What I love....

 It's Monday, time for a quick post. Hello friends!

I used to regularly post a series called "What I love..." on my blog. It's still a category listed in the sidebar if you want to see some oldie versions. But today 's post is all about currently what I love and here's the card! 

Below I've listed "What I love..." from yesterday's crafty time:

• PLAYING!  Just playing around. Specifically playing with new stamping goodies. I didn't begin with the intention of completing a card. 
• Bright colors, pink! 
• Sunshine
• New techniques 
• polka dots and stripes.
• a bit of sparkle

My playing involved stenciling the rainbow with Altenew inks in light and bright pink, yellow and orange. I learned the technique of stamping over stencils from the latest Online Card Class called Brighter Days. I love these classes too! I've you've never taken one, or it's been awhile, I highly recommend them for the value and inspiration.

Entering this to **NBUS #87** Never Been Used Stuff and
Stencil Fun Challenge ATG
Supplies are listed below. 

Thanks so much for coming by!

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supplies: 

Hammermill white card stock

Altenew inks: Blush Rose, Pinkalicious, Fresh Lemon, Orange Cream

**Kristina Werner for Concord & 9th: Rainbow Rays Stencil Pack, Weather Together Stamps and Dies**

Butterflies in Blues

 Welcome to my blog today! I'm back with the second sympathy card that I've needed this month. I've used my latest favorite, the Butterfly Escapade Embossing Folder and Cutting Die. 

I've loved using this folder to provide beautiful texture and having the die is a great option for cutting one or two of the largest butterflies to use as a focal point. Using a pale blue card stock, I added the embossing and then used the coordinating stencil to add colors in blues and green. This is so easy!

I die cut the butterfly from this panel and then placed it over a white card base, curling the butterfly wings to let a bit of the white show through. Although there is a die to use for the butterfly's body, I accented it instead with pearls. 

The prayers is made up of three die cut layers, and the sentiment is stamped in blue. It's a rainy day and the photos don't begin to show how pretty the real life details are. I love this card so much and thoroughly enjoyed making it. This will be a go-to next time I need a sympathy card. I'm thinking of how to decorate the envelope and the inside; but wanted to get this posted today.  It's going out in the mail soon! 

Hope you have a wonderful day! Thanks so much for your visit, it always brings a smile and brightens my day! 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Other supplies:

More with the Butterfly Escapade HERE
Altenew inks - Deep Blue Seas and Green Meadows
SSS and Hero Arts - Prayers Die and Clear Set . This is an oldie but a big favorite of mine.

Challenges:
SSS Wednesday Challenge  Make It Feminine
Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes
Triple B  Birds, Butterflies and Blooms
The Neglected Stuff Challenge 
Can You Handle the Pressure?

He will sing!

 How are you on this Monday? It's pouring rain here with lots of wind. I'm staying in!

I wanted to encourage a dear friend going though a tough time and was so glad to find my favorite Scripture verse available in digi form at Word Art Wednesday. 

One of my newer stamps is Blossoms and Butterflies from Pinkfresh Studio, it's fast becoming my favorite! I ordered just the stamp but next order included the dies and stencil. This bouquet of flowers is so versatile and I know that it could be one of those images that I grab often. 

Stenciling is a technique that has grown on me over this year. You may know that I love to watercolor, and slowly add layers of shading and color.  But you can't beat a good stencil or two for coloring an image quickly. 

Speaking of quickly, I need to run this card out to the mailbox. I'm wishing you a wonderful day! Adding this to the Word Art Wednesday Challenge.  Besides inspiring Scripture and beautiful artwork, they have some great prizes if you want to check it out!

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Snowy scenes

 My last post for this year, hooray! And Happy New Year to you! 

I just wanted to play with the Postal Collage Die and Snowy stencil from Waffle Flower. The birthday card is not needed for a couple of weeks so I had time to try out colors and techniques with the inking.  Here's what I came up with. 

I love the mountains and SNOW *as you know* mine is only on paper although it is cold here today. This stencil is great for guy cards and I will be using it often! You may see the snow sprinkles I added with spatters of white paint.

I chose Altenew inks for the scenes as I have several variations of each color to use. The sentiment is SSS Birthday Blitz. I loosely followed the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. So thankful for their inspiration! Also linking to Simon Says: Add a Sentiment!

I couldn't think of ending the year without a huge thank you to you, my loyal readers, and crafty friends. I began 14 years ago with this blog, can you believe it? Those in the wonderful community of paper crafters have brought me joy, encouragement, laughter and brightness to my days. Heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you! 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Color Hues #94 With Thanks

 We are ushering in FALL with these new colors at the Color Hues Challenge! For #94 ( WOW, how has that happened!)  the colors dear Carol has for us are Rust and Green. She encourages a range of shades to choose from, so I went with a variety, using stencils and Distress Oxide Inks. 

The Lovely Silhouettes Stamps (The Greetery) were inked in green and complemented with a dark green card stock mat. Although it appears almost black, it is a lovely deep green. I had a hard time with the photo of these hues, I promise there is no yellow, just a pale orange. 

Do you ever finish a card and it just doesn't seem right? For me, the stacked shapes  were off balance intentionally. I added the gold metallic pearls, to compensate for that. What do you think?

You will not want to miss seeing the amazing cards in the gallery, and we hope that you will play along! 

Your visit means so much. Thanks for coming by! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supplies: 
The Greetery: Lovely Silhouettes stamp set, Color Spots Stencil
DOX inks: Dried Marigold, Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Lucky Clover
Concord & 9th: card stocks
WPlus9: Basic Label stamps and dies

Color Hues #82 Turquoise and Green

 Hello, we're ready to go with Color Hues #82 on this first day of the month. Seriously! How can it be March? 

We have summery colors of Turquoise and Green which Tracey has chosen for us to create with. There are lots of themes possible for this one! 

I've been looking to add some cards for guys to my stash, or at least some cards that aren't all flowers. The Monstera dies from Altenew were on sale recently and I made a purchase. Pulling them out of my never-been-used-pile for today's card.

I began by using tone on tone inking in an ombre pattern with the Sketched Lines stencil - also new.  I think it provided just the right interest for the crisp colors of card stock. 

The layering dies add wonderful dimension too. 

I loved using these hues, and wait until you see the DT samples. How about your turn? We hope you'll play along with us at Color Hues!

Thanks for visiting today. I will see you again soon!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Adding this post to: 

NBUS

New month, New Challenge! Postal Collage

 I couldn't be happier about the hues of Red and Pink that our talented teamie Sheri picked for us at Color Hues #80! It's the perfect pairing for me to premier these new-to-me Postal Collage products from Waffle Flower Crafts! I really got creative with this one! 

I began by die cutting the entire postal image. With the first stencil, I sponged Spun Sugar as a light background in each square. I continued for each stamp to add details and shading with inks in Candied Apple, Worn Lipstick and Barn Red.

I mixed and matched the stencils I used on this card to create my own theme. This was incredibly fun! 

Last, I stamped the airmail theme images in black. I even got a stray bit of ink, but decided it was just the way some of my mail looks when it arrives, so I can "pretend" it got there on purpose.  Adding the sentiment on the black strip (from Hero Arts) seemed to tie this together as a focal point and a place for the eye to settle in this happy jumble of colors!

I'm sure you will want to join us and play along with this challenge, so give it a go. Can't wait to see what you create. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Waffle Flower Supplies: 

Postal Collage Stamp Set 

Postal Collage Die

Postage Collage Coloring Stencil

Postage Collage Everyday Stencil

Postage Collage Rose Stencil

Challenges: 

Just Us Girls Color Week 

Simon Says Have a Heart

Cardz 4 Gals reds and or pinks

YOU Bring me Joy

 I hope you're doing well and surviving the heat wave. I'm cooling off again in the craft room before heading off to a barbecue this afternoon with friends. It will be 95!  

I haven't really been into rainbows, but I saw the idea of a rainbow made like gingham, so I gave it a try! I used a stencil from CCC and various inks to create a panel on white card stock.  The inks are  a bit more saturated than I would like, the small cubes were juicy! The small cubes were easiest to work with. 

I loved this bear and used an oval die to cut him out after coloring with Zigs. Penny Black stamps has inspired me to buy quite a few of their dies and sentiments that go together, and you will be seeing more of them! 

I realized as I was posting that this is close to the sketch at Freshly Made, so I am joining the challenge! I'm also playing at Happy Little Stampers Stencil Challenge. 

Hope you have a wonderful day and some joy coming your way. Thanks so very much for your visit! 

Stand Tall

 Stand tall is a good reminder, especially if you are short like I am at 5'1 and 1/2" or if you are a flamingo that stands on one leg! I made this card for one of my favorite people who's going to Florida to celebrate a special birthday. I thought these two flamingoes would be fun for her card!

The images and sentiment are from WPlus9 Designs.   I created a stenciled background for my scene, and colored with Copic markers. 

I'm adding this card to these challenges: 

NBUS because the stamps are never used until now. 

Tic Tac Toe using the row Colouring, Critters, Scene

Double D - Things that fly - yes, I looked it up, flamingoes do fly! Thank you so much for your visit today, hope you have a really good weekend.

Having just returned from a road trip to Florida, I'm looking forward to taking it easy myself! Am I the only one who comes home from vacation and needs to rest, lol? 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supply List 

Stamps: Flock Yeah and dies, Birthday Wishes  from WPlus9

Love Flurries

Hello , I have a wintry scene for you today using old and new items, just for fun! I enjoy pulling out this PI girl in winter as I love her sweet expressions and the sentiments. I used a new-to-me stencil and sponged DOX inks to make the background. 

Two of the stencils are for small and larger snowflakes. I filled them with white paste for added interest and texture. 

My friend Leslie at Running with Scissors always colors images with mastery (if you visit her blog you'll realize words are inadequate to describe her talent!) and she's been using Tombow markers, so I got mine out to give them a try on the girl.  It's been a while but I liked the ease of using them. Then I fussy cut her out, adding the die cut trees and purple hearts. 

That's all from me today, I hope it's going well for you! We have had beautiful sunshine and warm-ish temps so the snow is only in my imagination, lol! 

I will be posting this at NBUS and Time Out Challenges. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supply List:

Stamps - mftstamps (retired) 
Ink
Other - Honey Bee stamps - Winter Wonder Scene Builder is a set of 6 stencils. 

Trees dies - Elizabeth Craft Dies

Grateful for Color Hues!

 I can't believe we are greeting another month and you know what that means. A new challenge at The Color Hues! 

We are combining Carol's choice of orange and purple for Challenge #50 and I know you will have fun with that combo. 

I went with a leaf stencil from Gina K that has been around for awhile but it is new to me and I couldn't wait to try it out. Using two shades of each color I brushed them over the stencil. Beware! I was reminded that blue and purple make brown but I decided to go with it anyway! I trimmed the panel to allow lots of white space. 

The sentiment circle is also Gina K and the leaves are from The Greetery. 

These colors are wonderful for fall! I hope that you enjoy using them and will be inspired to play along. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

It's a trio of Daisy Days! featuring The Greetery

 Hello,  I'm finding myself quarantined in the craft room so I'm making the best of it! In the heat of summer is when I really don't mind doing a little extra stamping. I'd like to focus on one set of supplies this week and make at least three cards with it to stretch myself and get more use out of one set. 

My focus this week is from The Greetery: the Print Shop Daisy Days stamps, die cuts and stencils. 

I used Distress inks in tumbled glass, broken china, peacock feathers, mowed lawn and cracked pistachio to fill in the stencils. I partially die cut the large image on the left side, and slid an aqua panel underneath the die cut parts. 

A few extra flowers were die cut for dimension and layered on top. The sentiment is from the Comforting Commands stamp set. These daisies will surely bring someone a smile! 

This is a new set, so I will be entering this at NBUS! 

I'll be back tomorrow with day 2 of Daisy Days. Hope you will visit again! 

 Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

 

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!

What I love: Techniques!

Welcome to my blog and a new week. We are in the midst of a heat spell, with a real feel temp today of 108. We got out very early on the lake this morning. It was beautiful and restorative to be on the water. 

Now I'm happy to stay inside and be COOL this afternoon!

I love a COOL technique and this one shared by Jennifer McGuire I just had to try! I made stripes using strips of colored card stock. By placing the stencil each new stripe is inked in a matching color until the stencil design is carried over the whole panel. 

It took some time to do this but I think the result is worth it! I didn't want to cover the stenciled background so I kept the images simple, using the SSS Beautiful Days stamp set. 

The papers and inks are from PTI. I punched some flowers and added Gloss Nuvo Drops in Apple Green.

The stencil is from MFT called "Funky Florals." 

Today is a new day, and I hope yours will be delightful! Thanks so much for your visit. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Roses are Red

Hello, friends! 
Roses are red, Razzleberry is a rich purple. Add olive green and you've got the colors of today's thank you card! 

I only knew that I wanted to use layered dies for the sentiment, and the quilted stencil (FranticStampers). Putting it all together with the Rennie Rose stamps and dies from Altenew was really fun! Coloring was done with Copic markers and the Paper Players provided the combo. 

 I am so happy that you came by to visit. 

         Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!

Be yourself
     Delight in your craft
          Make something beautiful!

Autumn Birthday with The Greetery

It's Monday, saying a happy hello to you! 

Some snippets of time and leftovers from past projects came together for today's card featuring products from The Greetery. 

I had an extra inked panel left over from this card (click HERE to see it) and decided to add texture with stencil paste. Just to play around. 

I liked the effect so much that I went looking for other images to make it into a card. The detail on the wheat seemed similar to the V in the stencil. I really am loving the Budding Beauties stamp set!

I was also inspired by Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches to play along. 

I will list all the products below. The inks used were Distress Oxides. Thanks for visiting! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used: all from The Greetery 

Stamps: Budding Beauties stamps and dies, Sentiment Suite: Birthday and Dies

Accessories: Knit Wits Stencils