ago, it all went smoothly but it's always a big change. Then there were family overnights and the holidays!

I'm here to share what I created in my crafty afternoon. Giving the stamping and blogging a try again on this chilly day!

Pulling out my re-inkers I colored this guy from the Penny Black AHOY set for my first Valentine. 

I love how the sentiments work out so well. Inside it says, "Sending a big hug so it's there when you need it."

I'm inspired to join the challenges at Color Hues (hello friends!)  NBUS, Penny Black Saturday Challenge  and Freshly Made. Hope you have a great day!

Sunflower Harvest at Penny Black

 I'm always surprised to see the back-to-school and fall decor items flooding the stores before summer is even over! And I'm usually not at all ready for the new season, even though FALL is my favorite! 

But the Sunflower Harvest is a brand new-to-me stamp set that I couldn't resist pulling out for this card. It's my reminder that The Penny Black Saturday Challenge is still in full swing! The  challenge is Anything Goes, with an Optional theme - flowers. I LOVE sunflowers!

Pairing them with a rustic fence and pumpkins makes it even better. I stamped the scene using light gray ink, and watercolored with Distress Ink re-inkers. After fussy cutting the image panel I layered it with patterned paper and twine. The sentiment is from the Delightful Day set, stamped onto brown card stock. 

I sure hope that you've already checked out the challenge blog and enjoyed the inspiration! Thanks so much for coming by to visit me. I end this post by sending autumn greetings your way - just a wee bit early!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

On Your Birthday for Color Hues #91

 It's time for new hues at The Color Hues #91 Challenge.  Our dear Stef has chosen Pink and Brown for this fortnight. Let us see what these colors inspire you to create! 

I'm using some never-been-used Penny Black products to create a birthday card in warm shades of pink and brown. 

Starting with the LOVE Immense Die, I cut two layers out of water color card stock and brushed color on the top layer with Distress ink re-inkers. I colored the bear the same way, the image and the sentiments are from PB Have A Nice One transparent stamp set. After dry embossing white card stock with the Dashed Design EF, I sponged Tea Dye and Vintage Photo DOX inks to add color. The flower is from the Petals metal dies. I felt it needed just a bit more, so I added shimmer to the flower with spray.

I enjoyed keeping the pieces of this card on my desk, and doing just a bit of work on it over several days. That's a fun way for me to play! 

I hope you enjoyed the post, please have a look at the fab samples from my team! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

I'm entering the NBUS Challenge today. 

Yellow and Blue for Color Hues!

It's June and I could not be HAPPIER! It's my birthday month, our anniversary month (number FIFTY) and our time is coming soon for a fabulous vacation with our family! Besides that, there are TWO granddaughter birthdays and then Father's Day! Isn't it a good thing this card was made well ahead of time? 

Karen has picked Blue and Yellow for us to use at Color Hues, so let's get to it! Although my color choices are paler, we say that is fine as long as you  use hues of the colors given.

My card is filled with blue skies, cute critters, a postal theme, and yellow accents. 

I really had fun with this one, beginning by die cutting the postal frame from Waffle Flower from white card stock. I looked for images to fit in the spaces and enjoyed combining products from two companies. 

I stamped and colored each critter, then fussy cut masks for each one. Using the masks allowed me to create the sky using a clouds stencil. I ended with stamped postal images from the stamp set. 

I know you will be loving the DT creations and we'd love for you to play along too! 

 Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 
                  Make something beautiful! 

Supplies: 
Waffle Flower - Postal Collage Dies and Stamps
Penny Black: Critter Party

The Flower Challenge #91

Hi there, crafty friends!  

Welcome to our new challenge where we ask you to color your flower or flowers on your card, using whatever medium you prefer. 

It's an easy choice for me, you know that I love adding color to line art. This time I used my Zigs markers to color this pretty sunflower from Penny Black called Pure Sunshine. 

I definitely went with the brights for these blooms, adding a scalloped- edged border. 

The sentiment is also from Penny Black, the Delightful Day set. This is one sentiment that I'll be pulling out often. 

I hope you will  check out the inspiration at the challenge blog, and play along with us this month! I'm so glad you've stopped by, make it a great day!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Sending Prayers

 Hello, I'm especially happy that you've come back to my blog today. I'm sharing a sympathy card for a friend. It's always sad to need one of these. I don't usually have a stash of them but I may fix that now that I've made this one. 

I used a stamp from Penny Black from my stash ( 40-744 Garden Variety) and tried a new layout idea which has been shared often by a fabulous artist. I've been watching amazing videos by Micheline Jourdain and I gave one of her techniques a try. 

It worked well for a sympathy card. I can't wait to try it again using more of my stamps. 

Beginning with masking and a watercolor wash, I inked the stamp with Distress inks and stamped onto watercolor paper. Removing the mask, I added some bits of the image outside of the masked area, adding details and shading. 

The sentiment was partially heat embossed with gold and the smaller text in gold ink. I like the way the sentiment is the focal point. Spatters in orange and gold were the last touch. I may have added a bit too much - but I was having fun! And motivated to get on my way to other tasks, lol! 

I know this post is pretty long already but I want to let you know what I've been up to. I've had need to go to physical therapy for the last months, and you know, that takes time but my sciatica and medial epicondylitis (called golfers' or tennis elbow, but I might add, crafters get it too!) are improving. 

I also spent the last month doing a HUGE down-size to my craft supplies. I have been long overwhelmed with TOO MANY CHOICES and not finding where things were in the craft room -- so getting rid of MANY older  and some current stamps, inks, dies, and some even much older STUFF, has helped immensely. I also regrouped many of my stamps by theme instead of by companies, thinking this will make it easier for me to combine supplies from various companies and use what I have. How will this affect you? 

I'm going to stop listing all my supplies except the stamps or dies that are current. If you really want to know a certain supply, please just shoot me a reply to the post. I am also trying to keep my cards more simple.

I hope to be enjoying my streamlined space more often and kudos to you for sticking with me through this long post! I will end it here and send you a quick hug!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Challenges: 

4 seasons - Anything goes Spring

Krafty Chicks - All Occasions 

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge - Florals

Penny Black Saturday Challenge 

Songbird for The Flower Challenge

Hello again, friends! 

 It's a brand new challenge at The Flower Challenge #89 and we want you to make a SQUARE card. My card uses two of my favorite things, birds, and watercolored flowers! 

The Songbird stamp set from Penny Black was stamped on watercolor card stock with black ink and I used Distress re-inkers as watercolors to color the images in this sweet scene. 

This is my favorite kind of card to make. Simple, but with soft hues. The sentiment is also PB, from the  Happy builder set. These sets include a large greeting and small lines of sentiment to complete them.  Happy thoughts is one of my favorites.

It makes me happy that you've paid me a visit today. Your comments make me smile! Hope you your day is wonderful!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

I'm joining the following challenges: 

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

Inspired By

Four Seasons Spring Challenge

Krafty Chicks Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge

Winter Wonderland for Christmas

It's a bright sunny day today, but in my craft room I'm dreaming of snowy woodland scenes. Inspired by the amazing work of Jill Foster, I've been trying some watercoloring on my Christmas cards this year using Penny Black supplies. A quick post today to show you how it's going. 

For my first card, I CASED the card that's on the back of the stamp packaging. The stamps are individual parts of a scene, and you can combine them in many different ways to arrange your composition. Masking makes even more options possible and adds depth. 

For the second card, I created my own arrangement for the scene. I added the snowy hills with card stock and used Stickles and white spatters to enhance the snow and tall pine. 

The coloring was done with Distress Ink re-inkers with some touch ups from markers. For the berries I used Crystal Effects and added a die cut bow to the leaves. 

I appreciate you checking in with me today and hope all things are going well for you. Big hugs and happy wishes. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!

Penny Black stamps used: 

First Christmas 

Scenic Layers

Woodland 

Christmas Memories for Color Hues

`Happy Friday morning to you, my crafting friends. How are things going for you?  

It's beginning to look like Christmas at our house! The shopping is done, the decorations are being put in place for the festive celebration of my favorite holiday. I love to think of family and one of the best memories I have from holidays past is going ice skating. Just a bit of nostalgia for you with today's card. Hope you like it! 

The lovely Let's Skate die is pretty enough to feature on it's own. 

It was was cut twice, once from SSS Pawsitively Velvet Snow White  card stock and once from Silver Glitter paper. I used black card stock behind the eyelets and added shading with a gray marker to create a bit of a scuffed up look. I love the texture and softness of the velvet paper! I also placed the sentiment strips a bit off center. On purpose. I thought that looked best with the skewed angle of the skates. 

Our new challenge at Color Hues is for pink and silver. You will have the entire month to play along. 

 

Please do join us at Color Hues! We hope our gallery will be filled with your delightful creations! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Penny Black supplies: Let's Skate die cut 51-750, Blizzard embossing folder

SSS: sentiments from Joy to You and Yours, Pawsitively Velvet Card Stock

I am adding this to the following challenges: 

NBUS   first time using the skate die

Time Out Challenges - 

SSS Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Radiant Red and Gold

 Hi and happy Monday! Christmas cards are coming fast and furious at our house and I'm happy making the cards I look forward to all year! I have so many stamps for Christmas but today's card features a new-to-me rubber stamp by Penny Black called Radiant Red. You can never have too many poinsettia stamps! 

I love to watercolor. I stamped with Toffee Crunch ink onto Canson Watercolor paper and used Distress Ink re-inkers to color the blooms. I've long been a fan of PB but Jill's recent videos about batch stamping have inspired me to try her system to avoid decision fatigue. In giving this a  try over the weekend, I found myself sitting to paint and work on this card (and others) in little bits of time between football games and home duties. 

A simple card but dressed up with a beautiful sentiment, a border die and gold flat sequins. I'm playing at The Paper Players today 

the Penny Black Saturday Challenge 

Merry Little Christmas Challenge 

and adding this to NBUS as well. 

Thanks so much for your visit. I hope you're having a wonderful day. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Other supplies: small sentiment - Penny Black Jolly Snippets; LawnFawn Just stitching Double Rectangles, Sentiment Dies from Birch Press Design