A Little Artsy Birthday

 Happy to greet you on a new day, with a new card. 

Playing with only two colors, especially when one is a neutral is hard for me, but I took the challenge and created today's card with yellow and black. It's a little artsy.

Yes, that is the name of the stamp set from SSS. I chose the bold daisy and created a bright yellow background. I added stamped images in yellow for tone on tone distressing and a few images in black to the panel. I stamped and cut out the daisy and the sentiment, and decided to add sparkle embossing paste on the flower for shine. I'm delighted to enter this at the Color Hues Challenge. 

Hope you don't mind a shorter post, time to get moving! 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Birthday Balloons for The Paper Players

 Hi, happy mid-week hello! It's on to the next challenge for me and this is a fun one!

The Paper Players ask for a clean and simple birthday card using balloons. I had a birthday sentiment prepared that's been hanging around on the corners of my desk all ready to go for a few weeks.

Happily, I had a new-to-me set of Balloon dies in my container of new and unused stuff. I used a retired background stamp to create some pale pink dots randomly on white card stock. This card measures 3.5 x 6". Adding just a bit of shading to the die cuts and white gel pen highlights, I used foam dimensionals for extra depth. 

I have two grands that love pink, when I know which one I'm giving it to, I may add the number on a ballon to represent their new age. 

I will add this card to the challenges at: 
NBUS
The Paper Players

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supplies: 
DSP and enamel dots - Stampin' Up!
Birthday Die - Whimsy Stamps
Balloons - Simon Hurley Balloon dies

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!  

Sunshine and Love

Hi! It's a Friday evening heralding a long weekend for those in the US. The sun's begun to set I think I have time to write this quick post while our supper soup simmers. I love having the cooler weather. 

I'm sharing another card today using SSS supplies from the Birthday Blitz kit. Have a look! 

This time I've used the stamp set and dies that come with the kit, as well as the Birthday Sentiments Embossing Folder. I love the deep impression this folder makes and I had the idea to cut it twice in two colors for my background after pondering what to use for Judy's sketch at Freshly Made. 

I added three tiny sequins to the heart. They add just the right sparkle! You know I need some bling!

I think this makes a birthday card that could be for anyone! 

That's all for now~

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

I will be adding this to these challenges:
NBUS. The stamp dies and EF are all never been used Schtuff. 

Sweets with Birthday Blitz

 It's a new month and I pulled out a brand new box of goodies to play with!  The Birthday Blitz kit (SSS) appealed so much to me with bright colorful papers which contain printed tags and cute sayings. I mixed it up with other products so today's card uses only the papers from the kit. Did I say colorful? 

The star patterned paper makes a busy background and the paper I used for the cupcake liner repeats the star element. I cut the sentiment also out from one of the papers. The die cut additions are from Spellbinders Etched Birthday Wreath Add-Ons which I'm also sharing for the first time here. I colored the icing with markers and added shimmer to make it sparkle. And of course there are sequins! 

Bet you can guess that I'm sharing with these challenges today:
NBUS - never been used supplies
The Paper Players have a sketch. 

Double D asks for- "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat."  It does not have to be Halloween related. 

Simon Says Stamp Card Kit Gallery The kit is sold out but many elements are available separately.  

I look forward to seeing you soon! For those who've been following me, we've finally arranged a space for me to stamp in our new home so I no longer have to haul things out to the living area. LOVE using the new space! Will work next on streamlining the photo process. 

Thanks for sticking with me to the end. I love that you come to visit me, and I wish you a great day. 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Colorful Combo for Autumn

 Hello, how are things with you? Another rainy day had me wanting to stay cozy inside and so the stamps came out to play! Brand new leaf stamps arrived in my mailbox just in time to be inked up for the great color combo at The Paper Players.

Have a look!

I've long admired this set from Waffle Flower called Two Step Leaves Combo. Imagine my delight at winning a gift card to their store! Of course I added a few more supplies, ha! The Piercing Lines Texture Die also makes it's debut on today's card.

What I love about these leaf images is the detail created by the layering stamps, and the clean lines. Using mostly Distress inks to stamp resulted in a sketchy look for the leaves.  I had a hard time finding matches for the challenge colors, but I do like the result. The sentiment is from SSS and Gina K, as the Bold Summer Blooms set was still out from my recent session. Now I'm ready for one fall birthday in the family! 

I appreciate your visit today. I'll be sharing over at the The Paper Players and  the NBUS challenge. Seems there is a steady stream of never-been-used-stuff available in my craft closet! 

And one more. Tic Tac Toe challenge grid middle row asks for Any Color, FREE, and sentiment. I'm always inspired to play there, and I was happily a Designer's Pick!  

Hope it's a great day for you! 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful! 

Supplies:
Inks: Altenew - Ultraviolet, Crimson, DOX - Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade
Card Stock: Concord & 9th

Best Birthday with Bold Summer Blooms

 Hello, glad to have this time with you! Simon Says Stamp teamed with Gina K in offering a set of stamps, dies, and stencils called Bold Summer Blooms that are new to me. Last weekend I created a bunch of modern floral stamped die cuts and today I'm featuring my own design using them. Super Fun! 

The card front was trimmed to reveal the blue DSP on the inside. The Bold Summer Blooms Plate was used in part - the row of white flowers were an easy embellishment! I added metallic pearls to all the flower centers. I didn't plan it this way. It seems I cut the card front too high up. Attempting to better the proportions I added the strip of DSP with the text. Then came the flowers. All in all, it was a delightful crafting adventure. 
I'm so glad you've come by today. I will be back soon although I've not any idea what stamping fancy will hit me next.  There's always something!

Challenges entered are NBUS, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, JUGS - Flower dies, and The Flower Challenge - add embellishments. 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supplies: 
Bold Summer Blooms Plate, stamps, dies, and stencils
Inks: Distress Inks, Gina K Cadet Blue
Paper: Honey Bee Stamps - Funfetti Birthday

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!  

A Very Special Person

Hello, happy Tuesday! It's amazing how you can begin to make a card with one thing in mind and it turns out to be way beyond what you expected! Both in the making and the result. That's what happened to me this week. 

Over the weekend, I started out wanting to use a die cut flower for the JUGS challenge. What began as a simple search for the right flower, turned into looking at past classes to remember how to use the chosen flower. And then realizing that my aunt - the last remaining of my mother's family is having a 98th birthday soon. Thus, my title: A Very Special Person. Here's the card! 

Ample ink blending provided the background panel and all the colors of the flowers from Altenew's Fresh Flowers Die set. I used Fresh Dye Inks in Teal Tempest, Honeydew Melon, and Blush Rose. It's amazing how you can blend the Honeydew Melon - a greenish yellow with the teal and get a new shade of pale green. ALso used the melon to tone down the pink on the petals.

The sentiments are from the Cascading Flowers stamp set.  Embossed in gold. I tried so many different sentiments out but ended up liking this best. The big happy Birthday will be inside. 

Thanks for hanging in there with this post. I am going to leave these supplies out in a prominent place so I use them again before I forget how!  Have a great day. 

Be yourself

         Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

 Challenges:
Just Us Girls Die Week - flower die
Beautiful Blossoms - ATG
Triple B - Birds, Blooms and Butterflies

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

Cuteness advisory! Penny Black

 Hello crafty friends, it's been a hot minute since I've posted. The busy-ness of June is now behind me, and it was a wonderful wonderful time! Now that we're back and settled into more of a routine we've been hit with the heat advisory. I'm really happy to have had ample  time while I stay cool inside to play at stamping. 

That has included watching these terrific videos from Jill Foster for her new card class series, Permission to Play. This time her videos suggest sketches to make simple cards and they are filled with ideas and the sweetest cards! I highly recommend checking them out!

I'm showing you three cards from the day one sketch. 

For each card, I stamped images on watercolor paper, and colored with Distress re-inkers. 

The next card is my favorite, I just love the Cuteness stamps! 

Lastly, these mice got a bit carried away....

Jill says so often not to compare your cards with others, and that's its OK to make simple cards, or to reuse your fav sketches. I need that reminder.  I've had so much fun doing just that. I hope you enjoyed seeing them! Thanks for taking the time to come by! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supply lists: 
Make a Wish - Time to Celebrate 30 - 414; Critter Party 30 - 013

Love and hugs- Cuteness; Delightful Day

Happy - Critter Party 30 - 013; Smiles and Sprinkles

Beautiful Birthday for The Flower Challenge

 Hi there, thanks for coming to visit! 

Today my card is for The Flower Challenge, where for October, Anything Goes! We are also happily celebrating the 7th Birthday of the challenge where flowers are always the main feature. My flowers decorate a cake, that's a sweet mix!

I knew when I saw the Takes the Cake line from The Greetery that it would be used often for a variety of occasions and cards. I love that there are dies for the cakes, decorations, cake stand and flowers. The stamps sentiments and dies perfectly fit the banner. And the best - the dies cut out the entire floral design outline and there's a stencil for the flowers. I inked my flowers with Distress Inks in fall colors. A few pearls seemed just right. 

Please visit the blog to see what the design team has created to inspire you. Sadly, the challenge creators, Vivien and Aileen will be leaving. How we appreciate their years of inviting us to share creatively together!

See you soon, I will be creating over this weekend! Looking forward to having some time to play. 

 Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

 

Color Hues #42 Black and Yellow

Welcome to my blog! June 1st is a special day! It's the beginning of my favorite month of the year, and the start to a new challenge at Color Hues! 

Black and yellow. Flowers? Bees? Butterflies?  How about a humorous birthday? 

 

I love the masculine vibes in the MFT stamps and dies called Get Down to Basics. I like how this looks in black and yellow! 

All the images were stamped, colored with Copic markers, die cut and assembled on the card front. For extra detail I added some DSP and Glossy Accents to the smiley face. The main sentiment was embossed with white ink. On the inside it continues with "OFFICE MEMO: You're Awesome!"

Speaking of awesome, be sure to visit the blog to see inspiration from the team that can't be beat! Thanks for your visit here today!

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful! 

Playing at Spring Card Camp!

 Greetings! I am dropping in with a quick post to share a fun project. I love playing with my supplies and the Online Card Classes Spring Card Camp 2022 is giving me a perfect chance. I love these classes and have taken almost ALL of them! 

The lessons, great samples and new techniques or even old ones revisited - get me to see my supplies with fresh vision. Every card doesn't have to be a masterpiece, you know? 

While this card turned out way too busy for me - I  created a birthday card with a nautical theme for someone who will love it. 

Using layered dies for a background isn't as hard as it looks! Supplies are listed below, and you will see how I have different companies in the mix. 

I am adding this to our challenge gallery at Color Hues where I chose Red and Aqua for our combo this time. These are go-to's in my book for a nautical scene. I will be back soon, happy day! 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Supplies used: 
Stamps: Stampendous - Nautical Anchor (sentiment) embossed with white EP

Accessories: Sailboat die - Poppystamps, colored with Copics; other dies are from Stampin' Up! Sailing Home.  The STAR charm is also from SU! One I've saved for years, lol!

We are Family

 Hello there! It's been a snowy weekend and I've been happy staying inside and catching up on a few things. January is a big month for family birthdays and today that was my focus. A card needs to be in the mail tomorrow, so I got busy! 

My husband and I grew up in Maryland and his family spent lots of time on the water. When I saw the Gina K stamps depicting Magnificent Mallards I knew it would really help with those guy cards. The sentiments are specifically geared towards family adding to it's usefulness. 

My card is a CAS(E) of Mindy's fabulous card HERE. I was inspired by Jen's sketch at Freshly Made as well. Also entering at NBUS #34 as it's my first time using this set. 

That's it for me today! I hope your week is off to a wonderful start. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Warm Winter Birthday for The Paper Players

 Hello friends, are you ready for a new challenge at The Paper Players? For Challenge TPP574 Claire has chosen a theme for our CAS cards today. Winter Animals. What fun! 

The cold weather sure helped me get in the mood. For this one I pulled out an old favorite Winter Pals (from WPlus9) and created a simple scene with lots of white space. 

I used the Postage Layers Die to add to the playful style and a trio of pines. I colored with Zigs and only needed the heart as an embellishment. I love this foxy skater and the dear one I'm sending this to loves purple. 

 

I sure hope you will play along! I've had a peek at my teammates cards and you will be inspired! Thanks for visiting! Stay warm if you can. 

Be yourself

          Have delight in your craft 

               Make something beautiful!  

Take a Number!

 Hello! Ready for another fun challenge this week at Inspired By? Take a Number has lots of possibilities! Using a number on a card is perfect with grandchildren's birthdays coming soon! And who doesn't love balloons? 

My little sweet petunia will love this mini slimline card in Flirty Flamingo with the three scalloped windows. 

I hope that you'll join us to play along! There are lots of occasions for using numbers. Birthdays, anniversaries, special dates. 

Or let the stripes colors and polka dots inspire you. We look forward to your designs! Thanks so much for your visit to my blog. Your comments are so cheering. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps:  NEW TO ME! Balloon Numbers from Sugar Peas and coordinating dies. Entering to NBUS. 

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Flirty Flamingo - SU

INK: Gina K - Amalgam Ink

Accessories:  COPIC markers, Wink of Stella, and NBUS - Mini Slim Square Window Cutting Plate - Taylored Expressions